The Truth about Competitive Math

Competitive math? What's that? It's kind of like Mathletes. But not quite. As a good friend of mine states,"Everyone else in the class thinks it's hard because they don't do math... as a sport." Essentially, that's what it is; competitive math is doing math as a sport.

That sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, not quite. I've been to math summer camps for the past two years and I do admit to do math "as a sport."

I get it. Math people are "freaks" and "nerdy." Actually, they aren't. And trust me, from real experience, over the short course of two or three weeks, I've met closer friends than I had in 3 years of middle school. (I'm a freshman in high school now.) And I'm here to prove it to you. But first, what do you imagine when I say,"Mathletes."

Alright so now I'm going to make a list of the types of people I met. I think that we need to accept how multidimensional these people are; there's more to them than the math that they do.

1) I've met quite a few math people who have abs. A very sculpted set at that. Yes, they know who Pitbull is. And they are fond of 2 chainz.
2) Math girls are gorgeous. I'm serious. They're fun and fashionable and gorgeous. As in shop on ModCloth during class.
3) Sure, I've met some of your typical math nerds. You know, Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencils in a neat box, messy hair, glasses, short, "The answer is two million three hundred ninety million thousand gazillion." I have, but there aren't too much of those.

The point is, I think that we as a culture and as a society depict "nerds" in an unhealthy manner. I think that people who do pursue STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) are gong to be noticeably looked upon as a stereotype. I remember my first math camp, I came into my dorm expecting a bunch of quiet nerdy girls lost in their books or something like that. Was I surprised! My findings?

Roomate 1) *Brings 21 pairs of shoes to camp*
Roomate 2) *Is very much like a mother/very mature*
Roomate 3) *Is super good at color guard*
Roomate 4) *OMG Harry Potter!*

I've grown to love these girls very much. The point of this is to show people that math nerds have personalities! And society ingrains these stereotypes about them that seep into our brain. I think we can erase that. Because there are so many more people with colorful personalities who carry the label "MATH NERD" everywhere. The point is, the only thing that differentiates these people is that they are super smart and they like math.

Facts and Statistics

If the title hasn't warded you off already, then kudos to you! There's very few people these days who don't run away from long lines of texts and numbers and what not. Anyway, let's move forward.

To be honest, I know the word,"feminist" carries a negative connotation. I know when people hear it, they imagine a mob of women with boy cuts who want to sentence all men to some sort of public execution. Firstly, we need to understand that feminism does not derive itself from decreasing femininity. After all, us women do like to wear lip gloss and shave our legs. But that's not the point. 

The point is, essentially, if men and women are going to do the same things, they need to be treated the same way. Calling my claim,"feminism" isn't going to do it justice. This goes far beyond the realms of society's definition of "feminism." Rather, this is a self-evident truth.

Before you guys start putting me down and vehemently deny this, I need to say this: society ingrains certain prejudices about women that we don't even know exist, yet we still do it! So no, I'm not blaming you for discrimination, and no, I'm not blaming you for seeing women as inferior to men. And from a first glance, you won't notice that you do. Don't worry, I'll explain in a simple manner. However blunt this may be, I pray you won't take offense. Not everyone's going to agree with what I say, and not everyone is going to feel this way. I'm going to explain this without putting in any sort of frivolous emotion which shall make you cry. The point is, these are some of the things that we as a culture and as a society should be aware of so that we can change for the better. So here are the facts:

1) Women leaders are labeled as,"bossy." Male leaders are labeled,"incredibly attractive." There was actually a study at New York University about this. There was a case study about a venture capitalist named Heidi Roizen was presented to students. The class was divided into two halves, both containing both men and women. One half got the study about Heidi, and the other half got the same study except the name "Heidi" was changed to "Howard." Students thought that Heidi and "Howard" were equally competent, but students felt that Howard was the kind of guy they'd want to work for while Heidi was "selfish" and "aggressive." 

2) Men are expected to be smart while women are expected to sit there and be pretty. In 2011, Gymboree produced a new line of onesies for babies which said,"Pretty like mommy" and "Smart like daddy." Now we get that Gymboree didn't mean to make the statement of smart boys and pretty girls, but the problem is it only shows how we don't even notice that we hold these prejudices. Chew on this: “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” (Persuasion, Jane Austen)

3) Girls are expected to be more submissive. 57% of men attempt to negotiate their first salaries while 7% of women do. This isn't a matter of competency; it's because women don't ask. Why so? Well, Linda Babcock, professor at Carnegie Mellon University explains this very well. "Reluctance to promote their own interests is not an innate quality or a genetic blind spot in women. As a society, we teach little girls that it's not nice or feminine or appropriate for them to focus on what they want and pursue their self interest. And we don't like it when they do."

That's just three subtle biases that I myself have faced over my life, and it might not apply to you, but it's important to be aware of them so we can stop this subtle discrimination before it happens. Cheers□

Society's Attempt on Kindness

So you know how when you go on tumblr, people are all like,"Beauty on the inside is worth so much more than beauty on the outside," or something cornier like,"A pretty face catches your eye but a pretty personality catches your heart." And that is true. I think it's good that people are searching for deeper meaning in their lifelong partners as opposed to listing off random character traits such "smart, nice, cute, tall, funny, sweet," and whatever idealistic perceptions my contemporaries have. And it's good that the message says girls should be "nice." That they don't have to be pretty. And while half the population is posting things like that, the truth is, we as humans (at this point in time) can't help but look at outer beauty. 

Furthermore, and though this may sound incredible cruel and horrible, I think nice people are boring. I really do. Before you roll your eyes and call me a shallow human being and curse me to drown in Dante's inferno, chew on this: people want to know they are right. People want to feel important. Is that a problem? Absolutely not! But what happens is that these so called,"nice" people sit there and smile and listen and give nice comments and laugh and look cute, but they don't have opinions. They sit there and listen and nod, but they don't form opinions.

So what if I don't want to be nice? And frankly, I don't. I want to be quirky and interesting. I want to have opinions, thoughts, and feelings! Because character flaws are what turns something black and white into something very vibrant and colorful. At the end of the day, our prime beliefs and opinions define who we are. If everyone were nice and sweet and perfect, where would we be? Where's the variation in that? We might as well just fall in love with everyone in the country because they're all nice. 

And this whole,"All girls are pretty." Truthfully speaking, not everyone is beautiful. Not everyone is created equal, but they're made equal. Don't worry, I'll explain. To be born equals means that we are all the same; to be made equal means that the moment we begin our existence in the world, we are all guaranteed basic civil rights as everyone else is. But to be honest, some of us are going to be pretty, and some of us are going to be ugly. Some of us are going to have blue eyes, some of us are going to have brown eyes. Some of us are going to be passive, and others assertive. Essentially, what I'm saying is that not all girls are pretty. All girls are beautiful, but the word,"pretty" pertains only to the exterior, and frankly speaking, not all girls are or will be pretty. That's that.

So now that you're all done reading that, you probably hate me. You probably think I'm some sort of crazy rapscallion! But I'm here to express myself, and it's great if you disagree. Because I'm probably wrong; no problem! (Get it?) Essentially, what I'm saying is that society's attempt on kindness is a good start, but we can do better than that□