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posted by CoolHand on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the diversity dept.

In light of some past articles on diversity, SoylentNews: "How to Get Girls Into Coding" and SoylentNews: "Google to Release Diversity Data About its Workforce" This CNN article caught my attention.

Princess Free Zone offers empowering T-shirts with images such as dinosaurs, skateboards and soccer balls. "Kids should not have to be brave to wear the things they like," says founder Michele Yulo.

[...] "Girl clothes without the girly" is the mantra behind Girls Will Be, which includes longer shorts and T-shirts (no pink ones!) with images that seek to break gender stereotypes.

[...] The company buddingSTEM offers a line of girls' clothes celebrating girls' interests in science, engineering, technology and math.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/26/health/moms-girl-empowerment-clothing-parents/index.html?eref=edition

Please, browse the photos. They are full of lovely little girls, minus what I call the "silly frilly" stuff. You might even click some links, and find something fitting for the young lady in your life!

Some might complain that it's a very small start - but the longest journey begins with a single step. Each of these startups seems to be doing pretty much what I've called for - giving the girls what THEY want, rather then telling them what they should want.

One of my favorite T-shirts, seen on girls young and mature, http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=92703208


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Sunday August 30 2015, @12:33PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday August 30 2015, @12:33PM (#229800) Journal

    "but the deck is stacked against me with gender roles that pervade all media"...sigh. It couldn't just be the fact that females run on different hormones and have differently wired brains based on their brain scans...nope its GOT to be "the media" that keeps them from wanting to act like males with little inverted penises.../facepalm/ This is why we liberals from the 70s do not get along with today's so called "progressive" movement, because its not about equal opportunity anymore, instead its about equal outcome. If we don't have enough of group X in job Y nobody even stops for a single second to ask "Maybe group X just doesn't find job Y appealing" nope its GOT to be some bogeyman that is keeping them down, hell I'm shocked they haven't had a fit about hockey being racist because there isn't enough black hockey players!

    News Flash...girls and boys are different, their brains are wired differently, they run on different hormones and therefor they have different likes and dislikes and these even apply to...gasp! Choices of careers. There are plenty of jobs women are better than men at naturally, not because of "media bias" but simply because of the way they are built. For examples women have been found to be better at language skills and at reading people so they make both better translators and better hostage negotiators,, also due to their ability to take g-forces they also make excellent fighter pilots.

    But this also means there are things that most women simply do not find interesting or simply don't care for and in all my years at the shop I can say technology and computers? Yeah they tend to not like them very much. Its not that they can't understand or use computers and other high tech devices, its just that they see them as simply a tool to get shit done and once the job is done? They really want nothing else to do with the thing, they want to just get the job done and move on. If I had to guess, just based on the many years of conversations I have had with women on the subject? Since women are much better at face to face communication they find technology lifeless and dull and really don't care to know anymore about it than "can it do what I want it to?" and if the answer is yes that is all they give a shit about.

    So instead of dragging your daughter to places she probably finds about as fun as you find the DMV why not instead ask her "what things do YOU like? What things interest you?" and encourage and support her no matter whether its something YOU find interesting or not? If she wants to be a lumberjack fine, if she wants to be a stay at home mom great, as long as it is something she finds fulfilling and makes her happy that should be all that matters. Our goal should be to make sure they have the opportunity to be whatever it is they want to be without any barriers in their way, not to try to steer them in one direction or the other.

    --
    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Flamebait=1, Interesting=4, Disagree=1, Total=6
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:46PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:46PM (#229844) Journal

    First off, when I said "media" I used it in the general sense of something that conveys information. I meant it in the sense of the messages that girls are surrounded by, coming from whatever source. You took it in the narrowest sense of "MSNBC/CNN/Fox/Whatever," as in, a directed plot, something that must be corrected by affirmative action or something.

    I thought the clothing Runaway posted was great because it gives girls different messages about how they can not follow traditional gender roles without being forced to be boys to do it. I am not content to wave my hands in the air, saying, "Girls just don't like math, science, and computers," and leave it at that. STEM makes you productive and powerful in this world and I don't want my daughter to not have social permission to access that because everything around her is telling her overtly and covertly that STEM is for boys only.

    The article opens a perspective on STEM for girls, that perhaps girls don't like STEM as it is now because it has been built by boys, for boys. Perhaps, if we follow the example of this clothing line, we can open avenues to STEM that will appeal to girls without forcing them to approach it as do boys.

    Second, I'd challenge the idea that "men and women" are built differently as the absolute determinant for roles men and women play in society. Do you want to assert that in many parts of the world women wear burkas because they have more estrogen than men? Do you think tribal men in the Amazon wear lip- and ear pucks because they have more testosterone? Do men in Iroquois society have some physical basis for the fact that their social structure is matriarchal? Probably not, right? A great deal of what we think men and women can do and prefer to do is quite governed by culture, not biology.

    Besides, nobody is forcing anyone to buy these clothes for girls. Buy them if you like, don't if you don't.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by albert on Sunday August 30 2015, @07:41PM

      by albert (276) on Sunday August 30 2015, @07:41PM (#229942)

      STEM makes you productive and powerful in this world and I don't want my daughter to not have social permission to access that because everything around her is telling her overtly and covertly that STEM is for boys only.

      I have the answer to this one.

      Where might one find a good husband? You don't want too much competition. You want men who can support a family. Oh, hey, look at mechanical engineering and electrical engineering! Obviously, if the goal is to be a housewife, you need to be in engineering classes. You'll need to qualify for admission. Obviously you'll want to be at a good school. You'll need to do well enough so that you don't get kicked out before you find a nice husband.

      So yes, STEM is for boys. It's lots of cute boys that are lonely. STEM is boys, boys, boys... and that makes it the best place for a girl. Hit the books!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @08:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @08:20PM (#229947)

      > Second, I'd challenge the idea that "men and women" are built differently as the absolute determinant for roles men and women play in society.

      It is more than a little ironic that hairy's denial of the effects of social conditioning is the result of social conditioning affecting hairy.

  • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:01PM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:01PM (#229913) Journal

    Hoo boy. Comment sins! (Don't take this too seriously. No comment is without sin, even this one! And Hairyfeet does address some practical matters.)

    It couldn't just be the fact that females run on different hormones

    Estrogen and testosterone affect the way that prepubescent children think. *ding*

    and have differently wired brains based on their brain scans

    I think we can take a sin away for this one, just this once. Yes, folks, the brain is a gendered organ.

    hell I'm shocked they haven't had a fit about hockey being racist because there isn't enough black hockey players!

    Hockey is racist. [huffingtonpost.ca] Apparently Hairyfeet isn't being anti-SJW enough *ding*

    they run on different hormones and therefor they have different likes and dislikes

    Hormones in prepubescent children control interests. *ding*

    and these even apply to...gasp! Choices of careers.

    Hormones control career choice. It couldn't possibly be that the lack of an effort such as in TFS has been influencing girls and boys by societal pressure alone. *ding*

    There are plenty of jobs women are better than men at naturally, not because of "media bias" but simply because of the way they are built. For examples women have been found to be better at language skills and at reading people so they make both better translators and better hostage negotiators

    Women, for whatever reason, are “better communicators” *ding*

    also due to their ability to take g-forces they also make excellent fighter pilots

    I mean, I'm all about strong women, but… citation needed? Hopefully one that controls for body mass and height? If this is true, all the more reason Star Citizen needs a female avatar already! Then I could zip around with G-safe disabled all day long and totally pwn everyone else! *ding*

    Since women are much better at face to face communication they find technology lifeless and dull and really don't care to know anymore about it than "can it do what I want it to?" and if the answer is yes that is all they give a shit about.

    Women are somehow better communicators. *ding*

    Hmm… maybe I need a multiplier for this one. Moving on.

    So instead of dragging your daughter to places she probably finds about as fun as you find the DMV why not instead ask her "what things do YOU like? What things interest you?" and encourage and support her no matter whether its something YOU find interesting or not?

    Completely missing the point: women making things for girls that don't conform to gender stereotypes. *ding*

    Comment sins total: 7.
    Sentence: Re-Ned-ucation.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @07:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @07:11PM (#229935)

      God damn you really need to work on your communication skills. I didn't get past the third line and I doubt many others did either. Should you have never been educated in writing for an audience, here is a bit of advice: no one will listen to childish bashing, no one likes a pedant, and finally in order to convince a hostile audience you must at least attempt to give them something they care about.

      If you noticed I did not bother to comply with 1/3rd of my advice it is because people that can't write often lack the skill because they don't read either. Hopefully this will be more than just cathartic for me and put a seed of thought in defining your audience before you try to speak their language.