Rabbits, Blinkity

Pippa Mann just wrote a great article about the glass ceiling in race car driving, and her new role mentoring young women.

But according to this fine gentleman, Pippa Mann should just realize she's an obvious failure and go make him a sandwich. And yes, there are lots of comments telling him to be more civil, and that he's probably a sexist jerk, and other remarks defending her driving record, and the usual chorus of "me too" all around. It's mostly all noise, though.

The truth of the matter is that sexism is still alive and well, and definitely affecting Mann's ability to get rides and sponsorship, and she has a right to talk about this and help other women without people running their mouthes about it.

But just for fun, let's say the critic is right. Say she's personally gotten a bit of an unfair advantage because she's a woman. Hell, say his favorite driver (who we're all just sure is so much more talented) didn't get a chance because she got her grand total of three Indycar rides last year.

Big. Fucking. Deal.
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If I see one more obnoxious, anti-women, homophobic article/post/comment about Brittney Griner, I'm going to scream. Did you get pissed because Shaq was 7'1" and weighed 300 pounds? No, you didn't. You either though he was awesome because he could push people around and get those rebounds, or you didn't like him because he was beating your team, but respected his physical skills anyway.

And yes, this means you, Muffatt McGraw. Playing with Griner was not like "a guy playing with women." It was like playing a woman who is 6'8" and really good at basketball. Which, as it turns out, is remarkably like playing a person who is 6'8" and really good at basketball. (Besides, the reason ND lost so badly was that Novosel couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and Peters couldn't keep her fouls under control. Not Griner's fault anyway. But even if it was, the point still stands.) Heck, I could say the same thing about 5'9" Skylar Diggins, she kinda has "shoulders like a man," don't you think? See how ridiculous this sounds?

It's like the whole Hingis vs. Mauresmo business. Ironically enough, compared to modern players like Serena Williams or Stosur or Kvitova, Mauresmo of 1999 seems downright, well, average in terms of physicality. When "masculine" equals "good at sports," of course women who are good at sports will seem masculine. It's only going to become more true over time, and unless you're some kind of asshole who thinks women's sports are only supposed to be a mild, barely competitive diversion, this is a good thing.

Just stop already. Brittney Griner is one of the best female basketball players ever. I don't care if she did just beat your team; you've got to respect her anyway.
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Update: Here's the best thing you'll read all day on this subject

There's a trans theory concept called the "Cotton Ceiling." (Basically, it tries to explain why some, especially lesbian, women don't really see trans women as real women), Rad-fems don't like it, as one might expect. I'm not going to try and discuss the contents of that article, or the comments on it; I might do so later, but it's tricky and I'm only marginally qualified to talk about this.

I will link to someone who thinks it's all a big miscommunication. Others might suggest that the real issue is unsolvable: rad-fems will refuse to see trans women as women (or even, arguably, as people) regardless, while simultaneously refusing to really see trans men as men (which they're okay with, since women are generally beyond reproach). I don't really know the answer.

But I would like to make an observation. It's been made before, but it bears repeating: our culture is obsessed with penises, and this needs to stop.
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Over in the land of professional tennis, there's been a lot of talk lately about so-called "grunting". It seems certain tennis player make a noise when they hit the ball. And whether you call it grunting, or screaming, or growling, or "I-hate-that-turn-it-off," opinions can be found everywhere from USA Today to FOX Sports Australia to every tennis blog, forum, and TV commentator. Every time you turn around, somebody else has something else to say about it.

It's horrible and distracting. It's borderline gamespersonship, and the players should complain. It's not actually that bad, and people should just put the TV on mute on if they don't like it. It's not actually that bad live; it's just the microphones that make it seem loud. It's even worse live, you can hear it from the next stadium over. It's contrary to the spirit of tennis; it's a sign tennis is evolving beyond its country club roots.

So, naturally, I have some feelings about this too. And my number-one feeling is, get over yourselves! Here's why.
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So here's the thing about reproductive rights: if you're man-bodied, it doesn't really matter what you think. Not in the general sense. The reason it doesn't matter is because it doesn't affect you directly. You'll never carry a child. You don't have to worry about all the various risks surrounding pregnancy, birth-control, and so on. In short: you don't have female reproductive organs, so you don't know what it's like to have them either.

Reproductive rights are a big, confusing, important issue, of course. At the core is a simple question: is aborting (or preventing the creation of) a fetus morally wrong? If so, to what degree? And yes, it's complicated. The hardline Catholic position (sing with me, "every sperm is sacred / every sperm is great...") is pretty obviously insane. The extreme fem-power-whatever position (which I'm not sure actually exists except in the minds of some disturbed people on the internet) that it's okay to kill children after they're born up to a certain age under certain circumstances is pretty obviously insane too. But in between these extremes there are a whole host of complex issues. The most reasonable position, so far as I can see, really is "her body, her choice"—so long as the fetus is part of a woman's body, it's, well, part of her body.

But in the end, it shouldn't really matter what I think. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that abortion is actually equivalent to murder. How are we going to figure…
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The Sport Illustrated swimsuit issue has caught a lot of criticism from feminist circles over the years, and with good reason. It might be the single most exploitive mainstream magazine feature in existence. In fact, I'd argue that it's worse that your run-of-the-mill porn magazine; at least porn is honest about what it is. The swimsuit issue takes a magazine which talks almost exclusively about men, for men, and once a year fills it with highly sexual pictures of women. It's sort of like an all-male country club saying, "okay, we'll allow female members, but only if they wear slinky dresses and serve us cocktails in heels."

By contrast, ESPN The Magazine's The Body Issue was supposed to be something completely different. For one things, it features an equal number of men and women. For another, it only features athletes. No "fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales" here (as per the Wikipedia SI swimsuit issue article). But it's not surprising that people are still concerned. After all, it's clearly made to capitalize on the appeal of naked people, and very attractive ones at that. Worse, it's one thing for models to pose for a magazine (who have already "sold out," as it were, to the patriarchy), but it's an entirely different thing for sportswomen—who in many cases are considered icons of female empowerment.

So, then, what is the result? Rather than just discuss the concept abstractly, I'm going to try and actually look at the photos and let them speak for themselves. We'll see what comes of it.
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(Update: Amanda Marcotte posits that Tom Matlock's brain has been poisoned by constant criticism from the MRA crowd. This is reasonable. Tom, and all your friends: I don't know you very well, but you need help. Detox from the kyriarchy. Become a feminist. Feminists are really awesome. And they're very smart, reasonable, and support equality for all.)

The Good Men Project just published a pile of crap, entitled "Being a Dude Is a Good Thing," by Tom Matlock. The core of it all is this little gem:

Men know women are different. They think differently, they express emotion differently, they are motivated by different things, they think about sex differently, and they use a very different vocabulary.

Yipperoo, here comes the patriarchy!

Now, I've spent a lot of time - way too much time, actually - trying to come to grips with the various men's rights crowds over the last few months. The Good Men Project is one of the better places to do this, if for no other reason than that the writing is reasonably high quality and comes across as honest and thoughtful. We're human beings, not monsters, it pleads, we just want to be ourselves. So I tried, carefully, to engage in this particular conversation. I asked for clarification about the gender essentialist bullshit that was steaming around. In return, I was told in no uncertain terms that yes, men are totally different then women, they know it because it's obvious, and that frankly, I should know it too and what's wrong with me anyway? Curiously enough, one commenter read me as feminine woman, but glossed over it with nary a stray thought when he found out otherwise. More on him later.

But I think I've got it all sorted. This stuff? It's just the new boss, same as the old. Much, much more after the break.
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This kid wisely avoids listening to people on the Internet for advice about whom their role models should be.

Over at the Good Men Project, Justin Cascio tries to ask "Are the Kids All Right?", but manages to make it all about teh menz, as per usual.

Cascio posits that Lisa Cholodenko's film "The Kids are All Right," contains a tragedy of sorts, in the form of the character Paul. That he missed a chance to have a parental role with the kids, Laser and Joni, that his own lack of family is dysfunctional, and that this represents a loss in society.

Read More...With all due respect to my friend, this is bullshit. Let's talk.