WWZD

First post in this series can be found here. Second post in this series can be found here. In my second post in this series, I gave the men a cookie, and commenter rpf accused me of...gasp!...being too nice! I believe this is the first time this has ever happened. rpf quoted me and commented thus: "If I were a married man with children, I might well be leery of blogging about how I negotiate the home balance with my spouse on my science blog, even if I weren't concerned about privacy or protecting a pseud, because I'd be afraid of pissing off my spouse, and pissing off the feminist…

First post in this series can be found here. The third and final post in this series can be found here. ScientistMother really wants DrugMonkey to step up to the plate already. She says that DM laid out his own responsibility to deal, on-blog, with work-life balance issues and to share the details of how it goes down at his own home. Find the full quote in the comments at her post or here in Doc Free-Ride's post. As is generally the case, I have a few things to say about this. For starters, I do not agree with ScientistMother's interpretation of that quote. I have no idea what…

A friend of mine (maybe YOU are that friend?) will be soon be leaving a job at Wackaloon Scientific Enterprises where said friend is supervised by sadistic micromanaging douchebags from hell with poor reading comprehension skills. How best to spend the remaining time my friend must clock at WSE? I suggest devoting large chunks of it to rearranging pipet tips in their boxes while singing some version of this song. Oh it was sad, Oh it was sad, It was sad when the research went down to the journal. All the postdocs and techs. Little grad students lost their lives. It was sad when the…

Thegoodman really, really wants to know. If you do not consider yourself a failure, that is great. Why then are you so angry about this situation? If it has worked out well for you, what is driving your passionate hatred for our patriarch society? Like many gender discussions/arguments, your approach has made me feel guilty for being a man. This doesn't accomplish anything positive since I soon get defensive because I cannot help it that I am a man and I shouldn't feel guilty about just as you shouldn't feel guilty for being a woman. This is hilarious in so many ways. Let's recap. I…

A recent conversation with a friend reminded me of yet another of the "death by a thousand paper cuts**" craptastic things I used to hate dealing with in my days in the scientific workforce. You know what I'm talking about. Could be a retreat, a workshop, a seminar, a meeting, a program, maybe even just a discussion, but whatever it is, diversity is the subject, explicit or implicit. On one occasion it was a discussion about whether a tiny little space should be set aside for students of a certain group. On another it was a pizza party for women students. But ever and anon, at such…

We are a mere ten years into the 21st century. No jet packs for all yet, but things are moving at a lightning pace at Yale in the policy area. After more than a quarter century of debate, Yale faculty members are now barred from sexual relationships with undergraduates--not just their own students, but any Yale undergrads. Well you may ask: can we still nail grad students and postdocs? Look: PI's and/or faculty really should just satisfy their sexual needs elsewhere. Not with the students, not with the grad students, not with the postdocs. It is not good for anyone. I know, I know, you…

I was catching up on reading at Female Science Professor's place and came across her post: Women Girls. FSP, as far as I can tell, seems to be saying that the young ones these days are all hip with the term "girl" for women even into their 30's because...I don't know why, it's a peer thing, and we old biddies wouldn't understand. We must accept that the times they are a-changing. Girls just wanna have fun? Perusing the comments, I gather that "woman" is stodgy, or P.C. (!), and too mature and "girls" these days are putting off adulthood, and can't think of themselves as women. To this…

The other day, a male friend of mine was at the grocery store in the check out line. He was not feeling particularly happy, and, I guess, was frowning a little. A dude in line behind him tapped him on his shoulder to get his attention and when he turned around, the dude said, in a bright voice, "You dropped something," and was pointing to the floor. My male friend looked down and said, "I don't see anything." The dude then told him, "You dropped your smile." My male friend was not amused. He turned around going back to his business saying, "Oh, OK." The man proceeded to walk away mumbling…