Some of these links will elicit louder WTFs than others.
- Andrew Sullivan wants to believe that “p.c. egalitarianism” is throttling scientific proof that black people are dumber than whites.
(Ta-Nehisi Coates responds.) - No women on BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist
- 8 y.o. boy taken into foster care due to his obesity – even though he was otherwise a normal kid on his school’s honour roll with no urgent health problems.
- Kansas governor Sam Brownback’s office ordered a school to demand a written apology from one of their students who tweeted criticism while watching him speak. She refused, asserting her First Amendment rights. The governor backed down, blaming his staff for “over-reacting”.
- How not to market science to girls
ETA: You cannot hope to hide your skullduggery forever from the internet: Molson Brewing edition.
As on all linkfest posts, please do add your own relevant links in comments.
Categories: ethics & philosophy, linkfest, social justice
Hoyden About Town 
I feel a little guilty at giving the neighbor’s daughter a fairy-themed crystal growing kit a couple weeks ago. My daughter picked it out, and I like the who science aspect, but sometimes I despair because try as I might, I can’t convince my daughter not to love pink fairy things. Conversely, she also loves explosions and Science! and many other things. We often refer to her as our chainsaw princess from an early xmas pic of her in frilly dress-up gloves wielding a toy chainsaws with a look that you wouldn’t want to be on the other side of.
LOL at chainsaw princess – I think she needs a manga story!
It’s hard to stop girls who are surrounded by pop culture and consumerist visions of pink fairy princesses from absorbing those messages and wanting those sparkly things. It certainly happened to my daughter, despite me dressing her mainly in reds and yellows and greens as an infant. She grew out of the pink sparkly phase a long time ago, and is now in rather severe backlash, which has its own problems: how do we reject being constrained to only the dainty aspects of femininity without demonising everything fluffy/sparkly/dainty instead? Because that happens a lot, and it’s yet another way of denigrating the feminine, because to some people that’s all that femininity is/should be.
This is fucking terrible, so far past WTF as to end up in a different galaxy:
Note in the second link, it’s not actually a post by Tankard-Reist herself, but a guest post about the issue.
There were two links in my comment – this is the one that went missing – http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-29/20111129-terry-martin-sentenced/3702258
That journalist dude in the British media inquiry who said that no one “needs” a right to privacy and that “privacy is for pedophiles”. WTF, right there.
In trivial matters, Coles’ repeated claims that they are reducing prices on (x) “because we all buy (x)”. I swear I have never bought any of the items that we all buy.
TAK – ugh, Paul McMullan, former deputy features editor of NOTW.
@TAK – I often find myself saying “unless you are celiac/observing a religious dietary requirement/vegetarian/vegan/dairy intolerant etc. I don’t know who wrote the ads or indeed who approved them but they need to be sat down and have a few things explained to them. Fail.
That sounds more like a discussion on the research that lead to the publication of a magazine marketed to paedophiles.
Ah, so much WTFery!
And here’s another one, from this article about police being shitty that someone they arrested for a horrible crime is now seeking to try – legally – to be released:
First, a disclaimer: what Baker and Crump did was terrible. However, Parole Boards tend to be remarkably hard-nosed – and after nearly 40 years, it is actually possible that he now poses no risk to the community (although 40 years in an Australian prison is unlikely to actually reform anyone /snark).
However, the quote above says SO much more about the police than anything else – and is definitely worthy of some WTFery. I’m sorry, but “we didn’t do something horrendous because there would have been community outrage”, which is basically what that last sentence says, is NOT the same as “professionalism”!!!!!!!
The police force. Not known for fostering a culture of introspection and self-awareness.
(Not saying all cops are bad, or even that most are. It’s just that, to be a cop, you have to back your own judgment and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your colleagues, which does not promote the kind of environment in which self-regulation works.)