We’ve already heard from the so-called Thinking Housewife on the subject of Sally Ride. Meanwhile, over on The Spearhead, the regulars also have opinions about Ride. Regular commenter Keyster has this to say about Ride’s work in promoting science and technology education for girls:
She was supposed to have inspired a generation of girls to take science and math. While she may have inspired the “Grrl Esteem” movement, very few girls went on to get degrees in math and science as a result of Sally Ride … .
She was frustrated by the fact young girls were very interested in math and science initially, “…but for some reason we lose them around the age of 13.” MMmmm…I wonder why that would be. Because they discovered an interest in boys? Not surprisingly, Sally was able to keep her interest.
That’s right: girls are incapable of thinking about both math and boys. Lesbians are the only women who can sustain an interest in math, because their brains aren’t cluttered with thoughts of Justin Bieber. (Ok, bad example.)
In another comment, Keyster expresses his annoyance at the fact that Ride turned out to be capable of astronautery despite being a woman.
Sally Ride proved that a woman can have “the right stuff”, like Amelia Earheart proved a woman can fly long distances.
OK so now that we know she won’t become hysterical during her period while in outerspace and allow her used tampons to clog the toilet, what do we do with this information? Just because a woman accomplishes something normally associated with men, is this inspiring young girls to spontaneously excel en masse and compete against men in male dominated arenas? Or are women like Sally Ride the exceptions that prove the rule?
You know, “exceptions that prove the rule” aren’t actually a thing. The fact that Ride was a capable astronaut doesn’t actually “prove the rule” that women aren’t capable as astronauts, but instead suggests that this particular rule is not a real rule. You would think that Keyster, as a logical male, would understand this.
What about my female neuroatypical friends? Do we not exist?
So you saw an instance of misandry, right in front of you, and you did nothing about it?
Disgusting.
Oh wow, wow, wow, I never considered people discriminating against me for my aspergers to be misandry, It’s ableism you priviledged little shit. Fuck you Steele, stop using my disorder as a stick to beat feminists with.
“Charmeleon! WARTORTLE! Mewtwo tentacruel aerodactyl! Omanyte, slooooooowbrooooooo, pegeot, arbok, that’s all folks!”
How’d you forget psyduck when that’s wtf Steele causes? (Well, assuming psyduck = head desk)
Because if you piss off psyduck, it doesn’t devolve into calling you a vile, evil, disgusting, vile misandrist feminist.
Also: *pigeot
*goes to find gameboy*
I’m a law-breaking nerd who uses an emulator to play pokemon, someone punish me.
Hm, was Psyduck in that part of the Pokemon Rap? It really has been a while.
whataboutthemoonz — fair enough, I was more thinking the “gives you a headache” part. (And I just enjoy saying psyduck)
@aworldanonymous
Vulpix used tail whip!
Rutee — oh, there’s a rap being quoted there? *feels silly now*
I’d never be an astronaut, but not because I’m a woman or anything- there are just a lot of things about being an astronaut that really suck- like having to poop in giant diapers and the residual loss of bone density and other nasty things you get from living in space.
Sure, a lot of people might find those risks acceptable, but let’s face it- MOST people don’t want to become astronauts, and those who do are a very specific type of person, a type that has nothing to do with their gender and everything to do with their personality and drive.
And the problem with math, at least what we tend to traditionally teach as math, is that it’s highly theoretical. A lot of people are practical. Physics can be fun, but the way it’s taught right now is really dry and often overly complex. People want to know how to apply what they know to the world around them, and that’s hard when you have to delve into theoretical or memorize a bunch of shit (my least favorite part about math in general) even though in the real world you’re not going to have to memorize any of that stuff- you can look it up whenever you want- the importnat thing is knowing how to apply it and how it is supposed to be used. So a huge chunk of why a lot of people drop off interest in science and math (not just women, mind you, but many many guys as well, beyond the ones who have such a fixation on it that they beg their parents to let them go to science/math/tech camp- generally all-boys camps as well), is because of how it is taught in public school and how there is very little structural or societal support for people with genuine interest to learn outside of the structured public school class/test method.
And I know a good number of guys who majored in math and have even gone to the point of getting a PHd in it, and they’re no closer to getting a high-paid job from the degree than when they started. So higher math isn’t a money thing, and most science is not either. It’s hard, rigorous study and often incredibly thankless work.
I don’t understand how most of these MRAs, who probably work in middle management or IT at the very best, can be so disparaging about this fact- our society is just not set up like Star Trek, where people can truly choose what they want to do and what interests them, and make a career out of that, and always live comfortably despite that.
And there are many factors that come into play as well- why can’t people respect that others have different priorities in life?
@Cliff Pervocracy “You can be afraid of people for good or bad reasons, but that doesn’t mean that ever voicing fear of a person is a terrible slur. Sometimes people are dangerous and you can sense that.”
Womens intuition! Women intuit they have intuition. It is now, fact.
“I’m a law-breaking nerd who uses an emulator to play pokemon, someone punish me.”
If that’s kinky I am *SO* in.
Also: lactational amenorrhea! Breastfeeding greatly reduces your fertility, and in societies where kids are nursed for several years, that helps a lot in spacing births.
What hunter-gatherer society can afford to have women as full-time baby machines? Seriously, most industrialized societies can’t even afford that. When your survival depends on how much food you can gather from your surrounding environment, you need everyone out there gathering that possibly can.
Excuse me? No. I would have thought Boobzland could read between the lines a bit more effectively. Apparently not.
I actually don’t know if the individual in question is autistic; I’ve merely made an educated hypothesis. The point is that “creepy” is a gendered slur that is often used to shame men for attributes they cannot control. I’ve seen similar put-downs directed at men who are unattractive, garden-variety awkward, or just unlucky in some way- spilling water on a woman, for example.
I still want to download my consciousness onto a computer, does this make me a bad person because transhumanism?
Are we sure Mikey isn’t He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Measured? IIRC, that was the only dude who had the chutzpah to whip out cr**py, and it was as gut-wrenchingly hilarious then as it is now!!
It’s off the original series.
At the moment, we’re using it to describe someone who is a self-admittd misogynist who wants to destroy the human race. Are you arguing that that’s something he can’t control?
Totally how these things usually go down!!
I’m quite sure Mikey is not Him.
Steele, you privilege blind little shit, did you see what I said about autism before, you do not speak for autistic people. You are neurotypical, and therefore are not qualified to talk about that shit. Creepy is about as fucking far from gendered as you can get, I’ve seen plenty of girls and women called creepy in my lifetime. And guess what, not even all of them are autistic, not even all of them were all that weird even, creepy gets thrown around all the fucking time like it’s nobody’s business. Now would you kindly go fuck yourself, and in the process remove your head from it’s comfy position in your rectum.
Oh, so you were a total asshole and made an internet diagnosis about someone you’ve spoken with face to face. That’s just peachy and not at all further undermining your point.
Because you live in a fantasy world where you can diagnose people? Here on earth…
Excuse me? Vile dude, Ruby gets called creepy in here all the time.