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McSweeney’s: Gender Bias Riddles


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A father and son get in a car crash and are rushed to the hospital. The father dies. The boy is taken to the operating room and the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy, because he’s my son.”

How is this possible?

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40-75% of people can’t solve this riddle because they’re unable to imagine the surgeon is a woman. The surgeon is the boy’s mother.

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A boss and his secretary are at a hotel for a business conference. They’re given rooms on the eleventh floor. There’s a fire in the hotel before the conference begins. The hotel burns to the ground and everybody dies. The secretary says, “At least I got to see the PowerPoint presentation.”

How is this possible?

65-90% of men can’t solve this riddle because they’re unable to think about anything other than porn after reading the first sentence.

– – –

A forty-something celebrity actress visits her holiday home on a tropical island. A hurricane strikes, destroying the oceanfront property. The actress manages to escape and save Pebbles, her teacup Chihuahua. Afterwards, she says she feels blessed because all she needs in life is to be with precious Pebbles. No one who reads the news story the following day believes her.

How is this possible?

100% of people who follow celebrity news cannot imagine a childless forty-something actress feeling blessed or fulfilled.

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A group of STEM professors assess identical resumes. Half are told that the applicant is called ‘Jennifer’ while the other half are told the job seeker is called ‘John.’ Overall, Jennifer is perceived as less competent, is offered a lower salary, and is deemed to be more likely to mishandle a nerve agent and cause the death of thousands.

How is this possible?

Despite their purported objectivity, 70-85% of male biologists, chemists and physicists possess the same emotional maturity as Mr. Morris, your 8th grade Earth Science teacher who interrupted a lesson on metamorphic rocks to guess the bra sizes of the girls.

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