Yesterday I was interviewed briefly by a (female) journalist working for RT (Russia Today) in connection with a Canadian study I hadn’t read. The result is here, she omitted my hunch of a possible explanation for the differences in post-surgery survival rates, that most of the surgeons doing higher-risk surgery (e.g. heart surgery) would be men. One sentence in the piece reads:

He claimed he presented substantial academic evidence during a House of Commons inquiry in 2012 debunking claims that gender diversity at board level increases overall performance in the financial sector.

It should have read more like this (new text in bold):

He claimed he presented substantial academic evidence during a House of Commons inquiry in 2012 debunking claims that increasing gender diversity at board level increases overall financial performance of companies in the financial sector.

As I explained to the RT journalist, the evidence goes further than debunking claims that increasing gender diversity on boards improves financial performance. It demonstrates a causal link between more women on boards, and corporate financial DECLINE. The evidence is here, the video here.

Our thanks to M for informing us of an event tomorrow evening at the University of Bristol. We look forward to women and children shouting in unison as ships sink, ‘Men first into the lifeboats!’

In January 2014 we awarded an odious feminist contributor to HuffPo, Ellie Slee, with one of the first Whiny Feminists of the Month awards. The story is here. Channel 4 News generally includes a feminist-friendly piece in the final third of the programme, and last night there was a story critical of anti-abortion protesters outside an abortion clinic in London, here (video, 2:42). Ms Slee appears in the second half of the piece.

Laura nails it.

Our thanks to Kathy Gyngell for this.

This is the first insightful article I’ve read on the Harvey Weinstein story.

Our thanks to Paul for this. The truth about the involvement of Rosalind Franklin in the times before Crick and Watson’s discovery of the double helix – Franklin had thought it was a triple helix – was outlined by William Collins, here.

Our thanks to Mike P for this, another manifestation of feminist narratives which tend to follow a predictable arc:

• Wimmin are STRONG!
• Wimmin are AMAZING!!
• Wimmin must benefit from quotas, positive discrimination etc.!!!
• Give us your money (or taxpayers’ money)!!!

The start of the fundraiser:

R-Evolution is Deja Solis, a woman standing in her strength and power… expressing her humanity; how she feels when she is safe, when she can just be. [J4MB: So she’s strong and powerful when she… er… feels safe? OK. Got it.] R-Evolution is the third in a series of three monumental sculptures, The Bliss Project, by artist Marco Cochrane [J4MB: Oops, rookie mistake there. A male artist who’s later revealed to be… shudder… heterosexual. Could they not find any STRONG AMAZING WIMMIN to do the work?] conceived of in collaboration with model Deja Solis, these sculptures are intended to demand a change in perspective… to be agents for social change.

Later in the piece:

In bringing R-Evolution, Catharsis intends to inspire dialogue among women, and people, [J4MB: Our emphasis. Hmm, people other than women… if only we had a word for them…] of all bodies, [J4MB: Penis-free ones, ideally] ages, races, religions, genders, abilities, and sexual orientations about the role of art and community in nurturing the heart and healing, and in turn making social change.

A tip of the hat to Paul Elam for RTing this. It would seem that only female teachers have ‘sex romps’ with opposite-sex minors. From the piece:

A former Virginia high school teacher pleaded guilty Friday to a misdemeanor charge related to her sexual relationship with a teenage boy.

Ashley Leigh Lewis Weber, 31, admitted to two counts of having consensual sex with a child who was at least 15 years old. Each count carries a 12-month prison sentence, but the case judge [J4MB: a woman] suspended the sentence on one of the counts.

Weber also was initially charged with a felony count of using a communications device to proposition a minor. That charge was withdrawn by prosecutors in exchange for a guilty plea on the misdemeanor counts.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that prosecutors ultimately expect Weber to serve about six months in jail. [J4MB emphasis]

Our thanks to Ewan for filming and editing this (video, 11:38). Our thanks also to those who joined us and handed out leaflets, engaged passers-by in conversations, held banners and placards etc. over the two days.