Dying Swan

林蛋大

I got this in an email from JYM. Enjoy if you understand Chinese.

Sexism

One of our cat, Lupe was cleaning herself. I took these in a series of pictures and put them together. No audio, so don't bother. Enjoy!

P.I.N.K. (II)

I saw this when I was browsing Huffington Post. Click on link to go to the source.
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Female Bank of England Employees Must Wear Makeup and Heels from NY Mag

Well, this is appalling: Earlier this week, the Bank of England held "Dress for Success" day. On that day, they sent out a memo to female employees detailing just how they should dress for success, important now more than ever in These Economic Times, the worst financial crisis Britain's dealt with since the Depression. WWD obtained a copy of the memo:

“Look professional, not fashionable; be careful with perfume; always wear a heel of some sort — maximum 2 inches; always wear some sort of makeup — even if it’s just lipstick.” Shoes and skirt must be the same color. No-no’s include ankle chains — “professional, but not the one you want to be associated with;” white high heels; overstuffed handbags; an overload of rings, and double-pierced ears.

On behalf of all women at the BOE, excuse us? A woman can dress almost exactly opposite to these rules — in black flats, with gray trousers, no makeup, and a giant handbag — and still look professional and chic. We understand the need to enforce a dress code, but mandating heels of a certain color, makeup, and degree of handbag-filling is ridiculous. What about rules for the men? It wouldn't hurt BOE governor Mervyn King and deputy governor Sir John Gieve to wear ties that aren't so loud — set an example if you're so concerned about color-coordination, gentlemen. And while you're forcing women to wear two-inch heels, you should, too. Sarko does it, after all.
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I will be fine with this kind of memo IFF the memo also addresses men's dress code. But only women? And down to the very detail: "maximum 2 inches", "Shoes and skirt must be the same color". I don't see how the economic crisis has anything to do with the female dress code, unless the male employees are perverts.... Well, I guess I rest my case with my P.I.N.K. post....

P.I.N.K.

MC and LL was here this past week and we got to talk a little. MC bought a Wii Fit for her son and she was looking for a silicon cover for the Wii Fit. We saw some blue, pink and clear cover. I suggested her to buy the pink one, just for kick. She didn't because her son is not going to like it. Last night, we were chit-chatting and one thing led to another, we noticed that the majority of male in western world has a learnt dislike for pink color. Given our academic background and the male population that we deal with, this dislike is especially pronounced.

I was telling MC and the rest that someday, when I finally decided to go into academic, I will make sure that the color pink is prominent in everything. For example, I will photocopy everything on pink paper, that includes the exams, course syllabus, homework assignment. The power point presentation background will be in pink color as well. I will also make sure that any homework that they submit in printed form has to be printed on pink paper. If the students have to present, pink shirt is the uniform, pink tie is optional, but pink shirt is required. Its either pink shirt or you do not present and get zero grade for the presentation.

I do not have special preference for pink, in fact, pink is not even close to be in my preferred color list. Call me sadist, masochist, sadomasochist or whatever you want, but this is my way of letting the male population know what its like for female to live in the world dominated by male and dictated by male. When you do not dress according to their dress code, you will not be taken seriously. If the your clothes look too much like male style, they perceive you as a threat; if it is too colorful or the cut is a little too complex, they see you as being 'female' and not serious about your job. The worst part, if your clothes are not conservative enough, i.e. a little revealing or it makes you look sexy, all they think about when they see you is "sex", its time for you to change your job. Well, I don't want to go on ranting on the glass ceiling that female has to face when working in the field dominated by male. I just know that as a female, in addition to the fact that you have to look 'right', you definitely have to be visibly better than your male counterpart if you want to win the job.

According to my boss, education is the key to reform. To right this wrong, we have to start with education. Like my boss says, education is the best way to change the world and that's why he is in education and not in industry. So my first step will be to teach them to respect female, to teach them other than the anatomical and physical differences, male and female are equally capable when it comes to brain power. I have to let them know and let them experience the oppressions that female experience on their job, such as dealing with the color pink, the least favorite color in the male population. Well, all in all, doing a decent job as an educator is a tough, and I am definitely not up for that challenge yet.

MC has a another idea. She is going to make all her students in her graduate class sit like a female. I will do the same too if the law in this country allows. But, this is definitely a good suggestion for future reference.