Lawrence Auster gets pushback when trashing female pilots

[Doomed Harlottt]

amnation.com/vfr/archives/021409.html

This thread is great fun. So Auster links to a Daily Male story about two pilots (both women) who became faint at the same time right on a British Airways flight right after take off. They turned the plane right around and landed safely. Despite the safe landing and the fact that we don't know what caused the pilots to become faint, Auster seems to view this as a negative event attributable to the pilots' femaleness. He mentions that he had never previously considered that there are female commercial airline pilots.

A faithful reader then links to the story of the woman pilot in charge of the plane in the Valujet crash in 1995. Auster comments to the effect that it is crazy to trust someone named "Candi" to pilot a 20,000 pound tube of metal through the sky. Someone then points out that the Valujet crash was the fault of a maintenance worker (presumably male???) who had loaded the plane with improperly secured oxygen generators that ignited in the air. Lots of backpedaling from Auster ensues to the effect that he never meant to imply that "Candi" was at fault for the crash and he was merely noting that her name demonstrates a general lack of seriousness in our culture.

Laura Wood (aka "the non-Thinking Housewife") weighs in about how OBVIOUS it is that women generally suck at the skills required for things like long-distance trucking or piloting aircraft. Lesser spatial ability, lesser mechanical ability, lesser interest in planes as machines, less ability to respond in an emergency, yada yada yada.

So then reader Ken H. notes that everyone thinks it is so intuitively clear that female pilots are inferior to male pilots, yet four studies he was able to find within minutes on the internet (and link) establish that female pilots are no more likely to crash aircraft than male pilots. To his credit, Auster later links the studies in a subsequent post without much comment.

But everyone else leaps in to try to explain away the data. Well, OBVIOUSLY, all of these studies are suspect in this era of political correctness! Any studies showing the opposite would be buried! The studies are just applying statistical mumbo jumbo to manipulate the results! Everyone knows women pilots suck compared to male pilots! It's obvious! People have some anecdotes to back up this claim!

Another commenter says, well, women are probably less likely to take risks and to be more careful, which may make them safer pilots. Laura Wood argues that those testing and hiring airline pilots screen out men inclined to recklessness and besides women's greater carefulness is a liability in an emergency. (I guess no one is screening out women who lack spatial or mechanical ability, despite those things being fairly basic to the ability to pilot a plane???)

It's a pretty revealing thread. These people know what they know about women's supposed deficits and no evidence will sway them other wise.

[Doomed Harlottt]

Oops, I just realized the part about airlines screening out recklessness was from Laura's spin-off thread here:

thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2012/01/why-women-shouldnt-be-commercial-pilots/

[ThisOlGirl]

Oops, I just realized the part about airlines screening out recklessness was from Laura's spin-off thread here:

thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2012/01/why-women-shouldnt-be-commercial-pilots/

I was just about to say, it was nice of Lawrence/Laura to cross-post this topic on his other blog, The Thinking Housewife. :roll:

[starfish]

I'm with you guys on this. I totally noticed Laurence/Laura was cross-posting and referencing to himself.

But did you notice that a bunch of aviation types on VFR made it very clear that Capt. Kubiak was not to blame for the ValuJet crash and stated over and over that there was nothing that she, nor any pilot, could have done ?

Someone even stated that it's much better to turn back too soon that too late. talking about the British Airlines incident. Laura/Laurence, the presumed experts on every single topic, got schooled by the other conservatives regarding aviation.

I'd like to see them bring up the pilots that were sleeping or whatever and missed the landing and were out of contact for 2 hours. I'm pretty sure both dudes were men.

[doggie]

a good example why men should not blog and stinking housewife should not reproduce. Thats all they are really proving.

[2xx1xy1JD]

That should be "Laura Wood aka fake female blogging persona of Laurence Auster". There is no "they", it's just a "he". No real thinking taking place, ever, just a constant stream of absurd misogyny.

If both pilots became faint at the same time, I'd question the oxygen level in the cockpit.

Total backpedal on the "pilot named Candi" comment, followed by more idiot ramblings. Companies do not show seriousness by rejecting qualified candidates based on their name. They do it by hiring those with the best qualifications. Also, has he never had a male pilot who goes by "Capt. Bob Smith" instead of "Capt. Robert Smith"?

As an aside, I'm reading Start Up Nation now. One of the theories put forward by the authors is that informality in a culture - shown by use of nicknames - is related to the sort of innovative mindset that encourages start-ups and technological growth. Shall I assume that LA wouldn't fly El Al because Israelis tend to call grown men by names like Bibi and Dudu?

[galaxygirl]

Just the fact that he links to a Daily Fail story tells me everything I need to know.

[Chasingthedog]

Whoa, so The "Thinking" Housewife is kind of a horrible person. In addition to being a bigot and a woman-hater, she's also a flaming racist. I couldn't read it any more. It was going to send me into labor or give me a stroke....

[2xx1xy1JD]

Whoa, so The "Thinking" Housewife is kind of a horrible person. In addition to being a bigot and a woman-hater, she's also a flaming racist. I couldn't read it any more. It was going to send me into labor or give me a stroke....

"She" doesn't exist. It's Lawrence's sockpuppet.

[alba]

Just the fact that he links to a Daily Fail story tells me everything I need to know.

Heh, yeah, that was my thinking.

I've also been watching way too much Battlestar Galactica recently and whenever I see this thread I think 'Kara Thrace is the best Viper pilot ever' :P

[Chasingthedog]

"She" doesn't exist. It's Lawrence's sockpuppet.

Ohhhhhh. Who is Lawerence? (I'm new to the whole Fundie scene)

[2xx1xy1JD]

Ohhhhhh. Who is Lawerence? (I'm new to the whole Fundie scene)

Lawrence Auster is a "traditional Conservative" who likes to insist that he's not really racist as he constantly writes about the dangers of immigration and its existential threat to the wonderful white race. :roll: His site is the one mentioned in the OP. He also believes that society needs to actively discriminate against women. He's completely against homosexuality, but is unmarried himself.

"Laura Wood" is stated author of the blog thinkinghousewife.com

Lawrence and "Laura" frequently cross-post and quote each other. The style of writing is the same. The (whackjob) viewpoints are identical. There is nothing remotely resembling a female POV on the thinking housewife blog. It's just anti-woman, period. Genuine "ladies against feminism" type of blogs typically have some sort of personal blather, discussion of kids and crafts and cooking, etc. That's absent. I've never seen a fundie woman blog that it's somehow bad to raise awareness for breast cancer. This blog does.

[CynicMom]

I have a good friend who pilots at a major US airline. He and his co-worker recently felt faint at the same time during a flight due to an overabundance of carpet cleaner used immediately prior. They flew the rest of the flight with full oxygen masks on to counter the fumes. It didn't make the news. Both pilots were men.

[Doomed Harlottt]

Cynic Mom, That's fascinating!

I see "Laura" has a new post up, this time a comment from "a grateful female reader":

In regard to the differences between men and woman and the suitability of women to be commercial pilots, you wrote,â€The truth is, men are more highly motivated than women to work with machinery,†and “I’ve never met a single little girl who was fascinated with planes as machines. I have met quite a few little boys who were.†I have had similar experiences.

Having spent fifteen years in physics departments surrounded by physics and engineering students, I never met a single female student who was motivated to work with machinery and who was as mechanically competent as the average male student. Most of the female students whom I knew became theoretical, not experimental, physicists because they enjoyed the mathematics (and were often quite capable of solving textbook problems). The few women who professed interest in working with the machinery and became experimentalisits were simply mediocre in their abilities, perhaps because they did not spend much time “working with machines;†in fact, they seemed to be there because they sought to prove that they could do what a man could do, and some admitted this. The same is true of the female professors. Also, even with preferential treatment and quotas for female students, less than ten percent of the students were women (in any of those physics departments which I observed.)

On the other hand, most of the male students told me that they went into physics because they enjoyed working with the machines; several said something to the effect, “I’m here because I like to play with toys.†Consequently, I knew dozens of boys who spent most of their time “playing†with the machines in the lab. Never in my experience did I encounter even one girl who spent most of her time in the lab working on machines.

Note that I am not speaking of the ability to make electrical or plumbing or carpentry repairs around the house (which some women have), but skills with machines like lasers and nuclear accelerators (or airplanes) which require years of intense time invested in lonely work and frequently heavy lifting and other great physical exertion. My limited experience would not lead me to conclude that women who are highly competent mechanically and who spend most of their days playing with complicated machines do not exist, but rather, that they, (if they do exist – like the hypothetical female runner who wins the marathon or the Amazon who can qualify as a Navy Seal), are so few, that should extraordinary measures be taken to accomodate their interests, the benefits would not be not worth the costs.

I question what this female reader DOES in the physics and engineering departments she is immersed in that she herself is able to judge the relative merits of the work done by male and female students. I also see a subtle swipe at women who go into theoretical physics -- oh, they happen to be good at "textbook problems." I mean, it's theoretical physics and these people even degrade that difficult field when women start doing it!

Lastly, what the hell? This woman argues that if there are female outliers who are great at working at machinery or winning the marathon, these would require "extraordinary measures to accomodate their interests." I can't think of ANY special measures that would be needed to accommodate women in either of these areas. (Is this woman not aware that women and men currently DO run in marathons together????)

[starfish]

And she calls them "Amazons" in a disparaging way. Nice!

I'm guessing Lady Lydia is the grateful female reader, and she felt like Larry was not getting the love he deserved from the aviators.

Or really it's just another Larry/Laura/Laurence sock puppet.

he's pathetic.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Here's a special nightmare for Lawrence:

http://www.shalomlife.com/news/16429/is ... le-flyers/

Because, ya know, the Israeli Air Force is all about being mediocre, right?

[dirtyhippiegirl]

I've been flying as a private pilot since I was thirteen (well, flying, didn't get my license until I was 17)-- sooo for over a decade. Hubby got one of his degrees from the University of North Dakota in Commercial Aviation (but does not fly for a living).

Flying - whether you do it for fun or for a living - is still *definitely* a man's game, overwhelmingly so. So the women who do get involved in aviation usually end up feeling like they have to over-compensate for their skill set and knowledge levels. Sexism is definitely still a factor. I didn't read the thread so don't know if this got mentioned but a lot of men are against women in commercial aviation settings because women tend to be physically weaker -- therefore unable to lift the nose of the plane up in emergency settings.

[snarkbillie]

If women suck so much at responding in emergencies why do we EVER leave them alone with newborns? That sounds dangerous. Also, if women are so bad at spatial skills we shouldn't really be letting them do things like holding children or taking things out of the oven! DANGER DANGER!

[GolightlyGrrl]

If Laura Wood is actually Laurence Auster who is a the woman in this photo?

thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2010/06/hello-dear-reader/

Is she a fan of Auster who said, "Yea, bitches ain't shit. Use my photo." Or is she someone completely innocent and Laurence just decided to use her photo for his own nefarious purposes? Hmm...

[emmiedahl]

I have tried to find that photo elsewhere and I am still looking occasionally.

There is no doubt in my mind that they are the same person. Outside of the obvious similarities in writing style and blog format and the constant cross-posting between the two, Auster lives in New Jersey and Laura Wood supposedly lives elsewhere, but she discusses local New Jersey news regularly.

[kaetrin]

Wait, wait. I thought the fundie cognitive-gender-essentialism line was that women have decent practical reasoning but are bad at abstractions. This means that they ought to put their concrete multitasking skills to work with the laundry and diaper changing and such, and let the mens do the real thinking, like philosophy and theoretical physics. Now we're bad at practical application, too?

[Doomed Harlottt]

Laura claims, I believe, to live in Pennsylvania, but that's obviously in the same neck of the woods as New Jersey. She has decribed once working as a reporter in Camden, New Jersey so I am guessing she still lives in that area but just on the Pennsylvania side.

I know she has also posted another picture of that same woman. That's one of the things that does make me doubt that she is really Laurence Auster -- just that it would be awfully ballsy (ha ha - no pun intended!) to appropriate someone else's image in that way.

Her anti-woman views and her relative lack of personal anecdote also don't make me think she is necessarily Laurence. We know there are a lot of misogynist women out there. I also don't think that men have a monopoly on writing about politics and ideas without getting into their personal lives.

On the other hand, I do see some similarities to Laurence in her writing style. And obviously her views are similar as well as the weird format of her blog (i.e. no commenting feature but an option to email her and have her post your comment for you). Also, the similarity of their first names, as well as the surname "Wood," might be a bit of an inside joke.

MY THEORY: She is a lot like the horrible female gym teachers who tormented me when I was a little girl. These women were extremely mannish in their appearance and mannerisms and seemed to have nothing but contempt for little girls. I think they (and perhaps Mrs. Wood as well) dealt with their struggle with their sexuality by becoming reactionary -- insisting on femininity in others while also ridiculing it.

[flojo]

Cynic Mom, That's fascinating!

I see "Laura" has a new post up, this time a comment from "a grateful female reader":

I question what this female reader DOES in the physics and engineering departments she is immersed in that she herself is able to judge the relative merits of the work done by male and female students. I also see a subtle swipe at women who go into theoretical physics -- oh, they happen to be good at "textbook problems." I mean, it's theoretical physics and these people even degrade that difficult field when women start doing it!

Lastly, what the hell? This woman argues that if there are female outliers who are great at working at machinery or winning the marathon, these would require "extraordinary measures to accomodate their interests." I can't think of ANY special measures that would be needed to accommodate women in either of these areas. (Is this woman not aware that women and men currently DO run in marathons together????)

Discriminate against teh womens as a sensible economic practice. Seriously? I'm surprised this woman even works at all...

[jenny_islander]

@Doomed Harlottt: Courageous married lesbian Middle Eastern Muslim mommyblogger Amina Abdullah was outed as some white guy or other playing a massive game of pretend in the U.S. when it turned out that "her" photos were all of someone else and used without permission. After you convince a large group of people to make decisions and recommendations based on your lies, what's a little theft? Remember, if it's on the Internet, it isn't really happening! :eyeroll

If this jerk is ever outed in a way that even "her" fans can't disbelieve, I'll bet that he'll use the same, "Wull, nobody got hurt, it was just an experiment" excuse.

[debrand]

http://www.carlsaganjr.com/Its_The_Brain_Stupid.htm

Here is a photo of Lawrence and his siblings. Notice that he has an older sister. He could be using a photo of her. She might even have given him permission to do so.