On this date in 1945, the first atomic bomb ever used during war, the Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima. I don’t have much else to say about this except that there is an excellent photo series here to check out.
- GaymerCon is the first gaming and tech convention with a focus on LGBT geek culture – This is the link to the Kickstarter for this awesome idea. From Will.
- The Hidden Cost of Hamburgers
- Double Jeopardy – In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time for them.
- Photographic Coverage of Olympic Beach Volleyball – Ever notice a difference in the way men and women Olympians are photographed?
- Study: Proof That We Sexually Objectify Women – Read through the study and conduct your own review in the comments. From Amy.
- Would You Rather Win Silver Or Bronze? (Be Careful What You Wish For)
The “Would You Rather Win Silver Or Bronze?” article is very interesting.
The “Study: Proof That We Sexually Objectify Women” says that everyone (even women) objectify women!! Weird stuff.
Not weird at all. It’s the same reason that white patients are more likely to be recommended life-saving surgery than black patients – even if the doctor is black! Both those doctors and the women in that article grew up in this culture.
We live in a culture where our movies, and our media, tell us that straight white men are people, with an innate value, and everyone else is only there to please them. Humans, of course, but not really PEOPLE.
On that note, as a straight white man, I would like to thank the skepchicks for the conscience-raising work they do. I learn more about my own privilege every day, and that’s the first step in combatting it.
I guess you’re right, culture is our “operating system” and we’re all runing the same one.
The study was very interesting but what I found more intriguing was the study author’s solution. Not once did she mention that women should cover up nor was she preaching modest attire. Her solution does not violate individual freedom. Her solution involves cultural rewiring. It is possible via education to foster cognitive re-organization that promotes global rather than local processing (which we do when looking at a sandwich). With global processing an individual can perceive a woman clad in a string bikini as a person. What is the evidence that this will work. We already do this when looking at scantily clad men. I hope this author conducts further research in this arena using functional neuroimaging and cultural interventions. I suspect that global processing of an individual marshals forth the medial prefrontal regions engaged in empathy and other aspects of social knowledge. People in the audience at Chippendales must actually view the male strippers as whole persons. Amazing!
Greta Christina wrote a good piece on this subject: http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2011/11/09/why-i-probably-wont-do-porn-again/
I found it really interesting when compared to an article CNN ran today about professional gamers in South Korea. http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/05/tech/gaming-gadgets/esport-athletes-gaming-south-korea/index.html
But remember, if you win the silver you can always get it bronzed.
After all, even the gold medal is only gilded silver.
Lets see: .62 vs .55 with .06 confidence interval. The study does not show a significant gender difference. About all this study shows is that objectification is common, and that we do it to each other roughly equally.
Nice juxtaposition with the beach volleyball segment. I think that shows either that the objectification of women is more easily exploitable for profit than objectification of men, or that pr people perceive it that way, because that is how we always see it being exploited.
I like the transcript for the hamburger link. It was nice to have all the sources pop up.
But I couldn’t help the little sarcastic voice in the back of my head that chimed in when I read, “during the first six months cows eat… [really bad stuff]”. The voice said, well I guess that really DOES make veal the better option.
Haha, I like how you think.
Mary,
So uber rich in China, often pay off other people to serve their sentences for them when they’re charged with a crime? How desperate are the people who they hire as body doubles? I’d hate to spend even a day in Chinese prison, any prison for that matter.
Having gone to China, I kinda get this. China is very hierarchical and relationship-based so if someone in power asks someone lower to do something they will often do it without question. Thus someone powerful asking something like that over somebody he/she has power over would probably pretty often be obeyed even if the person going to jail has apprehensions.
And the power of relationship among powerful people (say a powerful convict with powerful members of law authority) I can see would keep the convict out of jail.
There are also yes, a LOT of dirt poor people who would gladly serve a prison sentence for a fat buck. Hell there are plenty of people in America who would do that.
That makes sense. That might explain it.
Regarding the way male and females Olympians are photographed, I haven’t noticed the difference. But that’s probably because I don’t look at the photos.
I prefer landing images from Mars. :D
About objectifing women: I assume this is a process that is not carried out on a level we are aware of? That we do this without knowing it?
Or is this something that we really can change?
If it cannot be changed, can our reaction at least be changed?
It’s hard to change what you first look at with your eyes, but it is easier to change how you think about women.
Also, yes, the Mars landing was awesome!