Tag: gender roles

Categories
Activism Political Commentary

Oppression against public opinion

A WaPo Poll Found That Significant Majorities Support Pro-Trans Policies, But Reported The Exact Opposite by Parker Malloy (The Present Age) on May 8 2023

WaPo polling found most people (57%) didn’t think being transgender was a real thing, but also that most believed trans people should receive protections regardless:

  • 71% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people by medical professionals.
  • 72% of adults support laws banning discrimination against trans people from getting health insurance.
  • 69% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in K-12 schools.
  • 73% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people at their jobs and workplaces.
  • 74% of adults support laws banning discrimination against transgender people in housing.

Fascists and religious extremists are imposing their hateful views on all of us, against our common values. Forced birth is not popular. Discrimination against trans people is a minority viewpoint.

Corporations are driven by profit and simper into pathetic compliance at the merest whisper of manufactured exploitative outrage from fascists, but the rest of us don’t have to go along with it.

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May Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map by Erin Reed (Erin in the Morning) on May 20, 2023

Map illustrating the risk of anti trans legislation in each state, with a general trend of the West and Northeast being lowest risk.

This map illustrates a stark divide. Nearly all states with any potential for passing harsh anti-trans laws have done so… On the other hand, states with a low likelihood of passing such laws have enacted highly protective legislation, including refuge/shield laws that block extradition and investigations into care from out of state.

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Categories
Food Writing

Recipes as embodied writing and care

Replied to On Recipe Writing by Alicia Kennedy (From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy)

These are the biographical and explanatory headnotes so bemoaned on social media, with people seeking free recipes begging writers to “get to the recipe.” But these are the recipes: The personal narrative is inextricable from the suggested amounts of salt. The narrative is where the voice comes in, providing as much citation and background as possible, to establish that this recipe hasn’t emerged from a void—could not have emerged from nowhere, has a range of influences and inspirations, and is indeed the product of this person’s experience in their kitchen.

I think of Lisa Heldke writing in “Recipes for Theory Making” in 1988, that cooking “has never really been the subject of philosophical consideration,” and that one reason for this is that it’s “women’s activity.”

I think, looking at Johnson, Heldke, and Colwin, that it is radical to insist upon the significance of the writing, the body, and the philosophy of a recipe in a cultural situation where recipes are more accessible than ever and many readers feel entitled to them.

To insist that a recipe is more than a list of ingredients and a set of instructions is to assert the significance of cooking as thinking and recipe development as labor—labor and thinking done by the body and the mind, both as significant to its creation as all the eating and experience that has led to the moment of inspiration.

This is an interesting perspective; I’m personally not bothered by lengthy introductions to recipes, but admit I only read them sometimes. The introduction can be helpful in providing extra context or details — but sometimes it’s a recounting of toddler playtime. It depends on both the source and the situation whether I’m likely to read the intro: is the recipe from one of my go-to websites that I’ve been following for years, where I’ve built up trust in the creator and appreciate them as an individual and creator — or am I vetting a dinner concept and only looking for a spice profile, ingredient ratio, or technique while I’m in a rush trying to make dinner? I can’t say my approach is good (it’s certainly stressful), and maybe I’m missing something by not better vetting recipe sources.

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Categories
Future Building

Investigating intersectionality in biking habits

Read Toward feminist geographies of cycling

Using a systematic search strategy, this paper reviews the literature about gender and cycling and critically assesses existing approaches to study the topic. Most studies use a binary conceptualization of gender, a cross-sectional research design, and quantitative analysis to examine male–female differences in cycling behaviours, stated concerns, correlates, and barriers. The two hypotheses at the centre of most of this work are (1) that women cycle less than men due to greater safety concerns and (2) that women cycle less, or at least use bicycles differently than men, because of their more complex travel patterns that arise from greater household responsibilities. While the literature draws attention toward travel characteristics, it often relies on a simple binary conceptualization of gender. In doing so, it identifies differences in male–female cycling patterns, but it rarely sheds light on the gendered processes underlying these differences. In this paper, we argue that research into cycling as a form of mobility could be strengthened by engaging with feminist theories such as performativity, intersectionality, and embodiment to advance a more nuanced understanding of how gender and other axes of identity are intertwined with cycling.

Concentrating on how gen­der shapes mobility without considering how mobility shapes gender is problematic because it can result in studies that ignore the power relations that exist between these social categories. Furthermore, failing to do so can contrib­ute to gender-based inequalities. For example, it can encourage harmful gender stereotypes (e.g., “girls don’t bike because they are scared”), inhibit people from fully expressing themselves (e.g., “I can’t admit I find cycling dangerous because I will be called a sissy”), or justify the status quo (e.g., “women will never bike as much as men because they are more fearful”).

Emphasis mine.

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Categories
Future Building House

Designing a future based on the biases of the past

Liked Why the ‘Kitchen of the Future’ Always Fails Us by Rose Eveleth (Eater)

In a world full of incredible technology, why can we still not imagine anything more interesting than a woman making dinner alone?

Writing off all these hypothetical kitchens as nonsense ignores how powerful the effect of their messaging can be.

Gender role stereotypes are so obnoxious — even though in my household I am the one who cooks. We went to an open house in the fancy part of our neighborhood once just to see what it looked like inside. The realtor chatted with us, and as we’re walking out the door, he points at my husband and tells him, “She wants a new kitchen, and you’re gonna pay for it!”

😶

[Engineers and designers] operate on the premise that people don’t know what they need until it’s built for them. This is a useful principle in some ways, but when it comes to reconsidering how people interact with spaces and appliances they use every day with fluency, it results in an approach to innovation that only calls for talking, never listening.

The result is an array of potential futures that are strangely both unaware of the culture from which they spring, and at the same time constrained by it.

A “we know better” perspective? Here’s another opportunity for co-design.

Solving for problems with technology is exciting / venture capital-izable, while the more common “boring” problems that make a kitchen easier to use probably involve: improved storage, simpler / easier cleaning, and lower maintenance.

What would my dream kitchen have that I don’t have now?

  • A counter depth fridge with freezer on the bottom, not the side –> stop food from getting lost in the back of our fridge
  • An induction stovetop (currently have electric coil 😢) –> easy to clean stovetop that I won’t burn myself on
  • A hood range that actually vents outside –> healthier indoor air quality while I’m cooking
  • More counter space, especially next to the stovetop –> more room for mise en place / less stressful cooking
  • An easy-to-clean, low-maintenance countertop (currently have tile 😭) –> cleaner countertops that don’t always look grimy like tile grout
  • An easier-to-use pantry (ours has wire shelves that stuff falls through, and the shelves are too deep to see everything) –> less annoyance, easier access
  • Storage that’s easier for a short person like me to reach and use (I can’t reach half of the cabinet where we keep cups) –> less annoyance from lugging my stepstool around
  • Appliance storage so I don’t have to heft my heavy stand mixer up from floor level –> would use my appliances more often
  • Somewhere to store cat food (right now it’s in overflow storage under the stairs) –> save myself a trip down the hall

I could currently buy any of these things, if I had the money. No new inventions required.

New kitchen inventions I would like:

  • A blender that’s not a pain in the ass to wash.
  • Dishwashable non-stick pans.
  • Knives that hold their edge like carbon steel but don’t rust or react with red veggies.
  • Storage for tupperware — an apparently impossible problem 🤣

We’ve now lived in our house ten years without remodeling the 1988 kitchen 😂 Sure, a new kitchen would probably work a little better and be prettier. Yeah, I have a Pinterest inspo board, but I can admire pretty things without buying them. And how many hours of my and my husband’s lives do I really want to trade for a fancier kitchen?

See also: The Politics of Kitchen Design