What I’m Reading, June 16, 2014

Women Are Hard To Animate. Thoughts on Representation of Women in Movies, Television and Games, Echidne, Echidne of the Snakes, June 12, 2014

My point is that these stories are picked from a certain angle, an angle of traditionally male heroism, and even when that is not the case most of us are lulled into believing that a handful of women in a large list of participants is a mixed gender setting in a movie or television series. Just think of the Noah’s Ark (which also consisted of all white characters). Probably a fifty-fifty distribution of men and women in some movie reads as a chick flick to many viewers.

One reason for all this is that we tend to see women portray womanhood in their roles, not play roles of individuals who have different temperaments, characters and so on. That’s why having a handful of women in a movie looks like inclusion, even if they all play the role “women,” because that role might be subconsciously compared to the number of dentists or gamblers or whatever in the same movie, never mind that most of the rest of that list are played by men.

Who Owns Your Womb? Women Can Get Murder Charge for Refusing C-Sections, Michelle Goodwin, AlterNet, June 13, 2014

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The New “I’m Not Racist, But…”

Via equal-writes.org

Via equal-writes.org

“This isn’t meant to be slut-shaming…”

This is invariably followed by some epic-level slut-shaming. In this case, the slut-shaming started before the statement was even made.

With each passing day, we see the institution of marriage becoming a distant memory. Men and women alike are so caught up in the party lifestyle that they’re forgetting their future spouses might not went to settle down with people who have such sordid histories.

Or, you know, maybe they shouldn’t feel like they have to marry people who expect some sort of ritual purity from others. Just a thought.

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Monday Morning Cute: Dog and Duck

A beautiful friendship, I’m sure.

(Although really, labs are friends with just about every living thing. Still adorable.)

Bonus cute: Baby anythings are cute. This was presented with the caption “Hay what’s up?” Continue reading

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Who Is Webdriver Torso?

The best mysteries often have the most mundane explanations.

Mind you, I’m not saying that Webdriver Torso is the best mystery on the internet, not by a long shot.

Since March 7th of 2013, one mysterious channel has been flooding YouTube with a near constant stream of baffling videos. Even calling them videos is generous—they’re more like blips or brief communiques—although communicating what is anyone’s guess. All exactly 11 seconds long, consisting of a 10 slides with red and blue boxes in varying configurations, 77,000 videos and counting have been uploaded in the last year—literally dozens every day.

The mystery of Webdriver Torso might have the most mundane explanation, though. Click the link, or watch the video below, for spoilers. Continue reading

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This Week in WTF, June 13, 2014

I got a bit behind on my regular blog series and everything else, so here’s an extra-long episode of This Week in WTF for you.

This is how you prank: For their senior prank, students at a Santa Barbara, California high school hired a mariachi band to follow the principal around for about ninety minutes. Having grown up in San Antonio, where mariachis are an entertainment staple, I say bravo.

– Horniness is the stepmother of invention: Don’t try to keep this Sulawesi crested black macaque from her fella, because she will go all MacGyver on you.

Bella, a female Sulawesi crested black macaque was upset after her boyfriend Malino was moved to a separate enclosure in Jersey’s Durrell Wildlife Park in the UK.

However, she didn’t take the separation lying down. Instead, she and her fellow monkeys busted out of their enclosure several times to search for their lost mate, forcing the staff to build an electric fence to keep them in.

A lot of good the electric fence did considering that Bella managed to pull a total “MacGyver” move by disarming the it with a wet piece of grass. Continue reading

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What I’m Reading, June 11, 2014

Texas Republicans setting a bad example, PZ Myers, Pharyngula, June 6, 2013

You really must read the temporary Texas Republican Party platform for 2014. They have a clear vision for the future of America, and it is a hellhole. I skimmed through it this morning and there was much to fill me with dismay and amusement, all at the same time.

Socialism breeds mediocrity. America is exceptional. Therefore, the Republican Party of Texas opposes socialism, in all of its forms.

We are special. Don’t you forget it.

***

You have to read the next two together:

We revere the sanctity of human life and therefore oppose genocide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.

Properly applied capital punishment is legitimate, is an effective deterrent, and should be swift and unencumbered.

Only some life has sanctity, I guess. Continue reading

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What I’m Reading, June 10, 2014

The Art of the Hissy Fit, Digby, AlterNet, October 24, 2007

Ritual defamation and humiliation are designed to make the group feel contempt for the victim and over time it’s extremely hard to resist feeling it when the victims fail to stand up for themselves.

There is the possibility that the Republicans will overplay this particular gambit. Their exposure over the past few years for incompetence, immorality and corruption, both personal and institutional, makes them extremely imperfect messengers for sanctimony, faux or otherwise. But they are still effectively wielding the flag, (or at least the Democratic congress is allowing them to) and until liberals and progressives find a way to thwart this successful tactic, it will continue. At this point the conservatives have little else.

Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris Are Old News: A Totally Different Atheism Is on the Rise, Chris Hall, AlterNet, June 4, 2014

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What I’m Reading, June 9, 2014

Does our and Obama’s Paralysis on Global Warming come from American Exceptionalism? William Espinosa, Informed Comment, June 6, 2014

The problem, I would suggest, goes deeper than the fossil fuel industry or the dysfunction of American politics. The phenomenon of climate change, I believe, challenges some core collective beliefs, provoking deeper anxieties. Consciously and unconsciously, fear drags on our intentions and clouds our thinking. “Fear is the mind-killer,” the Bene-Gesserit warned in Dune. To name a few now-in-doubt precepts:

1. Nations are sovereign within their borders.

2. The United States is an exceptional nation that can always prevail.

3. The US way of life is benign and benefits the world.

4. Consumption is the measure of economic growth and health.

5. God gave humans natural resources for enterprising individuals to exploit.

Frontier values and opportunities still endure.

At least on Earth, climate change threatens to make this last forever untrue and nine billion people can’t become American-type consumers. The United States can’t solve the climate problem at the nation-state level. Our activities have caused harm way beyond our borders and we need everyone’s help—even those whom we have harmed. “We are all Bangladeshi’s now,” as someone memorably put it.

NRA’s constitutional fraud: The truth behind the “right to bear arms”, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, June 2, 2014

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Crowdsurfing Is Not Consent

People should not need to be reminded of this, but the mere fact that a person is crowdsurfing at a concert does not mean that you get to grope them.

I also happen to think that crowdsurfing is dumb, and a great way to hurt yourself and others—plus, I didn’t realize it had endured as a thing past the ’90s. (People don’t mosh anymore, do they?) The no-groping rule stands, regardless.

So anyway, it was refreshing to see that Staind frontman Aaron Lewis (speaking of the ’90s…) stopped a concert mid-song when he saw a young female crowdsurfer getting groped.

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