An article on the website Moms, Study Shows That Kids Get Their Smart Brains From Their Moms presents itself as an argument in support of women. I am sure that the writer Kelli Murray must have even felt she was empowering women through this article.
The Hidden Brain podcast has an interesting episode this week – Emma, Carrie, Vivian: How A Family Became A Test Case For Forced Sterilizations.
While the article on Moms presents the argument that children inherit their smarts from their mothers, they conveniently ignore the corollary to the argument that could be made, that a child inherits mental defects from the mother. So, what might seem like an empowering argument supporting women can turn into the tragic tale of the three women, Emma, Carrie, and Vivian, told in the Hidden Brain podcast.
Genetics is a dangerous path. For every empowering find, there is a corollary which someone in power can use to devastating effect.
There are myriad instances of people with common, or even low, IQ bringing forth brilliant offspring and vice versa. The brain is a complex structure that has defied understanding so far. We know what it does. We have little clue of how it does it. In an earlier era, such half-baked and dangerous theories would stay in the obscure realms of scientific study. But through the ubiquitous internet, such ideas tend to spread fast and loose because they support a particular line of thought.
Such stories are like the sack of feathers left open to be scattered by the wind; once it is out there, it is difficult to control or to get back into the sack.
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