Some people – including, apparently, Rihanna – are all worried that Chris Brown’s career will be hurt – nay, ruined! – because of all the stinky publicity about his little incident, which was, after all, just “life.”
Here’s a question: since when has violence against women hurt any man’s career? Only hurting dogs does that.
So saith ESPN. Why? A whole bunch of dumbass reasons.
From the Guardian:
Iran’s biggest motor manufacturer is to take the country’s gender sensitivity to new levels by producing a car specially for women.It will be fitted with features common on the international market but seen as female-specific in Iran’s male-dominated culture. These include an automatic gearbox, electronic parking aids, a navigation system and a jack designed to make it easier to change a wheel, suggesting that women drivers lack the mechanical competence of their male counterparts. Alarms may also be installed to warn of flat tyres. The vehicle will be painted in soft “feminine” colours and include interior designs tailored to women’s tastes. There will also be audiovisual entertainment systems for child passengers.
Iran Khodro, the state-backed manufacturer, said it would put the first models on sale next June to coincide with Iranian women’s day. The car will be part of the Samand range, which has been exported to allied countries such as Syria and Venezuela. However, the women’s car will initially be aimed solely at the Iranian domestic market.
Vahid Najafi, managing director of Iran Khodro’s order unit, said the design was prompted by a sharp increase in women drivers and car owners and was based on research into their preferences and needs. Cars will be built in response to orders from customers.
“Women’s necessities are different from men’s,” Najafi said. “For example, a woman goes shopping, takes children to school – so this car is going to have some visual distinctions that will separate it from other cars. It will be more beautiful. Cheerful and attractive colours will be used – for example red. A series of decoration pieces will be added to the interior, on the dashboard for example. What’s important for women is that the car should be comfortable and handle well.”
The idea is in line with gender separation officially encouraged by Iran’s Islamic authorities. Last year they backed a proposal for a female bicycle designed to conceal the rider’s legs and upper body. Women are discouraged from cycling, mainly to preserve notions of female modesty, and are banned from riding motorcycles, except as passengers.
A women-only taxi service, with women drivers, was recently launched in Tehran and other big cities. Men and women are segregated in buses and on Tehran’s underground.
Iran Khodro last year announced plans for an Islamic car – with a navigation system designed to locate Mecca – to be produced jointly with Malaysia and Turkey.
Frankly, despite the sexist motives of the designers and the crass ones of the manufacterers, these cars sound a lot nicer than whatever dingy, featureless cars the macho sex is awarding itself. Since when is ugliness manly?
(10-05) 08:00 PDT SHKODRA, Albania (AP) –
Drene Markgjoni spent 12 years in a hard-labor camp, punished for her fiance’s attempt to flee Albania’s regime, then one of the world’s most repressive and isolationist. She swore she would never suffer like that for somebody else again.
She pledged to forgo sex and marriage for the rest of her life, and declared herself a man.
That was six decades ago. Now 85, with close-cropped white hair, dressed in a man’s blue striped shirt and black trousers, she greets visitors with a manly handshake. The way she walks, her confident gestures, everything about her is masculine.
Only her voice — soft and feminine — reveals her to be one of the last sworn virgins in Albania: Women who dress, act and are treated as men.
“I am happier like this,” she says. “I don’t regret it at all. Not a hair on my head does.”
In this strongly patriarchal society where for centuries women had virtually no standing, sworn virgins enjoyed the same rights and respect as men. They could inherit property, work for a living and sit on the village council, although without the right to vote.
The privileges came at a price. They took an oath of celibacy and could never have sexual relations. And they could never go back to being women.
Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Australia is seriously considering changing the rules for front-line combat. Instead of making that decision based on sex, they’ll be making that decision based on qualifications. This change ought to pass, and probably will.
Keeping women from the front lines is one of the last bastions of chivalry. It’s one more practice that pretends to value women while devaluing them by disregarding their choices, encouraging weakness, and fostering cowardice.
Despite what a long way we’ve come, there are two things women can’t do: fight on the front lines and be ministers of God. There’s a connection there: women aren’t kept from the front lines because of gallantry – that’s only a guise, a sincere one, maybe, but a guise nonetheless. Deep down, those who want women away from the front lines are also the ones who view the military as a kind of army of God, and infantry as soldiers of God. It’s a priestly role, and that’s why women have been denied it.
And that’s exactly why they should have it.
