In what The Washington Post describes as “a new groundbreaking study,” researchers have concluded that Americans are sexist even when it comes to hurricane preparations based on a storm’s name. The Post reports, “Of the 47 most damaging hurricanes, the female-named hurricanes produced an average of 45 deaths compared to 23 deaths in male-named storms, or almost double the number of fatalities.” The study prompted this stern warning: “[Our] model suggests that changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley … to Eloise … could nearly triple its death toll.” Red State’s Steve Maley offers this rebuttal: “From 1953 until 1978, NOAA used exclusively female names for naming storms to distinguish each years’ storms. The use of 50% (cis)male hurricane names began in 1979, because the traditional use of exclusively female names was criticized as sexist.” So we’ve now come full circle! But here’s the kicker: “[T]here were (roughly, excluding Audrey) 1300 hurricane deaths (avg 43 per year) in the three decades 1950-79 when hurricane names were almost exclusively female. There were ~ 380 deaths (19 per year, a decrease of over half) in the two full decades after the use of male names began.” Bottom line? “The study is pure politically-motivated crapola, pure and simple.” More…