If I were a gentleman of leisure*, I’d spend a lot of my
time following** various feminist meetings, conferences and other hilarious
events. The fun I’d have – and the occasional tension I’d cause – would be
priceless!
P.S. Woman’s Hour is all in a flurry chattering and
gossiping away about a prospective female Malaysian astronaut, elected through some ridiculous & democratic (if they are not one and the same thing) facebook competition, and then discussing – and I swear: I’m not making this up
in order to send you up - “the status of women astronauts” (…actually,
excuse me: I know it’s inappropriate as part of my own post, but I just must:
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
No, but seriously – if you can talk seriously about stuff
like that at all: what’s the big deal? What kind of news is that? What are the
womenfolk getting so unhealthily excited about? Are they going to look into
periods in space, the effect of lessened gravity on the perkiness of breasts
or what?
P.S.2 There might be a serious angle to the minor story: how
sending a Malaysian woman into space (and bringing her back, hopefully) may
affect the status of women in that country and vicinity. But WH never went there (however, sometimes,
with other stories, they go for depth - I have to give it to the broads).
*well, in a way I am – in a twisted and most irresponsible
way (Lord, forgive me! But you know I do want to save the Universe,
single-handedly…)
**which, in a way, I do when I listen to Woman’s Hour and
quite a few other similarly un-serious and thoroughly entertaining programmes.
P.S.3 What a gripping story! Thank you, girls, for distracting
me from metaphysics and taxation.
The Malaysian Insider fills me in: "Astronaut hunt
turns into sexist nightmare for female finalist" and adds: “A competition
on Facebook by a MALE GROOMING BRAND [funny that WH never mentioned this bit of the story] to send a Malaysian to a space camp in
Florida, USA to train to be an astronaut turned ugly when the only female
finalist was “trolled”, drawing sexist comments from netizens.
Post-graduate student Roshini Muniam, who is one of the top
five finalists of AXE deodorant’s
[you know which one: the one known for its utterly sexist ads; this is turning out to be genuinely good stuff! ] Apollo Space Race competition,
was discriminated against online due to her gender.
A comment posted by Syed Wazien on Roshini’s profile,
featured in AXE’s Facebook page, expressed surprise over a woman’s desire to go
to space:
“What – a woman?! No way, hose [the uneducated male chauvinist meant 'Jose', I presume]!!!” he said.
