October 4th, 2007 by ghostnet
But Women Feel Threatened When Outnumbered By The Opposite Sex
Washington: Women feel threatened when outnumbered by the opposite sex, such as in math, science and engineering classrooms, while men enjoy being in a roomful of women, a study published on Tuesday showed.
“Walking into a situation in which you sense the possibility of being ostracized or isolated can be quite threatening,” said the study, which looked at the effect of so-called situational cues, such as being outnumbered, on women’s performance in math, science and engineering courses. 
The gender ratio in those classes is “approximately three men to every one woman,” said the study, led by Mary Murphy, a psychologist at Stanford University in California.
Published in the October issue of Psychological Science, the study monitored the reactions of a group of advanced students in traditionally male-dominated fields while they watched videos depicting a conference.
In one of the videos, men outnumbered women, while in the other the sexes were equally represented.
The women’s heart rates accelerated and perspiration increased when they watched the video in which their gender was outnumbered.
They also reported “a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference,” the study showed. And they paid more attention to their surroundings when they watched the video in which women were in minority.
“This kind of attention allocation (to surroundings) would interfere with performance and might help explain the performance gap between men and women in these fields,” the study said.
Men, meanwhile, showed no significant physiological or attention changes when watching either film.
In fact, they liked being in a setting dominated by women.
“Women probably feel they really could belong in the environment where there are more women, while men might simply be attracted by the unusual number of women in these settings,” said Murphy.
This research underlies the importance of situational cues and Murphy hopes that it will “inspire greater motivation to attend to such cues when creating and modifying environments so that they may foster perceptions of identity safety rather than threat.”
Former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers drew fire two years ago for suggesting “innate” gender differences as a reason for the preponderance of men in leadership roles in math and science. AFP
Source: Times of India, October 4, 2007
October 4th, 2007 by newstime
New York: Burlesque is back. Fans of the fancy form of striptease that first flourished in Depression-era downtowns can find swiveling hips and spangled lingerie weekly in at least 12 American cities.
The revival has even entered the mainstream on the stiletto heels of dancer Dita Von Teese, who hawks upscale lipstick, drapes herself on the covers of women’s magazines and was in a rocky marriage with rock star Marilyn Manson.
But in the clubs that nourished burlesque’s rebirth a decade ago, dancers and fans are noticing something new — it’s not just about women baring their breasts anymore. Burlesque has become intellectual.
“If you think of us as burlesque nerds, it makes sense,” said Jo Weldon, 45, a school teacher by day and a burlesque dancer by night.
Weldon recently launched ‘The Crimson Curtain’, a monthly burlesque salon that inspires dancers to infuse their acts with scholarship, political satire and gender commentary. At a gathering in August, about 20 dancers sipped cocktails, watched dances under development and discussed the out-of-print biographies of burlesque legends in the hope of lending authenticity to their own acts.
“The base level of IQ is decently high,” said James Habacker, 42, owner of ‘The Slipper Room’, a burlesque-themed New York club that hosts Weldon’s salon. “Even in the last year the
supertalented old school have really stepped it up.” To the serious revivalist, a
sense of burlesque’s past is as essential as false eyelashes. That’s why Peekaboo Pointe, a
New York dancer and teacher who prefers her stage name, forces boozy bachelorette parties to sit through a seminar before she’ll teach them burlesque’s basic steps. “I’m constantly doing research,” said Pointe, 28. She interviews surviving legends during pilgrimages to the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas and shares the results with her students.
“Everybody focuses on the fact that it’s girls taking their clothes off and misses the political satire,” said Habacker, who’s noticed a spike in acts mixing burlesque with politics. An increasing number of dancers are strutting and stripping as president George Bush, reveling in the notion that the emperor has no clothes, he said. REUTERS
What’s burlesque
Burlesque refers to theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor, which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a striptease). While some authors assert that burlesque is a direct descendant of the Commedia dell’arte, the term ‘burlesque’ for a parody or comedy of manners appears about the same time as the first appearance of commedia dell’arte.
Source: Times of India Thursday, October 4, 2007
October 4th, 2007 by ghostnet
Inter-religious marriages are still not tolerated
Rajashri Dasgupta
Rizwanur Rehman’s charming smile refuses to fade from people’s memory. After his body was found on September 21 on train tracks in the heart of Kolkata, there have been numerous candlelight vigils, angry protests and demonstrations demanding the truth about his death. While his family suspects that Rizwanur was murdered, the police commissioner shrugged away his death as a “simple case of suicide” even before the post-mortem was complete.
Whatever the truth, Rizwanur’s tragic
death, the trauma of his wife Priyanka and brutal interference by the police reflects the daily struggle of lovers who defy tradition and resist authority to marry persons of their choice.
(more…)
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