Too Fast, Too Black, Too African: On Caster Semenya | Autostraddle

From the article:

When, and more importantly, how, does it become permissible to forcibly strip an 18 year old girl in front of “experts” who will determine, for her, her own gender? Though Semenya has never confirmed nor denied this, it is widely rumoured that the gender testing she underwent in the months and years following the initial questioning of her gender revealed an unknown fact to her: that she is intersex. Many intersex people are not aware they are intersex until a medical or reproductive issue arises; however it is estimated that roughly 1.7% of the world population is intersex. Pause to think about the weight of making this discovery in the most public, unnecessary and invasive of ways. To better understand the number of intersex persons globally, 1.7% is also the approximate occurrence of red hair in the human population. Which is to say, it is not a small number. Is discrimination against this robust a population of people justifiable? If so, why? Whose advancement does it serve? What agenda does it push forward?

The science of testosterone and its influence on performance or as indicator of masculinity has likewise been successfully questioned and discredited within academic and scientific circles. I don’t purport to know nor want to debate Semenya’s biological composition; she is deserving of more privacy than we have ever afforded her. However, it is notable that the World Medical Association has not only questioned the study upon which the IAAF’s regulations are based but also the ethics of imposing medical treatment on athletes like Semenya. The IAAF’s regulations show a complete disregard for the wellbeing of Semenya when put up against the standards of a white, European, athletic body vested in the advancement of a heritage of white European athletic excellence.

Source: Too Fast, Too Black, Too African: On Caster Semenya | Autostraddle

I just can’t stop being thoroughly outraged by the treatment of Caster Semenya. Can you imagine an 18 year old being literally stripped naked while “experts” with no definable background in the expertise they tout, poke and inspect you to look for any reason to deny your womanhood?

There is a layer of racism to this that is jaw dropping, as Semenya was compared to the physiques of white women.

Then, to add insult to injury they pull up a discredited study about testosterone levels that is so far form reality that it was completely debunked. Every athlete has increased testosterone. There are no hard lines for what testosterone levels should be. We have a generalized masculine and feminine level.

I know this because I depend on testosterone for my masculine presentation, and my wife is repressing hers for her feminine presentation. I guess with both of us being transgender, we have a better understanding of the situation than the IAAF.

I will never stop being outraged that this woman’s success was not celebrated but undermined.

I can never support these sports knowing that this has happened.

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Paula Radcliffe: Caster Semenya ruling could bring ‘death of women’s sport’ · PinkNews

From the article:

Under the regulations Semenya, who has naturally high testosterone levels, would be required to undergo hormone therapy for at least six months before any competition.

The UN has condemned such treatment as an “unnecessary, humiliating and harmful medical procedure.”

Source: Paula Radcliffe: Caster Semenya ruling could bring ‘death of women’s sport’ · PinkNews

This ruling was asinine from the beginning. There is no exact level for testosterone for cisgender women. High level athletes produce more testosterone. There is also a racist element to this targeting.

Semenya is challenging this ruling to force her to undergo HRT therapy to lite4rally change her hormonal makeup in order to compete.

They have already put her through unscientific gender verification where they had some quack literally inspect her genitals.

This is bullshit.

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Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

From the article:

Several former employees at Andarako Petroleum Corporation, an oil company that employs more than 4,000 people, are alleging sexual harassment at the company’s Denver office. The report is a particularly egregious example of workplace sexual harassment, in an industry that is around 80 percent male.

Source: Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

I couldn’t get to the original article, but they blog has the basics of it. Can you imagine such a big company having so much workplace sexual harassment? I mean what the fuck?

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Women in Media Are Blacklisted for Filing Sex Harassment Suits

From the article:

It’s been nearly three years since Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against then-CEO Roger Ailes, prompting a slew of similar high-profile suits and executive oustings both at Fox and at other major networks. Media’s MeToo moment is as visible as Hollywood’s, toppling giants like CBS’s Les Moonves, NBC’s Matt Lauer, and Charlie Rose. But the women who filed suits against them and men like them say they too are now paying a professional price.

Source: Women in Media Are Blacklisted for Filing Sex Harassment Suits

This is not new, and not limited to any particular profession. When I was a nurse, I remember my administrator telling me my pick for hiring was not going to work because she had heard the nurse I wanted had filed a sexual harassment claim at another facility. I was totally taken aback because there had been rumors about that guy for years, but it was the nurse that complained that I couldn’t hire. I was young, and just shocked and angry.

Predators get second chances, but their victims are often blacklisted and impacted for the rest of their life.

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Girl Expelled for Defending Herself Against a Group of Boys | The Mary Sue

From the article:

At a high school in Alaska, a female student has been expelled for defending herself against a group of boys who had cornered her in a girl’s bathroom.

Source: Girl Expelled for Defending Herself Against a Group of Boys | The Mary Sue

Timeline:

• There is a transgender boy at the North Pole High School in North Pole, Alaska started using the gender appropriate male bathroom.
• A bung of asshole boys took a Snapchat Selfie to bitch about it, and decided to “protest” by invading the women’ bathroom.
• While they did this the next day, a girl was in there, and they barred her exit.
• She kneed the boy barring her in the groin.
• North Pole High School expelled the girl.

The trans kid was not even around for any of this.

Like are you kidding me? They expelled her?

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Wish us luck!

Microsoft Employees Protest Treatment of Women to CEO Nadella | WIRED

From the article:

A group of Microsoft employees appeared at an employee meeting with CEO Satya Nadella Thursday to protest the company’s treatment of women. The protesters asked Nadella to address claims of discrimination against women in promotion and advancement, as well as claims of sexual harassment, raised as part of a widespread discussion that has been building steam on internal company forums for the past two weeks.

Roughly 100 to 150 employees attended the Q&A in person, others watched via livestream.

Source: Microsoft Employees Protest Treatment of Women to CEO Nadella | WIRED

I’m not really shocked. I’ve known a lot of “bro-grammers” as my area is flooded with them. This sexist ideology is just part of the culture. It’s one for he reasons I decided against finishing my computer science degree and switching to an accounting degree when I was presenting as female.

Equal Pay Day 2019: the wage gap is bigger than you’ve heard – Vox

From the article:

Every year on Equal Pay Day, we hear that women in America make about 80 cents for every dollar men earn. For many women of color, the number is lower — black women make about 61 cents on the dollar compared with men, while Latina women make 53 cents.

But matters are actually worse than any of these numbers would suggest, according to a 2018 report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a think tank that looks at public policy through the lens of gender. Measures of the pay gap typically compare the wages of men and women working full time in a given year, as Emily Peck notes at HuffPost. But women are more likely to drop out of full-time work to take care of children or other family members.

To account for this, the report’s authors looked at women’s earnings across a 15-year period, and compared those with men’s. What they found was a pay gap nearly twice as big as what’s traditionally reported: averaged out over 15 years, women made just 49 cents for every dollar men made.

Source: Equal Pay Day 2019: the wage gap is bigger than you’ve heard – Vox

So to recap, over a 15-year period, women make 49 fucking cents for every dollar men make. This is because family leave is often inadequate if it’s offered at all, and culturally women are the front line caregivers for children and elderly family members.

This is a lot more realistic picture of what actually happens to women. They effectively have to start over after having children, when men stay. So it’s like having two careers.

Joe Biden Responds to the Idea He Made Women Uncomfortable | The Mary Sue

From the article:

Lucy Flores wrote an op-ed for The Cut describing Biden smelling her hair and kissing her head before she spoke at a political rally. Amy Lappos told the Hartford Courant that Biden grabbed her by the head and rubbed noses with her at a political fundraiser. Two more women, Caitlyn Caruso and D. J. Hill, spoke to the New York Times Tuesday about their experiences. Caruso says Biden “rested his hand on her thigh — even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort — and hugged her ‘just a little bit too long’ at an event on sexual assault” when she was 19. Hill says that at a fund-raising event, she and her husband took a picture with Biden, during which he “put his hand on her shoulder and then started dropping it down her back, which made her ‘very uncomfortable.’”

Biden’s initial response to Flores over the weekend was to say that never in his long career in politics, “did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully,” he said. “But it was never my intention.”

Now that three more women have spoken out, he’s issued a response video via Twitter.

Source: Joe Biden Responds to the Idea He Made Women Uncomfortable | The Mary Sue

Goddammit!

NASA Cancels All-Women Spacewalk Due To A Lack Of A Woman-Sized Suit

From the article:

NASA is facing accusations of sexism after it canceled the first-ever all-women spacewalk due to what officials said was a lack of spacesuits that could be made ready that would fit the women.

Source: NASA Cancels All-Women Spacewalk Due To A Lack Of A Woman-Sized Suit

Sexism is only having one medium sized suit that all the women astronauts wear because none of the idiots at NASA thought they even needed a single backup suit?

Just seriously?

Maine GOP Rep Thinks Menstrual Products Are Luxuries | The Mary Sue

From the article:

And considering that these products are, again, a matter of health and hygiene, people should be able to access them freely, as needed, but one man sees through the machinations of Big Menstruation: Republican state Rep. Richard Pickett of Dixfield. Pickett said of the bill, “Quite frankly, and I don’t mean this in any disrespect, the jail system and the correctional system was never meant to be a country club … They have a right to have these and they have them. If that wasn’t the case, then I would be supporting the motion, but they do.”

Source: Maine GOP Rep Thinks Menstrual Products Are Luxuries | The Mary Sue

We are talking about women in prison being rationed low quality and often ineffective menstrual products. This guy thinks that having menstrual product is somehow a luxury.

I am just often gobsmacked by cis men’s perspective on menstruation. It’s like a lot of them think you can just stop bleeding, or hold it, or you can make it go away on command.

In prison, menstrual products should not be rationed. I remember another article, that I can’t find, that also stated if you bleed on anything and make a mess you can be written up for it in prison as well. So you are rationed menstrual products and punished when you don’t have them.

I am also a big supporter of not having tax on menstrual products or diapers. Just why? These are necessities!