Who funds this stuff, anyway?

Have I mentioned how much I really, really hate these kinds of studies?? "Men Prefer Subordinate Women to Equals". If I find out our taxdollars are paying for this kind of battle of the sexes bullshit I'm going to get really annoyed. The problem with this study (OK, the biggest problem) is that it asks college students about co-workers as hypothetical partners and totally ignores the real world problems that naturally come from those workplace relationships. So basically, this study is proving what we've known for decades - men fantasize about dating their secretaries. Even college boys who have never actually had a secretary.

One problem comes when the researchers seem to imply that because this behavior is 'natural', it's also preferrable. Seems like I recall similar studies of married men that showed the majority would like very much to fuck their secretaries if there was no way their wives would find out about it.

Another problem (it appears without reading the actual study)... is that all the subjects were given to evaluate their potential compatibility with a fictional colleagues was a picture and a job title. Which means it was left to their imagination to fill in the blanks about actual personalities. Given that very few college students have any real world experience in this type of hierarchical corporate situation they would be totally reliant on gender stereotypes to imagine the personalities of these colleagues. And let’s face it. The stereotypes of women in the workplace are rife with inaccurate and unfair depictions.

Ask a college age man to envision a female superior and I bet he picks Demi Moore’s character from Disclosure. Yeah, I wouldn’t marry that either. Female assistants, on the other hand are almost always depicted as sweet, fun Mary Ann types. You know, if you’re doing a study on workplace dynamics wouldn’t it make sense to use subjects who actually have experience in that type of environment?

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Unrelated Gripe: News articles that say:

"Authorities prevented journalists and representatives of international aid groups such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and CARE from visiting the islands to assess the damage and death toll."

And then don't explain WHY rescue workers were denied access. WTF???