Does this sexy bird have a misogynistic name?
You decide!
It’s got long, sexy legs, a made-up face, fluttery eyelashes, of course scientists named this bird after secretaries!
Is that sexist? You decide.
In our previous newsletter, we learnt how how some birds have classist names. Today, let’s learn about SEXIST names!
Picture this: you’re walking along the grasslands of the Sahara in Africa when you come across an absurdly tall and long-legged bird.
It sashays serenely and gracefully across the dry Saharan soil. It lifts its head up demurely, and flutters its long eyelashes at you. Such intoxicating beauty!
Balanced on top of her slender neck is a powdery-white face with orangey cheeks. Sturdy black feathers stick out from the back of its head and neck - reminiscent of quill pens, perhaps.
Standing up to 1.3m tall, Secretary Birds are black, white and grey birds that seem to walk on stiletto heels.
Secretary Birds are unique creatures that are found only in Africa, usually in the grasslands south of the Sahara.
The Secretary Bird’s English name is thought to come from the 1800s, when Europeans who made their way to Africa first spotted these birds.
Back then, secretaries wore gray tailcoats and dark knee-length pants. They also used goose-quill pens that they carried behind their ears. This long-legged bird shares many of these same physical features: long, dark quills at the back of the head; long, gray wing and tail feathers that resemble a tailcoat; and black feathers that go midway down the legs like short pants.
It's fun to imagine how the two "secretaries" compare!
But there’s nothing meek and docile about the Secretary Bird, which stomps snakes to death!
Back at the Savannah: you’re perving at this sexy bird. Slowly and sensually, it lifts up one long, slender leg, peeks at you through a heavily lashed eye… and STOMPS something on the ground to DEATH!!!!
The animal they love stomping to death? Venomous snakes!
Secretary Birds hunt and eat snakes! They’re known to eat snakes, including several poisonous species, such as puff adders and cobras, and other reptiles, such as lizards and small tortoises.
One of the reasons these birds are so unique is the fact that they are land-based hunters. Unlike many other birds of prey, like falcons, Secretary Birds do not catch their prey in mid-air. Instead, they sashay along the ground with their long slender legs until they find suitable prey, and then stomp said prey to death.
And although secretary birds can fly, they prefer to stay on the ground! More snakes there, I guess.
These birds’ legs have evolved to have thick scales that protect them from snakebites. The strength of their kick has been measured at 195 Newtons, which is apparently a lot, considering these birds weigh only around 3kg. (That’s not a typo. These birds really weight that little!)
195 Newtons is equivalent to over 5 times their own body weight in strength.
The Newton is defined as Mass x Acceleration = Force. I don’t know too much about this equation (I write about birds and not Math, after all…) but 195 Newtons is apparently a lot for such a lightweight bird.
Another sexy secretary for us to study!
Although she’s not a bird, I wanted to write about one of the secretary tropes in media I grew up watching - Sara Bellum, aka the mayor’s faceless secretary in the Powerpuff Girls.
Ms. Bellum was always depicted as a super voluptuous woman in the show, but her face was almost never shown!
Ever wondered why?
If you answered with ‘sexism’, I’d say you’re right on the money.
Some fans speculate that her face was always cut off because creators wanted us to see her from the mayor's perspective - who only cared for her body - even though she was the brains in the office, and sometimes even saved the day!
Anyhow, apparently the character for Ms. Bellum was removed in the recent 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls.
About the decision to phase Ms. Bellum out of the show, Executive Producer Nick Jennings told the Los Angeles Times that, “We felt like Ms. Bellum wasn’t quite indicative of the kind of messaging we wanted to be giving out at this time, so we sort of had her move on. And that was a good choice I think on our part.”
I’m glad times have changed!
Anyway, what do you think? Is the name Secretary Bird - seeing as the birds were named for their physical resemblance to made-up secretaries - sexist? And do you think the mayor in Powerpuff Girls was lowkey misogynistic towards Ms. Bellum? Are you glad that her character’s been phased out of the Powerpuff Girls reboot so the next generation of kids won’t have to grow up watching a faceless, sexy body be the brains of the operation but not get any recognition?
Or, let me know in the comments!