An Unpleasant Non-Surprise at Jet Propulsion Laboratories’ Kids Section

2007-11-07
By

The other day my nine-year-old daughter sat on my knee and we visited the website for Jet Propulsion Laboratories.  My daughter is very smart and interested in space, and I tell her that someday she will be an astrophysicist who will help us put a colony on Mars. We also discuss the increasing likelihood that life exists in other solar systems, and possibly even in some of the moons in our own.

Anyway, we went to the kids’ section of the JPL website, and I guess I should not have been surprised by what I saw.  First on the “Space Place Live” page they have several videos of JPL scientists discussing space and their work.  I guess I should have anticipated that in the first video (sigh) the girl is very smart and (guess what?) the boy is a clown whom she makes fun of. 

I guess I should also have not been surprised that, even though the vast majority of scientists at JPL and NASA are men, the page is dominated by women.  In fact, the first three scientists are all women.  I am happy, of course, that women are playing an important role in space travel, just as I want my daughter to one day.  However, it’s unfortunate that men’s contributions are minimized, and the boy is portrayed as foolish.  Perhaps if I sat through all of the kids’ videos I would find some that are better, but somehow I didn’t feel like it.

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  • roger

    no doubt women are getting opportunities at NASA.
    they just let a woman fly the shuttle in for a landing today…1 or 2 women on board.

  • PolishKnight

    I’m surprised that Glenn is not surprised

    Surprise is a useful emotion in that it alerts us to realizations that we had previously overlooked.

    NASA is a mess. The ISP and space shuttle are boondoggles with technology that’s on the cutting edge for a 1970′s Dodge Gremlin, but not going to put us on Mars. Why? Because NASA is just another bureaucratic government agency mostly concerned with it’s own survival and Political Correctness than advancing space exploration.

    And his daughter isn’t going to change that. Because women such as her are part of the problem! And Glenn isn’t going to fix this, because men such as him are part of the problem too.

    We have plenty of female engineers who help consume government money to keep on the cutting edge of 1970′s space technology. I understand the processors are up to 10 MHz now! They might even be using 8-track cassettes!

    Our society is a mess on the ground and it’s a mess up in space too. The system is running out of money to finance the potemkin village of liberated “independent” women who have about 1 child each while thirld worlders flood the borders.

    Glenn underestimates how special he is (I’m saying this as a compliment.) He’s a gifted writer and organizer. He’s a gem to his wife clearly because she is willing to support his endeavors. However, even if his daughter doesn’t change her mind and develop an interest in business school down the road, what makes us think she’ll want or even be able to find a father like him?

    She might walk into a position at NASA, put up technology, say, at the level of the 1980′s (and build space stations around the moon that house 2 people but are closed to budget cutbacks) but what then? Liberated, thoughtful men such as Glenn are not common. Most men who don’t earn a decent living are leftist hippies or realize that 99.9% of women don’t want them and get a good job anyway.

    I suppose she could marry another engineer (there’s no shortage of dateless men engineers) but it’s not uncommon for these men by their 30′s to have married younger women or just become undatable. And then… what? If her new hubby gets laid off (to make room for more mostly single women scientists) will she support him indefinitely while he looks for work?

    One of the problems with a true traditionalist agenda is that it’s not as fun as the fantasy workplace proposed by government museums. EVERY child can be an astronaut, or an engineer, or an architect, or even President! For lucky MEN, on the other hand, it’s usually life as an auto repairman, plumber, or A/C repairman. Not too many government museums try to glamorize that (ok, there is a museum in Philly that does. The water works, but you get my point.)

    How to glamorize housewifery? Or a girl learning how to be an empowered young woman? Sadly, the girl scouts is now the Commie Scouts. Churches have a mixed agenda. I think the old style finishing schools did a great job of training young women how to be polite, throw a dinner party, network, participate in community affairs, etc.

  • jjtaup

    How true, PK.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for letting women do what they can do. But there’s the rub. “Can” means qualified and, aside from overlap on the distributions and the necessary several degrees of freedom, they can’t do, aren’t made for, and shouldn’t do what men do. Principle holds for swapping “men” and “women.”

    But don’t make every web page a peek through the looking glass where women do the big trades, women launch and land the shuttles, women unlock all the dimensions of string theory, build the skyscrapers, discover the wheel, and bring fire to earth. It’s utter crap and does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to make me believe men and women are the exact same with women being more than a little better. Jesus H., PK has hit it on the nose. Our society would be more polite were the finishing schools to experience a renaissance.

  • http://whatmenthinkofwomen.blogspot.com/ christianj

    Blatant misandry deisplayed by governemnt departments has to be fought tooth and nail. This is blatant sexism and it’s nothng to do with “privileged princesses” special privileges, it has all to do with feminism and their determination to elevate wommin to an impossible level that even they cannot maintain.

    Should be our next project Glenn..






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