via reddit

That’s a Globe and Mail headline, not mine.

It’s from an article about how the birth control pill makes women lust after the “provider” type. Basically, because the pill makes a woman’s body think she’s already knocked up, she stops chasing the masculine types.

During ovulation, women prefer men with symmetrical, masculine features. These men are aggressive, compete with other men, and in some cases exhibit “creative intelligence,” write the authors. More importantly, their major histocompatibility complex genes – the ones that build our immune systems – are considerably unlike the individual woman’s. According to earlier research, being attracted to a person with a different immune system is advantageous because the baby will inherit a larger arsenal to combat disease.

But during the infertile phase, women appear to prefer men who are more genetically similar to their relatives. Others opt for men who exhibit more “feminine” characteristics and have the means to invest in child rearing, Dr. Alvergne said.

I guess provider/feminine types means geeks.

“You fall in a long-term relationship with the caring, investing wimps and then you poach the good genes from the highest-status [masculine] guys. And the wimps hopefully make good stepdads and raise your kids,” said Geoffrey Miller, an associate professor of human sexuality and evolutionary psychology at the University of New Mexico.

Ouch! But since the women on birth control, well, want their births controlled, that should still leave lots of sexing for the geeks.

Now now, I know the geek reference in the headline was just a cute thing, but I still need to say that geek boys are attractive no matter what is currently supplementing my hormone levels. And are geek boys, on average, not that macho? Yep. But it’s really quite endearing.

So keep up the good work geek boys. And start picking up ladies at the pharmacy counter.

I’m a reddit addict. I don’t even need to type it into my browser anymore, I just tap the down key and it’s the first thing there. I seriously considered buying the alien soap – something you shouldn’t even try to understand if you’re not a redditor.

Reddit is known for being a liberal circlejerk of Republican hating, universal health care loving, police power abuse bashing, young, atheist geeks who are also critical of Israel, love narwhals, hate FOX News and don’t think socialism is a dirty word. I could go on. Basically, reddit is relevant to my interests.

Except, reddit seems to hate women. A lot.

It’s hard to spend more than a few minutes on the site without seeing women referred to as one of the following:

• materialistic, gold-digging whores
• bitches that will go for the douche while breaking the nice guys’ (read: redditors’) hearts
• evil liars who falsely claim rape to hurt men and feel better about sleeping around

These generalizations happen fast, often and receieve massive upvotes. Not to mention the sexist humour tacked onto any thread mentioning women. It used to seem funny, now it just seems uncomfortably common to just be a joke.

To see all of this in one convenient spot, check out the Men’s Rights subreddit. What should be an intelligent discussion of where men are falling behind consistently turns into misogyny and rants on why feminism has ruined the lives of men everywhere.

And thanks to the reddit circlejerk, it generally goes unchecked.

Enter Lady Bashing, my new favourite subreddit.

Redditors submit shining examples of sexism in reddit comments. Some recent additions:

“his just in: Women are more heartless than men, they’re just better at hiding it.” permalink

“just another typical woman driver. IMO

the stereotype that women can’t drive is funny because it is actually true.” permalink

(In a post about how to tell a boyfriend that you’re pregnant)

“Hey honey, I was pregnant, but don’t worry, I went to the clinic this morning and it’s all taken care of.”

At least, that’s how I’d want to get told.

Otherwise, my suggestion as to how to tell him is “not next to the top of a staircase”. permalink

Harmless? Funny? Maybe. But it’s the persistance of these types of comments the inspired the subreddit. And it’s not new. See: the rest of the internet.

Some other women have talked about this before, check out:

Sexism Runs Rampant on Reddit (and maybe the rest of the social web) (SEOmoz)

Sexism on Reddit (Geek Feminism Blog)

Well, not really. I got to make a comic for The Eyeopener a little while ago. No, I’ve never made a comic before. No, I can’t draw. But yeah, I’m weirdly proud of it.

Click for big!

Total side note: I’m going to actually start using this blog that I spent far too long picking and tweaking a theme for.

Apparently those working in the tech sector are more likely to put their partner’s sexual needs above their own and use sex toys together, according to a survey. Yep, that’s right. Geeks are great in the sack, with numbers to prove it and everything.

When asked by www.PS3PriceCompare.co.uk “Do you regularly use sex toys with your partner?” the respondents that worked in the tech sector; in jobs within IT such as computer analysts, web design and development were most likely to.

Well, geeks do like their gadgets.

The survey also asked “During sex, do you consider your partner’s sexual needs above your own?” and 82% of IT workers said yes. Compare that to only 41% of sports and fitness workers.

Yes, this is an internet poll conducted by a site that compares prices on gaming consoles. And yes, there is totally an xkcd comic in here about correlation and causation.

But you know what, I say take the win.

IT engineering master’s students will be offered a course on flirtacious communications at At Potsdam University in Germany.

The 440 students enrolled in the master’s degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection.

Philip von Senftleben, an author and radio presenter who will teach the course, summed up his job as teaching how to “get someone else’s heart beating fast while yours stays calm.”

It’s part of a “social skills” section of the course.

Seems a little sad that the university feels this is neccesary. I bet the IT students have plenty of flirting skill.

Especially if their game includes the use of nerdy pick-up lines such as:

• Girl, you make my floppy disk hard.
• According to the second law of thermodynamics, you’re supposed to share your hotness with me.
• Baby, I’ll be your dungeon master.
• You compute me.
• You make me want to plug my FireWire into your USB.

Swoon.

US gaming retailer GameStop knows what games appeal to the ladies. Read: weight loss, simulated babies and cooking.

Until February 22nd, GameStop is offering a free one year subscription to women’s magazines such as O, Cosmo, Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire.

The catch is you have to spend more than $34.99 on select products such as Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach, All Star Cheer Squad, Cooking Mama World Kitchen and My Baby Boy. See the whole list here.

You can’t make this stuff up.

“We know that getting in shape is one of the toughest New Year’s resolutions to stick with, especially for busy moms who often don’t have time to spare for exercise,” said Mike Hogan, Senior Vice President of Marketing, GameStop. “Today’s moms are looking for ways to incorporate exercise into their lifestyle. Active video games are a terrific way to reach your fitness goals, and as an added bonus, they can be enjoyed with your whole family.”

While there is a market for this type of promotion, it’s hard to buy that this is stricty for moms. The games listed reflect pretty clearly what the gaming industry’s attitude towards female is–that we’re casual gamers and can’t shake our apperant obsession with all things domestic.

Though I guess if you’re playing Halo, you may not be Cosmo’s target audience.