Sexism at the Museum of Science

[lindaj]

On Sunday, January 30th, the Boston Museum of Science is running a promotion where one gender gets in for free, and the other doesn't.

Does it matter which gender? No, it doesn't. They tell me that they do not at this time have any plans for a day on which they will let the other gender in for free, which certainly sounds like sexism to me. This really offends me, and I wouldn't be caught dead taking advantage of it.

So, I would urge Boston-area folks to either not go to the MoS that day, and call them to tell them why, or if you do attend, refuse their free admission if you are of the special-treatment gender, or demand free admission of you're of the discrimated-against gender. This sort of thing is offensive and wrong, and should never take place in this day and age.

I eventually got a call back from a Suki Volk, who is the Marketing Manager. She was quite skilled at the conversational equivalent of sticking her fingers in her ears and saying, "La la la la I can't hear you and what we're doing is really great because we're so wonderful la la la!"

Unfortunately, the offices are now closed for the day due to the storm, but starting again tomorrow:

Business Offices
617.589.0100

Comments

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

This is ridiculous. It's 2005, people. Get past the gender stupidity...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No kidding. I truly don't understand the need for weird artificial things like museum entrance fees to depend on gender.

I hope the BMoS decides that whatever they're trying to accomplish wasn't worth it.

[crs.livejournal.com]

must... resist... urge... to say "Sounds like a good day to go to meet chicks."

too late!

Reductio...

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

MIT Community members get in free to the MoS all the time. That is nothing more than the worst of 19th Century elitism and classism. Obviously no one from MIT should ever go to the Museum of Science.

Re: Reductio...

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

It's not surprising that a museum might have an arrangement like this with a local school, and as I understand it, there's a lot of give and take in the MIT/MoS relationship, in both directions. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that certain other local non-school businesses have similar arrangements.

Giving a perk to an organization, especially an organization that in return provides other perks to your own organization, is fundamentally different than giving free admission to people based on gender.

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

I would agree with this. I also think this might be part of the response to the recent remarks by that idiot at Harvard.

[nathanjw]

In a sense, this is affirmative action. History is relevant; we do not become gender-equal by becoming gender-blind and ignoring that inequality existed in the past, and persists from the past into the situations that exist today. So I do not share your anger.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Stating that gender-based discrimination is acceptable, no matter who is being discriminated against, does not improve things. We need to build the world that we want to live in, not justify horrific behavior with the argument that someone else did horrific things in the past.

[nathanjw]

Do you apply this to racial situations as well? That is, do you hold that all forms of affirmative action are improper?

I'm viewing this as a mechanical system, out of equilibrium. We want it to return to equilibrium. I think it is a fine thing to nudge it in that direction, not just to stop touching it. In fact, since I think that it is morally wrong that it is out of equilibrium, letting it remain out of equilibrium by *not* nudging it is also morally wrong.