BOYS HAVE A PENIS AND GIRLS HAVE A VAGINA . . .

Have you heard of the uproar at Harvard University over its president, Lawrence H. Summers's recent statements about innate differences between the sexes, and how these differences might or might not be a contributing factor as to why fewer women succeed in math and science careers?

OH NO! There are innate differences between the sexes that might make one gender better at something than another? Nooooooo, say it ain't SO!

Critics -- nay, more than just critics -- those who are furious at President Summers say that he and his words serve to perpetuate discrimination against women in these and other fields, and discourage young women -- his own students -- from pursuing their goals in the mathematics and sciences. They say that he has not done enough to hire and retain women faculty at Harvard. Many Harvard (or is it Radcliffe?) alumnae have vowed to never donate to the University again.

This is very interesting for me to read and hear, coming off of a women's retreat where it was emphasized for me that women are created differently from men. It never occurred to me that this difference might be a bad thing, and I don't understand President Summers's opponents' eagerness to interpret negativity from his words. As far as I have read about this "intellectual tsunami" (as one University dean termed it, which to me is in more bad taste than Summers's allegedly discriminatory words), Summers was propounding a theory, among other theories, including the facts that "faculty positions at elite universities required more time and energy than married women with children were willing to accept ... and that discrimination may also play a role."

Is someone going to say that these are also not viable theories for why fewer women succeed in the fields of math and science? But wait, to step back even more, isn't everything about math and science theory anyway? So now, a whole bunch of mathematicians and scientists are going to blast away at Summers for stating a theory? What rubbish and hypocrisy.

Mary C. Waters, the chairperson of the University's sociology department, posed the rhetorical question, "If you were a woman scientist and had two competing offers and knew that the president of Harvard didn't think that women scientists were as good as men, which one would you take?" I can't even believe a Harvard professor is being so obtuse and narrow-minded (actually, maybe I can). President Summers DID NOT SAY that women scientists were not as good as men. He DID say that fewer women succeed in the math and science fields. THOSE TWO STATEMENTS DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING, and Ms. Waters should know better than to say what she did, in my humble, merely-Columbia-educated opinion.

But you know what ... for me, the ultimate deduction is as follows: women are different from men, in so many ways. Biologically, chemically, mentally, physically, emotionally, and any other -ally you can think of. That is undeniable, but to read "lesser" or "bad" or "inferior" into these differences ... I just don't understand that. It is as if women as a population carry around a big ol' chip on our shoulder that presumes that we are weaker, stupider and less capable than men, and we are just waiting for someone to say it, so we can rise up in false indignation and create a big stink. WE'RE DIFFERENT, GIRLS, SO LIVE WITH IT.

And even more than that, the differences are not universal. DOI. As if anything about humanity is anymore! Some women are really, really excellent at math and science, and they should be afforded every opportunity and ounce of support to succeed in these fields. But some women really, really stink in these fields and could care less about them. I would even dare to state that the male gender shares the same dichotomy of skills and interests. SHUDDER TO THINK, right?

Eh, whatever. I just want to throw my hands up at the state of us. We pick a fight over anything and everything. We actively look for differences and points of argument. We love to bring someone down and humiliate him and make him feel bad for stating a theory. A THEORY, PEOPLE. We love to feel like victims and we love to blame others for keeping us down. We love to "fight The Man." It's just so silly, and THAT makes me furious.