February 2012
81 posts
Anthony Comstock: American Prude | Erik Loomis @... →
Has there ever been a more loathsome American than Anthony Comstock? The self-appointed regulator of American morality, Comstock acquired great power during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through taking advantage of the anxieties of the upper classes to pass anti-obscenity legislation and prosecute those he thought were smut-peddlers. Loathed even in his own time, but with powerful...
The Egocentrism of Anti-Autonomy | Fannie @... →
In short, and especially for men who might not think abortion rights are all that relevant to them or their lives, if a person supports using the state to force a person into gestating and giving birth, what other interventions into personal bodily autonomy are they not willing to support?
Republicans go all in on culture war | Eesha... →
What the implications of such a broad and untethered refusal clause? They are horrific and ridiculous. Employers could deny maternity coverage to an inter-racial couple if they have a moral problem. The same could happen to queer couples, or single women if their lifestyle was not approved of by their employer. The Affordable Care Act, as it passed in 2010, had some important and powerful...
Coffee and Cherries ~ Crowgirl
everything-gay-nothing-hurts:
Title: Coffee and Cherries
Author: Crowgirl
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean Winchester/Castiel
Rating: (unrated), mild PG
Author Tags: Pre-slash, Conversation, Pie, Angst
Author Summary: Outtake/prequel from To Ask and To Have.
Team ENGH Notes: This continues our week in celebration of Dean and Cas. Full disclosure: Crowgirl = H. = my partner, and this fic...
Black Woman, Know Your Place: Cornel West Clings... →
Sexism from a brown face is still sexism. Male privilege with a unique cadence and sartorial style is still male privilege. Patriarchy is still patriarchy when perpetrated by doctorate-wielding black activists. Demanding that a black woman march in lock step with your agenda or be labeled “treacherous” and “a fake and a fraud” is to further the twin demons of racism and sexism that black women...
RELATING RADICALLY: Queer Relationship Questions... →
Sample Questions for Further Study:
How do romantic or sexual partnerships relate to friendships and chosen family relationships in a given queer community?
How do queers find relationship education in adolescence and adulthood?
What is the relationship between interpersonal relationships and queer activism?
What is the role of sex and romance in the life of a queer community?
How...
nerd-do-well:
Have you ever read so much fanfiction that you can’t remember what’s canon and what’s not?
Downton Abbey, Season 2 | Daniel Kois @ Slate.com →
I agree that Thomas’ rise and fall and rise again, all in the space of a few months of Downton time, induced vertigo. The scenes of Mrs. Patmore, Mr. Carson, and others dismissing him with the cold joy that comes from years of disdain were amazing. How strange it was to see a character whom I think of as being always firmly in control reduced to a tantrum in a shed!
…
Oh, how I hope...
Secret and truthful | blue milk →
My biggest fear is that someone will find them after I have died and wrongly assume that I kept my poetry because I was so proud of it. They may even then decide that a fitting tribute would be to read these poems at my funeral. I picture everyone then, at my funeral, listening to this dreadful poetry and wincing at how bad it all is and wincing again at how oblivious I must have been to just...
A Day Without | Patient C @ sexgenderbody →
We filed taxes today, which meant talking to a stranger about being officially disabled. And of course, because I look the way I do, I get the look - of just enough socially acceptable disbelief without out and out accusing me of fraud. And I just sat there, paralyzed by all the available options of anger and ranting and pontificating stretching out before me, knowing I could touch none of them...
“There was, perhaps, the most discussion about the merging of books. First, to...”
– Mine, Yours, and Ours | One Green Thing
Do Marginalized People Need to Turn the Other... →
Hate, while it isn’t pleasant, isn’t always as counter productive as it is made to seem. Sometimes, hate can be the inspiration to demand change, and sometimes it helps to embolden self worth - thus a negative emotion can become a creative force. Hate should not always be the preserve of the most privileged people. Hate, like it or not is part of the human experience; it is an...
Dying to Be Thin | s.e. smith @ this ain't livin' →
The merits of dieting are, we are coming to understand, significantly overrated. Studies indicate that caloric controls are unlikely to result in permanent weight loss, that the body has a set point which it will cling to unless you are willing to go to substantial lengths to force it. Those lengths may include permanent calorie restriction as well as exercise, things that can be hard to commit...
The Geek Social Fallacies of Sex | Holly @ Geek... →
Pretending you can just decide whether you’ll feel any emotions at all is a geek fallacy stemming from the idea that you should be able to optimize your own brain to not do anything unproductive or unintended. But geeks ought to know better, because come on, you can’t even get a computer to do that. This stuff comes on you, it gets you by the heart and the gut, and it doesn’t ask you “pardon...
A Strange Form of Social Collapse | Paul Krugman @... →
So here’s a thought: maybe traditional social values are eroding in the white working class — but maybe those traditional social values aren’t as essential to a good society as conservatives like to imagine.
Falling ~ lamardeuse
everything-gay-nothing-hurts:
Title: Falling
Author: lamardeuse
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Evan Lorne/Radek Zelenka
Rating: Mature (AO3)
Author Tags:
Author Summary: If anyone’s youth had prepared him to live in constant peril inside a magical city at the heart of another galaxy, it was his.
Team ENGH Notes: Quiet and warm - easily the most believable characterization of Zelenka...
“When you watch Torchwood there is a warning at the very beginning that some...”
– John Barrowman (via childhoodgames)
Barrowman, everyone.
(via rt-hon-harry-koschei-saxon)
What They Are Asking: A New Site for Sex Education →
Megan Andelloux, who runs the Center for Sexual Pleasure & Health in Pawtucket, RI, and is one of my favorite sex educators, just launched a new project called What They Are Asking which features questions from students to sex educators, and some answers, too.
in which emily gets mad. | Emily Nagoski @ ::sex... →
On EVERY SINGLE ISSUE related to sexuality, reproductive health, and women’s rights, this dude [Santorum] is so far from what research has shown to be correct and supportive of positive health outcomes, that he actually almost counterbalances the weight of evidence with the mass of his own ignorance, bigotry, and outright lies.
If Only... | KarraCrow @ ...fly over me, evil... →
“Why did Wash have to die?” (“Because Joss said” is not an acceptable answer.) “Why do young men wear pants that don’t fit?” (Or young women for that matter.) “Why would anyone watch Gladiator twice?” (Or any Russell Crowe movie other than A Good Year.) “Explain Richard E. Grant.” (Extra points for also positing a theory of Paul...
Marriage Equality: The News from Massachusetts |... →
So it’s giddying to say “wife”—to the doctor’s receptionist, or the tow truck driver, or the teacher’s assistant—and get no reaction whatsoever. Some days I say it over and over just to get that absolute lack of response. My wife, my wife, my wife. I might as well be saying “my husband,” for all the reaction I get. It makes me giggle. We’ve been...
Born This Way: Black Box Sexuality | Noah Brand @... →
We in the sex-positive crowd generally treat a person’s sexual and gender identity and sexual tastes or habits as a black box. For those who haven’t heard the term before, a black box is a term of art referring to an unknowable process. You don’t know how the black box produced this result, and you can’t find out, so just take the result and get on with your work. How did a person come to be a...
UC Students Propose Alternative To Tuition... →
Tired of tuition increases within the cash-strapped University of California system, a group of students has suggested eliminating tuition entirely. Instead, they propose that graduates pay the system a percentage of their income over the subsequent 20 years.
CFP: Wild Girls, Wild Nights: True Lesbian Sex... →
click through for details.
Allowing All Children to See Themselves | S. Bear... →
It’s a little difficult to label young children as trans identified, because sometimes they are more shark or train identified than they are anything. One of the things about trans identity is that it requires a sense of one’s own identity and ability to identify as something, whatever that looks like. Little kids are just too little for that. Sometimes, there are kids who are a little older and...
Ross Douthat's Blinders on Abortion | Sarah Posner... →
Douthat complains that Planned Parenthood supporters tout its non-abortion services to persuade the public it is a good organization, overshadowing a fact he thinks Planned Parenthood should be ashamed of: the number of abortions it performs. But a look at some of the polling other than Gallup’s would suggest that majority of millenials—people of an age most likely to require such...
“What is your scientific basis for believing that?”
“Uh — I’m twelve?”
– Leela, Cubert, Futurama (via jedicrow)
“I always thought that what Russell T. Davies did in Doctor Who was extremely...”
– Mark Gatiss, on gay representation on television (via adoringuncertainty)
“A big detective show” eh, Mark? The detective going home to his boyfriend? Your ship is showing.
(via hippiearcheologist)
[x]
(via willowmansdaughter)
Guest Post: The Future of Unschooling | Jeff... →
With the legal status of Unschooling being mostly settled in the United States and Canada, now might be the time to stop reassuring others and ourselves that Unschooling won’t screw up lots of kids, and start focusing on how self-directed learning can lead to, and be a part of, much broader social movements throughout the globe.