Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died last week, as most of you no doubt know. On The Thinking Housewife, Laura Wood uses the occasion as an opportunity to bash lesbians, feminism, and Ride herself. Wood begins her most unusual eulogy by quoting Gloria Steinem, who once said of Ride:
“Millions of little girls are going to sit by their television sets and see they can be astronauts, heroes, explorers and scientists.”
Wood scoffs at the very notion, suggesting that
Steinem’s real point, in keeping with her intense dislike of women, was that women should want to be astronauts and there was something wrong with them if they didn’t.
So we’re off to a great start here. Wood then offers this patronizing assessment of Ride’s life – which nonetheless turns out to be the nicest thing she says about the legendary astronaut.
Ride, who had a warm, radiant smile and is said to have served ably in her two missions in space, died Monday at the age of 61.
After this bit of faint praise, Wood moves on to her main point: Ride was lesbian, and therefore a terrible person, so she’ll quickly be forgotten.
For all the fanfare that once surrounded it, Ride’s story will likely fade into history and her life ultimately inspire very few girls. This will be so not only because women do not excel at space science or the physical demands of space travel as men do but also because, as Ride’s obituary proved, she did not lead a full life. Ride was in a lesbian relationship with a childhood friend for 27 years.
Yep, apparently lesbians don’t live “full lives,” whatever that means. Are women only living “full lives” if they are filled up on at least a semi-regular basis with their husband’s penis?
Wood continues:
To her credit, Ride did not make her lesbianism public and was private about her personal life in general. Her sister and the woman with whom she had a relationship, Tam O’Shaughnessy, have released the information to the world and now Ride has the double distinction of being both the first woman and the first lesbian in space. O’Shaughnessy was Ride’s friend since the age of 12. Ride was briefly married to another astronaut, but they were divorced. So while Ride accomplished much in her career, thanks in part to the spirit of affirmative action, she seems to have never fully emerged from childhood.
Huh? Are lesbians inherently childish, or is Ride supposed to have been a perpetual “child” because she married her childhood friend?
Then Wood says one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard:
The only good reason for a normal woman to go through the grueling rigors of becoming an astronaut is that NASA is a great place to meet men.
Sorry, but I’ve got to pull out the Don Draper gif again: What?
Wood elaborates:
Ride’s life, however, does not even offer that slim hope to little girls, that wonderful compensation for dreary days in a control cabin. Ride flew into space but never experienced other thrills that are as great or far greater. She never gave a man such necessary and life-sustaining love that he was able to do great things, such as fly into space.
So apparently the real, true purpose of becoming a female astronaut isn’t to fly into space, but to inspire the dude you’ve married to fly into space?
She never looked up at the stars with her own children and encouraged their wonder. She did not pass on her love of space to a son or daughter or grandchild.
I guess inspiring girls around the world doesn’t count? (And I can only imagine that the thought of Ride now inspiring gay children strikes Wood with dread.)
Though she performed capably in her public position as a Role Model of the Century, Sally Ride’s example will likely be the exact opposite of what NASA and Gloria Steinem predicted. She will serve as a reminder of at least some of the very good reasons why women don’t want to be astronauts.
Because becoming an astronaut might make them lesbian?
The vast majority of women would sooner love an astronaut than be one. And given that most men are destined to perform inglorious jobs for most of their lives, women will come to see that the dream of conquering space rightly belongs to men.
A lot of men do crap jobs, so therefore only men should be astronauts? I can’t even pretend to understand the logic here.
Here’s Ride’s web site, and her official obituary.
I like how NWO complains that our evidence is “pixels on a screen.” What else are we going to send him via the Internet?
(and how does he think his words are displayed to us?)
Sally Ride? I’ve got nothing against the lady or her sexual preferences. Though the bit about her being an astronaut I take issue with – and this is not her fault. The simple truth is that she would not have become an astronaut were it not for affirmative action, that state-sponsored sexism directed against men that disregards merit to promote solely on the basis of sex. Therefore references to her being an astronaut don’t count and should be whited out. And inspiring girls around the world to leach off of the freebies provided by affirmative action is all well and good, but again, this is marketing spin, and is not her fault. She’s done nothing wrong. May she rest in peace, and may God bless her soul.
And how is pixels on a screen different than ink on a page?
So, I haven’t read all the way through the comments yet, but in regards to this:
“The vast majority of women would sooner love an astronaut than be one.”
I just wanted to say that yeah, and most men would rather marry an astronaut than be one too. Coolness of space aside, the vast majority of both men and women do not pursue that particular career path.
I’m on my way to bed… I’m glad I didn’t see this post, and spent the evening with something inspiring (“Please don’t eat the pictures” and, “The Frog Prince” while I made tarragon and black pepper hot chocolate).
But … Words fail me. This is utterly fucked in the head. Hateful, and spiteful, and woman loathing and man hating and bathetic.
Unfuck her, very much. Forever. May the words of her mouth, and the meditations of her mind fade to obscurity, may she (as we all hope we shall not) get her just deserts, and be treated according to her merits, judged as she judges and treated as her charity has been extended.
Wood’s just having a jealous little hissy fit.
I really, really wanted to be an astronaut since I was about eight years old. My father was a chemist and he did a lot of the analysis on the rock and dust samples that were brought back from the moon. I cannot describe the excitement of holding a moon rock in my hand and thinking about where it came from, or tipping up that little vial of dust and watching it all cling to the top on the upturned container and knowing that it came from another planet!
Those samples delighted my dad to the extent that I wanted to grow up and be an astronaut so I could bring him back some more!
Wow, chuckee, well done on the passive aggressive smallness. And what of all the men who became astronauts when women weren’t even allowed to apply? Shall we white out their names as well?
Long time reader, first time commenter. Why? Because this passage:
“This will be so not only because women do not excel at space science or the physical demands of space travel as men do…”
literally made me seethe with anger. As a space scientist who is surrounded by incredibly intelligent and talented women, I can’t make any sense of this statement.
Query, who has wasted their life more-a cis hetero woman without kids or a queer woman with kids? After all, black lesbians couples have children more often than white hetero couples, for example. Low income lesbians and lesbians of color actually have children on a fairly regular basis, as do bi women. So, has a lesbian with kids wasted more of her life by not having a man to worship and be a servant to than a hetero woman without kids has wasted by never having babies regardless of her lack of desire to have them?
LALALA I CAN’T READ YOU YOU’RE ALL PIXELS
Bored (I’m housesitting a grandkitten) so I read the housewife’s blog. This quote I believe sums up her in a nutshell. I always mess up html so this is it.
I get from that that the thinking housewife is actually from the white supremacist ilk. I’m feeling a little sad for her children now.
I live about 6 months of the year in Nicaragua, not on the small wealthy coast but in a small city with a very close net group of ex-pats. I would never say there are not problem gringos but for the most part everyone is involved in some sort of project that works with the community. There is a huge emphasis on building schools, cooperative farms etc. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the americas, just under Haiti.
Nica’s work hard for on average under a thousand dollars a year (last figure was average 960 american). They cross the border into Costa Rica much like Mexicans do in the states to work for pennies. Tica’s (Costa Rican’s) have very much the same prejudice that Americans have for Mexicans . They blame their high crime rate on the Nica’s , though Nicaragua has the lowest crime rate in central america.
I also deal with poverty and working to help those in need in Canada. I find this much more depressing. I could go on for pages but simply the happiness rating between the two is not even comparable.
The average Nica lives in a dirt floored shack and eats rice and beans and is lucky to have gone to school to grade four. They also have the closest family ties I’ve ever witnessed and perhaps because of this they are just happy people. They are also engaging and intelligent, sorry but Nica’s are probably the wittiest people I’ve ever met when you get to know them.
I’m not sure what this is except for a big FU to a non-thinking housewife. Being white does not make you superior, in fact your sense of entitlement makes you inferior by far in my opinion. I assume you’ll be reading this.
Trade places for a month. You go live in a one room home with a dirt floor (which btw Nica’s on average sweep religiously daily, I doubt your home is as clean with the amount you post a day) with a metal roof and it’s 35 above with all your children. Do that on three dollars a day.
Come back to me in a month with a smile on your face and tell me how superior you are.
I’m an idiot…
This is what the housewife said to set me off:
Mr. Powell is missing my point, and Paul’s point too.
Mrs. Ride was teaching children about the civil rights movement in church. It had religious meaning to her. As Paul pointed out, it seems to have been the family’s motivating ideal. That was my main point. Once liberal progress takes on this religious meaning, it grabs hold of the imagination and invents new sacred objects. First it was blacks, then women, then homosexuals.
For many, the civil rights movement was about more than eradicating restrictions against blacks. It meant a wholesale revolution in the relations between the races and a complete overturning of the past. It meant the authority of white men was officially over and done with and that white men owed everyone over whom they had previously wielded authority – primarily blacks and women – reparations. The two movements are interconnected. Feminists frequently associated their cause to the civil rights movement, although this association often made no sense, and a ban on sex discrimination was included in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This amendment was not simply the work of feminists but also of those trying to defeat the bill. Nevertheless, feminism fed off the demoralization of whites and the intoxicating belief that all natural distinctions were suspect.
Is NWO arguing that women don’t tend to be shorter than men?
No, he’s saying that women being shorter than men is ANTI-MALE OPPRESSION. We refuse to grow out of spite.
I am tall, actually. But if I didn’t hate men I’d be taller. Like, seven feet tall.
I love the photo of Sally Ride here: https://www.sallyridescience.com/
@Chuckedee: It’s already been established that NASA used to not allow women into space at all. So all early male astronauts were hired because they qualified and BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER. If being hired because of your gender disqualifies you as a “real astronaut”, there are tons of male astronauts that weren’t “real” either.
@Astronomer
Yeah I was seething when I read that, too. Mostly throughout thebucket of verbal vomit spilled over the internet, but especially there. And them I laughed like majority of young, smart and ambitious women and teen girls would reading it. That lady is so out of touch with reality.
Somebody send her some scented fucking candles, perhaps lavender or chamomile would do. People say they are very relaxing. I believe that, although I’m unsure if you’re supposed to fuck the candles or if the candles fuck each other.
On the topic of marrying/being an astronaut… I’d most definitely rather be an astronaut. Not only would it be incredibly cool and interesting (shame about my line of study having real use in space not really sooner than we begin experimenting with growing foodstuffs in outer space for real), and I’ve always dreamed of the day space travel is real. *But* whilst I’m used to and capable of maintaining a long-distance relationship (5 years/1800km), that would be a bit too long distance for a bit too long periods at time. I would be very unhappy if my partner got deployed on a manned flight or even a long-term training on ground. I’d marry an astronaut only if I was one myself or if I at least worked very close to them.
Can we get over the idea that “affirmative action” means “you have to go hire a random unqualified woman”?
It means you have* to hire the most qualified woman you can possibly find. Sally Ride had a Ph.D. in physics from Standford and served as capsule communicator and helped design equipment at NASA before she got on a space mission. This was not a “quick, grab a random woman!” situation.
*Actually, in most situations affirmative action doesn’t mean that you have to hire a woman (or member of any other group) at all, only that if a woman and a man apply for the same job you give slight preference to the woman if she is just as well qualified.
I am ever more convinced that The Thinking Housewife is a poe. Despite the stupid garbled rants that come out of the other MRA websites you quote, this one drips with a condescention-served-with-honey that I can’t believe is honest
@Astronomer
As a fellow space scientist, I was also pretty pissed off about that section.
Seriously though, I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was about five, when I realized that “astronaut” was a much more attainable goal that “ballet-dancing hippo (like from Fantasia). And when NASA put out a call for astronaut candidates last year, you can bet I put in an application.
yo chuckeedee, you okay? i mean, we already know your overriding goal in life is ‘women dont count’ but youre not usually this explicit about it
Now that I’ve slept… what was she thinking?
If Sally Ride was really such a non-entity, why increase her notoriety? If Women really don’t want the things she wanted, then who cares that she was (to quote Meller), “a freak of nature,”?
But if women really aren’t deterministic beings, who truly live to be subordinate to some man, and find nothing more fulfilling than making his dreams possible (and having sex with him; on his schedule) then this is a threat, because those social constructs she is trying to see are imposed on all women are in real danger.
Because they can only work if women either are the way she says they, or have no choice.
Since the first is patently untrue, the lack of the other will destroy her image of the world.
Thank God.
Allow me to say, with no sense of irony; and a sincere sentiment, what a vile hypocrite.
She doesn’t fall into the category of people who believe women are capable of being happy human beings doing whatever they want, yet she is actively campaigning to “de-glorify of these roles.”
Which isn’t really something she can say, from the evidence provided, that Ride did. What’s her beef? That ride didn’t protest being held up as a role model for people; someone to point to and say, “If she could do it, you can do it!”.
Boo-hoo.
Wood is actively working at preventing women from thinking they can pursue their dreams.
She is gleeful that someone didn’t manage to attain a dream (the smiley face at the end of “I am sorry you were unable to realize your dream.”, is just a bit of the gratuitously nasty).
She is angry as all fuck. I can only hope it’s because her dream of women as slaves to housework and husband is dying the death it so richly deserves and the Nancy Pelosis, Michelle Bachmans’, Rally Rides, Christa MacAuliffe’s, Rusalyn Sussman Yallows, Admiral Hoppers, Elizabeth Warrens and Lieutenant Colonel Tammy Duckworths, of the world pain her every time she hears of one.
I’d just like to present for discussion a quote from a female acquaintance of mine, rendered as best I can into pixel form.
re sex in space: Newton’s laws mean it will need some sort of restraints. There is a woman trying to make a two-person body suit. She’s been renting time in the Vomit Comet, and testing prototypes (with her husband).
I’ve heard rumors that the use of long velcro straps has made it possible.
The two methods talked about were around the ankles and waist/ribs, and the use of the velcro parts of the walls, and long strips for one person to hang onto (as well as some on the lower legs) and a rigging on the other partner to make it possible to stick to the wall.
Given the level of video recording, I find the former more likely than the latter, but those are the rumors I’ve heard.
I was at work when the Challenger blew up. My family owns a bookstore; we’d had about a year, and I was sitting at the counter when the phone rang.
It was my roommate, calling to tell me about it.
I thought it was a bad joke. I was wrong. The bad joke was that we took so long to figure out what the cause was, and start launching again.
Of the rocket scientists I know, personally, two are female, one is male.
The man deals with fuels. The women with satellite, and launch vehicle design, and remote control of objects over long distances (one of them was on the design team for the Mars Rovers. She was one of the people who got to name rocks on Mars).
Of the three, his job is the one with the least stress, and the fewer original problems.
Must be the affirmative action. That, or people are different, one from the other, and are happier doing things they enjoy, and the women enjoy the higher stress jobs (one is at JPL, the other works for Hughes).