“Julia” is less scary than “Karl” and yet both will most likely name cyclones in 2022. They are called cyclone, hurricane or typhoon, three words that actually mean the same thing.
The use of one term or another actually depends on where the phenomenon occurs, but all apply to high winds with speeds greater than or equal to 118 km/h.
However, depending on its “baptismal” name, and therefore depending on the feminine or masculine gender given to it, the cyclone will not be apprehended in the same way by the alerted population.
Spontaneously, she will protect herself more from a “Karl” than from a “Julia”… which can make her more deadly.
Where does this gender bias with potentially deadly consequences come from?
2022, a “very active” cyclone season expected
In the North Atlantic, the cyclone season has just started and will continue until November 30.
This year, all the institutes agree on an active, even very active season.
NOAA (in French: the American Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation), in its last forecast bulletin dated May 24, expects a 65% probability that this 2022 hurricane season will be “more active than normal”.
WMO maintains rotating lists of names for each tropical cyclone basin in order to communicate hazards and improve public safety.
Here are names to look out for in the forthcoming #Atlantic #Hurricane Season, which officially begins 1 June.
Details https://t.co/6T6NZkGTUI pic.twitter.com/IGptxU3HrV
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) May 24, 2022
Last year, the 2021 hurricane season had already been.
The deadliest and most costly cyclone in terms of damage was the hurricane, rated category 4 out of 5 last August, which swept through Louisiana and Mississippi in the United States.
A certain “Ida”.
Read alsoThe name Ida removed from the list of storm names after the chaos caused by the hurricane in 2021
In 2014, researchers in communication sciences and statistics published a study in the American journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(
PNAS
), confirming that the human toll of hurricanes would be heavier when they bear a female name.
The authors, led by Kiju Jung and Sharon Shavitt (University of Illinois, USA), draw their findings from a review of the 94 tropical cyclones that hit the United States between 1950 and 2012.
With the exception of “Katrina” (more than 1,800 deaths in 2005) and “Audrey” (500 deaths in 1957), two extraordinary phenomena which would have biased the analysis.
Two female names too...
A phenomenon less taken seriously with a female name
The conclusion of the scientists?
The phenomenon would be taken less seriously with a woman's name.
They thus had volunteers classify the perception of surnames given to Atlantic cyclones, on a scale graduated from 1 to 11. From the most masculine to the most feminine.
They were thus able to assign each name a “masculinity-femininity index” or MFI (Masculinity-Feminity Index).
And, surprise, the more masculine the name (therefore the weaker the MFI), the fewer deaths are to be deplored.
Those who I find really dumb in this kind of story are those who do not prepare properly because a hurricane with a woman's name "is less scary" and who find themselves in danger.
These are statistics from the last decades and... Dangerous sexism...
— That Spastic Chick - Countess of Lovelace (@Adja999) September 13, 2018
“For example, write the authors, we estimate that a hurricane with a relatively masculine name, with an MFI of 3, will cause 15.15 deaths where a hurricane with a relatively feminine name, with an MFI of 9, will cause 41. .84.
“Or almost triple.
“It is clear that the feminine is not spontaneously associated with violence.
And that can be explained: look at which genre occupies the prisons the most!
“argues Bertrand, 48 years old.
“It's silly but if I know I'm going to be attacked by Eliot, I'm not going to prepare myself the same way as if it's Sabrina…”, adds this doctor, practicing in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
American servicemen named storms after their wives
To complete the validation of their theory, the authors of the American study also conducted six laboratory psychology experiments, interviewing hundreds of participants faced with the same alert situation.
The only variable parameter was the name of the hurricane.
Almost systematically, awareness of the risk is higher when the name of the phenomenon is masculine.
Read alsoHurricanes: in 1896, a devastating tornado hit Paris
For the North Atlantic, there are six annual lists of first names, compiled by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami (Florida).
Each has 21 first names, alternating between masculine and feminine.
They are of English, Spanish and French origin, in reference to the countries bordering the Atlantic.
But it was not always so.
During World War II, the US military began naming storms as they appeared in tropical areas.
They weren't going to look far for the names: those of their wives and their girlfriends.
The alternation of first names decided in 1979
The practice of the female first name, systematically attributed to the phenomenon, is then part of time but the feminist leagues in the United States end up complaining.
They denounce this form of sexism that invariably associates the feminine with disaster.
And so in 1979, the alternation between the two genres was adopted to qualify these meteorological outbursts.
After Fiona, comes the turn of Gaston… which does not prevent misogynistic jokes reinforcing the impression of a weak threat in the first case.
Note for later!#answer #reason #unusual #name #woman #hurricane #WTFhttps://t.co/z4pdS4gF2C pic.twitter.com/Dcp3uLJOsC
— Internet Killed Me (@InternetMaKiller) September 5, 2016
"I knew that stereotypes could kill but I didn't think they could nest until then", is surprised Philippine, a student at Tolbiac (Paris XIII).
"Everyone was brought up with the idea, more or less conscious, that women should take good care of their families, that they are the ones who take care when there is a sore, that they are attentive to the well- to be other people, gentle… So it's so ingrained that when a storm comes tumbling down with a female first name, you don't be on your guard?
And can we die?
It's crazy," the 23-year-old can't get over it, who thus assesses that "it's one more, and unexpected, argument to deconstruct prejudices.
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