Guest post: Do you really expect us to unravel the work of more than a century in order to knit you a comfort blanket?


Originally a comment by Maureen Brian on Charles Seife is telling the same story.

garyggpelow,

You don’t sound as though you’re old enough to have been around in the ’60s and ’70s but believe me we achieved a hell of a lot then. There is no need to go back and do that work again. It is done.

Achievements included, depending upon where you are, anti-discrimination laws and the codes of practice in place in most institutions and big companies, a means of redress for discrimination, direct or systemic, access to better education, equal pay (in theory) – the list is too long but we’ve got the works in law and in policy at least on paper.

Yet by about the end of the ’90s those of us who achieved such things – in the face of the sort of mindless antagonism you display – noticed as rational beings that progress had sort of ground to a halt. So we looked for the reasons why the pay gap was still there, all aspects of computing where women were once well represented had become sterile male ghettos, women with good degrees in STEM subjects and apparently promising careers were dropping out at an astonishing rate.

And what did we find? This may amaze you but the backlash which Susan Faludi described on the basis of actual evidence in 1991 was not merely still with us, it was gaining ground. So different women worked on different aspects of this problem, gathered even more evidence and took action to both assist understanding and to make a course correction. Anita Sarkessian is just one among many – addressing a specific problem the most effective way she can.

Do you really expect us to unravel the work of more than a century in order to knit you a comfort blanket? Get real! And do stop whining, please.

Comments

  1. Al Dente says

    And do stop whining, please.

    This a thousand times. What are Dawkins and the other defenders of the status quo doing but whining about how mean everyone who wants to change the status quo is?

  2. Ben Wright says

    @garyggpelow,

    …and that’s one of the reasons why Thunderf00t is something of a wally.

  3. tonyinbatavia says

    Please, garyggpelow, elaborate on why we should give a single shit about what that warm pile of rat snot says. Or what you say, for that matter. Because at this point, I am certain I couldn’t care less about either of you.

  4. Dunc says

    What is it with people who can’t spell “Myers” correctly?

    And why bring him up here? This isn’t his blog.

  5. Rowan vet-tech says

    Yes, garyggpelow, that response of yours @2 is full of wisdom, insight, completely relevant, and thoroughly rebuts this post I’m sure. /sarcasm

    Please try for something substantive next time instead of “this person says you guys are poopyheads… so you’re poopyheads!”

  6. Anthony K says

    For shame, gary. The correct response to having your inaccuracies and misapprehensions corrected by Maureen is not to shit your pants and pray to Thunderf00t to save you; the correct response is “Thank you, Maureen, for teaching me. You see, I’ve been listening to Thunderf00t, and consequently, I actually know less about things than before I started. I’ll be sure not to make that mistake again.”

    You’re welcome.

    (Incidentally, the correct response to Thunderf00t taking about ‘dens of vipers’ is not to run around squawking it like a child who heard “But were you there?” from Ken Ham, but to ask him why he’s grifting on YouTube and whining about FtB instead of REALLY helping men, such as by building them shelters.

    You’re welcome for that, too.)

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