A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Psychosplodge]

I doubt it.
I think the one I knew no longer resides in Sheffield.

[Mr Mystery]

And another rapist [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29048226]off to prison[/url].

Though I'm in two minds about the judge's comment commending the victim for her bravery. On the one hand, yes it is right we acknowledge such cases require bravery on behalf of the victim to come forward, and secure a prosecution.

On the other, it speaks volumes that it should require bravery to do so.

[Psychosplodge]

The bravery might be a reference to the fact that thats a swingers club.

[Gotthammer]

Relative to the history discussion earlier:













He is referring to the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Computers"]Harvard Computers[/URL] (also known charmingly as "Pickering's Harem" by the [male] science community). Several factors contributed to Pickering's decision to hire women instead of men. Among them was the fact that men were paid much more than women, so he could employ more staff with the same budget. Although some of Pickering's female staff were astronomy graduates, their wages were similar to those of unskilled workers. They usually earned between 25 and 50 cents per hour, more than a factory worker but less than a clerical one.





Example of their work:

Annie Jump Canon classified more stars in a lifetime than anyone else, male or female, with a total of around 500,000 stars. She also discovered 300 variable stars, five novas, and one spectroscopic binary, creating a bibliography that included about 200,000 references. Cannon could classify three stars a minute just by looking at their spectral patterns and, if using a magnifying glass, could classify stars down to the ninth magnitude, around 16 times fainter than the human eye can see.



Henrietta Swan Leavitt's work allowed scientists to compute the distances to galaxies too remote for stellar parallax observations to be useful. One year after Leavitt reported her results, Ejnar Hertzsprung determined the distance of several Cepheids in the Milky Way, and with this calibration the distance to any Cepheid could be accurately determined.

Cepheids were soon detected in other galaxies, such as Andromeda, and they became an important part of the evidence that "spiral nebulae" are actually independent galaxies located far outside of our own Milky Way. Thus, Leavitt's discovery would forever change our picture of the universe, as it prompted Harlow Shapley to move our Sun from the center of the galaxy in the "Great Debate" and Edwin Hubble to move our galaxy from the centre of the universe.

[Wolfshade]

During my astronomy degree we had a lecture dedicated to the "unsung women of the stars", it wasn't examined but it was a elcture purely about the works that this band of women (and some others) did

[YorkNecromancer]

I think the one I knew no longer resides in Sheffield.

Historically, women were always in the silver industry there. If you were a bloke, you went into the steel mills, if female, off to the silverplating. Everyone worked (because no-one could afford not to!) but the industry was curious segregated, such that silversmithing was largely 'women's work'. Fascinating really.

On an unrelated note, this articles is fascinating:
[url]http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/09/female-viking-warriors-proof-swords[/url]

So, GW: WHERE ARE THE DAUGHTERS OF LEMAN RUSS?!

56 SW heads in the Grey Hunter box and not one of them female? Not 'historically accurate' it would seem...

Also, these articles are fascinating and worthy of your time:
[url]http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/08/zoe_quinn_harassment_a_letter_to_a_young_male_game r.single.html[/url]
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/01/how-to-attack-a-woman-who-works-in-video-games[/url]

[Psychosplodge]

Interesting article Yorkie, but while it rightfully condemns the idiots harassing Sarkosen, it fails to acknowledge any of the genuine criticism levelled at her work(plus apparently the Kotaku dates don't line up). Also without you link I wouldn't have read either of [URL="http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s6j3sh"]these[/URL] [URL="http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s644c0"]two[/URL] interesting links from the comments.

[eldargal]

The problem with the genuine criticism of her work (and it is fine to have intellectual and rational disagreements with her, I do) is that it gets[URL="http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/96607258795/femfreq-yes-please-explain-to-me-again-how"] inundated in a tsunami of misogynist filth[/URL]. <--violence and sexual assault threats and all kinds of nastiness, be warned.

[eldargal]

Someone in a thread over at the Pathfinder RPG pafe said said “These personal issues really distracts from the game. Does anyone remember the days when none of this stuff was a friggin issue and all we had was fun????”
Such a time never existed, and if you think it does it’s because either as a guy you never had to deal with it, or for some reason your experiences were sheltered.

You know what days *I* remember?

I remember being told no matter how well I rolled, my female D&D fighter could not, as a matter of the *rules* be as strong as a man. Another player could decide his 13-year-old boy PC had a 18/00 Strength because he was magically blessed, but as a female character I *couldn’t*.

I remember bringing in a new character and being told they’d pick me up at the next village, and my background would be randomly rolled for. And do you know what was rolled? Harlot. And then I had to see what KIND of harlot. But, I was assured, this was totally fair. Because I might end up being a pimp, which would mean I was a male character.

But no, I was a wanton wench.

I remember not being ABLE to find a figure for a female warrior who didn’t have her tits, ***, thighs, or all of the above exposed. I remember being shown an editorial in Dragon Magazine where Kim Mohan *admitted* that sexualization in female miniatures was a problem, but claimed the Strength cap wasn’t “something any reasonable person could argue with” … AND didn’t offer any suggestions on how to deal with either issue.

I remember being told that since my magic-user’s level title for the next level was “sorcerer,” and not “sorceress,” and there was NO evidence in the rules of female sorcerers, I could NOT gain that level.

These were the people who TAUGHT me to role-play. And yeah that last argument is stupid, but I had NO WAY of knowing that. I mean there were racial caps for classes, and a Strength cap for gender, so why wouldn’t I accept a gender cap for classes?

Those days sucked. Roleplaying was so great a thrill I wanted to do it anyway. It wasn’t until one of the toads I played with physically assaulted me I left that group, because I was young and impressionable and they had LOTS of evidence that was just How the Game Was Played.

Never, EVER think that HOW a company describes things, presents itself, covers issue of gender and sexual orientation in the rules, and comports itself with customers doesn’t have a MAJOR impact on the culture of people playing the game.

TSR, and then WotC, had a LONG history of showing that women are second-class PCs at best, and mostly exist as sex objects to cling to the thighs of Conan-like heroes. Played by Boys. Gary Gygaz once said that women’s Brains are “Wired Differently,” and that’s why they just aren’t interested in rpgs. Of course that attitude impacted how woman were portrayed, and thus how a lot of players and DMs played.

It’s NOT that “All Cheesecake is Bad.” I’m not claiming you can’t have sexy character and nods to pulp – you just have to have them for both genders, and you have to have more than that. You have to show a RANGE of characters, male and female, spellcaster and warrior, preferable in every product but absolutely in the core rules.

Paizo and Pathfinder do a MUCH better job of that than anything WotC did before 5e (and 5e is too new to fairly judge either way). And so yeah, it is NO surprise to me when I can have fun with every Pathfinder group I ever meet, and get inappropriately harassed by about a third of the MTG and D&D groups I encounter.

So yeah, this stuff matters. It has ALWAYS mattered. And we NEED it in order to allow EVERYONE to “all have fun.

[URL="http://beowulf.co.vu/post/96333881971/someone-in-a-thread-over-at-the-pathfinder-rpg"]Source[/URL]. It's funny 'cos I've often thought I'd like to play MtG but everyone I know in person who plays, like in my games group and all, are the borderline ****s that I have less to do with than everyone else. The boys whose behaviour isn't bad enough to get them kicked out but is offputting enough to make you avoid them. always had an all wimmin RPG club so it isn't an issue with DnD and such.

[Wolfshade]

Semi relatedly.

Stronghold Crusader 2 will feature the Sultana, the game's first female opponent