Sexism and NASA

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As I am flicking through my university reader, studying each sentence carefully as though each letter contains microscopic meanings that I could miss out on if I do not read with the utmost care and attention, I have come across an irritating example of feminism and sexism, all to do with a mere plaque on a rocket.

In the 1970's, NASA had released Pioneer 10 into space, and on its side, a plaque depicting a man and a woman, in hopes that if extraterrestrial life, if there exists any, would see it and know where to go to find our form of life. The plaque is interesting. It's quite simplistic, showing only a few symbols to depict varied things that are of meaning to NASA and collectively, the human race, in terms of extraterrestrial encounters - the image on the very top-left of the picture is a representation of hydrogen, and would be used by the viewer of this plaque to measure the other symbols. The star-like figure below it is the relative position of the sun to the centre of the galaxy and the 14 pulsars, used for the triangulation of the plaque's location of origin. The solar system is shown beneath that, a line implying the trajectory of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. And behind the waving human and his friend, the spacecraft itself in comparison to the humans' sizes.

Everything depicted on the plaque above are rather scientific, and have to do with location and direct information about our Earth and our location in comparison to the rest of the galaxy. However, one thing that apparently stands out in cultural studies is that fact that Linda Salzman Sagan, with the guidance of Eric Burgess and Carl Sagan, had drawn a male, larger in size which is usually biologically accurate, than the female, who is standing beside him and not waving. Controversy erupted because of the lack of physical hair, because the female is standing not waving while the male stands tall, despite its physical accuracy in that males are generally larger than females, and both figures are apparently 'presented with modern Western ideals of physical health and attractiveness'.

First of all, two obese people would take up too much room - I can say this safely because I am overweight, and I am not judging, I am being quite factual. Secondly, NASA did not have the advertising of attractive human beings in mind when they did this, they simply wanted a general representation of life forms located on the planet - this is a man, he is more built because of additional muscles and has a snake-looking thing for reproductive use. He is waving, he is being accepting of you no mater your three supposed long fingers and strangely shaped heads, and he stands beside a female, a slightly shorter version of the male, wide hips and a snake-wallet, let your imagination guide you, so that she may comfortably bear the child made with the man, assuming that they are a couple.

Had NASA placed varied ethnicities on the plaque, they would have again lacked room. Had they placed facial and other bodily hairs, they would have needed to explain why the obese bearded man on the plaque does not look like men found in Paris where the extraterrestrial beings had hypothetically landed for the sake of this explanation. NASA simply depicted two humans, two sexes, in their most simple state, showing the average depiction. This is a human, these are healthy humans and they are accepting you in our universe, though here on Earth we have varied looking versions of them, who mostly are equally as accepting of you.

The paper then goes on to say that 'in addition, the two figures are represented through culturally specific notions of gender and sexuality, implicitly constituting a monogamous heterosexual couple'. Well, had they placed two males or two females the extraterrestrial beings would have come down to earth expecting one gender and being shocked at another - what are those sagged things under that thing's head? Why is that thing louder than the other thing? There are two types of things? Within its cultural context, this plaque has nothing wrong with it. Had it had written a message along the lines of 'this is man, man says hello and man beats on woman because woman is nothing to man but sex object' then by all means, I would concur in the wrongness of this plaque. However, I stand by my opinion that at the time it was made, it was a suitable plaque made for simplistic reasons of early potential communication with minimal confusion - and honestly, I am relieved that I look nothing like the female's physical appearance on the plaque - when aliens do visit, they would look for Nicole Kidman and not me.

Which brings me to my next point - the physical appearance of the beings should not matter because in this case, NASA is trying to communicate the biological appearance. The penis, the vagina, the breasts, the approximate size is all an extraterrestrial being will use to identify us. They will not stand there and deny humans the right for equal marriage, that is for some politicians to do. They will instead be able to use the plaque as a guideline as to what to expect, and what to expect nine months later after they try to possibly fornicate with us and create hybrid plaque-extraterrestrial beings. In which case, Nicole Kidman would be a mother to an alien and I would have the privilege of never fornicating with such a strange being. 

Yes, some television shows depict sexism because of cultural constructs, I believe that they are to be studied critically, not a plaque from the 1970s whose aim is to ideally communicate to extraterrestrial beings that they are to speak to Adam Brody and Nicole Kidman upon finding our planet.