Sex/Gender « Tikkunista!

7. Women, Men, and Equality

May-18-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: François Hollande, France’s new socialist president has equal numbers of men and women in his new cabinet. Two book reviews look at books that explore how rare this equality is, and one reaches more optimistic conclusions than the other. And obeying the laws may be hazardous to your safety… which is why women cyclists are disproportionately likely to be killed.

* The War of the Sexes by Paul Seabright review The Guardian

What has capitalism ever done for women? Not much, you might think. Half the top companies in Britain still have all-male boards, 19 chief executives out of 20 are men, and so are two managers out of three. Women are good at flying planes, but 99% of pilots are men. Women with equal qualifications have to work six hours to get what a man will earn in five, and still they run a much greater risk of losing their jobs. Unfair or what?

… Seabright is no neuromaniac: our outdated emotions are facts we need to live with rather than laws we have to obey. We sexual gods and domestic goddesses are not automata driven by basic instincts, but dupes of the obsolete publicity machines in our heads. When men try to big up their stamina, or women make a display of conscientious self-sacrifice, they are falling into a “signalling trap” that they could avoid if they wanted to. And employers with a bit of imagination need not be taken in either. They can train themselves to see that the hero of labour who makes a point of working long hours is really engaged in a form of wasteful display, the human equivalent of a peacock’s tail, and that the reticent woman need not care any less about her work because of her childcare obligations. And they might well find that male employees would be more productive if they could be induced to take career breaks at least as often as women. Employers who fall for the signalling trap are not only doing women an injustice, but missing a commercial opportunity as well. All we need do, if we are worried about sexual inequality, is give capitalism a chance.

* ‘The Richer Sex,’ on contemporary women, by Liza Mundy Book review The Washington Post

Are women about to replace men as the high-achieving sex? Women now earn the majority of academic degrees conferred in the United States. Their real wages have risen steadily over the past three decades, while men’s have stagnated. Today, wives in dual-earner families contribute, on average, 47 percent of family earnings. In 2009, nearly 38 percent of employed wives outearned their husbands.

Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy argues that “the Big Flip” in gender roles “is just around the corner.” Soon, she says, “women, not men, will become the top earners in households,” transforming the dynamics of male-female relationships. Mundy deftly summarizes the remarkably rapid expansion of women’s economic and educational achievements over the past 40 years, demonstrating that women’s empowerment is an international phenomenon.

* Women Cyclists Are More Likely To Be Killed In Traffic Because They Obey Traffic Rules More Rudi.net

Women cyclists are far more likely to be killed by a lorry because, unlike men, they tend to obey red lights and wait at junctions in the driver’s blind spot, according to a study. The TfL study has not been published – a move that has angered many campaigners. The report by Transport for London’s road safety unit was completed last July but has been kept secret. It suggests that some cyclists who break the law by jumping red lights may be safer and that cycle feeder lanes may make the problem worse.

The study claims that 86 per cent of the women cyclists killed in London between 1999 and 2004 collided with a lorry. By contrast, lorries were involved in 47 per cent of deaths of male cyclists. The findings help to explain why the growing popularity of cycling by city commuters is resulting in frequent deaths of young women in similar circumstances.

4. Challenging Islamic Stereotypes

Apr-07-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: The bird often casts its beady eye on the way the world of Islam is portrayed in local media. Here are some stories that show a more nuanced world than you might have heard about.

* Islamic Scholars Conclude Homosexuality Is Natural And Created By God, Thus Permissible Jakarta Post

Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday. Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran’s al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.

“There is no difference between lesbians and nonlesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety,” she told the discussion organized by nongovernmental organization Arus Pelangi. “And talking about piety is God’s prerogative to judge,” she added. “The essence of the religion (Islam) is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them.”

* Iranians respond to Israeli Facebook initiative: Israel, we <3 you too Haaretz

The ‘Israel loves Iran’ Facebook campaign has begun to receive numerous responses from Iranians, who stared responding to the Israeli initiative that calls on people to announce their love for the Iranians by posting pictures on Facebook.

Up to Saturday night, graphic artists Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir, who began the campaign, were still trying to persuade Iranians to respond to the dozens of Israelis that put up posters of themselves with the words, “Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we [heart] you.” (TL:DR? See the toon here.)

* Despite shootings, extremist Islam waning in France Pauline Froissart AFP

Muslims in French suburbs remain vulnerable to extremist indoctrination but those lured into radicalism are an “ultra-minority” and the spread of jihadism is declining, experts say.

Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old suspected Al-Qaeda militant of Algerian descent was killed Thursday following a shootout with police, after being linked to seven murders in southwestern France in the last eight days. The former resident of a Toulouse suburb is believed to have been drawn into radicalism after joining a group of Salafists — an ultra-conservative brand of Islam — and travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“For several years, we have seen a decline in jihadism because of the strong pressure of the French and European security services.”

* The True Role of Muslim Women Romana Khan

Non-conformity to the western ideals of womanhood, was ensued by propaganda to project an image of helpless Muslim women to defame Islam. The West has always adopted a paternalistic attitude to justify the imposition of their own moral paradigm considered to be universal and applicable to all, without any due regard for cultural or religious diversity.

Moreover, the frame of reference used by the West to refer to the rights of Muslim women only focuses upon the veil, equating it with ignorance and subservience. She is judged by what she wears, not what she has to say or what she is capable of achieving. It seems ironic that the West seems to assume the role of a spokesperson for a Muslim woman, yet becomes deaf to what she has to say.

* Strengthening Muslim-Jewish Ties In The Face Of Evil JTA – Jewish & Israel News

Amid the wall-to-wall media coverage of the attacks and their aftermath, one piece of the story has received less attention: the inspiring manner in which Muslims and Jews in France have stood side by side in denouncing these heinous acts.

Thousands of Muslims and Jews reacted to the savage killings of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse and the earlier murders of three French soldiers, including two Muslims, by joining together in solidarity marches in communities throughout Paris.

4. Fighting for Women’s Rights

Mar-16-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: In a week when a proposed Arizona law would give employers the right to fire women who use birth control, it is becoming clear just how much women are targeted by the GOP. Fortunately, some people are fighting back. Second City’s “Reformed Whores” has a song for Rush Limbaugh; we have the story and links to this week’s Doonesbury, a scathing attack on Rick Perry’s new abortion laws that 50 papers (out of 1400) refused to run. And we end with Ohio Senator Nina Turner’s modest proposal to protect men just as well as women are.

* Reformed Whores’ Response to Rush Limbaugh Video – YouTube

Second City’s own ‘Reformed Whores’ duet is slutty and they know it! Of course being ‘slutty’ is much more prestigious now that Limbaugh has redefined the word, which was once an insulting pejorative. Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke and a female author this week, puzzling aloud, “What’s with these young, single, white over educated women?” You may safely read ‘Snobs’ & ‘elitists’ into his complaint too. We all know there is nothing worse than an ‘over-educated’ woman!

* Doonesbury Strip On Texas Abortion Law Dropped By Some US Newspapers The Guardian

Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau has defended his cartoon strip about abortion, which several US newspapers are refusing to run, saying he felt compelled to respond to the way Republicans across America are undermining women’s healthcare rights.

The strip, published on Monday and scheduled to run all week, has been rejected by several papers, while others said they were switching it from the comic section to the editorial page.

In an email exchange with the Guardian, Trudeau expressed dismay over the papers’ decision but was unrepentant, describing as “appalling” and “insane” Republican state moves on women’s healthcare.

* Doonesbury Strip

(Link is to Monday strip. Click “next” to see whole series. Click on strip to enlarge it.)

* Ohio Democrat Fights Back Dayton Daily News

Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way….A critic of efforts to restrict abortion and contraception for women, Turner says she is concerned about men’s reproductive health. Turner’s bill joins a trend of female lawmakers submitting bills regulating men’s health. Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the “Heartbeat bill,” they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health.

Feb. 24th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 8

Feb-24-2012 | Comments (0)

1. Followups

Bird’s Eye: Our women’s focus of a few weeks past somehow missed this classic 1960s ad. An absolute must-see. Scientists in Canada protest their muzzle gags, and RSA tries a new and lovely approach to animating, this time on some classic Michael Pollan food rules.

* How To Drug A Woman Into Doing Your Housework boingboing (click to enbigify)

* Scientists And Journalists Call On Harper To End Research Gag Order

Groups representing scientists and science writers sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday calling on his government to stop “muzzling” federal researchers. The release of the letter coincided with a panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference, which heard numerous examples of alleged government interference and reporters being denied timely access to scientists.

Such control is sinking morale among scientists and denying the public access to important information about climate, agriculture and the environment, the conference heard. “Why are we suppressing really good news to Canadians – that is, successful science being done in federal government labs?” asked Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria. “Why don’t we open it up? There’s nothing to be feared but success.”

* Michael Pollan’s Food Rules Animated in Stop-Motion Brain Pickings

The fine folks at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, known for their brilliant sketchnote animations of talks by prominent authors and scientists, recently launched a competition, inviting emerging filmmakers to bring RSA talks to life in fresh ways. This fantastic stop-motion entry by Marija Jacimovic and Benoit Detalle, which took more than three weeks to create, is based on Michael Pollan’s iconic Food Rules

5. Breasts: the Cutting Edge

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Cosmetic breast surgery has now been around for over 50 years, and the Guardian has a fine retrospective. Paired with this is The Scar Project, a remarkably powerful site honouring women who have survived breast cancer.

* Breast Implants: The First 50 Years The Guardian

The writer Jennifer Hayashi Danns, author of Stripped, also sees breast implants as an operation keenly related to materialism. Now 28, Danns worked in a lap-dancing club in her early 20s, where there was constant discussion of breast implants – it sounds like a much heightened version of everyday British pop culture, with our ubiquitous breast implant advertisements, bared breasts in newspapers and on magazine covers, women with breast implants filling the casts of reality TV shows, as well as easily available pornography. Danns felt confident about her body when she started at the club, but after eight months she had implants to increase from a C cup to a DD. She regrets the operation now, but at the time there was a feeling of “instant gratification” she says. “It wasn’t a question of profound, long-term happiness. It felt like getting a new car, or a new bag.”

…The aesthetic doesn’t seem to be about the functional breast at all. The implanted breast is obviously sexual, but has often lost some, if not all, sexual sensation. It represents fertility, but can interfere with breastfeeding. Kimball sees it as an image of health, which is also often the case for women who have had mastectomies, whose breast implants allow them to look in the mirror without seeing their surgical scars, without being reminded of a horrible disease. But unfortunately the implanted breast isn’t exactly synonymous with health. The function of the breast that’s enhanced for cosmetic reasons is its sexual display. The implanted breast represents a “perfect, unused breast”, says Marilyn Yalom, author of A History of the Breast,…The popularity of cosmetic breast implants also reflects just how utterly in thrall we are, as a culture, to gender distinctions.

* Breast Cancer is Not a Pink Ribbon The Scar Project

The SCAR Project is a series of large-scale portraits of young breast cancer survivors shot by fashion photographer David Jay. Primarily an awareness raising campaign, The SCAR Project puts a raw, unflinching face on early onset breast cancer while paying tribute to the courage and spirit of so many brave young women.
Dedicated to the more than 10,000 women under the age of 40 who will be diagnosed this year alone, The SCAR Project is an exercise in awareness, hope, reflection and healing. The mission is three-fold: raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer research/outreach programs and help young survivors see their scars, faces, figures and experiences through a new, honest and ultimately empowering lens.

Although Jay began shooting The SCAR Project primarily as an awareness raising campaign, he was not prepared for something much more immediate . . . and beautiful: “For these young women, having their portrait taken seems to represent their personal victory over this terrifying disease. It helps them reclaim their femininity, their sexuality, identity and power after having been robbed of such an important part of it. Through these simple pictures, they seem to gain some acceptance of what has happened to them and the strength to move forward with pride.”

Feb. 10th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 6

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (0)

1. Followups

Bird’s Eye: We start with a viral video that is painfully funny and pretty accurate about the difference between men’s and women’s brains. The standup guy, Mark Gungor, is pastor of Celebration Church in Green Bay, WI. Russian drillers have reached Lake Vostok, though we’ll have to wait at least 8 months to learn the key answer: is there life? A long and fascinating piece looks further at Western perceptions of Islamic women (Part 3 goes on with this).

* “The Nothing Box” (AKA. Men’s vs. Women’s Brains)- YouTube (Thanks Melissa)

* Drilling Reaches Lake Vostok, Long Trapped Under Antarctic Ice SheetNew York Times

The first hint of contact with the lake was on Saturday, but it was not until Sunday that pressure sensors showed that the drill had fully entered the lake. Lake Vostok, named after the Russian research station above it, is the largest of more than 280 lakes under the miles-thick ice that covers most of the Antarctic continent, and the first one to have a drill bit break through to liquid water from the ice that has kept it sealed off from light and air for somewhere between 15 million and 34 million years.

There have been much-disputed hints that life might still exist there. If so, that would give a great boost to hopes of finding life in similar conditions in icy water on one of the moons of Jupiter.

* Islam, Women and the West Informed Comment

Soon, an entire commercial apparatus to manufacture the eroticized imagery of the Middle East was in place. Entrepreneurs set up local studios where they could gather props, hire prostitutes as models, and then stage harem scenes to create the erotic Oriental postcards their audiences back home demanded. “What the postcard proposes as the truth,” writes the scholar Malek Alloula, “is but a substitute for something that does not exist.”

What is most interesting about this seeming confusion between the imagined and the real, between reading and seeing, is the extent to which the former so often takes precedence over the latter. This, in turn, reflects the primacy in Western thought of the expert “text” – philological, anthropological, theological, etc. – over any lived experience or personal observation of the Muslim world…. This phenomenon reflects what I call the anti-Islam discourse, a totalizing western narrative that dates back to the run-up to the First Crusade at the close of the eleventh century. Yet, its core elements – that Islam is inherently violent, sexually perverse, and anti-modern – remain as influential today as they once were in the halls of the Roman curia.

…Exhibit A may be found in our obsession with the hijab, or veil, as a barometer of social progress and overall well-being within Islamic societies, to such a degree that it has become a commonplace of Western mass-media coverage, social activism, and political discussion alike. For years, the veil has been a staple of endless news articles, books, and documentaries, and it is captured in magazine and television images – all as shorthand for a society, a civilization, or a system that is backward, alien, immobile, and inherently antithetical to human rights and dignity.

4. Women, Power, and Nerds

Feb-03-2012 | Comments (3)

Bird’s Eye: These articles aren’t totally aligned, but the issue of women’s power (whether between women, or opposed to male domination) runs through all four. The opening article is particularly moving, and creates the context for what follows. The 1915 ad reminds us that we are making progress, however slowly.

* Transformation And Transcendence: The Power Of Female Friendship The Rumpus

Nearly fifteen years later I get out of bed each morning and am thankful that I wasn’t so myopically committed to old, tried myths about women’s roles that I couldn’t see what was happening in that room between those three women, or what was happening in my own mind.

The Wrinklies weren’t spinsters or old maids and they were not “failures” in any way. They were free. It was I who failed to see them, until later, for who they really were: educated, hugely intelligent, fascinating, financially independent. Women who led rich lives full of meaningful work, deep and lasting friendship, sex when they wanted it, time with the beloved children of their family and friends, conversations about politics and art and literature, culture, travel to remarkable destinations where they did not journey as unconscious tourists but as guests in people’s homes and hearts. Despite these full lives they owned their own time, they owned their days. I did not. I was too busy trying to find someone who would spend the days with me, as if this would validate my presence in the world.

* Women Kick Back Against Comic-Book Sexism The Guardian

It is one of the more eagerly awaited titles due to emerge from Britain’s vibrant independent comic and graphic novel scene. But the “southern gothic” horror anthology, Bayou Arcana, is causing a stir for more than just its haunting images and storylines.

The anthology is the product of a unique experiment that brings together an all-female team of artists with an all-male team of writers – and it is an illustration of how a new generation of female artists and readers is radically changing the face of comics.

“There is a certain sensitivity that you find in women’s art that just does not appear in a lot of guys’ work,” says James Pearson, who edited the anthology, which follows the story of escaped slaves taking refuge in a swamp.

“The way that they interpret the horror has an added depth to it – and that is part of the experiment. It’s actually a really sensitive approach to quite visceral subject matter.”

* Nerds and Male Privilege Kotaku

I don’t think I’m breaking any news or blowing minds when I point out that geek culture as a whole is predominantly male. Not to say that women aren’t making huge inroads in science fiction/fantasy fandom, gaming, anime and comics… but it’s still a very male culture. As such, it caters to the predominantly male audience that makes it up. This, in turn leads to the phenomenon known as male privilege: the idea that men – most often straight, white men – as a whole, get certain privileges and status because of their gender. (Obvious disclaimer: I’m a straight white man.)

In geek culture, this manifests in a number of ways. The most obvious is in the portrayal of female characters in comics, video games and movies. Batman: Arkham City provides an excellent example. To start with, we have three of the male characters of Arkham City…Then we have three of the female characters:

Notice how the differences in how they’re portrayed and costumed? The men are fully clothed and deadly serious. They are clearly defined: the mighty hero, the ominous villains. The women are all about sex, sex, sexy sextimes. With maybe a little villainy thrown in for flavor. They may be characters, but they’re also sexual objects to be consumed.

I will pause now for the traditional arguments from my readers: these characters are all femme fatales in the comics, all of the characters in the Arkham games are over-the-top, the men are just as exaggerated/sexualized/objectified as the women. Got all of that out of your systems? Good.

Because that reaction is exactly what I’m talking about.

* Why Women Shouldn’t Be “Burdened” With The Vote: 1915 Boing Boing

This 1915 Boston Journal ad warning against the dangers of women’s suffrage lays all manner of dangers at the feet of “burdening” women with the vote, including increased taxes and divorce. It warns that extending the vote to women is a joint plot of the anarchist Industrial Workers of the World, socialists, and Mormons. Good to know that we’ve come so far in our political rhetoric.

6. Outside the Lines

Jan-06-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: After taking Ron Paul seriously, let’s wade further into the swamp of unacceptability to ask a few more uncomfortable questions. Despite at least one unfortunate phrase, Pellissier’s article raises very interesting questions, and the discussion that follows is also fascinating. Like many, I was hugely educated by Peggy McIntosh’s classic article on “White Privilege”, so I’m fascinated at the deconstruction of it in the current CounterPunch. David Lindorff challenges our fear of hitchhiking, and Louis CK challenges the standard way of selling albums, and wins, bigtime.

* Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high? Hank Pellissier, Ethical Technology

Ashkenazi Jews, aka Ashkenazim, are the descendants of Jews originally from medieval Germany, and later, from throughout Eastern Europe. Approximately 80% of the Jews in the world today are Ashkenazim…
Their median IQ is calculated at 117 in From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice (2000), published by Cambridge University Press. This is 10 points higher than the generally-accepted IQ of their closest rivals—Northeast Asians—and almost 20% higher than the global average. … Here is a brief list of Ashkenazi accomplishments in the last 90 years.

Nobel Prizes: Since 1950, 29% of the awards have gone to Ashkenazim, even though they represent only 0.25% of humanity. Ashkenazi achievement in this arena is 117 times greater than their population.

Hungary in the 1930s: Ashkenazim were 6% of the population, but they comprised 55.7% of physicians, 49.2% of attorneys, 30.4% of engineers, and 59.4% of bank officers; plus, they owned 49.4% of the metallurgy industry, 41.6% of machine manufacturing, 72.8% of clothing manufacturing, and, as housing owners, they received 45.1% of Budapest rental income. Jews were similarly successful in nearby nations, like Poland and Germany.

USA (today): Ashkenazi Jews comprise 2.2% of the USA population, but they represent 30% of faculty at elite colleges, 21% of Ivy League students, 25% of the Turing Award winners, 23% of the wealthiest Americans, and 38% of the Oscar-winning film directors.

The important question is… Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so high? Is the reason genetic, environmental, cultural, educational? A unique combination of several?

Here are eight theories….

* Complicating “White Privilege” » Paul Gorski Counterpunch

I dove into the white privilege discourse as part of my training as an anti-racism educator in the mid-1990s, just a few years after my white educator peers had started shuffling through their knapsacks. The shuffling often occurred back then, as it does today, in white caucus groups, organized dialogues among white educators. During these dialogues we more or less took turns pouring the contents of our knapsacks onto the floor before encouraging each other to “own” whatever came out, taking responsibility for racism. Rarely did we get around to talking about what it meant to be an anti-racist or for racial justice. Rarely did we use those dialogues to grow ourselves into more powerful change agents. This, I think, persists as a problem in white caucusing and other forms of race dialogues today: too much conversation about how hard it is to be a white person taking responsibility for white privilege; way too much thinking that the dialogue, itself, is the anti-racism rather than what prepares us for the anti-racism.

…Here, then, is the rub: We, in the white privilege brigade, often, and somewhat generically, in my opinion, like to say that racism is about power. That word, power, might be the most often-spoken word in conversations about white privilege. Rarely, though, do we speak to the nature of power beyond the types of privilege so eloquently expounded upon by Peggy. This is where critical race theory, with its frameworks for deconstructing racism, has flown past the white privilege discourse. Critical race theorists centralize the fundamental questions too often left unasked in conversations about white privilege: What, exactly, does power mean in a capitalistic society? Why, in a capitalistic society, do people and institutions exert power and privilege? What are they after?

* America, Land of the Fearful, is No Place to Hitch-Hike Dave Lindorff NationofChange

Yesterday, I hitch-hiked to the gym. If I tell that to any of my friends, they look at me like I’m crazy. Yet if I had said the same thing 40 years ago, it would have been like saying, “I just drove over to the store” or “I just had lunch.” No one would have batted an eye.

….Are things crazier today? No! They are safer. That’s what is so weird about people’s unwillingness to give a hitcher a ride these days. All the crime statistics show that crime is about where it was in the ‘70s (total crime in 2009 was the same as in 1968, with homicides down to the lowest rate since 1964, while violent crime in general has been falling since 1990 and is now at the level it was in 1973). What’s way up is fear. We have a media that live and breathe crime reporting, and always as lurid as possible. The more gruesome the story, the better. And we have a government that is all about generating fear — fear of crime, fear of immigrants, fear of terrorists, fear of poor people, fear of the 99%, fear of hitch-hikers, you name it.

* The Results Of Louis Ck’s Experiment (Who’s Louis CK?)

The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

It’s been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it’s going. I’ve been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there’s power in exclusive ownership of information. What I didn’t expect when I started this was that people would not only take part in this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be important to them. It’s been amazing to see people in large numbers advocating this idea. So I think it’s only fair that you get to know the results. Also, it’s just really cool and fun and I’m dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends, and that wasn’t nearly enough. So here it is….

…It’s been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number. One million dollars. That’s a lot of money. Really too much money. I’ve never had a million dollars all of a sudden. and since we’re all sharing this experience and since it’s really your money, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing with it. People are paying attention to what’s going on with this thing. So I guess I want to set an example of what you can do if you all of a sudden have a million dollars that people just gave to you directly because you told jokes.

Dec. 9th, 2011 :: Year 8, Issue 37

Dec-09-2011 | Comments (0)

1. Followups.

Bird’s Eye: Following up on Aushlander’s desire and hidden guilt piece, Alexandra Molotkow looks at the sexual rites of passage in the digital age. Now you’ll really have some reasons to worry about your kids.☺ The EU moves closer to one government to rule them all, thus making elections even more pointless. And following up on the exploitation and destruction of the Arctic, we bring you the polar opposite: the exploitation and destruction of the Antarctic. Who would have guessed?

* Toronto writer Alexandra Molotkow shares the secrets of her cybersexual education Toronto Life

I am part of the first generation to come of age online, and my adolescent development dovetails with that of the social web. …. My friends and I crowded around the computer, logged in to a chat room with the sexiest screen name we could think of, and cyber-scored within minutes. We giggled as he cyber-groped us. It was more like a computer-enhanced form of truth or dare than anything resembling sex itself: a way to articulate our desires and pool our knowledge of how it all worked without embarrassing ourselves (sex trivia is a currency among kids). Truth or dare breaks down inhibitions by making the person who sits out more shameful than the person who participates; cybersex does it by making a scapegoat out of the anonymous masturbator on the other end of the exchange. After all, he’s the one calling you “baby” and describing his penis. You’re just responding in kind. Afterward we sat around recapping and laughing, pretending it had all been a naughty joke.

*Radical Eurozone Shakeup Could See Brussels Get Austerity PowersGuardian

The European commission could be empowered to impose austerity measures on eurozone countries that are being bailed out, usurping the functions of government in countries such as Greece, Ireland, or Portugal.

Bailed-out countries could also be stripped of their voting rights in the European Union, under radical proposals that have been circulating at the highest level in Brussels before this week’s crucial EU summit on the sovereign debt crisis.

* Pawns in play on Antarctic ice-cap Guardian Weekly

The opening manoeuvres may have begun. During the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting in Buenos Aires last June, Russia stated its intention to start prospecting for minerals, oil and gas in the white continent and surrounding seas. The document submitted by the Russian delegation listed the key points of the “strategy for the development of the Russian Federation activities in the Antarctic for the period until 2020, and longer-term perspective”.

…The Russian project to carry out “complex investigations of the Antarctic mineral, hydrocarbon and other natural resources … both on the continent and in surrounding waters” would jeopardise the Antarctic’s special legal status and go against the Madrid protocol, which makes this near-virgin territory a “natural reserve devoted to peace and science”. At present, any form of prospecting and mining is, in theory, forbidden…. Like all international treaties this one depends on the good will of its signatories and it could be seriously undermined if one country were to take liberties with the text.

6. Sex and Guilt

Nov-18-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Guilt can come in many ways. We start with a wonderful piece of brave writing by Shalom Auslander (This American Life, Foreskin’s Lament, Beware of God) who can’t stand that he gets turned on by things of which he disapproves, and he feels guilty about that. Great reading, though nsfw (not safe for work). Then a brilliant GLBT action to make straight people conscious of what feeling guilty about clothing choices is like.(“TIL” is computerese for “Today I learned”) And a fine study contrasts American parents and the results of their (generalization alert!) attempt to demonize teen sex with the Dutch experience.

* Hard-Core Porn Obsession(NSFW) Shalom Auslander GQ

I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household in New York, where the Old Testament was believed to be the literal word of the Almighty God and where we obeyed, as closely as we could, all 613 commandments elucidated within its holy pages. To us, God was not simply a concept, but a very real, everyday presence in our lives and our community. Which is to say, I know pornography. Hard-core, graphic pornography. My father had it buried beneath his mattress. My brother had it hidden under his dresser. Pornography, like God Himself, was everywhere. Sex was dirty. Pornography was worse.

The really bad news was this: God, my rabbis told me, could only grant me forgiveness for the sins I had committed against Him; sins I had committed against my fellow humans could only be forgiven by them personally. If they didn’t forgive me, my rabbis said, when I died and went to heaven, God would cause me to suffer in the exact way I had caused them to suffer.

At the time, though only 14 years of age, I had already tired of the porn magazines I found in my house and decided it was time for full-motion video. I went to Times Square, where a group of women stood outside a porn shop, protesting and carrying placards. On one placard was a picture of a naked woman tied to a bed. She had a ball gag in her mouth and clamps on her nipples. I ducked into the store, spent every dollar I’d stolen from my father’s wallet, hurried home, and hoped the videos wouldn’t work.

They worked.

* TIL about “wear jeans if you’re gay day.” Actually it’s kind of brilliant. via Reddit

The organizers of Gay Jeans Day at CMU analyse the action in this way.

To let GLBT students on their campus know there is a supportive community.
Jeans are chosen for this event because most people have a pair, and because deciding what to wear causes everyone — no matter what their sexual orientation — to think about how other people will react to their choice of clothing.
Allow straight people to think about how others will react to their perceived sexual orientation, and to experience having to alter their normal behavior to avoid being perceived as gay.

* Dutch Vs. American Parents’ Views On Teen Sex

When 16-year-old Natalie first started dating her boyfriend, her mother did something that would mortify most American parents: She took her to the doctor’s office to get her contraceptives. Her mother wasn’t weirded out by the fact that her teen daughter was about to have sex — in fact, she fully supported it. She merely wanted to make sure that she was doing it safely, and responsibly. A couple of months later, when it finally happened, her parents were totally accepting. As her father put it, “sixteen is a beautiful age” to lose your virginity.

If that seems like an unfamiliar attitude toward sex and parenting, it might have something to do with the fact that Natalie’s parents aren’t American — they’re Dutch. They are one of dozens of Dutch families interviewed by Amy T. Schalet, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, in her new book, “Not Under My Roof.” Schalet’s book compares the sexual attitudes of American and Dutch parents and her findings are nothing short of staggering: Whereas most American parents panic about the idea of allowing their kids to have sex with other kids under their roof, for many Dutch parents, it’s not only fine — it’s responsible parenting.

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