Byte Me #2: On genderless Siri, shitty NASA, and clitoris games

Welcome back to Byte Me, our newsletter…

And whoever else wants to read it.

Today, we talk about genderless voice assistants, NASA being shit, and what the fuck happened during the Byte Me launch.

the bloody news

• Physicist Dr. Jess Wade has written over 500 biographies of women scientists on Wikipedia.

• The Guardian reported the founder and all-female editorial board of the Vatican’s women’s magazine all quit. They claim they were discredited by the Church for denouncing the abuse of nuns.
• The Cut interviewed Jessica Knoll on how to be a writer and still get really, really rich. As journalists, we’re allllll ears…
• VICE looked back at the cult comedy sketch show Smack the Pony: “It allowed women to be awful.”

• Broadly wrote about the empty promises of male birth control.
• Dr. Amina Wadud, the first American woman Imam, explains the rise of Islamic feminism to Broadly. 

• The Independent looked at how Fleabag changed the way women in comedy talk.
• For, ahem, those who need it: Learn where the clitoris is in 5 minutes with this free mobile game.

• Men: Here’s how you can be better allies to women online, from Mashable.
• This interactive story from The New York Times looks at the stereotypes films teach us about women.
• The world’s first genderless voice assistant is challenging gender stereotypes.
• Vulture interviewed the inimitable Catherine O’Hara.
• Quartz reported how a 60 Minutes story about gender equality in STEM accidentally proved the persistence of patriarchy. 
• NASA didn’t have enough spacesuits for the first all-women spacewalk — so they canceled it. 
• The Lessons in Herstory app uses AR to rectify women’s place in history books.

• The gender editor of The New York Times “womansplains” the gender pay gap. This tool analyzes your Twitter for subconscious gender bias. Use it to shame your male colleagues, like we did.
• Women can’t be doctors because their boobs get in the way.

Hey @Barclaycard – it’s 2019! How come I can’t be both female and a doctor?! #everydaysexism #everydaymisogyny pic.twitter.com/MJ5rqR17DP

— Nikki (@_hurricanenikki) March 17, 2019

• them.us published a touching tribute to legendary queer activist, Sylvia Rivera. She was part of the historic Stonewall riot in 1969: “I have been given the credit for throwing the first Molotov cocktail by many historians, but I always like to correct it… I threw the second one. I did not throw the first one!”
• The world’s first “consent condom” requires four hands to open the package.
• Twitter is just the best, isn’t it?

ive had a lot of good things happen to me on this website but a man digging up my wedding picture to prove i’m not seven and a half feet tall is by far the best pic.twitter.com/SlD6TIg7Px

— amy brown (@arb) April 3, 2019

• Meet Greta Thunberg, the scarily mature 15-year-old Swedish girl behind March’s climate change protest that saw kids skipping school worldwide. The Guardian interviewed her a couple weeks back.
• We’re working on an editorial series about if and how technology can protect people from sexual assault called Code Word. Check out this exploration into how sexual violence is irresponsibly portrayed in video games.
• To end with the most important thing that happened this month…

HOW do i feel about $300 denim panties, you ask? well i’ll tell you how i feel. utterly and thoroughly chafed pic.twitter.com/YYQ9v5dZ6b

— Safiya Nygaard (@safiyajn) March 29, 2019

that’s what she said: what is Byte Me?

Because we’re all magical and unique snowflakes who don’t always agree on feminist issues — and subsequently feel like we’re “bad” women — we’re going to discuss something we found online in each newsletter.

For this month’s that’s what she said, we discussed the criticism of Byte Me, and what we want this newsletter to be. It’s a bit self-involved, but it’s our newsletter and we do what we want.

Unfortunately, it’s too long to be copy-pasted in here (sorry, we’re women, and we all know women talk way too much), but you can read our discussion here.

the best and the worst 

In this section, we ask women much smarter than us about the best and worst piece of professional advice they’ve ever received. This month’s is from the author of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet and lead singer of YACHT, Claire Evans, who hosted a TNW Answers session with us last week.

Best? “A friend once told me, when I was hemming and hawing about a job opportunity, that only *you* can determine how much you are worth. I’m guilty of undervaluing myself in order to be accommodating — not asking for more money, saying yes to things I don’t really want to do — but ultimately I know that you don’t get what you don’t ask for in this world. Especially if you’re a woman.”

Worst? “I had a boyfriend in college who told me it was unrealistic to think I could ever make a living as a writer and advised me to get a more practical degree. On paper, he was probably right — it’s hard out there for journalists, especially freelancers — but even at 18, I knew that kind of attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

By the way! On April 10th, the President and COO of AnitaB.org are joining us to host a TNW Answers session! You can ask them ANYTHING on gender equality in tech, their project to create 50/50 parity by 2025, and how to handle gender gap deniers. Send in your questions now.

tweet of the month

Nearly Half Of Men Fatally Unable To Use Google https://t.co/pcTzUnQkXQ

— Kashana (@kashanacauley) April 2, 2019

word of the month

Technically not a word, but who cares. You’re not the boss of us. What does it mean?

Let’s Google it.

Ugh, you know it’s bad when Wiktionary gets involved. So Men Going Their Own Way.

Where are they going? Dunno, Bass Pro Shops? American Golf?

What do they look like? Probably like this guy:

Shaking hands with a woman is like shaking hands with a child. It seems artificial and vaguely patronizing. The handshake was designed as a greeting between men to show that your sword hand was empty.

— RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) April 1, 2019

We can do better than that. Let’s reclaim MGTOW.

MGTOW
Abbreviation, meaning:

1. Mean Girls Tearing Off Weiners
2. Misogynistic Guys Therapeutically Owning Woodsheds
3. Moistening Giant Tampons On Wednesdays

You’re welcome.

What do you think of Byte Me? Love it? Tell us. Hate it? Tell us — as female journalists we love hate mail.