kandela

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By kandela • 13 years ago

Only Attractive People are Attracted to Attractive People!?

A long time ago I joined something called thespark.com. It was basically a site you used to make and quirky surveys/questionnaires and do some others had made. Later it changed its name to okcupid.com, and became an electronic dating site. I gave it a chance in this guise (you can still do the quirky surveys) but I’m not really into electronic dating so stopped using it not too long after.

Occasionally I still get email about my profile on the site. Today I received this piece of mail:

We are very pleased to report that you are in the top half of OkCupid’s most attractive users. The scales recently tipped in your favor, and we thought you’d like to know.

How can we say this with confidence? We’ve tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people’s reactions to you in QuickMatch and Quiver.

. . .

Your new elite status comes with one important privilege:

You will now see more attractive people in your match results.

This new status won’t affect your actual match percentages, which are still based purely on your answers and desired match’s answers. But the people we recommend will be more attractive. Also! You’ll be shown to more attractive people in their match results.

. . .

By kandela • 14 years ago

FIA establishes Women & Motor Sport Commission

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that the Federation International Automobile (FIA) has established a new Women and Motorsport Commission, with the aim of promoting greater participation by women in all aspects of motorsport.
From the announcement: “The WMC aims to put in place strategies and policies that will promote education and training, and put into practice actions and events that will strengthen the participation of women in all areas of motor sport. The Commission will work with the FIA’s sporting and non-sporting commissions, ASNs and other key international federations on joint sporting projects. The WMC will also take an active role in international forums and conferences devoted to the place of women in sport, and ...

By kandela • 14 years ago

Richard Branson Shows How Not to Address a Gender Imbalance

In case you missed is Sir Richard Branson recently became the primary investor in a Formula 1 team and had it renamed Virgin F1. Since making this announcement Branson has managed on this stage to make two remarkably sexist statements.

The latest involves his apparent desire to hire a female Formula 1 driver – something that turned out not to be possible when the most qualified candidate refused his offer. Danica Patrick, who finished 5th in the US based Indy Car Championship this year, was the driver in question; of her Branson had this to say:

“I would have loved to have had a looker like Danica drive,” he told the paper. “She is not only good and quick, she’s a ...

By kandela • 14 years ago

First Woman Premier for NSW

New South Wales (NSW) (Australian state) has its http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=979512″>first female Premier after Kristina Keneally was sworn in. Keneally was born in the USA and naturalised as an Australian in 2000. She has a M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Dayton. Her Masters thesis was titled: “Folding the Jesus-Sophia metaphor : a basis for a non-androcentric Christology within a Christian feminist interpretive community”.

The Deputy Premier of NSW is Carmel Tebbutt, meaning the state’s top two political representatives are women. A first for an Australian state.

By kandela • 14 years ago

A definition of an Ally

Occasionally the issue of whether a man can be a feminist comes up in discussing feminist issues. Some feminists believe that men should limit themselves to the label of feminist ally. However, I have not often seen a good definition of how exactly you define who is a feminist and who is an ally in any given context. So, I thought I would have a go at addressing this issue. The views below are my own but I believe they are on sound footing and follow from a common sense understanding of language and the issues at hand. I welcome feedback from others.
The way I see it, within every movement there are front line activists and allies. Both groups ...

By kandela • 14 years ago

What are the affects of a lack of Male teachers?

This post will mainly use figures on the UK, Australia and the USA. Anecdotes will reflect that I’m an Australian who has been living in the UK for the last year. As such it will have a cultural bias that I apologise for in advance.
When I attended primary school around 20 years ago in Australia there was a fairly even split of teachers – men to women. I don’t know if this was the norm at the time but I never got the impression that it was unusual growing up. Despite traditional gender roles amoungst my own parents, school gave me the impression that men and women were equally engaged with children.
While I’m not sure if an even ...

This post will mainly use figures on the UK, Australia and the USA. Anecdotes will reflect that I’m an Australian who has been living in the UK for the last year. As such it will have a ...