Is it unbecoming for an mtf to have developed an interest in mathematics and physics? I used to really like maths and physics to a lesser extent, and something that occurred recently shocked me by showing just how much I have forgotten about these subjects. I couldn't remember how to do algebra at all. What a lot I have forgotten in just seven years.
I have taken some books on maths out from the library called pre-algebra and the classic physics book Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman. Do any of the ftms like mathematics and the 'hard sciences'.
Quote from: Princess of Hearts on February 24, 2012, 02:27:52 PM
Is it unbecoming for an mtf to have developed an interest in mathematics and physics?
If you want to be a stereotypical woman, you need to be an idiot with math and anything mechanical.
While on this subject, <rant> I found it very interesting how men treat women in this regard. I'm very mechanically minded and can "fix anything". I go to the store to get parts for something and of course the men assume some man sent me and I'm an idiot. They hand me the wrong parts and then assume I'm stupid when I try to explain it's the wrong one and what I actually need. Most of the time I know WAY more about it than the guy trying to sell the parts, be it a furnace part or a plumbing fitting. And of course they can't just leave me alone to find it or let me show them in the catalog what I need, women all are too stupid to be able to do that..</rant>
Thanks feel better now.
While I've never been mechanical, I've always enjoyed physics. That's part of the reason I became an engineer. There definitely more men than women in the field, but we still are represented.
Most of the girls I know are in some field related to those, and I could never stand physics. It seems to have more with personality and interests than gender. Also, it has to be said that intelligence is always sexy.
Edit: Maya, now I'm curious. How much of Pi do you know?
computering and such is supposed to be a good profession for MtFs and Lynn Conway's idea operates all our computers?
Check out Cleo Creswell's books on Maths if you can find them where you are. She really has fun with Maths for working out how many guys a girl should bonk before settling down, and things like that. She is also very attractive into the bargain. I find intelligent women soooo sexy!
Karen.
The interesting thing about mathematics might be that girls and boys seem to be equally capabel but then to use different stratagies to do them. Girls tend to use their language abilities: Math as a language; Whereas boys tend to use their visual/spacial abilities: Math as another puzzle to solve.
http://micromath.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/girls-verbal-skills-make-them-better-at-arithmetic/ (http://micromath.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/girls-verbal-skills-make-them-better-at-arithmetic/)
There's no such thing as "unbecoming" :).
I had to wait until I was transitioning to awaken what I thought was an "uncool" interest in science, and now I'm heading towards doing a Renewable Energy degree that's heavily about engineering - and really loving it!
I asked one of the women currently doing the course whether she'd had any issues being a woman there, and she said absolutely not, about a third of the people studying that course across the 3 years of Batchelor's students (and the Master's students too) are women.
Just be the woman you are, interested in what you are interested in - there's billions of different kinds of us :).
I've always been interested in math and science, math especially. Even though I'm rusty from the calculus days of college, I can still figure my way through pretty much anything mathematical. I don't see it so much as a gender thing. I think it's more of a genetic thing.
I like the clarity of math. The correct answer has nothing to do with opinion. It's either right or wrong and all the arguing in the world won't change that.
Btw... π (pi) is wrong? τ (tau) is much more logical.
See Pi is (still) wrong! (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vhMMXagQ") or The Tau Manifesto (http://tauday.com/)
B-D
Me, I'm in love with patterns and relationships, and maths (and sciences) are chock-full of those. But then I'm one of those rare birds who can find concepts and paradoxes beautiful :).
Quote from: Maya Zimmerman on February 27, 2012, 11:33:05 AM
This year, I'm going to memorize 65 digits
That's pretty darned impressive.
Quote from: Maya Zimmerman on February 27, 2012, 11:33:05 AM
Lee - Last year, I got to 42 digits memorized in tribute to Douglas Adams. This year, I'm going to memorize 65 digits because 65 digits of Pi can calculate the circumference of the largest estimate of the size of the known Universe to within the accuracy of the Planck length, the smallest practical length in current science. I'm no Richard Feynman. :P
Julie - I imagine that element of math is what draws many of us to it. It's objective perfection in a subjective world generally regarded as quite imperfect. Why, René Descartes seemed to struggle more with unbelieving mathematics than anything else, including the entirety of physical reality, in his Meditations.
Maya, I envy you, you have a superb memory!
Of course you love numbers too...
Mathematichs is much more than numbers anyway it's really big as a fantasy world, and since many of us have defensive autistic behaviors I guess It's pretty common to love math! Since i was child i was a sort of a math genius, logic and solving math and physical problems was always a source of self esteem, I just wish life was easy as math! In reality people change with statistical behaviors, and thus you get chaos theory!
I wish we could be solvable equations, but maybe it's better this way.
Not out of line. There are more women than men going into astronomy these days. There were only two boys that got a small scholarship award from my club's scholarship fund committee the past decade. Astronomy is math and calculus, been there, still doing that even though I am only a serious amateur. We have one young lady in our club graduate from college with a batchelor's in astrophysics this past year. She hadn't turned 21 yet. My cousin's girl got her degree in astrophysics three years ago. My niece is working on her PhD in criminal psychology in the UK.
Joelene