Math Fails to Debunk Gender Stereotypes

Belle Waring hails The New York Times' patient explanation that it's mathematically impossible for men and women to have different numbers of sex partners. Ezra Klein, too, lauds the story for debunking gender stereotypes whereby "Men are relatively promiscuous, women relatively chaste."

Here's the only problem. When I got my Patriarchal Master Narrative card, I was taught that while men are promiscuous, women come in two types -- virgins and whores. This is perfectly consistent with the basic math saying men and women have to have the same mean number of sex partners. The story just as to be that men have a higher median number of sex partners than do women, and it's a handful of sluts who are making up the difference. Is that accurate? Perhaps not. But these stereotypes are a bit more robust than a simple mathematical screw-up.