tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post4498545997529533623..comments2024-03-25T10:22:36.277-04:00Comments on Women In Astronomy: Queer Eye for the Straight MarriageAmanpreet Kaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08734178178113146899noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post-1390832162990957362014-11-10T23:30:04.276-05:002014-11-10T23:30:04.276-05:00This was a great article, thanks Jane!
I'll t...This was a great article, thanks Jane!<br /><br />I'll take slight issue with John's comment that this is a male privilege issue. Traditional gender roles often hurt men as well. It can be pretty stressful to be a family's sole source of income and have to make a daily long commute to a job you hate. That's not a privilege.<br /><br />Moving forward, I'd love to hear suggestions for how to change academic culture to be more family friendly for everyone. I remember going to group meeting as a postdoc and announcing I would be taking some paternity leave and a senior faculty member "jokingly" asking why I needed time off when my wife was the one having the baby. He then regaled us with the tale of how he was back at work the day after his kids were born. I still have no idea how to point out that was inappropriate. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post-53337481340791736022014-11-10T15:56:45.343-05:002014-11-10T15:56:45.343-05:00I think this is an absolutely outstanding blog pos...I think this is an absolutely outstanding blog post. I learned and it reinforced things that I previously heard but need to learn better. I'm so glad to see contributions from a more inclusive group of women on the WIA blog! Is this WIA's first blog post written from someone from the LGBT community explicitly about the lives of LGBT women? Whether it's the first or third, I hope there are many more to come.<br /><br />A couple thoughts come to mind after reading:<br /><br />1) The issue that Jane is attacking but doesn't explicitly name is that of male privilege. The idea that there are "default" roles in a family is something that directly benefits men at the expense of women, and to the detriment of many couples in general. I think it's worth calling out male privilege by name, so I'll do so here: I need to do more stuff around the house instead of assuming my wife will handle it! <br /><br />2) Another privilege that goes unnamed (at least explicitly) is heterosexual privilege, in that the articles cited are written with the implicit assumption that the audience is hetero and cisgender. As a straight male, I get to have couple's advice written with my marriage in mind by default. I get to think of my marriage as "normal" and I get to see my "setup" portrayed and reinforced all the time in popular media, discussions at university events, forms I fill out, etc. <br /><br />Anyway, just thinking out loud. Thanks again for the excellent post!John Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12297552997821158016noreply@blogger.com