Breaking down Gender Stereotypes

Browsing through my followed blogs, the Scottish Parliament Petition blog mentioned the petition from the Men in Scotland webpage asking that all publicly funded domestic abuse/rape bodies recognise and cater for male victims of domestic abuse and rape.

The petition's description:

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that all publicly funded action (campaigns, publications, action plans, projects, training programmes, etc.) on domestic abuse/violence are overhauled to fully acknowledge the extent to which men are at the receiving end and to address the needs of male victims and their children.

They had 409 signatures.

Men in Scotland are absolutely correct in asking that the resources for male survivors of rape and domestic abuse be expanded. Scotland's main rape resource is Rape Crisis Scotland. When you look at the resources for people who are asking for their help (located under "How we can help"), you notice all of their centres are run "for women by women". When you click the helpful "Men and boys" on the sidebar, they recommend looking in their links section. The help they recommend is in mental health, men as survivors of abuse, the National Association of Male Sexual Abuse Survivors (website not found!), and two US sites. Where's a Scottish guy to go? Google "Scotland male rape help" and all you get is the Scotsman article from 2003!

Under Scots law, only a man can rape. The 2009 Sexual Offenses Act defines rape as:

(1) If a person (“A”), with A’s penis—
(a) without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b) without any reasonable belief that B consents,
penetrates to any extent, either intending to do so or reckless as to whether there is penetration, the vagina, anus or mouth of B then A commits an offence, to be known as the offence of rape.

One good thing about this is that "penis" includes "surgically constructed" penii. Another good thing is that you can be orally and anally raped, thus allowing men to be qualified as victims as well as women.

But the British reluctance to recognise women as potential sources of violent abuse is still strong. When it broke that a female nursery worker in Plymouth had created and distributed child porn of her young wards, shock rippled through the nation.

Up to 64,000 women 'are child-sex offenders'! (The Guardian 4 Oct 2009)

When the face of evil is female! (The Scotsman 4 Oct 2009)

Female abusers are more prevalent than anyone likes to believe! (Times Online 1 Oct 2009)

Females And Sex Abuse: The Ultimate Taboo! (Sky News 1 Oct 2009) (Alternately titled: Female Paedophilia: The Ultimate Taboo -- The Scale of Sexual Abuse by Women)

Feminism began as a call for people to recognise that men and women were equal. Yet people are still shocked when women complete the same atrocities that men do. It's bad for men to be drunk and fight and vomit on the streets, but it's HORRIBLE and SCANDALOUS for women to do so! It's bad when men rape and abuse, but it's SHOCKING and UNNATURAL for women to do so! It's bad when women are raped, but it's UNHEARD OF for men to be so! Until men and women are treated the same in terms of their actions -- not their genitalia -- we will not see equality.

This petition to recognise and help male survivors of rape and sexual abuse is one step in the right direction.

Another step towards gender equality

It is standard practice that when a woman gives birth, she gets some time off as maternity leave. Here in the UK, a woman can get 52 weeks off, with 39 of them paid. Men, however, were only given two weeks.

Various academics and researchers have commented on the fact that extended maternity leave can actually damage gender equality (ie for women) in the workplace.

Ann-Zofie Duvander says:

The flexibility of the Swedish system, which still has extensive transferable leave rights, has the consequence that the lion’s share of parental leave days is still taken by mothers, among other things making it difficult for women to compete on equal terms with men in the labour market. Consequently, the gender-based division of parental leave may contribute to a preservation of traditional gender roles and inequalities.

Laura van Dulk's paper:

Argues that if work-family arrangements are only available to women or if men do not use the existing facilities, inequality in the labour market will be maintained rather than reduced.

The New York Times blames pay inequality in Germany:

Maternity leave is another [reason for pay inequality]: men get promoted while their female colleagues take time off to have children.

However, here in the UK, men are going to be allowed to take the same length of time as women for paternity leave. They'll get 6 months leave, which will allow the women to use 6 months leave and return to work earlier.

I may or may not argue with the idea that you have to spend every waking minute with your newborn child until he/she is a year old, but I do not argue with the idea that women should not bear responsibility for this alone. If women want to be equal with men, it means dragging themselves out of the kitchen and home and into the workplace. And in order to do this, you need to drag men out of the workplace and into the home. While I doubt that all men will utilise all of the time allotted, it will certainly help.

Language and Media Bias

An excellent discussion of language use and media racism as displayed by the difference between "looters" and "finders/gatherers" post-earthquake in Haiti. White = finder/gatherer... Black = looter...?

Lost in British Cities

I'm not the only one, it seems. I've traveled to cities across the globe, into places where few people spoke my language. I traversed Beijing, Nanjing, New York, Auckland, Taipei, Bangkok, and a bevy of others without problem. I could aimlessly wander around the back streets of Shanghai or Quanzhou and return to my starting point with minimal difficulty. But never in my whole life have I ever been as lost as I have in British cities. And it seems even locals have difficulties.

Helen Croyden of the Independent blames people who steal road signs. I've been told that road signs were removed during The War to prevent any German invaders from finding anything, but that may be a myth. Either way, roads are poorly labeled.

In addition to the roads not being labelled, it is nigh impossible to guess what a road should be called because they all curve around back on themselves and have names as random as a child's toy chest. The problem with the road design is due in part to the fact that most roads are historical roads, having been established by cows and people on horseback some 400 years ago.

The US, by contrast, is populated largely by planned cities, with roads in stable grids. The extreme version of this Salt Lake City and other towns developed by Mormons.

View Larger Map
These Mormon towns all have a grid where instead of a standard numbers one way, names the other method most US cities use, they have a literal X-Y axis style grid. Notice that the streets are called West 400 South, or East 400 South. Addresses follow in a style of West 400 South 300, moving along from the (0,0)(usually the Temple) West 400 and then South 300. Perfect mathematical sense. (Except that you'll notice in the top right hand corner of the map they switch to standard numbers/names grids for some reason.)

Edinburgh, by contrast, sports a similar confusion of old meandering roads in Old Town (notice the road marked Cowgate) dating back some 400+ years and straight grid-like roads in New Town that are only 200 years old.

View Larger Map
What is likely to confuse Americans visiting the UK is that the road will carry on for quite a while, perhaps with curves in it, but will change names every few blocks. The spaces between the name changes aren't even static. They change when they feel like it.
On the one hand, this means that when you're scouring South Bridge for that one restaurant, you only have a few blocks to search. But on the other hand, these changes are usually poorly marked, with signs hiding on buildings, behind trees or bushes, or facing another direction. The standard street sign in the US doesn't exist in the UK.



Notice that one is free-standing and usually located on a corner. Notice the other is attached to the side of a building and is usually hidden behind a bush or tree, if it's there at all.

There's a reason most people in the UK have taken to SatNav like a duck to water. If they travel beyond their own village, they're likely to get lost. Not because they don't have a sense of direction, but because the roads are impossible to navigate.

And I haven't even brought up roundabouts!

I support the Naked Rambler

Naked Rambler Arrested... Again

He walks around Britain naked, and has gotten arrested and thrown in jail numerous times. I, for one, support the Naked Rambler.

Women in the RAF - advertising genius or failure?

The Metro is a wonderful newspaper. It's available free on most public transport (buses, trains, the subway) and has regional emphasis. One of the most widely read newspapers in the UK, it also manages to take a fairly balanced viewpoint on most events, without the political agenda of the Sun, Daily Mail or the Guardian. (This is worth imitating, America!) I read it whenever I can. Normally I read the articles, but when time allows, I also take a look at the ads to see what they're advertising (usually cell phones). This ad caught my eye.



It's an ad for the RAF which is quite obviously aimed at women. The intended audience can be seen in a number of ways, mostly in the use of a female as the "hero", and also in its placement near the TV section. (As compared to the sports section.) It's done in a nice comic book style, which is quite eye catching, and effective in that sense. The text reads:

Flight Lieutenant
Laura Hodson
Aeromedical
Nursing Officer
RAF Reserves

(right side:)

Camp Bastion, Afghanistan 23rd July 2007

A convoy ambushed. Three critically injured.

(image: helicopter arriving to troops)

We had to fly them home Giving the best care we could.

What do you do for men who've seen what they'd seen?

(image: airplane)

A smile here, a kind word there.

Their eyes lit up when I found some cans of coke!

(image: man holding non-descript can of pop/soda/fizzy drink)

When I'm not with the reserves I work in a London hospital as a sister.

I took care of these lads like they were my brothers...

(image: photo of woman in flying helmet)

And I'd be proud if they were.

Be part of the story.

I approve of women joining the armed forces. If men can do it, so can women. But I recognise that it is a male-dominated male-cultured environment, and thus presents various difficulties to women. This ad, I feel, shows some of those difficulties.

1) The "hero" of this comic/ad is a nurse. This is a standard female stereotyped job. Why is she not a doctor? Why not a pilot? There are plenty of options in this same scenario that don't play into stereotypes.

2) The injured soldiers were men. While I recognise that more men are at the front line and that there are often rules against women being in the front line, and so statistically men are more likely to be injured, it also gives the impression that men are there to do the work and the women are there to care for them. (Notice the bold of the word "care" in the 3rd block.)

3) In fact, that word "care" in bold was one of the reasons I was so mad about this ad. Why "care"? It's so wishy-washy. There's no action involved. Sure, it's shorthand for "get them home alive", but perhaps "get them there alive" might have been a better choice. But then, following the plot lines, what action does she really do? She gives them "a kind word", and a can of coke. What about life-support? An IV? I'm not in medicine, but even I know that nurses do more than provide moral support. Why aren't the actions shown in the comic actual nurse-related actions? Any bozo could smile and hand someone a can of coke.

Though perhaps that's the type of woman the RAF is attempting to recruit. What do they do in their free time? They watch TV. What are they good at? Being emotionally supportive. What do they value? Family (shown in emphasis of "brothers") or Religion (alternate meaning of sister at a hospital -- unclear).

I know women in the military is a big thing, both in the US and in the UK, and many hardships are faced by female recruits in a number of areas, but come on people, let's at least try to recruit women who want to be equal and do the things men do.