Sir, - It's a shame The Irish Times provides such generous space for John Waters to regularly advance long-debunked sexist theories about gender. In attempting to limit life and career choices for women by asserting that certain preferences are innate, Waters continues the social oppression of women that we all hope to soon consign to history.
Suggesting that Noam Chomsky's linguistic theory - that the mind has an innate structure/capacity for learning language - has a "profound implication for many aspects of human activity and expression" is just ridiculous. Doubtless, Waters also believes that since we're all able to lean down and pick cotton, there couldn't have been such a thing as race-related slavery in the US.
If Mr Waters doesn't understand that "attachment to certain life roles is socially constructed" perhaps he needs to look at who cleans the toilets in his favourite restaurant. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin Donegan, Roosevelt Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703, USA.