What I’m Reading, April 14, 2014

Posted on April 14, 2014 by wellsdc

Not credited. May be work of U.S. Public Health Service (1918 ad) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Dear Parents, You are Being Lied to By Living Whole, Avicenna, A Million Gods, April 11, 2014

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to make the same mistakes. I predicted that an anti-vax backlash would occur when the anti-vax got so successful that they destroyed the herd immunity of a western nation to the point that common diseases could return. If you won’t learn by the carrot then unfortunately it is the stick. The price of Andrew Wakefield and the likes of Sherri Tenpenny, Mercola, Adams was increased disease. We are seeing record increases in common diseases that we were on the verge of eliminating.

How to Talk to Vaccine-Hesitant Parents, Keith Kloor, Discover, April 8, 2014

The smart folks at ThinkProgress seem to have missed all the media coverage of this recent study, which found that, for those already suspicious or concerned about vaccines, images of sick children and dramatic, cautionary narratives “actually increased beliefs in serious vaccine side effects.” This is a known as the “backfire effect,” a phenomena defined concisely here:

When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.

Jenny McCarthy, Who Still Promotes Misinformation About Vaccines, Now Says “I Am Not ‘Anti-Vaccine,'” Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, April 13, 2014

McCarthy rejects the science — and thinks she deserves credit for just asking questions. Even though those questions were answered a long time ago and she just wasn’t happy with the responses. If Jenny McCarthy is not “anti-vaccine,” then Ken Ham must be the greatest advocate of evolution we’ve ever seen. In the meantime, the Jenny McCarthy Body Count will continue to rise until she comes to her senses and rejects the harmful beliefs that she still holds.

GOP Lawmaker Compares Abortion To Buying A Car, Laura Bassett, Huffington Post, April 9, 2014

A Republican state lawmaker in Missouri defended his controversial bill forcing women to have ultrasounds before abortions by comparing abortion to purchasing a new vehicle. “In making a decision to buy a car, I put research in there to find out what to do,” state Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger (R) told colleagues at a hearing on the bill Tuesday. *** The major problem with Gatschenberger’s analogy, of course, is that people are not required by state law to do research before buying a car. State Rep. Stacey Newman (D) told Gatschenberger that his car analogy was “extremely offensive to every single woman sitting in here.”

Photo credit: Not credited. May be work of U.S. Public Health Service (1918 ad via [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

What I’m Reading, April 8, 2014

Posted on April 8, 2014 by wellsdc

Every review of Black Widow in ‘Captain America’ is wrong, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, The Daily Dot, April 2, 2014

Honestly, this kind of catsuit-focused review says more about the reviewer than the film itself. Apparently the mere concept of Scarlett Johansson in a tight outfit is so dazzlingly erotic that it bypasses some male reviewers’ conscious minds and causes them to ignore everything she says and does for the rest of the movie. The result is a series of reviews from highly respected film critics who, given the opportunity to describe each Avenger in a single sentence, replace Black Widow’s summary with the announcement, “I AM A HETEROSEXUAL MAN AND SCARLETT JOHANSSON’S BOOBS ARE AWESOME.”

Yes, the Cover of Golf Digest Is Tacky, Gross, and Exclusionary. But So Is Golf. Philip Bump, The Wire, April 4, 2014

It’s actually perfect that Golf Digest‘s cover image of sexy, non-golfer Paulina Gretzky has irritated people for being sexist and exclusionary. After all, nothing provides a better digest of golf than exclusion, annoyance, cultural damage, and self-absorption.

***

Here is the thing: Golf is the worst sport, if it is a sport at all. Golf is worse than NASCAR, and I say that fully understanding the weight of those words. Golf is worse because it is more classist, more racist, and probably more environmentally harmful than car racing. And what’s really remarkable about golf is how little legwork it takes to demonstrate each of those qualities.

[Ed. note: For the actual cover, see here.]

An MRA Gets Burned

Posted on April 6, 2014 by wellsdc

If you think, as this guy apparently does, that our society “panders to women’s every whim,” and if you express that view in public, you might get burned for it, as happened here:

"Society already panders to women’s every whim". I’m guessing no woman has ever pandered to any of your whims

Click to embiggen.

Sometimes a reasoned debate just isn’t in the cards. That applies to about 98% of what MRA’s say, as far as I’m concerned. (The remaining 2% mostly relate to food and other necessities of daily survival.) I’ll just let Liz Lemon close this out:

What I’m Reading, April 2, 2014

Posted on April 2, 2014 by wellsdc

By Saffron Blaze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Conservatives to women: Lean back, Dana Milbank, Washington Post, March 31, 2014

The conservative minds of the Heritage Foundation have found a way for Republicans to shrink the gender gap: They need to persuade more women to get their MRS degrees.

The advocacy group held a gathering of women of the right Monday afternoon to mark the final day of Women’s History Month — and the consensus was that women ought to go back in history. If Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg’s mantra is “lean in,” these women were proposing that women lean back: get married, take care of kids and let men earn the wages.

Paul Ryan’s April Fool’s joke, Steve Benen, MSNBC, April 1, 2014

Unlike most years, there’s no real point to the House and Senate Budget Committees presenting budget blueprints this year. Federal spending levels for this fiscal year and the next were already established in an agreement that was approved months ago.

But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) today unveiled a 99-page document (pdf) anyway, not because he had to but because he wanted to. This is a political exercise, intended to make an election-year point. That’s not intended as criticism, per se – political exercises in election years are hardly outrageous – but it’s important to realize this is more of a Republican fantasy. There’s no pretense that this will actually become the nation’s budget.

Obamacare: Will The Haters Ever Stop Hating?, The Economist, April 1, 2014

Before it will be judged a historic success, Obamacare has more hurdles to clear (Charles Ornstein lays out a few). But the catastrophic-failure scenario envisioned by the ACA’s critics, in which low enrollment composed of disproportionately sick people leads to premium hikes and an adverse-selection “death spiral”, now seems unlikely (though it isn’t entirely out of the question, as our health-care correspondent writes). The solid enrollment is all the more striking given that Republican states have largely rejected the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, and many Republicans and well-funded conservative groups (like the one that brought me that irritating ad) have fought implementation tooth and nail. Indeed, surging enrollment has spooked a number of Republicans into claiming that the registration numbers aren’t real.

Photo credit: By Saffron Blaze (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Natalia Poklonskaya Is Not Your Waifu

Posted on April 2, 2014 by wellsdc

I suppose it is inevitable, in the era of internet memes, that a pretty blonde appointed to a prominent leadership position will become the subject of some creepiness.

But anime fan art? Really? (h/t Jen)

In Japan, people watching events unfolding in Crimea appear to have become captivated by the region’s newly-appointed attorney general.

Clips of a press conference with Natalia Poklonskaya have been shared widely on Japanese platforms, says website Rocketnews24. She was appointed to the post on 11 March and formerly served as a senior prosecutor for the city of Simferopol.

In particular, one video in which Poklonskaya listens to a reporter’s question has been viewed nearly 300,000 times since it was posted to a Japanese YouTube channel. There is no translation of her answer. Some people appear to be so taken with the seemingly charming prosecutor, they are turning out manga images and anime fan art inspired by her.

Okay fine, it’s a tribute or something. But serving as a senior prosecutor for a city of 362,000 people that serves as the capital of a disputed subnational territory, then becoming attorney general for that entire region, all by the age of 34, is at least as impressive as being really pretty. Just sayin’.

It’s also at least as impressive as being the main character in a Grand Theft Auto game, which she is also about to be (unless that was an April Fool’s joke on the part of the International Business Times).

Perhaps this is all best summed up by Tumblr user Kishona: Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, March 26, 2014

Posted on March 26, 2014 by wellsdc

Via pordl.com

Playing “Too Womany” and the Problem of Masculinity in Sport, Joanna L. Grossman and Deborah L. Brake, Verdict, September 17, 2013

Title IX indeed has changed the face of education. It has been invoked to protect students against sexual harassment by teachers and peers, to ensure fair treatment of pregnant and parenting students, to remove obstacles to women’s education in non-traditional fields like science and math, and to curtail the use of single-sex education that was rooted in stereotype. But Title IX is most known for its impact on athletics, even though that was probably the furthest thing from the legislators’ mind when they enacted it. (The legislative history suggests little more than some chuckling over the prospect of co-ed football and co-ed locker rooms.)

***

There is no question that sports have changed women. Female sports participation has proven positive effects that are related to academic achievement; job success; positive self-esteem; reduced incidence of self-destructive behaviors like smoking, drugs, sex at a young age, and teen pregnancy; and physical and mental health benefits. By and large, sports have been empowering and have even changed, in fundamental ways, what it means to be a woman.

But have women changed sports? Why is it that despite the widespread participation of women and girls in sports, a team of ten-year-old boys would be told by their male coach (as recently happened to one of our sons) that the reason they lost their soccer game is because they “played too womany”? And why is it that this remark strikes so few people as offensive? Has women’s participation in sports changed the norms of femininity for women, but not the norms of masculinity for men?

[Ed. note: We generally hear “you throw like a girl” as an insult, based on women’s perceived categorical inferiority at sports.

Via fugly.com

Well, do you know who else “throws like a girl”? Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, March 21, 2014

Posted on March 21, 2014 by wellsdc

Micronesians Continue To Seek Justice On The 60th Anniversary Of The Castle Bravo Nuclear Test, Michelle Broader Van Dyke, BuzzFeed, February 28, 2014

The U.S. conducted at least 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958. The nuclear test conducted at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, Operation Castle Bravo, remains the largest test ever conducted by the U.S. and yielded 15 megatons, almost 1,000 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Bravo vaporized two surrounding islets and sent a plume of highly radioactive debris floating over the lagoon and into the open water. Atolls downwind of Bikini, including Rongelap and Utirik, hadn’t been informed of the tests but were showered with dangerously radioactive ash, which residents believed was snow — something they had never seen.

In the years following the test, people who were exposed burned from the radiation, became nauseous, developed thyroid problems, had loss of blood cells, and women who were pregnant miscarried. And decades after the bombings, the health problems persist with unusually high rates of birth defects and cancer among Micronesians.

Keurig Will Use DRM In New Coffee Maker To Lock Out Refill Market, Karl Bode, TechDirt, March 3, 2014

The single coffee cup craze has been rolling now for several years in both the United States and Canada, with Keurig, Tassimo, and Nespresso all battling it out to lock down the market. In order to protect their dominant market share, Keurig makers Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has been on a bit of an aggressive tear of late. As with computer printers, getting the device in the home is simply a gateway to where the real money is: refills. But Keurig has faced the “problem” in recent years of third-party pod refills that often retail for 5-25% less than what Keurig charges. As people look to cut costs, there has also been a growing market for reusable pods that generally run anywhere from five to fifteen dollars.

Continue reading →

What I’m Reading, March 17, 2014

Posted on March 17, 2014 by wellsdc

How did Irish-Americans get so disgusting? Andrew O’Hehir, Salon, March 15, 2014

Irish-Americans rapidly absorbed the lesson that the way to succeed in their new country was to reject the politics of class and shared economic interests and embrace the politics of race. One disgraceful result was the New York draft riots of 1863, the low point of Irish-black relations in American history, when Irish immigrants by the thousands turned on their black neighbors in a thinly disguised race riot. Irish-Americans were under no delusions that the ruling class of Anglo Protestants liked or trusted them, and anti-Irish and/or anti-Catholic bigotry endured in diluted form well into the 20th century. But by allying themselves with a system of white supremacy, the Irish in America were granted a share of power and privilege — most notably in urban machine politics, and the police and fire departments of every major city.

*** Continue reading →

Nice Guys(TM) and the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Posted on February 27, 2014 by wellsdc

A post at the Cringepics Subreddit displays a highly-awkward attempt by a “fedorabeard” (a term I am totally stealing) to flirt with Kitty, a Hot Topic employee that suits his highly-superficial fancy. Of course, he couldn’t just ask for her number or social media info directly—after the smackdown she gives to fedorabeard, the person who gave him her info should probably run for the hills. Here’s a highlight, and the whole Imgur album is below:

Listen, buddy, you don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me, and from the obliviousness I’ve witnessed here I doubt you’d know your ass from a hole in the ground. I’m not your Felicia Day, I’m not your Ramona Flowers. I’m not your manic pixie dream girl. I’m an actual, real live human being and you’ve had a single five minute conversation with me. You can take your little nerd-girl fantasies you’ve so thoughtfully projected on me and shove them right back into the box of tired, worn out Hollywood tropes you pulled them out of.

***

And one last thing to leave you with, bucko. If you have to tell somebody you’re a nice guy, you’re doing something wrong. Or you’re not actually a nice guy, you’re a pushy fucking creep living in a fantasy world where girls fit whatever cute little mold you decide they should. You ever wanna buy your collectibles in my store again, deal with another associate or find it within yourself to treat me with the respect and distance you’d afford to a stranger whose pants you DON’T wanna get into. Creep.

There is no one specific moment when the guy blew it, but among the myriad things he should not have done, comparing Kitty to “a real life version of Felicia Day or Chloe Dykstra,” followed by the acknowledgment that they are real people but that he’ll never meet them, has to be among the dumbest things anyone has ever said to anyone.

By Genevieve (DSC_8024) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This is Chloe Dykstra playing a character. She’s probably not like this outside of Comic-Con.

This particular archetype of the geek girl does not actually exist in real life, and manic pixie dream girls only exist as supporting characters in movies with male main characters. The trope does damage to the women perceived as manic pixie dream girls, and the men who hang their hopes on a spunky Natalie Portman lookalike swooping in and showing them how to savor life. Continue reading →

When Are Orcs More Plausible than Women?

Posted on February 22, 2014 by wellsdc

By anonymous (modified image: http://freywild.ch/i33/i33en.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The short answer is “never,” but bear with me.

Some guy who goes by the name Vox Day on the internet has announced plans to create a medieval combat video game. The game will allow players to manage the combat of a variety of characters, including humans, elves, and dwarves. The game will also have goblins, orcs, and trolls, but I don’t know if those are playable characters or enemies. (I don’t play much of this style of game, so I don’t know exactly how it works.)

What the game will not have is female characters. At all. Because as far as Vox Day is concerned, women don’t fight in combat, and to claim otherwise would require him to “throw out historical verisimilitude.” (Also, he figures “whiny women” won’t be playing his game anyway.)

As David Futrelle (linked above), Ophelia Benson, Jason Thibeault, and PZ Myers have all pointed out, women have in fact served in combat throughout human history, including in the European Middle Ages (PDF file). I will describe another woman warrior below, but first, I have an observation about Vox Day’s game.

He will include goblins, trolls, orcs, elves, and dwarves in his game, but he considers women to be implausible.

Forget historical accuracy for a second. If you have difficulty even imagining a woman in a combat role alongside actual mythical characters, well, you may have issues.

By U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Women in the military? That’s unpossible!

Now then, let me tell you a bit about Milunka Savić. Continue reading →

Cryptic Philosopher

Farting in Idiocy's General Direction

Category Archives: Gender