1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,960
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff mom never told you?

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:17,400
Speaker 1: From house Stop works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to

4
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,160
Speaker 1: the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristin. Kristin. Today

5
00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,280
Speaker 1: we're going to shoot for the stars, shoot for the moon,

6
00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,920
Speaker 1: go to infinity and bond. Yes, and by that I

7
00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,520
Speaker 1: mean we're going to space, straight space. We're going to

8
00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:35,320
Speaker 1: talk about women, NASA, astronauts, sexism, all sorts of good stuff.

9
00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,879
Speaker 1: Um So, I mean let's talk about astronauts. Did you

10
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:40,840
Speaker 1: ever want to be an astronaut when you're a kid? Nope,

11
00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:46,200
Speaker 1: fear heights, no desire year. That settles it pretty quick.

12
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,920
Speaker 1: I mean my ambitions lay solely all the ground on

13
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:57,080
Speaker 1: the ground, just the metaphorical stars shoe for What about you? Um?

14
00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,920
Speaker 1: I guess not. I always ask the questions. Sometimes I'm

15
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:02,840
Speaker 1: having conversations with people about whether they would go to

16
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:05,800
Speaker 1: space if they could never come back. If someone gave

17
00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: you a free trip to space and get the experience

18
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:09,600
Speaker 1: of seeing space, but you could never come back, that

19
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,960
Speaker 1: sounds terrible. I think I'd take it. When else can

20
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,959
Speaker 1: you go to space and tell no one about it,

21
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,280
Speaker 1: and some experiences can be magically even there just for you.

22
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,160
Speaker 1: I guess, well, a wait, that's that was on my

23
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,360
Speaker 1: on my mind when we started doing this research about

24
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,400
Speaker 1: women and the obstacles they ran into when they were

25
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,960
Speaker 1: going up against NASA and the Space Agency. Yes, NASA's

26
00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:33,680
Speaker 1: Space agency and so far. Just to give you an

27
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,080
Speaker 1: idea of how few women have been into space via NASA,

28
00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 1: four fifty four female astronauts. That's that's all we got.

29
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:44,759
Speaker 1: I think that includes more than just the American women,

30
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,680
Speaker 1: though I do think that includes international really, so my

31
00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:51,480
Speaker 1: even last NASA. Yeah, so fifty four women out of

32
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,200
Speaker 1: all women in the world have been in space. And

33
00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,200
Speaker 1: you know, for a while the face of NASA that

34
00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,280
Speaker 1: was female was just an astronauts why life. Um those

35
00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: were sort of the first women that people really associated

36
00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,880
Speaker 1: with NASA because them, the women would have to sit

37
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:08,919
Speaker 1: at home while their husbands went to space, and since

38
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:11,320
Speaker 1: it was such a huge unknown, you know, they kind

39
00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:12,640
Speaker 1: of felt like they were saying there waiting for their

40
00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:14,880
Speaker 1: husbands to die when they sat there watching the television.

41
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,480
Speaker 1: And by the way, NASA had cameras there to um

42
00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:20,560
Speaker 1: present a public based in the world of these brave

43
00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:22,800
Speaker 1: women sitting at home waiting for the men. They actually

44
00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:27,080
Speaker 1: formed an Astronaut's wives club because there were so few

45
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,680
Speaker 1: of them, and little did they A lot of people

46
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:33,800
Speaker 1: know that even though they were in the media limelight,

47
00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: they were just living on the government paychecks. It's not

48
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,120
Speaker 1: like they were living these extravagant lives like astronauts weren't

49
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:44,400
Speaker 1: paid very well. But then they were thrust into high society,

50
00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:46,960
Speaker 1: so tough life that these women had to lead, and

51
00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:51,120
Speaker 1: a lot of them said that, um, after their husbands

52
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,959
Speaker 1: would come home from space. Uh, they always kind of

53
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,560
Speaker 1: had to play second fiddle to NASA. I mean, one that,

54
00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,320
Speaker 1: can you compete with the moon? These men, you know,

55
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,160
Speaker 1: they've they've done something that so few humans have done.

56
00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:05,560
Speaker 1: Is natural that for a lot of them, depression set

57
00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:08,600
Speaker 1: in and they had trouble reacclaimating to Earth and it

58
00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,040
Speaker 1: was the wives who really bore the brunt of that.

59
00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:12,880
Speaker 1: And um, you know, there are a lot of really

60
00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,560
Speaker 1: good articles about these women who kind of um formed

61
00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:20,800
Speaker 1: the domestic face of NASA, but less known are women

62
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,120
Speaker 1: who were trying to become astronauts at the same time

63
00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: that many of these wives were sitting at home watching television. Yes, um,

64
00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,400
Speaker 1: And we should start the conversation with Mercury thirteen. And

65
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,000
Speaker 1: this was the first group of elite women who were

66
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,600
Speaker 1: tested and trained at the Lovelace Clinic, which was an

67
00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,760
Speaker 1: aviation medicine hub that also tested Mercury seven, which were

68
00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 1: America's first astronauts. And they found these thirteen women who

69
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:54,000
Speaker 1: they called first Lady Astronauts trainees or flats, and they

70
00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,160
Speaker 1: excelled at their astronaut testing. Yeah. Basically Robert levels, like

71
00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,640
Speaker 1: you said, he tested the male astronauts and wanted to

72
00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 1: see if women would withstand the test just as well

73
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,640
Speaker 1: because someone had a theory that women weighed less and

74
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:08,520
Speaker 1: so maybe it would take less gas to get them

75
00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:10,840
Speaker 1: to space. So he was like, all right, I'm gonna

76
00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:12,200
Speaker 1: do this on my own. I'm not going to tell

77
00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,120
Speaker 1: the government. I've got these contacts with the government, so

78
00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:16,160
Speaker 1: if the women end up doing well, I can get

79
00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:18,880
Speaker 1: them in. And like you said, they did awesome. They

80
00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:21,919
Speaker 1: gave them harder tests than the men went through. Most notably,

81
00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:25,320
Speaker 1: they left one woman in a deprivation tank which is

82
00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 1: filled with water for nine hours, like the longest they

83
00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,080
Speaker 1: made Junglens in that water was six hours, so she

84
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 1: did great. Um, all sorts of physical, emotional batteries of tests.

85
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,600
Speaker 1: The women were doing awesome. So at that point Levis

86
00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:42,400
Speaker 1: was like, I'm onto something, Gonna get the military on

87
00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:45,680
Speaker 1: this and get some real standardized testing on his women.

88
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,080
Speaker 1: And that's where we went into trouble. Yeah, just days

89
00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:52,840
Speaker 1: before these flats, the lady astronaut trainees were supposed to

90
00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:56,760
Speaker 1: report to the Navy Aviation Naval Aviation Center in Pensacola.

91
00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,600
Speaker 1: Everything was shut down. The plug is pulled. Plug was

92
00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:03,799
Speaker 1: pulled on Mercury thirteen. And the excuse that the women

93
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,320
Speaker 1: got was that there had been this dictate put into

94
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,400
Speaker 1: place by Eisenhower that women had to be and I

95
00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,039
Speaker 1: mean that any astronaut had to be in the military

96
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:16,479
Speaker 1: to serve as an astronaut. UM, so women weren't allowed

97
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:19,000
Speaker 1: to serve in the military. Then by default, then no

98
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,640
Speaker 1: woman could be astronaut and astronaut no matter how well

99
00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,440
Speaker 1: she did on the testing. The women did not take

100
00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,719
Speaker 1: that news very well, and they started organizing meetings with

101
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:34,560
Speaker 1: members of Congress and with Vice President Johnson to plead

102
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:39,039
Speaker 1: their case. And it was during these hearings that a

103
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 1: lot of inherent sexism comes out not only within just Congress,

104
00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:49,440
Speaker 1: but also um, some unsavory quotes from John Glenn lay

105
00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:51,520
Speaker 1: one on as custom. All right, so this is John

106
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:55,000
Speaker 1: Glenn testifying in the nineteen sixty two congressional hearing on

107
00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:59,000
Speaker 1: official astronaut qualifications, trying to figure out whether or not

108
00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:03,320
Speaker 1: women me those qualifications. And he says, and this is

109
00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:06,880
Speaker 1: John Glenn, famed astronaut, the fact that women are not

110
00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,200
Speaker 1: in this field is a fact of our social order.

111
00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:12,960
Speaker 1: He's just saying, like women, women don't belong in space.

112
00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:16,080
Speaker 1: And he continued, if we could find any women that

113
00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,000
Speaker 1: demonstrate they have better qualifications than men, we would open

114
00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:23,120
Speaker 1: them with open arms. And audience goes crazy because he's

115
00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,920
Speaker 1: implying that women aren't as good as men. Um, can

116
00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,560
Speaker 1: I tell you about what Michael Collins of Apollo Levin said? Please? Um,

117
00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,040
Speaker 1: this is and you better remember it is the sixties.

118
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:37,600
Speaker 1: It's not the most enlightened time. But he wrote dreamily

119
00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:41,240
Speaker 1: of the ingenious possibilities of weightlessness. Quote no need to

120
00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:44,400
Speaker 1: carry braws into space, that's for sure. Imagine a spacecraft

121
00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:46,360
Speaker 1: of the future with the crew of a thousand ladies,

122
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,360
Speaker 1: with two thousand breasts bobbling bobbing beautifully and quivering delightfully,

123
00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:52,040
Speaker 1: and I am the commander of the craft and it

124
00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:56,599
Speaker 1: just Saturday morning and time for inspection naturally. Oh wow, Yeah,

125
00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:58,960
Speaker 1: So I mean didn't he write that in space, like

126
00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 1: in his space diary something dreaming about space? That's how

127
00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 1: I think of it. I think of him floating around

128
00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,800
Speaker 1: in his space capsule dreaming of bobbing breasts. Well, and

129
00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:11,760
Speaker 1: you know, to be fair, they probably thought we shouldn't

130
00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,520
Speaker 1: have women women on the spacecraft if we've got people

131
00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:19,560
Speaker 1: like Michael Collins dreaming of of weightless breasts space bobbing around. Um.

132
00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,520
Speaker 1: And one representative said that, you know, eventually they wouldn't

133
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:24,960
Speaker 1: even women the space programs. They could colonize other planets.

134
00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:30,240
Speaker 1: Another classic. But basically, the hearings decided that it was

135
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:34,400
Speaker 1: not time to lift that uh little arcane rule the

136
00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:35,840
Speaker 1: eyes and are put in place that women had to

137
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,320
Speaker 1: come from military, you know, the women. We're just saying,

138
00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:38,840
Speaker 1: we want to be part of history too. We know

139
00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,160
Speaker 1: this is a big focus for our country right now.

140
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:44,800
Speaker 1: Let us help. And the hearing sort of found like,

141
00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:47,480
Speaker 1: you know, let's let the guys do this first, and

142
00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:52,880
Speaker 1: then we'll worry about you. Ladies. Meanwhile, in Russia they

143
00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:58,720
Speaker 1: didn't care. They sent old Valentina Tereshkova up in space,

144
00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,840
Speaker 1: becoming the first woman in space in June of nineteen

145
00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,240
Speaker 1: sixty three. Yeah, and the women tried to use that

146
00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:06,320
Speaker 1: to their advantage of like, we hear Russia's got this

147
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:08,080
Speaker 1: woman they're going to send up. Why don't we get

148
00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:10,240
Speaker 1: when we get a woman up there too, And they

149
00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,240
Speaker 1: were like, that's just a Russian publicity stunt. Women just

150
00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,560
Speaker 1: Americans just pipe down. And to be fair, it probably was.

151
00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,559
Speaker 1: And a lot of the quote you find about Trish

152
00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,880
Speaker 1: Covia it was um that you know, after after that,

153
00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:24,800
Speaker 1: there are a lot of male people on that space pook,

154
00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:26,520
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm never going to work with a woman again.

155
00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,680
Speaker 1: So it took a while after Trish covi did get

156
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:33,160
Speaker 1: another another woman in space, the Mercury thirteen women disbanded

157
00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:37,319
Speaker 1: and didn't come together again until um Eileen Collins piloted

158
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 1: a Space Shuttle and they all came for her launch

159
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,120
Speaker 1: at her invitation because she wanted to thank them for

160
00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:45,840
Speaker 1: being so inspirational to her. But most women when they

161
00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,960
Speaker 1: think of the Space program and NASA and women think

162
00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:53,520
Speaker 1: of Sally Ride, Sally k Ride, astrophysicist in America's first

163
00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:57,920
Speaker 1: woman astronaut, who took off into space on June eighteenth,

164
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:02,079
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. So when the time Sally Ride went

165
00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,560
Speaker 1: into space, they had done all. They had done more testing,

166
00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:06,640
Speaker 1: they had gotten rid of this one rule about military

167
00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:10,480
Speaker 1: pilots that have kept the Mercury thirteen women back um allegedly,

168
00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:13,439
Speaker 1: even though it was probably just greater sexism. And they

169
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,680
Speaker 1: did test after tests on men and women in space,

170
00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:18,800
Speaker 1: and most of the tests were focused on um. Of course,

171
00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:21,800
Speaker 1: women in menstruation. Could women who had their periods in

172
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:25,000
Speaker 1: space handle that as well as maybe men who weren't

173
00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:28,960
Speaker 1: encumbered by that? Whereou that menstrual blood go that gravity

174
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,520
Speaker 1: free environment? I think? Actually, now when they send a

175
00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:34,640
Speaker 1: woman into space her box of tampons, all the tampons

176
00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:36,679
Speaker 1: are kind of attached to each other so that that

177
00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:40,400
Speaker 1: one won't fly away before the women can can use it.

178
00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:45,319
Speaker 1: Um side note um. But basically these tests find that

179
00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,560
Speaker 1: there's no difference between men and women in space. In fact,

180
00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:49,920
Speaker 1: some tests start to find that women might do better

181
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,480
Speaker 1: in space than men, like those Mercury thirteen tests held out,

182
00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:56,600
Speaker 1: maybe women have the emotional reserves to deal with the

183
00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,839
Speaker 1: isolation and the craziness of space. Maybe they deal with

184
00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,320
Speaker 1: the muscle loss better. Maybe they're less likely to have

185
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,560
Speaker 1: a heart attack and die in space and are just

186
00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,520
Speaker 1: stronger physically to undertake the mission. Yes, and yet there's

187
00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,320
Speaker 1: still been you know, this this huge reservation about UM

188
00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:18,280
Speaker 1: sending women into space. But one woman we do need

189
00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,600
Speaker 1: to mention before we go any further is may See Jemison.

190
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,760
Speaker 1: She's an engineer and medical doctor who became the first

191
00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:29,400
Speaker 1: black woman in space on September twelve, nineteen. And like

192
00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:32,080
Speaker 1: I mentioned, Eileen Collins also deserves a big shout. She

193
00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,200
Speaker 1: was the first one to pilot an American space shuttle,

194
00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:36,319
Speaker 1: and then the first one went to pilot and command

195
00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:39,240
Speaker 1: and ask a space shuttle and that was in and

196
00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,280
Speaker 1: then two thousand five. So more women are slowly going

197
00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,080
Speaker 1: into space. UM, it seems like there will always be

198
00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,880
Speaker 1: that sort of confusion about whether it's a man's job

199
00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:49,760
Speaker 1: or a woman's job. In China starting to work on

200
00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,680
Speaker 1: their space program, and they're saying only mothers can go

201
00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:55,520
Speaker 1: into space because they don't want to mess up woman's

202
00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,320
Speaker 1: future fertility. So this question is still of you know,

203
00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:03,319
Speaker 1: women and children and um periods, it's still kind of

204
00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:06,640
Speaker 1: screwing up women's journeys into the star. Do you think though,

205
00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:12,760
Speaker 1: that the Columbia and the Challenger disasters where four women

206
00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,720
Speaker 1: were killed for female astronauts were killed, do you think

207
00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:18,880
Speaker 1: that that the kind of magnitude of those dissasters we

208
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,400
Speaker 1: had a chilling effect at all. I mean, they it

209
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 1: didn't happen all that long ago, but it seemed like,

210
00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,560
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, that's uh, four out of fourteen

211
00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:31,360
Speaker 1: astronauts being female. That's that's a much better ratio than

212
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:33,640
Speaker 1: it used to be. That's true, And especially on the Challenger,

213
00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:37,120
Speaker 1: when christ McCullough, the teacher, was such the public face

214
00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,240
Speaker 1: of that disaster, I think that probably yeah, if you

215
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,880
Speaker 1: were a little girl at the time, seeing her so

216
00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:44,880
Speaker 1: closely associated with that disaster probably did put a damper

217
00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,960
Speaker 1: on a lot of astronaut dreams. Although Sally Ride would

218
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,840
Speaker 1: say that the problem is not so much disasters like that,

219
00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,720
Speaker 1: it's just that we don't push girls in math and

220
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:56,280
Speaker 1: science as well as we push boys. And this is

221
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,240
Speaker 1: a discussion that you know, we've had several times on

222
00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,640
Speaker 1: whether um weather girls are given the tools to excel

223
00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:05,720
Speaker 1: in these fields. But she started Salaryite Science, a corporation

224
00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,959
Speaker 1: that teaches both teachers and girls about how to keep

225
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,520
Speaker 1: science interesting, um beyond the middle school in high school years.

226
00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:16,280
Speaker 1: So she's hoping that that sort of where we'll keep

227
00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:18,640
Speaker 1: girls were interest in the pursuits that could lead to

228
00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:21,120
Speaker 1: a space career. And then it also this whole issue

229
00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:25,280
Speaker 1: also just brings up a larger societal question of why

230
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:29,760
Speaker 1: we still have trouble with the idea of putting women

231
00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:33,000
Speaker 1: in high risk situations. You know, it goes into like

232
00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,200
Speaker 1: women being allowed into combat and the military sending women

233
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:39,840
Speaker 1: into space. You know, just anytime we position women in

234
00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,600
Speaker 1: life potentially life threatening arena, were far less comfortable than

235
00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,040
Speaker 1: putting a man in the same place. Yeah, despite the

236
00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,120
Speaker 1: fact that, like we said, women might be better physically

237
00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:52,920
Speaker 1: equipped if these studies are correct, um, then men. But

238
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,160
Speaker 1: then again, some people could say that the entire space

239
00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:57,640
Speaker 1: program is underfunded and maybe it doesn't matter at all,

240
00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,800
Speaker 1: maybe it's useless. Um. But I do think that's a

241
00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:03,040
Speaker 1: valid question, is do we not want women in space

242
00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,560
Speaker 1: because it is, you know, something that's so unknown and

243
00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:08,880
Speaker 1: that makes us nervous um or you know, is there

244
00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:11,960
Speaker 1: still inherent sexism in some of these fields. You know,

245
00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:15,280
Speaker 1: it's it's worth um questioning whenever you see a space

246
00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:18,040
Speaker 1: command going up. And of course we have to mention

247
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:22,480
Speaker 1: old Lisa Noak. Oh yeah, the bad apple of female

248
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:27,480
Speaker 1: Astern for all of the progress other female astronauts had made.

249
00:13:27,559 --> 00:13:30,120
Speaker 1: You had to go and strap on some disposal diapers

250
00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:34,200
Speaker 1: and chase down who was it her? Her husband or

251
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,560
Speaker 1: ex husband's has just a boyfriend boy a boyfriend's girlfriend,

252
00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:40,720
Speaker 1: and she had a husband and some kids at home

253
00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,000
Speaker 1: and wanted to confront her female rival for a fellow

254
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,800
Speaker 1: astronauts affection and you know that might maybe that's an issue.

255
00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:49,800
Speaker 1: There have been, um, you know, quotes and all these

256
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,360
Speaker 1: articles aren't reading about how this one man said he

257
00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,840
Speaker 1: wouldn't send just one woman up into space. He would

258
00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:57,440
Speaker 1: send three at a time, so that there wouldn't be

259
00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,800
Speaker 1: like a rivalry between two of them, and one of

260
00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,000
Speaker 1: them just wouldn't be like the token woman that everyone

261
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,439
Speaker 1: was after. Like, you know, if you are up there

262
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 1: for months at a time, what kind of dynamic sets

263
00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 1: in in such close quarters? Uh now, I don't know,

264
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:13,839
Speaker 1: speaking of the deprivation testing, I'm not sure which year

265
00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:16,600
Speaker 1: this was, but uh yeah, it does seem like it's

266
00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,160
Speaker 1: a bad idea to only send one woman at a

267
00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:23,359
Speaker 1: time because there was deprivation testing going on in Antarctica.

268
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,640
Speaker 1: That was one woman among all these other men who

269
00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:30,280
Speaker 1: were training to be astronauts, and apparently her presence alone,

270
00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:32,680
Speaker 1: they're just being one of her in these icy, barren

271
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:36,160
Speaker 1: conditions caused some violence among the men. I don't know,

272
00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:39,680
Speaker 1: things get weirds get really weird sometimes. But should women

273
00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,720
Speaker 1: be punished because the men can't can't handle their deprivation?

274
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:45,200
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. I mean it's it's only that's only more

275
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:49,480
Speaker 1: of an argument to for gender parity, even out the ratios,

276
00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:51,880
Speaker 1: and maybe dudes won't flip out so much. I know

277
00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:54,320
Speaker 1: that's so sexist of me to say, but that's kind

278
00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,480
Speaker 1: of a kind of talking that'll make up for that

279
00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:01,760
Speaker 1: bombing breast quote. There we go. Take that dreamy astronaut

280
00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:06,840
Speaker 1: man who was someone who wrote that, Michael Colin, Michael Collins. Well,

281
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,000
Speaker 1: that's what we've got on female astronauts. We'd love to

282
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,200
Speaker 1: hear from you guys. If you wanted to be an astronaut,

283
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:12,920
Speaker 1: if you never wanted to be an astronaut, if you

284
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,600
Speaker 1: still want to be an astronaut, tell us your dreams

285
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,520
Speaker 1: about shooting among the stars, and you can write us

286
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:20,600
Speaker 1: that mom stuff at how stuff works dot com and

287
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:27,000
Speaker 1: we shall read something else. I have one here from

288
00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,240
Speaker 1: Victoria and she writes, I was listening to your podcast

289
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,600
Speaker 1: when I heard want of you use the colloquialism rule

290
00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:34,960
Speaker 1: of thumb. I thought that you might appreciate the history

291
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:37,040
Speaker 1: behind it. Many people still use it, and I feel

292
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,360
Speaker 1: like the history needs to get out. In the late

293
00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:41,680
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, it was a common

294
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 1: practice and actually became a law in Virginia that men

295
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,480
Speaker 1: could only beat their wives with a stick there was

296
00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,160
Speaker 1: the width of their thumb or less. When I heard

297
00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:50,760
Speaker 1: of this fact, I was horrified, and I know the

298
00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:52,880
Speaker 1: general population doesn't know about this, so I thought, if

299
00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,320
Speaker 1: you read this on your podcast, you can enlighten your listeners.

300
00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,760
Speaker 1: This stems from generations of misogyny and sexism, but little

301
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:00,760
Speaker 1: by little where all the in our best at five

302
00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:05,720
Speaker 1: backs it. This my one to punch to sexism for today. Well,

303
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:07,800
Speaker 1: I have an email here from Melissa and this is

304
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:11,600
Speaker 1: about our podcast on Hyman's and she writes, I found

305
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:15,080
Speaker 1: your Hyman podcast very interesting. However, I think you should

306
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,800
Speaker 1: have covered a few problems that can result in having

307
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:21,680
Speaker 1: to have a minor surgery to have your hyman removed.

308
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: You made it sound like it was never a big deal,

309
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:27,840
Speaker 1: and it can be. There at least three cases where

310
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,520
Speaker 1: the hyman may have to be removed by a doctor.

311
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:34,120
Speaker 1: These are an imperfort hyman, a micro perforate hyman, and

312
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,040
Speaker 1: a septate hyman. You can find out more about those

313
00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:41,040
Speaker 1: three types of hymen the at Young Women's Health dot org.

314
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:43,400
Speaker 1: You might want to check them out and address them.

315
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,680
Speaker 1: I know I had a micro perforate hyman in my

316
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,440
Speaker 1: teens and had to have it removed by a doctor.

317
00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:50,600
Speaker 1: I remember it being a big scary deal to me

318
00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:52,360
Speaker 1: at the time and feeling like a freak. I think

319
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,200
Speaker 1: it would be nice to do a follow up podcast

320
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:57,560
Speaker 1: on these conditions. Perhaps you will, or if anything, we

321
00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:00,680
Speaker 1: could do a follow up blog post. So if you

322
00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,320
Speaker 1: have any suggestions or ideas or stories to send our

323
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:06,119
Speaker 1: way again, our email addresses mom Stuff at how stuff

324
00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,080
Speaker 1: works dot com. You can also head over to Facebook

325
00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:13,120
Speaker 1: and like us there and converse with other mom stuff listeners.

326
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:15,960
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Twitter as well. Our handle

327
00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,680
Speaker 1: is at mom Stuff Podcast. And finally, you can read

328
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,560
Speaker 1: our blog during the week. It's stuff Mom Never told

329
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:29,119
Speaker 1: You from how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure to

330
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,000
Speaker 1: check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future,

331
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,439
Speaker 1: to join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the

332
00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:39,000
Speaker 1: most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works.

333
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,480
Speaker 1: I fine app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes,

334
00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:49,639
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

335
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:51,160
Speaker 1: It's ready, Are you