Well, one of the male-dominated areas not covered in SSAG is that of committing felonies, though I suppose there is an element of crime of passion here. According to the Associated Press, today a female astronaut was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. Lisa Nowak, who flew on the space shuttle last July, drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront another woman who she considered a rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
Not something to celebrate—it looks like the woman let her imagination get ahead of her on a work crush, perhaps—but I have to admit finding an element of dark humor in this little geeky detail:
When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit. Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn’t have to stop to urinate, authorities said.
Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.
Hey, better thugging through science! Committing a crime is just so much geekier when you do it using space-age materials!
I was thinking about this story this morning. In an absolute sense, pretty horrifying. Plus it will lend more ‘evidence’ towards this nonsense about women being too emotional.
That being said, from the female scientist perspective, maybe we just need an image makeover. Like, if patronizing male scientists thought of us not as those feeble creatures who want to put doilies on their lab equipment, but as badasses who can drive 900 miles non-stop to murder them in an airport parking lot in the middle of the night, maybe we’d start getting some cooperation.
Yeah, time for us female geeks to bust some skulls to get equivalent lab space and equal respect for equal publication records!
And I agree about fearing how this will probably be considered as further evidence that “women are too emotional.” But as you and I both know, it is nonsense. There are tons of guys in prisons who committed murder out of passion, for one. And for another reason that a greater problem with criminals is not enough emotion–specifically, empathy. That’s where you get your serial killers and long-term kidnappers, who are just about all men. Aileen Wuornos was a notable exception exception to the rule.
But old gender roles die hard….
Random but weird coincidence: I actually met Capt. Shipman, the victim, at a baby shower a couple years ago. I liked her. I can’t imagine, under any circumstances, driving cross-country to attack her with pepper spray.