The soon-to-be ex-vice-chancellor of Buckingham University explains in a startlingly ill-conceived article in the Times that female students are a male academic's "perk." Via The Guardian via Dana at The Edge of the American West.

PS: "The fault lies with the females." FYI.

DC editor Matt Idleson: "I never want to see Supergirl's panties again."

'Why Chicks Cry': an exhaustive look at sexism and romance comics from the 1950s and '60s. Via MeFi.

As the truth about Sonia Sotomayor's David-Dukesque opinions becomes more widely known, it's worth noting that her radical Latina-separatist tendencies date back to her college days at Princeton.

Most disturbing however, is Taylor's revelation that Sotomayor was chair of a group called "Accion Puertorriquena," (Puerto Rican Action) which I assume was a SOC group devoted to the concerns of Puerto Rican students at Princeton. She was very critical of how Princeton treated its minority students in 1974, which is absurd, because America passed the Civil Rights Act only nine years earlier and Princeton had started admitting women five years earlier. Therefore, sexism and racism were then nonexistent at the university...

Late-night roundup.

* Senate Republicans won't fight Sotomayor.

* Gay-rights activists are balking at taking Prop 8 to federal court; they think they'll lose at the Supremes given the courts' current composition.

* 15 Sexist Vintage Ads. So glad sexism is behind us.

Wednesday!

* I have a review in the Indy this week of Lucas Hilderbrand's Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright. Keywords: copyright Constitution Buffy pornography Superstar Mystery Science Theater 3000.

* Cases for and against Buffy without Joss.

* Sarah Connor creator: I won't be back.

* Some days I think Marvel just doesn't get women. Via MeFi.

* theauteurs.com: Streaming video of Criterion Collection films. (via Vu)

* And the year of Senatorial madness shows no sign of ending: Joe Sestak intends to unseat Arlen and Burris's scumbaggery is caught on tape.

I'll admit to having grown cold on Dollhouse the last few months, but this interview with Joss on NPR fills me with a lot of confidence: he's obviously thought things through.

Jacki Lyden asks Whedon to explain how a show starring a young female character who has no free will isn't the ultimate misogynistic male fantasy.

"I won't necessarily say that it isn't that," Whedon says. "The fact of the matter is that, in the wrong hands, it is a completely misogynist thing, except it's happening to men as well — but what we're trying to do is take someone's identity away in order to discuss the concept of her identity."

Whedon says the first group he pitched the show to — after Dushku and Fox — was the board of Equality Now.

"I knew that would be the toughest room I would ever sit in," Whedon says. "What I basically told them was I was examining the idea of fantasy, and some of the stuff that would happen would be good, and some of the stuff that would happen would be kind of awful, and that the whole point was going to be to blur those lines, to take what we want from each other sexually, how much power we want to have over each other."

Potential!

However, the situation is far from perfect.

Whedon says the Fox network wasn't particularly comfortable with these themes either. The original pilot episode of the series, which included discussion of the actives performing more altruistic deeds, was scrapped in favor of one that amped up the action and conspiracy.

Whedon says Fox also asked him to turn down the volume on some of the sexual themes.

Damnit, Fox, why do you hate us so much?

Following up on the Rick Davis story from last night, it's hard to see any upside for McCain here. He can fire Davis, but that's an admission of impropriety, and makes him look like even more of a fool for accusing Obama of being in bed with lobbyists. He can keep Davis and hope the story goes away, but I'm not sure it will: the ridiculous spectacle of a candidate railing against Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae after those very agencies have essentially put him on layaway will not be overlooked in the debates, in the press, or in Obama's ads. He's in a tough, tough place on this.

The media, led by Campbell Brown, may also be taking up an interesting new thread in the Sarah Palin Chronicles: a plea to stop the campaign's sexist treatment of their own VP candidate.

Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters.... Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic chains you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.

Even Fox is fed up.

It's still too early to tell, but with the complete collapse of McCain's numbers since the convention blip—witness the new ABC/Wash. Post poll putting Obama nine points ahead nationally, with even stronger internals—is it fair to say yet that the Republican Party has fielded the worst campaign of modern times in McCain/Palin? The sad, sad fact is they could still win, but just on the level of process, of electioneering—the only things Republicans do well—they won't deserve to.

A lot of people are linking to this 1939 "Marital Rating Chart" that Boing Boing found earlier today. Click the image for the full size:



What's so wrong with wearing red nail polish?

Stuff to look at.

* This week's blog icon is one of my favorite pieces from Eric Joyner, whose website is a virtual treasure trove of robots and donuts. Eric, of course, is the artist who provided the cover image for Backwards City #3.

* Jacek Yerka, painter of fantasy worlds. Via RaShOmoN. The one at left is called "Pearl Harbor."

* I enjoyed watching The King of Kong, the recent documentary about intense rivalries in the arcade community, but it's now obligatory to follow up that admission with a link to the criticism of the film on both factual and aesthetic levels.

* And xkcd explains how it works.