Just the Facts, Time
The January 23, 2006 issue of Time Magazine’s monthly “Numbers” column contained the following
“10 million Estimated number of female fetuses aborted in India over the past 20 years by parents hoping for sons
933 Number of females per 1,000 males in India” [ total population = 943 females/1000 males. birth ratio = 952 females/ 1000 males]
This information is bogus and misleading. Time is regurgitating some rather nasty stereotypes and prejudgments.
The 2006 CIA World Fact Book gives the birth ratio (secondary sex ratio) for India as 105 boys per 100 girls. The birth ratio for the United States is 105 boys per 100 girls, the same as India. In the ratio of the form used by Time, the number is 952 girls per 1000 boys for both the United States and India. Does Time suggest that mothers in the United States are selectively aborting girl babies?
There is a history of sorts behind these numbers, and the way Time presented them. The first time I saw numbers used to justify the allegation that Indian mothers were aborting their girl babies left and right, the number was presented in the standard ratio; the number of boys born per one-hundred girls. I was shocked to see a perfectly normal sex ratio presented as proof of this allegation. At that time, the birth sex ratio in the United States was slightly higher. The fact that by those numbers, a higher percentage of boys was born in the US was not mentioned.
A 1994 article in JAMA made reference to missing boys in industrialized countries. The choice of words was unfortunate since information presented in that article raised serious questions about occupational hazards causing serious health problems in offspring. And, whether boys were in fact, missing or this was a benign fluctuation was not addressed very well.
This was followed by some who claimed that the missing boys was evidence of discrimination against males in industrialized nations. That was soon followed by those who claimed no such thing existed but look at China as proof of infanticide. The numbers did not back up any such claims, and the hate China people were wholly ignorant about such things as primary sex ratios and the variability of survival of male fetuses.
Gender feminists took this as an opportunity to prove that man, God, and nature conspired against females. The problem was how to present the birth ratio in a way that made the numbers look awful for women. The answer was to reverse the ratio which will always give a lower ratio for girls and then multiply the ratio to make the disparities appear even greater. Misstating facts by a small amount enhanced the idea even more. What was really bigotry was now disguised as some kind of proof.
The February 9, 2005 issue of the Christian Science Monitor had an article which used the sex ratio dishonesty and then made an outrageous claim that Indian mothers killed almost sixty percent of their baby girls in some areas. The writer did not observe this herself, but that number of infant girl bodies would be hard to miss. And, such a claim could be verified by examining cohort sex ratios. The writer preferred to rely upon hearsy.
Organizations such as Amnesty International have jumped on the bandwagon by repeating the bias and the claims with no more evidence than gossip. This organization apparently doesn’t do much in the way of fact checking before spewing papers and releases that are false and inflammatory. The idea is to claim a non-European and non-Christian country is doing these things which the western press and people accept as a matter of fact. Spain has a birth ratio of 935 girls per 1000 boys and no one says a word.
This nonsense diverts attention from some issues that need to be addressed. There is evidence of a vastly reduced proportion of male babies born to fathers who work in certain occupations and the health of all the offspring is affected. Plus, in the United States, males die at a higher rate that females starting at birth. Too bad Time Magazine and others prefer to ignore such issues of health and viability and would rather pass on prejudgements and stereotypes.
For a table comparing standard sex ratios, gender feminist sex ratios, and percentages see Sex Ratios – Primary and Secondary
by Brian McCorkle
in category Rants
