Sunday is for Horizons: How to do (pop) research on #gender differences properly?

There is one sure way to be able to argue with gender essentialists: knowing the science better than they do. Even if they turn out hard to convince, at least you'll know that the facts are on your side.

Depending on how deeply you want to explore the topic, I'm offering three options: two serious books (written by women scientists, yeah!) and a MythBusters video. Your choice.

Delusions of Gender (2010) by Cordelia Fine will take you through all the common gender difference research. And will show that most of that is rather questionable stuff, mostly reflecting the bias of the researchers instead of actual intrinsic differences among people. Very nice to begin to explore the topic!

Brain Storm (2011) by Rebecca Jordan-Young is a heavier and more serious (as in more scientifically worded and structured) read. And pretty much all of it is dedicated to the ongoing quests looking for female brain as opposed to the male brain. She beautifully traces all the usual tricks used - with special attention to studies of intersex individuals (go, read Middlesex!) - for those trying really hard to find biological/neuroscientific arguments against the idea of complete gender equality.

To give you a taste about what kind of distortions Jordan-Young is dealing with, read this blogpost: “Brain Study Confirms Gender Stereotypes”: How science communication can fuel modern sexism.








And just for a little insight in how you should think about gender differences, trying to disentangle the social and the biological, here you have MythBusters dealing with the throw like a girl thing. Yes, the same one that leads to stuff like the "empowering" Always advertising. 

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Temple Grandin (2010)

#inspirationalmovies

Before I go talking about this movie, it's heroine and what makes it inspiration, I have a confession to make. She is not my hero. For me, Temple Grandin is an example of great persistence, success and overcoming. A brilliant scientist that has dedicated all her life to the wrong cause, promoting better slaughter of farm animals instead of really caring for their wellbeing.  

Nevertheless, her story is amazing and that's why this story falls under the inspirational tag. Grandin's life is an example of how with love, understanding and stubborn persistence when everything else fails pretty much everyone has great potential to be developed.

Temple Grandin (2010, Mick Jackson) is based on Grandin's memoirs tracing her path from being a child that the doctors did not expect anything from to becoming an accomplished scientist and autism activist working to ease the experiences of people suffering from autism. So there are several take-away lessons for this blog in particular: (1) there are valuable life lessons hidden even in lives of the people whose accomplishments you don't like, accept it and learn from them, (2) parenting and teaching does wonders, therefore pay attention to how world can be improved by people who live and work with children; those are crucial people that can destroy or elevate the spirits, (3) you can achieve a lot - even if the odds are against you - if you show up and insist on doing, (4) even if you do not fit in any of the stereotypes ascribed to you (Temple is really out there in all her un-social, un-feminine, un-easy rawness), you can succeed and do what you are passionate about.

Here you can see Grandin in action giving a TED talk on the value of diversity of thinking:

 

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

#inspirationalmovies

Cha-chan! Here you have a series (well, 13 times 44 minutes) that are breathtakingly inspirational on several levels: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014). It's a work of many people, including the antifeminist-but-rich-enough-to-fund-science-communication-projects Seth MacFarlane and the amazing Ann Druyan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Love for science and Carl Sagan has already been expressed on this blog, so now we just have to convince about the added extras that the new Cosmos includes.

Verónica Bayetti Flores has already done that in her Feministing.com article Five times Cosmos’ Neil deGrasse Tyson stole my feminist heart that captures very well how at times the new Cosmos goes even further than the Carl Sagan's one in criticizing the harm that we humans do to each other and other species. Some of the obstacles in our way to well-being and harmony that Cosmos identifies are lack of knowledge, of course, but also the predatory capitalism, religious dogmatism, human pettiness and the structurally discriminating hierarchies of knowledge that have left and keeps leaving behind many people... including women, of course. This Cosmos does introduce you to many females science pioneers you had no idea about. Plus, the discrimination and ridicule suffered by them is also very clear. And the determination and lucky circumstances needed to succeed in the men's world that science was is.

Among others, you'll get to know Ms. Annie Jump Cannon, Ms. Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Ms. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Ms. Marie Tharp. And there are so much more of them! For more inspiration (for a Wikipedia research, at least), look at the poster they're selling at A Mighty Girl.

And just for the dessert, Neil's response to the question on gender bias in science (from 1:01:31 in the video, although you might also enjoy the rest of it). So we know that he's with us...

 

I ♥ Being a Girl people, meet the press: Maya (YSAFE SC) ♥ Being a Girl

We're going back to our roots, both I ♥ Being a Girl and IPPF wise, and exploring our own experiences. And you deserve to meet the people behind, anyways.

So, here it goes!

Name: Maya Koumanova  

Things I enjoy doing:
- travel
- dance
- have challenging/funny arguments with friends 
 

I became aware of sexual and reproductive health and rights by growing up with it. Different issues that would disturbed me, gradually became clear and full of meaning once at the age of 14 I took interest in my sister’s voluntary work for IPPF. I got magnified by its power and have subsequently took it up myself. Since then my knowledge and interest in SRHR has deepened, and now it has become inseparable part of my worldview and experience of the world.  Meeting so many amazing people through my work and hearing their stories has been the biggest driver and source of inspiration.

The world would be a better place if everybody would: 

- Watch Carl Sagan’s "Cosmos" and The Joy Luck Club, a movie after Amy Tan’s novel by the same name  about human relationships and interaction, generational change, the evolving roles and lives of women.

- Listen good old Irish music and from time to time Stephen Fry pod-casts (I know it is not exactly music, but one can drown in them)  
- Read more history/science/sociology books so we can grow as a society and probably the classic  1984, scary but brilliant book which can encourage critical thinking and more thought on where we want our society to go.

Before I'm 80, I want to have  learn how to play an instrument, visit Australia, learn how to make awesome home-made ice-cream and have a happy family.