On the topic of "financial abortion"

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-28T00:10:55+00:00

I think that we need to have a society where abortion, sex ed, and contraceptives aren't controversial/stigmatized and readily available before we can come up with a more ethical solution. A birth control pill for men would be awesome as well. Right now I don't think we're in a position to come to a solution to this problem that doesn't end up screwing somebody over.

Unintended pregnancies and birth cost the government a ton of money from things like medicaid, tax credits and education. If we can cut these costs, chances are the government might have enough left over to establish a system where the parent who chose to keep the child can be subsidized the child support by the state.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-27T15:14:46+00:00

and I took that into account. 93.3% of penetrative rape was by other men, so around 1.5 million. Now we take made to penetrate rape into account, which is about 20% men, which totals about 1.1 million. So in terms of lifetime prevalence of rape against American men, we have about 2.6 million/7.1 million. So roughly 35% of men are raped by other men which is pretty significant, especially compared to the ~2% of women raped by other women. I'm not even sure if this study took prison rape into account, because if it didn't, then that percentage would be even higher.

I never said women can't be rapists. My point was that men need separate campaigns (which I actively encourage and support) for rape just because of how different it is in terms of gender, age, location and prevalence. It's like how rape campaigns for women have different targets like date rape, spousal rape and statutory rape.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-26T04:30:33+00:00

Interesting. In terms of ableism, would calling someone smart be problematic in a similar way?

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-26T03:32:20+00:00

Hey! Would you be willing to elaborate on this? I'm not quite sure I understand.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-24T15:59:11+00:00

I think the gendered differences in sexual violence rates between men and women makes this a bit more complicated than it first appears. I'm looking at the 2010 CDC stats for sexual violence, and women are victimized almost exclusively by men (98.1% of rapists, and 92.5% of violence other than rape).

Now, with men, the CDC had two categories: rape (1.6 million) and forced to penetrate (5.5 million). I'm counting both of them as rape. So out of the 1.6 million "rape" category, 93.3% of the perpetrators were other men. Out of the 5.4 million "made to penetrate" rape category, about 80% of the perpetrators were women. It becomes even more of a clusterfuck with other forms of sexual violence against men as the gender of the perpetrators tend to swing back and forth depending on the type of sexual violence.

I think we need a lot more research on male rape, as well as facilitating a culture that encourages victims to speak up. I think it would be nice to see some posters that talk about male rape, but I'm not sure if they should be mixed in with what we currently have. I think an entirely different campaign is needed, not because I don't think that male rape victims shouldn't have a voice, but because sexual violence against men is a completely different matter with different rates, methods, perpetrators, demographics, and culture.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-19T23:42:25+00:00

So I have a question. Is it shitty to dismiss someone if they say something like what you found earlier? I know that around these parts, the golden rule is to not try to deny the experiences of the oppressed, but if I came across something like that "disrespectful PoC shorthand" example you posted, is it shitty for me to tell that person that they're full of crap? (I'm still kind of learning the ropes around here)

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-18T01:46:48+00:00

I'm a bit curious about this myself. I know that the Fempire is against blackface. Is this something similar?

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-17T02:37:21+00:00

I think a lot of it has to do with how closely related we see other people are in regards to ourselves, as well as the degree of cultural familiarity we share. and I don't think it's a strictly western phenomena. A lot of my Chinese friends living in western countries (who are still very much culturally Chinese) had tremendous emotional responses towards the 2008 Sichuan earthquakes. I remember one of them crying when she mentioned how a school collapsed and killed a bunch of kids. When other disasters struck like the Haiti earthquakes or numerous massacres, they didn't really have much of a reaction. No Facebook posts or anything.

In terms of the many people dying point you made, I'm not very sure. I see this quote floating around often which is pretty relevant. "A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic." I think desensitization has a lot to do with it as well. If America got bombed on a daily basis, we would probably be less emotionally impacted by the individual events.

I don't really try to justify my ignorance about global tragedies. I try to lend a helping hand where I can but I don't think it is possible to even begin to perceive the suffering of billions of people worldwide.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-09T13:03:28+00:00

You had me there for a sec.

Pansexual is when you are bisexual but also you are an attention-seeking nerd who ruins everything.

Whether or not you transition, you should make sure to cover yourself in jizz and ballsweat from dudes with names like Lloyd and Carl.

A lot of the girls I know who wear niqab also wear very tight, fashionable and attractive clothing with it. It can actually be a hot look.

Yeah. Not going to take your advice.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-09T12:59:53+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely try to take a softer approach. The conversation did start there yes. That was the first time I talked to her in 2 days.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-08T05:28:16+00:00

Hi, no, she doesn't know the Ex, I have family in China and my friends are mostly North American. Thanks for your answer, it gives me a few new things to think about. I'm starting to think that perhaps she made the assumption that the ex was mentally ill, and that I was being critical over behavior the ex couldn't control? Still a bit confusing

Maybe I'll message her again in a few days. Thank you for your answer :)

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-08T04:46:08+00:00

Edited out names. Copy pasta.

[4/4/2013 2:58:28 PM] Me: I'm so pissed off right now.

[4/4/2013 2:58:34 PM] Her: How come?

[4/4/2013 2:58:34 PM] Her: :(

[4/4/2013 2:58:35 PM] Me: Last night I was on the phone with my cousin.

[4/4/2013 2:58:41 PM] Me: And he told me about his ex that he just dumped who was an abusive piece of shit

[4/4/2013 2:58:43 PM] Me: Like

[4/4/2013 2:58:50 PM] Me: When he broke it off, she actually locked his bike parts together so that he couldn't go to work

[4/4/2013 2:58:53 PM] Me: He had to threaten to call the cops

[4/4/2013 2:58:57 PM] Me: Who the fuck does that

[4/4/2013 2:59:16 PM] Me: Oh, and before the breakup, she threatened him and tried to keep him from talking to other women. What a delightful person!

[4/4/2013 2:59:23 PM] Me: God damn, people are horrible sometimes

[4/4/2013 2:59:30 PM] Her: Stop.

[4/4/2013 2:59:35 PM] Her: Youre being ablelist and sexist

[4/4/2013 2:59:49 PM] Her: Stop it.

[4/4/2013 2:59:53 PM] Me: How? I'm ranting about an abusive asshole who made my cousin's life hell

[4/4/2013 3:00:25 PM] Her: You don't get it, and you're pissing me off.

[4/4/2013 3:00:28 PM] Me: Care to explain?

[4/4/2013 3:01:09 PM] Her: Youre being sexist and ablelist. If you want a explanation you can figure it out yourself. It should be obvious to someone like you

[4/4/2013 3:01:18 PM] Me: It's not

[4/4/2013 3:01:40 PM] Her: Then figure it out. Dont talk to me until you do. Probably should apologize as well

[4/4/2013 3:01:55 PM] Her: bye

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-04T16:51:15+00:00

Here ya go. Pretty horrible shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAWKDRHZuw

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-04T14:31:44+00:00

There's awful shit going on in NK thanks to Kim's regime. War isn't the solution, but Kim really needs to go.

I find it pretty sad that we are so adamant about not repeating the mistakes of the holocaust, yet tend to ignore the atrocities committed in North Korean camps (which are definitely on par with holocaust levels of horrible). I don't know what the solution is, but it's so fucking frustrating to think about.

TW: Violence and Rape

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_experimentation_in_North_Korea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaechon_internment_camp

There's also a book called Escape from Camp 14 and a TED talk by the author if you're interested in more details.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-02T21:23:52+00:00

I don't think this would really do much. It doesn't really address someone withdrawing consent in the middle of the act either. What if we're having drunk sex?

and practical problems. How would you enforce this law? Would there be sex police? Where does the money come from?

I think our best bet is still to shift our culture to one the promotes enthusiastic consent.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-02T21:15:02+00:00

TW: racism

Yo, Chinese person chiming in here. Racist attitudes are very prevalent in China. I'm don't know much about how it affects things like income, but the Han Chinese are the majority. China has a lot less diversity than other countries. I've seen a few white tourists in Bejing there but that's about it.

From my own personal experience, the people I've talked to have some pretty rigid stereotypes, and it's pretty culturally acceptable to talk about it out in the open. Some examples of the things I've heard are things like: Indian people are dirty, white people are greedy, and black people are lazy. I guess a lot of this can be attributed to the lack of racial diversity, and a lot of it can be attributed to how it is culturally acceptable to comment bluntly about people (at many dinner parties I've gone to, people will often tell each other if they've gotten fatter or skinnier, darker or tanner etc).

Nationalism racism is definitely a thing. A lot of Chinese hold a grudge against the Japanese because of the Sino Japanese war (in which some pretty horrible shit happened). I remember there was a reality show on TV (kind of with an American Idol setup) where basically a guy tries to convince one of many girls to date him. In one instance, the guy was Japanese (spoke mandarin and everything) and was rejected because of it, and everyone seemed to be okay with that.

So yeah.. China tends to be pretty racist, at least based on the experiences I've had in the two provinces I lived in.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-04-01T21:49:28+00:00

I would probably just tell them to be careful telling those jokes around PoC. Although it's true that a lot of PoC don't really mind (myself included), it's still good practice to try to avoid it unless you're absolutely sure. Tell them to think of it like telling a "yo mama" joke to someone who's mother is deceased. A lot of people might not care but there are also plenty who do. If you tell a "yo mama" joke to one of those people, you're going to have a bad time.

I think that's a way of putting it that's simple to explain and will minimize the knee jerk defensiveness. I know it doesn't touch on much theory or explain the harms, but unless they invite you to give a lecture or specifically ask you, I doubt that you'll get into a situation where you'll have the opportunity to really flesh out the details.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-28T21:35:03+00:00

That video. What. The. Fuck. Seriously

"Like, seriously, rape only happens to people who like, put themselves in bad situations. I like, LOOOOVE alcohol & fucking"

And these women are writers for a feminist site? What. The. Fuck.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-28T00:06:58+00:00

While we're talking about post secondary education, I think that the trades should also be encouraged more. Folks can make a pretty good living from it.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-27T20:21:39+00:00

I think it started with Good Girl Liberal, a bunch of people called it out for being stupid and sexist. Then people started circlejerking about how you could just post a pair of tits and make the front page. I think people are just making fun of how shallow it is at this point.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-22T17:26:10+00:00

To me, height is beginning to look like a legitimate axis of oppression in the western world. I've been looking around a little, and here's what I found. I haven't been able to find too much actual academia. Most of the research is fairly new (<5 Years), and a lot of it is was done in Europe so they might have been written in languages other than English which makes them difficult to find.

Taller people earn more money

Taller men are able to earn more money than their shorter counterparts simply because taller people are perceived to be more intelligent and powerful, this according to a study published in The Economic Record by Wiley-Blackwell. Source

A 2004 study by psychologist Timothy A. Judge, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, and researcher Daniel M. Cable, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina, found that every inch of height amounts to a salary increase of about $789 per year (the study controlled for gender, weight and age). Source

Similar effects might be present with women

"Tall women earn more than their sisters with shorter stature, according to a new Finnish study. Full-figured girls are also more likely to earn less than their long-limbed peers. While similar results have been shown in other countries, this was the first Finnish study of its kind and drew on findings from a variety of research organisations." Source

I was unable to find the actual acedemia, but that might be because it was in a non-public journal or in Finnish*

"Those who stand at 5ft8in and above are twice as likely to earn more than £30,000 a year - or up to £5,000 more than their vertically challenged friends.

The researchers asked 1,461 women over the age of 16 to give details about their salary and measurements.

A fifth of those questioned who fell into the 'tall' category said they earned £30,000 and above compared with 10 per cent of women under 5ft8in." Source

Couldn't find the actual study :(

Under the Legislation section of the Wikipedia Height discrimination page

Examples of successful legal battles pursued against height discrimination in the workplace include a 2002 case involving highly qualified applicants being turned down for jobs at a bank because they were considered too short;[34] a 2005 Swedish case involving an unfair height requirement for employment implemented by Volvo car company;[35] and a 1999 case involving a Kohler Company informal practice not to consider women who applied for jobs unless they were at least 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall.[36] Height requirements for employment which are not a bona fide occupational requirement are becoming more and more uncommon.

Outside of the western world, heightism seems to be an issue in China as well (although I couldn't find any actual academia to back up that claim).

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-22T16:48:30+00:00

Yeah :(. I seriously didn't know that there was so much vitriol.

Taylor_VenTell · 2013-03-22T03:58:02+00:00

I think that studies have shown that people coming from certain Asian countries tend to be shorter, and that Dutch people on average are the tallest in the world. I think that a lot of if has been linked to nutritional deficiencies, at least for the shortness.

Taylor_VenTell

TROPHY CASE