Chaotic Thoughts

gaywrites: Check and mate.

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:00:04 -0400

Check and mate.

orchidcactus: All of the endings, playing simultaneously for...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:47:57 -0400

All of the endings, playing simultaneously for comparison.

Seeing them lined up like this really drives the point home.

:(

compoundelevatedskullfracture: He knew what was coming. He knew...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:06:23 -0400

compoundelevatedskullfracture:

He knew what was coming. He knew what we were going to see. And he wanted to stop us, in his last sane act.

If only we knew.

thegoddamazon: Jack Cosplay. WOWZERS.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:30:07 -0400

thegoddamazon:

Jack Cosplay.

WOWZERS.

Photo

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:08:06 -0500

Photo

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:18:58 -0500

Photo

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:13:32 -0500

"Despite the massive advances in women’s equality, young women’s sexuality is stuck in a surprising..."

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:40:44 -0500

“Despite the massive advances in women’s equality, young women’s sexuality is stuck in a surprising paradox. Young women are sold provocative clothes but aren’t taught where to find their own clitoris. Many girls give their boyfriends oral sex, but are too uncomfortable with their own bodies to allow the guys to return the favor. It’s still a radical act to say that women need and deserve access to information about their own sexual pleasure—not just about the risks and negative consequences of sex.”

- Dorian Solot, I Love Female Orgasm: An Extraordinary Orgasm Guide (via boybitch)

tophattdesign: My letter to Gamestop based on my last post.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:55:40 -0500

tophattdesign:

My letter to Gamestop based on my last post.

Esoterica: false-catalyst: theaetherealmeadow: School District Holds Movie Day,...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:27:11 -0500

Esoterica: false-catalyst: theaetherealmeadow: School District Holds Movie Day,...:

false-catalyst:

theaetherealmeadow:

School District Holds Movie Day, Only Lets The Boys Go

stfuconservatives:

The Dallas school district decided to take all fifth graders to see the movie Red Tails. The fifth graders are learning about WWII and Black History Month, so lesson…

spastasmagoria: thedailywhat: This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:23:36 -0500

spastasmagoria:

thedailywhat:

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Even though the Super Bowl was officially the most watched TV program in US history, one person at Lucas Oil Stadium was completely invisible to viewers: Miss Deaf America Rachel Mazique.

Mazique, a representative of the National Association of the Deaf, was invited to sign both the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” as Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, and Blake Shelton belted the words.

Unfortunately, as Mazique was not placed near the singers during the performance, her signing was not shown on television nor, reportedly, on the stadium’s jumbotron.

The University of Texas Ph.D student, who has been an inspiration to many in the deaf community, says she was “very disappointed” at having missed an opportunity “to showcase ‘America the Beautiful’ and the national anthem in ASL on television.”

NAD has launched a petition through change.org demanding an apology from NBC and the NFL.

“I truly hope that this becomes a teachable moment for everyone involved,” Mazique said, “and that American Sign Language renditions of these iconic songs are broadcast in future Super Bowls rather than being a token gesture.”

[dailyherald.]

Oh for the f—- of sakes. Really? REALLY? *sigh*

"I find it slightly ethnocentric that whenever Japanese appropriate some aspect of Euro-American body..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:18:17 -0500

“I find it slightly ethnocentric that whenever Japanese appropriate some aspect of Euro-American body aesthetics, foreigners assume that it reflects their burning desire to become something other than Japanese, but when Americans, for instance, borrow things like nose piercing or dreadlocks from other cultures, it is seen as evidence of their creativeness and tolerance.”

- Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics (via homoarigato

)

AND THE WIN

(via blackamazon)

i.e. THIS.

(via so-treu)

oatmeal: Today in a nutshell

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:57:42 -0500

oatmeal:

Today in a nutshell

Women do not get raped because they were wearing certain clothing. If that was true having an nice house would be asking for a robbery, walking home from school would be asking for an abduction, or driving would be asking for a car accident. Stop the victim blaming.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:02:26 -0500

[from DailyKos] Turns out Komen Foundation Senior VP Karen Handel is a fundie anti-gay bigot. Also

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:29:46 -0500

[from DailyKos] Turns out Komen Foundation Senior VP Karen Handel is a fundie anti-gay bigot. Also:

sexgenderbody:

Karen Handel showing her Christian compassion for poor women on Twitter

And I really didn’t need to know this to consider Komen Senior VP Karen Handel a thoroughly loathsome human being (the retweet said volumes in just a few characters) but John Aravosis has dug up Handel’s bigoted, Christian fundamentalist views on LGBT peoplefrom less than two years ago, though they read as though they are from the 1960s.

First, I want to say though I anticipate never having to confront the dilemma of an unwanted pregnancy myself, I unequivocally stand by a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices, and against this insane environment that is demonizing Planned Parenthood.

In fact, the first night I heard about it I was so enraged I, like so many others, burned up my Twitter feed yelling at @komenforthecure and retweeting anyone who, like me, was equally outraged at this outrageously stupid decision.

I was so enraged—and I am not making this up—a New York Times reporter contacted me to talk about grassroots pushback. Who knows? I might get quoted. I think I pointed him to more newsworthy subjects though.

More below the fold.

Choice excerpts Aravosis dug up from an interview during her ill-fated, Sarah Palin-endorsed run to govern the great state of Georgia:

KH: I’ve been very clear. And you know, as a Christian, marriage is between a man and a woman. I do not think that gay relationships are — they are not what God intended.

Do you and God talk to a lot?
KH: I am against gay adoption.

Whatever will we do with all those unwanted babies you’re determined to bring into the world against their mother’s will?
Q: Would you favor outlawing gay adoptions?
KH: Yeah, I would consider that, absolutely.

Because you know some kids who were screwed up by their gay mom or dad?
Q: Do you know any gay couples with children?
KH: Not that I’m aware of.

Well, by all means, don’t let your ignorance stop you from pontificating on how people you don’t know are your inferiors and what other people (who aren’t you) should be allowed to do with their lives, and how you’d abuse your authority as governor to make other people’s life choices for them.
Q: I guess I want to know why you think gay parents aren’t as legitimate as heterosexual parents.
KH: Because I don’t.

Great answer, Karen. Don’t let the interviewer confuse you with what science or the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics or American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Associationhave to say about the topic of gay parenting. That’s just crazy elitist scientist talk.
I am struck by the fact that campaigning for governor she “absolutely” would consider championing a ban on gay adoption, and had she been elected she “absolutely” would have been in a position to do so.

This is a policy position that can only be justified if one totally rejects all accepted scientific studies that have found no adverse, in fact, even more favorable than average outcomes for children raised in LGBT households. Nevermind all that, Handel has her Jesusy opinions and nothing will change her mind.

With such complete disregard, even contempt, for science and the expertise of child-care experts, it begs the question what guides her decision-making process relative to her position of authority on a medical charity?

Maybe in phase two of this public relations effort Handel will explain to us how all those disadvantaged women who depend on Planned Parenthood’s services can just pray the cancer away?

Aravosis says, “No self-respecting gay person should give a dime to the Race for the Cure. There are other breast cancer charities that aren’t religious right sycophants.”

I agree. Screw Komen. They have jumped into the deep end of the hard right extremist Palin pool of the GOP. To Hell with them all.

As Komen delivers only a paltry percentage of their revenues to actual research, the best thing for cancer research would be for this bloated, corporate pink-washing, cynical, self-sustaining money-grabbing monopoly to collapse and leave space for a real charity that actually cares about all women’s health to compete.

Lean on their sponsors to find better charities and give to Planned Parenthood. I gave $50 to Planned Parenthood this morning via Daily Kos’ ActBlue account, it’s here.

I want to see this become the best fundraising effort ever for Planned Parenthood.

May a better women’s health charity rise from the ashes of the religious right’s pyrrhic victory here.

Update: I’m aware of thedamage control measures apology, I’m not impressed. For what it’s worth, my mom and her sister are both breast cancer survivors and have been very involved in Komen in the past. I will be encouraging them to find a better charity. They listen to me and, like me, are adamantly pro-choice.

PS: I bet there are a lot of moms involved with Komen that think their own LGBT kids would make great parents and are hoping for grandkids someday, irrespective of the hurdles people like Handel put in front of their kids.

Update 2: In related news, the Virginia House of Representatives has passed a bill that affirms denying adoption services to gay people. A bigoted move that cannot be justified with either science nor judicial precedent (see the rulings of activist judges in the liberal nirvanas of Arkansas and Florida).

Click to donate to Planned Parenthood.

How the sex bias prevails

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:50:19 -0500

How the sex bias prevails:

stfuhypocrisy:

MADELINE Heilman at New York University once conducted an experiment in which she told volunteers about a manager. Some were told, “Subordinates have often described Andrea as someone who is tough yet outgoing and personable. She is known to reward individual contributions and has worked hard to maximise employees’ creativity.”

Other volunteers were told, “Subordinates have often described James as someone who is tough yet outgoing and personable. He is known to reward individual contributions and has worked hard to maximise employees’ creativity.”

The only difference between what the groups were told was that some people thought they were hearing about a leader named Andrea while others thought they were hearing about a leader named James. Heilman asked her volunteers to estimate how likeable Andrea and James were as people. Three-quarters thought James was more likeable than Andrea.

Using a clever experimental design, Heilman also determined that four in five volunteers preferred to have James as their boss. Andrea seemed less likeable merely because she was a woman who happened to be a leader.

The existence of unconscious sexism can be scientifically proved in laboratory experiments. We know that unconscious sexism caused the laboratory volunteers in Heilman’s experiment to find Andrea the manager less likeable than James the manager, because two groups of volunteers, divided at random, reached different conclusions about the likeability of the managers. Since the only thing that varied between the groups was whether they were told the manager was named Andrea or James, we can confidently say the outcome was produced by that single difference.

Bias is much harder to demonstrate scientifically in real life, which may be why large numbers of people do not believe that sexism and other forms of prejudice still exist. Many people think we live in a “post-racial” and “post-sexist” world where egalitarian notions are the norm. Indeed, if you go by what people report, we do live in a bias-free world, because most people report feeling no prejudice whatsoever.

What would be remarkably instructive in real life would be if women in various professions could experience life as men, and vice versa. If the same person got treated differently, we would be sure sexism was at work, because the only thing that changed was the sex of the individual and not his or her skills, talent, knowledge, experience, or interests.

Joan Roughgarden and Ben Barres are biologists at Stanford University. Both are researchers at one of the premier academic institutions in the country; both are tenured professors. Both are transgendered people. Stanford has been a welcoming home for these scientists; if you are going to be a transgendered person anywhere in the United States, it would be difficult to imagine a place more tolerant than Palo Alto and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ben Barres did not transition to being a man until he was 50. For much of her early life, Barbara Barres was oblivious to questions of sexism. She would hear Gloria Steinem and other feminists talk about discrimination and wonder, “What’s their problem?” She was no activist; all she wanted was to be a scientist. She was an excellent student. When a school guidance counsellor advised her to set her sights lower than MIT, Barbara ignored him, applied to MIT, and got admitted in 1972.

During a particularly difficult maths seminar at MIT, a professor handed out a quiz with five problems. He gave out the test at 9am, and students had to hand in their answers by midnight. The first four problems were easy, and Barbara knocked them off in short order. But the fifth one was a beauty; it involved writing a computer program where the solution required the program to generate a partial answer, and then loop around to the start in a recursive fashion.

“I remember when the professor handed back the exams, he made this announcement that there were five problems but no one had solved the fifth problem and therefore he only scored the class on the four problems,” Ben recalled. “I got an A. I went to the professor and I said, ‘I solved it.’ He looked at me and he had a look of disdain in his eyes, and he said, ‘You must have had your boyfriend solve it.’ To me, the most amazing thing is that I was indignant. I walked away. I didn’t know what to say. He was in essence accusing me of cheating. I was incensed by that. It did not occur to me for years and years that that was sexism.”

By the time she was done with MIT, Barbara had more or less decided she wanted to be a neuroscientist. She decided to go to medical school at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. Gender issues at med school were like the issues at MIT on steroids; one professor referred Barbara to his wife when she wanted to talk about her professional interests. An anatomy professor showed a slide of a nude female pin-up during a lecture.

During the first year of Barbara’s residency, when she was an intern, she found herself clashing with the chief resident. “When you have to learn to do a spinal tap or do a line, at some point only one person can do the procedure. What I noticed is that every time a male resident would do the picking, he would pick a guy to do the procedure. I had to often say, ‘He did it last time. It is my turn this time.’ “

But things changed in large and subtle ways after Barbara became Ben.

Ben once gave a presentation at the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A friend relayed a comment made by someone in the audience who didn’t know Ben Barres and Barbara Barres were the same person: “Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but, then, his work is much better than his sister’s.”

Ben also noticed he was treated differently in the everyday world. “When I go into stores, I notice I am much more likely to be attended to. They come up to me and say, ‘Yes, sir? Can I help you, sir?’ I have had the thought a million times, I am taken more seriously.”

When former Harvard president Larry Summers (who went on to become a senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama) set off a firestorm a few years ago after musing about whether there were fewer women professors in the top ranks of science because of innate differences between men and women, Ben wrote an anguished essay in the journal Nature. He asked whether innate differences or subtle biases - from grade school to graduate school - explained the large disparities between men and women in the highest reaches of science.

“When it comes to bias, it seems that the desire to believe in a meritocracy is so powerful that until a person has experienced sufficient career-harming bias themselves they simply do not believe it exists … By far, the main difference that I have noticed is that people who don’t know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect: I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man.”

Joan Roughgarden came to Stanford in 1972, more than a quarter century before she made her male-to-female transition in 1998. When the young biologist arrived at Stanford, it felt as though tracks had been laid down; all Roughgarden had to do was stick to the tracks, and the high expectations that others had of the young biologist would do the rest.

“It was clear when I got the job at Stanford that it was like being on a conveyer belt,” Roughgarden told me in an interview. “The career track is set up for young men. You are assumed to be competent unless revealed otherwise. You can speak, and people will pause and people will listen. You can enunciate in definitive terms and get away with it. You are taken as a player. You can use male diction, male tones of voice. … You can assert. You have the authority to frame issues.”

At the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, an outpost of the university about 150 kilometres from campus, Roughgarden ruffled feathers in the scientific establishment by arguing that a prominent theory that described the life cycle of marine animals was wrong. Where previous research had suggested that tide pools were involved in the transportation of certain larvae, Roughgarden reframed the issue and showed that the larger ocean played a significant role. The new theory got harsh reviews, but Roughgarden’s ideas were taken seriously. In short order, Roughgarden became a tenured professor, and a widely respected scientist and author.

Like Ben Barres, Roughgarden made her transition to Joan relatively late in life. Stanford proved tolerant, but very soon Joan started to feel that people were taking her ideas less seriously. In 2006, for example, Joan suggested another famous scientific theory was wrong - Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Among other things, the theory suggests that men and women are perpetually locked in a reproductive conflict. Men are supposed to be sexually promiscuous because they stand to gain from spreading their genes as widely as possible, whereas women are supposed to value monogamy because they can have relatively few biological children.

Even when women and men escape from this “battle of the sexes”, it is only because a temporary truce has been declared. A monogamous husband, for example, “forgoes” his natural inclination to infidelity because his partner offers him something of exceptional value - such as beauty or youth. The theory essentially suggests that conflicting goals are basic to all male-female human relationships - and even purports to “explain” why men rape women.

Using ideas from game theory, Joan published a review article in the prestigious journal Science, where she explained why she thought the theory was wrong. Thinking about sex purely in terms of reproduction was flawed, Joan argued. Sex was also about building alliances, trading, co-operation, social regulation and play.

Joan used the example of the Eurasian oystercatcher, a wading bird, in her 2006 paper. In particular, she looked at nests involving three birds, a male and two females. In some of these families, the females fought viciously with each other, whereas in others, the females mated with each other almost as often as they mated with the male. Nests where females bonded sexually were much more likely to have offspring that survived, compared with nests where the females fought each other, since the co-operative nest could call on the resources of three birds to defend offspring against predators. Sex between the females may not have produced offspring, but it had a powerful effect on the survival rate of offspring.

Where Darwin’s theory of sexual selection would argue that the competing interests of males and females are what produce a range of sexual behaviours, Joan’s theory of “social selection” offered a different viewpoint: conflict between Eurasian oystercatchers, as perhaps with conflict between human mates, was not the starting point of relationships but an unfortunate outcome. Co-operation, not conflict, Joan argued, was basic to nature. “Reproductive social behaviour and sexual reproduction are co-operative. Sexual conflict derives from negotiation breakdown.”

THE scientific establishment, Joan said, was livid. But in contrast to the response to her earlier theory about tide pools and marine animals, few scientists engaged with her. At a workshop at Loyola University, a scientist “lost it” and started screaming at her for being irresponsible. “I had never had experiences of anyone trying to coerce me in this physically intimidating way,” she said, as she compared the reactions to her work before and after she became a woman. “You really think this guy is really going to come over and hit you.”

At a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Minneapolis, Joan said, a prominent expert jumped up on the stage after her talk and started shouting at her. Once every month or two, she said, ”I will have some man shout at me, try to physically coerce me into stopping …When I was doing the marine ecology work, they did not try to physically intimidate me and say, ‘You have not read all the literature.’

“They would not assume they were smarter. The current crop of objectors assumes they are smarter.”

Joan is willing to acknowledge her theory might be wrong; that, after all, is the nature of science. But what she wants is to be proven wrong, rather than dismissed. Making bold and counter-intuitive assertions is precisely the way science progresses. Many bold ideas are wrong, but if there isn’t a regular supply of them and if they are not debated seriously, there is no progress. After her transition, Joan said she no longer feels she has “the right to be wrong”.

Where she used to be a member of Stanford University’s senate, Joan is no longer on any university or departmental committee. Where she was once able to access internal university funds for research, she said she finds it all but impossible to do so now. Before her transition, she enjoyed an above-average salary at Stanford. But since her transition, “My own salary has drifted down to the bottom 10 per cent of full professors in the School of Humanities and Sciences, even though my research and students are among the best of my career and are having international impact, albeit often controversial.”

I asked her about interpersonal dynamics before and after her transition. “You get interrupted when you are talking, you can’t command attention, but above all you can’t frame the issues,” she said. With a touch of wistfulness, she compared herself to Ben Barres. “Ben has migrated into the centre whereas I have had to migrate into the periphery.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/how-the-sex-bias-prevails-20100514-v4mv.html#ixzz1kgWClAIn

thambos: timekiller-s: randomthoughtsarerandom: jonathan-cunni...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:37:49 -0500

thambos:

timekiller-s:

randomthoughtsarerandom:

jonathan-cunningham:

nedhepburn:

The Susan G. Komen Foundation For Breast Cancer removed over $400,000 worth of funding from Planned Parenthood, which, you know, screens for breast cancer. This is all, of course, due to right-ring pro “life” group pressure.

The Komen Foundation DID - however - think it was totally OK to put their branding all over this Smith & Wesson 9mm! Firearms were the second most common cause of violent death among women, just after car crashes! Take that, Planned Parenthood!

Let’s not forget the pink-chicken-buckets from KFC a couple of years ago, which again were another bizarre PR grab from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, because when you think of “health” you ALWAYS think of KFC, right? You’d think if they wanted to actually stop cancer they’d put more funding towards breast cancer screenings, but there we go. This is where we’re at right now.

Don’t donate to the Komen foundation. It’s emotional blackmail. They just throw the money behind getting more money for the foundation, not towards stopping the disease.

PRO LIFE

Wow…the truth comes out.

#IStandWithPlannedParenthood

Another look at the commercialism of pink: http://www.nfb.ca/film/pink_ribbons_inc_trailer/

unapologetically-black: Jon Stewart is amazing. HOW IS THIS MAN...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:36:11 -0500

unapologetically-black:

Jon Stewart is amazing.

HOW IS THIS MAN (Romney) A SERIOUS CANDIDATE?!??!!!

Esoterica: Pro-tip: white privilege doesn't mean white people have perfect lives.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:27:39 -0500

Esoterica: Pro-tip: white privilege doesn't mean white people have perfect lives.:

ethiopienne:

It means that white people do not have to deal with institutionalized, systemic racism in addition to their everyday problems. It means institutionalized, systemic racism does not cause white people’s everyday problems.

It means when white people go home and turn on their TVs…

lianamaris: Things that cannot screen for breast cancer and...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:23:29 -0500

lianamaris:

Things that cannot screen for breast cancer and things that can.

And for those who are yelling about PP not doing mammograms, “screenings” are not just mammograms. ”Screenings” are also breast exams, which are the first line of defense. Those breast exams are done every time a woman has a pelvic exam, which she needs in order to get birth control or STI testing. Get it together. Semantics do not change the facts.