antiminke's 'feminist' is not a rude word archives

Women start to disappear - photoshopping to blame

Ok, a slightly melodramatic headline for fashion fuss about advertising and models, but to an extent, it's true - women are shrinking before our eyes. This time it's not actually about too-skinny models - they don't need them to be too-skinny anymore now they can shrink them in Photoshop.

The article, Image of ultra-thin Ralph Lauren model sparks outrage, also provoked a warning on mis-using copyright law to silence criticism: "Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings".

The Liberal Democrats want to ban altered images for content aimed at teenagers, and I agree. As reported in the Independent:

The party is calling for a ban on the use of altered or enhanced pictures on publicity material aimed at the under-16s as part of a wider drive to boost the self-esteem of young girls. It also wants the introduction of new rules insisting that advertisements aimed at adults disclose how much images have been airbrushed or digitally enhanced.

"Ms Swinson, who led a party review of women's policy, told The Independent: "The focus on women's appearance has really got out of hand. No one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do.""

Having been a teenage girl, I say 'media literacy' training won't do it - the images are powerful even when you know how they've been made.

Clive James: 'Still looking for the western feminists'

I'm still digesting this (because really I'm meant to be studying right now), particularly the challenge to western feminists.

Democracy is the best chance for women. Or if that sounds too naive, too pro-western perhaps, then let's put it this way. The absence of democracy is seldom good news for women. Or, to get down to bedrock, if women can't vote for women, then they haven't got many weapons to fight with when they seek justice.

My own view, which I'm ready to hear contested, is that this is the main reason why some feminists in the west have been so slow to get behind those women in the world's all too numerous tyrannies who have to risk their lives to say anything.

It's just too clear a proof that men have a natural advantage when it comes to the application of violence. When you say that women have little chance against men if it comes to a physical battle, you are conceding that there really might be an intractable difference between the genders after all.

Ideological feminists in the West were for a long time reluctant to concede this, because they preferred to believe that there was no real difference, and that all female handicaps were imposed by social stereotyping that could be reversed by argument. But this belief was really possible only in a society where the powers of argument had a preponderance over the powers of violence.

And since many western feminists are still convinced that the social stereotyping of the West is the product of fundamental flaws within liberal democracy itself, they have a tendency to believe that undemocratic societies are somehow valuable in the opposition they offer to the free countries which the feminists are so keen to characterise as not free enough.

I have to pick my words carefully here, because this is the touchiest theme I have ever tackled in these broadcasts, but I do think it's high time to say that if feminist ideologists find liberal democracy unfriendly, they might consider that the absence of liberal democracy is a lot less friendly still.

Helping to give me courage, here, finally, is that quite a lot of women are already saying it. But they tend not to be western pundits. They tend to be women out there, in the thick of a real battle not just an argument. Why their bravery doesn't shame more of our feminist pundits I hesitate to say. It certainly shames me.

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Last year the excellent Australian feminist journalist Pamela Bone finally died of cancer, but while she was still fighting it she published, in 2005, in response to what she regarded as the thunderous silence that had greeted the stand taken by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an article called "Where are the western feminists?" What Pamela Bone meant was, that she was amazed why so many of her colleagues couldn't see, or didn't want to see, that democracy was the best hope for women.

Are his theories about why western feminists haven't done more for others right? I suspect some of it is to do with a failure to get to grips with cultural relativism, perhaps a fear of the shadow of colonialism. But who knows?

I didn't realise comments broke when I upgraded the backend software a while ago, but hopefully I'll fix that next weekend. In the meantime, if you have comments (or a source for the original article, "Where are the western feminists?" by Pamela Bone, presumably published in The Age newspaper) I'd love to hear them on twitter - @antiminke.

Update - I found it, as 'The silence of the feminists', Pamela Bone, The Age, Feb 2005:

The great silence by left-leaning Western feminists, and other large parts of the left, to human rights abuses carried out in the name of Islam is, to see it as its kindest, caused by an overdeveloped sense of tolerance or cultural relativism. But it is also part of the new anti-Americanism. Look at American Christian fundamentalism, they say.

Dislike of George Bush's foreign policy has led to an automatic support of those perceived to be his enemies. Paradoxically, this leaves the left defending people who hold beliefs that condone what the left has long fought against: misogyny, homophobia, capital punishment, suppression of freedom of speech. The recent reaffirmation by Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie has been met by virtual silence; as has the torture and murder in Iraq of a man who would be presumed to be one of the left's own - Hadi Salih, the international officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions. The hard left these days is soft on fascism, or at least Islamofascism.

The religious right in America would, if it could, wind back access to abortion and some other women's rights. But as far as I am aware, no Christian fundamentalist in the US has suggested banning women from driving cars, or travelling without their husbands' permission, or forcing them to cover their faces. Contrary to popular opinion, one is not the same as the other.

It does not take a lot of courage for people living in Western democracies to criticise aspects of their culture that need criticising (indeed, it sometimes takes more courage to defend the culture). It takes a great deal of courage for people living in totalitarian states to speak out against the injustices done in the name of their religion or culture. The problem with politely ignoring abuses of human rights because "it's their culture" is that it lets down the brave liberals and democrats and human rights defenders who are trying to change things that so badly need to change for the welfare of women and men in their own communities and in the world.

'The UN has let down the world's women. Now let's put that right'

Stephen Lewis writes in the Independent: The UN has let down the world's women. Now let's put that right

I have had I have had the privilege of working for 25 years internationally, including being Canada's UN representative in the 1980s. The most lamentable and heart-breaking dimension of multilateralism I have seen is the absence of any serious focus on gender throughout the UN system.

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For me, the struggle for gender equality has become the most important struggle on the planet; the continuing marginalisation of 52 per cent of the world's population is simply unacceptable. So we're now engaged in an effort to create a new international agency for women, a fascinating undertaking that I hope will engage Parliamentarians in the House of Commons and House of Lords because of the UK's extraordinary influence in the multilateral system.

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Everyone knows what's happening in these areas about women's vulnerability but there is never a consistent voice to bring it to the attention of the world community, to continue to hammer it home, to demand action from government. So the emergence and creation of a women's agency I think would be a Godsend internationally and would overcome the record of the United Nations on gender.

If you're in the UK, you can write to your MP to ask them to support an to call on the UN General Assembly to 'back the reforms that will create a UN Agency for Women with the resources, authority and mandate to unlock women's potential'.

Burlesque co-opted, straightened out

The Guardian on 'Burlesque laid bare':

Contemporary burlesque has ceased to be subversive; it is now just another part of our own modern, sexed-up "culture of consolation". Tired of fighting for equal pay, reproductive freedom and the right to walk down a dark street without fear, tired of being judged for what we look like rather than what we do, today's young women can be forgiven for wanting to play with the small amount of power we have. But stripping of any kind can only offer passive, cringing empowerment at best. The sexual power-play of burlesque strikes no great blows for feminism. All it does is make us feel, for the space of a three-minute striptease, a little bit better about the hand we've been dealt.

This article has neatly nailed some of my issues with burlesque - not the empowering, home-made, subversive burlesque I first discovered, that took lived experience, inverted, challenged it and held it up for inspection, much as a really good drag king does - but the stone-cold unsexiness of the cold, dead eyes of Dita Von Teese.

Police "sabotaging" rape inquiries?

I could get incredibly angry about this, but I guess at least the fact that it's come out means it's being addressed. From the Guardian:

One of Britain's most prolific sexual predators was allowed to remain free to drug, rape and assault more than 100 women over six years after police repeatedly failed to respond to the complaints of his victims.

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Police were last night bracing themselves for more women to come forward. They have received 85 complaints so far and believe that over his 13-year career as a London taxi driver he could have drugged and attacked more than 100 female passengers.

The watershed case has exposed serious failings in the way police treat allegations of rape and sexual assault and comes despite years of high-profile policies and promises to improve rape conviction rates that stick at less than 6%.

Campaigners said the details of how police failed to apprehend Worboys for six years, despite receiving numerous complaints from women, exposed the fact that frontline officers remained sexist, dismissive of allegations of sexual assaults and ultimately guilty of "sabotaging" rape inquiries.

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Scotland Yard announced that after reviewing the case there will be a fundamental change in the way rape and serious sexual assaults are investigated. In future the investigation of all rapes will come under the control of a centralised unit and no longer be run by local borough commanders.

Improving Aphrodite - grotesque reproductions

From the interweb: Improving Aphrodite

See this? It's not just the supermodels on the cover of Cosmo, it's not just Oprah, it's not just Kira Knightly or whatever her name is, being stretched and elongated on her movie posters. Oh, no! Even Botticelli's Venus and the Thorvaldsen Aphrodite are "too fat" and not bobble-headed enough to sell in today's market. They've been Slim-fasted and Photoshopped (or had ribs removed) because in someone's opinion, even neo-classic art lovers who would be looking to decorate their homes with reproductions of their favorite pieces would not want to look at such chubby women as artists like Botticelli chose, as models.

Can you BELIEVE this? The catalog is full of these, the "Three Graces", Rodin's women, and a poor "Hebe, Cupbearer of the Gods" who looks like she's been given silicon breast implants.

This is hilarious: it's revisionist art history, as done by the Photoshop-happy editors of Vogue.

Now go read the original so you can see the pictures, they're really, really disturbing.

So glad I wasn't a 70s feminist (or lesbian)

You can go read the article for the arguments 'for' at My sexual revolution, I'm going to stick with the reasons 'against':

The feminist writer Bea Campbell was one of LYE's many detractors, arguing that it was far more important to challenge men's behaviour in heterosexual relationships than to insist that women abandon hope altogether. "The notion of political lesbianism is crazy," she says. "It erased desire. It was founded, therefore, not on love of women but fear of men." Another feminist critic was the academic Lynne Segal, who has written in celebration of heterosexuality. "For me, coming into feminism at the beginning of the 70s, 'political lesbianism' was the main position advanced by a tiny band of vanguardist women," she says. "Its stance was tragic, because no, all men were not the enemy." She adds that the media used LYE to "trash" feminism in general. "That inevitably added to the bitterness we felt, both then, and ever since."

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Opponents of political lesbianism argue that "genuine" lesbians are motivated purely by lust towards women, rather than a decision to reject men and heterosexuality.

Well, der. Why base your choices on a negative instead of a positive? What kind of feminism tells women they have no choice? If Julie Bindel sees being a lesbian as such a wonderful, positive thing, why can't she see that straight women might feel the same way about heterosexuality?

One of the comments put it well:

I think of myself as very lucky that I don't have to negotiate with and through and round gender constructs in my own personal life with my same sex partner. At the same time, I think the woman who shares a bed with a (particular, individual!) man in the evening might have something very valuable to tell us about feminism and about how men and women might live together better, at home and in society (that old private/public thing again).

The worst of it is that this is exactly the kind of view that means women are reluctant to call themselves feminists, and leads to lesbians being tarred as 'man-haters'. Pah.

Interesting opinion piece on women and lust

From the Age, in response to Fred Nile whinging about women going topless on beaches:

The naked truth about lust

The should-be-obvious truth is that straight women love men's bodies. That it sometimes seems otherwise is only because pervy men are more acceptable in our culture than pervy women.

Think of that classic teen rite of passage - getting busted with a porn mag stashed under the bed. Now imagine the pictures are of naked men and the bed belongs to a teenage girl. Guffaws and mumbles about healthy curiosity are replaced by disgust and dismay.

Girls get the message early on that it is not acceptable for them to want to boff a bloke just because he's buff. They learn that yearning for male bodies can be expressed only if those bodies belong to smart, funny boys who are kind to puppies and old people.

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Meanwhile, boys are not taught, as girls are, that their bodies could have a disruptive effect on people around them, that they should wear looser clothing so as not to distract their classmates. They're not told that how they look could incite nasty rumours or prevent them advancing at work or cause them to get raped. They aren't told that the sight of their flesh may cause grown women to turn into mindless brutes.

But the fact is male bodies can have the same effect on women as female bodies can have on men. That far fewer men than women are harassed or attacked by people claiming sexual provocation is not because women aren't visually aroused, but because women have learnt that their biological responses to beauty are not an excuse to commit acts of violence or discrimination.

Just as teenage girls learn to express their desire in culturally acceptable terms, most women learn to not impose their desire on the unwitting (or not) person who triggered it. They know, for example, that no matter how gorgeous a passing man is, it's not OK to scream out an invitation for sex from across the street (although a polite, situation-appropriate compliment is almost always appreciated).

Guerrilla blue plaques in Parliament, courtesy of Tony Benn

This is a fabulous story to start the new year:

Tony Benn is particularly proud of a certain plaque. It's in a cupboard, and he put it up himself - highly illegally - with a screwdriver. It celebrates the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who hid in the cupboard on the night of the 1911 census count so that, when she was asked where she stayed on that date, she could honestly reply: The House of Commons.

Quoted in Grandfather of the revolution; Tony Benn is leaving parliament, but.

'with girls increasingly pushed towards pink and princesses, being a tomboy these days takes pluck'

An interesting viewpoint in Hurrah for tomboys!

I don't have children of my own, but recently it struck me that all the little girls I know are, well, a bit girly. Where, I wondered, had all the tomboys gone?

For women of my generation - late thirty and early fortysomethings - it's almost a badge of honour to say that you were a tomboy when you were a child. The fashionable books of the time - The Famous Five, Little Women, To Kill a Mockingbird - all had tomboy heroines. Girls such as George, who could row a boat "like a grown man"; Jo, who'd rather be a soldier than a seamstress; and Scout who feels "the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me" every time she is made to wear a dress. For that matter, why couldn't JK Rowling have written a book called Harriet Potter? Surely it can't be the case that boys are still taken more seriously than girls ... ?

Alarmingly, when it comes to the box office, it seems that semi-sexualising girls is still the only way ahead. Take Disney's revamped Famous Five cartoon, Famous 5: On the Case. Jo, the daughter of George, seems forced to wear figure-hugging girl versions of boy clothes (no tomboy worth her salt would ever wear figure-hugging clothes). And what of poor Dora the Explorer? Nickelodeon recently redesigned the Dora doll to make her more "feminine" (read "profitable"). Instead of being equipped with tools, map and backpack, her new accessories include halter-tops, tiaras and glittery hairbrushes.

'Palin Can Launch Us Back in Time'

Former US Army Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski writes, "Palin Can Launch Us Back in Time":

The fierceness of a pit bull, which Palin is trying to use as proof of her ability to serve as the vice president, is ridiculous at best and sadly ironic. Pit bulls are senseless and out of control when angry; they are certainly far from being of good mind, rationale, organized or focused. Her personal comparisons to Hillary Clinton are insulting to Clinton. Senator Clinton did not stoop to use of her sexuality as a means of attracting votes or attention. She is articulate and stays on message, whether in the primaries or campaigning for Obama. Hillary's supporters, men and women, accepted her for her experience, her credentials and her qualifications, deservedly so, unlike Palin who is trying to steal mileage on the shirttails of Hillary. You can easily recollect memorable events of Hillary's campaign, but you will not remember her parading about or flirting with her supporters or the media. She did not behave in such a manner. Her wardrobe aside, Hillary Clinton was competing on a level playing field and behaved accordingly, like an intelligent, confident and capable candidate. This is what women hope for and seek to achieve. Sarah Palin's behavior sets our progress back by decades and encourages the fashionable use of sexuality as the tool to measure success.

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Palin, however, is a dangerous choice and her style goes against the grain of feminists and women everywhere. We spent years seeking equality, and ask only for a level playing field where we can find credit for our accomplishments and capabilities and the opportunities to compete fairly. Sarah Palin can launch us back in time and remove years of progress, albeit slow and incomplete. She encourages men and women to be drawn first to the sexuality and beauty of a woman before making a decision about her credibility, intelligence and leadership.

If reading the article makes you mad, then send it on to American friends and reward yourself with a singalong to 'Hey Sarah Palin'.

International gay rights desperately needed

Peter Tatchell writes in the Guardian on:
Sexual cleansing in Iraq

The "improved" security situation in Iraq is not benefiting all Iraqis, especially not those who are gay. Islamist death squads are engaged in a homophobic killing spree with the active encouragement of leading Muslim clerics, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, as Newsweek recently revealed.

And in Bosnia: Bosnian Mob Attacks Gay Festival

And generally: 2008 Hate Crime Survey

Hate crime continues to rise in many parts of Europe and North America according to our 2008 Hate Crime Survey, a second annual report examining bias-driven violence in 2007 and 2008.

Going the other way - abortion rights in America?

The Handmaid's Tale: Fact or Fiction?

This morning, I heard an astonishing interview on WNYC that discussed a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) draft document that was just leaked. This document proposes to redefine nearly all forms of birth control, especially birth control pills, as a form of abortion and allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception [PDF]. Considering that roughly half of all American women use birth control pills, I think this is a shocking proposal that, if enacted, will change modern American society as we know it.

Currently, the federal government accepts the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' definition of pregnancy as beginning at implantation. However, the HHS proposes to reject that definition -- provided by medical experts -- and to change the federal definition of pregancy to conform with public polling data

Hard to believe, but incredibly scary if it's true.

Victoria: new law 'to give abortion right'

From The Age:

Women in Victoria would have the legal right to choose an abortion under historic legislation expected to be introduced to State Parliament next week.

The Age believes the bill, which will prompt long and emotional debate, would decriminalise abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, providing the woman gives consent.

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The bill, which will be the subject of a conscience vote, is certain to split both major parties, but pro-choice advocates are confident it will be passed.

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It is believed the bill will ensure that a woman's consent provides lawful authority for an abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation. After that, terminations would be unlawful unless doctors deemed continuing the pregnancy would pose a risk of harm to the woman.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews, who will introduce the bill, is expected to argue that it is designed to bring the law into line with community expectations and clinical practice.

Abortion officially remains a crime in Victoria, but an estimated 20,000 pregnancies are terminated each year under the common law protection of a 1969 Supreme Court ruling by Justice Menhennitt that allowed abortions if a woman's physical or mental health would be put at risk by continuing the pregnancy.

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Pro-choice advocates, who have been lobbying for the most liberal option, will be disappointed the Government has opted for the so-called compromise mode

Celeb magazines in 'evil' shocker... also, real faces more beautiful...

The Guardian turns the tables for a CELEB MAG EDITOR SPECIAL!

Greetings, stardust consumers, and welcome to Lost in Showbiz's first ever Circle of Shame feature - wherein we highlight the bits celebrity mag editors would rather you DIDN'T see!

Every week, this collection of ringable body parts heave themselves into their offices, where they churn out unsourced stories, BMI porn, blatant untruths, and endless quotes from anonymous "close pals" of celebrities. But as media influentials, they're public figures too. How can I prove they are? Because a close pal just told me. So without further ado, let's get all the juicy goss on their work.

In other news, last week the Sunday Times put a gorgeous, apparently un-airbrushed Naomi Watts on the front cover of their Style magazine. It was surprisingly lovely and touching to see a real face - tiny wrinkles and skin with pores. And she was all the hotter for it - so thank you, Sunday Times.

Sexism is the new racism for Boris?

Boris might have solved racism in London so that we no longer need an anti-racism festival, but apparently sexism is all the rage:

The F Word: Boris purges women from City Hall?

The Evening Standard reports that five top women in City Hall have been ousted since Boris Johnson won the election, and the position of women's advisor scrapped.

The bible is no excuse for homophobia in a modern world

Apparently Sir Ian McKellen recently quoted Thomas Jefferson, regarding the issue of fundamentalists using religion to justify homophobia:

We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Why the Sunday Times is bad for you

Usually I'm just amused by the self-loathing articles and columns in the Sunday Times, but lately they've been pushing more pieces on plastic surgery (in no way a reflection of recent ad placements, I'm sure). Elective plastic surgery freaks me out - why risk death, permanent pain or disfigurement to 'fix' some imaginary flaw that doesn't even bother anyone else?

An article today, The man who wants to reshape your private parts, is a step too far:

"My customers say, 'You know what, I don't like the length of my labia minora. I don't want the small lips projecting outside the outer lips.' We can take that excess skin away. They say, 'I don't want my labia majora. They're too flat, I want them full.' We can inject fat there. Or, 'I've got too much fat in my mons pubis. It looks like I have a penis.' And we can do that. Or, 'I've had children, I'm too relaxed, I want intense sexual gratification', so we tighten the muscle. Or, simply, 'I just look too old.' Because it's all about youth, youth, youth."

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But is he really helping us out, or giving us one more area of our bodies to feel paranoid about?

"Look, demand for these treatments comes from women," he says. "I didn't create it, the market was there, and I discovered it because I listened to women. Every single one of the procedures has been developed because it has been requested. And it's going international. There is demand."

And why is an article like that giving him publicity? How many more women suddenly feel paranoid after reading this article?

The author does that lovely 'women's mag' thing of pretending to be objective while undermining any position that offers a real alternative.

In fact, there are no studies to prove that the diameter of a woman's vagina is the determining factor in her sexual pleasure.

Real-life testimonials, however, speak volumes.

Right - so scientific evidence doesn't count, but a single anecdote does? Never mind that the outcome given in the anecdote offered could have come from a number of sources - a placebo effect, the general effect of positive action on self-esteem.

The article at least offers this, from another plastic surgeon:

To tell someone otherwise is to promote body dysmorphia. What is the mentality of this person? It's not progressive, it's entrepreneurial. It's about money. And doctors should never be about the money.

And call me a hippie, but surely there's a better use of medical resources? The money could be better spent on education and preventing female genital mutilation, or trying to help the '100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM'. [WHO figures, May 2008]

Women had power in ancient Greece, but you'd never know...

A very real and interesting example of the ways in which assumptions made by archaeologists determine how they view the evidence. The implications, if anyone ever had time (and the guts) to go back and review the documentary records from previous digs, could be huge.

DNA reveals sister power in Ancient Greece

University of Manchester researchers have revealed how women, as well as men, held positions of power in ancient Greece by right of birth.

Women were thought to have had little power in ancient Greece, unless they married a powerful man and were able to influence him. But a team of researchers testing ancient DNA from a high status, male-dominated cemetery at Mycenae in Greece believe they have identified a brother and sister buried together in a richly endowed grave, suggesting that she had as much power as him.
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Professor Brown recalled: We were surprised to discover what appears to be a sister buried beside her brother in the high status, male-dominated grave circle. The implication is that she was buried in Grave Circle B not because of a marital connection but because she held a position of authority by right of birth.

DNA explodes Greek myth about women

British researchers have unearthed evidence that proves Helen was much more than a chattel

Women in Ancient Greece were major power brokers in their own right, researchers have discovered, and often played key roles in running affairs of state. Until now it was thought they were treated little better than servants.

The discovery is part of an investigation by Manchester researchers into the founders of Mycenae, Europe's first great city-state and capital of King Agamemnon's domains.

'It was thought that in those days women were rated as little more than chattels in Ancient Greece,' said Professor Terry Brown, of the faculty of life sciences at Manchester University. 'Our work now suggests that notion is wrong.'
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The critical point, he said, was that the woman was thought to have been buried in a richly endowed grave because she was the wife of a powerful man. That was in keeping with previous ideas about Ancient Greece - that women had little power and could only exert influence through their husbands.

'But this discovery shows both the man and the woman were of equal status and had equal power,' he said. 'Women in Ancient Greece held positions of power by right of birth, it now appears.

'The problem has been that up until recently our interpretation of life in Ancient Greece has been the work of a previous generations of archaeologists, then a male-oriented profession and who interpreted their findings in a male-oriented way. That is changing now and women in Ancient Greece are being seen in a new light.'

Future geek chicks?

From the BBC on Microsoft's survival strategy (innovation and research):

Boku is a video game which is basically aimed at creating the computer programmers of tomorrow.

Principal programme manager Matt MacLaurin, a father of a three and three-quarter year-old daughter, designed Boku "as a tool so that kids can make their own games and its secretly a tool to teach kids what programming is like without getting too bogged down in the detail".

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Mr MacLaurin says Boku's marriage of creativity and education is a clever way to hook children into this world.

He noted that girls took just two hours to become completely conversant with Boku while he fudged on how long the boys took.

Other interesting ideas include 'E-Science in the cloud':

In the carbon project known as Fluxdata, a group of 400 scientists from across the world are looking at how vegetation is being affected by carbon emissions.

In the past they might well have worked in isolation and only exchanged information via email assuming they would know who else was conducting complementary research.

In other news, yay Eurovision!

Random grrr at mildy sexist ad

Does Oracle think everyone they send their ads to are white, middle-aged men?

I say 'mildly sexist' because at least it's not a semi-naked chick draped over a server rack.

All women team run NASA's Mars rover (briefly)

Briefly is better than nothing...

The all-female team of scientists and engineers planned the event after noticing they were occasionally a supermajority on the rover operations team. They designed an action plan and transmitted all the computer codes for the day's activities, including using the robotic arm to take microscopic images of dust while Spirit was stationed on a slope. Though men still outnumber women in space exploration, the gender mix is changing.

More from NASA.

Grace Hopper on YouTube

I had no idea she was so funny - she's very deadpan, and it's a good overview of her achievements too.

So go watch one of my geek heroes Grace Hopper on YouTube.

Woman and men can have equal spatial abilities

Lots of possible questions about the study itself, but the introduction to the article is interesting:

Action Games Improve Women's Spatial Abilities, Says New Study

While research has consistently shown that the male brain has advantages in spatial skills like geometry, interpreting technical drawings and reading maps, a new study says that playing action-oriented video games can equalize the sexes in that regard.

"And don't worry. They'll have plenty of time to learn to hate themselves when they get older."

I really hoped this article was a joke, but it's not.

Why 10 is too young for your first Brazilian

Last year Nair, makers of hair-removal products, released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to 15-year-olds, or, as they call them, "first-time hair removers". Yes, you heard right. Ten-year-olds. Girls -- children -- in grades 5 and 6, encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent bodies. As online site Gawker put it, what's next: Baby Brazilians?

Well, it seems that someone heard that throwaway phrase and spied a business opportunity, because Australian website girl.com.au is now promoting a feature about Brazilian waxes, otherwise known as a torture device in which all the hair in a woman's nether regions is ripped off with a combination of hot wax and a high pain threshold. The website, which appears to be mostly read by girls in the nine to 14 age bracket, says of the Brazilian: "Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and it has a childlike appeal."

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But "Pretty" here is a (hairless) wolf in disguise. It might come in a range of fruity fragrances, but it's also a non-threatening induction into a society that sets ridiculous standards for female appearance (among them, the notion that being hairy is ugly). "Pretty" ignores the fact that young people are progressing into adulthood at lightning speed, making the "tween" stage a mere formality as they rush from skipping ropes and jelly sandals to midriff tops and glitter make-up.

Ranking the sexiest women?

I'm quoting lots of this response to Maxim magazines poll of the world's five "unsexiest women" because I think it's really important.

In calling this kind of vicious, sexist rubbish "news", the poll is given a smidgen of legitimacy. The media implicitly support the notion that it is OK to scrutinise and rank women on the basis of the most superficial and degrading of all criteria -- their appearance.

In the past three decades, as women have made advances in public life and steps have been made towards greater equality between the sexes, the scrutiny of women's bodies seems to have gathered pace. Take politics as an example. In Media Tarts, Julia Baird's excellent book examining the media's treatment of Australian female politicians, Baird argues that women in politics are rarely judged on their merits. Media commentators are far more interested in women's hairstyles (Bronwyn Bishop, Julia Gillard), sexual histories (Cheryl Kernot), polka-dot dresses (Joan Kirner), sexiness (Julie Bishop, Natasha Stott Despoja) or unsexiness and weight (Amanda Vanstone) than their policy stances or the contributions they might make to the fabric of our nation.

Indeed, in many respects, women are still seen as less the sum of their parts and more the sum of their "bits".

I can hear the naysayers: if you don't like lists like these, don't read them. And I agree. But even if -- like me -- you don't actively seek out polls like these, assessments of women permeate every aspect of our culture. Ask any woman and she'll tell you that such images are the reason she spends hours in front of the bathroom mirror, worrying about her every blemish or ripple of cellulite.

Media outlets need to be much more reflective about the role they play in fostering this kind of self-scrutiny among women. They must abandon the practice of uncritically promoting sexist material about women, of the kind we see in the Maxim poll. Because, as a woman, I can only do so much to avoid such harmful nonsense.

The Age, Media's ugly looks obsession

Berners-Lee attacks "stupid" male geek culture

Berners-Lee attacks "stupid" male geek culture

The scariest bit:

One academic went through a sex change, submitted the same papers under both identities, and found that papers were accepted from a man but were rejected when they came from a woman, said the web inventor. This bias is unaccountable but adds to institutional bias, he said.

The myth of Mars and Venus

There is a great deal of similarity between men and women, and the differences within each gender group are typically as great as or greater than the difference between the two. Many differences are context-dependent: patterns that are clear in one context may be muted, nonexistent or reversed in another, suggesting that they are not direct reflections of invariant sex-specific traits.

If these points were acknowledged, the science soundbites would be headed "Men and women pretty similar, research finds", and popular psychology books would bear titles like There's No Great Mystery About the Opposite Sex or We Understand Each Other Well Enough Most of the Time. Of course, these titles do not have the makings of bestsellers, whereas the "men and women are from different planets" story is a tried and tested formula. What does the myth of Mars and Venus do for us, that we return to it again and again?
...
The genius of the myth of Mars and Venus is to acknowledge the problems many people are now experiencing as a result of social change, while explaining those problems and conflicts in a way that implies they have nothing to do with social change.

Extract in The Guardian

In honour of 'talk like a pirate' day...

Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read

I was randomly sent this link about the perfect rock chick, but it's perfect because it just confirms my crush on Kim Gordon, which was renewed after seeing them on Saturday
night.

They are really aware of their sexuality, but they don't use sex to sell their music. They're more interested in expressing power and that feeling of what it's like to jump up and down to your favourite music. They don't resort to that marketing ploy of the rock chick as bad girl. We were all wild things as teenagers, but there's a big difference between wanting to be a rock star and having a burning desire to play music.

I was randomly sent this link about the perfect rock chick, but it's perfect because it just confirms my crush on Kim Gordon, which was renewed after seeing them on Saturday
night.

They are really aware of their sexuality, but they don't use sex to sell their music. They're more interested in expressing power and that feeling of what it's like to jump up and down to your favourite music. They don't resort to that marketing ploy of the rock chick as bad girl. We were all wild things as teenagers, but there's a big difference between wanting to be a rock star and having a burning desire to play music.

WTF? This is the weirdest meringue recipe ever: "Once you are satisfied that you have a feminine and glossy-looking mixture".

I suppose it is from a site called 'cook yourself thin', but still. What does a feminine mixture look like anyway?

WTF? This is the weirdest meringue recipe ever: "Once you are satisfied that you have a feminine and glossy-looking mixture".

I suppose it is from a site called 'cook yourself thin', but still. What does a feminine mixture look like anyway?