Hi Bob,
I didn’t reply to this when it was originally posted because, frankly, it irritated the fuck out of me. These are the standard excuses men trot out when they don’t want to do the time or work to see how a patriarchal system benefits them to the detriment of others. While you’re not an MRA (at least in my mind, from the information you posted here), you certainly are embracing sexist tropes happily, and it’s not really my JOB to enlighten you. That’s why you have Google. And with Google, you can quickly find out that there is significant bias in publication and hiring based on gender and race. People insist they’re hiring on merit alone, yet they see more merit in a male applicant with the same CV as a female applicant—just changing the name causes there to suddenly be more merit. This? Is sexism.

As for “oh but women take time off” – nope. Again, false conclusion based on sexist attitude. In the leaky pipeline, women are being chased out well before maternity leave is an issue. And as many scholars note, if women received equal pay to men (something that is unequal long before children/time off becomes a factor), many women wouldn’t have to leave the work force because they would be able to care for children. I trust that, having demonstrated how you can find this information on Google in the previous paragraph, you are competent to do so yourself for information in this paragraph. Give it a go – it should be illuminating. Or you can contact me and we can work out hourly teaching rates for you to literally learn more on my dime.

Hi Gabrielle,
Yes, you’re correct, this is a quote from Stargate. I frequently utilize pop culture when teaching to make a point, and follow best editorial guidelines to not change quotes.

Thanks for the comment.

I agree re: body shaming, FWIW. However, I also saw the comments that people were referring to on other blogs, which is why I did allow the comments here. Context is often king-but a hard one to follow after the fact. (I’m not entirely sure how to mediate that within comments as a whole, though.)

Misogyny is real, extremely real. But come on body shaming? :/ You can’t be a feminist while you body shame.

I realise that this is a Stargate quote, but I’d like to remind you that not all women have their reproductive organs on the inside, and those who don’t still face misogyny.

In other words, trans women exist!

What exactly is the “blatant misogyny” in Koube’s letter? How is it considered “Men’s Rights language” to mention things that are true?

It seems as if you read his letter to say “women SHOULD stay home with their children” and “all women with children are unable to accomplish much, because child care takes up all of their time”.

But he didn’t say that. He called for equality – for papers to be published on merit, for there to be no discrimination or bias at all. Isn’t that a good thing?

Then he mentioned the fact that a higher percentage of women than men take significant time off from pursuing their career, for reasons of having and raising young children. Is this not the truth? Is this not one part of the reason why women are underrepresented?

And no one denied that other reasons that exist – the unfair bias of which Kelly provides proof of, the fact that boys are encouraged to enter scientific fields while girls are steered away, and so on.

I just don’t understand the outrage over Koube’s letter, and don’t see how Nature did anything wrong here. Please enlighten me.