Strangely enough, sexism has always been theoretical for me. I was talking to my mother and aunts a few months ago during my high school graduation and I found out that all of them had to fight to be able to more than just housewives. Meanwhile, my friends and I have just taken it for granted that we can have any future that we want. (I grew up in a middle-class suburb and I've been pretty sheltered, so I'm not implying that there isn't still sexism in the U.S., just that I haven't encountered it yet.) #women
@gwenhwyfar: I graduated high school in 1995, and I also didn't encounter any sexism until entering college and the workplace. I think it has something to do with being exposed to more generations and people from different parts of the country. If a company is being run by someone who graduated in 1965, it can take a long time for some attitudes to be eradicated. Plus, for some reason, while young woman are mostly taken seriously as students nowadays, they are not always taken seriously as workers, or especially working mothers. #women
If we only look back on what we've already accomplished, what's the incentive for more progress? By focusing on what still needs to be done, we can aspire to greater things.
Or maybe we should be patting ourselves on the back for inventing the telegraph rather than twittering about Google Wave on our iPhones. #women
Did anyone else get a hearty laugh out of the football metaphor? "That's right, dude! That's how you explain to the boys what being a mother is like! It's like bein' the QB!" Gender-based misunderstanding: averted! #women
as a professional woman (with the debt to prove it) about to go on maternity leave - i throw the rest of the world out as an example to how screwed up the US is...
@Melpomene: Yes. Many companies do, but it is not required, so many companies do not as well, and if you are a small company, you don't even have to offer unpaid maternity leave. #women
"The phrase (which adapts a bit depending on the speaker) is that whites like to measure progress by how far we've come; minorities like to measure progress based on how far we have left to go."
This is an important point, and an interesting one that sheds light on the discussion, but could you maybe explain why you wrote "whites" and then "minorities"? Shouldn't "whites" be "majority"? Especially since this is a discussion focused on gender/sex issues - so including using "whites" in this context, instead of "minorities" makes it stand out even more as odd? #women
@olivia2.0: I don't think I've ever heard "the majority" commonly used as a synonym for "white" in this country, while "minorities" is a fairly common catchall phrase for non-white races in the country. #women
Oh crap, Time. The Glenn Beck lovefest was bad enough (darn those liberal fire departments for saying there weren't a million teabaggers!). But now this? I just don't know. I would have liked to see both a "we still have a long way" and "we've come so far" package. It seems to be tilted toward the latter.
I've been waffling on which newsweekly to keep: Time or Newsweek. This may be a point for Newsweek.
I appreciate Shriver for bringing it up, but they could have done a whole issue on sexual violence and rape culture. That's a huge indication that no, we have not come that far. #women
"Men are much more likely to say there are no longer any barriers to female advancement, while a majority of women say men still have it better in life."
Errr... did they just stick this sentence into that paragraph at random? Because a statement like that is pretty powerful evidence that there's a long-ass way to go, and they're listing it in the section that seems to imply we're catty self-sabotaging whiners. What? #women
@HeatherNumber1: We'd both be millionaires. An ex-boyfriend once told me he didn't understand why feminist theory existed. He was a philosophy major. Articles like this one reinforce the perception. Thanks, Time. I wonder how many women are higher ups there. Oh, a male Time editor was on Morning Joe today and I had to turn it off because he kept saying how great everything was for women now. #women
@otherginger: $0.65, not $0.065. I hope. Because 65 cents to the dollar is bad enough, it would be absolutely ridiculous if it was 6 and a half cents to the dollar. :) #women
Prince Waleed, for all that he publicly does to hire women and to promote equality in the workplace, is mostly concerned with having attractive women prominently working for him. There are plenty of progressive women in Saudi Arabia who resent his attitude towards women - they're accouterments, not respected employees.
Saudi women face some incredible structural and cultural challenges in their efforts to enter the workforce. However, in the time I spent living there and meeting Saudi students every day, I was very impressed with how these women were determined to forge a place for themselves in the workforce without turning their society on its ears.
Rotana television is mainly a bunch of music channels (a few movie channels as well, I think) that is owned by Prince AlWaleed BinTalal and mainly broadcasts dolled-up women veejays in between music videos. I doubt that it's a very women-friendly environment.
My problem with these places being the pioneers is that if anything bad such as sexual harassment is reported (highly unlikely), it'll make society's acceptance of mixed gender workplaces even further away.
ETA: I mentioned he's a Prince to imply that he gets to do whatever he wishes in his companies without fear of prosecution.
My great-aunt, who grew up in Palestine and later Amman, thinks the laws oppressing women in Saudi Arabia are ridiculous. She took off her hijab and wrapped her head in a keffiyeh to look like a man so that she could drive a car while she was there. She rolls her eyes every time someone talks about gender-specific workplaces. She is over 90 years old. Love that lady.
My point is, I'm not sure if it's a sentiment felt by women across the Middle East but outside of Saudi, but from personal experience I wouldn't say that MOST women in the region agree with such limiting rules regarding gender separation in public, etc. Younger generations and the work of women described in the article are bringing about - slow - change.
Well duh! Muscles are heavier than fat, so if you exercise, unless you were reaaaaallly flabby to begin with, chances are, you'll gain more weight. You'll have a firmer body and has a higher chance of winning that bar fight, but hey, you won't be so light that even a Nice Guy who haven't exercised in years would be able to lift you off your feet anymore. So, time to start fasting!
Man, fuck that study. So what if exercise doesn't help you lose weight? For most of us, exercise burns fat and builds muscle, which makes for smaller, healthier people, since muscle weighs more than fat. So what are we talking about here? Because I can weigh 140 pounds and be a size 10, or I can be 140 pounds and a size 4-6, depending entirely on how much I'm exercising and what (as opposed to how much) I'm eating. According to Time magazine, I'd be just as much of a lard ass at size 4-6, 20% body fat, as I am at size 10, 28% body fat. Which is nonsense.
Also, when I exercise, I think about food less -- I still want to eat and stuff, but I experience fewer cravings, so I make better choices.
To sum up, they can pry my Nikes from my cold, dead feet.
Your skepticism is justified. LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center receives almost all their funding from food and supplement companies; Slim Fast, Kraft, Agritech, Nutricia, Metabolife, to name just a few. The rest comes from the US Ag Dept. Their "studies" usually focus on exercise having no real weight-loss benefits. But guess what's really good for your body? The genetically altered food and the supplements their funders sell. Sadly, numerous articles are written on a regular basis presenting their findings as actual science.
For a good laugh, google their study on the benefits of ephedra.
10/16/09
10/16/09
10/15/09
Or maybe we should be patting ourselves on the back for inventing the telegraph rather than twittering about Google Wave on our iPhones. #women
10/15/09
10/15/09
[en.wikipedia.org]
truly truly sad and horrifying - what exactly are our national family values? #women
10/16/09
That's utterly appalling. I never realized the situation was quite that bad for American women. #women
10/16/09
10/15/09
This is an important point, and an interesting one that sheds light on the discussion, but could you maybe explain why you wrote "whites" and then "minorities"? Shouldn't "whites" be "majority"? Especially since this is a discussion focused on gender/sex issues - so including using "whites" in this context, instead of "minorities" makes it stand out even more as odd? #women
10/16/09
10/15/09
I've been waffling on which newsweekly to keep: Time or Newsweek. This may be a point for Newsweek.
I appreciate Shriver for bringing it up, but they could have done a whole issue on sexual violence and rape culture. That's a huge indication that no, we have not come that far. #women
10/15/09
Errr... did they just stick this sentence into that paragraph at random? Because a statement like that is pretty powerful evidence that there's a long-ass way to go, and they're listing it in the section that seems to imply we're catty self-sabotaging whiners. What? #women
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/12/09
Saudi women face some incredible structural and cultural challenges in their efforts to enter the workforce. However, in the time I spent living there and meeting Saudi students every day, I was very impressed with how these women were determined to forge a place for themselves in the workforce without turning their society on its ears.
10/12/09
My problem with these places being the pioneers is that if anything bad such as sexual harassment is reported (highly unlikely), it'll make society's acceptance of mixed gender workplaces even further away.
ETA: I mentioned he's a Prince to imply that he gets to do whatever he wishes in his companies without fear of prosecution.
10/12/09
My point is, I'm not sure if it's a sentiment felt by women across the Middle East but outside of Saudi, but from personal experience I wouldn't say that MOST women in the region agree with such limiting rules regarding gender separation in public, etc. Younger generations and the work of women described in the article are bringing about - slow - change.
08/07/09
08/06/09
Also, when I exercise, I think about food less -- I still want to eat and stuff, but I experience fewer cravings, so I make better choices.
To sum up, they can pry my Nikes from my cold, dead feet.
08/06/09
For a good laugh, google their study on the benefits of ephedra.
08/06/09