First, if you read the threads where this stuff comes up, you'll see that most of these discussions are in the context of work and dating, both situations where personal exposure goes way, way beyond what you can learn from stereotypes. In particular, the desire to abstractly characterize women reflects a sad attempt to depersonalize, out of fear, what should be a very personal, individual relationship. (Don't try to tell me that the guys driving these discussions are all dealing with aggregates of women -- they wish they were dealing with aggregates of women, because dealing with individual women is too confusing and distressing for them.)
Second, hiring a babysitter is a terrible example of making a snap decision based on age and sex. I've never heard of parents hiring a babysitter without personal familiarity or references. Lots of grandmothers are incredibly ignorant about child care, even downright irresponsible. Hell, in areas where meth is popular, I bet grandmothers do a lot more meth than 13-year-old boys.
Hiring guys to do heavy lifting is actually a decent example, but I've never seen any discussions on the internet about how to pick good workers from the crowd of day laborers hanging out near Home Depot. Do you take the young, wiry guy or the gray-haired guy who's built like a tank? Are tattoos a bad sign? You haven't read any discussions like that on HN. No, instead, people talk about how to have a deep understanding of women's sexual desires (scary and bad) and moral scruples (even more scary and bad) without actually knowing a woman.
Second, hiring a babysitter is a terrible example of making a snap decision based on age and sex. I've never heard of parents hiring a babysitter without personal familiarity or references. Lots of grandmothers are incredibly ignorant about child care, even downright irresponsible. Hell, in areas where meth is popular, I bet grandmothers do a lot more meth than 13-year-old boys.
Hiring guys to do heavy lifting is actually a decent example, but I've never seen any discussions on the internet about how to pick good workers from the crowd of day laborers hanging out near Home Depot. Do you take the young, wiry guy or the gray-haired guy who's built like a tank? Are tattoos a bad sign? You haven't read any discussions like that on HN. No, instead, people talk about how to have a deep understanding of women's sexual desires (scary and bad) and moral scruples (even more scary and bad) without actually knowing a woman.