Emil O W Kirkegaard

If you want to make an ethical point about stereotypes, it has to be far more nuanced. Consider that everything we do is based on incomplete information. It cannot be so easily disproven by reductio ad absurdum. It won't work in reality otherwise.

I think it’s important to note that individuals aren’t constrained by them. We use individuating data. But I think it’s immoral to tell people they *can’t* use base rates when making decisions. It’s forcing people to make suboptimal decisions, which seems rather tyrannical.

Who is 'we?' I think individuals are constrained by stereotypes every time a feminist speaks of toxic masculinity & male violence & holds all men responsible. I'm saying this is a bad thing & that individuals merit being treated as such.

"We" is most people, but I think we largely agree anyway. Toxic masculinity is problematic because it's a strange concept, not because it is a stereotype, right? The stereotype is that men are more physically violent than women, which is correct.

Because it turns a statistical average into a (negative) stereotype which is then used to apply collective blame to groups and individual members of groups. Maybe we are just defining stereotype differently? I mean things like:

Women are over-emotional. Men are violent. Gays are effeminate Muslims are fundamentalists Blacks are gang members. Whites are racist No problem observing patterns and trends. It's when it becomes a stereotype that then affects individuals that we have a problem.

1/ Yeah, I guess it gets tricky, right. So, men are more physically violent than women is a stereotype that's useful. Men *are* violent is an odd one, probably only held by people for ideological purposes.

I don't think "men are more physically violent than women' is a stereotype. It doesn't stereotype men. It states accurately than there's a difference. "Men are violent" is the stereotype.