Representation matters!
Who don’t love a little Shark Week, Caged in Fear, Science of Shark Sex (“It’s violent!”), Island of the Mega Shark and so on?
Tits and ass for lovers of nature’s freaks, essentially.
Every episode is dressed up in environmental bona fides while winking at its audience, we know you came for the splatterfest… now watch this bloodthirsty leviathan launch itself thirty feet in the air with a seal in its jaws! Oowee!
“At its best, Shark Week educates people about the most misunderstood animals on our planet while inspiring them to protect the ocean. At its worst, it perpetuates fear and misunderstanding,” huffs Wired’s David Shiffman.
Now, a new shot across the bow of the much-loved show with the revelation that “93.7 percent of experts were perceived by coders as white or white-passing”,
And,
“79 percent of hosts/experts use he/him/his pronouns in online biographies or during the show.”
Can you believe?
The matter was brought into relief recently by research scientist Dr David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) and Dr Linda Whitenack, a biology and geology professor.
Neither dig Shark Week.
https://twitter.com/WhySharksMatter/status/1418311745630781440
In a harrowing long-form piece for Scientific American, Catherine Macdonald writes,
Women of color in shark science must deal with the intersecting effects of sexism and racism. Amani Webber-Schultz, a co-founder of MISS, shared that she chooses whom to work with carefully because, in the face of potentially violent racist threats, “I need to feel that whoever I am working for or with will have my back and stand up for me in situations where it is not safe for me to stand up for myself.” Alongside physical dangers exacerbated by race, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age and level of power, overwhelmingly white and male scientific spaces send unwelcoming signals to students about who “belongs” and who is likely to be given the chance to succeed in shark science.
All shocking and important, are you an ally or are you complicit etc.
Don’t say that to a “journalist” on Twitter or you get suspended.
I, of course, got suspended for a much bolder statement when I called John Kerry a retard.
Watch out for the circling shark scientist
Newsome IS the shark!
What a shit name for a baseball team the Cleveland Guardians. They renamed a high school here that was called Drake. Check this out.
https://www.google.com/url?…
What ethnicity are the two white guys with dreads? I know one is a kiwi and I can barely comprehend his English so does that count as “white passing” or not?
How does one become a “coder?”
Are you the person in the room that can scream “Look! Another Whitey!” the fastest and loudest?
I mean…I can do that as long as the money is good.
A Geologist named Whitenack criticising the lack of gender diversity in shark science.
Stay in your lane before I send Sheldon in!
I wonder if that was male, or female pubic hair in the last picture.
Further proof the world has gone crazy.
P.S.
In actual wave riding related matters…
…does anyone have any idea when the Olympic surfing is on ?…
When BG does an article on it!?
They’re live streaming it on the NBC Olympics website. I guess they’re going to pick the best days from Saturday until Aug 1st.
This is why you shouldn’t trust scientists.
and men, pigs
Sharks.
Male white sharks must be the most unpopular creatures of the sea.
Male surfers are the worst.
How many people of Asian descent reporting though? Hmmmmmmm……fins taste good and give me a boner, may explain why.
Also, at a guess I lay London to a brick that 99.9 percent of shark attacks are on plain old white bread whities.
This should all be covered in Shart Weak.
Beam me up, I’m done with this shithole planet.
Males Intent on Killing Everything
Are you saying most whites are males called Mike? And are we talking sharks?
Mike or Bruce.
His name is Caitlyn.
Also the show gives a platform to the highly privileged and predatory white shark, to the detriment of minority sharks like the cookie cutter
Isn’t describing something as “cookie cutter” like saying “A4”?