I’m kind of crushed that David Rakoff went and died. Fresh Air played a couple of interviews with him yesterday. They’re good.

On whether or not he had a happy childhood.

I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn’t like being a child. I didn’t like the rank injustice of not being listened to. I didn’t like the lack of autonomy. I didn’t like my chubby little hands that couldn’t manipulate the world of objects in the way that I wanted them to. Being a child, for me, was an exercise in impotent powerlessness.

Oh yes. That’s why youth is wasted on the young, as Shaw pointed out. (Was it Shaw? I think so.) I hated the lack of autonomy. I hated that and loved every new little increment of it that I got. I think that’s why I always missed living in the country during the five years that we lived in town (when I was between 3 and 8) – a small child can’t just wander around in town. Mind you, I overestimated how much of that I could do in the country, and wandered away at age 3 to be picked up and returned by some adult in a car. I also tried to make a break for it in town, but I got caught pretty quickly. I was a wandering child – I loved wandering more than most things.

This plays into my adult feminism: one of the oppressions of women I hate most is the array of obstacles to women wandering freely and unmolested. I don’t want to be locked up in a house or a burqa, and I don’t want people telling me what to do with my face when I’m wandering. I want my freedom.

I just wasn’t — and I was never terribly good at that kind of no-holds-barred fun. … I’ve essentially made a career on not being good at no-holds-barred fun. But, you know, I [was] just never sort of like, hey, yes, let’s go play. I was always more sort of like, does everybody know where the fire exit is? And let’s make sure there’s enough oxygen in this elevator. … As a grownup it’s much easier to work — to navigate the world with that, because then you can just go home to your own apartment.

Hahahahaha yes exactly. That was another bad thing about being a child: not having your own apartment.

And I was never like, hey, yes, let’s go play either. I had four boy cousins and I would play roughly with them but then I would be all wiped out and crabby. It didn’t suit me. My way of “playing” was to pretend to be someone else – usually someone who was wandering around the countryside, or else building versions of “my own apartment” in the barn or the bushes or under a tree.

This was supposed to be about David Rakoff and it’s turned out to be about my childhood. Ah well.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

What about this then? From “Coffee Loving Skeptic” on Facebook.

Via Alex Gabriel.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Lots of crazed reactions to Thunderf00t’s misuse of the FTB mailing list, although they’re a minority. There are frank falsehoods saying we tried to get Michael Payton fired, and there is shock-horror that we reacted to his tweets dismissing all of FTB.

That’s just nuts. To repeat – there are about 40 people blogging at FTB. Not all of them are polemicists or controversialists, not all of them are irritable, not all of them agree about everything – in fact none of them agree about everything.

It’s not fair to shit on the innocent just because one dislikes a few of the Freethought bloggers. It’s not even fair to shit on the innocent just because one hates a few of the Freethought bloggers with feverish passion and undying tenacity. It’s not some noble campaign against bullying, it’s just stupid narrow-focus spite. (I mean really. Is Freethought blogs seriously such a major source of evil that it merits hours of monitoring and tweeting and exclaiming every single day?)

It’s unfair to the innocent, it’s clumsy, it’s illiberal, it’s dirty.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

We all know that Twitter is a gift to people who enjoy saying horrible things to people they dislike or disagree with. Think Jessica Ahlquist; think #mencallmethings. Even Olympic athletes get the treatment.

A 17-year-old boy arrested as part of an investigation into Twitter messages sent to the diver Tom Daley after he and team-mate Pete Waterfield missed out on a medal on Monday has been issued with a harassment warning….

The teenager was held at a guesthouse in Weymouth, Dorset, hours after Daley retweeted messages he had been sent soon after finishing fourth in the 10m men’s synchronised platform diving event. Daley, 18, retweeted a message that said: “You let your dad down i hope you know that.” The diver added: “After giving it my all … you get idiots sending me this …”

Daley’s father, Rob, died from cancer last year…

Speaking before the Olympics, Daley told the BBC: “Winning a medal would make all the struggles that I’ve had worthwhile. It’s been my dream since a very young age to compete at an Olympics. I’m doing it for myself and my dad. It was both our dreams from a very young age. I always wanted to do it and Dad was so supportive of everything. It would make it extra special to do it for him.”

Ugly, isn’t it.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A runner broke his leg during an Olympic relay race and went on running to the end.

“As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark, I felt it break.” Manteo told the USA Track and Field website.

“I didn’t want to let the three guys or the team down, so I just ran on it.”

Mitchell still managed to finish the opening lap in 46.1 seconds as the US team, also featuring Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay and Bryshon Nellum, went on to set a qualifying time of two minutes, 58.87 seconds.

“It hurt so bad,” the 25-year-old added. “I’m pretty amazed that I still split [close to] 45 seconds on a broken leg.”

USA Track and Field chief executive Max Siegel said: “Manteo has become an inspiration and a hero for his team-mates.”

That’s horribly irresponsible.

Update: I meant that what Siegel said is irresponsible, not what the runner did. I suppose once the runner had done it, onlookers kind of had to acknowledge the heroics…but still, I think it was irresponsible. You know all those kids who go back in the game after being hit on the head? Really bad idea.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Gee, I was thinking about other things this morning – the column I have to finish for TPM, the column I have to proofread for the Freeth, stuff I have to do in the physical world, those cherries that need sorting, that book I was reading – but then I glanced at the stats and noticed an influx via Thunderfoot, so I looked at the title – and then it all came back to me. Oh right; that.

Ed explains it all. PZ does. Jason adds technical details.

The bare bones: ten minutes after he was removed from the mailing list he put himself back on it, and he passed on some of the messages he read. It’s sleazy stuff.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

John Scalzi has a good post on how not to be creepy, especially (I take it) if you’re a geek.

There are ten rules.

4. Acknowledge that other people do not exist just for your amusement/interest/desire/use. Yes, I know. You know that. But oddly enough, there’s a difference between knowing it, and actually believing it — or understanding what it means in a larger social context. People go to conventions and social gatherings to meet other people, but not necessarily (or even remotely likely) for the purpose of meeting you.

It’s funny, in a way, reading the rules, because I think I must be the inside out of the kind of person who needs to be told all those things. I always simply assume people are not wherever it is for the purpose of meeting me, and that meeting me won’t change that, so I kind of do the opposite of rules 5-10, which are about not touching and not crowding and not boxing in and not trying to be funny and not following and not staying around when people want you to leave. I avoid, and stand far away, and say nothing, and leave.

I exaggerate, but that is my instinct, and my default mode.

 

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

I’m not ignoring you. It’s just that I have two deadlines tomorrow – and they’re both in the UK so really that means they’re today. One for The Freethinker, the other for TPM.

The first is done. The second isn’t.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Are the Saudis proud of their women athletes? They are not. They consider them a dirty secret.

Across the world, word that Saudi Arabia would send women athletes to the Olympics for the first time immediately rocketed to the top of websites and broadcasts. In Saudi Arabia’s official media: Not even a hint.

They don’t want the sluts to get big ideas.

“It does not change the fact that Saudi women are not free to move and to choose,” said political analyst Mona Abass in neighboring Bahrain. “The Saudis may use it to boost their image, but it changes little.”

Even the two athletes selected to compete under the Saudi flag — 800-meter runner Sarah Attar from Pepperdine University in California and Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani in judo — live outside the kingdom and carry almost no influence as sports figures.

They sent only two women; both women live outside the country; Saudi Arabia kept the whole thing a secret.

So actually, nothing changed.

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A great new Jesus and Mo. The title article on Jesus’s magazine particularly amuses me.

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Saudi Arabia finally gave in to pressure and “allowed” Saudi women – a whole entire two of them – to compete in the Olympics, but it really really hated doing it.

The ministry of education bans physical education for girls. The rationale behind the ban ranges from claims that sport will lead to corrupt morals and lesbianism, to it being masculine and damaging for female health and psyche.

The main rationale, though, is that introducing physical education is a slippery slope that will eventually lead it to becoming common to see Saudi women practise and compete in sports publicly in front of men. In a country where all state schools mandate fully covering the face , the thought of Saudi women running in a conservative tracksuit with the face showing is simply too much for many to handle.

Saudi Arabia thinks everything is damaging for female health and psyche, apart from being fucked and bearing children. It’s as if women were both fragile as crystal and infectious as Ebola, while still being tragically necessary because fucking and reproduction.

Imagine not being allowed to do any kind of sport. Imagine not being allowed to go outside unless you’re buried in a bag and have a male relative along. Imagine not being allowed to go into banks, shops, restaurants because women are banned.

Once it was announced that two women would be joining the Saudi delegation, many  criticised the minister of sports, Prince Nawaf al-Faisal, for allowing it. However, the inclusion of women proceeded, and when those opposing the move saw that they could not get the minister to retract, they changed strategy and focused on the female athletes instead.

Photos of Sarah Attar on the running track from her university website in California emerged on Twitter and Facebook with her face, arms and legs blurred so that all a person can see is that it is a woman in shorts. These photos were captioned with statements of how this goes against the minister’s promise to ensure that Saudi women would participate in hijab.

As if the Saudi minister of sport gets to promise that a girl in California will wear what he says she’ll wear. As if it were the world’s business what she wears.

Meanwhile, judo competitor Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani‘s father received insults that included racial abuse and comments questioning his manhood, his honour and even his citizenship.

Both women were featured under an Arabic Twitter hashtag that translates as “Olympic whores“.

Aren’t people lovely.

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Michael Idov attends the closing arguments in the Pussy Riot trial.

…the hometown opinion on Pussy Riot is mixed at best. Even the liberal response has involved language like “They should let these chicks go with a slap on the ass.” Despite the rapid Westernization of the city elites, the rise of the vaunted “creative class” and the widespread distrust of the state-coddled Orthodox Church, Russians remain distinctly uncomfortable with activist women.

…

Pride parades remain banned in Moscow, while opposition leaders freely use the Russian word for “faggot” in public. The idea that liberalism is partly about upholding someone else’s liberty — including their right to do something that’s personally offensive to you — is an exotic and untested notion in Russia.

This allows Russian commentators to say or write things like “these women disgust me, they should rot in jail” without noticing the clear line between opinion and law that separates the first thought from the second.

It seems such a conspicuous line to fail to notice, doesn’t it. Is there a crime of “disgusting someone” on the books in Russia?

A case that should pivot on a specific legal question (“Does a violation of church protocol rise to the level of religious hatred?”) instead hangs entirely on emotions, including those of Patriarch Kirill I and President Vladimir V. Putin, that the judge and the prosecution appear to be trying to divine. The debate about the trial has also been full of pointless syllogisms: What if it was your daughter up there? What if they tried doing this in a mosque? What if someone came into your house and defecated on the carpet?

Snort. Pointless indeed. A public space like a church is not the same as “your house” and swearing is not the same as defecation. No carpet was damaged in the singing of Pussy Riot’s song.

Of course, if the defendants decided to convey over-the-top remorse (by falling to their knees, crying, etc.), then public opinion and even their legal fortunes would almost certainly turn. But Ms. Alyokhina, Ms. Samutsevich and Ms. Tolokonnikova remain cool, smiling and remote — a “Western” and “unfeminine” attitude. When you’re a woman in Russia, nothing but tears will do.

Policing the woman’s face again.

 

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Russian prosecutors want the three women of Pussy Riot to get three years in prison for playing a song attacking Putin in front of an altar in a cathedral.

“The actions of the accomplices clearly show religious hatred and enmity,” state prosecutor Alexei Nikiforov said in closing arguments.

“Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God.”

He said the women had “set themselves up against the Orthodox Christian world”.

Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God? And that deserves three years in prison?

People are crazy. Just bug-nuts.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

By Houzan Mahmoud

7 August 2012

An appeal to women organisations and human rights activists worldwide to condemn the Kurdistan Regional Government and seek justice for Nigar Rahim

Raped by one brother, killed by another brother to wash the shame brought upon family “honour”

 

 

Nigar Rahim was only 15 when she was killed by her brother on the 20th of July in Garmian in Kurdistan-Iraq. Nigar had been raped and impregnated by one of her brothers. She was protected along with her child by the Directorate to Investigate Violence against Women for six months after giving birth. Nigar and her brother were arrested at the beginning of this year; the brother was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment while Nigar was released on bail according to the police in Garmian where the case was dealt with. She was then under the protection of the Directorate.

After six months, another brother of Nigar entered a negotiation with the police and signed a document promising not to harm her. The police handed her over to the family on the 12th of June, but she was killed by that other brother on the 20th of July.

The rape and murder of a young girl in this manner shows a lack of responsibility on the part of state institutions who are only promoting such crimes by not providing long-term, intense protection and care in cases like Nigar’s. The situation of a 15 year old girl being raped by her own brother, traumatised, shocked, and giving birth to a child from her own brother in a highly patriarchal and socially conservative society is very complex. Victims of rape are considered guilty and therefore deserving of death to clear the shame brought upon the family’s so-called honour.

InKurdistanwhere, on a daily basis, women are killed, degraded, or forced to commit suicide through self-immolation, even young girls’ lives are not safe. For the last 20 years the Kurdistan Regional Government have turned a blind eye to the plight of women, to the point where the situation is now almost out of control. Despite the anger and protest by activists and organisations opposed to this situation, the killing and violence against women continue.

It is time for the government and its institutions to take the necessary steps to uproot these misogynist, patriarchal, and tribal practices that has turned the country into a hell and a prison for women.

We the undersigned therefore demand:

1-   The head of the Directorate and the persons who were involved in handing Nigar over to her family must be investigated.

2- Stop handing over women and girls whose lives are in risk merely through signing a document with no legal consequences, as this gives families a free hand to kill female members.

3- A clear and transparent investigation must be made into this case, with the results to be made public.

4- Declare rape to be a crime and abolish all punishment for the victim.

5- Provide protection, medical care, and social help to victims of rape so that they will be able to rebuild their lives.

 

The undersigned of this appeal are:

Houzan Mahmoud: Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq-UK

Ophelia Benson, blogger and columnist.

Najiba Mahmud: Women’s rights activist-Sweden

Edith Rubinstein: retired, Woman in Black.

Jim Catterson: Regional Contact person MENA Region Industrial Global Union

Choman Hardi: Writer and academic researcher

Mariwan Kanie: Assistant professor of Arab and Middle Eastern studies at theUniversityofAmsterdam-Netherlands

Bahar Monzir: Women’s rights activist-Kurdistan

LondonFeministNetwork-UK

MADRE: International women’s human rights organization-U.S.A

Thomas Schmidinger: PoliticalScientist-Austria.

Fuad Qaradaghy: Writer-Kurdistan

Mary Kreutzer: (Leeza, Association for Emancipatory Development Cooperation; and University of Applied Sciences Dornbirn)-Austria

Nicola Stott: Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York-UK

Lesley Abdela: Shevolution-UK

Bill Weinberg, author and independent journalist,New   York

Chilura Hardi: Women’s rights activist-Kurdistan

Deanne Rauscher: Journalist researcher (member of The Swedish Journalist Association)-Sweden

Valeria Dessì: Research Student, SOAS-University of London-UK

Göran Gustavsson: Member of the representative assembly Municipal Workers Union Stockholm- Sweden.

Noori Bashir: Writer-UK

Avin Fatah: Social researcher and women’s rights activist in Hawler-Kurdistan

Maryam Namazie: Spokesperson, Equal Rights Now – Organisation against Women’s Discrimination inIranand One Law for All,UK

Maria Fantappie: Researcher and Writer-Italy

Lisa-Marie Taylor: Feminism in London 2013 Project Manager-UK

Gjuner Nebiu: Women’s Civic Initiatives Antico,RepublicofMacedonia

Sawsan Zakzak:Researcher-Syria

Lilian Halls-French:  European Feminist Initiative IFE-EFI-France

Muslih Irwani: Lecturer and Researcher-UK

Diana Ferrus: Writer, and Poet from the University of theWestern   Cape,Cape   Town-South Africa

Lawzha Jawad: Women’s rights activist-Denmark

Stara Arif: Journalist, and civil society activist-Kurdistan

Parwa Ali: Journalist-Kurdistan

Shwan Mohammed: Journalist-Kurdistan

Arian Omed Arif: Red Honour group-Norway

Christian Ronse, University Professor of Computer Science (France)

Nask Hussein: Poet-Canada

Aso Jabar: Writer-USA

Tara Twana: Member of Social Democratic Party & Stockholm municipality-Sweden

Halala Rafie: Nina Centre-Sweden

Sarkaw Hadi: Theatrical actor and writer

Nahid Mokri: Women’s rights activist and writer-Sweden

Glyn Harries: Hackney TradesUnionCouncil-UK

Gona Saed: Women’s rights activist-UK

Nyaz Abdullah: journalist and women’s rights activist-Kurdistan

Saira Zuberi: Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

Sophie Boiszeau: Initiative-Communiste-Ouvrière-France

Stéphane Julien: Teacher, Solidarité Irak-France

Liam McNulty:Alliancefor Workers’ Liberty-UK

Jani Diylan: Journalist-USA

Rebecca Hybbinette: PHD in political philosophy -Sweden

Shahla Nouri: Director of Women’s Liberation-Sweden

Joana Vicente Baginha: Member of Portuguese feminist organisation UMAR-UK

Floyd Codlin: PCS Trade Union Chair at the British Library-UK

Esther Townsend: Workers’Liberty, Women’s Fightback & NCAFC Women’s Committee (PC)-UK

Twana Taha: Journalist-Soran-Kurdistan

Kawan Kadir: Artist-Canada

San Saravan: Documentary film maker-Kurdistan

Hawzhin Gharib: Journalist-Kurdistan

Halwest Abdulah Karim: Civil society activist-Kurdistan

Salah Raouf: Musician-Germany

Sara Omar: Writer, and lawyer (Denmark-Germany)

Muhsin Adib: Writer and researcher in law theory

Sara Qadir: Journalist, and lecturer at Sulaymaniah University-Kurdistan

Naliya Ibrahim- Women’s rights activist-Sweden

Chairwoman for Never forget Pela and Fadime Organisation inSweden

Arland Mehmetaj: activist with Initiative communiste-ouvrière-France

Nwenar Ahmad: Artist, Musician, director of Bara house of Art

Samal Ali: Philosophy lecturer at university of Raparin-Kurdistan

Zilan Ali: Journalist at Warvin Foundation for Women’s Rights-Kurdistan

Nergiz Qadir: Journalist at Warvin Foundation for Women’s Rights-Kurdistan

Arsalan Rahman: Journalist at Warvin Foundation for Women’s Rights-Kurdistan

Sakar Rostam: Journalist and programme manager at Warvin foundation-Kurdistan

Kaywan Hawrami: Journalist-Kurdistan

Faraidon Arif: Writer and journalist-India &Kurdistan

Yadgar Fayaq: TV presenter and journalist-Kurdistan

AramJalal: Member of Network in defence of rights and freedoms of people in Kurdistan & Religious critic based inFinland

YaseenHamaAli: Designer at Hawlati Newspaper-Sulaymania

Akram Nadir: international Representative of FWCUI-Canada

Khulia Hussein / Poet and women’s Right’s advocate

Pola Qasim Nori: Student at Fine Arts Institute-Kurdistan

Kazhal Nuri: Writer, and civil society activist-Netherlands

Dr. Yousuf Zangana: Academic, London-UK

Dr.Rebwar Karim Mahmoud: political science Lecturer -UniversityofSulaymania-Kurdistan

Kaziwa Salih: Writer and journalist-Canada

Chiman Salih: Editor in chief of KurdistanOnline

Awezan Noori: Writer and human rights activist-Kerku

Dr.Salar Basira: University of Sulaymaniah-Kurdistan

Aziz Raouf: Writer-Kurdistan

Sarbast K. Arif: Painter, writer-Norway

Fariba Mohamadi: Writer-Kurdistan

Mahin Shokrolahpoor: Women’s rights activist-France

Chia Yasin: Journalist and women’s rights activist

Ibrahim Abbas: Journalist-Kurdistan

Azad Hama Rasoul: Artist-Norway

Halgurd Samad, Journalist/ France

Shwan Raouf: Civil society activist-Kurdistan

Tara Hawrami: Women’s rights activist-Sweden

Adiba Ahmad: Journalist- Kurdistan

Shwan Sdiq: Journalist- Kurdistan

Shankar Abdula: Journalist-Kurdistan

Kamil Ahmed: Artist-Germany

Jasim Gafour: Artist-UK

Twana Ali: Journalist-Kurdistan

Kit Larsen Hughes: Teacher-Sweden

Avin Mirawdeli: PHD Student-UK

Mihraban Ali: Women’s rights activist-Finland

Serwa Ali: Women’s rights activist-Canada

Hana Ali: Women’s rights activist-Canada

Samira Hamasalih Fathulla: Nurse –Finland

Laura Guidetti:  Italian feminist journalMarea,Italy

Jaza Hamasalih Wali: Social researcher-Kurdistan

Salah Fathollah: Artist-Finland

Sarkawt Ahmad:UK

Salah Kermashani: Finalnd

AramHawrami: Gothenburg-Sweden

Nigar Ibrahim: Step by Step in Gothenburg-U.S.A

Blend Said:Kurdistan

Hazha Najat:Kurdistan

Rebwar Raza Chuchani: Journalist-Kurdistan

Nicolas Dessaux, on behalf of SolidaritéIrak-France

Shahen Husain:Kurdistan

Goran Jaf:Switzerland

Hawrey Nishtman:Kurdistan

Rubar Gule:Kurdistan

Dana Sherzan Osman:Kurdistan

Goran Osman: Worker-Switzerland

Soran Palani: Lawyer and journalist

Kalè Karim: Wome’s rights activist-Switzerland

Choman Osman: Journalist-Kurdistan

Goran Ali: Writer-Sweden

PekinHussein:Kurdistan

Muhammed Rash:Kurdistan

Dillan zandy:Kurdistan

Farman Sadiq: Journalist-Kurdistan

AramSalim:Kurdistan

Mohammed Ahmad Hassan:Kurdistan

Chra Ali:Kurdistan

Sangar Salem:Kurdistan

Lanja Abdullah: Director of Warvin for Women’s Rights in Kurdistan

Warvin Foundation for Women’s Rights- Kurdistan

Roj Aziz: Political activist

Hersh Yasin: Kurdistan

Shahla Dabaghi: Women’s rights activist-Sweden

Katha Pollitt, The Nation

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Here we go again.

This time it’s not evil bloggers-while-female, it’s evil gymnast-while-female.

McKayla Maroney is not going to win any medals for congeniality. As a member of the U.S. gymnastics team’s “Fab Five,” she’s the one Least Likely to Crack a Smile. But if you think that automatically makes her a sore loser, or worse, that it justifies calling a 16-year-old girl a brat or a bitch, please report to the nearest rock and crawl under it.

Oh don’t be silly, any fule kno it’s every woman’s job – yes even if she’s a girl of 16! – to look Nice and approachable and cuddly and non-threatening. If she fails in that duty it’s perfectly fine to shout at her and call her a bitch and a cunt.

At the opposite end of the age range, the queen got the same kind of crap for failing to grin for five hours straight.

Police those women and their scary faces, or else.

That face, that tough, steely look, has been a wide-open opportunity for would-be comics to poke fun at Maroney’s “Oh, hell no” countenance, and to riff on her “mean girl”  persona. She’s had entire galleries devoted to her “bitch face,”  which also serves as her unofficial nickname. She’s been a “fool” and a “brat” and a “baby,” a “snobby,” “pissy” “diva.” Well, what do you expect from the same civilization that also brought you the endless ragging on Gabby Douglas’ hair?

Nothing. I expect fucking nothing from that civilization.

Maroney isn’t the naturally smiling, ebullient Olympian. She doesn’t exude the warmth of Sanya Richards-Ross or outdoorsy ease of Kerri Walsh. Nothing about her serious, controlled persona says, “Hey, world, love me!” That’s a difficult thing for a lot of people in the world to accept in a female.

And that’s where they get us, right there. Intensity and focus are not allowed if they interfere with the cuddly – and you don’t want cuddly people who can’t focus in serious subjects like physics and engineering and computer science and math and philosophy, so better nudge the women out by making fun of them and policing their faces and tits and clothes all the time.

Bitch face indeed.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

An excellent post on wrong ways to think about “honor” killing and other crimes of patriarchy, in particular on the murder in a courtroom of a woman by her brother, a lawyer. His reason? She married a man that her family hadn’t chosen for her, and without their permission.

Clearly, mere academic education is no proof against familial brutality, particularly when patriarchy, and the consequent misogyny, leave their indelible and putrid stench upon the family unit, the educational system, the political state, the emotive components of social and cultural institutions, such as religion, music and arts, language and literature (including folklore), as well as media associated with such cultures.

Education is surprisingly worthless as a preventive against misogyny. Why surprisingly? Because it seems so stupid and unthinking to foster inter-sexual hatred on one side and fear on the other. What’s the use of that? How does that make the world a better place to live in? It doesn’t – yet people can be supereducated and still not grasp that.

 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Phil Plait has a fantastic observation on all this, prompted by the amazing photo from the Mars orbiter of the Rover on its way down – this one -

The simple and sheer amazingness of this picture cannot be overstated. Here we have a picture taken by a camera on board a space probe that’s been orbiting Mars for six years, reset and re-aimed by programmers hundreds of millions of kilometers away using math and science pioneered centuries ago, so that it could catch the fleeting view of another machine we humans flung across space, traveling hundreds of million of kilometers to another world at mind-bending speeds, only to gently – and perfectly – touch down on the surface mere minutes later.

I know. I was tripping on it yesterday, and I still am. Wham bam 8 months at high speed then wham decelerate then whisper touch down gently on the ground. It makes my eyes prickle every time I think about it. And not only that but the orbiter snaps a photo of it from above. It’s just too amazing.

The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. But while these feelings are a part of us, and always will be, they neither dominate nor define us. Not if we don’t let them. When we reach, when we explore, when we’re curious – that’s when we’re at our best. We can learn about the world around us, the Universe around us. It doesn’t divide us, or separate us, or create artificial and wholly made-up barriers between us. As we saw on Twitter, at New York Times Square where hundreds of people watched the landing live, and all over the world: science and exploration bind us together. Science makes the world a better place, and it makes us better people.

It’s what we can do, and what we must do.

Ya. One of the guys at the late press conference last night said he really believes curiosity is the central human quality. It was thrilling, especially because that’s what I think too.

Thank you JPL. Thank you engineers.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)