#misogyny in science

[hadesoftheladies]

can science blogs fucking STOP talking about the menstrual cycle like it’s an abusive husband? “in ovulation, your uterus wants a baby and when she doesn’t get pregnant she gets angy and hits back at you”

actually my uterus doesn’t WANT anything. it’s just shedding it’s lining, you freaks. additionally, most suffering during the cycle (such as period pain, intense fatigue, etc) is coming from hormonal imbalance which diet, de-stressing and a healthy lifestyle usually fix. it isn’t healthy or normal to view your body as an enemy. your uterus is not trying to hurt you. it is just that this society and how it works doesn’t give a flying fuck about women’s health unless we’re pumping out more workers for the state.

imagine being a girl who started her period at eight and having to read this shit. what business do these nutcases have telling minors that their bodies are punishing them for not being pregnant?! she couldn’t even handle a pregnancy if it happened!

it’s state/patriarchal grooming all the way down.

[gillianthecat]

But why does my physio textbook have testes & sperm production as the default version of gonad development and gametogenesis and ovaries & egg production framed in comparison to that?

I mean I know why and the answer is, as always: the misogyny baked into the history of science and medicine.

I do recognize, with the linear nature of time and textbooks, they have to choose one to explain first. But if anything, ovaries first would make more sense because that's what develops by default, in the absence of testosterone. (Explaining sperm gametogenesis first I'll give them, because it is less complex than egg production and the ovarian (menstrual) cycle.)

[hussyknee]

The Career-driven Emancipated Woman Can Barely Boil Water trope is extremely sexist and white feminist. I've been waiting thirty years for feminism to move past this classist girlboss bullshit and I'm clean out of patience. Even aside from the gross devaluing of traditional female labour, grown-ass adults should be able to feed themselves and their families regardless of gender. If you're abled and have had the resources to learn basic life skills but you've elected not to because you think you can always pay people to take care of your ass, you're a privileged nitwit who's trying to weaponize incompetence.

[mindblowingscience]

Maternity health care in the United States is in a dire place, as outlined by a string of recent studies and reports.

An analysis published this month found one-third of the nation's counties do not have access to a hospital or birth center that offers obstetric care – essentially making these regions maternity care 'deserts'.

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report more than 4 out of 5 women who died during pregnancy, or shortly thereafter, could have been saved with proper health care, according to data collected between 2017 and 2019.

Earlier this year, the CDC also reported that Black people are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White people – with variation in the quality of healthcare they receive, structural racism, implicit bias, and underlying chronic conditions contributing to the stark disparities.

Now, two epidemiologists from Harvard University T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are highlighting an even larger cause of maternal death in the US, one that is shockingly overlooked.

In a recent editorial for the BMJ, Rebecca Lawn and Karestan Koenen point out that pregnant people and new mothers are more likely to be murdered than they are to die of pregnancy-related complications such as hypertensive disorders, hemorrhage, or sepsis – the three leading obstetric causes of maternal deaths.

Continue Reading.

[uncanny-tranny]

You know, I don't think cis people are uniquely more normal about sex and gender compared to trans people when I saw a bunch of cis people legitimately angry that a man gives directions based on landmarks because "man is when gives street names (smart), woman is when gives stupid landmarks" like the call is coming from inside the house. Also unchecked misogyny is going to fucking destroy everybody's capacity to engage with other humans like they are people.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Μακαρίσαντες υμών το απειρόκακον ού ζηλούμεν το άφρον.*

Thucydides

Although we bless your ignorance of evil, we do not envy your stupidity.*

My eldest sister, a neurologist, sent me this. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

So a lesbian is defined by what she isn’t in relation to men? That’s progressive! Does it also mean that a Transwoman is really a Trans-Non-Man? And they can define a man but still not define a woman? It's pure gibberish.

Louisa May Alcott’s "Little Non-Men" doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

American gender ideology is the cultural waste land of misogyny. The lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum. This is beyond parody or embarrassing.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I saw something in your review for, I think it was book 54, where you said that you’ve previously compared Cassie to an anti-Susan Pevensie. Where was the post where you made that comparison?

Not on this blog! It was actually a conference presentation I did 10+ years ago. I can summarize what I remember from that paper.

Becoming an adult is a process that's almost uniformly positive for boys becoming men, but a lot more fraught for girls becoming women. Men often have more status than boys; women often have less status than girls. Boys are lauded for developing (hetero)sexuality; girls are both pressured to and derogated for developing any sexuality. Man-ness is a sign of strength; many signals of woman-ness are also those of weakness or immorality.

Point 1 means that a fair percent of coming-of-age stories, including SF classics, struggle with girls' coming of age. Wendy (Peter Pan) resists growing up just as much as her male costars, but ultimately acts as an adult-ifying force on the Lost Boys. Lyra (His Dark Materials) becomes an adult through becoming sexual, even as her male friend Will becomes an adult through becoming independent. Same goes for Bev (It) — her male friends become adults through facing their fears; she becomes an adult through sex.  So on.

Susan Pevensie (The Last Battle) is the example of this problem that's received far and away the most attention. Everyone from J.K. Rowling to Lev Grossman to Margaret Atwood has specifically called out the line where Susan's brother implies that her interest in "lipstick and nylons" has to do with her denial of Narnia. This criticism ignores the leadership roles Susan takes on in Narnia books 2 - 4, fighting in battles and leading diplomatic missions. But I do agree that "feminine adulthood = no more adventures" is an awful thing to convey to kids.

There are a bunch of attempted "fixes" of this moment, from the ham-fisted (Philip Pullman) to the nuanced (Tamora Pierce) to the blandly inoffensive (Neil Gaiman). [I’ll skip most of this part of the paper.]

And then there's Animorphs, and Cassie. I have no idea if K.A. Applegate or her ghosts were influenced by Narnia — I haven't found any direct commentary — but what I love about Cassie's story is that it's almost the same as Susan's, but framed in a different (feminist) way. Both are female heroes who enter an adventure story, wrap up the adventure, and take on adult identities. Both get one last call to action (Tirian using Susan's horn, Jake telling Cassie that Ax is missing) and both refuse that finalmost call, in the process refusing an early and glorious death in battle. Only the two arcs are framed completely differently.

Instead of Peter complaining that Susan has "lost Narnia," Jake tells Cassie she's "a one-woman army" who is "doing what you need to do and were born to do. Part of what we won was freedom for the Hork-Bajir... your job is to protect it" (#54). He and Cassie discuss that she now has the difficult task of living to maintain the legacy that Rachel and Jara and Arbron died for. Cassie isn't punished by not dying gloriously; she's just taking on a different heroic role that comes with no glory at all.

It's also notable that adult Cassie has become more fashion-conscious ("pestered by Patagonia" for endorsements) and more romantic with Ronnie than she was with Jake. But the fashion thing is neutral and bittersweet because Rachel's not there to tease her, while the romance is a sign she's healthy and adult now. It's the boys who run back toward adventure who are portrayed as wrong (Ax getting his crew killed, Marco's false shallowness, Jake and Tobias's implied suicidality). The girl brave and adaptive enough to become a woman is portrayed in a positive light. Similar story to Susan, but with a very different frame. And in many ways more effectively feminist than having Cassie take on the masculine "glory through death in battle" role would be.

There are a bunch of moments where Animorphs pulls similar framing tricks. "Tom joined the Sharing for a simple, silly reason: a pretty girl" (#6) would, in a majority of 20th century SF stories, have been phrased as the girl having seduced him; Applegate instead keeps the agency where it belongs through showing that it's silly to join a cult over a crush. Rachel responds to a boy in her class cat-calling her with "Of course I look good... I almost always do" (#32). When he calls her "stuck-up", she says "That's right, I am. Now you know the difference between good looks and a good personality." She's not denying her beauty or the work she puts into it; she's owning it and also not letting a boy own it.

In conclusion: Animorphs is great.

[rjalker]

"science is just objective reality, it has no agenda!"

that is literally absolutely not true at all. People bring their agendas and biases into whatever they do. Eugenics was science. Phrenology was science. So much fucked up shit has been done in the name of science and using science. Just because something is "science" does not mean it's objective and it sure as shit does not mean there's no agenda.

[alpaca-clouds]

A measured critique of Love Death + Robots

Okay, let me talk about something I kinda wanted to talk about for quite a while: The Netflix anthology series Love Death + Robots. A show with which I very much have a love-hate relationship.

Because I absolutely love the concept. The idea of turning short stories (a piece of literary media that often gets ignored) into short films (that also tend to get ignored)? Genius! It gives a chance for some authors to shine, that normally do not get that much attention. Same for smaller animation studios/teams. It really is a super cool idea.

And I gotta say, that there were some short films in there, that I really loved. My favorites are:

Three Robots (Just LOVED the humor in both stories)

Sonnie's Edge (I loved the Cyberpunk-Monster mix)

When the Yoghurt Took Over (Again, something that hit my humor nerve right)

Good Hunting (Ken Liu still is among my favorite authors)

Fish Night (Pretty)

Zima Blue (The Artstyle was just super cool)

The Tall Grass (I liked the atmosphere)

Snow in the Desert (I really liked the aesthetic in this one)

The Very Pulse of the Machine ( I mostly liked the main character)

All Through the House (Once more: My type of humor)

Mason's Rats (Because Rats)

You will notice one thing: Most of these are from season 1. Though to be fair: Season 1 had 18 episodes, while seasons 2 and 3 put together only had 17. So generally... Well, there is a few issues I had with season 1. Issues that not only I had. And seasons 2 and 3 did not improve on either.

The one critique you have probably heard quite a few times: A lot of those stories really love to objectify and/or sexualize the female characters. There is a ton of unnecessary sexualization of female characters going on. At times sexualization in a way that is not even precedented by the short stories the movies are based on.

At times this goes as far as some of those short films fetishizing violence against women. Jibaro was the worst example of this, but it is something that happens in quite a few of the short films. And that just leaves a really bitter aftertaste after watching the stories.

Again, I am not the first person to criticize this aspect.

Meanwhile the other criticism I have is one that I barely have seen anyone bring up, even though it is very much connected to that first one: Almost all of the short stories that the short films are based on have been written by men. Of the first season there are two movies based on stories written by women (Sucker of Souls and Helping Hand). Of seasons two and three, not a single short film was based on a story written by a woman. Or to put it differently: Out of the 35 episodes, 33 have been written by men. And, while we are on it, mostly white men.

And... Look, fantasy/scifi already has a big issue when it comes to major novel publishing that often female, queer and non-white authors are overlooked outside of the YA genre. Still, when it comes to the short story magazines, like @uncannymagazine female and otherwise marginalized writers get more of a voice. The same is also true for a lot of anthologies, that are not dependent on "oh, we just will publish a couple of short stories by already known authors". So... Why the hell does Netflix not give those writers a chance to shine in this anthology series?

Like, fuck... This annoys the living hell out of me. Just allow other people some time to shine as well.

[gacha-incels]

Not gacha but psa Black Myth Wukong is made by a bunch of incels. One of the key developers had publicly stated that he think women are dragging the game industry down and souls like games should be for men only. The company never acknowledge this behavior and uses sexual innuendos as hiring ads. Chinese incels spend a lot of time going around both weibo and twitter harassing women who express negative opinion on the game as well as threatened refund and review bomb when the studio censored one of its female character's design.

Don't give the studio ur money and if anyone you know decide they want to play even after knowing the studio doesn't see women as people be careful around them.

Here's some context for eng speaker

https://www.ign.com/articles/how-black-myth-wukong-developers-history-of-sexism-is-complicating-its-journey-to-the-west

Thank you, I would advise everyone read the article as it’s a good overview on the entire thing and gives the reader some information about feminism in China. There would be a lot for me to post everything here, I’ll post a couple screenshots and encourage everyone to give it a read. I hope everyone will not support these extremely misogynist men.

BEYOND parody. Like a lot of these kinds of guys, he sees men as fellow humans with emotions- depression, anger, pain. Manly emotions women cannot understand I guess. He sees the games that cater to these men as worthwhile. He sees women as not human- their personality is that they are girls. They will play the sellout crap you make and spend money frivolously to make their friends jealous. He thinks this is biological for some reason. I guess I should have consulted my uterus before playing “bloodbath” games like Bloodborne 😂 I swear inside of his head must be one of those toy aisles where every pink thing is on one side and blue on the other…

[beepost-generator]

Sorry scientist, your result, "can't find g spot", could not be replicated. See publication of my results:

Nature, "oh fuck yes there right there", Your Girlfriend et al, last night.

This is the short form shitpost version. See reblogs for my full rant.

[i-was-a-teenage-eldritch-horror]

No commentary, I just think you all deserve to laugh today. Enjoy!

[radykalny-feminizm]

I hate academia wtf

Please professor, tell me how the fact that I have an uterus makes me less capable of being a scientist

[roversrovers]

This article really has it all— anthropomorphising robots, a critical look at how gendering robots can reinforce stereotypes, humans pack-bonding with roombas, robot genders... I highly recommend it

[polyghostfacehours]

Imagine not knowing how the block button works lmao

[rjalker]

This is your free 2023 reminder that the Animorphs book series is filled to the fucking brim with ableism, misogyny, racism, and slavery and genocide apologism, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are straight up lying to your face. The fandom regularly just makes shit up out of nowhere and lies about every single fucking thing that happens in the series. You can literally shove pictures of the book showing the text in their faces and they will literally continue straight up lying about what it does and does not say.

If someone tells you to quit Harry Potter and read the Animorphs instead, that person is literally saying that they're fine with misogyny, racism, ableism, and slavery and genocide apologism, but draw the line at transmisia.

They are fucking telling you that if JK Rowling hadn't become an open transmisic, they'd be perfectly fine with all the other fucking bigoted shit baked into the Harry Potter universe, because the only minority they care about is white trans people.

Stop fucking telling people that The Animorphs is a bigotry-free alternative to Harry Potter just because the author doesn't hate trans people.

Stop fucking telling people to read The Animorphs without warning them about all the absurd levels of bigotry.