ethics & philosophy

ideals, breaches, disappointments and inspirations

Quickhit: a black man’s view on Schroedinger’s Rapist

By on

…my objection to anti-black racism being used as a rhetorical device by those who will never face it, is that black people engage in tons of behaviours to make white people feel safer. We do this all the damn time. We make accommodations in speech, behaviour, dress, mannerism, conversation topic – a wide diversity of adjustments that we make in the presence of our white friends […] I don’t appreciate being deputized into your anti-feminist screed in this way.

University graduate cap

Mary’s helpful guide to soliciting research participation on the ‘net

By on • ( 5 )

In my years on the ‘net, I’ve seen any number of people want to interview others or get them to take surveys for everything from a short high school or undergraduate paper through to graduate research projects and books. And they so seldom manage to meet basic ethical guidelines for making sure they aren’t wasting their participants’ time at best or endangering them at worst.

A small plastic mini-figure from Lego's new line targeting girls

“I’ll put up with it, at least for now, because [Lego]’s just so good for little girls’ brains”

By on • ( 6 )

“If it takes color-coding or ponies and hairdressers to get girls playing with Lego, I’ll put up with it, at least for now, because it’s just so good for little girls’ brains,” says Lise Eliot. A neuroscientist at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, Eliot is the author of Pink Brain Blue Brain, a 2009 survey of hundreds of scientific papers on gender differences in children

Yes, you are awful too

By on • ( 10 )

Kate Harding: if your solution to sexist abuse on the internet is, “Just don’t let anyone know your gender, or see a picture of you, or ever mention where you live”, you are so fucking awful, I can’t even.