Your leer was sufficient, thanks.

[trinityvixen]

I believe I've stated, many a time, how very much I loathe all sub-human creatures who feel the need to make uninvited comments about my physical appearance that are divorced from, say, concerns about my well-being (I would gladly welcome comments and offers of assistance were I to be hobbling down the street after being mugged, for example). For reasons that are obvious to every woman and (I would hope) most men, the constant reminder of the fact that I am in possession of OMGTITS and OMG they want them is really unnecessary. Also, it makes me want to take a hammer to your nutsack and leave you without the troublesome hormones that seem to be causing me problems. You are warned.

Today, I go to pick up a diet pepsi from the cart outside (it's cheaper than the machine in the cafeteria), and as I fish for my purse, I hear the guy say, "You want help with that?" I give him a funny look--confused as to why he should want to help me fish around in my purse, especially as, by the time he finished speaking, I'd extracted my wallet. I go to take out some coins to pay, asking him, very disingenuously, "Huh?" He repeats it with a nod at me. "With squeezing things. So much squeezing to do..." He trails off, laughing, as if he's been terribly boys-will-be-boys naughty-cute and isn't that so charming?

For reference, I am wearing my Lenore shirt that viridian got me for Christmas. Over a year ago, one of the post-docs at work politely told me that, given the unfortunate positioning of the word bubble on the shirt, it's divorced from the picture of a little dead girl and the wide-eyed hamster victims that she's going to love to death (a la Elmira). In other words, due to massive tit obstruction, you can clearly read, "So much squeezin' to do, so little time!" and see only the top of Lenore's head.

And isn't it so funny to comment on that and pretend that it gives you leave to LEER AT MY CHEST and to interpret the words there as a come-hither?

I fucking love Lenore the comic, and I love this shirt for its gleeful sadism (it comes from a short where she wants a toy with eyes that pop and mistakes directions and goes to the pet store and squishes hamsters instead for the eye-popping effect). So, clearly as this shirt somehow sends out radio waves to short-circuit people's brains, I must wear it only in the house and find THIS shirt and wear it out instead. I just need to add something about KEEPING YOUR FUCKING THOUGHTS ABOUT WANTING TO GROPE ME TO YOURSELF, PERVERT to it.

*

In other news: more proof that evo-psych is TOTAL BULLSHIT. There are so many things wrong with that study, I can't even tell you. Basically, they hand-waved away a signficant detail wherein they showed that people of a different culture have different color preferences and biases because it disproved their affirmation of pink = girly. Forget that two hundred years ago pink = MANLY--PINK IS FOR GIRLS BECAUSE THEY USED TO GATHER FRUIT AND SHIT. Yes, because, clearly, men could not be gatherers due to their bias in selecting moldy, rotted fruit.

And this is another study meant to piss me off and no other reason. Women, as a general trend, use landmarks in their navigation more than spacialization. I give directions that have route numbers and major sights to see so people know they're going the right way. But that only applies to situations involving one or more persons (myself included) who might not know the way. The fact that I can navigate a grocery store because I remember the cat food is next to the garbage bags and tin foil doesn't mean I'm a better at shopping. It means I've, OMG, been to the store before and looked for those items. Anyone living next to a store for long enough will begin to memorize its layout and prioritize its contents according to what he or she wants/needs.

Also? GIVE UP ON THE HUNTER-GATHERER CRAP. Honestly, the workings of genes are far more subtle than "women collect growing food, men hunt moving food." And, once you start a community, you'll find that individuals with only slight improvements in a color or directional navigation sense really won't make an impact. If just one individual can spot the fruit or remember where home is, the rest benefit and survive. Community can muddle the impact of genes, so the less fit will also survive to pass on genes.

Making generalizations of this sort frighten me. There's nothing you can say is the sole provence of man or woman save the XX or the Y chromosomes (and, even then, it's tricky) from an evolutionary stand point when you are studying people so wholely shaped by their environment, which, more than ever, is masquing genetic effects with the interference of medicine and community. HAAAATE evo psyche....

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Blogger Doctor Science agrees with you that these studies are bullshit!

http://doctorscience.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-tell-biology-from-bullshit.html

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I <3 Doctor Science.

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

Can I use this as an excuse to make myself all pretty before I go out?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

You should dress up for yourself, without regard for evo-psych.

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

See, I'm really lazy. But if that's what I'm supposed to do to pick up girls from an evolutionary point of view, I'm willing to give it a try!

[taxidermied.livejournal.com]

That's so funny. I'm going to start having to take boobs in account when I design these things.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

...then it was not all for nothing!

Also, hi! I, uh, am a total geek for your stuff, by the by. Thanks for commenting on this. And really--really, really, really--if you at all can rectify this problem? You have a slave for life, sir.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

HOLY BALLS.

Do you mind terribly if I friend you?

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

"Yes, because, clearly, men could not be gatherers due to their bias in selecting moldy, rotted fruit."

Before you dismiss this, you should see what my roommates get at the store sometimes.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Before you dismiss this, you should see what my roommates get at the store sometimes.

Not being anal enough to really look at the fruit is different than having a genetic advantage towards picking it out. And, with my grocery store at least, it's not always easy to pick out not-moldy fruit.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

With *my* grocery store it's terribly easy to pick out moldy produce -- just take anything from the shelves!

...so glad to be out of here...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, that's why all behavioral arguments based on evolution are complete unscientific crap. And I detest theories being validated by the popular press rather than the scientific theory.

I don't have quite the same problem as you with shirts (and I think I've only been wolf-whistled at once), but I do have one shirt from the LGBTA that has a giant pink triangle on it and the words "Love is love" underneath. Because of my boobs, "Love is love," which is the entire reason I bought the shirt, is completely invisible. The triangle also says "Ally" on it, meaning I'm an ally of the gay community. I had one person ask me if that was my name. In conclusion, I've given up on this shirt.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

And I detest theories being validated by the popular press rather than the scientific theory.

I detest popular theory being cloaked in scientific language and people with degrees adding to the confusion. This is how we got Intelligent Design...

As for the shirt problem in general, this wasn't a case of the shirt being (entirely) at fault. More, he was up on a platform and could not see past my platform. Also, he's a dipshit. But I've had plenty of tees that confused people. Hell, I have clothing that confuses me. I wore my FSU fleece and someone asked me if I was a "Nole." I had no idea what she meant for way too long.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Seminole, dude! At UF they have shirts that say "I think, therefore I'm not a nole."

And I meant scientific community above, but same diff. Blah blah general public not understanding what science even means, let alone how to tell the difference between real and fake and then getting elected to office...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

If there were fewer fakes, people would stop getting confused. However, when the government wishes to sell shit as shiny, the more confusion they can make, the better. Le SIGH.

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

???
Ok did you mean "semi-nole" or "Seminole"? I did a double-take from the way you wrote it since it was really unclear (and you pulling tribal associations from the topic at hand seemed REALLY odd).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The mascot of Florida State University, FSU, is the Seminoles. It's the name of their sports teams.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Also, their arch-rivals are the University of Florida (UF) Gators. Hence the UF reference above.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

See the comment from ivy03 below, she got to it before me.

I did mention, in my original post to which she replied that it was an FSU shirt. The politics of naming your team after indigenous tribes, of course, is fairly loathsome.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

This is how we got Intelligent Design...

...the same forces that gave us Stephen Pinker?

[viridian.livejournal.com]

And now you understand why I didn't buy that shirt for myself. I've been made to cry by the number of men in a day commenting on my appearance. Granted, it was also when I had bright cherry flaming red hair, but it got to a point where I didn't want to head off-campus on weekends during college, or walk anywhere alone, or anywhere with people because then they'd have to witness me being catcalled and trying not to die of shame.

Some days I think it would be awesome if people were allowed to just carry swords around.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think it would be great if there were some way to return the favor, but there isn't, much. I have to come up with a stock of great come-backs that question the sexual worth of the cat-caller so that he can be as unnerved as I am made to be. If only.

Cat-callers. Ha. Makes it sound like they're harmless. Verbal pervs, I say.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really not fair. There is nothing you can say back to a male who references your tits that would actually hurt their feelings.

Fuckers.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You know it's bad science when it supports your pre-conceived notions. Period. When your bias based on sexism is upheld, yeah, I call foul.

And, like most things, this is a slippery slope. Because this is America! We like the best people for the job to have those jobs. So, gosh, if women are so good at picking out food and shopping, shouldn't they do all of it? It's like the study that found lower cancer rates with increased housework. That's great! What woman doesn't want less cancer? Especially since they're making it hard to get the HPV shot!

The wrong-ness of the assumptions of evo psych...my GOD. Like I said, community can muddle the impact of good or bad genes. If THIS community wanted, we could breed out men with negative attitudes towards pink. More easily, we could just stop with the bullshit pink-is-girly stuff.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

I especially love how all these studies cited are just experimenting on ADULTS, looking for all those teeny tiny subtle measurements that reveal subtle predilections, and TOTALLY IGNORING that culture has had DECADES to work on those adults.

i.e. maybe the women in the study were better at finding their way around grocery stores because THEY'VE HAD TO DO THE SHOPPING FOR THIRTY-FIVE YEARS?

Personally, I do believe that some of human psychology comes from evolution. However, I believe it is far far less than is usually cited, and that most studies claiming "Everything you know is WRONG!" when they really just support all those preconceptions you know you should try to give up but you don't really want to because they make you feel less secure in your mastery of the world are probably full of crap.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Er, truly accurate testing on what people are like in "the state of nature" would require us to raise some babies alone on a deserted island without any interaction with adults.

This experiment would likely violate ethical guidelines.

Anyone who has not conducted this experiment had better have a VERY good reason for drawing the conclusions s/he draws.

Anyway, related article that I've been meaning to write about and will get around to soonish:
and oh hey, look at that website! I'm relevant on multiple levels!.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I got about three paragraphs in and was grinding my teeth too much to continue.