My nerd status has been proven on many occasions, these posts about Jeopardy and nursing school, being a chemistry major my first year of college (once a chem nerd, always a chem nerd), and that I love Sudoku. But here's the most recent evidence. My newest favorite show is Cash Cab on The Discovery Channel. You can even pretend you're on the show and take a quiz if you go to the site. This show is great because not only is it about trivia and you can win money, the people are hilarious. They are much more relaxed than on a show with all the production value of Jeopardy. Sometimes it's just one person, sometimes families, sometimes lots of friends.
As much as I love this show, there is a disturbing trend I noticed recently. When it's a guy, he is usually confident in the answers he knows, even if only an educated guess. But when it's a girl, even when she has gotten the last several questions right and eventually gets the current question right too, she is all sorts of hesitant and unsure of her answers. It's so frustrating. I don't know if these girls just doubt themselves or if they think they have to seem kind of stupid. But then, who knows how I would act if I were ever lucky enough to be on one of these shows. It's so easy to guess the answers at home when money and remaining in the game aren't on the line.
5 comments:
Time to add Cash Cab to my TiVo line up!:)
Do you think it might be part of how we are socialized? Women, unfortunately, get branded differently when we are confident... just a thought.
What channel is this show on?
It's on The Discovery Channel so that means some sort of cable. We just have the very basic $12/month kind that gives you local channels plus this one and Hallmark and lots of shopping channels. Oh and religious ones, they show so many sermons, I could stop going to church altogether.
Aisy - I was on my way to work while writing the last reply. So here's the more in depth one. Yes, I do think women are generally socialized differently, there are studies about calling on girls less in the classrooms, and then of course the role models girls have aren't great, Paris Hilton, she's a shining example of a smart, articulate woman who is admired for her intelligence.
I guess I have to finally admit my mom was doing the right thing when she sent me to an all-girls school from 6th grade through high school.
I agree Ansley. However, the girls that have Paris Hilton as role models aren't the ones yet on the show. We just get to look forward to women regressing in about 5-10 years when they start cropping up in mass.
I didn't go to a girls school and never felt slighted or treated differently in class. But then again, I never let myself be treated differently. Maybe it was because I had older siblings who were strong academically and socially as role models, not to mention my parents. But also, at my school, the popular girls were the student leaders and honor students so I didn't have the peer pressure to act dumber than I was.
That being said, when I commuted to work via the bus, various high school students also rode the bus to school. Without asking, you could easily differentiate the public school students from Wilson and the all girl school students from St Mary's. Not only in how they carried themselves, but also in what they talked about.
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