Quickies
Quickies: Gender matters in computer science, “meninists,” and a product review of the knapsack of white privilege
- MIT scientists demonstrate the hard way that gender still matters – ““We’re 3 female computer scientists at MIT, here to answer questions about programming and academia. Ask us anything!” we wrote for our Reddit Ask Me Anything session last Friday. And then, boom: “Why does it matter that you’re female?””
- Men are calling themselves “meninists” to take a stand against feminism – No, really. From Amy.
- Product review: The invisible backpack of white privilege from LL Bean – “I told him if he’s really that dissatisfied with his own backpack, he should just return it to the store and buy one like mine instead of criticizing me all the time, because from what I can see, my backpack’s only advantage is that it comes with a more positive attitude and frugal spending habit than all the other backpacks. He got really quiet and things between us have grown uncomfortable.”
- How to respond to racist jokes – A Robot Hugs comic on those people that think their racist jokes are “ironic.”
- Cute Animal Friday! From Criticaldragon1177, cats confused by snow. Did you know that there’s an animal called the dibbler? Well, here’s a whole stack of them!
I have the same backpack (Men’s version; it’s a little larger and does have the mesh water bottle pocket), and agree it’s an excellent product. For some reason, the men’s version, though roomier, is a little lighter. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t buy this backpack.
4 stars, because I’m a little more generous rater than Joyce and, heh, men’s version is worth at least an extra half star.
lol, all the #meninism posts are about sexual access to women.
That’s what it always boils down to isn’t it?
Well, not all of them. A couple of them actually had a point. Like MyNameIsBonez’ post about how men taking shirtless pics together is stigmatized as ‘gay’, but it’s totally okay for women to take bikini pics together. Or Jugg_her_naut’s comment about how an erection does not mean you consent to sex.
Sadly, those were in the minority. And in both cases, I’m pretty sure they were being sarcastic.
And I can’t believe I clicked on a Buzzfeed article.
Buffalo plaid? I first interpreted that as how so many internets activists think Indians are privileged. You know, how there are so many unsolved murders and kidnappings of Indian women, and that’s a privilege? Because that’s what I get from most of the activists on the Twitter.
I think it was meant to imply Scots (along with Irish and Italians) are now treated interchangeably with other white European men, which wasn’t always historically true. (I don’t know what the other colors of invisible backpacks are, probably Nordic white, Wasp gray, etc.) I don’t know how anyone could seriously contend that Indians are in a privileged position in current American society. (Maybe like disabled people who get all the best parking spots?)
According to this, buffalo plaid was a traditional tartan pattern that some guy in the mid 19th century made a business of trading to the plains Indians for buffalo skins, but how much of that is true and how much is bullshit, I don’t know. (I particularly doubt the stuff about the Indians believing the red dye having magical properties, but maybe it was a real marketing ploy like Power Bands and other modern woo merchandise.)
“I don’t know how anyone could seriously contend that Indians are in a privileged position in current American society. (Maybe like disabled people who get all the best parking spots?)” Oh, you’d be surprised. Some of it might come from Civilized Tribes corruption issues. But most of it comes from things like, well, first there were the animal rights activists who would engage in various terrorist attacks against Indians. You’ve probably heard about ‘clubbing baby seals’ or whatever. (Yeah, you can trust those videos about as much as “Silent Scream”.) Because those Eskimos should kill seals the Murrican way and import food from a quarter of a world away. There were similar issues regarding hunting and fishing rights, pretty much since the 80s.
And you know what? I accept this. I accept that we’ll have these people, allied with industry interests, militia groups, and the classical racists against us.
More recently, however, you’ve had the Twitter and Tumblr people deciding Indians are privileged mostly because our issues are too arcane for their understanding. (Meaning, it takes more than 140 characters.)
The really ridiculous part is, I could almost sympathize with some of these people, if not for what they do. A group of black farmers suing to get Cobell money. (Cobell was a suit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for land mismanagement, in other words completely unrelated to USDA discriminatory practices.) And no, Ms Park, I can’t possibly imagine seeing a caricature of my ethnic background, oh, say, at least once a week during football season? (And her followers sent death threats to ndn activists over that because Twitter activists are no different than 4chan as a rule.)
Yeah, that magic stuff is just woo. Like how these days they claim we all used crystals, when, well, the origins of the use of crystals in occultism are well-documented.
Gee. Are those Larxist-Meninists?
Are you saying they’re just more extreme brocialists?