stick to your knitting, woman!

Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay has apologized to Nova Scotia NDP MP Alexa McDonough for telling her to "stick to her knitting" during a debate. When he first made the comment, she asked him if it was a sexist slur; he denied that it was. Later, however, he called McDonough to personally apologize for the remark.

From the CBC.ca news story:

"My understanding was it meant 'mind your own business or stay with the things you know.' It certainly was never intended to offend anyone, particularly women," MacKay said.

I can believe that MacKay didn't mean it as a sexist remark, but that doesn't mean that the expression doesn't have sexist origins and implications. After all, for the last couple of centuries at least, the majority of knitters have been women, and telling someone to "stick to their knitting" as a way of implying they should stick to what they know is a condescending, dismissive way of reinforcing gender role stereotypes (women = domestic, private sphere; men = public sphere).

what is the place of pop culture in academia?

Here's an interesting (archived) discussion on the women's studies listserv about the place of popular culture in academia.

The introduction states, "For many years, people both inside and outside academia have debated what should be taught in school, what students need to know, and which
texts/topics/fields of study are worthwhile and which are not....Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Nancy Drew legitimate objects of study? Is their inclusion in the curriculum a sign that standards have been lowered?"

Fascinating.

socks

Why do students always wait until they are really hooped before they come ask me for help?

I always tell them in the first class: If you are having trouble, please come and talk to me right away. If you ask me for help during the semester, I can help you. If you come see me an hour before the final exam and tell me you didn't understand anything all semester, then...not so much.

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Below: Witness my first knitted pair of adult socks. They are alarmingly enormous, but they are indeed sock-like. I know lots of people who adore making socks, but I am not one of them. Been there, done that, and I don't think I'll be making any more socks in the near future.

goodbye Engrish?

Oh no! In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, China's government is attempting to stamp out Engrish.

I think the world would be poorer without signs like this one. That's pure poetry.

[via The 88s]

disapproving bunnies; in other news

I found this disapproving bunny ref'd on Cute Overload today and I must say, I am laughing my ass off. If you didn't think rabbits could look disapproving, you've got to see Cinnamon. Especially in the "I disapprove of all you peasants" and "Must you engage in that sort of activity in public" photos. Just imagine Queen Victoria coming across someone peeing in Hyde Park. Now imagine that Queen Victoria is a rabbit.

Cinnamon has two other rabbit friends, Latte and Hazel. Together, they all disapprove of many things.

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In other news, BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

the death of cursive handwriting

Here's an interesting article on the slow but steady death of cursive handwriting as a basic skill taught in elementary school. The most interesting part of all this is that "academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades."

I found this article, by the way, on Metafilter, where there is currently an interesting discussion on the cursive handwriting article. Many people participating in the discussion seem to be quite dismissive of the usefulness of cursive handwriting. However, someone in the discussion linked to this interesting article about an alternative to both printing and "Palmer-style" cursive handwriting (traditionally taught in North American elementary classrooms): italic writing.

I use printing, cursive, and italic writing during my work day, depending on the task. I can't use anything but printing with my beginner ESL students, because they don't understand cursive and we teach printing skills first (like with Grade One students). When I write a letter (which isn't often), I use cursive. When I am writing notes quickly, like taking minutes or making notes for a lecture, I use my own form of italic writing.

What do you use? Do you think cursive is a thing of the past? If so, are you of the "good riddance" or the "what a shame" camp? (Or are you simply indifferent?)

a cautionary tale

This most excellent little film, The Last Knit, is a 7-minute animated short by Finland's Laura Neuvonen. [via Miss L]

petty; book recs

This is totally petty, but I have to say I hate the new brand of toilet paper they're using in the bathrooms at work. The old TP wasn't great either (2-ply? Don't make me laugh) but at least it was less...translucent. Single ply I can grudgingly deal with, if it's decent single-ply. But you can see your hand through the new stuff!

I'm sure that it's an attempt by the powers that be to save money, but really, how much money are they saving when everyone ends up reeling off twice as much as they used to in order to make up the difference in thickness?

Like I said: petty.

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Two books that I've read recently and enjoyed:

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst
Digging to America by Anne Tyler

sad and depressing

This morning I woke up to the news about the guy who walked into the Amish school yesterday, made all the boys leave the classroom, made the girls stay, and shot them all execution-style. My clock radio turned on halfway through the news item, so all I heard was, "...the shooter then forced all the boys to leave the classroom and made all the girls stay behind." I swear to God, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. It was just like hearing about the Montreal Massacre all those years ago. And last week there was another school shooting where the gunman separated the girls from the boys, told the boys to leave, sexually assaulted the girls, then killed one of them and then committed suicide.

I teach my women's studies class tonight, and I thought, well, I guess I ought to talk about this in class, since it's relevant. But you know what? I don't want to talk about it tonight and I don't think I'm going to. I'll talk about it when we do our unit on violence, but I just don't feel up to talking about it tonight.