Quickies
Skepchick Quickies 3.1
- Chinese women demand right to pee – The Chinese government mandates a 1:1 ratio for men’s and women’s public restrooms, even though women take longer.
- Sexual harassment as ethical imperative: How Capcom’s fighting game reality show turned ugly – “”The sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community… it doesn’t make sense to have that attitude. These things have been established for years,” Aris stated.” From Erik.
- If governments were really serious about reducing abortions, IUDs would have no copay – Good contraception means less cost overall to health insurance companies and “IUDs are the most effective, reversible form of contraception and they don’t cause abortion.”
- A defense of screwed-up female characters – “The recent explosion of prominent women in comedy has brought with it an unfortunate but predictable debate about whether or not the characters that have resulted from all these women scribbling and acting are Good For Women.”
I’m mostly just kind of shocked that Penny Arcade folks are denouncing sexism. Glass house, much?
Regardless of Mike & Jerry at Penny Arcade, Ben Kuchera just started the PA Report after coming over from Ars Technica, and I haven’t seen anything myself to impugn Ben on the topic of sexism.
Ahh. That makes more sense. Though I’m still surprised anyone under the Team Dickwolves banner cares about sexism, that does make sense.
So, how long do you think it’ll be before some asshat says “but I thought feminists just wanted equal rights, now they’re asking for extra bathrooms.”
I mean in an asshat way, ’cause I just said it.
Hmm, guess that makes me the asshat.
I pointed it out the last time I was at a sporting event. Make public women’s restrooms proportionately larger everywhere! This will benefit everyone…especially in large public venues.
Seriously!
And I’m a fast … peer? Is peer a word? Anyway, I use the bathroom super quick, but I grew up with sisters, and camping, and taking long road trips that required peeing on the side of the road. I am quicker than most dudes. :P
But in general women are slower and that should be taken into consideration. It’d keep things cleaner, too.
The word you’re looking for is maybe “Urinatrix”?
The caustic racist and sexist atmosphere is why I left the fighting game “community” a while ago. Everything out of Aris’s mouth is a desperate argument from a man who doesn’t want to give up being a sexist, racist asshat. It’s disgusting.
I can’t believe he used, “but but, it’s part of the CULTURE!” as an excuse. Seriously?
Wasn’t that what slave owners used to say too?
If that’s all that recommends your culture, your culture sucks.
“Be it good or bad, it has grown up with our society and institutions, and is so interwoven with them, that to destroy it would be to destroy us as a people.” — John C. Calhoun, Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions
He’s somewhat right. It IS part of the culture and frankly that’s the best indictment of the culture I’ve seen. The scene has been notoriously terrible for a while and it’s little surprise that no one spoke up.
The question is, what are they going to do now that it’s been dragged kicking and screaming into the light for everyone to see?
Single-sex bathrooms are part of the problem (urinals can be enclosed in cubicles), as well as a general shortage of clean public bathrooms. If they just make enough of them, and men and women can both use them all, there won’t be a problem.
We’ll get there eventually, and we won’t use toilet paper anymore either, we’ll just have three seashells. :)
You’re overlooking the fact that even if it’s all one room, women still don’t use urinals. Not to mention that there’s a comfort/safety factor involved.
FUCK YEAH IUDs!
so much yes to this. i’ve got a mirena (free in the UK, where i live), and it’s amazing.
but i did have to push for the doctor to give me one, since i have not yet had kids. the only reason he could give me to not have one is that it would probably be more painful to insert as i hadn’t given birth. (it’s very common to get cramps for a day or two after insertion, though mine were very mild).
whatever. not having to take pills or worry about missing them is amazing.
I have never been pregnant and never plan on being pregnant. I’m 30, but my chances of getting an IUD is pretty slim. Especially without insurance. I can’t afford it without insurance, and I certainly can’t afford to “doctor shop” without insurance. Soooo, IUDs are great, I guess, but not every woman can get one.
I’ve studied queuing theory and the subject of bathroom throughput has been extensively researched. For western-style bathrooms and western-style clothing, you need twice the number of units and three times the space in the women’s bathroom as you have in the men’s bathroom to have equal average waiting times.
I think that’s a really good point. I hate the implication that women take longer in the restroom because we’re all chatting and fixing our makeup. No, it takes us a lot longer to manipulate our clothing. And that doesn’t even count all the women on their periods at any given time who may need an extra minute. We can’t just unzip and go.
And sometimes it takes a minute for the … flow to start, depending on the woman. Then we have to wipe, which men don’t have to do.
I feel like throwing up after watching the video from that Penny Arcade article.
And the you tube comments make me lose all faith in humanity.