Hey Nature, Don Draper called - he wants his male privilege back

Wow, Nature's editors really served up a turd of a fiction article this time.

From what I've been able to tell, it's some kind of "story" about how women are from venus and men are the only ones who can observe the real world. I'm not going to dissect the piece. There are plenty of people that have done so with more wit and honesty than I could hope to achieve. Suffice to say, I found the "observations" by the so-called protagonist offensive. I feel very sorry for his wife (I assume he's married to one - or was), because she is apparently cursed for all time to be unaware of the concrete gender roles that surround us all. Then again, I buy my own clothes. I cook dinner. I also do science. Apparently the person in the story can't do any of these things - only make biased observations and purchase Jethro Tull albums.

It makes me sad. Not only because it really calls in to question the awareness of the editors at Nature. By association, does this article make any of the quality work published in Nature less good? I don't think so - but it does diminish the appeal of one of the most widely read and prestigious journals.

Which is sad in that it takes away from some really cool fiction published in the same venue. If you want to read something that sounds like an ad copy out of "Mad Men," go read Womenspace (whatever the hell that means).

If you want to read some good fiction in the Futures section of Nature magazine, go check out my pal Steph's story with a much more appealing title, "Here be Monsters."