The evil patriarchy strikes again!
“Roads designed by men are killing women.”
“Helen Pidd, the Guardian’s North of England editor”
Next time she goes to see a doctor she should be denied the use of any medical or surgical procedure developed by men.
“What you say? Your appendix hurts? Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it improves. An appendectomy is a fairly standard procedure but it was developed by a man…we wouldn’t want to keep enabling the patriarchy, right?”
She’ll receive a referral to the local folk healer, who will treat her with mandrake and mercury baths.
“As a woman who cycles, I am often asked why so few others follow suit. Is it because of helmet hair? Or the bottom-amplifying effects of Lycra?”
Yeah, sure you are.
“Segregated bike lanes”. Seriously?
EDIT: “segregated cycle lanes” doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. Mea culpa and highly embarrassed.
Segregation is the new progressive. Orwell (and MLK) would be proud.
Obviously she is spouting nonsense. But, are urban planners all men. Is this different in, say, the Netherlands?
The Grauniad will go bust. That’s for sure.
I don’t know about that. Feeding slop to the pigs is a pretty good business model.
Blockquote It cannot help that women remain under-represented among the transport planners and engineers who design our streets.
Because male designers and planners are incapable of making decisions based on data. They just create expensive systems to suit themselves and the other men they know.
I get tired of hearing this crap.
I should probably state for the record that I also consider the Guardian piece an exercise in bad journalism.
I do think it’s worth looking into, though: is it true that cyclists killed by trucks are disproportionately female? If so, why?
The numbers are so small. 10 out of 13 cyclists killed in 2009 were female. In 2014 13 cyclists killed, 2015 9 cyclists killed, 2016 8 cyclists killed. I can’t find the gender for those 3 years.
I wonder why she chose 2009? Was it because gender was provided that year, or was it because the figures fitted her argument?
EDIT: I’ve searched and found that 6 out of 9 fatalities in 2015 were female. In 2014 1 out of 13 casualties were female. However, women only make about 25% of all journeys.
I’ve also found this article which suggests that women hug the curb more than men - making them more vulnerable. It’s also the article that the author has basically copied.Women cyclists 'at greater risk from lorry deaths' | Transport | The Guardian
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So basically women have more accidents cos they’re bad drivers? 
kidding.
I think the author overlooks the simple fact that roads are inherently dangerous. The basic concept was designed centuries ago and hasn’t moved on much since then. We just stuck motor vehicles onto the road network that we had, expanded the network without any significant alterations, and expected everything to turn out OK. It didn’t because it can’t. “Accidents” are built into the system.
Is that the fault of men? Don’t think so. I’ve never heard any female engineers starting campaigns to redesign the basic idea of roads, or protesting the basic idea of cars. The only people who came close have been men (Ralph Nader springs to mind).
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I’m enjoying some of Germaine Greer’s interviews lately. She ponders a lot on the fundamental nature of society - such as WHY people want to work in offices or armies, and WHY people want to be rewarded with green pieces of paper (as opposed to more concrete things).
The interviewer here, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, is a profoundly irritating little creature (he isn’t very bright and he doesn’t bloody listen) and several people have walked out on him or given him an earful, but Greer is very gracious in this clip. I find her views on rape rather … odd, but at least she explains herself well.
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Not quite sure where to put this, but I enjoyed this take on “wokeness” by the BBC
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“By the time you hit your 30s most of you are going to be massively right wing anyway” 
It was interesting she was allowed to say ‘fuck off’ to a person of colour of male gender choice, even in jest. I’m pretty sure that sketch would have been literally censored in the Land of the Free.
A sketch like that one on Saturday night live would have led to people rioting on the streets against the rise of fascism.
That’s what I figured.
I wasn’t sure where to post it , either. I put it in "Everything is nice " Thread yeaterday 
Sorry, not following that one 
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Take note, people: Ibby owes us one riot (among other things).
