Wednesday WTF: Pool Gator

It’s not a good idea to keep an alligator (or any other species of crocodilian) in your pool. It’s not healthy for the alligator, and depending on the gator’s age and size, it is even less healthy for you and your pool party guests.

It is, however, on occasion, hilarious.

Oh, don't mind me, I'm just strolling along...

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Joffrey, the Out-of-Context Motivational Speaker

Context truly is everything. (Spoilers, should you explore this any further.)

Out-of-context Motivational Joffrey

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An MRA Gets Burned

If you think, as this guy apparently does, that our society “panders to women’s every whim,” and if you express that view in public, you might get burned for it, as happened here:

"Society already panders to women’s every whim". I’m guessing no woman has ever pandered to any of your whims

Click to embiggen.

Sometimes a reasoned debate just isn’t in the cards. That applies to about 98% of what MRA’s say, as far as I’m concerned. (The remaining 2% mostly relate to food and other necessities of daily survival.) I’ll just let Liz Lemon close this out:

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A Very Handy Parody

A few weeks ago, a short film called “First Kiss” went viral. It was sweet and all, but let’s face it, it was also unbearably cheesy. Not only that, it’s actually an ad disguised as a short film, using actors instead of random strangers.

I only made it about halfway through. I guess there’s only so much I can take of overly-earnest good-looking hipsters being cheesy. But the internet did not let us down, because of course, we have parodies. Continue reading

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What I’m Reading, March 26, 2014

You play ball like a GIRL!

Via pordl.com

Playing “Too Womany” and the Problem of Masculinity in Sport, Joanna L. Grossman and Deborah L. Brake, Verdict, September 17, 2013

Title IX indeed has changed the face of education. It has been invoked to protect students against sexual harassment by teachers and peers, to ensure fair treatment of pregnant and parenting students, to remove obstacles to women’s education in non-traditional fields like science and math, and to curtail the use of single-sex education that was rooted in stereotype. But Title IX is most known for its impact on athletics, even though that was probably the furthest thing from the legislators’ mind when they enacted it. (The legislative history suggests little more than some chuckling over the prospect of co-ed football and co-ed locker rooms.)

***

There is no question that sports have changed women. Female sports participation has proven positive effects that are related to academic achievement; job success; positive self-esteem; reduced incidence of self-destructive behaviors like smoking, drugs, sex at a young age, and teen pregnancy; and physical and mental health benefits. By and large, sports have been empowering and have even changed, in fundamental ways, what it means to be a woman.

But have women changed sports? Why is it that despite the widespread participation of women and girls in sports, a team of ten-year-old boys would be told by their male coach (as recently happened to one of our sons) that the reason they lost their soccer game is because they “played too womany”? And why is it that this remark strikes so few people as offensive? Has women’s participation in sports changed the norms of femininity for women, but not the norms of masculinity for men?

[Ed. note: We generally hear “you throw like a girl” as an insult, based on women’s perceived categorical inferiority at sports.

Throw like a girl

Via fugly.com

Well, do you know who else “throws like a girl”? Continue reading

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The History of the United States in One GIF

Animated U.S. history

Click to embiggen.

From a set posted by dayyad to Imgur.

The GIF only covers the time period from 1789 to the present, so it leaves out a lot of colonies and (going further back) nations, but there’s only so much you can pack into one animated GIF.

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Monday Morning Cute: Bulldog Tricks

Marvel at the bulldog’s concentration and precision:

Also, we should admire this little guy’s perseverance: Continue reading

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Monday Morning Cute: Little Dogs

This dachshund needs a nap, too:

Apparently, no one told this corgi that class was canceled. She could’ve been sleeping, too, dangit! Continue reading

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Revenge of the Herbivores

First, this antelope turns the tables on its stalker:

This hippopotamus, meanwhile, just can’t be bothered to give a f*ck:

I guess nature is not always without a sense of karma.

(Both GIFs found via thelaughingserpent.tumblr.com.)

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