A Weekly Podcast on Gender Issues, Equity and Feminism

Monday, February 21, 2005

Sex Talk 2.21.05

Sex Talk 2.21.05

Welcome to the very first Sex Talk -- thanks for being a part of the very first show. Comments, suggestions and news tips are always welcome: e-mail me at sextalk@rebeldad.com, leave me listener comment at 206.338.3237, Skype me at rebeldad or leave a comment below.

Show Notes
* Introduction and contact information

Audio of the week
* Clips from Smudged Ink's recording of Gloria Steinem receivingMissouri School of Journalism's Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism

News
* The New York Times covers Democrats and abortion
* Larry Summers releases text of NBUR speech
* The feministing.com posts on the YWCA

Interview
* Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women

Sex Talk 2.21.05 | 23:25 | 10.7 MB

2 Comments:

Rebel Dad said...

Cross-Posting from rebeldad.com:

Excellent interview with Kim Gandy. She did make me wonder, though, why there's so much talk on the left of Harry & Louise v. Bush Social Security instead of actual ads.

You happened to mention the Larry Summers story just as I was reading it, and what's most irritating to me about his remarks is that there's no goddamn facts behind them. There he is, in the midst of some of the best sociologists in the country -- does he try out his ideas on them before opening his big, needlessly inflammatory mouth? Does he talk with people who spend their lives studying these things and bother finding out whether his impressions and personal theories "backed up by anecdote" make any sense? Does he bother looking to see who's already studied his laundry list of questions and find out what they discovered? No, apparently he just runs right off at the mouth, just like anybody's Uncle Hal annoying people at lunch with all his theories, and calls it "provocative".

Except he disingenuously forgets that he's not Uncle Hal, he's the president of Harvard, and people assume he knows what he's talking about. So he's been irresponsible, wasted a lot of people's time, and possibly done some real damage. There are good words in Yiddish for people like that.

My favorite, by the way, was this excerpt from the Q&A; afterwards:

----------
Q: What about the rest of the world. Are we keeping up? Physics, France, very high powered women in science in top positions. Same nature, same hormones, same ambitions we have to assume. Different cultural, given.

LHS: Good question. Good question. I don't know much about it. My guess is that you'll find that in most of those places, the pressure to be high powered, to work eighty hours a week, is not the same as it is in the United States. And therefore it is easier to balance on both sides. But I thought about that, and I think that you'll find that's probably at least part of the explana ... part of the explanation.

Well, fabbo, Larry. My Uncle Hal could do that one too.

Bah.

amy | 02.22.05 - 12:36 am | #

11:08 AM

 
Rebel Dad said...

Cross-Posting from rebeldad.com:

Great podcast, congrats on #1 RD! Looking forward to more.

Loved your rant amy. Summers went off for the same reason uncle Harry does. He believes he's entitled to spout his version of the truth, he's totally self-centered and can't imagine a different perspective, much less facts that actually prove that he's wrong... Yes he's Prez of Harvard, but he's still uncle harry. He was pretty bad on third world development issues too when he was in clinton admin.

Clearly a beneficiary of affirmative action for old connected white guys.
chip | Email | Homepage | 02.22.05 - 8:43 am |

11:11 AM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home