So I wanted to have a discussion about this term, but the post has been moved.

I didn’t realize it until today, but wtf is this term and looking into it, it just pissed me off more.

Oral traditions and story telling are very important to our learning. Science would not exist without being curious while observing different phenomena.

BUT apparently old, illiterate wives are responsible for superstition and falsities and science is responsible for all “old wives’ tales” that turn out to be true. F that???! lol what are your thoughts?

The explanation in the first two screenshots are from Wikipedia and the last one is from McGill University

“Some old wives’ tales are easy to dismiss. We all know that masturbating won’t really make your palms grow hair and that neither the position of your belly nor your internal temperature can predict the sex of your baby. However, other old wives’ tales are more difficult to dismiss. White spots on our nails being caused by calcium deficiency seems plausible, even though it’s untrue. Some old wives’ tales aren’t old wives’ tales at all, because an old wives’ tale is, by definition, untrue, and some actually are true!

While it’s important to stay skeptical when taking advice from adages with no clear origins, it turns out that some of these old sayings aren’t as silly as they may seem, once you take a look at the science behind them.”

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-health/old-wives-tales-and-truths