women

Showing 150 posts tagged women

theatlantic pew pew pews: ‘Star Wars’ Needs a New Approach to Gender—Not Just More Women Because, after all, the lack of women in Star Wars is not arbitrary. Star Wars is a genre picture—and the genre is, broadly, boys’ adventure. The series is devoted to battles, adventure, politics, more adventure, and more battles. Girls certainly can—and certainly do!—like all of those things. But the fact remains that the genre has historically been focused on boys. Which means that it has been a lot more concerned with providing points of identification for guys than with points of identification for girls. It’s not an accident that it’s Leia rather than Han who ends up in the swimsuit and chains, right? (Even though she remains, even in chains, badass.) Genre and gender, then, are tied up together. Sci-fi imagines different worlds—but those different worlds are governed in no small part by particular narrative expectations. The galaxy isn’t as far away, nor as teeming with possibilities as it looks. Read more. [Image: 20th Century Fox] High-res

theatlantic pew pew pews:

‘Star Wars’ Needs a New Approach to Gender—Not Just More Women

Because, after all, the lack of women in Star Wars is not arbitrary. Star Wars is a genre picture—and the genre is, broadly, boys’ adventure. The series is devoted to battles, adventure, politics, more adventure, and more battles. Girls certainly can—and certainly do!—like all of those things. But the fact remains that the genre has historically been focused on boys. Which means that it has been a lot more concerned with providing points of identification for guys than with points of identification for girls. It’s not an accident that it’s Leia rather than Han who ends up in the swimsuit and chains, right? (Even though she remains, even in chains, badass.)

Genre and gender, then, are tied up together. Sci-fi imagines different worlds—but those different worlds are governed in no small part by particular narrative expectations. The galaxy isn’t as far away, nor as teeming with possibilities as it looks.

Read more. [Image: 20th Century Fox]

Leia Is Not Enough: Star Wars and the Woman Problem in Hollywood If you’ve never really noticed the absence of women in Star Wars (or movies at large), consider yourself living proof of how the limiting narratives of culture and media can warp our expectations, to the point where the presence of one woman in a cast of dozens of memorable male characters can seem like perfect equality. digital painting via flickr:CC | sk.art

Leia Is Not Enough: Star Wars and the Woman Problem in Hollywood

If you’ve never really noticed the absence of women in Star Wars (or movies at large), consider yourself living proof of how the limiting narratives of culture and media can warp our expectations, to the point where the presence of one woman in a cast of dozens of memorable male characters can seem like perfect equality.

digital painting via flickr:CC | sk.art

The Difference Between Sex Appeal and Sexual Objectification

The definition of sexual objectification is the reduction of a person to their sex appeal only.

[Objectification is] watching Beyoncé’s show — where she demonstrated enormous professional skill by singing live, with an awesome all-women band I might add, while dancing her [butt] off in front of millions of people — and not being able to see anything besides her sexy outfit.

theatlantic shares: A Pop Star Shouldn’t Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend Minami Minegishi, a popular member of AKB48 since the group’s founding in 2005, faced the camera and apologized profusely to fans. As tears washed over her face, she said those in charge of the group had demoted her to the “trainee” team and, to punish herself, she had shaved her head. Her transgression: being caught leaving a young man’s apartment several days earlier. Thousands in Japan watched the just-buzzed Minami deliver her tearful apology, and on Twitter the video promptly took up five trending-topic spaces. Many were shocked by what she had done to herself, while others believed the punishment was just and were surprised by what she had done. It quickly morphed into the country’s first big entertainment scandal of the year, but Minegishi’s painful-to-watch apology is much more than tabloid fodder: Her situation highlights the more disturbing aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, and also on a growing gender problem in Japan. Read more. [Image: AKB48] High-res

theatlantic shares:

A Pop Star Shouldn’t Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend

Minami Minegishi, a popular member of AKB48 since the group’s founding in 2005, faced the camera and apologized profusely to fans. As tears washed over her face, she said those in charge of the group had demoted her to the “trainee” team and, to punish herself, she had shaved her head. Her transgression: being caught leaving a young man’s apartment several days earlier.

Thousands in Japan watched the just-buzzed Minami deliver her tearful apology, and on Twitter the video promptly took up five trending-topic spaces. Many were shocked by what she had done to herself, while others believed the punishment was just and were surprised by what she had done. It quickly morphed into the country’s first big entertainment scandal of the year, but Minegishi’s painful-to-watch apology is much more than tabloid fodder: Her situation highlights the more disturbing aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, and also on a growing gender problem in Japan.

Read more. [Image: AKB48]

Girls Lead in Science Exam, but Not in the United States Researchers have been searching for ways to explain why there are so many more men than women in the top ranks of science. Now comes an intriguing clue, in the form of a test given in 65 developed countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It finds that among a representative sample of 15-year-olds around the world, girls generally outperform boys in science — but not in the United States. High-res

Girls Lead in Science Exam, but Not in the United States

Researchers have been searching for ways to explain why there are so many more men than women in the top ranks of science.

Now comes an intriguing clue, in the form of a test given in 65 developed countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It finds that among a representative sample of 15-year-olds around the world, girls generally outperform boys in science — but not in the United States.

saddest-summer: Judgements gjmueller: I needed to add this, because I think it’s important. The Balancing Act of Being Female; Or, Why We Have So Many Clothes Women’s closets are often mocked as a form of self-indulgence, shop-a-holicism, or narcissism.  But this isn’t fair.  Instead, if a woman is class-privileged enough, they reflect an (often unarticulated) understanding of just how complicated the rules are.  If they’re not class-privileged enough, they can’t follow the rules and are punished for being, for example, “trashy” or “unprofessional.”  It’s a difficult job that we impose on women and we’re all too often damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t. High-res

saddest-summer:

gjmueller: I needed to add this, because I think it’s important.

The Balancing Act of Being Female; Or, Why We Have So Many Clothes

Women’s closets are often mocked as a form of self-indulgence, shop-a-holicism, or narcissism.  But this isn’t fair.  Instead, if a woman is class-privileged enough, they reflect an (often unarticulated) understanding of just how complicated the rules are.  If they’re not class-privileged enough, they can’t follow the rules and are punished for being, for example, “trashy” or “unprofessional.”  It’s a difficult job that we impose on women and we’re all too often damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t.

Women, STEM, and beliefs about effort

A fundamental insight of the last two decades is that motivation is strongly influenced by beliefs about ability and achievement. If you believe that achievement is a product mostly of ability, then you are likely to believe that people with a lot of natural ability achieve a lot without having to work very hard.

A recent paper (Smith, Lewis, Hawthorne, & Hodges in press) examines whether such beliefs might account for sex differences in participation in STEM fields.

Geek Girls - Go out and get a mentor!

This just in!!! The Huffington Post is inviting young women interested in science and engineering (like you!) across the U.S. to join their STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) mentorship program.

You can find all the details for this fabulous opportunity here.  At this time, they are only accepting applications from female students ages 14-21. They begin accepting applications starting now through January 31st. The program will formally end April 30th 2013, but the continued mentor-mentee correspondence is at the discretion of you and your mentor.

The above graphic, passed along by the Huffington Post‘s Laura Bassett, was put together by the Enliven Project using data from Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey and FBI reports. It drives home extremely well the fact that false rape accusations are exceedingly rare, despite what media reports might suggest. Almost as rare are cases when rapists actually go to jail.  Update: Rape statistics are notoriously hard to collect, and Amanda Marcotte has a compelling critique of the methods used here, which Enliven describes in more detail here. So while the phenomena described here are real (and Marcotte argues that, if anything, the chart exaggerates the number of false accusations), be aware that the exact numbers are subject to dispute. High-res

The above graphic, passed along by the Huffington Post‘s Laura Bassett, was put together by the Enliven Project using data from Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey and FBI reports. It drives home extremely well the fact that false rape accusations are exceedingly rare, despite what media reports might suggest. Almost as rare are cases when rapists actually go to jail.

 Update: Rape statistics are notoriously hard to collect, and Amanda Marcotte has a compelling critique of the methods used here, which Enliven describes in more detail here. So while the phenomena described here are real (and Marcotte argues that, if anything, the chart exaggerates the number of false accusations), be aware that the exact numbers are subject to dispute.

howstuffworks:

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Tech Stuff podcast: Was Ada Lovelace the first computer programmer?

Happy birthday to Ada Lovelace (aka Augusta Ada Byron) — born this day, December 10th, in 1815. A gifted mathematician and daughter of the infamous Lord Byron, Ada met one Charles Babbage at a party when she was 17 and became fascinated by the mathematician’s Analytical Engine — a kind of mechanical computer that could make complex calculations, including multiplication and division. From that chance meeting grew a strong, dynamic relationship. Ada discussed Babbage’s ideas with him and offered her own insights. In 1843, she published an influential set of notes describing Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Ada also added in some sage predictions, speculating that Babbage’s mechanical computers might one day “act upon other things besides numbers” and “compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity …”

Listen in on Tech Stuff’s classic podcast to learn lots more.

[Image by Colin Adams, based on the original A. E. Chaton portrait, for the Ada Initiative.]

Six-Year-Old Girl (Board) Gamer Calls out Guess Who? on Its Gender Inequality; Hasbro's Response is Both Hilarious and Awful

I never played Guess Who? all that much as a child, which might explain why I never realized how imbalanced it is in terms of gender. Or maybe I just wasn’t as perceptive as this six-year-old girl, who not only noticed that there are only five girls compared to 19 boys, but also took the time to write to Hasbro about it. Read her letter…