For the woman who has everything

…insertable technology!

Taking the shame up a notch is the Babypod, which purports to fix the average vagina’s lack of a sound system.

Pregnant women have long been urged to play music for their fetuses to make them smarter (a premise that has little to noscientific foundation), and many companies produce prenatal speaker systems.

The makers of Babypod argue that the problem with products such as Lullabelly and Bellybuds is not that they are stupid, but that external sound doesn’t penetrate the “multiple layers of soft tissue” between the fetus and the outside world.

You can also monitor  your kegel exercises, how full your tampon is, and various other details of your menstrual cycle:

Unlike dumb diva cups, which just capture period blood, the smart diva cup analyzes your monthly effluence, using (wait for it) Bluetooth to transmit data about menstrual fluid volume and color to your phone.

Oh, the panoptical possibilities.

 

(Thanks, K!)

 

 

Sara Ahmed’s resignation

Sara Ahmed has resigned over Goldsmith’s handling of sexual harassment. An excerpt:

It is with sadness that I announce that I have resigned from my post at Goldsmiths. It is not the time to give a full account of how I came to this decision. In a previous post, I described some of the work we have been doing on sexual harassment within universities. Let me just say that I have resigned in protest against the failure to address the problem of sexual harassment. I have resigned because the costs of doing this work have been too high.

She will clearly be much missed.  Here is a letter from some of her students. An excerpt:

We could not have asked for a better teacher and mentor.

We know that sometimes there are feminist reasons to leave institutions. We are sad to lose you, but we also know that this was a positive decision for you. We are looking forward to seeing where this departure leads you, and to reading what you write next.

 

New resource for syllabus diversifying!

The DRL aims to make finding relevant texts easy. All entries offer the following information:

• Text bibliographic details
• Abstract, publisher’s note, or a content synopsis
• A short comment with teaching notes and suggestions
• An indication of how hard to read a text is and whether it is more appropriate at introductory or further levels
• Links to the paid and open access versions of the text, and to any published syllabi that use it
• Link to the author’s web profile

You can search the list for specific texts, authors or keywords, or browse by topic in a easily navigable structure of categories inspired by PhilPapers. All texts included have been recommended by philosophers and assessed by our team who select for clarity and relevance to teaching. So while you could simply search existing databases for authors from under-represented backgrounds and find the texts you need, the DRL has done the work for you – and it gives you some basic teaching notes on top.

For more, and to join in the discussion, head on over to Daily Nous!