Turkish FA to ban men from stadiums

seriously!

The Turkish football association has come up with a radical solution for tackling hooliganism – by banning men from stadiums. Teams sanctioned for unruly behaviour by fans are instead only allowed to admit women and children aged under 12 to watch games.

…

On Tuesday, more than 41,000 women and children attended Fenerbahce’s match against Manisaspor in Istanbul.

Fenerbahce’s 1-1 draw with Manisapor kicked off after players from both teams hurled flowers at the fans, while the visitors were greeted with applause instead of the more customary loud jeers.

The home side’s captain, Alex de Sousa, said: “This memory will stay with me forever. It’s not always that you see so many women and children in one game.”

Maybe if they hurled flowers at the men, the men would be nice, too. Just a thought…

Read more here. (Thanks RW!)

staring at Kant’s breasts…?

Author Junji Hotta has blessed the world with “Tsundere, Heidegger, and Me”, a tour de force of European philosophy… in a world where all the philosophers are self-conscious anime girls. The books went on sale September 14.

The table of contents includes: “Chapter 1, Descartes: proving the existence of God”; “Chapter 2, Spinoza: man is the greatest for man”, “Chapter 3, Berkeley and Hume: to exist is to be aware”, “Chapter 4, Kant: the starry heaven above me and morality within me”, “Chapter 5, Hegel: the world is an infinite progression towards wisdom”, “Chapter 6, Nietzsche: God is dead, but nothing has changed”, “Chapter 7, Heidegger: without a world, we do not exist, without us, the world does not exist, we are not alone”.

Part of me, of course, is sceptical about the quality of the philosophy this publication might contain. Another part of me thinks it might be fab for children to see philosophical thoughts coming out of the mouths of “girlie girls”. (Assuming this is meant for children. I’m never quite clear on that point, wrt anime.) …but…and don’t get me wrong, I’m no puritan, and no prude; teens are sexual creatures. but does Kant really need the big pendulous breasts? And don’t get me started on Spinoza…

why spinoza? to what end (no pun intended)? the mind boggles...

Read more here.

(pregnant third-year) beggars can’t be choosers (in vet school), right? Obviously not.

Dr. Isis has posted on a recent going-on in the school of veterinary medicine at UC Davis. A third-year student became pregnant. Not having any formal procedure for dealing with such situations, the following email was sent to all of her fellow third-year students:

Dear Colleagues,

One of our classmates recently gave birth and will be out of class for an unknown period of time. This means she will undoubtedly miss one, or more, or all quizzes in VMD 444.  Dr. Feldman is not sure how to handle this and has requested the class give input and vote.  He has provided us with 6 options on which to vote and is open to any other ideas you may have.  Most likely a CERE poll will be up next week and a voting will close no later than Wednesday.  If you have other suggestions please email them to Dan or I ASAP. We will alert you to the opening of voting. Below are listed the options that Dr. Feldman has suggested. Please reserve comment on these options and provide us your opinion on them by voting when the time comes.  Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

a) automatic A final grade
b) automatic B final grade
c) automatic C final grade
d) graded the same as everyone else: best 6 quiz scores out of a possible 7 quiz scores (each quiz only given only once in class with no repeats)
e) just take a % of quiz scores (for example: your classmate takes 4 quizzes, averages 9/10 points = 90% = A)
f) give that student a single final exam at the end of the quarter (however this option is only available to this one student, all others are graded on the best 6 quiz scores and the % that results)

Please let us know if you have other thoughts on how to handle this situation and please keep your eye out for the upcoming vote.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Your Presidents

When you finish swearing aloud at the computer screen, do pop over to Dr. Isis’s blog for the full story, including the reply Dr. Isis received from emailing their department chair. (NB. it will necessitate further swearing.)

(Thanks, J!)

stop bullying mothers about breast vs bottle…

reads the headline on a comment article in today’s observer. I don’t really follow Barbra Ellen, so I don’t know whether hitting the nail on the head is something she regularly does, but it’s clear she’s done it this time. Do read the full article, but here are couple of particularly shiny gems…

Let’s call them the Breastfeeding Mafia – those who your tits will obey! They are all over this report on weaning, as if it were a different report attacking breastfeeding, acting all offended at this imagined trashing of the lactating prowess of their breasts. Outraged (damn the patriarchy!) at the undermining of this precious feminine gift – “perfect food” for our babies. And, one wonders, when did “what’s best for baby” turn into “no choice for Mummy”?

…

There are areas of the world where breast versus formula is a life-and-death issue – women in famine-struck areas too undernourished to produce milk; others who are better off breastfeeding, which doesn’t cost money and doesn’t need purified water. Thankfully, in the relatively cosseted west, this is not our problem, so shame on those who seek to make it one.

FYI: I won’t be reading or replying to comments on this post. So, breasties, have at it (I won’t hear you!); and the rest of you, feel free to reply on my behalf.

EDINBURGH WOMEN IN PHILOSOPHY GROUP WORKSHOP

21 JANUARY 2011

The Edinburgh Women in Philosophy Group would like to invite
interested parties of all genders to a workshop organised to explore
some of the philosophical issues surrounding the under-representation
of women in professional philosophy.  The date is Friday 21st January
2011, in the Conference Room, David Hume Tower, George Square,
Edinburgh.

 

We have the following provisional program:

12.30pm: Welcome coffee

1pm – 2pm: ‘Particularity, Epistemic Responsibility, and the
Ecological Imaginary’
Lorraine Code, University of York

2pm – 3pm:‘False Consciousness and the Modern Woman’
Elinor Mason, Edinburgh University

3pm – 3.30pm: Coffee break

3.30pm – 4.30pm: ‘Unconscious Influences and Women in Philosophy’
Jennifer Saul, Sheffield University

4.30pm – 5.30pm: ‘Should sexual harassment law be used to address the
operation of implicit bias in the workplace?’
Jules Holroyd, Cardiff University

5.30pm – 6.30pm: Coffee and further discussion

Deadline for registration for the workshop and for dinner is 10th January 2011.

Workshop website is here.

UK Jobless women total hits 22-year high

Today’s Independent points out that, though jobless rates have (as ConDems are so keen to point out) recently fallen, the recent trend is opposite for women in the workforce, and set to get much worse.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Female unemployment has been rising for over a year and hit a 22-year high this autumn.

“With the Office for Budget Responsibility predicting half a million further job losses in the female-dominated public sector, women look likely to suffer rising joblessness for some time to come.”

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: “There are signs that cuts in public spending are already having an adverse impact on job prospects for women, with the unemployment rate for women now at 7% – higher than at any point since the start of the jobs recession in 2008.

“Women are likely to have been adversely affected by fewer vacancies in public administration, education, health and social work.

“The public sector, which has a relatively high concentration of female workers, is also the only sector to record an increase in redundancies in the latest quarter.”

Once again, THANKS, NICK. read more here.

How to Help?

Jender’s Advice on Applying to Grad School post got me thinking. What ought staff/faculty do if they know that postgraduates are having trouble in their department?

 

If you know that women postgrads in your department are experiencing problems—with other members of staff; with other postgrads; etc—what do you do? Ought it be left to the postgrad(s) herself/themselves to decide what to do and to do it? How ought they be advised? Is it right to act on your own initiative? And if so, how and what and when?

 

I suspect that when women postgraduates have trouble in a department, how the department handles it* makes a big difference to how the experience impacts the postgraduates themselves; inaction, or wrong action, could make a bad situation worse, and could make a woman feel even more excluded, even if general sentiment is silently on her side.

 

What do you think?

 

*I am assuming that these things are generally known. Departments tend to have thick grapevines, even if those vines seem conveniently to disappear when tricky situations arise.

“They were clearly men – they were not wearing skirts.”

From Old Reliable, BBC news…

A Lancashire council which introduced gingerbread people to its primary school lunch menus is to rename them gingerbread men.

Lancashire County Council said staff brought in the politically correct term two years ago to amuse people, but the joke had been “lost in translation”.

A spokesman said gingerbread men would appear on new menus soon.

Preston MP Mark Hendrick said he was pleased the council had “reverted to common sense”.

“I thought daft political correctness had gone out of the window but obviously it’s still out there,” the Labour MP added.

“They were clearly men – they were not wearing skirts.”

CFP: Conference on Gender and Climate Change

Call For Abstracts: Gender and Climate Change – Prato, Tuscany September
2011
Gender and Climate Change is an international conference that will seek to
bring together the latest research in key areas of gender and climate
change, to highlight impacts of climate change on women, and to draw
together a body of knowledge for input into the 2011 United Nations
Framework Convention (COP 17) and the Earth Summit 2012.
The Conference Organisers – Gender Leadership and Social Sustainability
(GLASS) Research Unit at Monash University, Australia, in collaboration
with Worldwide Universities Network, Gender Justice and Global Climate
Change (G2C2) – aim to bring together researchers, advocates, and policy
makers, to form a coherent picture of the differential impacts of climate
change and to convey that knowledge in formats that assist in policy
development. The 2011 conference will highlight links to global poverty,
sustainability, policy, and change.
http://www.med.monash.edu/glass/conference-2011/
The complex couplings between human and natural systems that must be
understood to respond to climate change, demands a robustly multi- and
interdisciplinary approach to research. Furthermore, attention to the
differential gendered impacts and opportunities of climate change requires
a deeply intersectional approach in which the relevance of factors such as
class and race are considered alongside gender. For this reason, the theme
of this conference, recognizes the importance of engaging experts from
multiple disciplines and engaging local and indigenous knowledges to
address critical gender and climate change issues.
Strong partnerships among researchers, policy-makers, and community
stakeholders are essential for identifying and implementing promising,
sustainable solutions that are relevant to the people who are most
affected.
Abstracts should not exceed 250 words. We invite submission of abstracts
from 1st September 2010. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30
November 2010. Notification of acceptance of the abstract will be 28th
February 2011. Please submit online at
http://www.med.monash.edu/glass/conference-2011/papers.php
The official language of the conference is English. All abstracts should
be submitted and presentations delivered in English.
Abstracts should include the following:
Author/s details
Postal Address
Email
Telephone
Organisation
Abstract Authors
Title of Paper
Abstract

Protest March on Cuts to Higher Education, London, Next Wednesday

NUS and UCU are jointly organising a national demonstration – ‘Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts’ – to take place on Wednesday 10 November 2010. Meet at Horse Guards Avenue – 11.30am.

 

For more info, see the demonstration web site here.