Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Diversity in Space

All Episodes

Previous Next

Sept. 15, 2015 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

20:03

Diversity in Space

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	So what's the most important thing about contacting aliens?
	You might be thinking, well, making sure that the aliens can identify that there was some kind of intelligent life behind what they have received, so they can in fact recognise it as a message.
	It might well end up looking something like the Pioneer plaque that was designed by Carlin Linda Sagan in the 70s, back when a man and a woman were a fairly normal representation of the human species.
	Of course, thanks to the miracle of social justice, we now know that this plaque was inferior because it failed to send aliens modern messages of Earth's equality and diversity, according to scientists.
	And as reported by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian, at a conference in Leeds this week, a group of British astronomers and philosophers who formed the UK Research Network for SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, agreed to enter a competition organised by the Breakthrough Initiative to devise a message to send out into space on behalf of the world to whoever might be listening.
	However, discussing the likely content of the message at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Thursday, the need to revise our previous portrayals of life on Earth was raised.
	The need.
	Jill Stewart, an expert in space policy at the London School of Economics, pointed to the plaque that was placed on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft launched in 1972.
	Intended to convey the origin of the craft and to impart information about the inhabitants of Earth, Stewart observed that to modernise, the pictorial message presents some issues.
	To anyone who's not familiar, I think that what this is is a long-form way of saying that the Pioneer 10 plaque is problematic.
	And it's problematic because the plaque shows a man raising his hand in a very manly fashion, while a woman stands behind him appearing all meek and submissive.
	She said, We really need to rethink that with any messages we're sending out now.
	Attitudes have changed so much in just 40 years.
	Well, I can't help but agree.
	I mean, it seems to me that they're standing side by side as equals, and the man is simply raising his hand in a gesture of greeting.
	The plaque also portrays the human figures as white, and Stewart added, I would be uncomfortable with sending out any images or messages that include Western-dominated material.
	Personally, I don't really see why these people have to be white.
	I mean, I suppose the hairstyles themselves preclude certain ethnicities, such as maybe sub-Saharan African.
	But can we really be sure that these people are white and not, say, South American or Chinese?
	Do we know for sure that these people aren't Indian or Arabic?
	The answer is, of course, yes.
	Yes, they were white.
	If they weren't white, this wouldn't be newsworthy.
	If they weren't white, the Guardian probably wouldn't be reporting on it.
	Because, as Jill Stewart says, as reported by The Guardian, attitudes have changed so much in 40 years.
	So how exactly have attitudes changed?
	What exactly is this call for diversity?
	What are they calling for diversity of?
	Are we talking about hairstyles?
	Nail polish?
	Favourite Shakespeare play?
	They just don't seem to specify.
	So what I did is I just had a browse through The Guardian, and just to see what I could find, and it seems that there is a very heavy focus on gender and racial identity, if you can believe it, with a particular focus on straight white men, which I find particularly baffling, because straight white men tend to spend very little time talking about their race, their gender, or their sexuality.
	They make what they are less important than who they are.
	And who they are is remarkably important.
	For example, they command entertainment media.
	Straight white men control Hollywood, according to The Guardian.
	And of course, they celebrate their straightness, whiteness, and maleness with the Oscar celebrations, which this author unironically says is a phallus holding a phallus.
	Most of the leading captains of industry are straight white men, and it's mostly straight white men who are keeping law and order.
	And that's when straight white men aren't trying to save the planet, quote, without the rest of us.
	And this is when straight white men aren't busy monopolising philosophy, atheism, or homosexual sex.
	So The Guardian has at least proven, if nothing else, that if you focus less on your racial, sexual, and gender identities, you have more time to focus on things that are actually productive.
	Things that will actually land you an interesting career that doesn't rely on what you are and only relies on who you are.
	Of course, Guardian authors can't understand why judging people for what they are instead of who they are is making all the straight white men so angry.
	Now, I don't know either, so I figure what we could do is just look through some more Guardian authors and see what their solutions to the straight white male problem are.
	I mean, what about Jessica Valenti's radical fix to the world's wage gap of simply just paying men less?
	I mean, sure, we are judging them based on what they are, something out of their control rather than who they are, something that they deliberately chose to be.
	Unfortunately for Jessica, she was informed that this would be illegal and a violation of the Equal Pay Act, which is indeed, as she says, a bummer, because the alternatives don't seem to be working.
	Which is of course completely true.
	Too many straight white men are focusing far too much on who they would like to become instead of what they already are.
	And it's this kind of get up and go attitude that's turning women into second class citizens.
	In fact, it's turning them into victims.
	Victims of oppression.
	Because denying that women are a victimized class is simply wrong.
	What else would you call a segment of the population who are systematically discriminated against in school, work, and politics?
	And that's completely true.
	The systems are designed to discriminate in favour of who you are and not what you are.
	And it turns out that having a ridiculously expensive degree in gender studies isn't helping your career.
	So simply being, for example, a woman is no good at all.
	And this, of course, is a system of oppression against people who are concerned only with what they are.
	Which is, as I'm sure you've noticed throughout this video, a common theme with many Guardian authors.
	Let's take, for example, Julie Bindle, a veteran feminist author for The Guardian, who recently wrote an article about a village where men are banned.
	Only women are allowed to live in Umoja.
	Julie Bindle visits the Kenyan village that began as a refuge for survivors of sexual violence and discovers its inhabitants are thriving in the single-sex community.
	And she really sells it too, especially the very last line, which is, Mary shows me a handful of dried beans that she will be cooking soon for dinner.
	We don't have much, but in Umoja, I have everything I need.
	I suppose in the same way that we have different definitions for the word oppress, we must have different definitions for the word thrive as well.
	Julie Bindle was also friends with Andrea Dworkin, the famous feminist firebrand, who was her era's bravest, most galvanizing, and polarising feminist.
	Ten years after her death, her sheer courage and hatred for the men who hate women continue to inspire.
	It's interesting that she'd focus on who these men are.
	They are the men who hate women, not simply what they are.
	The men.
	I am sorry to tell everyone that Andrea died 10 years ago this week.
	She had become famous in the early 1980s for the ordinance that she and the legal scholar Catherine McKennon had drafted for Minneapolis to recognize pornography as sexual discrimination and a violation of women's civil rights.
	I think Dworkin can be best summed up by this obituary by Susan Bright in which she says, That quote about Malcolm X is apt.
	As Malcolm pointed out, the problem is white people.
	Dworkin said, the problem is men.
	Now normally I would say there is some validity to the idiom, you can judge the character of a man by the company he keeps, but we are of course talking about women and therefore this does not apply.
	And it certainly doesn't apply to the Radfem Collective and their interview with Guardian writer Julie Bindle.
	They describe Julie as an outspoken journalist, tireless radical feminist activist and political lesbian.
	And she's been at the forefront of our no-platforming campaign, which aims to tackle the no-platforming of radical feminists by organisations who seek to silence our voices.
	No platforming will also be the topic of Julie's talk at the Radfems Resist Conference, organised by the Radfem Collective, which is taking place in September in central London.
	Julie's new book, Straight Expectations, examines the gay and lesbian movement in the UK and the ways in which being gay has increasingly come to be seen as a no longer a political and personal choice, but something that is biologically predetermined from birth.
	In the interview below, she talks about the depoliticization of sexuality, the importance of dismantling gender, and her current work surrounding prostitution and its perceptions around the world.
	So it sounds like we're in for a wild ride, so let's get on and read this interview.
	So the Radfem Collective asks, what role does political lesbianism play in women's liberation?
	To which Julie answers, I think political lesbianism has a crucial role, because it tells women that sexuality is political under a system of male supremacy.
	It tells us that sexual acts are all political, and that none of them are without meaning.
	And it also clearly defines the fact that equality and meaningful sexual pleasure can be achieved far easier with women than it can be with men under this system.
	I'm actually really bad at being a political lesbian, so I'm gonna have to take her word for that.
	The Radfem Collective asks, how do we dismantle gender?
	To which Julie answers, we have to get rid of it.
	There is no point looking at reforming it.
	It would be like saying we could reform the Tory party.
	We just need to abolish and obliterate it.
	And you know what?
	We actually know what that's going to look like.
	Isn't that a girl?
	Gender is a social construct.
	Being genderqueer with a feminine body.
	I'm a dude today, come on.
	Not a girl, not a girl, not a girl, not a girl, not a girl, not a girl.
	Not a fucking girl.
	Not a goddamn motherfucker.
	But you look like not a girl.
	But you sound like.
	Not a girl.
	But you dress like.
	Not a girl.
	Guess what?
	I'm not a girl.
	Please don't call me a girl.
	I'm not a girl.
	I'm not a girl.
	But you look habu.
	Not a girl.
	But you have a feminine voice.
	Not a girl.
	Not a girl.
	You look like a girl.
	But you talk like not a girl.
	But you have not a girl.
	So there's days where I wake up and I pray that when I look down.
	I don't have female parts.
	But yeah, I'm gender neutral.
	But are you a boy or a girl?
	Some men have vaginas, some women have dicks.
	Respect people's pronouns, you ignorant pricks.
	Male or humoral?
	No, how about pizza rolls?
	Fuck you.
	Grandmother just told me that all I talk about is trans rights and that I need to focus on something more important.
	Bitch.
	So my sister called me a mama's boy earlier and my immediate response was, I'm no boy or girl.
	I am an immortal god.
	Are you a boy or a girl?
	I'm the supreme.
	Yeah, but like, what's between your legs?
	Magic.
	Lives matter.
	Why lives don't matter.
	Cis scum don't matter.
	I came out here to have a good time, but then somebody called me a girl, so I'm going home.
	Sis people be like, are you a boy or a girl?
	And I'm like, no.
	So fun this morning about trans women with a punch and I was basically, haha, they're actually men, and now I'm gonna punch everybody in the whole world in the face.
	This dude at a bubble tea shop said, oh, I like your hair, man.
	And I fucking cried.
	Respect my fucking pronouns.
	Are you a boy or a girl?
	I don't know.
	Are you stupid or just a dick?
	Shout out to all the really cool edgy people commenting she on my mind where I ask people to use they them pronoun I'm currently trying to install the sims too.
	Jinglebine Girl, you're beautiful.
	Thanks, but I'm not a girl.
	You're right.
	You're a lady.
	I wish my parents would accept me for who I am, being gender fluid and all.
	It's really annoying.
	Are you a girl or a boy?
	Cander fluid, you asshole.
	Are you a girl or a boy?
	I can't tell.
	Good.
	I feel like having a dick today.
	I feel like having a vagina today.
	I feel like having both or nothing at all.
	This is our daughter, Carly.
	Hi.
	I'm not a fucking girl.
	Not a girl.
	But you sound like not a girl.
	But your birth name is.
	It may be Hannah, but I go by Alex.
	While you're trying to scrape your brain back together and put it back into your head, I'm going to thank Common Filth for these Vine Marathons.
	There's a link to his channel in the description.
	But anyway, this is the world that the anti-gender activists like Guardian writer Julie Bindle are fighting for.
	The Radfen Collective asks, how important do you think the law is in women's liberation?
	To which Julie replies, I am pro-police because I know that we are being raped, murdered, abused, and sold into slavery and having our genitals sliced open.
	Which is horrible.
	I hope Julie gets the justice she desperately deserves.
	But this last question that we'll go over is probably the answer to the Guardian's question of, who are all these straight white men and why are they all so angry?
	Radfen Collective asks, will heterosexuality survive women's liberation?
	And I'm not even going to comment on this answer.
	I'm just going to read it verbatim.
	It won't.
	Not unless men get their act together, have their power taken from them, and behave themselves.
	I mean, I would actually put them all in some kind of camp where they can all drive around in quad bikes or bicycles or white vans.
	I would give them a choice of vehicles to drive around with, give them no porn, they wouldn't be able to fight.
	We would have wardens, of course.
	Women who want to see their sons or male loved ones would be able to go and visit.
	Or take them out like a library book and then bring them back.
	I hope heterosexuality doesn't survive, actually.
	I would like to see a truce on heterosexuality.
	I would like an amnesty on heterosexuality until we have sorted ourselves out.
	Because under patriarchy, it's shit.
	I am sick of hearing from individual women that their men are alright.
	Those men have been shored up by the advantages of patriarchy, and they are complacent.
	They are not stopping other men from being shit.
	I would love to see a women's liberation that results in women turning away from men and saying, when you come back as human beings, then we might look again.
	Straight white men have committed the cardinal sin of not focusing on what they are, but instead focusing on who they are.
	Because in the mind of at least this feminist, men are not human beings.
	They are human doings.
	They are not being a thing to her, and she does not consider them human while they are not focused on their own personal identities.
	And this very same person wrote an article last year entitled, Feminism is in Danger of Becoming Toxic.
	The person who just declared that half of the human race weren't actually human and should be relegated to camps as if they have done something wrong by merely existing as straight white men is calling out feminism for being toxic.
	What a time to be alive.
	Interestingly though, The Guardian poses all of the questions when it also has all of the answers.
	Take this article for instance.
	Straight white men.
	They never think of themselves as a group.
	When playwright young Jean Lee decided to write a play about identity politics, it was a very different kind of minority she had in mind.
	Just as it can describe most plays in the Western theatrical canon, the banner straight white men can also apply to politicians, corporate leaders, novelists, radio hosts and so on, as the recent onslaught of think pieces, which might as well have all been called calling out straight white men, illustrate all over the internet.
	With every misguided debate over the existence of white privilege or demand for sexual assault victims to prove they didn't consent, the straight white male population is put under an even stronger microscope.
	They've even earned their own racial slur, which is the word douchebag and was coined by Gorka, forever at the cutting edge of inventing new racial slurs.
	But Lee says she always makes herself write the play that she least wants to do, and the newness of the straight white male as a social identity made it an obvious choice as her next subject, because this is what has happened to straight white men.
	Evidently being the sorts of people who base their value on what they do instead of what they are, would naturally be the mortal enemies of people who want to base their value on what they are instead of what they do.
	Instead of what they can provide for others.
	A system like this is going to inherently be bad for them, because they don't do anything.
	They are something.
	And this is the reason they have ranged themselves as enemies against straight white men.
	And the thing is, if you don't understand all this, then you can't really understand why there is a demand to change the Pioneer 10 pluck.
	Why it's no longer acceptable to simply have a man and a woman standing next to each other with the man raising his hand in greeting.
	I feel like I should apologise to the ghosts of Carl and Linda Sagan.
	Your original plaque was a very good attempt, but you didn't know what the future was going to be like.
	You didn't know that merely describing human beings wasn't going to be enough.
	It was in fact going to be problematic.
	And, like all things, it's been left to a cisgendered, heteronormative, straight white male to put things right.
	One of the privileges of running this YouTube channel is that I get to commission artwork, and I commissioned the cartoon Loon to design a new modern version of the Pioneer 10 pluck.
	One that I'd like to call the diversity plaque.

▲