be brave.

it's true. I am a feminist and many have called me a bitch.

I was also a NASA intern. I fucking love NASA, but their fuckups are legion.

The thing is tho, the landers are being created by Blue Origin and uh

That they don't understand

That the point

Is not

Hey those men aren't qualified

They are and we're oh so happy for them!!!

The point is

That

This system

Repeatedly

Stands on the backs of women

But SOMEHOW

Always struggle

To put them on the face of things

WHAT ABOUT THIS IS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND

My thoughts on the Artemis III announcement

i had been looking forward to this so much.

obviously, i had my expectations (and hopes) about who would become the next Artemis astronaut. but i had made a deal with myself that no matter who the woman was, i would be excited for her.

i had even convinced myself that maybe i’d get lucky and see two women take on a role on Artemis III

with so many incredibly qualified women in the astronaut corps, i wasn’t really in doubt that whoever got selected would be the right person for the job.

honestly? it never crossed my mind that there wouldn’t be a woman on Artemis III.

and when they only had the commander left to announce, i was convinced it would be a woman.

it wasn’t. out of the five people introduced, every single one was a man.

not all of them were white men. but they were men nonetheless. and that surprised me more than i expected.

christina koch had started a wave. a wave of joy. a wave of pride. we all saw, a woman thrive in a male dominated field. 

and for a moment, her presence made it feel like the future had cracked open. and then it didn’t.

i’ve heard a lot of different numbers thrown around, but they all seem to land somewhere around 40.

around 40% of NASA’s active astronauts are women. so i find myself wondering how not a single woman was qualified enough to be considered for one of these positions.

but i do wonder. i wonder why, when there are so many qualified women in the astronaut corps, we once again ended up with an all-male moon-crew.

because here’s the thing:

i hate when conversations like this immediately get reduced to “well, surely they just picked the most qualified people.”

that isn’t me claiming NASA picked bad candidates. it isn’t me saying these astronauts don’t deserve their seats.

what i am saying is that a 100% male crew feels statistically improbable when women make up such a significant portion of the astronaut corps.

if the process was entirely gender-neutral, you would expect women to show up in these prestigious roles too.

and before someone says i’m projecting politics onto space:

my love for space isn’t dependent on whether a woman gets there first.

the universe itself is genderless.

assigning a gender to the cosmos would be kind of ridiculous.

but when i watch my opportunities become smaller because i’m a woman, then gender suddenly becomes relevant.

not because i made it relevant.

because it already was.

i wish i could convince myself that the people selected were simply the most qualified.

i really do. but i can’t. and honestly?

there’s probably something inside me that never will.

because if they can convince us that a decision was made purely on qualifications — even if it wasn’t — then they’ve won.

and women’s rights have always been built on angry women.

if we want equality, women have to allow ourselves to be angry.

so i remain angry.

not at the five undoubtedly brilliant men who get the opportunity to fly Artemis III.

but at the system that made sure one of those seats didn’t go to a woman.

because of course i hope the selected astronauts have an incredible mission.

but there’s still a woman missing.

As if science has never been in the hands of the oppressor before, as if it is not steeped in the very structures that have systematically erased women.

I don’t think I want to be a good dog anymore…

unknown / Wikipedia / Heated Rivalry / Arcade Fire / Brennig Davies / Olesya Turkina

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

And not having a woman up there matters. Artemis II was a success across the world not simply because of the exciting advancements in science. Science has advanced for centuries, but not always very kindly - not with everyone, not for everyone. A cliche but representation does matter. Women have always worked behind the scenes and we're only now recognising this - and so it matters to see them on the face of the mission. It matters to see as much of humanity represented when the mission is for all of humanity.