I started today being so excited about Susan's (yes that Susan, FairerScience's coPI) USA Today's opinion piece, "Gender segregation in the schools is not the answer". It's a good, thoughtful piece, co-authored with neuroscientist Lise Eliot.

And I loved their message:

Boys and girls have much to learn from one another, whether it's academic skills, relational styles, or mutual respect. It's an odd logic that says this can happen better in a segregated environment, and odder still to claim that brain research supports it. If anything, neuroscience research has revealed the enormous plasticity — or learning ability — of the brain, especially in childhood.

The day started to go downhill when I read the comments. You can read them to or just trust me-- the commenters didn't get it.

The day went really down hill when I read CNN's Boys will be boys, girls will be girls from birth by Anita Sethi. Now you know when an article supposed to be about science starts "As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn't push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus." I'm not going to be happy reading the rest. Well I wasn't and of course "Why Don't They Hear What I Say?" kept running through my mind.

It was the last line that made me totally insane: "The truth is, gender is only a part of what makes them who they are. If only science could study, and I could understand, the rest of them so well!"

Ms. Sethi I'm so thrilled that you know gender is only part of what makes your children who they are, that I won't bring up that you were reporting on sex not gender. I'm not so thrilled that as a "psychologist who specializes in early education", you couldn't think of even one other characteristic or influence on children that is being studied.