Yay Science

In Which We Study Women

The male gaze is put to the test. Biden doesn't know how to read the room. Endometriosis is a very real nightmare. Twitter had another Twitter moment. Now, about the moon…

Endeavorance

Jan 29, 2024 — 4 min read

Author's Note

Hello, dear readers. Thank you so incredibly much for the outpouring of love and support as I was recovering from COVID. It lasted a lot longer than I had hoped, and really knocked me down for the count. That said, I had the resources and support I needed, as well as the space to rest. I am incredibly thankful for all of that, and believe I am ready to get back to my normal schedule. I am incredibly hype to get back to it.

We See You

Hey, women, turns out you're pretty good even when being GAZED UPON.

A recent study sought to test the effect of self-objectification on women to determine if the expectation of a "male gaze" has an impact on their performance. The study had women doing math problems, while one group was being recorded on video and the other was not.

The results showed that the women showed no reduction in their ability to complete cognitively challenging tasks while under a presumptive objectifying gaze. However, the women in the study did note they felt an increase in self-objectification, regardless of male gaze.

So what does this tell us? Well, it tells us that women have so much shit they have to deal with that we have entire studies just to figure out the impacts of the shit they have to deal with.

Biden Totally Reads the Room

The US congress is doing what they do best: bickering about shit. Currently, they're bickering about the southern border of the US, and trying to find more synonyms for "crisis" and "invasion" as they try to paint the flow of US-caused migrants into the country as some kind of organized foreign assault on our values or whatever.

Anyway, the bickering is loud enough that people are paying attention, and now Biden has joined in the fray, stating that if congress passes the current proposed border deal, he will use the power it grants him to "shut down the border" immediately.

It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.

The bill does include parts which would increase the speed of processing asylum requests, which is what we need to be doing. But lemme look at the calendar real quick, okay yeah its 2024—an election year—where the already deeply unpopular and ancient sitting president is explicitly using talking points from his opponents.

lol

We Don't See You

Hey, women! Time for another study about you. Like I said, lots of shit to deal with.

So, Endometriosis. It sucks. Lots of women have it. If you aren't familiar, it basically is a condition where your insides wanna kill you whenever you menstruate, but also can cause pain just… all the time.

Anyway, lots of doctors straight up don't believe women when they're like "hey, I'm in excruciating pain constantly." Again, I just checked the calendar, and it claims to be 2024, but doctors still just tell women to stop being hysterical.

A study in the UK looked into the experiences of 33 women seeking care for Endometriosis. A common theme cropped up: they were told it was in their head, or that they were exaggerating their symptoms. Many had to drive hours just to find a specialist who would actually listen and work with them. Some had to wait years, enduring unending pain, just to finally find a doctor who would actually acknowledge the condition.

Thankfully, public understanding is finally starting to grow. Sunlight and disinfectant and all that. But like, damn. Y'all women sure do deal with a lot of shit…

…like AI Generated Nudes

If you haven't heard, Twitter recently had a bit of a moment. Not a good moment, of course. AI generated nudes of Taylor Swift began circulating around the site, which as a reminder essentially has no Trust & Safety team after Musk fired them all.

How did they handle it? Well, mostly they didn't. But eventually they had the big brain thought to prevent users from searching "Taylor Swift" at all. Right on. Well done.

Swifties actually did much more to combat it. Swift fans began flooding Twitter with hundreds of thousands of posts in an attempt to drown out the images and make them harder to find.

Meanwhile, as news broke that the images were generated using Microsoft's AI tools, the Microsoft CEO was like "aw, yeah, that's a darn shame, but I pinky swear we're working on it."

Hey—what if a company putting out a product that can generate nudes of people against their will resulted in criminal investigations for facilitating sexual assault, rather than, idk, being invited to sit on technology boards by the federal government? Just a thought.

Today's Moon Phase

The current moon phase is a double decker turkey club with spicy mayo. Your luck will increase as the day goes on. But only if you tell a friend you love them.