Ask or kill the doubt
Tinu Cornish, the Equality Challenge Unit specialist, agrees that this riddle is a small example that invites people to think in a suggestive and fun way. It is not that this riddle is proof that the implicit gender bias exists, for that there are many scientific investigations with irrefutable evidence.
Actually, there is not a single correct answer to the riddle.There are several possible reasons to explain why the eminence says it can not operate on the child. That is a couple of homosexual men is one of them.The interesting thing is what it says about us that most of the answers offered reflect that the eminence is a man. And on the contrary, that so many people find it hard to imagine that it is a woman, when that could be considered the simplest answer.
On the occasion of Women's Day, the BBC published a video, the "video of the riddle" that went viral in several Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and that generated many questions. Only in the first four days generated more than 7 million views on its Facebook page, not counting the times that was shared by WhatsApp, was broadcast by national television channels or shared on social networks and websites of different media.
Although they received many negative comments, more than 10,000 comments were positive. The BBC picked up on these concerns and they were asked by three gender experts to help resolve them. With the experience and wisdom of Deborah Belle, professor emeritus of the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of Boston, Asunción Bernárdez Rodal, director of the Feminist Research Institute of the Complutense University of Madrid and Tinu Cornish, senior counselor of formation of the British pro-equality organization Equality Challenge Unit.
For decades, all gender experts know him and have used it in his university classes and training courses, including those given by the BBC itself. But most do not know its exact origin. According to Deborah Belle, she considers that she appeared in a famous and influential comic series of television of the United States in the 70s called "All in the family", and as a result of that, it began to become popular.
The original version of the riddle, in English, revolves around the figure of a surgeon (surgeon or surgeon), which in that language is a neutral word. For it to work in Spanish that term was translated as "a medical eminence". Belle accepts that when the riddle became popular, about 50 years ago, the final shot would have been "it was the mother and it did not occur to you".
At present, however, it is much more frequent to hear other types of arguments in the answers, such as that the eminence is part of a homosexual couple. However, the psychologist points out that most of those who make the riddle, half a century later, are still searching for their responses to some type of father. The three experts in gender consulted agree that the riddle, and the reflection to which it invites, is not nonsense and is still relevant.