Photo
March 23, 2012
229 notes
theatlantic: Are Straight People Born That Way? Time for a thought experiment: Are straight people born that way? When I put the question to a number of sexology colleagues, they thought it a good question — indeed, a hard question. […] Gendered behaviors are linked closely enough to sexual orientation cross-culturally that various cultures have developed third-gender categories that “normalize” a homosexually-oriented person. For instance, in Samoa, boys who are very feminine as young children are understood to be destined for attraction to males. They are relabeled “fa’afafine” — meaning they will live “in the manner of a woman.” Without changing their bodies, the fa’afafine are raised like girls and then live as women, and take straight men as their sex partners. Sexologists call this kind of phenomenon “homosexual transgenderism” and suggest it is fairly common around the world. Sometimes “homosexual transgenderism” is enacted via a humane cultural system, as in Samoa, and sometimes via a phenomenally oppressive one, as in Iran, where feminine homosexual men have been given the choice of transsexualism or death. Regardless of the cultural system, social pressure to appear straight seems to be fairly intense cross-culturally. Indeed, one is inclined to wonder, if being straight is just natural, why does it require quite so much policing? Read more. [Image: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock] “if being straight is just natural, why does it require quite so much policing?”

theatlantic:

Are Straight People Born That Way?

Time for a thought experiment: Are straight people born that way? When I put the question to a number of sexology colleagues, they thought it a good question — indeed, a hard question. […]

Gendered behaviors are linked closely enough to sexual orientation cross-culturally that various cultures have developed third-gender categories that “normalize” a homosexually-oriented person. For instance, in Samoa, boys who are very feminine as young children are understood to be destined for attraction to males. They are relabeled “fa’afafine” — meaning they will live “in the manner of a woman.” Without changing their bodies, the fa’afafine are raised like girls and then live as women, and take straight men as their sex partners.

Sexologists call this kind of phenomenon “homosexual transgenderism” and suggest it is fairly common around the world. Sometimes “homosexual transgenderism” is enacted via a humane cultural system, as in Samoa, and sometimes via a phenomenally oppressive one, as in Iran, where feminine homosexual men have been given the choice of transsexualism or death.

Regardless of the cultural system, social pressure to appear straight seems to be fairly intense cross-culturally. Indeed, one is inclined to wonder, if being straight is just natural, why does it require quite so much policing?

Read more. [Image: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock]

“if being straight is just natural, why does it require quite so much policing?”

(via beautyabounds)

Tags: politics THE GAY!

Video
February 16, 2012
1,249 notes

neil-gaiman:

Just watch this. (If it lets you watch it where you are.)

“You’ve confused a war on religion with not always getting everything you want.”

(via beautyabounds)

Tags: politics ilu jon stewart

Text
January 30, 2012
11 notes

“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. … That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing.” — Rick “Frothy” Santorum, April 7, 2003

during this whole presidential campaign i have felt like David After Dentist. “is this real life?” … “why is this happening to me? is this going to be forever??” and then standing up in my carseat and screaming in a rage until i pass out.

(Source: theweek.com)

Tags: DEAR GOD. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS MAN BE OUR PRESIDENT PLEASE DON'T LET THIS MAN BE OUR PRESIDENT politics

Link
November 23, 2011
32 notes
Penguin, OverDrive and Amazon: This Deal is Getting Worse All the Time

booyahgrandmere:

theconceptlibrarian:

madlibrarian:

colinthelibrarian:

Take a look at this post from Library Renewal board member Matt Weaver about Penguin’s recent decision to severely limit libraries’ access through OverDrive to its ebooks. If you don’t know about Library Renewal, please check them out at libraryrenewal.org — it’s a fantastic organization.

I sometimes tell people I don’t like ebooks. They think it’s because I’m sentimental and enjoy their heft, texture, and/or smell. As a person who has never really been comfortable reading a book while lying down, I can say it isn’t sentimentality or an emotional attachment to the physicality of the book; it’s that physical objects can be owned outright.

Ebooks are akin to software, and so when one gives money to an entity theoretically in exchange for an ebook, what one is doing is actually paying for a license to view and, in a very limited sense, utilize that item. It never becomes the property of the payee, and he or she must abide by a variety of agreements in order to retain the privilege of access; indeed, the owner of the book can revoke access without having to prove violation (see above link).

I don’t like ebooks because 1., they make me talk in that way to describe the acquisition process; and 2., they allow too much corporate control into a fundamentally democratic and, well, socialist institution. 

In related news, a U.S. corporation has succeeded in trademarking “Koha,” the name of an open-source integrated library system created by the Horowhenua Library Trust, in New Zealand. The integrated library system market is controlled by a very small number of corporations; Koha worked against that by ensuring that libraries could create their own solutions, that they could provide services without having to pay one or more ILS vendors. The Horowhenua Library Trust is mounting a legal challenge, but they haven’t the resources necessary to do so, and have set up a donation page. (The software itself is not being trademarked, just the name.)

(My emphasis.) I get tired of explaining this to my patrons, too; not because it’s tedious — it isn’t — but rather because I wish it weren’t true.

Ha. I get tired of explaining it because it’s tedious.

one reason why i strongly disagree with ebooks, under the way they are currently utilized. i feel very torn about them, in general. not to mention how you can’t lend/borrow an ebook… which in my World of Reading, goes against the first commandment. “And thus she spoketh: if thy have a book which has caused ye laughter, tears, or a general sense of ennui, thou shalt not keep it amongst yeselves, but give it to thy neighbors, and thy loved ones, and lose a great many books this way.”

(via youtastelikenachos)

Tags: books politics

Quote
October 11, 2011
365 notes
"

Let me tell you a wonderful old joke from communist times.

A guy was sent from East Germany to work in Siberia. He knew his mail would be read by censors. So he told his friends: Let’s establish a code. If the letter you get from me is written in blue ink ,it is true what I said. If it is written in red ink, it is false. After a month his friends get a first letter. Everything is in blue. It says, this letter: everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theaters show good films from the West. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.

This is how we live. We have all the freedoms we want. But what we are missing is red ink. The language to articulate our non-freedom. The way we are taught to speak about freedom, war, and terrorism and so on falsifies freedom. And this is what you are doing here: You are giving all of us red ink.

There is a danger. Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after. When we will have to return to normal life. Will there be any changes then? I don’t want you to remember these days, you know, like - oh, we were young, it was beautiful. Remember that our basic message is: We are allowed to think about alternatives. The rule is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. But there is a long road ahead. There are truly difficult questions that confront us. We know what we do not want. But what do we want? What social organization can replace capitalism? What type of new leaders do we want?

Remember: the problem is not corruption or greed. The problem is the system that pushes you to give up. Beware not only of the enemies. But also of false friends who are already working to dilute this process. In the same way you get coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol, ice cream without fat. They will try to make this into a harmless moral protest.

"

— Slavoj Žižek at Occupy Wall Street (via kateoplis)

(via ecantwell)

Tags: occupy everything politics

Video
October 03, 2011
78,540 notes

booyahgrandmere:

sansanimals:

curmudgeonlaine:

astringofpearls:

randomlancila:

boehnertroll:

stfusexists:

the-madame-hatter:

glossylalia:

anarchopunkz:

ballroom-communism:

diffindo-:

this is why i am a feminist

I actually cried when I watched this.  

wonderfully done

Everything important. 

so well done

Please watch this video. It’s really well done, and very important…it will be 10 minutes of your life well spent, I promise. 

WATCH THIS.

I’m also planning on organizing a screening of the documentary on campus. I’ll just have to send an e-mail to the PHREE advisor and see if she’s cool with it.

I cried watching this, because I was so overwhelmed, thinking about how the small leaps and bounds I make to fight media just don’t even make a dent in how wrong things are. I feel so powerless, so helpless. I feel like giving up.

But I won’t, because I KNOW I’ve helped to change other people’s perceptions, even if it’s just a small way on tumblr. And if I make even one person really rethink and reanalyze what they take from the media, perhaps that one person will go on to help one other person. Perhaps it does make a difference, after all.

This is why I’m seriously mulling over doing a major in communications with a minor in women and gender studies.

Ugh and this video addresses why women like me, who are smart, accomplished and all around good people feel like nothing because we’re not body ideal.

Well this made me teary-eyed. And the part where the girl said she worried about her weight in 5th grade made me think how I did too. I specifically remember a group of us sitting on the fucking monkey bars talking about how our thighs were too big.

I honestly did not think I was going to get emotional watching this considering I’ve watched all Killing Us Softly films, etc, but there were definitely tears.

Just adding the librarian two cents here. I urge you to contact your local library and request that they hold a screening of this film. If the library has a teen librarian, you may want to speak directly with him or her. My library is doing one!

i used to be a radical feminist, an organizer, a fighter, a riot grrrl. and i don’t know when that stopped by i want her back, because this stuff is still so fucking relevant and pervasive and insidious that it blows my goddamn mind.

(Source: dave-bowman, via youtastelikenachos)

Tags: i would absolutely be in rachel maddows gender mafia. Politics

Quote
September 22, 2011
137 notes
"We write to you as former wardens and corrections officials who have had direct involvement in executions. Like few others in this country, we understand that you have a job to do in carrying out the lawful orders of the judiciary. We also understand, from our own personal experiences, the awful lifelong repercussions that come from participating in the execution of prisoners. While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end. It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner.We write to you today with the overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia tonight. We know the legal process has exhausted itself in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, and yet, doubt about his guilt remains. This very fact will have an irreversible and damaging impact on your staff… Living with the nightmares is something that we know from experience. No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt, and for some of us, shame and guilt."

—

Soup: Corrections Officials Sign-On for Troy Davis (via beenthinking)

disgusted. saddened. I don’t have it in my heart to weigh in with the full discourse Troy Davis deserves, but this morning I am disappointed by our president, our judicial system, and the complicity of this state and country in, what is very clearly, murder.

(via beenthinking)

Tags: Death Penaty Troy Davis Politics News Justice

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