PicoBlog

Dear Readers,

Shiny Herd promises to explore “the hidden side of groupthink in entertainment, media, and more.”

Well, today’s essay really focuses on more. I never thought I’d write about the industry I address today. But I think it’s useful to show how the same controversies erupt in similar ways across vastly different fields.

Thanks for making Shiny Herd a part of your day.

All the best,

Ted

You know, it's funny, in my experience, people don't respond super well to being told that they're bigoted monsters. In fact, it almost seems like it makes them less likely to listen to what you have to say.

Those are the words of Lucy Kross Wallace, an interview subject from The Coddling of the American Mind movie.

Lucy, who earlier this month graduated from Stanford with a degree in psychology, was reflecting on her former life as a social justice activist. Her realization would be profound at any age, but when I interviewed her she was only 20.

Older adults should pay attention. 

Consider Stacy Hope. She wants more women to work in her field, and she’s upset by men she sees as standing in the way: “Globally we’re seeing this Andrew Tate effect, where men are taking back power.”

That’s Andrew Tate, the social media influencer, self-professed misogynist, and accused rapist and human trafficker. Hope goes on to say, “We need to bring men along on the journey to make sure they know how to be allies.”

If Hope wants men to be “allies” on her “journey,” perhaps she should lay off the rapist references.

I should also mention that Hope’s field is mining. She’s the managing director of an advocacy group called Women in Mining UK.

That’s right, mining—big trucks. Giant holes in the ground. Lots of rocks. 

And don’t forget about location.

You’ll often find mines in extremely remote locations. What would it take for you to relocate to Pilbara? It’s a dry, thinly populated region in Western Australia known for iron ore and setting the world record for most consecutive 100-degree days (160!). 

Mining can offer a great living (it has for a friend of mine), but the fact remains that the industry is a tough sell regardless of sex. Yet Hope isn’t the only one trying to bring more women to the field.

Deshnee Naidoo is the former head of Vale Base Metals, a nickel and cobalt producer. She notices, what the Financial Times calls,  “a worrying backlash”: 

When candidates from diverse backgrounds secure jobs, some men in the industry have started using the acronym DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — in a derogatory reframing: “Didn’t Earn It”. 

“I am hearing more anti-wokeism voices,” says Naidoo. “We are always taken back to the way things were rather than where they need to go.”

It’s not as bad as likening her opponents to rapists, but like Hope, Naidoo should remember Lucy’s words. After all, their current approach won’t win them many converts.

And the Financial Times reporter who tells this story doesn’t look any better. 

It would have been nice if he had bothered to interview some DEI critics within the industry. Or he could have interviewed other thoughtful critics of DEI, like the-not-that-kind-of-diversity trainer Karith Foster or academics such as Tel Aviv University’s Alexandra Kalev and Harvard’s Frank Dobbin.

Instead the reporter merely references “high-profile conservatives” who have launched a “transatlantic backlash” against DEI. But how could we tell if these unnamed conservatives and the rest of the “Didn’t Earn It” popularizers are Tate-adjacent jerks or not?

The reporter could have actually investigated their claim.

Did the industry lower standards in pursuit of DEI goals? If not, the male complainers probably are jerks. If yes, the fellas have a legitimate gripe. And it’s not just miner bros who would be griping. 

People tend to like diversity initiatives when they increase outreach to minority communities, but not when policies veer toward preferences. And when asked to consider their own work environments, employees just don’t value diversity as much as activists do.

Take gender parity. Only 31 percent of women consider it extremely or very important to work someplace that achieves something close to a 50-50 environment.

And there’s another reason to resist the “Battle of the Sexes” framing.

Few people, beyond comedian Ryan Long, point out gender disparities in fields like brick masonry, deep sea fishing, and yes(!) mining. But Stacy Hope does just that. 

I might not care for her rhetorical approach, but I admire Hope’s willingness to zig when nearly everyone else is zagging. She’s not pushing for more women in film or medicine or some other popular field. No, hers is a high-degree-of-difficulty pitch.

Too bad she still suffers from activist myopia.

Activists demand proportionate representation from just about every profession. If women make up 50 percent of the population, they should make up 50 percent of workers from medicine to movies to mining (where the figure stands at only 5 percent). Activists demand proportionate representation for minorities of nearly every sort.

To them, every disparity is evidence of bigotry. It’s a monoculture dogma that’s as baseless as it is engrained. But as Thomas Sowell explains, disparities alone do not signal bigotry.

They might, but chances are something more mundane is afoot.

Ask teen boys and girls what they want to be when they grow up, and you’ll see some overlap—for instance, “musician” is a popular choice for both. But you’ll also see plenty of differences. Boys aspire to be pro athletes and (sigh) YouTubers, while girls would rather become doctors, nurses, and actresses. 

Once men and women knock around the real world, the longstanding “people vs things” divide becomes clearer. In general and for the most part, women prefer fields where they interact with people, and men prefer fields where they interact with things.

Guess which category describes mining. 

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The activist mindset assumes that as a society moves closer to gender equality, the gender split of every imaginable occupation will move toward 50-50. Yet activists (and pop stars!) often don’t like what women do when they’re free to choose their own paths. 

Sometimes it seems like activists would rather score parity victories than support women’s free choices. After all, free choice can generate “problematic” results. Think societies with greater gender equality will yield more women scientists? You might be surprised.

So why aren’t there more women in mining? 

Maybe women wanted to enter the field, but were repelled by industry sexism. But here’s another possible explanation: Women aren’t wild about mining. 

Zero percent of teenage girls report wanting to be astronauts when they grow up, and if mining were offered as a choice, it’d probably score even lower. 

The Financial Times laments that mining is ”one of the industries furthest behind on gender equality,” but few others beyond journalists and activists regard that revelation as surprising or worrisome. 

Of course, Eight Percenters remain bent on pitting men and women against each other. Expect them to continue to demonize DEI critics and do their best to get women into fields that probably don’t interest them. 

No matter the industry, let’s confront the actual bigots, support equal opportunity, and then let free choice take over. Maybe it makes me sexist, but I think we should let women do what they want.

Ted Balaker is a filmmaker, and former network newser and think tanker. His recent work includes Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Can We Take a Joke? featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette, and the new feature documentary based on the bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. Stream the very first “Substack Presents” feature documentary here.

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