The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica.

But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.

    • ComputerSagtNein@lemm.ee
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      Only possible if you do an all female mission imo.

      All male mission -> they kill each other

      Mixed mission -> they kill the women and probably themselves after

      Edit: Lmao lots of insecure men around here.

          • babeuh@lemmy.world
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            I found this study about the differences (but it’s from 2014, please tell me if you find a more recent one) The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Executive Summary.

            TL;DR female astronauts have, according to the study:

            • a higher risk of cancer (a 45-year-old man has a 344-day limit in space to be safe versus a 187-day limit for a 45-year-old woman)
            • more orthostatic intolerance
            • more UTIs (which makes sense as women on earth are also more likely to have UTIs)
            • less vision impairment compared to male astronauts (no clinically significant cases of VIIP syndrome)
            • less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general like on Earth)


            Keep in mind that this data is not the best because only around 20% of people that had been on the ISS at the time were women and because male astronauts are more likely to come from a military background.

            • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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              less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general as well)

              Did the study mention why the left ear was more of a problem?

              • babeuh@lemmy.world
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                No, here is the relevant paragraph:

                Hearing sensitivity, when measured at most frequencies, declines much more rapidly in male astronauts than it does in female astronauts. These LSAH derived data represent a wide age range of subjects (i.e., four decades) and show a more rapid decline in hearing in the left ear, for men only. Within the general population, hearing also declines more rapidly in men than in women, due in part to environmental factors or occupational exposure (e.g., construction or factory work). No evidence suggests that the sex-based hearing differences in the astronaut population are related to microgravity exposure, and the small sample size of female astronauts precludes making any definitive conclusions.

                • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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                  Thanks. It’s so weird that it affects the left ear of men more. Love to know what makes the left ear more susceptible to damage than the right.

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    Buckingham was hired by PAE. Amentum didn’t respond to questions from the AP. Leidos Senior Vice President Melissa Lee Dueñas said it conducts background checks on all its employees.

    “Our stance on sexual harassment or assault couldn’t be more clear: we have zero tolerance for such behavior,” Dueñas said in an email. “Each case is thoroughly investigated.”

    Translates to 1) We thoroughly investigate and hire sexual predators and 2) We say this b.s. to protect our jobs, actually we have zero tolerance for those who complain about sexual harassment.

    The report made it clear that those in charge enable sexual predators.

  • Ace0fBlades@lemmy.world
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    Makes you wonder what challenges women will face in future space exploration missions. Long periods of isolation with groups of coworkers with very little personal space. Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock (It’'ll probably happen who am I kidding)

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      Not like a belligerent party can be ejected out the airlock

      a m o g u s

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      there’s no doubt that sexual predation would be a big issue and that women would be the first victims of any violence, but it’s just part of the greater concern over authority in such a small society… who is in charge, how are rules enforced and misbehavior punished… i’m not optimistic that a Mars outpost would be able to survive its own judicial system, for example… or any of the prepper compounds… they’re sort of all guaranteed to descend into really barbaric circumstances socially…

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        or any of the prepper compounds

        You wouldn’t want to be stuck for a long time in a society made up exclusively of people with severe anxiety and personal issues who reject society? I can’t imagine why.

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          i’m pretty sure they’re all guaranteed nightmare scenarios… i think people build them just for the drama… so they’re all drama queens on top of it…

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        Not any violence. Men are the vast majority of murder and assault victims in the West, I don’t have data for undeveloped countries. Makes sense when you realize we all had “you never hit a woman” beaten into us. Even criminals would rather harm a man than a woman.

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      Future missions should be all-women teams. Problem solved.

      Women eat less, use less oxygen, and weigh less than men. There’s actually no logical reason to send male astronauts anywhere.

      Edit: lol @ the downvotes with zero responses

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
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        Nah that’s misandrist bullshit. We’ve done plenty of all-male space missions and they had no issues.

      • babeuh@lemmy.world
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        There are reasons to do that, women and men react differently to long-term microgravity.

        I found this study about the differences (but it’s from 2014, please tell me if you find a more recent one) The Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Executive Summary.

        TL;DR female astronauts have, according to the study:

        • a higher risk of cancer (a 45-year-old man has a 344-day limit in space versus a 187-day limit for a 45-year-old woman)
        • more orthostatic intolerance
        • more UTIs (which makes sense as women on earth are also more likely to have UTIs)
        • less vision impairment compared to male astronauts (no clinically significant cases of VIIP syndrome)
        • less hearing problems (men show a more rapid decline in the left ear and in general as well, but this is the case on Earth too)


        Keep in mind that this data is not the best because only around 20% of people that had been on the ISS at the time of the study were women and because male astronauts are more likely to come from a military background.

        I personally think this means we should send an equal amount of both sexes (maybe more women as it would help get more data on the differences). Sending all-men or all-women missions sadly won’t fully solve the problem as sexual assault isn’t always between men and women, that said, it is less common so it’s not a bad idea.

        Anyways, more investigation is required. If you find a newer/better study please tell me (or if something I wrote is inaccurate), I don’t want to spread misinformation

      • Syrc@lemmy.world
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        Sure, weight is definitely a more important factor than idk, reaction ability in danger situations or physical resistance to unfriendly environments.

        • Sorrowl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          Yes, it is. On a long mission, even a few kg can have big differences in fuel consumption. Also the mean difference of reaction times between men and women is around 20-30ms, which is miniscule. Idk about the differences in resistance to space, but I highly doubt that men are significantly more resistant than women.

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            Why is 20-30ms “miniscule”, but “a few kgs” compared to the weight of a fucking spacecraft isn’t?

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            I would assume a manned mission would have larger tolerances due to the unpredictability of humans and to ensure their safety

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            I’m not saying men are better than women in those aspects. I’m saying a very limited amount of people, both men and women, have the physical and mental fortitude to withstand a space mission, and there is virtually never going to be a situation where two people have the exact same qualifications and weight has to be the “tiebreaker”. It’s pretty much a non-factor.

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      I have a feeling people picked for those types of missions will be vetted harder than “Hey, want to see some snow”

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      Just FYI that username may get you some hostility. It’s far too close to Ace of Bass which is a band from the 90s that were neo-nazis. The Base of Aces was a Nazi submarine base in WW2. I’m not assuming anything here, the lead singer and guitarist both confirmed separately that was what their band name was referring to, just before they lost all their fans.

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    I had a female friend/coworker that had previously served in the Navy, on a carrier as a communications specialist. She told stories of endless harassment. She said ultimately some of the women crafted partnerships with other female sailors and convinced everyone they were lesbians in order to just survive the job. It meant they had to spend lots of time together and play the part. She also said they had to work the jealousy angle because nobody wanted to be attacked by an angry lesbian girlfriend.

    The male sailors assumed a lot of the women were lesbians because of the masculine nature of the work, or, as she put it, because they couldn’t believe the women weren’t attracted to them. It turned out if you gave them a plausible explanation you could fake your way through it. Without a plausible explanation, they could become resentful and dangerous. I asked if claiming to be married and/or have kids would work, she said it wasn’t as effective and you ultimately needed female allies anyway. She also said that actual lesbians would pretend to “date” hetero women in order to protect them. She kind of described it as leveraging the power of rumors.

    I told her it sounded a lot like what happens in prison. She said in some ways, it was a prison.

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    One of them carried a hammer held by her bra. Wild. The person in charge of this place should be facing criminal charges.

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      That’s just stupid, they have ice climbing picks that would hang far more comfortably from a belt. And be easier to reach when needed.

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    Yeah, as a woman, I’d be real hesitant about taking a job out there, or any place thats more wild-west in nature (very few people and very lax regulation of any laws) and I’d sure as hell take gun tactical training before going, and always have a firearm on me.

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    Being alone in the middle of a literal ice desert with a lot of male nerds so socially awkward that they rather be in the middle of an ice desert sounds like an absolute disaster.

    • SevFTW@feddit.de
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      “Men will be men” just excuses the behaviour and ostracizes men who don’t do these things. It has less to do with their sex and more to do with how we raise men.

      Toxic masculinity as a defence mechanism of patriarchal society is the main problem and “feminine”, “emotional” or “weak” men, or those not subscribing to heteronormative sexuality are targeted by the same types to uphold their status.

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        Yup. It boils down to power imbalances that are systemic in a world where men still control almost everything.

        I had always hoped we’d move past this but it seems we may not get the chance now (with climate change raging around us).

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            Ofc it’s not all men, but it’s enough men that make everyone’s lives harder. So instead of arguing “not all” maybe focus on the some that are the cause of the problem.

            • Nate Cox@programming.dev
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              I feel like the primary complaint here is that the parent commenters very much want to focus on the some that are the cause of the problem, rather than simply stating that men are problematic.

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                Yup. If men as a group policed their own there would be a change. But as it stands they don’t seem to want to do that all the time because it’s easier to just let the bad ones slide through.

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                  What’s there to police? It’s not like most aggressors are openly grabbing people in their genitals for all to see. These people know that they are wrong and so they hide it. What am I, as a man against this behaviour, supposed to do about other men?

                • CorruptBuddha@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  If men as a group policed their own there would be a change.

                  This is actually a great idea! To make things simple perhaps we can give these policing men like… some form of identification, like a badge or a uniform so people know who to trust. This is the game changer we needed.

      • Nythos@sh.itjust.works
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        Men will be men is for where men do stupid shit like attach a motor to a merry-go-round and see who can sit on it for the longest or dig holes at the beach because hole.

        It’s sad and sickening to see it be used to try and excuse sexual harassment and assault.

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        are targeted by the same types to uphold their status.

        Or sometimes targeted by their mothers. At least this happened to me. I had one long fingernail(on middle finger, you guessed why) and my mother complauned about it almost every day to the point where she came to dad and complained to him. He said “why do you even care?”, but she continued anyway saying “this is not how men do”.

        This happened in post-Soviet society where average family with children is mother+grandmother, so it has nothing to do with “patriarchality” of society. I think it is just manifestation of much broader problems: virtual majority and I can’t translate it, but basicaly “you should do it this way because I said so”.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
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      Bro. I’m a man. I have hormones. I also know how to control them.

      “Men will be men” is an unfair generalization.

    • xuxebiko@kbin.social
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      men will apparently just be men.

      this thinking removes the sexual harasser’s & rapist’s responsibility for their crimes and moves it to their gender/DNA.

      When criminal conduct is enabled, crime will escalate.

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          Yes! It absolves men of their responsibility to make their society/community safe and it ensures that if they become a problem then other men will not stop them.