Firing Back at Outlook

Let's forget, for a moment, that for every swooning, sentimental belle there is an equally obnoxious and unfairly characterized frat-boy meathead.

Let's discount the obvious and varied accomplishments of women such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, biologist Jane Goodall and Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust.

Heck, let's even forget the scores of highly intelligent women in our own lives. The fact that Charlotte Allen discounts such a swath of people is only a superficial -- if infuriating -- problem with her argument.

Allen holds up examples of male accomplishment (fine, men are smart, too) and odd science (do we really believe that there is a correlation between brain size and intelligence?) and then uses them as counterpoints to her bizarre definition of what it means to be a woman. Her article boils down to this: Women are different from men, and different means dumber.

With her argument, Allen casts her lot with the legions of xenophobia. She forgets that different doesn't equal bad. Different equals different. And we have names for people who, in other contexts, don't understand this. We call them racists, homophobes and anti-Semites.

SARAH PAYNE

Somerville, Mass.

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The recent outpouring of passionate responses to Charlotte Allen's article reveals one of the fundamental contradictions in contemporary democracy: People are free to say whatever they want, as long as they choose what is considered a legitimate topic of debate.

All too often, people hold views that they are unwilling to challenge, and responses to this article are a prime example. Instead of considering Allen's perspective and discussing its pros and cons, people left what she had to say behind them. Then they argued that she said something that no human must utter; to do so is to be a misogynist, after all.

The point of articles like Allen's is not to set in stone the truth about how the world works. The point is to get people thinking -- to challenge them to consider another perspective.

As humble high school English students, we argue that articles like this one should not be censored or dismissed. They should be actively encouraged and published. The mark of a truly tolerant and enlightened society is one that tolerates even those who are intolerant.