Anything I say sarcastically will be in italics.

The New York Times recently ran an article that analyzed census data to arrive at the conclusion that there is a widespread practice in Asian-American households (particularly Chinese, Indian and Korean families) to use sex selection procedures to choose male children over female children.  A "bias" towards male children.  It goes on to further quote "experts" to reinforce the claim that Asian-American families place less value on the life of a girl thanks to deeply rooted "cultural factors" and inheritance.

I am not a statistics person, but I do have a degree in identifying bullshit. Let's have a closer look at this article...

First of all, the scope of the data used is EXTREMELY narrow. The only data set analyzed was "single births to mothers that already have 2 - 3 children". Additionally, data for Indian and Korean households was only available from 1991. Data for Chine se mothers was available staring from 1971. If there really is a trend where boys were being selected over girls why not look at ALL children born to Asian households? I have a hunch that the number is not much different from "American" households.

The article then ventures into dangerous territory. The author tries to explain the trend by citing cultural factors that would make Asians want to have a boy namely that a male would "take care of the family" and that inheritance is "passed through the male line". Of course, what this article definitely seems to be insinuating is that there is nothing "American" about Asian Americans. We are apparently so hung up on our old traditions that we cannot put our desire for male children behind us. We want male children so badly we "new" immigrants are willing to blow at least $6,500 on these newfangled fertility treatments to guarantee one.  Oh, and never mind that abortion is more or less taboo, we'll break that one in favor of that precious male heir

But a number of experts expressed surprise to see evidence that the preference for sons among Asian-Americans has been so significantly carried over to this country. "That this is going on in the United States - people were blown away by this," said Prof. Lena Edlund of Columbia University.

Yup, that's right, the experts are stunned, no BLOWN AWAY that the "preference for sons among Asian-Americans has been so significantly carried over to this country". Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, head of Fertility Institutes concurs with this sentiment when he says:

"The patients come in and they all think they owe me an excuse, but the bottom line is it's cultural...Culturally, there are a lot of strange things that go on in the world..Whether we agree with it, it's not harming anyone."

Yup, that right..."strange things go on in the world". We crazy Asians have nothing better to do with our money except pay for fertility treatments and pump out superchildren that are magically good and math, spelling and science. This reeks of the model minority nonsense. The mainstream media assault on the Asian-American family unit continues however subtle it may be. The media continuously paints a picture of these households as strict and patriarchal where girls are pushed into the corner and married off in favor of male children advancing socially and educationally. Indeed I am glad I am not a girl since my parents would have married me off to a wealthy doctor where my only duty would be to clean the house and pop out lots of baby boys. A baby girl? God forbid. That is the worse shame.

Perhaps the thing that got me the most angry with this article was the assertion that this bias for male children was being passed to American born generations and was not "disappearing with assimilation". Oh no! They found me out! How did they know about my secret desire for a male heir? The New York Times knows me better than i know myself! Curious about this new phenomena, I randomly asked ten Asian-Americans (at random) some American born, some foreign born and got a resounding "I don't care about the sex of the child". Curious...my findings seem to be completely WRONG? Did I just find ten individuals that contradict the NY Times? GASP

Lastly, if male children are so prized, then why isn't the ratio 2:1? or 3:1? Why aren't all Asians just having male children? This trend is way over hyped and motivated by the Western notion that all Asians have the "one child policy" mentality. Having a male child is the most important thing and the life of the female child is worth nothing. What utter nonsense. The numbers (however limited they may be) speak for themselves. The ratio to Chinese mothers in 70s was almost 1:1, in fact LOWER than the norm for whites and blacks.  There were ways to artificially skew the gender ratio in the 70s.  Why then is it only recently that this "trend" is occuring?  The norm for "Americans" is 105 boys for 100 girls. The article identifies Koreans and Indians (after the 2nd or 3rd children) as having a rate of 117 boys for 100 girls. That, to me, IS INSIGNIFICANT. Come back to me when the numbers hit 200 boys for every 100 girls...then I'll believe there is widespread gender manipulation. Until then, I'll love my future super children, male or female who according to the stereotype should be excellent at spelling and not have to take 5 minutes checking the spelling of their blog posts like their father.*

*It's true, I really do have terrible spelling