I always thought women needed (about 20 minutes, according to the latest research) more sleep than men because we’re not as physically strong, but perhaps it’s because we have to work that much harder to fight patriarchy. Professor Jim Horne, the director of Loughborough University’s Sleep Research Center in Leicestershire told the New York Post; ‘Women’s brains are wired differently… so their sleep need will be slightly greater. Women tend to multi-task – they do lots at once and are flexible – and so they use more of their actual brain than men do.’
Another study has busted another myth: that blondes are dumb. A study of almost 11,000 Americans of both sexes by economist Jay Zagorsky, of Ohio State University, reveals that blondes are more intelligent than those with other hair colours. The average IQ of a blonde white woman was 103.2, compared with 100.5 for a black-haired woman.
In the face of revelations of everyday sexism – from actor Edward Fox’s comments that men are natural cheats though should be in control of the finances and tennis player Novak Djokovic completely undermining his argument that women deserved the money they got but men should fight for more because their game attracted more viewers with his further comments; ‘They have to go through a lot of different things that we don’t have to go through. You know, the hormones and different stuff, we don’t need to go into details’ to the constant stream of revelations of sexism in Hollywood and the gender pay gap which has barely improved in the last four years in the UK – the aforementioned studies might seem like a good way of redressing the balance.
But I’m always suspicious of surveys. The answers are certainly going to be skewed because surveying the people who choose to answer surveys is truly different from surveying a statistically valid sample of an audience. And I’m suspicious of the intentions of those who commission/conduct the survey.
Jay Zagorsky admitted he wanted to challenge preconceptions about blondes. The hair colour was recorded by asking people what their natural colour was and he found there were significantly more female natural blondes than male blonds. So perhaps the results merely revealed that more smart women feel the need to be duplicitous (and blond) to get on in a patriarchal world or perhaps intelligence and duplicity go hand in hand…
Christian forwarded the article about the Serbian tennis player, highlighting some of Djokovic’s most ridiculous comments (which included ‘I have had a woman that was my coach and that was a huge part of my tennis career. I’m surrounded by women. I’m very happy to be married with one and to have a child. I’m completely for women power’) and concluded, ‘Apparently marrying a woman is an argument for women’s rights now, or something like that.’
