Hollaback App January 31, 2011

The awesome Hollaback has i-phone app and droid apps!

Hollaback! is a movement dedicated to ending street harassment using mobile technology. Street harassment is one of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and one of the least legislated against. Comments from “You’d look good on me” to groping, flashing and assault are a daily, global reality for women and LGBTQ individuals. But it is rarely reported, and it’s culturally accepted as ‘the price you pay’ for being a woman or for being gay. At Hollaback!, we don’t buy it.
We believe that everyone has a right to feel safe and confident without being objectified. Sexual harassment is a gateway crime that creates a cultural environment that makes gender-based violence OK. There exists a clear legal framework to reproach sexual harassment and abuse in the home and at work, but when it comes to the streets—all bets are off. This gap isn’t because street harassment hurts any less, it’s because there hasn’t been a solution. Until now. The explosion of mobile technology has given us an unprecedented opportunity to end street harassment—and with it, the opportunity to take on one of the final new frontiers for women’s rights around the word.
By collecting women and LGBTQ folks’ stories and pictures in a safe and share-able way with our very own mobile phone applications, Hollaback! is creating a crowd-sourced initiative to end street harassment. Hollaback! breaks the silence that has perpetuated sexual violence internationally, asserts that any and all gender-based violence is unacceptable, and creates a world where we have an option—and, more importantly—a response.

Via Boing Boing Thanks, Mr Jender!

We need YOU to write for wikipedia January 31, 2011

Wikipedia is overwhelmingly written by men. And Wikipedia knows this is a problem.

Sue Gardner, the executive director of the [Wikimedia] foundation, has set a goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25 percent by 2015, but she is running up against the traditions of the computer world and an obsessive fact-loving realm that is dominated by men and, some say, uncomfortable for women.

Her effort is not diversity for diversity’s sake, she says. “This is about wanting to ensure that the encyclopedia is as good as it could be,” Ms. Gardner said in an interview on Thursday. “The difference between Wikipedia and other editorially created products is that Wikipedians are not professionals, they are only asked to bring what they know.”

“Everyone brings their crumb of information to the table,” she said. “If they are not at the table, we don’t benefit from their crumb.”

Wonderful to see the problem laid out so clearly. (Great example for teaching social epistemology as well!) And now, we should all go become part of the solution. (Yes, even if you’re not a woman, you’re the sort of person who reads this blog, so I’m betting your perspective is also under-represented.)

UPDATE: Here are instructions on contributing. It’s really very easy– go do it!

Workshop: men discussing propositions and the aim of semantics January 31, 2011

For more, see here.

A letter like this one has been sent.

Domestic violence victim’s compensation cut because she was “conditioned” to it January 30, 2011

Domestic violence experts fear a court ruling that slashed a battered woman’s compensation payment because she was “conditioned” to domestic violence by her husband will deter other victims from taking legal action.
Diane Mangan, chief executive of the 24-hour helpline DV Connect, said the decision to reduce the payout because of the woman’s predisposition to mental stress from previous domestic violence only served to “diminish” her traumatic experience.

For more, go here. (Thanks, J-Bro.)

Egyptian women protesting January 30, 2011

Excellent photos here. (Again, Thanks L!)

Tunisian women protesting January 30, 2011

Some beautiful photos.

(Thanks, L!)

Query from Reader January 30, 2011

Query from a reader in the UK (where, as they allude to, there are actually close to equal numbers at the undergraduate level):

In all areas of philosophy above the undergraduate student level there is a gender imbalance. But in certain areas there is a huge gender imbalance. I am trying to organise workshops in the areas of experimental philosophy and contrastive explanation. We are seriously short of female philosophers who could participate. This is particularly awkward in Europe as the European Science Foundation requires 33 per cent of participants in their workshops to be ‘of either gender’. That does strike me as a very modest requirement. But it is a tough one to meet! Anyone out there who could help us to secure more balanced participation at such an event?

My first suggestion would be to contact some of the women who write for the experimental philosophy blog, here. But I don’t have any helpful thoughts about contrastive explanation.

Another thought: good for the EU, caring and doing something about gender balance!!

Any suggestions to help our reader?

The Sunday cat is completely shocked! January 30, 2011

I can has cheezburger has brought in supporting funds of 30 million dollars!  And all it does it make fun of cats.  Here’s the story; actually, it’s the whole network that has scored.  The network includes tons of blogs, which amount to an empire.  Still….

I can has cheezburger is also a channel on youtube.  Having discovered it, we want to share with you another visual metaphor for a philosophical discussion:

Stoning of couple in Kunduz January 29, 2011

I opened my newspaper this morning to graphic images from a filmed stoning to death of a couple accused of adultery.  The film has been making the rounds of the major news outlets, perhaps because, as the Toronto Star notes, the stoning  is “the first to be documented on film since the Taliban were ousted from power.”  A warning is in order before you click the link; the video is unsparing in its detail, and very difficult to watch.  I opted for a news outlet that at least keeps the video paused unless the viewer clicks to launch it.  Some news sites (such as the Telegraph) immediately launch the video upon arrival.

I hesitate to even post this.  The sight of these images tears at the soul.  But as it happens, today was my annual class in which I explained to students that I was providing a non-required screening of a documentary on torture for their viewing, because I didn’t want our discussion of torture as a moral issue to be an entirely abstract or hypothetical discussion.  We should employ our abstractions and hypotheticals, yes, but I was adamant that we must also attend to the fact that torture happens to embodied individuals.

Perhaps I’ve seen too much cruelty today.  Perhaps I’m completely wrong that one must at least look.  Perhaps I’m just tired.  Readers are welcome to criticize (as constructively as you can, please) my decision to post this.  I felt all day that in a way I wish I had never seen the still photos in the paper.  Then I went and gave that presentation to my kids.  Am I full of it?

A video posted by “Hypatia’s Ghost” in Egypt January 29, 2011

There is a disturbing picture in the video; one is warned before it appears. 

Many, many thanks to JT for sending it to us.

France’s Constitutional Council Nixes Gay Marriage January 28, 2011

AP Photo/Michel Spingler

Two French women who have been living together for 15 years and who have four children challenged the constitutionality of the country’s law on banning the gay marriage. The Constitutional Council has now ruled that the ban is not against the constitution.

It’s remarkable that the French in general have such a liberal attitude to matters of sexuality, yet the government proves to be conservative when it comes to “family values”.

This was not always the case. From wikipedia on the History of Same-Sex Unions:

In late medieval France, it is possible the practice of entering a legal contract of “enbrotherment” (affrèrement) provided a vehicle for civil unions between unrelated male adults who pledged to live together sharing ‘un pain, un vin, et une bourse’ – one bread, one wine, and one purse. This legal category may represent one of the earliest forms of sanctioned same-sex unions. [sic]

So much for the dark ages.

Sexism and Sport – UPDATE January 27, 2011

We posted earlier this week on two senior football/soccer commentators getting caught making cave-man worthy sexist comments about a female line ref. The situation has caused quite an uproar and after more damaging recordings of the two were posted onto YouTube, one of them was fired and the other has now resigned.

I did not expect this incident to have quite this far-reaching consequences – pretty awesome!!!!

Feminist Porn Awards Celebrates Six Sexy Years January 26, 2011

The Canadian feminist sex store Good for Her is presenting the 6th Annual Feminist Porn Awards. The Feminist Porn Awards honor pornographers whose groundbreaking work offers a fresh perspective on the sexual expression of women and everyone who finds themselves under-represented in mainstream pornography. Nominations for the awards opened on December 1, 2010 and will close on February 15, 2011.

In order to be considered for a Feminist Porn Award, submissions must meet at least 1 of the following criteria:

1) The work depicts genuine pleasure, agency and desire. These movies may also include a focus on connection, communication and collaboration between the performers and/or between the performers and filmmakers.

2) The work expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film, challenges stereotypes and presents a vision that sets the content apart from most mainstream pornography. This may include depicting a diversity of desires, types of people, bodies, sexual practices, and/or an anti-racist or anti-oppression framework throughout the production.

Full submission requirements are here, http://www.goodforher.com/files/images/Submission%20Requirements%20and%20Submission%20Form%20FPA%202011.pdf.

Gender Bias, Marking, and Hand-Written Exams. January 26, 2011

I have barely done any marking yet, but this struck me as I was distracting myself with observing my colleague marking hand-written exams: I (bored) picked up an exam, read a few notes, and made the following comment: “listen to this, her grammar is terrible:……”. Then it struck me – why did I assume the author was a girl?????????? Answer: pretty, neat, round handwriting…….

So, here’s my worry: we know how implicit bias acts in the context of judging CV’s, reviewing papers, judging comments, etc; when identical papers/CV’s/etc are labelled as originating from either women or men, they are generally judged to be of comparatively lower quality when marked as originating from women. That is why it is so important that these things are (ideally) done anonymously. Now my experience with this exam paper suggests that, despite not knowing the author’s name, I had made a very quick, unconscious judgment about the gender of the author based on her handwriting. This judgment may not always be accurate, but it if it is accurate often enough (and a quick flick through the pile of papers resulted in many papers that me and my colleagues unhesitantly judged to be either male or female), then this is a very pernicious way in which exam-marking can be distorted by implicit bias…

And most exams I have seen are handwritten, which suddenly makes this quite a worry? Thoughts?

Query: Pregnant PhD Applicant January 25, 2011

An important query… My suspicion is that answers will vary tremendously depending on both location and institution. I’m pretty sure the query’s from the US, but I can at least comment on the UK. The body that awards funding in the UK, the AHRC, actually has an awesome maternity leave policy: Nine months at full pay (so, an additional nine months of funding for the PhD). But what about the US, readers?

I have completed all of my applications to doctoral programs in philosophy and I am waiting to hear back. Meanwhile, I just found out that my partner and I are four and a half weeks pregnant.

We are still in the decision phase about whether or not to go through with the pregnancy. I want to make an informed decision about this, so—in addition to mulling over our financial state (we’re both ‘in philosophy’ and our resources are fairly meager), our living situation, our health insurance (or lack thereof), the physical distance between us (I’m abroad on a research fellowship and my partner is still in the states)—I turn to you with the following questions: if I were to go through with the pregnancy my due date would be some time just after mid-September, I want to know how this pregnancy affects possible offers from doctoral programs.
- Would a program rescind an offer if a student is due during the first semester?
- Does a program rescind an offer if a student asks for a one-semester deferment because she wants ‘maternity leave’?
- Should a student inform programs of a change in the number of dependents before she has even been offered admission?
- Would a change in the number of dependents affect an admission decision (because it somehow affects funding?)?
- Do graduate programs offer health insurance for dependents? for spouses?

Pursuing a doctoral degree in philosophy is very important to me and it is something that I have been working towards for the last several years. In my decision-making process regarding this pregnancy, I would like to take into account how it will affect possible offers. Realistically, how do programs react toward this sort of thing?

I turn to you with the hope that perhaps you and your audience can offer some type of insight.

Sincerely,
potential doctoral student/progenitor

Boys’ clothing January 25, 2011

Some interesting discussions of clothing marketed to boys here. Many of the designs criticised as violent and disturbing feature skulls, and I really quite like skulls, so I was finding the examples unpersuasive (although I do agree with the claim). But the post then does a nice job of comparing these with skulls marketed to girls, which are indeed less aggressive-looking. I liked the next post even better, though: The Brat. It’s amazing how much boys’ clothing works on the assumption that boys will misbehave and that this is cute. Via the always-excellent F-Word.

Catching up on calcium January 24, 2011

As we wrote last fall,  one of the serious health science agencies announced that almost everyone gets enough calcium and vitamin D; supplements, on the other hand, can be hazardous.  Given their idea of “almost” was in the high 90′s percentile, it all seemed to me surreal.  Postmenopausal women have serious bone health concerns, and they don’t form a nice 4% or so of the population.   It turns out in fact that ‘elderly’ men have the same problem, so we are far from talking “almost everyone.”

I doubt there’s any health science journalist I’d trust completely these days, but Jane Brody of the New York Times has an excellent record.  Furthermore, she’s sort it all out.  Thank goodness!

The bottom line is that a lot of women may well need supplements.  Do see what she has to say.

And by the way, do also know that sun screen with an SPF of 8 or more blocks out ALL absorption of vitamin D?

putting philosophy to the test January 24, 2011

(This post has almost nothing to do with feminist philosophy, but rather records an announcement that bears on various  philosophical arguments.  It’s a product of my surprised recognition.)

The Independent tells us that scientists are worried that the standard kilogram does not weigh what it used to.  In fact, that is old news; the new news is that they are going to “redefine the kilogram”.

This metal block, known as the International Prototype Kilogram, has been used since it was first registered with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in 1889 as the definitive unit of mass against which all other kilograms are measured. .. However, scientists now believe it is time to redefine the kilogram because there is evidence that the precise mass of the international prototype in Sèvres is not as constant as it should be.

 
And that’s enough to raise the question:  In Quine v. Wittgenstein, Who wins? Does one of them lose?

On the left (?) is Quine, Two Dogmas:

Any statement can be held true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the system. Even a statement very close to the periphery can be held true in the face of recalcitrant experience by pleading hallucination or by amending certain statements of the kind called logical laws. Conversely, by the same token, no statement is immune to revision.

While on the right is Wittgenstein, PI 50:

There is one thing of which one can say neither that it is one meter long, nor that it is not one meter long, and that is the standard meter in Paris.   But this is of course, not to ascribe any extraodinary property to it, but only to mark its peculiar role in the language-game of measuring with a meter-rule.

What do you think?

(There are a number of differing interpretaters of Wittgenstein’s remark, among them Cora Diamond, Heather Gert, and Saul Kripke. )

Maternity Spanx. January 24, 2011

Really. (Thanks, S!)

Making breastfeeding more possible January 24, 2011

It’s a goal we should all support, whether or not we as individual women choose to do it. It increases the range of viable options available to mothers.

The surgeon general is issuing a call Thursday to eliminate obstacles to breast-feeding – and working moms may see the first steps: The new health care law requires that many employers start offering “reasonable” break times to pump milk and a private place to do it. No, the company bathroom no longer counts.

Of course, what’s *really* needed is much longer maternity leave than Americans get. But this is better than nothing. And also better than the more traditional governmental strategy of haranguing and blaming mothers who don’t breastfeed. (Thanks, Jender-Parents!)