Feminist News

[BaneTheBrawler]

Share and discuss news relating to women's rights and Feminism.

Philosophical discussion is that-a-way. Keep it there. This is to discuss specific news, events, and bills. I realize that the two threads are closely linked, but url links are easy to do. If you find yourself getting into the more philosophical side of things, take it to the other thread and link back here to reference what you're talking about. If you don't, I'll do it. By force. With much disappointment and sadness.

Don't make me sad. Keep it on topic, and above all keep it civil.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Male Senators Banned Women From Senate Pool So They Could Swim Naked

No woman was allowed to swim in the Senate pool until 2008. It was an unwritten rule that apparently didn’t get challenged until a little over six years ago when Kay Hagan of North Carolina was elected to the Senate.

[Teryu]

edit: woops sorry

[Brill Weave]

You can your fucking point across without being a crass stupid mother fucker.

[NynJa]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...lo-6012777.php

The Hope Solo discussion was in the old feminism thread, which is now locked. Domestic Abuse is accepted...if you're female.

[hey]

The Hope Solo discussion was in the old feminism thread, which is now locked. Domestic Abuse is accepted...if the victims refuse to cooperate.

Fixed.

[Blubbartron]

Victim's testimony, or even them not wanting to press charges after the initial arrest, often has no bearing in the court. That said, while it's possible this was treated with kid gloves because she's a woman, it's more likely because she's "famous" and had a good lawyer.

Have some reading material on the bullshit that is no-drop domestic violence prosecuting. http://www.ejfi.org/DV/dv-20.htm

[NynJa]

Fixed.

Funny because a NHL player (Slava Voynov, Russian) is suspended pending a domestic abuse case. The victim recanted everything, and yet the courts still said "thats not how shit works here" and are proceeding regardless.

[hey]

Funny because a NHL player (Slava Voynov, Russian) is suspended pending a domestic abuse case. The victim recanted everything, and yet the courts still said "thats not how shit works here" and are proceeding regardless.

Congrats, you found one example of each, demonstrating your point.

Same thing happens to people of every gender. You need more than 2 cases to prove any kind of point.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Keep it civil.

[Melena]

Congrats, you found one example of each, demonstrating your point.

Same thing happens to people of every gender. You need more than 2 cases to prove any kind of point.

A lot of it comes down to state laws and what the police see when called. In the NHL case, she was visibly beaten, more than just a couple of scratches. That is why despite her not wanting to press charges it's going through. If there's no visible markings and the woman decides not to press charges, they won't go forward. If her face looks like raw hamburger when the police show up, she can say all she wants, the other person will go to jail and potentially face charges.

[archibaldcrane]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/g...er-scientists/

First study in the link is re: teacher gender bias in math and how it affects female students' choices in the future.

[archibaldcrane]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/s...n-can-lactate/

It's not sexist to discriminate at work against mothers who need to pump breastmilk because men can lactate too, according to the worst court ruling I've heard in quite a while.

[archibaldcrane]

Apparently Nationwide is not on breastfeeding moms' sides.

[Salodin]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-02-04-...hful-groups-0#

Spoiler: show

The results, published in the journal Biology Letters, are from a study jointly carried out by Professor Robin Dunbar's lab at Oxford University and Professor John Manning at Northumbria University.
Previous physical comparisons between humans and other mammals suggest that humans are mid-way between being a faithful species and a promiscuous species. Research by Dr Rafael Wlodarski and Professor Dunbar in Oxford University's Department of Experimental Psychology suggests that this may actually be because humans consist of two separate sub-populations of people: one group is more interested in short-term flings, while another would like to form long-term commitments.
The researchers analysed previously collected answers from 575 North American and British people on a standardized questionnaire which assesses an individual's attitudes and desires towards 'non-committal' sex. They also looked at photocopies of the right hand from 1,314 British men and women.
From these photocopies, they measured the length of the index (second) finger and the ring (fourth) finger. The shorter the index finger in relation to the ring finger (the 2D:4D ratio), the higher the levels of testosterone that person is likely to have been exposed to while developing in the womb. This is true for both men and women. From previous work, the researchers already knew that the higher levels of foetal testosterone can go together with greater sexual promiscuity as an adult. While not predictive of individual behaviour, the length of the ring finger versus the index finger can help identify the group of people who are more likely to be promiscuous.
The statistical analysis of sexual attitudes data found that the distribution of people’s answers was 'bimodal', i.e., it clumped into two distinct groups. One group corresponded to people who were more likely to value sexual fidelity, with the other group more likely to be promiscuous. This bimodal distribution was there for both men and women.
The analysis of the finger lengths similarly found that both men and women tended to segregate into two groups. One group had a ring finger which was much longer than the index finger, suggesting that they had been exposed to more testosterone in the womb and may be more likely to seek many sexual partners. The other group had fingers which similar in length, making them more likely to seek long-term relationships.
Dr Wlodarski explains, 'This research suggests that there may be two distinct types of individuals within each sex pursuing different mating strategies. We observed what appears to be a cluster of males and a cluster of females who are more inclined to 'stay', with a separate cluster of males and females being more inclined to 'stray', when it comes to sexual relationships.'
'It is important to note that these differences are very subtle, and are only visible when we look at large groups of people: we cannot really predict who is going to be more or less faithful. Human behaviour is influenced by many factors, such as the environment and life experience, and what happens in the womb might only have a modest effect on something as complex as sexual relationships', according to Professor Dunbar.
These findings imply that human mating may be more complex than originally thought, with many environmental, physiological and psychological variables contributing to human mating behaviours.

Tl;dr: Research suggests that there are many factors that go into whether a person is more interested in a short fling or long term relationship, one of which is how much testosterone was present in the womb during pregnancy (ergo males lean more toward one side then females). It's subtle, and only noticeable when looking at a large population, but it very well might be there. Things are early, and they're still working away though so take this with a grain of salt.

I didn't know which thread to put this in, so I put it in here. Deal with it.

[Gokku]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-02-04-...hful-groups-0#



Tl;dr: Research suggests that there are many factors that go into whether a person is more interested in a short fling or long term relationship, one of which is how much testosterone was present in the womb during pregnancy (ergo males lean more toward one side then females). It's subtle, and only noticeable when looking at a large population, but it very well might be there. Things are early, and they're still working away though so take this with a grain of salt.

I didn't know which thread to put this in, so I put it in here. Deal with it.

so.. the patriarchy does start at birth...the femnazi's were right!

[Baelfael]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/s...n-can-lactate/

It's not sexist to discriminate at work against mothers who need to pump breastmilk because men can lactate too, according to the worst court ruling I've heard in quite a while.

How can it be discrimination if the company actually already has a lactation room? I'm inclined to feel like there's some pieces of the story left out. If you're not feeling fully up to going back to work, I'm fairly confident that maternity leave and sick/vacation days are two separate things, as well as preparing the milk in her own time before/after work. See dis.

I'd definitely say there's some poor business practices at work here though.

[Melena]

How can it be discrimination if the company actually already has a lactation room? I'm inclined to feel like there's some pieces of the story left out. If you're not feeling fully up to going back to work, I'm fairly confident that maternity leave and sick/vacation days are two separate things, as well as preparing the milk in her own time before/after work. See dis.

I'd definitely say there's some poor business practices at work here though.

Maternity leave is unpaid, at least at the vast majority of places in the US. If you want to be paid during maternity leave, you must use sick/vacation days, otherwise it's an unpaid vacation. also while they had a lactating room, they didn't inform her that she needed to submit paperwork to use it and that it would take 3 days to process it, which is dumb. Toss in the boss dictating to her the resignation letter, it's several levels of fucked up.

[RKenshin]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-02-04-...hful-groups-0#



Tl;dr: Research suggests that there are many factors that go into whether a person is more interested in a short fling or long term relationship, one of which is how much testosterone was present in the womb during pregnancy (ergo males lean more toward one side then females). It's subtle, and only noticeable when looking at a large population, but it very well might be there. Things are early, and they're still working away though so take this with a grain of salt.

I didn't know which thread to put this in, so I put it in here. Deal with it.

While research and pin-pointing an exact reason/cause is interesting, isn't this basically accepted as a survival mechanism of the species? Men 'spread the seed', women raise the family.

I guess I'm mostly curious as to the arguments of people that believe differently (even before or in spite of the above research).

[Salodin]

Yes, the double standard is encouraged for the most part in nature. That isn't to say those getting the short end of the stick won't complain. Just because it's a natural phenomenon that is often observed in nature doesn't mean that humans have to deal with it or be satisfied.

But yes, people suggesting otherwise are cray. When you don't consider equal rights or quality of life, men generally sleep around to pass the genes while women try and get a mate to stay put and defend the home and children.