New in PJ Media:
Who needs the Babylon Bee when we have the Washington Post? Could the Bee, as brilliant as it is, give us a more precise and devastating takedown of woke victimhood mongering than the Bezos Bulletin gave us on Monday, in a story that is actually and unironically entitled “‘Shark Week’ lacks diversity, overrepresents men named Mike, scientists say”?
If I had seen that at the Babylon Bee, I’d have chuckled and maybe thought it was a trifle over the top. But the Post, in all its self-important “Democracy Dies In Darkness” glory, would be quick to brand you a racist right-wing extremist if you dared to crack a smile.
And really, it’s true, when you think about it. You’ve heard of Great White Sharks, but when was the last time you heard anything about a Great Black Shark? A Great Hammerhead Shark? And Shark Week itself demonstrates an inexcusable lack of diversity. Why not Dolphin Week? Squid Week? Blobfish Week? Gaia’s watery depths are wonderfully diverse, and all we get on Discovery is sharks?
Of course, the lack of diversity the Post hasn’t mind isn’t about which of the creatures of the sea get a star turn on reality TV, but about the inexcusable maleness, whiteness, and yes, Mikeness of those who bring us the shark stories. The Post’s article began with a tale of victimhood that is even more ridiculous than these stories usually are. Cue the violins: “Lisa Whitenack loved sharks as a kid. She spent rainy days leafing through a guide to sharks in Reader’s Digest. Every summer, she would watch ‘Shark Week,’ Discovery’s annual TV event that spotlights the ocean predator with seven days of dedicated programming.” What could possibly interfere with this idyllic picture of avid intellectual curiosity? Men, of course: “But when the scientists appeared on her TV screen, she rarely saw any women she could look up to.”
Whitenack (er, that name sounds just a little bit racist) then explains: “Why would I know I could do that? I don’t come from a family of scientists. I didn’t see very many people that looked like me on television.” Lisa Whitenack was right: if she was deterred from becoming a scientist because she didn’t see any scientists who looked like her on TV, then she was too stupid to become a scientist in the first place and would have been better off restricting herself to “Welcome to Wendy’s, may I take your order, please?” After all, Wendy is female, so Whitenack could have been secure in knowing that people who looked like her could do the job.
Evidently, however, Whitenack somehow overcame the obstacle of her non-representation among TV scientists and became one anyway: the Post tells us that she is “now a biology professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.” and, you’ll be happy to know, “found her way into shark research anyway.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Alkflaeda says
When I think of sharks, I wish a few salmon sharks would find their way into the English Channel – now there are some migrants I’d welcome…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, just use the channel as a moat and fill it w/ sharks. That should cut down on the Albanians – and all other illegals – who try to get to Britain on rafts. In fact, the only thing limiting the invasion right now is the cold weather there
Alkflaeda says
As the song says, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…”. Though NB on the subject of sharks, a Royal Navy submarine with a shark’s fin atop it wouldn’t come amiss….
bill carr says
Sorry to burst your bubble but sharks kill very few people, the movies not withstanding . Only a handful a year or more likely a mouthful. By contrast humans kill them by the millions, the majority of them quite harmless as well. In fact they are most important as nature’s cleaners, being called the garbage collectors of the worlds oceans.
Worse yet they breed slowly, close to the same gestation rate as humans. So every pregnant shark killed is a great loss to the population.
Alkflaeda says
Yes, but we can still trade on their reputation….
mg says
Wendy will have to learn…’Will you like a beverage with your meal’
Peavey says
The Great White Shark would now like to be called the average caucasian shark
Alkflaeda says
Brilliant