The Lobster Dance

In this edition of the gender reader: queer issues in the Tohoku Disaster recovery, the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, why the “economics of sex” video is wrong, wrong, wrong, and more!

Let’s reclaim this image. “Sorry, bro, the goddesses have spoken. Misogynists don’t get sex OR vintage NES time.” (Via Business Insider, originally from The Economics of Sex by the Austin Institute)

Japan

Azusa Yamashita. “Beyond Invisibility: Great East Japan Disaster and LGBT in Northeast Japan.” Women’s Network for East Japan Disaster (Rise Together) (東日本大震災女性支援ネットワーク). 26 Dec. 2012.

—.山下 梓. “復興の取り組みにLBTの視点を.” 東日本大震災女性支援ネットワーク.  “Addressing the Viewpoints of LBT People in Disaster Reconstruction Initiatives.” Women’s Network for East Japan Disaster (Rise Together). 13 June 2012.

Azusa Yamashita of the Iwate Rainbow Network writes about addressing the concerns and needs of the queer community, particularly trans people and people in homogamous relationships, in the relief and reconstruction efforts for the Tohoku Disasters of March 11, 2011. For example, finding partners after a disaster, receiving hormonal medications, being able to live with a homogamous partner in temporary housing, having access to gender-neutral bathrooms and public baths, and generally being treated with respect while living in shelters are all issues disaster-relief organizations must consider to better serve those affected by the disasters. Not to mention that many people, particularly in rural areas, may face severe social repercussions for being out or asking for the help they need.

World Economic Forum. Global Gender Gap Report 2013. 

The full Global Gender Gap Index, which put Japan at #105, has not only convenient graphs and summaries, but all the data. Courtesy of commenter James Wiegert.

Takeshi Kawasaki. “Chie Shimpo to be Japan’s first woman bank president.” Nikkei Asian Review. 11 Mar. 2014.

Chie Shimpo, 48, was appointed president of Nomura Trust & Banking after being promoted as Nomura Holdings’ youngest-ever executive officer. Nomura Holdings is known for its meritocratic corporate culture.

Next month, she will become the first female head of a domestic bank. However, the high expectations and tremendous attention she receives from the public seems to slightly baffle her.

The False Economics of Sex

Apparently women’s sexual liberation is leading to a decline in marriages and ruining the United States! How much am I over logical fallacies by pseudo-scientists and pseudo-social-scientists? Let me count the ways.

Christina Sterbenz. “The ‘Economics Of Sex’ Theory Is Completely Wrong.” Business Insider. 3 March 2014.

1. Because cutesy graphics do not research make. (A short piece.)

This harmful video preaches a return to the golden-age of

chastity, before women possessed the social and financial capital to make decisions, especially regarding sexuality, for themselves. And just as insulting, it relies on illogical economic and scientific research to make that point.

Dr. Nerdlove. “The Economics of Sex.” Paging Doctor Nerdlove. 21 Feb. 2014.

2. Because history and 3. because you forgot all the queer folks! (This article breaks down basically all the points from the social history of sex AND coins the term “Schrödinger’s Sluts.”)

But in the end, the cold, hard fact is that outside of sex-work, sex isn’t a commodity and equating a woman’s willingness to have sex with her “market value” just hides the implication that one believes that this is all a woman has to offer. All this is is an attempt to give the authors’ Madonna/Whore complex a gloss of legitimacy by pretending that it’s about the numbers, not the authors’ attempts to impose their world-view on others.

Philip H. Cohen. “Is the price of sex too damn low?” Family Inequality. 24 Feb. 2014.

4. Because it’s contributing to social fear of women with means, right there with Hanna Rosin’s how women’s economic “power” is destroying the menz and Regnerus’s own misogyny. (Come here if you want to read all the excerpts and even more links to other articles, because watching the video may induce table-flipping.)

The logic here is approaching random. Get this: When women were poor, they needed to withhold sex to get money. Now that they have more money — and are less dependent on men — they don’t need to withhold it, so they give it away. Wait, what? If they don’t need to sell it anymore, and we already know they don’t want to “have” it (that is, do it), then why don’t those Scandinavian women [high on the equality side of the Gender Gap Index]  just keep it, for f#cks’ sake?

Constance Gager. “Response to “Does a more Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?” published in the New York Times.” Gender & Society. 1 March 2014.

Related news: remember that article floating around about how heterogamous couples who take equal roles supposedly have less sex? Gager destroys that with research, as well as the “porn for women is men doing housework” meme that seems to be constantly circulating on unfortunate “sharing cool images!” Facebook pages and the mouths of confused people.

This finding is in direct contrast to research I published with my colleague Scott Yabiku, using the same 1993 survey of over 7,000 married couples, that finds the more total housework (and paid work) performed by both husbands and wives the more sex they had (here). We suggest that a group of high-energy couples are working hard and playing hard. Other researchers report that wives who think their division of labor is fair have more sex. However, Gottlieb never mentions these other studies, but rather goes on to provide her own personal anecdotes from friends and clients (even one from her first year of training) as proof the new study is valid.

Something Fun

“Man Who Treats Women With Respect Asked What His Secret Is.” The Onion. 10 March 2014.

Commenting upon his seemingly effortless ability to interact with all kinds of women, friends of local financial analyst Matt Brownlow, a man who regularly treats members of the opposite sex with respect, reportedly asked the 28-year-old Monday what his secret is.