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RIP John Glenn

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Akima:
I cannot forget that John Glenn threw the weight of his fame and heroic status decisively against the participation of women in the USA's space programme, even to the point of making a condescending sexist joke in his testimony before the House Space Committee. Of course he was not alone in his sexism, which was even more ubiquitous then than today, but it is the responsibility of our heroes to move us forward, not hold us back, so he was no hero to me.

"I think it gets back to the way our social order is organized really. It is just a fact. Men go off and fight the wars and fly the planes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order." And never mind the fact that women had demonstrated that they could quite competently build and fly aircraft throughout the Second World War.

"If we can find any women demonstrating better ability than the men going into this program, we will welcome them with open arms." <the committee room erupts with laughter> "For the purposes of my going home this afternoon, I hope that will be stricken from the record." Ha bloody ha...

pwhodges:

--- Quote from: Akima on 09 Dec 2016, 14:37 ---"If we can find any women demonstrating better ability than the men going into this program, we will welcome them with open arms."
--- End quote ---

And how will you find them if you keep the doors locked against them?  That question was not often asked back then, and is not asked every time it should be even now.

Sad; I didn't know about that aspect.

Akima:
For me, it is the business of heroes to swim against the current of injustice and oppression in their time, rather than use their position to reinforce it.

J:
and so does the perfect become the enemy of the good

doombilly:
1 of my earliest memories was watching Apollo 11 lift off from the Cape. I was almost 4.
I thought things would be different by the time I got to be this old.
And I guess they are.

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