Pledge Drive: Fluffy Cat Rolling In Money Edition!

@cloudiah That sucks. My mom died on Jan 3rd. It still hasn’t really settled in. What is up with this January and manboobzer’s mothers? //hugs//

Considering that women’s relative lack of size and strength is shared with all three of our most closely related species (bonobos and chimps sharing #1, gorillas at a distant #3), its existence is not proof that it is adaptive in humans–it could have been adapted in a distant ancestor, and just never lost. (I’m not saying that this is true, but I am saying that “a trait exists exists” != “the trait is adaptive”, and sharing it with common ancestors is not strong evidence for recent adaptation.)

In fact, considering that our two closest living relatives include one two that live in promiscuous groups with multiple members of both sexes, one of which is female-dominated and the other male-dominated, and both have similar sex-based size differences to us… I’m going to say that size is not an accurate indicator of social organization.

(I actually suspect that one reason female mammals are often smaller than male mammals involves trade-offs between growth and pregnancy that males don’t really face. In birds and reptiles it is often the other way around.)

cloudiah I’m sorry that happen.
Sounds like its been a rough year for you

Regarding GenderTraitor

Do women wank? I don’t mean masturbate, I mean the verb. Does it work with women?

He has at least sparked an interesting linguistic debate.

Sadly, in order to humor the troll I checked out the link, “Report Reveals Massive Gendercide Against Men – News Media Barely Notice (NoH)”

The article quotes Dr. Adam Jones’ paper “Effacing the Male”.

Here, the male is defined by some trait or label other than gender — even when gender obviously, or apparently, is decisive in shaping the experience or predicament being described. During the Kosovo war, typical displacement terminology included designations such as “Kosovars,” “ethnic Albanians,” “bodies,” “victims,” and “people.”

This ignores how men are generally the default setting and, unlike women, are individuals rarely categorized solely by their gender. Jones offers an example where men are referred to as “ethnic Albanians,” “bodies,” “victims,” and “people.”. Calling men “people” reinforces, rather than diminishes, male victims’ core humanity.

The report being discussed is about photos of thousands of executed Syrian rebel prisoners, which only included one body identified as female.

Let us imagine the response had the report documented the torture and murder of tens of thousands of women, with not one in a thousand men among them. We can be reasonable certain that every newspaper would have lead the story and that every single headline would have emphasized the fact that the victims were women.

It would make the news if they were all women, because people would be quite shocked to learn about an all-female Islamist rebel force being held in a military prison.

It’s true that civilian victims may get more sympathetic coverage and women and children signify “civilian”, but don’t overestimate how much the west cares about dead Syrians, civilians or not. Western governments don’t base foreign policy doesn’t value women’s live over men’s.

Here’s an article showing how Syria isn’t a great example to refute feminism.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/13/syria-extremists-restricting-women-s-rights

The refugees interviewed said that the extremist armed groups Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) have enforced their interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, by requiring women and girls to wear headscarves (hijabs) and full-length robes (abayas), and threatening to punish those who do not comply. In some areas, the groups are imposing discriminatory measures prohibiting women and girls, particularly those who do not abide by the dress code, from moving freely in public, working, and attending school.
…
The regulations imposed on women by Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS have a far-reaching impact on women’s and girls’ daily lives, affecting their ability to obtain education, provide for their families and even procure basic necessities crucial to survival. Some refugees reported abductions of women by these groups, and one refugee said that a widowed neighbor and her three young children died during fighting because a prohibition on leaving her home without a male guardian left her afraid to flee the area.

Feminist Critics is a terrible blog. Aside from its mediocre, pretentious articles, it’s full of regular commentators like Tamen and Toy Soldier. Nopety nope.

Someone thinking it’s male oppression that “male” is considered the default person makes my brainz hurt.

For just one of a billion examples of why being considered default isn’t oppression… crash test dummies being patterned after the average male body means cars are designed for male safety and women face higher danger in crashes.

I just want to call bullshit on the whole idea that there is such pronounced sexual dimorphism in humans. It’s not even close to comparison-wise that of apes. This is especially obvious if you look at historical photographs of men and women. In many cases the women are even larger than the men, but most of the time their size is about the same. Men have more capabilities for muscle because of more testosterone, and women have higher body fat because of the evolutionary advantages it lends to child bearing. Furthermore, in hunter gatherer societies both sexes would need to be equally strong because they carried all of their possessions. Women would have made up for their lack of muscle building testosterone by not only having to carry provisions but their children as well. Just look at some photos of current hunter gatherer societies to get an idea of what they may have looked like. Sexual dimorphism is almost entirely a contrived part of modern and comfortable living, not evolution.

Cloudiah: I’m so sorry. You have my email, if you need anything let me know. Hugs.

My condolences to Cloudiah and MEZ! And web hugs as well.

Thank you for the discussion and insights, Ally, cupisnique and everybody else. It is very interesting and made me think about various things I hadn’t really thought about before.

I am a little lost as, once again, I am late and missed the introduction of this new troll. I should get updated.

As soon as I can finally find a steady job, one of the first things I want to do is donate to this site which does not only entertains me but also brings on various interesting discussion points.

@auggziliary: who doesn’t need them? *___*

Sorry to have been away. I was running an area at Arisia (i.e. I was supplying a 3,600 person convention with food for four+ days, it ate a week, straight up) there has also been some drama about one of the people who was at the con.

Were you in the staff den? If so, thank you for the awesome food.

And that guy…yeah. I’d been made uncomfortable by him in previous years, but nothing I could have gone to the con about. Assuming we’re talking about the same guy (I was in security, I heard a lot, but he was the most dramatic of the dramas).