Quickies: Denouncing Catcalling, How Psychological Biases Affect Decision to Vaccinate, and Spray-On Pheromones Don’t Work

Mary February 11, 2015

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But Seriously, ‘Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?’ – “In 1859, The Atlantic published an essay asking a simple—and very, very complicated—question.”
‘Stop Telling Women To Smile’: Denouncing ‘Jackals’ And Catcalling In Mexico – “The campaigns first international foray is in Mexico City, where rampant sexual harassment has led the city to provide female-only subway cars and buses. The campaign is part of an impressive new interactive project at Fusion, a joint startup between ABC and Univision aimed at attracting millennials. The page includes short videos of women describing their experiences, maps of where the posters were planted throughout the city and videos documenting the project.” (The text on the images at the website is NSFW.)
What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living – “People say we’re ‘rich in other ways,’ but that doesn’t fix the ugly fact that most farms are unsustainable.”
Psychological Biases Play A Part In Vaccination Decisions – “What’s received less attention is how vaccination plays into subtle psychological biases that can contribute to parents’ unwillingness to “intervene” on their kids. The particular bias I have in mind is sometimes called ‘omission bias,’ and it has to do with the difference between bringing about some outcome by acting versus by failing to act. For example, lying about whether one is married (an action) seems worse than failing to correct an invalid assumption (an omission), even if the outcome — in terms of what the other person believes about one’s marital status — is the same in each case.”
The Truth About Spray-On Pheromones (and Why They Don’t Really Work) – “If you’re trying to find some way to get a date by Valentine’s Day, you can scratch spray-on pheromones off the list. This video from the American Chemical Society explains why you’re better off trying to meet someone the old-fashioned way.”
Women, don’t listen to the “lower your standards” line – “The original report, in case you want to go looking for it, is called ‘Risk sensitivity as an evolutionary adaptation.’ But ladies, you know what that really means. As numerous outlets this week have pointed out, the true lesson here is that ‘Settling for Mr. Okay Is Better Than Waiting for Mr. Perfect, Study Says.’ Well, that escalated quickly.” From mrmisconception.
That Weird Thing About Lipstick – “I have always found it bizarre that lipstick is supposed to make a woman’s lips more irresistible, yet kissing a woman with lipstick gets sticky red or pink smudge all over both faces. So women dress up and look all gorgeous and then their dates can’t kiss them. Or, it’s the end of the night and a woman wants her date to kiss her, does she put on lipstick or go for the chapstick? Gah, being a woman is hard. And I supposed it can’t be that easy being the person who wants to kiss her in that situation either.”