Letters to the Editor
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What's interesting...
Is that in the 1950's, NASA determined that women would make better astronauts than men. Something about having a high pain threshold as I recall...
Anyone know anything else about this?
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Korea is less male-dominated than the US
In the recent presidential elections, up till the last month or so there were two prominent women, on opposite sides. One of them, Han Myungsook, was recently prime minister (a position similar to a powerful vice-president), and had held several other cabinet positions. The other, Pak Kunhye, was leader of the opposition party and a member of parliament. Further back in history when the culture was more "traditional", both Queen Min and Queen Yun played important roles in resisting the Japanese takeover and occupation. Queen Min was assassinated for that, and Queen Yun was kept imprisoned in her old age by the US-backed dictator Syngman Rhee because of the respect she was held in by the Korean people.
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Not better but same as
The Mercury 13 passed all of the same tests as the men. It was believed they marginally higher tolerance for cold and pain.
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1950's NASA
In response to above comment:
It wasn't NASA that made this determination but a man in charge of screening candidates for the space program in 1959.
He said that women would make better astronauts because the women he tested could pass all of the same physical tests as men, and in addition they had lower centers of gravity, required less food, water and space (due to smaller size) and, emotionally, were better at enduring extended periods of isolation.
This pdf describes the inclusion (or exclusion) of women in NASA from 1958-2004: http://web.mit.edu/murj/www/v11/v11-Features/v11-f2.pdf
My favorite quote:
"How will a girl keep her hair curled in outer space?"
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Mercury 13
It is not true to state that the women scored "not better but same as" the men. In some cases they did score "better" than the men who took the same tests:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1301400
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go to the source not NPR's agenda
http://www.mercury13.com/
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Empowering Symbol?
I don't think it's empowering for women to climb atop a gigantic phallic symbol that 'blasts' itself into space. For one, the entire space program is a male-dominated field in which men launch (ie: violate) 'virgin' territory. So, women participating (hitching a ride, basically) on this entirely masculine venture, even in the name of empowerment, is pretty condescending.
What women should create is something for men to travel in. It will be a wormhole, similar to the one depicted in 'Stargate.' And then men will enter the wormhole (technically and figuratively placing them in the right context with women) and through the wormhole, men and women will travel to other worlds without violating anything.
Peace,
XY
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LMAO, xychro!
That was a good send-up ;-)
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FGM article?
Just commenting here because the article on FGM is nowhere to be found. WHERE DID IT GO, FAIREST BROADSHEET?
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Sexist, not male dominated
“…but it will be an empowering symbol nonetheless in a country that has traditionally been male dominated.”
I’ve got to agree. My wife and I once took a graduate student from S. Korea along on a bike tour. Before we started we explained to him that the terrain of the lost coast of CA is quite demanding and it was not unusual for cyclists to crash going uphill do to a loss of traction on the steep dirt roads. He ignored our warnings; he later admitted he couldn’t believe he would have any difficulty since he knew my wife, a mere woman, had successfully ridden the route.
As it became apparent that he was having a great deal of trouble, we began removing gear from his bike. I could have put it on my bike, but we put it all on the bikes of the two women on the tour. By the time the trip ended, he was considerably less sexist than he was on day one.
It seems to me that real experiences can effectively defeat prejudices; at least they did in this case. Hopefully Yi So-yeon can inspire a more sexism-free outlook for her country.