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TONGUE TIED ARCHIVE
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September 10, 2005It's Now Incorrect to be Nice to Women
The sheer nuttiness of Leftists sometimes leaves me so breathless that I hardly know where to begin in pulling the nonsense apart. And here is one example of that. It is a "conference" (mutual backslapping session) to be held at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) later this month. The conference is on "Discrimination and prejudice in the 21st century". I have read the summaries of a lot of the talks to be given and, as you would expect from the title of the conference, a lot of them do seem to assume that prejudice is a fairly unitary entity. They think you can talk about "prejudice" as such. So if you dislike blacks, you will dislike homosexuals, Jews and women too. This is a very old fallacy in psychology going back at least as far as the 1950s. My own published academic research on the subject has shown that even attitudes to various racial groups are not strongly correlated. You can dislike blacks while being perfectly fine about Jews etc. So the whole conference is an exercise in group reinforcement rather than a serious attempt to grapple with what actually happens out there in the world.
Even one of the more sensible conferees, Jim Sidanius, relies on a theory (if you can call it that) called "Social Dominance Orientation" that is sheer rubbish. And if you think that description is a bit strong, read this (also to be found here).
But the prize for silliness has to go to a paper by one Peter Glick. I reproduce the summary in full below:
"Continued progress toward gender equality is hampered by beliefs that appear to "favor" women, but actually serve to legitimize inequality between the sexes. Although affectionate in tone, benevolently sexist beliefs are patronizing, characterize women as weak, and reinforce the notion that men must provide for and protect women. Thus, even though benevolently sexist beliefs correlate with evaluatively positive views of women (e.g., as pure and warm), they also correlate with hostile sexism toward women who challenge men's power (e.g., feminists) and, in cross-national comparisons, with societal indicators of gender inequality (e.g., few women in powerful roles in business and government). Although benevolent sexism is not (historically) a new development, it is particularly difficult to combat and may be the strongest remaining bastion of sexist belief. Whereas many overtly hostile sexist attitudes, such as the idea that women are inherently less intelligent than men, have been widely rejected in American culture, benevolent sexism persists, in part, because it many women find promise of male protection and provision attractive. Additionally, benevolent sexism is strongly related to cherished cultural ideals about heterosexual romance. Thus, benevolent sexism may be particularly effective at undermining women's resistance to inequality. Exposing the hidden costs of benevolent sexism is a first step toward challenging its pernicious effects."Do you get it? Liking women and being nice and kind and chivalrous to them is all wrong! What a poor twisted soul the man must be. I think it's only the boiler-suited brigade of women who would agree with him. I guess he is just a relic of the 60s and 70s.
01:49 PM 
It's happened! Marriage to be Abolished
No. I am not writing for "The Onion". The headline above is not satire. But it's not about the USA -- yet.
When the campaign for homosexual (I refuse to misuse the word "gay") marriage took off, one of the biggest conservative concerns was that it would erode the significance and importance of normal marriage. It would get to the point where you could marry your dog or your daughter etc. And homosexual marriage is now a reality in some parts of the world. And even in the USA a halfbreed arrangement called a "civil union" is common.
It used to be said that there is no such thing as a happy farmer but it was only the weather that the farmers were complaining about. And we have since found that there is no such thing as a happy Greenie but it is only the whole modern world that Greenies want to abolish. We now see however that there is also no such thing as a happy political correctness warrior. And there is NOTHING that they will not agitate about. The old saying: "Give them an inch and they will take a mile" really applies to them. To them agitation is what it's all about. Stirring up trouble for the rest of us is how they get their kicks.
And they have leapt ahead even of what conservatives have warned about now. The taste of victory they have had over homosexual marriage has given them an idea that will REALLY upset ordinary people: Abolish marriage altogether! It's only on the drawing board in Sweden as yet but we all know how the Left worship the Swedish handout State (where a quarter of the workforce is on some sort of welfare) so it's: "Sweden today, America tomorrow". Excerpt follows:
"As Sweden's Feminist Initiative meets in Orebro on Friday for its annual general meeting, one of the group's more radical proposals has been revealed: the abolition of marriage. Instead the group, which is expected to become a fully-fledged political party following the meeting, wants a 'cohabitation law' which ignores gender - and allows for more than two people to be included. The proposal is one of the group's 'prioritised political demands' which the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet got hold of before the meeting. FI founder and board member, Tiina Rosenberg, told the paper that the group wants to create "a modern concept which does not favour and promote couples and heterosexual norms"".And you thought I was kidding!
Comments? Email John Ray
(Hat Tip to Sir Humphrey for alerting me to this)
12:16 AM
Handcuffed Police
A group of Canadian Muslims filed a formal complaint against a police chief in York because he participated in an official trip to Israel, reports the Canadian Jewish News, saying the visit to an "oppressive, racist" state will endanger local Muslims.
Khaled Mouammar filed the complaint with the York Region's Police Services Board on behalf of the Ontario Committee for Fairness in Policing. He said the trip, organized by Canadian Jewish Congress and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and attended by 30 other area officials, was "a danger to the Canadian public."
The chief has "alienated over one million Arab and Muslim Canadians" by "unintentionally or unwittingly tolerating racial profiling," Mouammar said. He asked for the police chief to apologize to the community and take sensitivity lessons, but the board dismissed the complaint.
The paper says similar complaints were filed against the police chief of Hamilton, who also took part in the mission. Another group even complained when Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair participated in an annual Walk for Israel.
A Guy who REALLY has "Dual Heritage"
As I have already mentioned, my post on British coyness over mentioning the race of a wanted desperado was another post that got me a lot of mail. There were many proposals about what "dual heritage" might mean, including some that -- how can I put it politely? -- included mention of non-human ancestry. Anyway, I often find my mail is more interesting than what I read in the press so I thought this one was so much fun that I had to share it:"It is truly an amazing world these days. The mention of race is so taboo. I am Apache/Scottish living in Arizona. I look simply white to most. Once people find out that I am half Apache, I see, on occasions, a change in approach to me. Last year I told a co-worker that if he didn't stop tripping all over himself trying to be politically correct about Native American issues here in AZ, I would be forced to scalp him and hang his scalp above my front door. He mentioned this to our manager and I was called in and told that I should not use certain terms, especially referring to "hostile" actions, even in fun. I informed my manager that I had not scalped anyone for many years and that I was going to file a racial discrimination claim since he was trying to stop me from talking about by people's culture and history. After he turned even whiter than he already was, I told him, "Dude, I am kidding, lighten up, you will live longer."Unreal, truly unreal. I do not believe in affirmative action or any kind of "special" treatment based upon anything except hard work. I have run across many racists ... welcome to reality. Overcome it and keep swinging. An Apache and a Scotsman ... but first and foremost, an American. You haven't seen anything until you see me in full head dress wearing a kilt.
12:10 AM
You Can't Win with Political Correctness
Most of us are still puzzling our heads over why it is wrong to name sporting teams in honor of American Indians but it seems that we now have to cope with the exact opposite as well. There are now some American Indians who want to replace "white" names with Indian names. And you know what? I am guessing that instead of the two lots of political correctness warriors coming to blows over this, they are going to support one-another! Their logic is not our logic. Anyway, here's the latest (excerpt):"The president of the Northern Cheyenne Indian tribe is proposing renaming at least two communities on his southeast Montana reservation, replacing names assigned by whites with those that he said would foster ``a stronger pride in our community.'' Eugene Little Coyote told The Associated Press on Wednesday some tribal members may consider his idea radical but he believes towns with Cheyenne names would have more cultural significance, especially for younger American Indians.... For example, he said Lame Deer, the seat of tribal government, is also known by many tribal members as Black Lodge, in reference to the staining of tepees from burning timber inside. Busby, in the western part of the reservation, was named for an early white storeowner and carries a ``bad connotation,'' Little Coyote said. ``Our own people make fun of it.'' ``My way of thinking, as a Cheyenne, is that it should be named after a Cheyenne leader or something of our choosing,'' he said. Many on the reservation now know Busby as White River."
12:08 AM
So That Explains It!
The Associated Press says hundreds of firefighters from across the country who volunteered to help out in New Orleans were delayed in Atlanta for days of sensitivity indoctrination by federal authorities.
The firefighters were told by FEMA that it would take two days to train them before they could carry out their community service and outreach duties. Part of that training included classes on sexual harassment and lessons on how to deal with ethnic groups.
01:21 PM
More on "Mixed Heritage"
My post on British reticence to mention the race of a wanted criminal has got me a lot of mail. I thought this email from the Netherlands has an interesting twist on the practice:"Sounds familiar enough. Here in the Netherlands the race of a criminal is generally only mentioned in news stories and elsewhere when the suspect is caucasian. If the suspect is Asian or North African they simply say "coloured skin", if the suspect is black they don't say anything. As a result everyone implicitly adds "black person" when no race is mentioned, which of course has the exact opposite result of what's intended: people are filling in the blanks and starting to consider blacks more prone to being criminals than others (which may be true, given the high percentage of them among the prison population, especially compared to the percentage of them in society).
08:46 AM
The Half-Breeds
The Anchorage Daily News says residents of an isolated Alaskan village who have named their high school sports teams 'The Half-Breeds' aren't doing any hand-wringing over the mascot.
The village of Aniak, pop. 532 people, is 317 miles west of Anchorage and accessible only by air or riverboat. Nearly three-fourths of its residents are Alaskan Native, primarily Yup'ik Eskimos and Tanaina Athabascan Indians.
The name Halfbreeds was chosen by students in the late 1970s in honor of the community's origins -- white settlers who intermarried with Yup'ik Eskimos, said Wayne Morgan, a graduate of the school and the school board president. The symbol of the school is a traditionally dressed Alaska Native man holding a spear next to a white man holding a rifle.
"Most people are of mixed race, mixed background," Morgan said. "We're proud of it. The kids are still proud of it."
Morgan said the local don't cotton to outsiders coming in and telling them whether their team mascot is appropriate or not.
Ya Think?
The number of children charged with race crimes in Scotland -- 197 in 2004-2005 -- has risen by 74 per cent in the past three years, reports the Scotsman.
Race-baiters say the numbers are a sure sign that there are problems on the playgrounds there, but Bill McGregor, the general secretary of the Headteachers Association of Scotland, said the rise could also be explained by an increased willingness to report racial incidents.
Maybe the call two years ago by Ian Forbes of the Aberdeen Racist Incident Partnership for children as young as three to be reported to police and monitored for uttering racist remarks is being heeded?
Wonderbra Sales Sag
To feminists, push-up bras are of course anathema. They represent "pandering to the patriarchy" -- or whatever the politically correct phrase is. So feminists are no doubt rejoicing that sales of such items seem to have fallen off in recent times. One English female writer was however refreshingly frank in suggesting a non-feminist reason for the rise and fall of the pushup. Excerpt:
"Sales of push-up bras have plunged 10 per cent in the past year, and the reason, I suspect, is that women are fed up with the Wonderbra. And who could blame them? The torture is over; we are free at last, free from the slavery of the most uncomfortable contraption ever invented for the female form ..... Indeed, the older we get, the more we are in need of a quick lift. It is not surprising that the biggest market for the push-up bra is now women aged 45 to 54. They're not trying to defy the laws of nature. They are simply recognising that age and gravity are a girl's worst enemies..... Discomfort aside, there always came the awful moment when we undressed for the first time and our Monroe cleavage was exposed for what it was: more Watford Gap than Twin Peaks. With one tug of the clasp, the breasts of Wonderbra wearers are transformed from Susannah's melons to Trinny's poached eggs".
Source
02:26 AM
Britain: Race Unmentionable Even to Catch Murderers
Lots of American newspapers are very cautious about mentioning race in a crime report. They generally get around it by putting up a color photo of the accused. But in Britain it has got worse than that. Apparently you cannot specify race even if it might help catch a vicious murderer. Note the excerpt below:"Six months on from the murder of 18-year-old Kylee Dibble from Barton Hill, police have released a new description of a key witness they are looking to trace. A local woman came forward to speak to the police last week and has given a description of a man that she saw in the area at the time that Kylee was killed. The man was seen walking from Corbett House across the area of grass that leads to Longlands House just before 8.30am. He is described as in his 20s, of dual heritage, athletic build, with plaited shoulder-length hair, and a slim face with pointed features. He was wearing a black zip-up jacket with very dark blue jeans, which were flared at the bottom.So one parent of the murderer was a Protestant and the other was a Catholic?
01:06 PM
(Sigh)
The Indiana Daily Student noticed recently that ginger-flavored cookies for sale at Indiana University in Bloomington are called "ginger persons" instead of the more traditional "gingerbread men."
The cookies are reported to have been stripped of their gender in order to appease the gods of sensitivity.
Mary Frohliger, an IMU employee of 23 years, wonders what the folks who wrote the Mother Goose rhymes would do today.
"You can't go, 'Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm a gingerbread person.' That doesn't work; you can't do the rhyme without 'man,'" she said.
'Chinaman's Arch'
The name of a natural arch in northern Utah is being changed to make it more culturally sensitive, according to the Standard-Examiner.
Chinaman's Arch, a natural limestone formation at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, is thought to be named for Chinese laborers who worked on area's railroads during the 1860s.
A group of Chinese-Americans have petitioned the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to rename the structure "Chinese Arch."
Incorrect Language Gets a Pass in Australia
Broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh are not at all unknown in Australia. And the most popular of them all is John Laws. He is not as far to the Right as Rush but is still pretty down-to-earth. And there is no doubt in the world that Laws has rather "old-fashioned" views about homosexuals. He recently referred to one particular homosexual in language that I might be wise not to repeat here.
Naturally, he gets complaints. And the authorities who supervise broadcasting standards in Australia recently in effect put him on trial over his rather vivid language. They let him off the hook, however. And I rather like their reasons why:
"In its judgement, the AMCA found that while the comments were offensive and tasteless, the licensee of 2UE did not breach clause 1.3(e) of the Commercial Radio Australia Codes of Practice. It said the comments were "unlikely to have incited or perpetuated hatred against or vilified any person or homosexual identifying people as a group, on the basis of their sexual preference". But the AMCA also found 2UE did breach the codes by not responding to the complaints within the 30 days stipulated in the codes."In arriving at its decision, AMCA acknowledged the sensitivity that the gay community may have to matters such as that broadcast," the judgement said. "However, ACMA also recognised that it was important for community views on such issues to be aired."
08:13 AM
The Rhyme-Master's On the Case
Jesse and the Race-baiters are now complaining that use of the term "refugee" to describe victims of the hurricane in Louisiana is racist and condescending, and papers like the Baltimore Sun are lapping it up.
The paper says use of the term is another example of the bias permeating coverage of the disaster in the national media.
"The use of the term refugee doesn't benefit anybody," said Richard E. Vatz, a professor of rhetoric and communication at Towson University. "It's another way of depicting African-Americans as hierarchically low, and I understand why they wouldn't want to be associated with that."
UPDATE: Even President Bush has bought into the claptrap.
Female Chauvinism
A county official's comments to the effect that men tend to do things at the last minute was decried as sexist and unnecessary by her colleagues in Erie County, Pa., reports the Associated Press.
Erie County controller Sue Weber was writing to officials at Wachovia Bank, chiding them for turning in late the bank's bid on a bond issue. She wrote: "if you can just learn to think more like a woman, you won't have this problem in the future."
Weber's colleagues said they were appalled by the display of female chauvinism, but she said people need to lighten up.
"I think we have to accept the differences between (the sexes) and appreciate them. It was just kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing," she said.
USA Better for Working Women than Sweden
Just as a follow-up to my previous post, I thought people might be interested in some findings in a 2004 book Key Issues in Women's Work by Catherine Hakim. Swedish women in the workplace who become pregnant must under Swedish law be given all sorts of benefits that few private businesses can afford -- so 75% of Swedish women work for the government. Nobody else wants them. And here's one result of that -- a result that should rile feminists no end:
"What is more, the glass ceiling problem is larger in family-friendly Sweden than it is in the hire-and-fire-at-will US, and it has also grown as family-friendly policies have expanded. In Sweden 1.5% of senior management are women, compared with 11% in the US."Conservatives keep telling Leftists that things are not as simple as you think and that coercion doesn't work very well -- and Leftists continue not to listen to that. But conservatives generally have the last laugh -- because human beings and human society ARE complex.
03:09 AM
Some Very "Incorrect" Findings about Women's Rights
A recent very sophisticated econometric study by Silvia Pezzini of a huge body of data from several European countries looked at the effect of women's rights legislation on women's happiness. The study found, predictably, that getting access to the contraceptive pill was a great load off women's minds. What was much more interesting however, was the effect of laws that made divorce easier and laws that give working women maternity benefits. It was found that easier divorce REDUCES women's happiness overall and that job protection laws for mothers only worked for women who continued to be employed. Particularly in countries like Sweden, the main effect of maternity benefits for working women was that private employers stopped hiring women. Following is an excerpt from the conclusions of the paper:
"The main finding is that following the introduction of birth control rights, women who could take advantage from the policy (that is, they were of childbearing age at the time the policy was introduced) consistently registered an increase in welfare. The magnitude of the welfare gain is equivalent to the return from achieving higher rather than middle education and a third of the size of the gain from being married or cohabiting. It is approximately one tenth of the effect of going up one level on a 12-category scale of income....At the same time, other women's rights have been less beneficial. The analysis shows that mutual consent divorce laws have decreased women's welfare, while granting high maternity protection in the workplace did not have significant effects, possibly because of negative feedback effects on the `employability' of women.
Source (PDF)
No-one really knows why easier divorce has made the majority of women unhappier but easier divorce certainly reduces the security of marriage and women do tend to value security in relationships highly.
12:26 AM
More Poster Problems
Another high school football team, this in on Utah, had to recall its annual team poster/schedule because the images of seniors in military-like garb and bearing automatic rifles was deemed offensive by a couple folks in town, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
Members of the Kanab High School football team put on bullet-proof vests, military helmets and police weaponry for the photo. The effort, printed on posters, was intended to show toughness and solidarity with soldiers overseas.
School officials recalled the poster after a couple complaints that the guns were inappropriate. Last year's poster, featuring team members dressed as cowboys with six-shooters, did not cause similar angst.
Who Can Blame Them?
The San Francisco Chronicle is worried that there are not enough People of Color at the annual celebration of cluelessness, bad clothes and drugs dubbed the Burning Man Festival. After looking at the pictures, can anyone blame them for showing some semblance of taste and decorum?
