The Space Station Whip

How inappropriate would it be for the title of an article to read, male space station commander receives whip to keep female crew in line? Yet there are numerous articles being run in the international media abut the first female commander of the space station to receive a whip. She received a traditional Kazakh whip from a Russian official.

While I understand that the whip was given as a joke, I find it far more interesting that the media chooses to focus on the whip when discussing the launch of US astronaut Peggy Whitson into this historic role. This is just another way to highlight how unusual it is for women to lead and the idea that the men may not be respectful of women in power.

Do men really want to be portrayed as people who have so little respect for a woman who is their commanding officer that she may require force for them to listen to her? I realize that this is logged under the ‘all just a good bit of fun’ category, but it is jokes like this and the pervasive way that they are repeated ad nauseam throughout the media that help to keep women viewed as ‘unusual’ leaders and those who would need help if we were to get there.