Quickies
Quickies: Haunted Houses, Pointlessly Gendered Products, and Women Shunned for Menstruating
I’m going to start today with a quote from Carl Sagan, who said, “I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of Gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down.” Preach!
- What Life Is Like When Getting Your Period Means You Are Shunned – Stories from women in India and Nepal about the stigma associated with menstruating and the work that is being done to make life easier for them. This is a long read, but very compelling.
- In Rare Case, Woman With H.I.V. Infects Female Sex Partner, C.D.C. Says – It’s rare, but it happens, so stay safe! From Will.
- Sexist culture and harassment drives GitHub’s first female developer to quit – About her decision to quit, Julie Horvath wrote, “I regret defending GitHub’s culture to feminists for the last two years. I’m sorry to everyone I’ve hurt in doing so.” From Julia.
- Pointlessly Gendered Products – Wait, you mean girls and boys aren’t supposed to eat different types of eggs?
- Haunted Winchester Mystery House to Allow Overnight Stays (and Booze)! – Sweet. Road trip!
Yeah, that woman with HIV, it is rare, but it can happen. Part of the problem is that barriers don’t taste very good, so fellatio and cunnilingus tend to be unprotected. I could also assume sex during your period or sharing sex toys would increase a female couple’s risk.
Those pointlessly gendered products are unintentionally funny in a lot of ways; I remember a few years ago, Burger King had an ad for Whoppers with a filk of “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” for men, complete with a dude burning his jockstrap. (This was when Burger King was still doing quadruple bypasses, cheeseburgers! Quadruple cheeseburgers!)
On the GitHub mess, apparently the company made some moves yesterday (Sunday). CEO Chris Wanstrath says that a co-founder has been put on leave, his wife has been banned from the offices, and the company is investigating Horvath’s charges. Also, an engineer Horvath implicated in sexual harassment has been put on leave. While post hoc moves are better than doing nothing, they should have never gotten to this place. You can read more here and here.
Mary,
“Haunted Winchester Mystery House to Allow Overnight Stays (and Booze)!”
I heard about them letting people spend the night there with booze.
I’m thinking that might not be the best idea, and not because I believe in ghosts,
Moronic Ghost Hunters Burn Historic Louisiana Plantation to the Ground
http://roadtrippers.kinja.com/moronic-ghost-hunters-burn-historic-louisiana-plantatio-1470363847
I laughed really hard at that :)
Mary,
Sad thing is through, despite the hilarious level of stupidity of the “ghost hunters” or ugliness of slavery that place represented, an important piece of our history was destroyed.
Those pointlessly gendered alphabets aren’t subtle: Astronaut vs Apple, Ball vs Butterfly (!), Firefighter vs Fairy (!!!), Lion vs Ladybug (!), Pirate vs Pink…
Just compare the people in the two alphabets. Boys get Astronauts, Firefighters, Pirates, Clowns, while girls get Nurses, Witches, and Queens. The most interesting thing girls get in terms of complexity is a violin, and there’s basically nothing else except a xylophone, while boys get robots, trains, jets, yo-yos, and X-rays.
My partner and I have our work cut out for us with our upcoming son!
Congrats on your future baby! I have one myself, it’s really fun to be a parent :)