April 2, 2013

"New York Times hit with sexism accusations after obit of scientist Yvonne Brill leads with her cooking ability."

"The backlash forced The Times to change the obit online Saturday and scrub a reference to Brill’s cooking ability in the lead paragraph. "
It was replaced with her professional accomplishment as a “brilliant rocket scientist.”

The obit initially began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children.”

34 comments:

Henry said...

I wonder if the obit for her husband lead with his waistline.

That said, Yvonne Brill sounds pretty awesome. “You just have to be cheerful about it and not get upset when you get insulted,” she once said.

One suspects that she would not have been much offended by the beef stroganoff lede.

Shouting Thomas said...

God help us, a woman cooked a meal!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

They didn't lead with the most important fact:

Did she or did she not have a thigh gap?

harrogate said...

Shouting Thomas continues to model how best to parody oneself. Excellent work.

Phil 314 said...

So then its OK to proclaim the majority of great chefs are men!

PS. The NY Daily News site is not friendly to tablets, way to many ads, moving pictures etc.

Shouting Thomas said...

@harrowgate,

I'm currently oppressing several women with my devious schemes designed to con them into cooking for me.

My fridge is stocked by my girlfriend. On weekends, she cooks for me and leaves behind more than I can eat.

My methods for oppressing women will remain secret. I may take them to the grave with me. Why should any of you bastards get even a whiff of pussy?

John henry said...

Noting that a woman can pursue a successful career as well as be a good mother and make a good narrative just doesn't fit the narrative.

Women have to be helpless and unable to do anything.

Especially not anything requiring smarts like rocket science or brain surgery.

John Henry

Astro said...

Edwin Hubble was a gifted athlete who played baseball, football, basketball, was competitive in track and field, and was an amateur boxer. At the U of Chicago, he led the men's basketball team to their first conference title.
He went on to work as an astronomer and discovered something or other about the universe expanding.
Significantly, though, he's also known for the many varieties of raisin bread he would sometimes bake.

Okay, that last part isn't true, but the rest you can look up on Wikipedia.

J said...

Of course they are sexist they are from New York where the governor's doxy works for Food Network.

Bob Ellison said...

What do you call a group of bulls pleasuring themselves in a field?

Ann Althouse said...

Some day the obits will tell us about women who had notable careers AND they were still good in bed.

Shouting Thomas said...

Some day the obits will tell us about women who had notable careers AND they were still good in bed.

Few of them are good in bed, so that would be news.

MadisonMan said...

So they scrubbed true facts from the obit?

My Mom's obit referenced her delicious cherry pies.

rhhardin said...

There's no mention of slithy toves either.

rhhardin said...

Woman scientist will probably always get an eye-roll.

tim maguire said...

God forbid they try to have a story arc in an obit. Like it were braking news, they must use the inverted pyramid. Except, oops, many news stories open with an irrelevant "scene setting" anecdote that ignores the inverted pyramid in favor of the writer's vanity.

So...I'm sorry, I forgot what the complaint was. Something about...I just can't keep PC winging straight anymore.

RazorSharpSundries said...

I love it when commie-symp-libs get their collective knickers in tortured politically correct twists.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ann Althouse said...

Some day the obits will tell us about women who had notable careers AND they were still good in bed.

So I take it Meade let you preview the one he has on file in case of your untimely demise?

Rick67 said...

It's tough to be a lefty. So easy to say the wrong thing and get in trouble.

Anonymous said...

Brill's achievements on her wiki page -- mainly the "hydrazine resistojet" -- look thin for a national medal award winner. It wouldn't surprise me if there were fifty guy rocket scientists who have made contributions of a similar level to aerospace.

If so, she got the medal for being a gal, and the story might as well start off with a tribute to her beef stroganoff.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Hubble was also an egomaniac who took credit for the work of others. Probably not in his obit.

edutcher said...

As Ann notes, "her cooking ability", can have more than one meaning.

Unknown said...

Feminists don't get narrative arcs. Or much of anything else aparently.

Sam L. said...

It's just so incredibly sexxxxxxxxxist to note that a woman is (Oh! The Horror!) female and does some womanly things.

ken in tx said...

"Some day the obits will tell us about women who had notable careers AND they were still good in bed."

A literal translation of Deuteronmy 34 says that Moses died at 120 years on Mount Pisca and was still good with a woman. Most translations say he still had his strength.

Colonel Angus said...

Seems to me women are quite under represented among great cooks, if watching the food network is any indication. You would think highlighting a talent which seems dominated by men would be celebrated but alas, there are those whose life is to be persecuted.

n.n said...

The first victim of progress, and feminism, was reason.

So, if men can't cook, and women shouldn't cook, is that another job that Americans do not want to do? Is that why illegal aliens are invited, to replace men and women who don't want to cook or procreate?

Women should be available for sex, taxation, and democratic leverage. They have no other choices. Unfortunately, neither do men, which is why we are following an enlightened path to dysfunctional convergence.

Chip Ahoy said...

What would make a Stroganoff mean? It is a banal dish.

One day when I knew not what I was doing but did it anyway, I took on a Stroganoff without any idea what it was so I looked in somebody else's three cookbooks and made it at somebody else's house.

NYT recipe is a long list of ingredients, all banal, including Worcestershire sauce, and searing onions to put the flavor in the pan but dumping the onions, just the leftover flavor of having seared onions. The instructions went on and on. Joy of Cooking was more reasonable. Betty Crocker was just plain stupid. Open a can of cream of mushroom soup...

The single thing they had in common is sour cream.

None of them used actual mushrooms.

I used mushrooms and forgot to add sour cream.

So I spooned it on top at service and everyone there agreed I am genius when it comes to inventiveness when actually I am just a forgetful dunce.

Hot sauce could make it mean. I would want some of that anyway, but it could make it mean.

rhhardin said...

I am steaming rice, mixed veggies and chicken right now.

The dog gets half.

The rest gets salsa, oregano, garlic, pepper, olive oil and butter.

Yet it takes practically no time from science.

It's the same thing every day, so you know it's good.

The NYT ought to mention it.

Anonymous said...

This just in, ladies:

Men less impressed with your "career accomplishments", more interested in 1) how hot you are; and 2) whether you keep a good home.

Even rocket scientists.

Evolution's a bitch, eh, feminazis?

TMink said...

I would be quite happy if my obituary mentioned that I was a good cook. Good cooks bring joy to people.

Trey

ampersand said...

Hopefully Gloria Steinem's obit will read 'Walking backwards and in high heels she never saw the bus coming."

ampersand said...

@Chip If you want a mean stroganoff,add some laxative to the mix.

Unknown said...

I'd rather my obit said I made a mean stroganoff than that I was mean. I'll bet mean comes up in Gloria Steinem's obit and not about the way she made stroganoff.