sundries

[rm]

It was cranky day on the trains this morning. It's raining and everyone is angry. And in fairness, it's easy to get annoyed. People don't understand to keep to the right. People who don't sit down make the train cars more crowded and block the seats for others. We're all wet, the trains are delayed, people's bags are in the way, etc. But man, there is only so much I can take of the fucked up reasons people think they are more special than others on the New York City subway system.

It's another piece about how boys are behind girls in school and so civilization will crumble.

Articles like this make me seethe, for starts because not only is our educational system shit, I have watched it go from bad to worse and watch kids on Craigslist hire people to write their essays -- for college admissions, for their film school class, for their fucking med school unit! So many of my friends teach university here, at _good_ schools, and the student who can express themselves cogently (not elegantly, just with basic subject/verb and an understanding of how if/then works) is absolutely, positively the except to the rule. And it galls me. So for starts, wow, our education system needs fixing in about eight hundred different places in about eight hundred different ways.

Next: if boys are so behind in school, why are men still so ahead in the workplace? Oh right, because it doesn't count when women do things (and well get back to that later, I'm going somewhere broader with this). An academically successful woman doesn't count for anything. She can't be seen as a leader, after all. And women are good with the school thing, it's not special. Dime a dozen. Ignore her. Ignore them. Women - interchangeable parts, all the same, you know how it goes. Now let's say we can even stomach the reality of the above and are okay with it (and apparently large swathes, even a majority of our society, is). Now we do have a serious problem: the people we're letting get ahead are skills-poor.

This business of "women don't count" (insert snarky "math is hard" joke here) is hardly anything new. In fact eumelia wrote this morning about the pink triangle and how in the Holocaust women never wore it. You see, the crime of lesbianism was an "anti-social" crime, one the Nazi's assigned the black triangle. The issue was not sex (probably unacknowledged because of lack of PiV), the issue was their not marrying and breeding for the Reich.

I am dead, and I did not exist.

It comes up too in arenas that many of you would consider not to matter. If you're aware of the OTW you know that part of their mission statement says "we value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary."

I'm a member of the OTW, and I think the statement is essentially true, and I still hate it. Because what it says is that there are activities people do and activities women do. It's self-othering, it's not particularly reflective of the fandom I spend the most time in (Torchwood -- whose dominant culture, I would argue is queer, gender aside) these days, and it -- in its attempt to do anything but -- plays into the "see, some boys write fanfiction" speech a whole lot of women do to somehow legitimize fannish creation.

95% of new students in general aviation are men. Hardly any women. But airplanes are real and not sin.

I am sick of a world in which the presence of women devalues activities, educations, television shows (even though women make more purchases than men in almost every category, a male demographic is preferred by advertisers) and desires merely by their turning their eyes towards something.

But it's nothing new. And I don't, tragically, believe it will ever be anything old and quaint and once was either. And it's one of the small reasons I can never be quite happy: because nearly everything I have ever been taught -- by my parents, by my schools, by my fandom, by more than a few lovers, and by my persecutors -- tells me one simple thing. Because I have a cunt, when I love something, I make it less. It's a strange power, being the null, and it's not one I want or like or enjoy and I would like to give it back now.

North Koreans use cellphones to tell the rest of the world about life there.

True fact most people think is just an urban legend: More than three unrelated people living together is illegal in NYC.

Comments

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I have this weird thing about gender where I feel like a person trapped in a woman's body, and like nothing that's explicitly feminine has anything to do with me because I'm interested in so few traditionally "female" activities. I think about the most gender conformist thing I like is knitting. But otherwise I feel like being a woman is all about periods and babies and the Lifetime network and Oprah-type stuff and has nothing to do with me.

As for boys lagging behind girls in school, well yeah I've heard this before and while I can see it being a concern, you make a good point about how men are still so far ahead of women in the workplace. I'd be interested to learn the reason for boys not doing as well in school, but I also think the fact that this doesn't translate over into an advantage in the workplace for women needs to be addressed.

[paulshandy.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it is just a matter of time. Since women are more likely to go to college, and there are more women in the workforce now (the Great Recession hit men's traditional jobs harder), women might well just filter on upwards.

Or there might be a disconnect between skills taught in college and skills needed in the ever-changing workplace.

Or it might be because women are morely likely to want a healthy balance in life while men are more likely to sell their souls to the system for success.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Women aren't more likely to want or do anything more than men, and men aren't any more likely to do or want anything more than women. I know many women - one of them is my mother - who would sell their souls for monetary success. I also know many men - my fiance included - who would rather be content and comfortable in a stable, modest job than climb a corporate ladder.

However, you're right that there is a disconnect between skills taught in college and what is needed in the workplace. The workplace requires experience and practice, whereas college teaches theory. That's why internship/practicum/externship programs exist: so that students who may not be able to work a part-time job while going to school full-time, or even work in a full-time job each summer, can have a chance to practice what they learn. However, I think students underutilize these programs in favor of advanced coursework. In some cases, there might be an advantage to taking higher-level courses, such as if one is pursuing an advanced degree after college, or one plans on teaching or working in research; in most cases, I think it can hinder more than help if one chooses study over practice.

I honestly wish there was more room for theoretical work in the workplace, but the reality is that one's ability to handle fast-paced, stress-filled environments while dealing with people who have all sorts of personality traits and opinions is more important than the knowledge one needs to perform one's work. The government will often allow people to substitute education for work experience, but most private companies are not so kind when examining an application or resume.

[paulshandy.livejournal.com]

I must concede that both my parents sacrificed success for family time. They both accepted lower paying jobs with the government because the stability and hours were better suited for family life than working in the private sector.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Remember, though - the more women in a profession, the less that profession pays, and the less it is valued (though the educational qualifications don't become any less). Secretarial, nursing, library and teaching work are the classics, but medicine and pharmacy are on their way.

[paulshandy.livejournal.com]

In Russia, most doctors are women, and they don't make very much money.

On the other hand, some nurses make more money than some doctors. It comes from specialization. Doctors who specialize in something like heart or brain surgery make a lot more than general practioners, and nurses with certain specialties make so much more that they, too, end up making more money than doctors with a general practice, even if not as much as the specialized doctors. It's a tug of war between the laws of economics and sexism.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I have this weird thing about gender where I feel like a person trapped in a woman's body, and like nothing that's explicitly feminine has anything to do with me because I'm interested in so few traditionally "female" activities. I think about the most gender conformist thing I like is knitting. But otherwise I feel like being a woman is all about periods and babies and the Lifetime network and Oprah-type stuff and has nothing to do with me.

God, do I feel you on THAT one. It's a dangerous mindset, though. I know I have a long way to go in unlearning the gender myths that have been permeating my thoughts since birth.

If I may recommend a book for you: Barnett and Rivers, Same Difference.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

One thing that I constantly preach is the removal of the self from existing tradition and expectation. It's the foremost freedom needed, IMHO to become a complete person. I believe that there is a place for tradition and social expectation/order but there is also a place where that ends and the self needs to take over an have a go at life without restrictions and expectations.

I strongly believe that we need to let go of it all from the start - as cited in a N. Gaiman story " If you are a boy you ear blue, if you are a girl you wear pink " and start self thinking and liberating ourselves from social expectations and from the mind control that is our society in general. This is a tall order, but it is one that we will have to fill if we ant to make any kind of progress at all.

The expectation that "being a woman is all about periods and babies and the Lifetime network and Oprah-type stuff " is something that is drilled into the heads of girls from birth. Until we change that , nothing will change.