Mastodawn

MicroWave Aug 27, 2023

Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers

Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers - Lemmy.world

The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica. But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.

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riceandbeans161 Aug 27, 2023

disappointed, but not surprised. You’d think scientists would know better, but men will apparently just be men.

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SevFTW Aug 27, 2023

“Men will be men” just excuses the behaviour and ostracizes men who don’t do these things. It has less to do with their sex and more to do with how we raise men.

Toxic masculinity as a defence mechanism of patriarchal society is the main problem and “feminine”, “emotional” or “weak” men, or those not subscribing to heteronormative sexuality are targeted by the same types to uphold their status.

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Square Singer

I wish we would stop calling it “toxic masculinity”, because that term makes it sound as if it was a thing that’s tied to being male / a thing “men just do” because they are men. It ostracises men who don’t do these things.

In a way, “toxic masculinity” ist just another way to say “men will be men”.

Words are important. Please let’s call it something that makes it clear that this is not the normal modus operandii of being male. I suggest “machoism”, which describes the topic pretty well, is well understood and makes it clear that it’s not a thing that comes naturally with being a man. If you want to, call it “toxic machoism”. But then again, that would say that not all machoism is toxic.