PiqueABoo retweeted
“Girl protagonists outnumbered boys by a ratio of 2 to 1. Some categories, such as realistic fiction and mystery, were especially lopsided, she told me, with ratios of more than 3 to 1. "Girls are taking over!" she said, with a laugh.”
With a laugh…
Young boys are being discouraged from getting into reading—and it’s because more books are missing one key element, @sophiah_n reports: theatlantic.com/culture/2026…
PiqueABoo retweeted
This has been going on forever
My own son, now age 32, complained about the girls always beating the boys in cartoons back when he was in 4th grade! (It wasn't just cartoons, either. District teachers promoted the girls over the boys)
My neighbor's son asked her "How come misogyny means hates women and that's bad but feminism means hates men & that's good"
Good question, middle school boy
PiqueABoo retweeted
Back on votes for 16 yesterday - inevitably, schools and teachers are being dragged in to 'help' 16 year olds make informed decisions when the law changes and they can vote. But herein lies a danger of politicising education - party politics could turn citizenship lessons into propaganda, resulting in toxic rows. And I am not convinced it won't compromise teacher impartiality. Just imagine which parties will be smeared. The minister interrupted me half way saying that the law already says schools need to be impartial. I reminded her that the Department for Education was only recently forced to clamp down on sectarian, pro-Gaza teachers.
Not pointing at Sharron & there were notable exceptions, but when this hit my radar in 2015 there wasn't enough attention on this angle.
Didn't seem to pick up until years later w. GRA reform kicked into long grass, & Suffragette 2.0 larpers found time for focus on the girls.
PiqueABoo retweeted
On Russell Brand, this is spot on: The midwits and lightweights of both left and right built an altar to this one-trick carnival act. ... They saw a guru who would lead Britain to revolution or America to Christ, where the rest of us just saw a twat and a predator.
spiked-online.com/2026/11/05…
Clicked "Do Not Like This Ad" three times for their ad re. an inexplicably regretful 30-something P--nstar. Today it's this one.
Decline.
Right. This was clearly the very best way to realise your desire, as opposed to simply *not* posting this for a zillion followers.
I don't want to shame any particular woman here, but publicly announcing that the #RussellBrand conviction must be wrong because you went home with him and he didn't rape you makes about as much sense as saying 'well, I left 25 Cromwell Street alive, so Fred West's innocent.'
PiqueABoo retweeted
Leader of grooming gang to be released early to make room for Russell Brand.
Satire.
I agree about increasing normalisation of choking fueled by p--n is a Bad Thing To Reverse, but also that this law is a bit of a crock. Vibes law w. no care for very obvious implications like these
Are our supposedly expert "law makers" capable of doing *anything* well?
Has been like this since I first looked at a proposed law, a Bill, at the turn of the century.
> We don't want to make it too specific im case it misses things we didn't think of...
< You thought AT ALL? You certainly didn't listen!
That one had to be fixed (6-7 years later).
PiqueABoo retweeted
90% believe women are scarce in STEM and paid less mainly because of sexism and conditioning. Data shows the opposite: large average sex differences in interests (men prefer things, women people; d=0.93) appear early, hold worldwide, and widen in the most egalitarian countries. Those preferences, not discrimination, drive most of the gaps.
Incest too e.g. father-daughter, their female clone etc.
Didn't like Heinein as a young teen reading the not much sci-fi the town library had, because of all the excursions into that stuff. Just wanted them to get on & resolve the derring-do plot lines.
PiqueABoo retweeted
Women were more willing to deactivate a malfunctioning robot, thereby erasing its memories, even though the robot pleaded with them not to do so.
As robots become increasingly integrated into everyday life, evolved psychological mechanisms originally adapted for human social interaction may shape responses to artificial agents in ways that are no longer functionally appropriate.
Drawing on an evolutionary psychology framework, the present study examined how anthropomorphism, empathy, and systemizing influence decisions involving a humanoid home robot. Participants then read a scenario in which the manufacturer instructed them to reset the malfunctioning robot, thereby erasing its memories, while the robot pleaded not to be deactivated. The reset was requested because a manufacturing defect had been identified, although its potential consequences were unpredictable.
Stronger anthropomorphic tendencies predicted lower willingness to deactivate the robot, whereas higher systemizing predicted greater willingness. Empathy did not predict the decision itself but was associated with greater anticipated discomfort, together with anthropomorphism, while systemizing predicted lower discomfort. Participant gender also influenced willingness to deactivate the robot, with women showing greater willingness than men, although no gender differences emerged in anticipated discomfort.
[The paper explicitly notes this result was contrary to the authors’ expectations based on typical gender differences: women generally score higher on empathy and anthropomorphism (which predicted lower willingness to deactivate), while men tend to score higher on systemizing (which predicted higher willingness). In the introduction, the authors raise the possibility that gender differences in threat perception, risk assessment, and decision-making strategies could lead women to prioritize functional/instrumental considerations (e.g., the manufacturer’s warning about unpredictable risks to the household) over relational ones when faced with a pleading robot. However, the discussion simply reports the gender difference in willingness.]
Interesting.
Sex differences in physical aggression toward intimate partners.
d values > 0 mean men engage in more
d values < 0 mean women engage in more
stevestewartwilliams.com/p/1…
This (not dogs) was one of the elements used to establish Peter's(?) character in Ender's Game.
Read it in late 80s, but recalling it now suggests it was quite effective.
Was prior activity/experience & equipment, but called a decade+ of our family summer holidays: "playing on mountains".
My best analogy from that milieu is that choking may be akin to vertigo for me: have a visceral aversion little different to prospect of poking someone's eye.
