4 thoughts on “How Wanting Love Makes Girls Bad at Math

  1. Dr. Naomi,

    I find this article really interesting. My father and three brothers have always really enjoyed math and sciences while my mother and I always preferred arts and humanities. I never thought about how some women could think that appearing smarter than men could make them seem less attractive. This article gave great insight and an interesting point of view that I hadn’t thought of before.

  2. Dr. Naomi,

    This article was extremely eye-opening and very interesting. “It’s a little troubling to think about how our past choices may have been influenced in unexpected ways by our desire to loved.” This quote from the article really sums up the way I felt after reading this post. Growing up I never liked math. I never really got it but for some reason I always knew it was okay that I wasn’t good at math, that was my brother’s skill, not mine. Like you, my father always helped me with my math homework because my mom “never really liked or understood math”. Its interesting that this pattern has followed me thorough my own life. For example in my current relationship, my boyfriend is a finance major which deals with many mathematical aspects while I am a communications major which focuses on talking and communicating with others. In the lecture you discuss the female gender expectation where sex stereotypes influence how females are encouraged by others and also how they are encouraged into fields that involved interactions with others. I believe this is true and this article proves that!

  3. This article may apply to other girls, but the only reason I don’t like math- at all- is because It is so difficult for me. I have never thought to use my lack of appeal towards math to attract men. I don’t even know why that would attract men- I think if I was a man I would want a smart girl. I know as a female I want a smart guy! Not to say that if you don’t understand math you aren’t smart- I still believe I am smart, just not in that category.. Basically I find this article very odd and interesting that girls would use this route.

  4. Girls are not the only ones who choose love. My brother is the best example for that. He is a hopeless romantic, who almost flunked math senior year, because he was spending too much time with his then girlfriend. I think it is just a part of growing up. Love is exciting, and unless you are a math fanatic, it is definitely more exciting than math. I personally would choose love over math just based on my loathing of math. However, I would not choose love over me going to a college of my choice to pursue a career of my choice. I do not think that being a woman has anything to do with choosing love over academics, I think it comes down to passion. I am so passionate about Longwood, and regardless of what my high school fling would have liked, I chose to go to my dream school over him. However, if I had to choose him or math, it would without a question be him. Passion is what drives us to things, not our gender or our sex.

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