“...the Platonic nerd is invariably male. The stereotype is flexible to incorporate women and girls on an individual basis, but few people conjure up the image of a woman when they think about nerds.” Feminist blog Pandagon reviews two books about nerdiness and geekery, Jason Tocci addresses the question of why female involvement in geek culture seems to call for a special explanation, and two feminist geeks set out in search of an egalitarian future.
posted by velvet winter on Jun 26, 2009 - 142 comments

Men face jail for rape if women are 'too drunk' to consent in bed to boost convictions. Men who have sex with drunken women will be at risk of being convicted of rape under new laws to be considered by ministers. The legal shake-up would mean a woman would be considered incapable of giving consent to sex if she had been drinking heavily.
posted by IronWolve on Dec 28, 2006 - 268 comments

She's no Barbie To readers of Russian Fairy tales, the name Alyona conjures images of simple peasant girls who become princesses through modesty, hard work and intelligence. A modern day Alyona has surfaced in the cut-throat world of beauty pageants.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk on Apr 14, 2004 - 48 comments

During Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to Crawford, Texas, this week, his representatives asked the FAA for his flights to be worked only by male air traffic controllers, according to today's Dallas Morning News.
posted by rcade on Apr 27, 2002 - 13 comments

Mom kills, dad kills: Two takes on tragedy This article looks at the differences between the Andrea Yates case and that of Adair Garcia, a Los Angeles man accused of murdering his children. The article discusses gender differences, but I wonder if ethnicity plays a role as well. (Here's another link, since the URL field on the "post a link" page seems to be cutting it off).
posted by electro on Mar 3, 2002 - 22 comments

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has been advocating for women's rights in Afghanistan since 1977. The telling story is that the women are not treated any differently now than they were during either the pre-Soviet occupation, or the Soviet and their puppet governments and now under the Taliban regime. The website has some disturbing videos of the public executions mentioned in this MetaFilter thread. (I have not watched the videos.)
posted by tamim on Apr 12, 2001 - 1 comment

Looks like this guy is using the web to spread even more disinformation about sexism. No wonder he has to GIVE his book away for free. Among the gems of wisdom, "If women really made 59 cents on the dollar for the same work as men, what business could compete by hiring men at all..."? Sheesh!
posted by murray_kester on Sep 30, 2000 - 1 comment

Does this teach any males here anything? I'm sure that it would be very useful to someone. Though I'm not sure who exactly.
posted by davidgentle on Sep 26, 2000 - 80 comments

Women in sports judged on looks more than ability. That's all well and good, but her remedy of "genuine equality in sports at all levels" rings hollow with me.
posted by owillis on Sep 14, 2000 - 16 comments

A survey on Gender Bias recorded that America's largest survey of sexual activity asked, "What is the best moment of intercourse?" Of the top three men's answers, the MOST popular single response was "my partner's orgasm." Feminists complain that men are preoccupied with performance rather than intimacy ("my partner's orgasm" did NOT make the top three list for women). If things were reversed and men's favorite moment was their own orgasm; (a) Feminists would complain that men were self-centered. (b) Feminists would complain that men didn't care about satisfying women.
posted by murray_kester on Aug 2, 2000 - 11 comments