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AA Gill wears his with pride
Go read the post I wrote last night over at the Lay Scientist, in which I get worked up about a pair of shoes sent to me by the Dutch science funding council NWO.
Seriously though, don’t let this feminist faux-pas on NWO’s part put you off applying for this fellowship scheme. It’s a good programme and I wish they’d advertise more widely. The next deadline is on 11 February, for the mid-career Vidi scheme. Read more here.
I’m currently reading The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. I have many thoughts about this book, some of them good and others not.
At one point she cites German philospher Friedrich Engels, who claimed that:
“When a woman displays scientific interest, then there is something out of order in her sexuality”.*
I’m going to sit here, at my desk, in a world-renowned astronomy department and be a little bit thankful.
*I’m not sure of the exact source of the quote. Wolf refrences it as cited in Ann Oakley, Housewife: High value/Low cost (London, Penguim Books, 1987), pp. 46-47
I wasn’t going to get too carried away with this – after all it’s not my country, which has plenty of troubles of its own – but what the heck, it’s Friday, I’ll have a rant. I’ve been reading, talking (arguing), thinking more about Sarah Palin as every tidbit of news is thrust in our face by the (still) overexcited media. And really, where does the woman get off?
First of all I think she’s a formidable woman. She clearly has a lot of ambition, spark, and is not intimidated by anyone – and good for her. But that’s where my compliments will stop. The woman, or anyone sharing her views and beliefs, shouldn’t be in the White House (and preferably nowhere near it either).
The media frenzy over Sarah Palin’s nomination for John McCain’s vice presidency is quite astonishing. Here in Europe too she’s been a big topic of conversation. Although she’s obviously a formidable woman with lots of charisma, good looks, and a brain to boot, I can’t really muster much support for her as a woman or a politician.
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