Blog Sisters:

iPod jacking makes people share

I recently irked some folks by saying I believe conservatives and libertarians (conservatives who wear their caps backward) don't like to share. That explains why they are usually opposed to supporting the common good. MacRumors reports there is something new to for such persons to worry about. Wired's Leander Kahney has the original story.

During his regular evening walk, software executive Steve Crandall often nods a polite greeting to other iPod users he passes: He easily spots the distinctive white earbuds threaded from pocket to ears.

But while quietly enjoying some chamber music one evening in August, Crandall's polite nodding protocol was rudely shattered.

Crandall was boldly approached by another iPod user, a 30ish woman bopping enthusiastically to some high-energy tune.

"She walked right up to me and got within my comfort field," Crandall stammered. "I was taken aback. She pulled out the earbuds on her iPod and indicated the jack with her eyes."

Warily unplugging his own earbuds, Crandall gingerly plugged them into the woman's iPod, and was greeted by a rush of techno.

"We listened for about 30 seconds," Crandall said. "No words were exchanged. We nodded and walked off."

The following evening, Crandall saw the woman again. This time, she was sharing her iPod with another iPod regular Crandall had spotted on his walks.

Within a couple of days, Crandall had performed the iPod sharing ritual with all the other four or five regulars he sees on his walks. Since August, they've listened to each other's music dozens of times.

I freely admit to iPod promiscuity. Since acquiring my first, soon after the esteemed MP3 player/hard drive was released, I have shared music with family, friends and complete strangers. My current digital companion, Titania, has been handled by more men than I've given my phone number in the last year. The iPod has become well enough known that people will often ask to take a closer look at it. Some say they are considering getting their own. Like Crandall, I notice other iPod users and they notice me. We sometimes compare notes on what we have on our 'Pods, listen to each others tunes briefly or, now that a hack allowing it is available, trade songs.

Crandall, who also has a weblog, Tingilinde, has seen iPod sharing catch on in his native milieu and heard rumors of it on some college campuses. But, he has also encountered hostile responses when suggesting mutual musical moments in New York City.

In looking back, I realize I've usually been the respondent to iPod information and music exchanges. However, if the iPod jacking spreads, that may change. Perhaps I will become an aggressive plucker of plugs. But, I promise not to force conservatives and libertarians to share.

This entry appeared at Mac-a-ro-nies.

A comment on comments. So here's the thing. I'm all for the open forum allowed by the nifty comments feature. It is so cool and satisfying, this instant gratification stemming from instantaneous debate. But--and this goes to the philosophy behind trying to make any kind of serious, credible argument--what's with the name-calling?

This has nothing to do with having a thick or thin skin. To me, the most effective arguments in any debate are those made respectfully. It is possible--in fact preferable--to get your point across without having to resort to impudence. The moment arguments about a specific issue become personal, rather than sticking to being topical, defenses go up and people stop listening or run away. And this goes for any subject, be it war or religion or sexuality or drugs or whose turn it is to take out the trash.

When challenged, I'm happy to do the digging for literature and links--the raw materials that have helped me form an opinion--to back up my statements. I'll also gladly admit when I've muddled the facts, am off the mark or am dead wrong. But if that challenge is paired with language like "you idiot" or "this is lame" or "you friggin' hellspawn bitch," I'm much more likely to ignore it, just as I would turn my back on that comment in real life and walk away. Why dignify it?

Gender discrimination is illegal

Depend on Robbie Port to cause me to set aside what I had intended to post today to pen an emergency correction to dangerous notions about gender discrimination. He says:

Everybody thinks men and women should be exactly equal. They should be considered for the same jobs as men and should be paid at the same level. Companies engaged in hiring new employees are often encouraged to hire women and we've all heard the new politically correct job titles such as "mail carrier" instead of "mailman." In theory, that sounds nice. In practice some problems arise.

Take, for instance, firefighters. Every day these people are faced with dangers and often must count on the strength and agility of their co-workers. If I were a fireman I would want the strongest person available to be backing me up in a hot situation. I would want the same if I were a police officer or a soldier. Granted, many women are just as strong, or stronger, than most men but in general men are bigger and stronger.

. . .All I'm saying is that men and women are different and when we hire for jobs those differences should be taken into consideration, especially in dangerous jobs like those I described above. If a woman wants to be a fireman that's great, as long as she can past the exact same tests and examinations that the men do. If the job you want requires you to be able to complete 30 pushups then you'd better be able to do those 30 pushups. If you can't, find another job.

Let's consider two of the errors in Port's ill-conceived entry.

Title VII has been around for so long I tend to take it for granted 'everyone knows' that the kind of discrimination Port supports is illegal. His is the kind of misinformation I would expect to read in material from the 1960s or 1970s, not in 2003.

Robbie Port's latest assault on reality is evidence of a a major problem with the blogosphere: The Ports spout so much inaccurate information that the minority of smart, responsible bloggers are virtually forced to clean up after them.

By the way, Port's blog is called Say Anything . . . and he really does.

Note: This entry also appeared at Silver Rights.

Most video game adverts appear in gaming magazines, and many of the adverts that do appear depict gamers as male.

This only serves to reinforce the stereotype that only males play games and that they are something that a female would not be interested in.

The government says it wants to protect homegrown practitioners of the seductive Middle Eastern dance form and is no longer granting new work permits to foreign dancers or renewing existing ones.

The victims, who include Europeans and Americans, say it's unfair and illogical, and they are backed by one of the Arab world's most respected dancers, Nagwa Fouad, who is urging the government to reverse its ban.

"There is not enough Egyptian talent, so obviously people need foreigners," says Palestinian-born Fouad, who retired from dancing in 1997 after a career of four decades.

"There has always been a mix of Egyptian and foreign belly dancers here. Why should this change?"

There's weird and there's weird. Ms. Lauren at Feministe turned me on this bit of weirdness, courtesy of weirdo Kim du Toit.

The Pussification of the Western Male

Now, little boys in grade school are suspended for playing cowboys and Indians, cops and crooks, and all the other familiar variations of "good guy vs. bad guy" that helped them learn, at an early age, what it was like to have decent men hunt you down, because you were a lawbreaker.

Now, men are taught that violence is bad -- that when a thief breaks into your house, or threatens you in the street, that the proper way to deal with this is to "give him what he wants", instead of taking a horsewhip to the rascal or shooting him dead where he stands.

Now, men's fashion includes not a man dressed in a three-piece suit, but a tight sweater worn by a man with breasts .

Now, warning labels are indelibly etched into gun barrels, as though men have somehow forgotten that guns are dangerous things.

Now, men are given Ritalin as little boys, so that their natural aggressiveness, curiosity and restlessness can be controlled, instead of nurtured and directed.

And finally, our President, who happens to have been a qualified fighter pilot, lands on an aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit, and is immediately dismissed with words like "swaggering", "macho" and the favorite epithet of Euro girly-men, "cowboy". Of course he was bound to get that reaction -- and most especially from the Press in Europe, because the process of male pussification Over There is almost complete.

How did we get to this?

The idea is not as new as he likely thinks it is. Far Right pundits, including gun research fraud John Lott, have been making the argument that troublesome women (along with uppity Negroes, of course) have been the ruination of America for quite a while.

You can read the rest of du Toit's Ode to Retrograde Masculinity here.

Note: This entry is an excerpt from Silver Rights.