women’s issues

Damsel in Distress: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games

The first video from Anita Sarkeesian’s kickstarter project “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” is up and running, covering the “Damsel in Distress” trope.

You might remember that when Sarkeesian started this Kickstarter project, there was a huge surge of harassment directed at her for even starting the research, before she had even expressed her ideas on the subject [Slate article: Online Misogyny: Can’t Ignore It, Can’t Not Ignore It]

Sarkeesian’s story is a doozy, by the way. She started a Kickstarter page to raise money to make a documentary about the tropes used by video game designers to portray female characters. She hadn’t expressed an opinion about video games yet, but simply by stating that she would at some point in the future do so, she had to endure an absolute avalanche of misogynist abuse from men who hoped they could silence her before her too-scary-to-be-heard opinion could be voiced. Every access point they could exploit was used to try to get to her, especially her YouTube page. Her Wikipedia page was repeatedly vandalized with lies, links out to porn sites, and pornographic pictures.* Eventually, Wikipedia shut it down. Unfortunately for the misogynists, this sort of thing generated a lot of sympathy for Sarkeesian, and she was able to fundraise well beyond her original goals. Like, more than $90,000 beyond what she originally wanted to raise.

Continue ReadingDamsel in Distress: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Women in technology and harassment

Almost 6 years ago, in March of 2007, technologist and public speaker Kathy Sierra shuttered her online site and declined her speaking engagement at O’Reilly ETech because she had been threatened and harassed online and feared personal attacks in real life. [Geek Feminism Wiki: Kathy Sierra Incident] At the time, it generated an outpouring of discussion about the abuse that women who speak in public, especially women in the technology field, face on the basis of their sex. I had attended her keynote address at SXSW that year, and was shocked that such a competent and engaging speaker was being terrorized online, and felt she needed to step out of the limelight for her own safety.

There’s been an ongoing discussion about the lack of women speakers at Tech conferences in the intervening years, with some of the best and the brightest tech conferences making an engaged and active commitment to gender diversity.

But as designer and tech speaker Sarah Parmenter discovered after speaking publicly at several public events this past year, female tech speakers are still the targets of harassment from men in the tech field. [Speaking Up] After Sarah spoke out about her experience, others have come forward: Relly Annett-Baker [Also Speaking Up].

If your wondering why there is such a climate of hostility towards women in the tech field, Milo Yiannopoulos’s incredibly sexist post on Kernel [Put A Sock In It, You Dickless Wonders] will go a long way towards shining a light on it:

For this is the technology industry: there are more men in it because the male mind is, in general, better primed with the sorts of skills the industry values; men are simply better suited to most technology jobs.

Women therefore tend to work in roles that require finesse and communicative skills, where they pop up in this world at all. What is hard to understand about this, or offensive about pointing it out? The sexes are wired differently, and that’s perfectly fine.

There will be exceptions. Women who succeed should be celebrated – though on their merits, not because they have a vagina (hello, Evening Standard). But there will always be more men. It’s a biological inevitability.

It’s certainly nothing to feel crippling guilt about.

Obviously a load of pure hogwash; there’s no evidence that men and women are wired differently or that such sweeping generalizations are even remotely true. [Susan Fisk, Is the female brain innately inferior? subject: Josef Parvizi, Clayman Institute fellow and assistant professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University]

But that this attitude is published on a tech blog is very telling about what men in the tech industry think as they listen to women speak. It’s not surprising that women would be reluctant to step up to a podium, given this sort of a climate. The experiences that Kathy Sierra, Sarah Parmenter, Relly Annett-Baker faced were not meant merely to silence them, but also to silence women in general in the tech industry.

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
It goes beyond just women speaking in tech to working every day in tech fields. There are times I’ve felt at my own tech job that I was in a climate I felt wasn’t welcoming or respectful towards female employees. If this kind of harassment is aimed at women who step up and speak out, what can those of us working every day in the industry expect to do about it? It’s disheartening to say the least.

Fortunately, there are some organizations like the The Ada Initiative working actively to change things for women in technology, by providing guidelines for tech conferences on how to handle harassment of women speakers and attendees, conducting research and surveys about women in the industry, holding their own conferences and a half dozen other great programs design to make things better. Support them if you can, and promote their work.

Continue ReadingWomen in technology and harassment

You Belong With Me, deconstructed

Or, why Taylor Swift is a Nice Guy(tm). Courtesy of NinjaCate on Jezebel, this analysis of Taylor Swift’s song as a demo for why she’s problematic when it comes to women’s issues.

You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset
She’s going off about something that you said
‘Cause she doesn’t get your humor like I do

Or perhaps his girlfriend has a legitimate concern that she is trying to have addressed. You have no idea. You are not actually privy to the discussion.

I’m in the room, it’s a typical Tuesday night
I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like
And she’ll never know your story like I do

I’m so different from her! We’re meant to be!

But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts

Slut shaming much?

She’s Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers

I mean everyone knows cheerleaders (jocks, sexy guys anyone who is not a “Nice Guy”) are total bitches

Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time

This is literally every Nice Guy’s argument

If you could see that I’m the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You, you belong with me, you belong with me

Again, typical Nice Guy shit. Just because you are a nice person in general, does not mean that he is obligated to reciprocate your feelings….

Walking the streets with you and your worn-out jeans
I can’t help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself
Hey, isn’t this easy?

Don’t take much issue with this other than to say, maybe tell him how you feel?

And you’ve got a smile that could light up this whole town
I haven’t seen it in a while since she brought you down
You say you’re fine, I know you better than that
Hey, what ya doing with a girl like that?

Yes, because this GF who you are clearly trying to replace is the be all and end all of his problems. And that’s not to say that a friend cannot clearly see that another friend might be in a relationship that makes them unhappy, and saying so. But that’s entirely different from having the ulterior motive of stepping into the current SO’s shoes.

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers

Again. Slut shaming

She’s Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time

If you could see that I’m the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You belong with me

Same as above

Standing by and waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know?
Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

Why are you creeping at his back door :/

Oh, I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I’m the one who makes you laugh when you know you’re ’bout to cry
And I know your favorite songs and you tell me ’bout your dreams
Think I know where you belong, think I know it’s with me

This is the entitlement that Nice Guys have. Just because YOU like HIM, doesn’t mean that he HAS to like you. For all you know, he may have very solid reasons for not pursuing a romantic relationship. Which is another reason you should TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL instead of pining like an idiot.

Can’t you see that I’m the one who understands you?
Been here all along, so why can’t you see?
You belong with me

Same as above

Standing by and waiting at your back door
All this time, how could you not know?
Baby, you belong with me, you belong with me

Same as above

You belong with me
Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me?
You belong with me

No, but clearly you have, so maybe suggest it instead of bashing his GF?

And that doesn’t even touch on the very heavy-handed Madonna-Whore shit she does in the video.

/End
*curtsies*

Continue ReadingYou Belong With Me, deconstructed

I am a feminist and I’m not afraid to say so

Everyone’s afraid of the stigma of calling themselves a feminist, but they want to say things that are empowering to women. I feel like I’m back in the 1980s, when I came out as gay, and everyone else came out as bisexual first and then came out as gay five years later. The problem is that every time you do this, you reinforce the untrue stereotypes about what a feminist is by suggesting that those bigot-created stereotypes are true. So no matter what your message of empowerment actually is, you’ve undermined that by suggesting that the anti-feminist crowd has some sort of point when they tar and feather women standing up for basic civil rights.

It sucked when gay people did this shit back in the 1980s, and it sucks when you do it today. If you truly do believe that women and men should have equality, suck it up and own the word “feminist” – it’s a badge of honor that some truly extraordinary women have claimed for themselves over the years, and it’s one that you’ll wish you wore much earlier than you did.

Roxane Gay catalogs a list of women who’ve lately claimed that they are “not a feminist, but…” : You Can Stop Saying “I’m Not a Feminist But” Now..

Former French First Lady Carla Bruni said, “There are pioneers who paved the way for us. I am not a feminist activist at all. On the contrary I am a true bourgeoise. I love family life and doing the same thing every day,” and “In my generation we don’t need to be feminist.”

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo said, “I don’t think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that I certainly believe in equal rights, I believe that women are just as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions, but I don’t, I think, have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of, the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. And I think it’s too bad, but I do think that feminism has become in many ways a more negative word. You know, there are amazing opportunities all over the world for women, and I think that there is more good that comes out of positive energy around that than negative energy.”

Lady Gaga said, “I am not a feminist. I hail men. I love men. I celebrate American male culture.”

Katy Perry said, “I am not a feminist, but I do believe in the strength of women.”

Taylor Swift is not a feminist. Instead, she thinks, “I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life.”

Artist Marina Abramovic is not a feminist nor is actress Melissa Leo.

Designer Vivienne Westwood is not a feminist but that’s just because she’s rich. She said, explaining why she’s not a feminist, “Another reason is because I live in the privileged world and I would never accept the idea that somehow I am a victim of society. Just by being born a woman.”

Madonna is not a feminist, she’s a humanist.

Demi Moore is not a feminist. She said, “I am a great supporter of women, but I have never really thought of myself as a feminist, probably more of a humanist because I feel like that’s really where we need to be.”

Dame Stephanie Shirley, a British philanthropist, said, “I am not a feminist but I have always fought for women.”

Fuck that noise.

Continue ReadingI am a feminist and I’m not afraid to say so

Evolutionary Psychology and its Top Ten Failures

This is worth reading… Via Dr. Beetle: Evolutionary Psychology and its Top Ten Failures.

The dreadful pseudo science of evolutionary psychology is founded upon concepts such as survival of the fittest, selfish genes, inherited instincts and mind modules. It has shot to prominence in science and societies’ thinking, and found many a willing ear.

Continue ReadingEvolutionary Psychology and its Top Ten Failures

‘Actor’ Geena Davis in Denver: ‘Gender inequalities are deeply entrenched’

Denver Business Journal: ‘Actor’ Geena Davis in Denver: ‘Gender inequalities are deeply entrenched’.

“We had, ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ and ‘Bewitched,’” she said, noting that the bulk of those shows was spent on the men trying to stop the women from using their magical powers.

“This happened in several of my marriages,” Davis said wryly.

Continue Reading‘Actor’ Geena Davis in Denver: ‘Gender inequalities are deeply entrenched’

DoubleXplainer: What is a vagina?

Double X Science: DoubleXplainer: What is a vagina?.

What is a vagina?

First, let’s just practice saying the word. Vagina. Vuh-ji-nuh. VAGINA!

OK. Why are we practicing this? So that we can avoid suffering from the fluttery sensibilities of one Rep. Mike Callton of Michigan who, upon hearing colleague Rep. Lisa Brown use the word vagina during a speech on the Michigan House floor, commented:

What she said was offensive. It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.

So here we have a fellow who is so squeamish about female anatomy that he won’t even use the appropriate terminology for that anatomy in front of the people who have the body part. So beflustered are his tender feelings about the word vagina that he and the Republican leadership of the Michigan house of representatives refused to allow Rep. Brown speak again when discussing a bill about retirement of school employees. I assume they were concerned that somehow, she’d drag in the dreaded V-word again while talking about pensions.

All for the transgression of saying the word “vagina.” Vagina.

Continue ReadingDoubleXplainer: What is a vagina?

International Women’s Day/Feminist Coming Out Day

International Women’s Day
IWD is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970’s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

Feminist Coming Out Day
According to the organizers: “This project arose out of a frustration with the limited portrayal of the movement as straight, White, and cisgendered. We know firsthand that our allies are a diverse bunch. In the weeks leading up to the event, this website will feature testimonials from young activists on the issues that led to their individual feminist awakenings. What does a feminist look like? We want to give this movement your voice and face! So, put a “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” sticker on your laptop, snap a photo of yourself in our t-shirt, send in your feminist manifesto as a submission to our online Feminist Portrait Project, and tell your friends and colleagues about our campaign to show the diversity among supporters of gender equality.”

Continue ReadingInternational Women’s Day/Feminist Coming Out Day

links for 2010-04-23

Continue Readinglinks for 2010-04-23