Links - 5th May 2019 (#MeToo, Sexism and the Gender Wage Gap)

How to Destroy a Man Now: Truth or Satire? - "'A wave of sexual misconduct allegations about powerful men have exploded recently in the media (e.g., the news, Twitter #MeToo, etc.). A bold social movement has begun with brave women coming forward and being applauded for speaking out and sharing their stories of abuse, discrimination, and harassment. As a result, accused men like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, and dozens more have been removed from power and are suffering the consequences.In How to Destroy A Man Now (DAMN), Dr. Angela Confidential (a business psychologist, consultant, and human resource professional) empowers women with a step-by-step guide for destroying a man’s reputation and removing him from power.In easy to understand terms, the handbook reveals and explains the fundamental dynamics between allegations, the media, and authority as they relate to male misconduct in today’s society. It also unveils and details practical real-world methods for leveraging allegations, media, and authorities to dethrone a man from power.'..
the book describes how easy it is to bring an allegation to the media who has no liability for false sexual abuse claims since it says they were "alleged."... The end of the book states that men are easily destroyed because it is profitable: mainstream media gets eyeballs and advertisers, complaint websites make money from men paying them to remove false information, and lawyers get paid to defend men. This is a pretty accurate summary of the witch hunt against men in the 21st century whether the book is meant to be satire or not."

Handshakes could be BANNED under new workplace rules to avoid expensive sexual harassment claims - "three out of four people want a complete ban on physical contact in the workplace, according to a recent survey of 2,000 adults by Totaljobs... the level of appropriate contact varies from person to person but also from industry to industry.For example, patting someone on the back on a construction site may be more acceptable than if it was an office."

Game of Thrones star Daniel Portman slams disturbing fan trend - "Game Of Thrones star Daniel Portman has revealed he gets his package grabbed by fans “all the time” after his character Podrick Payne’s sex romp with three prostitutes on the show.The 27-year-old Scottish actor has revealed he feels uncomfortable about the hands-on attention from older women
Power relations and stereotypes means it's good for women to grope men

Kamala Harris aide resigns over $400,000 harassment settlement report - "Harris, who appears to be considering a 2020 presidential run, has been a vocal proponent of the #MeToo movement. She introduced a bill in June to address workplace sexual harassment, which included a ban on employers requiring workers to agree to non-disclosure clauses."

tess on Twitter - "Any time a man tries to interact with me besides my boyfriend I literally want to call the police"

Sending ‘good morning’ texts to women is also harassment, says Kashmala Tariq | Pakistan

When sexual harassment is defined so broadly it becomes meaningless | Coffee House - "Almost a third of young women think that winking is a form of sexual harassment. Let that sink in. For 28 per cent of women aged 18 – 24 the merest flick of an eyelid, an action so small as to be barely noticeable, is considered to be unwanted sexual behaviour that violates their dignity, makes them feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated and creates a hostile or offensive environment... the YouGov research lands at a time when stories about sexual harassment dominate news coverage. It comes on the back of a BBC survey claiming half of women are sexually harassed at work... Almost 70 per cent of young people interviewed by YouGov, both men and women, consider wolf whistling to be sexual harassment. A quarter of the respondents to the BBC survey said the sexual harassment they had experienced was jokes or banter. What’s surprising here is that so few women claim to be victims: presumably those who’ve never been whistled at or overheard a lewd joke all work in a nunnery. When sexual harassment is defined so broadly it becomes meaningless. We have no way of differentiating between winking, knee touching, groping and sexual assault. All fall under the same heading. This risks trivialising the most serious incidents. When the language of sexual harassment is used for whistling and winking we lose the vocabulary to describe real crimes. For campaigners, there are clear advantages to conflating winking and groping. Grouping together such a wide range of behaviours and arguing they are all on a continuum of abuse allows all men to be labelled as perpetrators and all women to see themselves as victims. But if this is bad for men, it is terrible for women. It is far more difficult for women to present themselves as strong and powerful at work if, at the same time, they insist upon being treated as victims-in-waiting. What’s more, it sends a message to young women that the workplace is a hostile environment where the odds are stacked against them. And it does seem to be younger women who are most susceptible to seeing themselves as victims... The panic around sexual harassment leads to calls for greater regulation of the workplace. But when everyday interactions between men and women, mild flirtations and clumsy attempts at chatting someone up are all outlawed the world becomes far more dull a place. Like it or not, we spend a great deal of our lives at work. Many happy marriages have begun with people meeting in the workplace. Telling young people this is harassment robs them of life’s pleasures... Instead of discussing an all-encompassing sexual harassment it would be better if we referred instead to specific behaviours. That way we can better separate trivial irritations from criminal behaviours and in the process we can stop encouraging young women to see themselves as victims."

Salman Rushdie: 'I was groped by Margaret Thatcher' - ""The thing that people don't know about Margaret Thatcher is that she was very touchy-feely. You'd sit with her, and she'd put her hands all over you. I had this meeting with her, and she was, like, pawing at me, and I thought, 'I'm being groped by the Prime Minister!'"... "Margaret Thatcher, by the way, spanked Christopher Hitchens. She heard Christopher had written something she didn't like, and she met him at a party conference, and she said to him, 'You've been a naughty boy, haven't you?'"And he said, 'Well, yes, Prime Minister, I suppose I have'."And she said, 'You'd better bend over'. She made him bend over, and she spanked him with a rolled-up magazine.""

Sexism in Australia: Half of Aussies think women overreact or exaggerate - "half of Australians feel women regularly misinterpret “innocent” remarks or acts as being sexist when they are not.Another 40 per cent believe women exaggerate how unequally they are treated in society and employment, while 35 per cent think women fail to appreciate “all that men do for them”."

‘Blatant propaganda’: SBS is blasted for ‘cherry-picking data’ to make Australia seem sexist - "Ms Arndt was offered statistics finding only 19 per cent of Australians identify as feminist... According to the Global Gender Gap Report of 2017, Australia's ranking as the 35th most equal country in the world has risen several ranks in the 12 months since the 2016 report.The report credited the gradual improvement to 'gender parity in the country’s share of legislators, senior officials and managers.'It also mentioned 'notable improvements on the political empowerment sub-index, with an increased share of female parliamentarians as well as women in ministerial positions.'But the SBS documentary trailer explicitly stated Australia had 'tumbled down international rankings to now sit below some developing countries.'"

Opinion: 8% of prisoners are women. That’s about 8% too many. - "Women who commit the same crime as men should, in most cases, receive lighter penalties. This should be so for three reasons:
Women re-offend less frequently than men – by a very considerable margin.
The impact of imprisonment on women is generally more damaging than on men. Women who are imprisoned for a long time can have their right to procreate effectively negated. Women also suffer more while they are imprisoned. They are more likely to have mental health issues and be victims of sexual abuse.
Women perform a greater portion of the caretaking roles in society than men. Removing women from society often has a devastating impact on their children, relatives and other dependants. This disruption should be minimised."
Feminist 'logic':
8% of CEOs being women is too few. 8% of prisoners being women is 8% too many
Men and women should earn the same, but women should get lighter prison sentences

Should Teachers Be Allowed to Touch Students? - "Touch has been an important part of my teaching for the past decade. When I was working as a middle-school teacher, I used touch on a daily basis to both connect with and correct the behavior of my students... 'Touch puts the recipient in a trusting mental state, and anything you can do to encourage the student to trust the teacher is going to make learning better'... "The school made it clear from the first day that if we don’t want our children to be touched, this isn’t the school for them. I’m grateful for that, because my children have been raised to understand that touch isn’t just for sex, it’s an affiliative thing you do to bond with other human beings."... "The mark of being in the lowest caste in India is to be called 'untouchable,' so the opposite of that is the naturalness of touch in a classroom, to walk around among your students and let your fingers linger briefly on a shoulder. That is a mark of normalcy.""
i.e. the obsession with sexual assault and #metoo hurts the 'victims'

Gingerbread men banned at Scottish Parliament as part of a new drive to 'stamp out sexism'

Equal Pay Day Poll: Nearly Half of Men Believe the Pay Gap Is 'Made Up' - "According to an online poll of 8,566 American adults conducted in March, nearly half of men (46%) believe that the pay gap “is made up to serve a political purpose,” rather than being a “legitimate issue.” And about a quarter of men ages 18 to 34 (24%) say that media reports of men and women being paid unequally are “fake news”"
Sadly so many men are taken in by the myth
Strangely some of the literature technically defines the pay gap as the difference in earnings between men and women, without claiming it is due to discrimination. But then no one talks about the CEO-Janitor pay gap

The Wonders of #EqualPayDay - "I would first like to give an honourable mention to Mark Perry’s “EQUAL OCCUPATIONAL FATALITY DAY” – the next one will be held on January 21, 2029. He defines “EQUAL OCCUPATIONAL FATALITY DAY” as “how many years into the future women will be able to continue working before they will experience the same number of occupational fatalities that occurred for men during the previous year”. As a side note, saying “previous year” is a bit of a misnomer because we have to wait 12 fucking years before women suffer the same number of occupational fatalities that men suffered in 2016 alone. I daresay no-one is going to celebrate or even remember this day, male disposability and all that... Equal Pay Day (April 4th) is 32 days before Equal Hours Day, thus showing that, for 2016, the average woman would earn the same amount of money as the average man nearly five weeks before working the same amount of hours, if she continued working at the same rate. In short, she attains equal pay five weeks before working equal hours. And yet, you’re still gonna whinge about a pay gap!? Disgraceful!"

How Sophie Turner Feels About Pay Gap with Kit Harington on Game of Thrones - "Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner revealed that co-star Kit Harington (Jon Snow) gets paid more than she does on the hit fantasy show.
Turner says she isn't bothered by the pay disparity because Harington's role has a bigger storyline and involved more night shoots...
"And for the last series, he had something crazy like 70 night shoots, and I didn’t have that many. I was like, 'You know what... you keep that money.'"... The actress also asks for an inclusion rider in all of her contracts, which is a stipulation where stars can ask for more diverse and equal representation in the cast and crew. That way, Turner can push for a workforce that's comprised of men and women equally"
Lucky she doesn't buy into the pay gap narrative