equality
pharyngula | June 12, 2010The ghost of Larry Summers (I know! And he isn't even dead yet!) has risen again, with John Tierney of the NY Times "daring" to consider the notion that maybe women aren't as mathy as men. There's a lot to object to in his story, from the title (Sorry, John, but it isn't daring to promote a stereotype at all) to the feeble caveat at the end, where he says he willing to consider "possible social bias against women" in the sciences. "Possible"? Really? Say it ain't so, John!
But no, let's cut straight to the heart of the issue. The problem here is sneaky sleight of hand.
Here's what everyone in…
pharyngula | June 5, 2010Is there some kind of competition here? Are states vying for the title of most screwed up, repulsive state in the nation? 'Cause Arizona is really working hard to make Texas look sane.
An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student’s face from the mural, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students pictured on…
pharyngula | June 3, 2010One of the most cunning tools of the patriarchy is the assignment of woo as a feminine virtue. Women are supposed to be intuitive, nurturing, accepting, and trusting, unlike those harsh and suspicious men. It's a double-trap; women are brought up indoctrinated into believing that being smart and skeptical is unladylike and unattractive, and at the same time, anyone who dares to suggest that intuition and soothing, supportive words are often unproductive can be slammed for being anti-woman, because, obviously, to suggest that a human being might want to do more with their life than changing…
pharyngula | June 1, 2010Tony Perkins, president of the Patriarchy Research Council (wait — they don't do any kind or research, so maybe Patriarchy Propaganda Council would be better) is very upset that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the US military might be repealed. This would cause terrible suffering for military chaplains, compromising their liberty to be bigots.
This means that all 1.4 million members of the U.S. military will be subject to sensitivity training intended to indoctrinate them into the myths of the homosexual movement: that people are born "gay" and cannot change and that homosexual conduct…
pharyngula | May 28, 2010The American Humanist Association is making a push to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the American military. They want you to write a letter to your representatives supporting the repeal.
Here's another reason besides simple common decency to end a discriminatory practice: It will drive Bryan Fischer insane(r). Fischer is the unpleasant Idaho bigot who thinks homosexuals should be imprisoned, and he's got his own peculiar take on gays in the military.
Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six…
pharyngula | May 26, 2010The Culture Minister for Northern Ireland is a born-again Christian kook who has decided that the Ulster Museum is insufficiently respectful of the notion that a magic man in the sky poofed the universe into existence in 4004 BC — the farmers on the plains of Mehrgarh and the potters of Mesopotamia were probably greatly surprised to be conjured out of chaos so abruptly, their shock only exceeded by the later confused state of Egypt's Sixth Dynasty, which was simultaneously exterminated by a great flood from that psychopath, Jehovah, and also continued unbroken with no notice of their…
pharyngula | May 25, 2010Some men have a particularly oblivious sense of privilege — these are the kinds of evil freaks who murder their children at the prospect that their ex-wife might get custody. The fact that they are men is used to blind them to the fact that there are these other human beings called women out there who have just as much right to their lives as they do.
Here's the opening paragraph of a blog post by a self-proclaimed anti-feminist.
When men have something women have less of, such as money or power, women simply take it by force. It's called affirmative action and feminists believe it's right. I…
pharyngula | May 18, 2010It's not all good news: Jonathan Katz may have lost a position, but someone who had much more power to do good keeps his. Our Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty, is also a homophobic jerk—he just vetoed a bill that promoted some common decency, giving gay partners a few end-of-life rights and responsibilities, so gay people could make decisions about disposition of the body at the death of a partner, for instance. It was a bill that did not go so far as to legalize gay marriage, but simply acknowledged that grieving gay people ought not to be barred from making decisions about the people they…
pharyngula | May 18, 2010I remember Joycelyn Elders. The woman was appointed to the position of surgeon general, and when asked about masturbation at a conference on AIDS, she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught." It was a perfectly ordinary comment about something nearly everyone does or has done, and she got fired for it, by Bill Clinton. It was part of my disillusionment and disappointment with the Democrats.
Now look who Obama has appointed to a team to assist with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Jonathan I. Katz. He's not quite a climate change denialist,…
pharyngula | May 11, 2010Roger Ebert has roused the ire of the teabaggers, which is actually pretty easy to do. The occasion was a news story about a group of five privileged white kids who decided to flaunt American flags on their apparel on Cinco de Mayo, and who were sent home from school. Ebert made this comment:
Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July.
This prompted a series of comments from right-wingers, gloating over his disfigurement and prospects of his death. They are such a classy bunch.
In contrast, Ebert did…
pharyngula | May 6, 2010Not that I'd ever apply; I wouldn't ever want to work in an instition with an irrational commitment to a weird medieval superstition. It leads them to make all kinds of strange decisions.
Marquette University has just done that. They've been searching for a new dean for the college of arts and sciences, and had made an offer to a Dr Jodi O'Brien, a professor of sociology at Seattle University. They have now abruptly yanked the offer off the table and announced that the search has failed.
The reason? Partly, it's because she's a lesbian. Marquette does have other gay faculty, though, so that's…
pharyngula | May 6, 2010The American Academy of Pediatrics has come up with a compromise on female genital mutilation.
International human rights organization Equality Now is stunned by a new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which essentially promotes female genital mutilation (FGM) and advocates for "federal and state laws [to] enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a 'ritual nick'," such as pricking or minor incisions of girls' clitorises. The Policy Statement "Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors", issued by the AAP on April 26, 2010, is a significant set-…
pharyngula | April 30, 2010John C. Nienstedt is the Archbishop of the Diocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, which makes him the ranking Catholic god-botherer in the region, I guess. We're supposed to call him "Most Reverend" — priests are really good at attaching laudatory titles to themselves — but I won't be doing that, ever. "Most Intolerant," maybe, or "Most Boneheaded".
Anyway, he has an op-ed in the Star Tribune. The Catholic Church is facing some rough times right now, with declining attendance, a dearth of priests, and a scary percentage of the people willing to become priests being clearly socially and…
pharyngula | April 27, 2010There are good people living in Mississippi, I just don't know how they can bear it.
At least this first story can't be blamed on Mississippi. Fred Phelps is planning to picket Constance McMillen's graduation. This will be very interesting … how will the town and her fellow students respond? Will they be cheering the Phelpsians on, or will they finally get a good look in the mirror?
Residents of the state can be blamed for this one: another lesbian student, Ceara Sturgis, had her photo expunged from her high school yearbook. Her crime was dressing up in a formal tuxedo while being female.…
pharyngula | April 19, 2010I've been married for 30 years, and there's no end in sight, fortunately. But just imagine that, in my imminent old age, I were to seriously injure myself and be hospitalized for a long period…and my wife wasn't allowed to see me. And then it was decided that we were both so feeble and in need of care that we were put in nursing homes, for our own good…and they were separate facilities, and we were not allowed to see each other. Then, since we were obviously incompetent, our home and belongings were sold by the state to cover our costs. And finally, one of us dies…and we aren't allowed to see…
pharyngula | April 13, 2010Lots of people send me essays they've written, asking if I'd like to post it on Pharyngula. I usually don't, simply because I'd be inundated (so don't take this as an invitation!), and in most cases, those people ought to start their own blog and put it there. I thought I'd make an exception, though: this one is from Kelly Meagher, who is 14, and living in Florida, and writing this for a school essay.
Don't nit-pick over it, although I know there are pedants here who will anyway. Read it as representative of a growing attitude among our young people — an attitude I find very encouraging. It's…
pharyngula | April 6, 2010I thought the town was bad before, when they cancelled the high school prom because a young woman was going to bring a female date to it. But then there was a ray of hope: the school administrators changed their minds. There would be a prom after all, and Constance McMillen could bring her date! Wow! A progressive, reasonable attitude was prevailing!
Except not.
They had organized a new prom, all right…a prom just for Constance McMillen. The principal and teachers showed up to chaperone Constance, her date, and all of five other students who showed up, including two kids with learning…
pharyngula | March 11, 2010Constance McMillen is a high school student in a small town in Itawamba County, Mississippi. She's also gay.
I think you can guess where this is going. I can see the flames of someone's personal hell from here.
It looks like Ms McMillen is a very confident person, though, so I'd guess that her situation has made her stronger. She decide to attend the high school prom with her girlfriend; Ms McMillen was planning to wear a tuxedo. Good for her: she's proud of who she is, and was going to be respectable and decorous about the issue. The flames are licking a lot higher, you can tell already.
I…
pharyngula | March 9, 2010Roy Ashburn, California legislator, opponent of gay equality, unwilling to even recognize gay rights activists, has admitted at the age of 55 that he is gay.
That is so sad. To live a half-century in denial, to be so steeped in self-loathing that you build a career on stamping down people just like yourself, and to only now wake up and confront the truth…assuming he lives into his 70s, that's an admission that two thirds to three quarters of your life was spent living a lie.
This one life is all you've got, Roy. Live it by being true to yourself.