Oversold
By Mitch Berg
Look – I’m all for women. My mom was one. So are my sister, daughter and daughter in law. Go, women!
But the trifle that is modern feminism has gone a little overboard with claiming “firsts for women”. One of my more glaring recent examples was the Saint Paul City Council, who are indeed seven women (or were until one left, and was tentatively replaced by a man), but aren’t really running the city because they aren’t much of a council.
But this week’s “Blue Horizon” flight seven prominent female space tourists had moved into a solid first place.
Among the tourists was pop start Katy Perry, who imbued the event with, er, immense gravitas:
Community notes for the win.
I imagine going into space is something of a “high”, so I won’t make the inevitable “someone snuck some THC gummies onto the flight” joke, pinky swear…:
So, like David Strom, I don’t really care if people with cash and connections wants to pay for a trip across the Karman Line. The revenue will help advance private sector space flight. Yay free enterprise.
But…Astronaut?
Perry’s only real training for the event was getting measured for her designer jumpsuit, before being shot to the edge of space as a passenger.
Unlike Valentina Tereshkova, who went into space 62 years ago, after at least qualifying as a cosmonaut and pilot.
Or Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
Or even Christa MacAuliffe, the teacher killed aboard Challenger, who at least went through some version of astronaut training, among the many other American women who’d qualified and been into space by that point.
Sorry to say, Perry was about as much an “astronaut” as Laika the Space Dog – although Perry at least survived her trip.
Glad we could settle that.
April 16th, 2025 at 6:52 am
A bunch of girls ride a rocket during a bachelorette party.
Okay… I suppose it beats barfing on the streets of Cancun. You got to give them that.
So why are we hearing about it?
April 16th, 2025 at 7:16 am
Because of the suits. We’re hearing about it because they had smashing new space suits, tailor made by Monse designers Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim to show off their female figures. Or, as Katy elegantly put it: they put the ass in astronaut. Muicca Prada is reportedly despondent that she didn’t get the gig to design accessory clutch purses.
I don’t know why this is surprising to anybody. With women and science, the important news is never about brains or achievements, it’s always about fashion.
https://nypost.com/2014/11/17/the-outrage-machine-insande-ado-about-sexist-shirt/
April 16th, 2025 at 8:47 am
But she’s more in touch with the sacred feminine now or something. I don’t remember her exact new-agey pseudo pagan utterance. I just laughed.
April 16th, 2025 at 11:29 am
Trailblazers for “Cos-play In Space”!
April 16th, 2025 at 3:28 pm
Ham did it better
https://www.americaspace.com/2021/01/31/we-gave-it-away-remembering-the-unhappy-flight-of-ham-60-years-on/
April 17th, 2025 at 10:23 am
I don’t know why this is surprising to anybody. With women and science, the important news is never about brains or achievements, it’s always about fashion.
I recall a few years ago, Joe Doakes commented here that he is a member of the AOPA (Airplane Owners and Pilots Association). He said when the AOPA magazine hired its first female editor, he started seeing fewer articles about the technical aspects of planes and more articles on fashion.
Car and Driver hired its first female editor during COVID. While there weren’t articles about fashion worn while driving, there was definitely a different feel to the magazine in the ~1.5 years she lasted. One of the big things was that it really turned into a pro-EV propaganda publication, however that could either have been due to her, or her overlords at Hearst Magazines. There were a lot more “letters to the editor” that were critical of the magazine’s content during her tenure than before and after. Shortly after she was replaced, many letters to the editor were relieved at the change.