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[BrotherMan]

[erimir]

Originally Posted by lisarea

A lot of dudes are super paranoid about that, so it's probably just everyone is going into disabusing mode.

It's men who like to talk about other men's penises.

Gay men especially.

So much so that it makes me wonder if straight men discuss the size and shape of women's vaginas* as frequently and in as much detail.


*Chrome's spellcheck apparently wants me to write vaginae instead of vaginas

[Watser?]

The Independent addresses something that has been bothering me:

The death of a woman popularly named Damini – “lightning” in Hindi – has provoked thousands to take to India’s streets, furious at endemic and unchecked violence against women. Some have been met with police batons, tear gas and water cannon. But, in the West, Damini’s death has triggered a different response: a sense that this is an Indian-specific problem. “The crime has highlighted the prevalence of sex attacks in India,” says the Daily Telegraph; “India tries to move beyond its rape culture,” says Reuters. Again, it’s comforting to think that this is someone else’s problem, a particular scandal that afflicts a supposedly backward nation. It is an assumption that is as wrong as it is dangerous.

Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India - it is endemic everywhere

[Adam]

[Qingdai]

Originally Posted by erimir

It's men who like to talk about other men's penises.

Gay men especially.

So much so that it makes me wonder if straight men discuss the size and shape of women's vaginas* as frequently and in as much detail.


*Chrome's spellcheck apparently wants me to write vaginae instead of vaginas

I was using it as an example of how unrealistic men's perceptions can be of women's conversations. That was the most recent example I ran into.

[erimir]

Has anyone ever suggested that men should not be able to roam the streets at night without a female chaperone to ensure they're not planning to rape or rob someone?

Originally Posted by erimir

penises.
[...]
*Chrome's spellcheck apparently wants me to write vaginae instead of vaginas

OMG I've discovered more sexisms!

Spellcheck has no problem with "penises", but does with "vaginas".

Meanwhile, it has no problem with "vaginae", but does with "penes".

Now I'm just trying to decide which group is being oppressed by the spellchecker

I'm gonna go with women, because the English plurals for those words are so common and most people don't even know the Latin plurals. To the Latin-ignorant, Chrome is suggesting there's something wrong with vaginas. Like, it's telling you "Ey! You can't have more than one vagina! That's so ludicrous, it must've been a spelling error!"

On a more serious note, that really is kinda odd.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by erimir

Has anyone ever suggested that men should not be able to roam the streets at night without a female chaperone to ensure they're not planning to rape or rob someone?

OMG I've discovered more sexisms!

Spellcheck has no problem with "penises", but does with "vaginas".

Meanwhile, it has no problem with "vaginae", but does with "penes".

Now I'm just trying to decide which group is being oppressed by the spellchecker

I'm gonna go with women, because the English plurals for those words are so common and most people don't even know the Latin plurals. To the Latin-ignorant, Chrome is suggesting there's something wrong with vaginas. Like, it's telling you "Ey! You can't have more than one vagina! That's so ludicrous, it must've been a spelling error!"

On a more serious note, that really is kinda odd.

I just checked and Chrome tried to replace "ex-girlfriend" with "dumb bitch". So I tried "ex-boyfriend" and it suggested "good choice".

Something is afoot.

[lisarea]

Epic Girl Fail Compilation 2012 - YouTube

"Girl fail" videos are a thing on YouTube, an "about 302,000 results" thing.

[livius drusus]

Street harasser stabs woman in the face after she fails to fall into his arms. The article doesn't say if she told him to go fuck himself or just ignored him. In fact the article describes the whole thing in a really shitty way.

The 33-year-old victim was walking down the street when a stranger approached her and propositioned her, police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza said.

When she rejected him, the man became very upset and slashed the victim in the face and stabbed her in the arm, Esparza said.

Even after it goes from harassment to assault with a deadly weapon, the cops still call it a rejected proposition. The headline is even worse. "FUBU-Clad Man Hits On Woman, Then Stabs Her." It's not flirting, hitting on or propositioning, assholes, just like stalking isn't wooing.

[lisarea]

Nice guy friendzoned, forced to retaliate

[BrotherMan]

I'M AS FRIENDZONED AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

[livius drusus]

[specious_reasons]

I don't remember seeing anyone post this:

"Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students"
Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

Haven't read the full paper, just the abstract and listened to the podcast.

Abstract:

Despite efforts to recruit and retain more women, a stark gender disparity persists within academic science. Abundant research has demonstrated gender bias in many demographic groups, but has yet to experimentally investigate whether science faculty exhibit a bias against female students that could contribute to the gender disparity in academic science. In a randomized double-blind study (n = 127), science faculty from research-intensive universities rated the application materials of a student—who was randomly assigned either a male or female name—for a laboratory manager position. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the (identical) female applicant. These participants also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant. The gender of the faculty participants did not affect responses, such that female and male faculty were equally likely to exhibit bias against the female student. Mediation analyses indicated that the female student was less likely to be hired because she was viewed as less competent. We also assessed faculty participants’ preexisting subtle bias against women using a standard instrument and found that preexisting subtle bias against women played a moderating role, such that subtle bias against women was associated with less support for the female student, but was unrelated to reactions to the male student. These results suggest that interventions addressing faculty gender bias might advance the goal of increasing the participation of women in science.

[Vivisectus]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...9080JL20130109

...aaaand out of the woodwork they come. Rape is only a little bit rape if the victim wears certain clothes, goes out alone at night, works with men, you name it. Stay put, keep your head down and shut the fuck up, or men will rape you into your place, and it is sort of what you should expect.

[Watser?]

Interesting article/interview in Salon:

Women’s bodies have become a global battlefield. The brutal New Delhi gang rape case, and the fierce protests it sparked, is just one example. From education of Afghan schoolgirls to veiling in France, female sexuality and freedom has come to symbolize a global conflict “over the nature of the self,” argues David Jacobson, a University of South Florida sociologist, in “Of Virgins and Martyrs: Women and Sexuality in Global Conflict,” which comes out later this month. It’s chiefly an ideological divide of “honor” versus “self-possession” — or, as he puts it in the book, “who owns and control’s one’s body, especially when it comes to women: is it the individual herself or the community, through enforced practices of honor, virginity, veiling, and marriage?”

The war on female sexuality: Is globalization to blame? - Salon.com

[Ymir's blood]

Quite quickly, the Dutch begin to show a more liberal orientation to these issues. Really, from the 1600s you begin to see the Dutch women have more independence, willing to be seen in public, show cleavage. There’s the sense of owning the body, and also the rights of capitalism. It leads to an interest in autobiography for the first time in the case of the Dutch; they put stress on what we call the psychology of the inner life. An interest that follows from that is trying to figure out who you are; the idea of the authentic self is beginning to emerge. Women speak in candid and even crude terms. Couples openly kiss in public. And visitors to the Netherlands at the time are utterly struck and start reporting it to other parts of Europe.

[Watser?]

Well maybe. But the Netherlands ranks pretty low in percentages of women working (especially working full time). So even if it was ahead of the curve for a while, that is certainly not the case now.

[Ymir's blood]

The Netherlands produced you, so it's ahead of at least one curve.

[wei yau]

So, yeah, the Little One loves Cinderella. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, as we have no memory of her actually watching the cartoon before. But, one day, she just started saying that her favorite princess is Cinderella. She's also taken to placing a tiara on her head and proclaiming "I, Princess!'

And every time she does that, I cringe. And then I cringe because I cringed.

You see, part of me thinks that I've somehow allowed her or actively encouraged her to succumb to that whole "girl princess" mentality thing. That I'm doing exactly what this thrad and others like it decry.

Then a part of me thinks she looks totes adorbs and I should just leave it be.

Then part of me thinks, well, let her like Princesses, but then try to counter the influence with "stuff" (and I've no idea what that "stuff" should be).

And finally there's a part of me that's ashamed because my friend's daughter isn't into princesses, Monster High, iCarly, Victorious and all the other "girl stuff" that my girls are into. She's all sciencey and crafty and sporty and I feel like my family isn't as good by comparison.

So, yeah, there's that....

[BrotherMan]

Princesses can be p awesome.

[LadyShea]

Some kids will be into things stereotypical of their gender just because they are. As long as you didn't/don't actively prevent access to non-Princess things, or, conversely, steer her to the Pink-Princess stuff by some kind of default, you aren't a bad parent.

My son loves guns (toys and now air guns and BB guns), and likes to talk about war, and wants to learn to hunt and shoot, and talks about joining the military or law enforcement, and shit like that.

All I can do is introduce and encourage lots of other things too and hope for a balance. Which, we've achieved I think to a great extent. He still likes redneck things too much in my opinion....but he's not obsessed or anything.

[wei yau]

In other semi-related news, I just had my pinkie nails painted with this:

[Ymir's blood]

[livius drusus]

I once put my dad's standard male pattern tonsure in about a dozen tiny pigtails. It was adorable.

[wei yau]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Some kids will be into things stereotypical of their gender just because they are. As long as you didn't/don't actively prevent access to non-Princess things, or, conversely, steer her to the Pink-Princess stuff by some kind of default, you aren't a bad parent.

My son loves guns (toys and now air guns and BB guns), and likes to talk about war, and wants to learn to hunt and shoot, and talks about joining the military or law enforcement, and shit like that.

All I can do is introduce and encourage lots of other things too and hope for a balance. Which, we've achieved I think to a great extent. He still likes redneck things too much in my opinion....but he's not obsessed or anything.

Thank you.

Encouragement and validation from you is especially important to me, as I see you as a very responsible, thoughtful and deliberate parent. You do a lot that I should be doing and I appreciate the hell out of you for it.

I don't actively encourage my girls one way or the other...beyond just sharing with them stuff I like (MLP, JLU, Adventure Time) and they eventually like it, too. And I certainly don't judge the stuff they ended up liking on their own (with the possible exception of the Big One's taste in music).