Is gender equality in college that important?

According to NPR, colleges are favoring male applicants ahead of female candidates, in order to keep schools from becoming overwhelmingly female. Other than being a seemingly blatant violation of Title IX, I can’t quite figure out if this is good or bad.

So I took a look at both sides:

Gender balance on a college campus is not a bad thing. It’s been a long standing argument for Affirmative Action that diversity enhances the learning experience, and it’s true. Guys see things differently than us ladies and hearing their perspective can really change the way we think. As a graduate of an all-girls high school, I can honestly say that having males in the college classroom was a welcomed change and a truly eye-opening experience. And even what happens outside of the classroom – including dating – is an important part of college life and growing up.

And let’s not pretend we don’t see the obvious perk here. With colleges accepting more male students there will be less competition on the hunt for a boyfriend. You may be just as romantically-challenged, but at least there are less girls around to point that out. Can’t hate that.

But on the other hand, what is the problem with having a majority of female students on the college campus? It’s not our fault that we woman are more intelligent than guys. And you don’t see many people trying to fix the wage gap that exists between us! Acceptance should be based on merit, not on gender. Favoring male candidates is a numbers game that seems unnecessary.  Besides, some say marriage only works if the woman is smarter than her husband. For the sake of the relationship, shouldn’t we just leave those boys at home?

What do you think? Should colleges discriminate against women in order to maintain the gender balance? Or should colleges let things run it’s natural course, which obviously ends with women taking over the world?

I told my mother the other day that I felt like I was getting old and she laughed at me. She said she didn’t want to hear sh*t about getting old until I went through menopause. Fair enough.

But that doesn’t detract from the fact that I feel thirty and all of its dastardly implications creeping up behind me, breathing warm and horrifying down my neck. Here are some signs that I’m getting old; my youth and lack of responsibility fading farther and farther into the distance. Keep in mind that there is a distinction between getting old and becoming more mature, as one can see in the way I respond to my family in #8.

10. I don’t listen to music on the radio anymore. I listen to NPR. All Day. Every single day of the week. And then when I get to work, I listen to it online. And in podcast form.

9. I have a thing for older men.

8. My family has moved on from asking when I’m going to get married to when I’m going to have a baby. To which my inner voice triumphantly screams, “NEVER, SUCKAS!”

7. I can’t get drunk anymore. And I don’t even feel like trying. Frightning, I know. When I do drink, I drink wine.

6. My main source of exercise is step aerobics.

5. I refuse to get a new car because I like my 97 Volvo just fine, thank you, and new cars are a horrible investment, what with the depreciation.

4. I don’t understand kids today.

3. My Christmas and birthday lists included not DVDs, books, CDs, MP3 players, etc as it had in previous years. Instead, I really wanted some new bakeware. And a nice new set of sheets. And, okay, a book about the Dust Bowl.

2. My facebook status currently says, no joke and totally unironically, “Yay! My Unsolved Mysteries DVDs are in!” And an episode totally made me cry today.

1. I wake up early every morning, at like 6:30. For. No. Reason. I don’t have to be at work until 10 or so. And I spend that extra time drinking coffee and reading a book. Sometimes, if I’m feeling extra frisky, I do my step aerobics.

Help?

To prove her point, the article’s author explained how she’s often cat called when she walks down the street, and laments about the days when men tipped their hats and said “mornin‘” instead of leering at a pair of breasts and saying “yee!”

Even though I think she’s got a point when she talks about certain forms of traditional chivalry going out the window (the last time a man tipped his hat at me was…well, never, and not once has anyone ever thrown a jacket over a mud puddle), I’m pretty sure that using cat calls to define the death of chivalry is just plain incorrect.

Look, men have been cat calling women since the day they realized their mouths made sounds and breasts were awesome. Sure, Victorian dudes opened carriage doors for us and offered their elbow when the terrain got rough, but don’t think they weren’t whistling and jeering under those handlebar mustaches and cute little bowler hats. Perhaps they weren’t shouting “aye, mami!” when a fine looking bustle walked down the street, but you can bet a Victorian chick knew when a Mr. Darcy was hating to see her leave, but loving to see her go.

Basically, cat calling sucks (especially when you’re walking back from the gym looking like a dead rat and KNOWING the only reason that creepy guy is yelling at you is because you have boobs), but just because certain men are vulgar and annoying doesn’t mean that the species as a whole has quit on us. Why, just the other day, a guy waited .5 seconds before grabbing a seat from me on the subway! He considered letting me sit for .5 seconds longer than most.

[What do you think? Is the Chiv dead? Let us know!]

And so you do. But alas, you are not the only one with this idea. The illustrious Ladies Room Line shoots out before you, seemingly miles upon miles of other women also waiting to use the bathroom, careening their necks and jumping on empty stalls like hungry lions on a lame baby zebra.

Does the mere description of this common scene make you sigh in frustration? You’re not alone. According to everyone’s favorite liberal news source, people (women, mostly) are beginning to sound the call for more freaking bathrooms.

“Certain cities and counties around the country have passed specific regulations calling for double, triple or even quadruple the number of toilets for women’s rooms,” explains Kathryn Anthony, an architecture professor and board member of American Restroom Association (yes. I can’t believe there’s such a thing either). Anthony goes on to call the issue “a full-fledged public health issue”, and says that critics of newly proposed regulations obviously have no idea.

“Until men have menstrual periods, until men get pregnant, or until men breast-feed or have babies, we’ll always have a need for potty parity”.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

5. Sound of Young America

The title of the podcast is really fitting because the interviews they get are, and excuse me for using this word, cool. Really, really cool. Host Jesse Thorn (who has the hostiest host voice I’ve ever heard) has talked to everyone from Nick Hornby to the Upright Citizens Brigade to Elmore Leonard to my favorite, Dave Attell.

4. Amateur Traveler

There are few things in this world I enjoy more than travel, and out of all the traveling podcasts out there (and there are tons) this one is my favorite. I enjoy host Chris Christensen’s easygoing, unassuming manner and I’ve gotten tons upon tons of interesting, pertinent information from his casts. It has some episodes about travel in general, but mostly Christensen highlights a certain city and interviews experts or discusses his own experiences about that city.

3. This American Life

Whenever there is a new podcast of this show available, I gobble it up like so many M&Ms and proceed to cry throughout the whole thing. It makes for fairly awkward listening at work, but I don’t care. Perhaps you are familiar with Ira Glass’ series from the television show on Showtime, but even if you aren’t, I urge you to listen to these heartfelt, heartbreaking stories. With a box of tissues.

2. Talk of the Nation

In the past, I had considered writing a post expressing my intense love for Neal Conan, the host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, in the vein of some of our other posts here on College Candy about strange and persistent crushes we have. I listen to Talk of the Nation every damn day and so I feel like Neal, with his stunning breadth of reference and subtle wit, has become a part of my life.

Talk of the Nation covers such a wide range of topics and interviews such an interesting cross section of people, that it’s difficult not to find something that interests you on the show. Everyone is treated with respect, which, in our age of punditry, is a rare and precious thing indeed.

1. Savagecast

If you haven’t read Dan Savage’s Savage Love sex advice column, please, I beg you, read it. It’s honest, hilarious, informative and delightfully graphic. But it’s not just called “Savage Love” because of Dan Savage’s name, but also because the love that Dan tends to dole out is pretty damn tough . He minces no words. I would go so far as to say that his podcast is more entertaining than his column because he gets to interact with these troubled people personally and Savage himself is generally just so fun to listen to, even if he’s talking about the most unsavory things. And believe me, most of the topics discussed are really, really, unsavory.

You can also download all of these podcasts on iTunes. Got any favorites of your own? Let us know!

Hello! This is the inaugural article of the College Candy Kaleidoscope: a summary of the day’s news. I am your host (don’t laugh) Kandy Korrespondant! So, without further ado…

Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the now infamous pastor of Presidential contender Barack Obama, said on Monday that attacks on his fiery sermons represent a societal failure to understand black church traditions.

On Monday officials reported that a Drug Cartel war near the California-Mexico border town of Tijuana has resulted in at least fifteen deaths.

On Sunday, the New York Times exposed correspondence between the US Department of Justice and Congress stating that US intelligence officials working to stop terrorist attacks may use techniques banned under international law. This contradicts an Bush’s executive order last summer stating that the CIA would observe international law during detainee interrogations.

Three NYPD detectives on trial for the 2006 fatal shooting of 23 year old Sean Bell were acquitted on Friday. Bell died in a hail of bullets outside of a strip club hours before he was to marry Nicole Paultre. The detectives defended their actions saying that they thought Bell and his two friends were on their way perpetrate a drive-by shooting. None of the victims were armed and no gun was recovered from their car. Bell was shot 50 times.

During a rally following the verdict, Reverend Al Sharpton harshly criticized the judge’s decision and called for retribution.

“We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians [...] This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell.”

On Sunday, Chinese students attacked Pro-Tibet activists at the Olympic Torch relay in Seoul, South Korea as protesters attempted to prevent the torch from crossing one of the major rivers in the city.

A 73 year old man in Austria has admitted to imprisoning his daughter in his cellar and repeatedly impregnating her over the course of 24 years. The woman is now 42 years old and is being cared for by local authorities along with her six surviving children– the seventh died shortly after birth and the body was then burned by its’ monster of a sperm doner (you can’t call this man a father).

Move Over Finland! The residents of a Cairo slum, known as the Zableen, literally “garbage collectors”, are some of the most environmentally aware global inhabitants you’re ever likely to meet. The poor in countries such as Egypt are already facing the effects of environmental degradation and the Zableen have decided to do their part to stem the tide. The Zableen collect and recycle 80% of Cairo’s trash. Their work prompted UNESCO and Proctor & Gamble to create Mokattam Non-Formal Education Project– a school dedicated to educating the community about conservation and recycling. Local tradesmen are also working with the Solar Cities project to install solar water heaters throughout the community.

And now for something completely different

This past week, the Florida Senate passed a bill to emasculate all state vehicles. Yes… sadly, Floridians are now prohibited from placing those humorous fake bull testicles aka Truck Nutz, on their trailer hitches. A similar bill in Virginia was struck down this past January. And to think I used to believe state legislatures simply sat around wasting time and taxpayer money.

See ya tomorrow!

Peter Sagal, author and host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” (a show for smart democrats, and other people who enjoy playing games of wit on the radio), is so freaking pissed. And I love it.

I love it because finally someone is saying what I’ve known for years: Hollywood is obsessed with dudes.

Upon seeing the smash hit Horton Hears a Who with his 3 little daughters, Sagal flipped his sh*t about a plot point involving a father, his 96 daughters, and one sullen son:

“And there’s this — not only does the movie end with father and son embracing, while the 96 daughters are, I guess, playing in a well, somewhere, but the son earns his father’s love by saving the world. Boys get to save the world, and girls get to stand there and say, I knew you could do it. How did they know he could do it? Maybe because they watched every other movie ever made?”

As a woman who’s been trying to make her way in the entertainment industry for years, Sagal’s anger rings so, so true. Movies are full of guys. Guys saving the day. Guys being funny. Guys being awesome. Guys being guys. This plethora of testosterone has made it almost impossible for women to have an equal say. Hell, these days, we’re lucky if we even get a complete character arc.

The lack of formidable female characters in film is a big issue, but no one seems concerned enough to raise their voice.

Well, almost no one.

Peter Sagal, continue to flip your sh*t, and I’ll continue to flip mine.

They’ll hear us soon.

[Read the rest of Peter’s fantastic article HERE]

So when on Monday, March 17th, as I drove up to visit my dad I heard the NPR Marketplace analyst use the term Black Monday and Great Depression to describe the worries surrounding the current downward spin of the Stock Market of which the Bear Sterns crisis was simply the latest manifestation, my heart skipped a beat.

I’m about to head off to grad school this fall, I thought…my whole life is ahead of me…and suddenly my mind inserted my face into the Dorothea Lange photo desolation, destruction, depression…the end.

Okay yeah…so I’m a bit dramatic (very dramatic), but chances are you shared at least a bit of the panic I felt last Monday. The truth is, however, that the economy is far from the state of the 1929 crash but it is important to know what’s going on and how you should react in order to protect yourself.

The Economist’s lead article this week is a great analysis of the situation. They trace the current collapse back to the dotcom bubble burst in 2001. While overall the American GDP (Gross Domestic Product—the number economists use to calculate a country’s economic trajectory) has weakened, financial services have continued. Meaning that even as the economy slowed down (you and I see this most through the growing scarcity of jobs) claims on future clash flows continued (loans, credit card debit, etc.).

One major example of this is the housing crisis caused by bad mortgages. You may have heard of the term “subprime mortgage” linked to the recent downturn. A subprime mortgage means that the mortgage rate is adjustable. Often the initial mortgage rate is low but increases over time. They are given to buyers who don’t qualify for market interest rates due to their credit history or lack of constant income.

During the past few years, housing prices have doubled and tripled, leading many of these buyers to believe that they could refinance their house in the future if they even found themselves unable to pay their mortgage bill. Suddenly, last summer, all of the real rates for the subprime mortgages kicked in and across the country home owners defaulted on their payments. This sparked a domino effect that, as this past week demonstrated, is affecting all levels of the US economy.

Bear Sterns, one of the big Wall Street companies, underwrote much of the mortgage market within the US. On Monday, JP Morgan Chase bought the company and their credit obligations for only $2 a share less than one tenth of the previous weeks’ market price.

As my previous two articles on the Recession discussed, economic slowdowns affect everyone. Across the country, for example, the price of food is increasing. Reuters quotes Bob Goldin, executive vice president of food research firm Technomic Inc, saying that the food industry is facing a “perfect storm” right now in that lowered consumer demand is coinciding with a rise in the cost of doing business.

Best advice?

1.) Don’t Panic

2.) Diversify your employment—try to get some source of independent income

3.) Save, Save, SAVE! Even if it’s only a few dollars a week.

4.) Avoid using your credit cards as much as possible and carefully examine your student loan terms to make sure you can handle the payments.

[Have any more economic questions for Suzie? Ask 'em here!]