Oddly (or not, it may have been all this that prompted it) I've been thinking about Lise Meitner a lot lately. And it still pisses me off to a froth that she didn't get included on the Nobel. Need to re-read that bio.

You know what's interesting? I don't feel like I ran into any of these things until college. Growing up,well, I mean hell, I had an ERA onesie and baby blanket. It was an issue I was aware of and raised to champion, but it never collided with me personally. I heard of it, but... Part of it, I guess, was that I was so apart anyway, that the machismo culture of the town I grew up never really embraced me long enough to rebuff me. I could be part of it, but the rules didn't really apply to me. And I had kickass public schools. I was other, academics' daughter and a nerd, and school embraced that better than they did the majority of the population. That exempted me from a lot. Then I joined a community of my supposed-like and suddenly, this crap was in my face.

Allyson, you made your point, he had nothing substantive, and that's very clear.

And Aimee, thanks for the head's up on the GS cookies. I needs me some cookies. Now all I need is to find a GS.

You want I should order you some when the Cookie Chair calls me? They come in in March and it would be a GREAT motivator for us to get the childrens together!

Hello!!! What part of "Kristin works in an all-girls grades 6-12 school" do you people not remember??? The place is LOUSY with girl scouts DYING to sell me (and all of my friends and family) cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

Granted, not as good an excuse to get your kidlets together, but seriously...I get the big pleading doe-eyes every day. If anyone local wants GS cookies, I'm your girl.

I'm lucky. I'm damned lucky in that I was born in '75. But some of the shit that has been said to my face by professionals in this field? Is shameful.

Exactly this. Teaching is a female-dominated field, but I've heard some pretty amazing shit even in this profession. I can only imagine what it's like in a more traditionally male-dominated field.

Apparently, Japan has had a lot of snow this winter.

Heh. The blogger just summed up essentially what my rant was. Without the expletives.

It just seems so out of place. If they were selling a conference venue to scientists, and had pretty people in bathing suits slounging around a pool as part of their graphics, I'd think nothing of it. But having this woman slounging next to their device (which suddenly looks a little phallic) is just...weird.

Yeah. I just kept thinking how I would feel if I were an astronomer or a scientist and got this catalog. I'd be livid. THE WOMAN ISN'T WEARING SHOES!

The fact that they tried to play off the cover and NOT address the issue just made me angrier. If they had fessed up and said, "Gee, yeah, it's sort of sexist and stupid, but we made a short-sighted mistake thinking we could reach out to our target audience. We could have been wrong" rather than, "But, but, but, the woman is well-qualified and an employee." What. Ev.

So, Allyson! I pre-ordered your book today, but in my little local bookshop. I was trying to find out if they planned on stocking it, but the girl who was in today is not the Decider, but she made a note of it. And I was chatting with her about it, and by the time I got done she was so excited about your book I think she's going to order a copy for herself, too!

I just clicked over and read the post and the replies. Gah, people can be so fucking STUPID. And the fact that that guy replied with "yeah right" to Allyson makes me want to scream. Look, asshat, you're proving her point. If you're assuming that the reason she's objecting to the model is because she is so very jealous of the model's body, then you are acknowledging that the ad is USING the model's body in order to sell a product.

What would be nice is if women were not constantly faced with objectifying images of other women and made to feel that we have to compete with each other all the time...and not compete in healthy ways (through our brains or wit or strategizing), but purely through physical appearance.

Academ~ma to ND.

I have a vague recollection of a furor (or at least discussion) over a telescope ad in Sky & Telescope over a decade (or two?) ago. I need to ask my dad, as he probably was the one to mention it.