Word: spacemen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2010-2019
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...meant to weed out the less-than-flawless. Chinese astronauts cannot suffer from chronic sore throats or runny noses. They mustn't have food restrictions, strong regional accents, ringworm, cavities or scars. Bad breath, body odor and a snoring problem are all immediate disqualifiers. And if China's spacemen are expected to satisfy an unlikely string of qualifications, so too are its new spacewomen - with two notable additional criteria. China's first two female reserve astronauts, selected earlier this month from a pool of 15 female fighter pilots, were required to be wives and mothers...
...policy demonstrates the nation's ongoing commitment to curbing - not encouraging - population growth. Beijing, it seems, is not so much concerned with disrupting family planning - if it were, it might consider astronaut applications from women who are certain they do not want children or broaden the prerequisite to include spacemen - but with the image of the women it recruits to represent it on the galactic stage. In China, being a married mother is, arguably, as much a mark of excellence as sweet-smelling breath or a cavity-free dental X-ray. "Chinese culture defines women by their maternity," says...