Nonbrainery Astronomy PhD student offended by women being praised for their accomplishments because she's not like other girls

[–] Hollyhock 100 points

She could use some gratitude to all those women who were firsts in their fields. She's benefitting from their bravery and resolve.

[–] yikesforever 52 points

No kidding. She has the rights she does because of feminism. Because women fought for our rights and for places in science. It wasn't cause of some "non-binary folx".

The level of stupid of all is this drives me crazy. Even if she wants to identify as non-binary, a transman, or a hat, it doesn't erase the fact that she's a woman.

That born in the past she would have suffered as all women did and identifying as non-binary wouldn't have changed that - as it doesn't now.

[–] [Deleted] 10 points

They're always saying objectively wrong shit like "trans women gave us all our rights" but the second you ask them to be grateful for women's rights initiatives they whine and cry and shit themselves because they're mad that they have to respect women instead of mocking any sort of feminist message. Feminism is cringe to people unless it involves teenage girls prostituting themselves.

[–] bellatrixbells 2 points

Sooooo this.

[–] questioningtw 15 points

You just don't get it. Why can't everyone see that this person is totally not a woman. She eerrrrrrr they are being seen as a female astronomer when sh--errrrr they are totally a non woman astronomer. What she is complaining about is totally reasonble! /S

[–] bellatrixbells 4 points

I'm sorry, that last sentence you misgendered they ! Are you like a terf or something ?

[–] questioningtw 2 points

Oh crap!!!! I called h--them a her instead of a they without realizing it! I feel so aweful!

Load more (1 comment)

[–] [Deleted] 87 points

Why do these people act like women haven’t been an oppressed group for centuries? Women had to work for that shit, it wasn’t handed on a silver platter.

[–] comradeconradical 55 points

The younger generation seems to be completely unaware of this.

Moreover, when I was in school we shamefully never really had classes on women's history.

The common mentality I see with the youth is that feminism is obsolete because we are "already all equal", even though that's not true and even though they don't realize how recently our rights were acquired, how easy it is to lose these rights, and how most of the world remains misogynistic.

Classic blissful ignorance and a desire to protect themselves from the bitter truth. It's easier to say "I as an individual am special and different" than it is to say "Oh shit, my entire sex has been oppressed and discriminated against for millennia"

[–] tahmahrah 22 points

As someone younger (26 in February) this shit baffles me as much as it does you older ladies. I think it's a combination of willful ignorance (the unacceptable kind) and just straight up stupidity. Also, in the case of women a whole lot of internalized misogyny and trauma. Which isn't a justification, just a really basic analysis.

[–] bellatrixbells 12 points

I think it's mostly because most of the discrimination we still experience is so normalized and much more subtle than what it used to be.

Personally it didn't really occur to me until someone drew my attention to all the double standards. That and a few assaults, it took a lot for everything to click into place.

Truth is we mostly live our lives safely. We're collectively kind of like in abusive relationships, where we're so used to telling ourselves it could be worse that we don't even realize it until we are shaken by the shoulders.

[–] radicalacceptance 6 points

don't forget narcissism

[–] chrysthefeminist 10 points

The younger generation seems to be completely unaware of this.

Amazing. Reminds me of a documentary I saw on TV of an anniversary (forget which) of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When young people were interviewed on the streets of Tokyo about it, some said "Oh, did something happen?" Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off of my lap.

[–] radically_done 9 points

And I thought it was bad when I realized American youth did not know about the bombings...

[–] Gladys_Kravitz 1 points

I remember getting physically sick when I learned about that in school. It was so upsetting I actually threw up. The pictures of the shadow outlines of children really didn't help.

[–] [Deleted] 5 points

Lots of young people also don't know how much about finances or civics because even the basics aren't covered in school.

There are clear vested economic interests in preventing young people from having a reasonable grasp of all of these subjects. But sure, let's assume young people are trash.

[–] comradeconradical 5 points

assume young people are trash????

cmon now, this is clearly not what I mean when I say many of them are uninformed and unaware.

[–] LOriginedumonde 46 points

I think that some women can’t cope with the fact that they’re still oppressed. It’s almost like they’ll have an existential crisis if they allow themselves to perceive reality.

I’ve noticed that this is mostly a thing with women around my age (born in the 1990s and after). We didn’t have it as hard as the women before us, and grew up with all the ✨GiRl PoWeR✨ propaganda so that must mean we’ve achieved equality right? …..right?

[–] Iridescence 29 points

We're constantly being told that we don't need to fight for equality anymore and just do things that we find personally empowering... dress sexy if it makes you feel good! Use makeup every day if it makes you feel beautiful! etc. I feel like people don't think about women as a class.

[+] [Deleted] 15 points

[–] Researcher1536 21 points

If they ignore it, it doesn't really exist, right 🙄😒

[–] LOriginedumonde 10 points

And it’s typically the same type of people who insist that simply declaring something makes it a reality.

[–] bluff 4 points

Edited

I guess women lie to themselves, but as a 90s baby I still felt sexism/misogyny happening, even when I was as young as 4...little girls and boys understand being a boy is "better."

Cue me proceeding to grow up and reject feminism because liberal feminism was all I knew, and I saw how much bullshit it was. I knew it was not good for women. I called myself an egalitarian instead until I was finally exposed to radical feminism. Finally the world made sense and I had the language to describe all the hurt, anger, and betrayal that's brewed inside me since I was 4.

This is exactly why radical feminism is trashed and hidden from women and girls. It's why men hate it so much. Women and girls are supposed to live in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance.

[–] AmaraZM 35 points

Edited

Do these people stop to think about why women were historically kept out of science and academia? And the current challenges faced exclusively by women as them and their colleagues rise through the ranks?

Back then it was your job is to pop out babies and serve our husband and family, your 'female brain' is incapable of/inferior at logic, creativity and scientific thought your 'female emotions' render you incapable of grit and perseverance.

And even know when these ideas have proven to be and widely considered utter trash (at least they were for a hot moment there; thanks TRAs!), the way academia (speaking from the STEM side) has been historically set up has not caught up to conducive with the exclusive experices of women. Women are forced to choose between having children and their career, when they have to decide if they can take a break or detour to give birth in the middle of insanely competitive race to publish the results of a hot topic set of experiments being performed simultaneously in 3 different corners of the world. Women have to think about the lack of support of from their male partners in picking up the slack at home when they have to decide if they're going to go for that two weeks straight 14 hours a day cyclotron time on another continent. And so on. The first set of these being exclusively female challenges that no man will ever have to mull over. And the latter being a result of issues which are still very much culturally ingrained.

To solve the problems and even out the playing field in the most just and for way, the root of the biggest challenges being tied to the experience of being female, need to be acknowledged. Quotas don't do shit, when the women they brought inevitably feel compelled to stop and drop out.

And why the shade at women's lists?? Are those somehow taking away from whatever the hell this person wants? We should sing the praises of all the brilliant women who made it and left their mark on the world, despite all the added challenges! The women who weren't given credit for their insights, brilliance, creativity and and work through the centuries. They deserve to be known and acknowledged.

Do these people stop to think about **why** women were historically kept out of science and academia? And the current challenges faced exclusively by women as them and their colleagues rise through the ranks? Back then it was your job is to pop out babies and serve our husband and family, your 'female brain' is incapable of/inferior at logic, creativity and scientific thought your 'female emotions' render you incapable of grit and perseverance. And even know when these ideas have proven to be and widely considered utter trash (at least they were for a hot moment there; thanks TRAs!), the way academia (speaking from the STEM side) has been historically set up has not caught up to conducive with the exclusive experices of women. Women are forced to choose between having children and their career, when they have to decide if they can take a break or detour to give birth in the middle of insanely competitive race to publish the results of a hot topic set of experiments being performed simultaneously in 3 different corners of the world. Women have to think about the lack of support of from their male partners in picking up the slack at home when they have to decide if they're going to go for that two weeks straight 14 hours a day cyclotron time on another continent. And so on. The first set of these being exclusively female challenges that no man will ever have to mull over. And the latter being a result of issues which are still very much culturally ingrained. To solve the problems and even out the playing field in the most just and for way, the root of the biggest challenges being tied to the experience of being female, need to be acknowledged. Quotas don't do shit, when the women they brought inevitably feel compelled to stop and drop out. And why the shade at women's lists?? Are those somehow taking away from whatever the hell this person wants? We should sing the praises of all the brilliant women who made it and left their mark on the world, despite all the added challenges! The women who weren't given credit for their insights, brilliance, creativity and and work through the centuries. They deserve to be known and acknowledged.

[+] [Deleted] 13 points

[–] PaulaAlquist 51 points

Edited

I have a very difficult time finding compassion and understanding, and a will to fight for these women who gleefully sell out their sisters.

I will be one who will need reminders to be welcoming when these women have no choice but to rejoin us, after their rejection as anything but women by the wider world.

[–] sojourner_truth_ 26 points

Edited

nonbrainery!!! lmao I love it so much! I will never write it any other way!

[–] Sweetsummerchild [OP] 25 points

Edited

It's the same Kaitlin Rasmussen who wrote a publication titled "the nonbinary fraction: looking towards the future of gender equity in astronomy" https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i075/release/1

Abstract:

This paper presents a summary of past and current studies of gender in astronomy, most of which either fail to acknowledge the existence of nonbinary people or intentionally omit us from statistical analyses. We then offer a series of recommendations to correct this issue and incorporate a more complex understanding of gender in space science.

Every 10 years the American Astronomical Society publishes a selection of papers that discuss the most important challenges & goals of the profession of astronomy for the next years. And this shit got a place in it. You can find it here (just use the search tool and type "nonbinary"): https://baas.aas.org/astro2020-apc

[–] IronicWolf 25 points

How can you moan about people talking about ‘women in science’ but then cry ‘nobody cares about the non binaries’? Women actually exist and have done so for quite some time. Before that we were some form of female primate. And before that some sort of female shrew type mammal. And we only evolved because of sex and because all those that came before us knew perfectly well what male and female were. Our entire existence depends on the sex binary. Rejecting social stereotypes around sex does not divest you of your material sex.

[–] Researcher1536 19 points

How can you call yourself a scientist and believe in nonbinary. You can't. This person shouldn't be considered a scientist or an expert on anything related to any area of STEM.

[–] Archie 9 points

Well she's an astronomer, not a biologist... and definitely not a genetician. Scientists only have to be excellent in their tiny, extremely specific research area.

I work in genetic diagnosis, patients have to declare their sex correctly because we use it to make sure the DNA analysis is correct... We immediately see if there is a discrepancy (and in rare cases, diagnose that the patient is intersex, but that comes with symptoms). Unsurprisingly, not one person working there showed any sign of believing in the gender woo. I don't live in the US or UK though, so maybe that helps too.

Load more (1 comment)

[–] m0RT_1 11 points

i noticed she didn't snapshot and headlines of males getting attention in STEM so much for non- binary

[+] [Deleted] 11 points

[–] Calliope 23 points

What is wrong with these people?! With the way even STEM research is going, I'm so glad I got out of academia and the research race when I did.

[–] gncautistic 10 points

When more and more women are getting into STEM so it's not that special anymore :///

[–] questioningtw 6 points

Should't a woman scientist be GLAD women are being praised for their science accomplishments? I guess what is bad is assuming that these really were women in science! We should all assume that they are all like ms non binary who is totally not a woman, simply beause she says she is not.

The gaddamn libfemmery Nonbrainery Astronomy PhD student offended by women being praised for their accomplishments because she's not like other girls

46 comments

/o/Radfemmery

Welcome to The Radfemmery!