4 thoughts on “Recently in the sister blog

  1. Essentialism is the view that certain categories (e.g., women, racial groups, dinosaurs, original Picasso artwork) have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe directly.

    A little discourse analysis on this indicates some of the biases of the author–essentialism is a feminist indicator and there are extensive debates in that literature on the nature of men and whether essentialism is a valid technique of analysis. So when Gelman refers to certain categories as being viewed in that manner and lists women but not men she is excluding the most common academic use of the term. Needless to say, most male academics do not dare use the concept of essentialism to refer to women as this is typically referred to as stereotyping.

    • Numeric:

      I think “e.g.” means “for example.” So if something is included in a list prefaced by “e.g.” it should not be viewed as “excluding.” Rather than speculating on the researcher’s bias, I suggest you read some of her articles.

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