[escepticos] ANOTHER FEMINIST LIE EXPOSED

["Javier Garrido B." <jgarrido@...>]

Hola a todos.
Aquí va un toque de humor, para ver si amaina la polémica sobre quien
habla mejor,  o si mis rios son más auténticos que los tuyos.
Saludos

JGB

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                      ANOTHER FEMINIST LIE EXPOSED
                             By Nick Cooper


Q: From time to time, I hear reports that childbirth is painful. Knowing
full well that childbirth is a
natural process, I find this difficult to believe and remain skeptical.
What's the truth of the matter?


A: Clearly you are a very discerning man. As skeptics we have a duty to
hold common beliefs up to
consideration and careful scrutiny. Although many people, normally women
or so-called "sensitive"
men (i.e. wimps who use underhanded tactics like "listening to their
partners" to get laid), claim that
childbirth is painful, hard proof is lacking. In fact, in all cases
claims of childbirth being painful can be
traced back to anecdotal evidence or unconfirmed eye witness reports,
and, as skeptics, we simply
cannot allow this sort of evidence to substitute for hard facts.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and clearly this is
a case in point. Some theorize
that as newborns receive great attention, some women will strive through
underhanded means, using
feminine wiles, to compete. Hence we have a simple and mundane
explanation for the noises, claims
of pain, shouts, contorted expressions and other such "signs" of pain
that some women allegedly
make while giving birth. (Some women even claim that sweating, of all
things, is a sign of pain.) If we
apply Occam's razor to this "phenomena" then we have a perfectly
rational explanation (feminine
trickery) without resorting to new claims (the alleged "pain").

When consulting with qualified experts, just as we'd expect, we find
skepticism on this issue. Some
time ago, I spoke to Gus Patelli, former high school football coach,
clearly a recognized expert on
pain of all sorts. "Nah, Don't listen to women when they complain about
childbirth," he said. "Its
nothing. In fact, it hurts worse to get kicked in the balls. Women don't
know how good they have it."
Not only are his professional credentials impeccable, his team having
often won the regional
championships, let me also point out that this man is, in fact, a CSICOP
fellow and hence uniquely
qualified to speak on the subject of fringe claims. 1

Having exhausted their meager store of direct evidence, proponents of
the so-called "childbirth is
painful" notion are soon quick to point to tangential fact with little
direct relevance. For instance, they
often point out that the medical profession dispenses large amounts of
painkillers to women in
childbirth each year. Clearly, if they consider this "proof," they are
grasping at straws. Not only is it
lacking a direct cause and effect correlation to the claim, its also
true that in many cases its the very
same women who take these painkillers who then turn around and claim to
be in the most pain! The
illogic is obvious. As a criminologist and a former Long Island
policeman, I've seen just how tough
the streets can be. Let me point out to sheltered academics that a
glue-sniffing, single-mother, junkie,
biker-chick, dope-fiend will tell all sorts of lies on the off chance
that she may be able to receive
controlled substances from some dewy eyed bleeding heart liberal with a
mishandled prescription
pad and a poorly sharpened pencil stub! I know this. I'm a former
detective. I've seen these things.
And let me remind these same naive people of just how often it is that a
cash-stricken hospital, low
on operating funds, will suddenly "remember" that child birth is painful
and then, quite conveniently,
"remember" that the patient will "need" an expensive operation called a
Cesarean section, billing them
accordingly, of course! The world can be a hard place and it pays to be
skeptical.

Finally, although some will argue that I don't know what I'm talking
about, never having been through
childbirth myself, let me clearly point out that not only is this an
obvious obfuscationist tactic, it is also
completely irrelevant. After all, as my dear friend Joe Nickell is fond
of pointing out, "The
responsibility of proof lies with the believer." I can hear the
emotion-laden shouts of angered feminist
extremists already. "Oh yeah, Asshole," they will surely cry, "That's
the stupidest thing I've heard?
How would you like to have a bowling ball pushed down the middle of your
dick?! Don't you think
that would hurt?" I've heard this before and it's hardly scientific. Let
me remind such people, I am a
skeptic. I did not enter this field to win popularity contests. I
entered it to find the truth. Come to me
when you have one solid piece of real proof, not mere hollow, tangential
analogies or flimsy appeals
to emotion.


-Coming soon: Menstrual cramps -Manufactured hoax or mere urban legend?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR- Nick Cooper, famed skeptical investigator of
paranormal claims, is
currently in big trouble with the SPCA after definitively debunking,
once and for all, the myth that
cats have nine lives. "The SPCA does not appreciate the scientific
method," he states. "I am a martyr
and a political prisoner being held by some fuzzy thinking, New Age,
political appointee-dupes." He
is currently working on a book from jail arguing that the sexually
explicit letters to Penthouse
magazine are not necessarily true, while simultaneously exposing the
more serious issue of the myth
that women can have orgasms. "They're all fake," says Cooper. "My
ex-wife let me in on the secret
right before she left me."



1. "And even if it did cause pain," Coach Patelli added. "A lot of
people don't realize that pain
doesn't really hurt. Its all in your head. And besides its good for
you."