South Africa’s gender row athlete Caster Semenya is too traumatised to take her university examinations, according to her trainer. “Her head is very tired,” Michael Seme told the Beeld newspaper.
The University of Pretoria, where Ms Semenya is studying Sports Science, has agreed to let her write her exams when she is ready, according to Mr Seme. “Fortunately, the university has a good understanding of her situation and made it clear to her that exams are the last thing she should worry about at the moment,” he said.
:( :( :( :( :(
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think on this.May your life be merry, and filled with awesome
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BBC NEWS | Africa | Traumatised Semenya 'skips exams'
Gender Object Private Eye: Shoes and Society
This is a report I wrote for my Gender in Society Class for our G.O.P.E. project. I worked with my classmates and friends Mollie Garber, Michael Cash Nelson, and Nathaniel Turner on the research.Location & Background
When on the hunt for gendered shoes, it seemed easy enough for our group to traverse Payless Shoe Source in Tenleytown. The store, a chain with a plethora of locations across the U.S., serves to give its customers cheap access to shoes built for play, work, specialty occasions, and weather-specific conditions. In other words, Payless Shoe Source wants to be every family’s one-stop-shop for shoe wear. The store has a low- and middle-class consumer base.
We limited our research to shoes for newborns and very young infants, because the section of youth shoes was too expansive to conduct research on a wider age group. What we discovered, however, was that even at the youngest of ages, children have no choice but to participate in the rituals of gendered interaction and biologically-based gender expression.
Male Children
When observing shoes built for male children, it was easy to observe that products were made of quality materials and built for specific functions. Boys are given the ability to purchase shoes that mimic adult style and function: sandals, hiking boots, loafers, sneakers, and even career-specific shoes (like imitation firefighting boots) were packed away in the aisles. Boys’ shoes are sturdy, composed of long-lasting manmade materials, and equipped with respectable soles and protection for the feet. Boys’ shoes are often produced in cold or dark colors, and sometimes feature masculine figures- action heroes and pop culture icons were spotted on pairs of sneakers.
Female Children
Options for female children, however, are much more limited. Shoe options for girls limit their choice of activity. Girls’ shoes are most often made with very “cheap” designs and materials; most of the shoes we observed were flimsy and seemed to be pure decoration. It was surprising to find that most shoes outside of girls’ sneakers were actually deprived of a sole, and were therefore built like slippers. This means boots, sandals, and flats all share a common thread: lack of functionality. In essence, girls’ shoes reduce female children to the role of human dolls.
Girls, it appears, do not need to do much- except perhaps wear incredibly feminized and elaborate shoes in order to appear “attractive.” A less surprising finding supports this: that the shoes available to female children are often adorned with fabric flowers, Disney princesses, and fabrics in the colors of pink, white, and similar “soft” and generally feminine colors. Girls’ shoes also appear young- whereas boys’ shoes mimic adult styles, girls are limited to shoes that illustrate their immaturity through kitschy and cutesy designs and a lack of practicality.
Summary of Findings: Analysis
Readings for our class focusing on internalized thoughts about gender, such as “Being A Girl and Being A Boy” and “’Spice Girls,’ ‘Nice Girls,’ ‘Girlies,” and ‘Tomboys,’” are exemplified through children’s shoes. Before girls and boys have even decided on their ambitions or identity, they have already been feminized, professionalized, and inexplicitly told of the overarching theme within those readings: whereas girls see physicality and childlike naiveté as integral parts of their identity, boys discover early on that ambition, respect from others, and the ability to objectify girls is similarly integrated into their ethos. Children’s shoes, therefore, serve an indirect purpose of constraining emotions and character traits to a physical binary, assigning early on to children the roles of “submissive woman” and “ambitious, able man.”
Texts to the boy…
He wz in agny thnkn out ways 2 declare his feelns; & hestating endlssly btwn fear of displeasn hr & shame of bein so pusillanimous, he wpt trs of djection & dsire. He made emphatic decisions; he wrote letrs & tore thm up, gave hmself ultimatums whch he subsqntly ignrd. He oftn set out, intndn 2 rsk evrythn; but ths resolution dsrtd hm in Emma’s presence. - Flaubert, Madame Bovary
gauntlet: mandalay: siddman:grapedrinkseventy:smashton:jaggedfragments
This is dangerous territory. While these women are all beautiful and sexually attractive to heterosexual men - due to their alluring combination of chaste passivity with sexual responsiveness - this is not the main problem with Disney films.
These women are all talented, strong and independent in their own way. Snow White is resourceful and confident despite having everything taken away from her. Aurora has an incredible singing voice. Jasmine an independent strong will. Ariel a thirst for knowledge as well as a quirky and willful nature to explore new territory. Beauty is an intellectual, with a mind for books and seeing the more poetic and beautiful sides of life, even where life is most terrible. Cinderella is strong-hearted and caring. She endures hardship and refuses to compromise her own sense of self to conform to values she doesn’t agree with.
These stories do not reduce women to beauty and sexuality, they do something far worse. The talents and skills of these women are introduced only to be taken away again, for they become elements of their sexual allure, stages in the narrative that always and inevitably ends in returning to patriarchy, to marriage and motherhood. The talents and quirky attributes of these women are reduced to qualities that make them attractive to men. These stories make sure that the independence of women is short-lived, because women, despite all their talent, belong to men as passive sexual objects and devoted wives and mothers. At the same time, they promote a conception of women that requires them to be beautiful and sexually attractive in order for their other talents to be worthwhile.
Redefining "Brotherhood" at GWU
Washington’s City Paper has one of my favorite blogs, The Sexist, constantly covering awesome people and awesome activism about gender and misogyny. (My favorite so far was a column posing the question, “Why are women sleeping with Tucker Max?”)
This blog focuses on George Washington University’s Greek Community, and how many participants are working toward creating a less heterosexist community, focusing especially on creating a more affirming Greek community for homosexual male participants and hopefuls. Kudos to them, of course! Here’s their fifteen minutes.
Feministing is bringing up the Bathroom Sign.
What do our cultural symbols of gender really mean, and how are they shaped? These are questions well-defined through a quick glance at our markers for “men’s” and “women’s” bathrooms. These aren’t sex-assigned, or sex category-defined; these are gender-based. Your gender identity is what identifies you, in a world of public restrooms, as someone who will make the other people in that restroom comfortable, or endangered, essentially.
But how do we define that?
For some, it’s simply your sex, a confusing marker. (Or, rather, how you have sex, but that could be pretty strongly and convincingly categorized as biologically/anatomically based.) For others, it’s what you wear, how you sleep, etc.
mry:
I don’t know about you guys, but if you ask me, then this is a clear use of “transexual” as an insult. You guys should also click on the pic and read some of the *~lovely~* comments to the when people pointed out the transphobia:
The thing is, she would take it as such. If you call a rampantly homophobic person gay they take it as an insult and go fucking crazy to the amusement of everyone around them. In contrast, if you call a non-homophobic person gay they usually laugh and make some comment about the behaviors that they exhibit that can be taken as flaminingly gay. It’s not uncommon for people to call me a man in person or imply that I have the biggest dick in a room, if I were transphobic I’d care, but since I’m not I laugh and show them the picture a friend of me drew in which I have an enormous dick that is not unlike that of Oderus Urungus of Gwar. It’s all context. Coulter has would have a shit fit if you called her a man in person and it would be outstandingly funny. You can’t piss her off by pointing out that she’s stupid or sadly mistaken in 99% of what she says because she feeds off of that idea and can vehemently protest that you are wrong and cannot prove her wrong. - spencer_mato
Here’s the thing with this comment: If you’re cisgenders and don’t hate transexuals, sure, you wouldn’t get offended by transexual being used an insult against you. But you are cisgendered. This is a cisgendered priviledge. It’s not your identification that is being used as an insult.
And personally I don’t give a fuck about how Ann Coulter feels about anything. I don’t give a fuck about her opinions and I don’t give a fuck about what offends her. What I personally care about is the feelings of the transexuals. The feelings of the transexuals > the feelings of Ann Coulter, end of fucking story.
Or my favourite of the comments:
In order to give Ann Coulter the scorn, villification, and outright abuse she deserves, no subject is off limits. Sacrifices have to be made. Suck it up and take one for the team. - david_deacon (bold mine)
In order to fight oppression and priviledges no jokes about people you dislike is off limit. Sacrifices has to be made. Suck it up and take one for the team, fuckface.
(also, abuse? Really? About a woman? Just because you dislike her? Fuck you, fucktard)
Ann the Man is so fucking old meme and a transphobic one at that. There are so many other ways to make fun of her without having to be transphobic or sexist. Thank you and fuck off.
(also posted at my LJ here: ah, the priviledge of being cisgendered. Comments are more than welcome)
Fatherhood and the love revolution
Call it a renewal of fatherhood, family revival or a love revolution, but whatever you call it, it is happening.
article by Warwick Marsh
"It is often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful. If we comply, we signal our docility and our acquiescence in our situation. We participate in our own erasure…. We acquiesce in being made invisible, in our occupying no space…. Anything but the sunniest countenance exposes us to being perceived as mean, bitter, angry or dangerous…."
— Engineering frosh week is sexist, an arcile from McGill (via lfar)
"First lady Michelle Obama sought to rally women to the cause of health-care reform Friday, describing the current system as shot through with a gender bias that prevents women from achieving “true equality."
— First Lady Pushes Cause of Reform - washingtonpost.com (via a-eliz)
"The contradictions of Baroness Scotland are exemplary. On the one hand, she is a feminist from a working-class immigrant family who has overcome the formidable prejudices of the law to become Britain’s first woman attorney-general. On the other, she employed Loloahi Tapui from Tonga as a housekeeper for six months, even though she was here illegally."
— One woman’s success is another’s exploitation (via gauntlet)
"Women can be misogynists, too. Women can not be misogynists, but still partake in some misogynistic thinking. In fact, I’d say that every single woman on this planet has at some point in their lives bought into misogynistic ideas. I have. More times than I can count. Someone who never has would be incredibly impressive, to say the least."
— tangerine trees and marmalade skies: (via gauntlet) (via lfar)
Things Guys Wish Girls Knew
The things I think of when I read articles like these, no matter who is publishing them (I’m looking at you, Cosmo)-
1. The gender binary’s impact on our lives. Is it possible to qualify as a “guy” if this list doesn’t really meet your own perspective? Obviously, these are less rulebooks and more guidebooks, meant to shape our interactions and not our identities, but…
2. The gender binary’s impact on our lives. Is it possible, then, for “girls” to ever expect something more than, or something directly challenging, the items on lists like these? When girls (or, more correctly, women) are heterosexual and relying on “advice” and “wisdom” in forms like these, since they’re popular, do they feel trapped or relieved? Do they feel like they have to alter their own preferences to suit the societal traps of gender?
3. The power of language. Often diminuitive and anti-female, articles about what masculine-identified people prefer can be relied on to revel in snide remarks, precocious language dominance, and a regular diminuition of what are thtought of as traditionally female values. (We get it, real MEN with judgment don’t like shopping.)
"
Men explain things to me, and to other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men. Every woman knows what I mean. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.
This syndrome is something nearly every woman faces every day, within herself too, a belief in her superfluity, an invitation to silence, one from which a fairly nice career as a writer (with a lot of research and facts correctly deployed) has not entirely freed me. After all, there was a moment there when I was willing to believe Mr. Very Important and his overweening confidence over my more shaky certainty.
"— Rebecca Solnit’s essay should be required reading for dudes at least once per week. Once per day would be nice. Once per week will do. (via pilgrimsoul) (via gauntlet)
gender and effectiveness as a lawmaker
Are women more effective lawmakers than men? That’s the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.
The study, which examined the performance of House members between 1984 and 2004, found that women delivered roughly 9 percent more discretionary spending for their districts than men.
this is, of course, exactly what you would expect from a discriminatory system.
Researchers say the small number of female members may have something to do with their effectiveness. Women who run and win are likely the most politically ambitious and talented of their pool, having potentially overcome hurdles including voter bias and self-doubt about their ability to win. Large majorities of both men and women in candidate feeder pools, such as law offices and political organizations, believe there is a bias against women in elections, according to Lawless and Fox studies in 2005 and 2004. Once women get to Capitol Hill, those hurdles may drive them to perform better, on average, than male counterparts who have faced a less contentious road.
“Research shows that even though women have similar success rates in primaries and elections as men, they are likely to face more challengers,” said Hartwick College political science department chairwoman Laurel Elder. “The results might be the same, but they might have to work harder to get those same results.” (politico)
