orichalcum

1. A series of Flickr pictures of ordinary people and their BMIs and weight categorizations:
The interesting thing for me is that I would tend to categorize, looking at them, most of the "overweight" people as "healthy," the "normal" people as "thin," and the "underweight" people as "worrisome." "Obese" for me definitely comes across as "plump," but not, say, the stereotypical gamer or middle-aged academic build, which is, um, significantly larger than many of the folks described here as "morbidly obese". How do other folks react? I think it's entirely plausible that my viewpoint is heavily skewed by the sorts of people with whom I regularly interact - although I should add that I tend to think that most college student women come across as really thin to me. All of this makes me more skeptical of BMI measurements, particularly after the perfectly healthy apintrix's recent comments on the subject.

2. New Study Establlshes Widespread Harassment and Discrimination against Women in Science and Engineering Fields:
No, Mr.Summers, it's not just because women aren't well suited for tech jobs. 75% of women aged 25-29 in these fields are given the top rating on performance evaluations, compared to 61% of men. By ages 35-40, 52% of them have dropped out of their profession. 63% of women in SET fields face sexual harassment. One woman, Josephine, who used the nickname "Finn," found that "Finn" received a much wider variety of emails, including useful career opportunities, than "Josephine" did.

What particularly frustrated me about this study is that one of the proposed solutions is doing things like tutoring women in executive leadership skills. And yes, that's important - but it reminds me of John McCain's comment on the Ledbetter pay discrimination bill that women needed more "education and training" rather than a guarantee of equal pay for equal work. Because, you see, the real problem is that women aren't as good as male workers - except they are. It's just that their male colleagues don't believe that.

3. Sulu (or rather, George Takei) announced he's marrying his partner of 21 years in Los Angeles next month! Yay!

So, I'm not applying for this job, but it occurred to me that some folks who read this LJ might well be interested. It's writing questions for the LSAT, for $60K + per year, in Newtown PA.

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There have been some interesting if depressing articles about gender relations lately which I thought I'd share and invite comments on.

Women with hourglass figures have smarter kids! I'm skeptical about the science here, but hey, another reason to be okay with my hips while continuing to work on losing the post-pregnancy stomach is probably a good thing.

Animated movies ignore reality in favor of gender stereotypes. Specifically, the recent spate of insect movies like "Bee Story" have male characters for nearly all the leading roles and ignore the fact that their jobs would be done by female bees and female soldier ants. Yes, it's just a movie, but it's also reinforcing stereotypes for millions of kids.

Coffee shops (at least in Boston) discriminate against women. No, it's not because they order more complicated drinks. It's precisely this sort of unconscious sexism that drives the need for affirmative responses of various kinds - and that I know least how to fix.

Ooh, look, there's now a Girl's Guide to Gaming, in Pink, featuring Gossip about fun games for Girls like cooking and Nintendogs. How have I survived without a guide helping me into the strange world of video games?

One of the Round 2, viewer-chosen potential campaign songs for Hillary Clinton is the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic." Have they listened to the lyrics, people? Not a happy campaign song.

In other gender-related news, there are some great superheroine ads here (via wildpaletz).

More depressingly, a new study on sexual harassment suggests that sexual harassment is based less on the perceived attractiveness of the woman than whether or not she has so-called "masculine characteristics" like assertiveness, dominance, and independence. Women who are perceived as less gender-typical are more likely to get harassed, regardless of whether or not they are sexually attractive. It's about hazing, not uncontrolled lust.