this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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One of the comments reads : Actually, we will probably never figure out, was it man or woman. but I thought this comment of the professor was an interesting eye opener. https://mastodonapp.uk/@MarkHoltom/112070436760917344

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[–] [email protected] 120 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

A woman’s cycle varies between 15 and 45 days, averaging 28.1 days, but with a standard deviation of 3.95 days. That’s a hell of a lot of variability from one woman to the next. And the same variability can be experienced by a large minority of women from one period to the next, and among nearly all women across the course of their fertile years.

On the other hand, the moon’s cycle (as seen from Earth) takes 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes to pass through all of its phases. And it does so like clockwork, century after century.

Of the two, I am finding the second to have a much stronger likelihood of being the reasoning behind the notches.

Strange how gender-bigotry style historical revisionism and gender exceptionalism seems to get a wholly uncritical and credulous pass when it’s not done by a man.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

While I agree with you that the teacher in this post is wrong about what this is, I don't think labeling "gender bigotry" indiscriminately as something both sexes do under one umbrella is accomplishing anything but minimizing the struggle women have endured for basically all of human existence up until the last few decades.

Personally, I wouldn't fault this woman for thinking what she does if she's willing to accept a broader explanation later, given that women have literally been sold as property up until a couple hundred years ago.

Women have the right to at least posit the ways they as a group have been held down, and that includes accepting their indignation and allowing them grace for when they're wrong, because without those things they won't actually learn the truth.

Further than that, I think it's necessary for women learning now to have the same realization this one did that women throughout all of history save for this recent tiny sliver have been oppressed. Even if it's built on an incidentally faulty premise, that doesn't mean the realization itself is wrong.

Covering up the discourse by labeling the process of realization as "gender bigotry" is itself an attempt at erasure, and very much puts you on the side of the oppressors, just because you think it's distasteful to have this realization yourself.

I'm sure gender bigotry exists in the direction of women towards men. This ain't it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I doubt the teacher really believed this, and they were likely striving to just open their students' minds to the idea that most innovations are probably assumed to be made by men

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The point would be a lot more impactful if they didn't make up a story to support their position.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

This is a class on anthropology, the point was to challenge the assumptions made when interpreting artifacts/history with little context. No one made anything up lol

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Other than tides, why do you need to know when the next full moon is? And can't you just look at the moon and see how close it is waning to the full moon?

Not saying the calendar is definitely a woman's, but wanting to know when you're going to start leaking blood onto everything near you seems like a good reason to track a period. Plenty of women are regular like clockwork, I was at 26 days almost exactly for years.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

If you start to notice one thing happens pretty regularly and another thing happens regularly but on a larger scale... Say the monthly moon phases and the seasons, you can use the more frequent one to roughly track the less frequent one.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 6 months ago (23 children)

I always read this type of statement as man = species.

I know this particular thinking is falling out of fashion but it's not totally dead yet

[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 months ago (6 children)

Thing is, statements like the one in the post are just as ignorant as the claimed "enemy".

You know what else takes 28 days? A moon cycle. We have absolutely no context, what this means. A period tracker bone is a perfectly valid hypothesis, but without any proof or context nothing more than this. It could have been used for moon phases, sheep counting, trade, or simply for testing stone knives.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

look how much deeper blade three cut with a single stroke! Are you sure you want to go with brand 4?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (3 children)

This specific instance probably.

But the point is soo much of history ignores the female perspective (or the non-european perspective). Sometimes intentionally like all the female scientists that contribute to foundational studies and don't get their name on the published paper.

And this is really damaging; I have a family member that legitimately believes that european-descent men are the smartest throughout history (when I brought up the Islamic Golden Age as a counter example he accused it of being propaganda).

American schools are so bad at teaching diverse history. So many still struggle with the basic truths about Columbus and the Natives.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Agreed, when speaking of the distant past, I always assume that by "man" they mean "mankind" aka human.... Not males.

In the grand scheme, I don't think it matters whether the thing was done by a male or female, the fact that it happened is the interesting thing about it.

I'm 100% positive that both men (males) and women contributed to these things, and it is impossible to know how much influence each sex had on any given thing, so I'm not sure why the sex of the ancient person who did it, matters.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

I'm not sure why the sex of the ~~ancient~~ person who did it, matters.

Make that a common sentiment and a good chunk of the division surrounding modern discourse goes away. People care way too much about genitals both in the past and present.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It occurs to me that the solution might be to start referring to men as "wermen" again, and revert "men" to it's gender neutral roots. That also means we can have a bunch of other prefixes for other genders.

Languages are fun.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's also where the "were" prefix in werewolf comes from.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Does that mean female werewolves should be called wowolves? (Or even better, woowolves)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Wifwolves, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

just lean all the way in and call us vermin

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

"man" as in human kind.

I agree the linguistics here are unfortunate, but here we are, and that word, in that context, is normally gender neutral.

~~Also, 28 day calendar probably means it's the moon.~~

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It's important to note how we got here. In old English man just meant human. Wereman meant male and wifman meant female. Over time that "were" prefix got dropped and man now means male but the ambiguous meaning of humankind stuck around. In fact "human" comes from old french "of man", again the non-gendered use of the word man.

The point is to fix all these problems we just have to bring back the "were". The progressive werewolves are way ahead of us on this issue.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I mean the lunar cycle is roughly 29 days with the argument that it’s 28 if you don’t count the new moon.

I realize this is a neat thought idea but it I think best demonstrates how easy it is to jump to conclusions.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I conclude the moon has a vaj

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (10 children)

Well duh, Sokka was trying to get all up in it

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

For some reason I thought they meant they carved the calendar on their own bone and thought "damn that's metal af".

Anyway, don't farmers also need to tell the date? Was this bone from before we started doing that?

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (19 children)

i think they mean 'man' as in 'mankind'. also any ideas why would they carve it into bone and not bark or something more flat?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They probably did but only the bone survived time

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

ahh survivorship bias thats it thanks

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago (1 children)

All the idiots claiming it's the moon and giving more details about women's cycles are missing the point of the quote.

Which is spelled out, but I'll place it here.

The idea that it was a woman is just as valid as it being a man, but man is always assumed.

The accuracy of the claim is not at issue. The assumption is.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago

A man makes blankets and he "works in textiles" a woman makes blankets and she "has a hobby making quilts".

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

Some guy tracking the moon.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I keep track of my girlfriend's ovulation because she can't be bothered to do it. I don't want her to get pregnant either. Just pointing that out.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I'm confused by this quote - no sane person would assume a male did something just because we say man did it. In this instance, man would simply be referencing humanity

The want to define whether a male or female did it without any evidence is simply sexist

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

a man with a wife.

it's good to know when it's time to spend couple of days hunting the sabre tooth tiger.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Never mind anything, making the abstract connection between one event and the number of marks you scratch on a wall was probably the equivalent of genius of the time, the first mathematician.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

He died before he could carve 29.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

I'm a woman and I have never needed to chart 28 days.

that screenshot up there reads like some academic person with too much time on their hands trying too hard to congratulate themselves for solving some anthropological mystery.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I similarly like that feminist theory of Venus statues. They aren't dummy thicc proto-porn but the perspective of someone who's pregnant looking down at their reflection in a river and cataloguing the most dangerous/important point of their life.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (7 children)

IIRC "Calendar" was one of the proposed solutions, but the bone actually had a lot more than 28 holes. It's one of the reasons it's purpose is considered unknown.

I always find this particular strain of antiintellectualism deeply ironic, because it claims to oppose women being forgotten, but the premise assumes the "scientists" are all male.

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