sexism

“What SPECIFICALLY should I be doing to help?”

Dana Hunter5 Comments

I’m slowly wading through the comments moderation queue, and this one from Jenny on the without-their-silence article stands out:

I read both articles. I then asked my husband to read both articles. He did. When he was finished, he asked, “What SPECIFICALLY should I be doing to help?” I didn’t have an answer. Neither article appeared to have an answer.

Is there an answer? If so, what is it?

An answer? No. Many answers, yes. A few from the top o’ me noggin: Continue reading ““What SPECIFICALLY should I be doing to help?”” →

“What SPECIFICALLY should I be doing to help?”
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“Without Their Silence, Their Ignorance, Their Shrugging Shoulders, This Situation Could Not Continue As It Is”

Dana Hunter5 Comments

Miri’s got something to say. If you haven’t heard it yet, go over there and listen. Then tap your friends on the shoulder, and point them toward it. Share it on social media. Email it around to your friends and family and casual acquaintances. The next time you hear a dude sniveling about how women see him as a predator and that’s just not faaiir, tell him to shut up and read. The next time someone in your circle of acquaintance, whether they be man, woman or gender fluid, sneers at women for taking precautions, sit them down and walk them through this paragraph by paragraph. Check for reading comprehension at the end.

Too busy for the whole thing? Set it aside. Come back to it within the next day or two. But take a moment, right now, to read at least this much: Continue reading ““Without Their Silence, Their Ignorance, Their Shrugging Shoulders, This Situation Could Not Continue As It Is”” →

“Without Their Silence, Their Ignorance, Their Shrugging Shoulders, This Situation Could Not Continue As It Is”

Hello, World. Still Fucked Up, I See: Elliot Rodger Edition

Dana Hunter9 Comments

Not that I expected it to improve dramatically while I was sleeping, but I have to say, a few things we’ve been pointing at and shouting “HELLLOOOO THERE’S A PROBLEM HERE” have been rather emphatically highlighted by certain recent actions. I shall be exploring them in between marathon snooze sessions. In between, we shall have nothing but lovely happy fun picture time round here, because from what I’m seeing, ya’ll could use the break.

So, misogyny. Continue reading “Hello, World. Still Fucked Up, I See: Elliot Rodger Edition” →

Hello, World. Still Fucked Up, I See: Elliot Rodger Edition

Crowdsourcing Books By and/or About Women and People of Color in the Geosciences

Dana Hunter2 Comments

You know those moments where you suddenly notice the ism in the background? Had one recently meself. I spent a few weeks going through every single geology book available for Kindle on Amazon. I downloaded a ton of samples. And then I started sifting through them.

I noticed a few disturbing trends.

First, the samples are overwhelmingly by men. Not that this surprises me, but I’d hoped for a larger ratio of women. There were practically none. Hullo, background sexism!

A white peacock's gaudy display overshadows a peahen. Image courtesy Darkros via Wikimedia Commons.
A white peacock’s gaudy display overshadows a peahen. Image courtesy Darkros via Wikimedia Commons.

Second, the samples are overwhelmingly white. Again: disappointed but not surprised. Hullo, background racism!

A black swan lost in a crowd of white swans. Image courtesy Colin Smith via Geograph. Click photo for details.
A black swan lost in a crowd of white swans. Image courtesy Colin Smith via Geograph. Click photo for details.

Third, most of the books by women are either for children, or they’re fiction. That one really got to me. And it got me to thinking of cultural assumptions. Continue reading “Crowdsourcing Books By and/or About Women and People of Color in the Geosciences” →

Crowdsourcing Books By and/or About Women and People of Color in the Geosciences

When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture

Dana Hunter9 Comments

So the thing about having your consciousness raised is that you can’t really lower it again. When your attention’s repeatedly drawn to something important, when people chip through your resistance and decades of cultural conditioning and open your eyes to things you should have seen long ago, you can’t close them again without seeing after images.

Image show a gray kitty with yellow eyes peering over a table with an expression of concern and horror. Caption says, "What has been seen cannot be unseen."
Take the fucking projector that has caused a good part of angst in my personal life just lately. Years ago, I’d not have noticed the endless parade of dude stuff. Dude stuff was just fine with me. Who wanted that icky chick stuff, anyway? Who cared if the ladiez didn’t get a look-in – they’d probably choose some awful chick flick thing. Eww.

And then I started spending my time around people who, like fish investigating the invisible medium they swam through, had discovered such things as everyday sexism and microagressions and the billion and one ways we tell women and other minorities they’re second class. Continue reading “When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture” →

When a Projector is a Projection of Our Fucked-Up Culture

Not Acceptable (Aside from the Taking Responsibility Part – That’s Good)

Dana Hunter7 Comments

By now, most of you know that Bora Zivkovic harassed several women. He engaged in the kind of everyday sexism that chips away at a woman’s psyche and drops her into a vortex of doubt, disgust, and anger. What he did isn’t as obviously terrible as groping or assault or rape, but it did its damage, and is unacceptable.

Dissapointed cat

This kind of sexism – the inappropriate remarks, the (perhaps) unconscious belittling of women, reducing them from professionals to sexual beings – has no place in this world we’re forging. It’s no more to be tolerated than other forms of degradation. Sexual harassment is unacceptable in any form, perpetrated by anyone. It doesn’t matter how much we otherwise admire them. Continue reading “Not Acceptable (Aside from the Taking Responsibility Part – That’s Good)” →

Not Acceptable (Aside from the Taking Responsibility Part – That’s Good)

New at Rosetta Stones: Wherein I’m #standingwithDNLee

Dana Hunter10 Comments

So this thing happened where the editor of a sciencey sorta website *cough Biology Online cough* decided it would be hi-larious to call a black woman an urban whore for refusing to write for his shit for free. Punchline? She’s a SciAm blogger, and SciAm won’t stand with her.

I have a thing or dozen to say about that.

I’m ashamed to be a SciAm blogger right now. But I’m proud to be #standingwithDNLee.

New at Rosetta Stones: Wherein I’m #standingwithDNLee