Links round-up: Week ending December 17th

[also-warriors.livejournal.com]

Welcome to our weekly links round-up-- and sorry for the unannounced hiatus. This is a compilation of items from the past week that may be of interest to VPers.
As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter. 

This week's round-up includes: Sexual assault survivors and the holidays; a Baptist church takes a stance on same-sex marriage; health does not equal worth; "in rape culture, all men are guilty until proven innocent;" defining and unpacking ADHD; the male gaze in female sterilization marketing

1. Survivors and the Holidays at BARCC (Keywords: US, sexual assault, incest, holidays, family )
   

   The holidays can be an extremely stressful and difficult time for many survivors of sexual assault and rape. In addition to all the previously mentioned stressors of the holidays, they can face many more barriers and anxieties while trying to get through the upcoming holiday heavy weeks.

   
   




2. Pullen Baptist takes a stand for gay marriage at News Observer (Keywords: US, Baptist, Christian, same-sex marriage)
   

   The full congregation of Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church voted Sunday to prohibit the church pastor from legally marrying anyone until she can legally marry same-sex couples under North Carolina law.
   The congregants said in a formal statement that current North Carolina law - and the language proposed for a vote next year on an amendment to the state Constitution - discriminates against same-sex couples "by denying them the rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexual married couples."

   
   




3. Health Does Not Equal Worth at This Ain't Livin' (Keywords: US, health, size, fat, disability)
   

   Believing that ill health makes you less of a person also means that people feel entitled to the health of others. By which I mean that they feel quite comfortable quizzing other people about personal medical issues, and offering unsolicited advice on treatments or lifestyle. They also feel entitled to judge the activities of the people around them, even when those activities have no actual impact on their lives. And even when people are unhealthy, aware of it, and perfectly okay with that fact, with no personal diminished quality of life. A fat person eating a doughnut in Cleveland and deeply enjoying it has absolutely no material effect on my existence, just as an asthmatic who doesn’t adhere to a care plan in Miami doesn’t influence my life in any way.

   
   




4. In Rape Culture, All Men Are Guilty Until Proven Innocent at Good Men Project (Keywords: US, men, rape culture, feminism)
   

   Is it frustrating to be viewed with suspicion merely because of one’s sex? Heck yes. (Is it frustrating to be viewed as a sexual object merely because one is young and female? Ask around.) Men ought to be angry that they need to “prove their harmlessness.” Indeed, they ought to be enraged! But our anger is rightly directed not at women who have been the victims (individually and collectively) of predatory males, but at those men who have “poisoned the well” for everyone else. Rather than demand that women “smile more” or “trust more” or “just know that I’m a good guy,” men need to channel their frustration at being “pre-judged” into a commitment to end what it is that causes women’s suspicion in the first place.

   
   




5. Defining and Unpacking ADHD at the distant panic (Keywords: US, mental health, ADHD, disability)
   

   This is the easiest way I can explain how ADHD affects me: My brain moves faster than I can manage or contain. Intrusive thoughts pop into my head in such quick succession that I can lose command over them entirely. Every single thing I see or hear or do immediately makes me think of something else. It’s like an endless, nonconsensual game of word association playing constantly in my head.

   
   




6. The Male Gaze in Female Sterilization Marketing at Sociological Images (Keywords: US, sterilization, media, male gaze)
   

   Using male fears about having their scrotums operated on, the appeal of female sterilization over vasectomies is made clear. “Let’s face it: when it comes to their balls, guys just don’t have any… Essure: because you can only wait so long for him to man up.” While the narrator is addressing potential female consumers, the gaze is again fixed on the (unwanted) male experience of sterilization. Her experience of the surgical and emotional process of sterilization is erased, meanwhile indulging men’s fears is used as justification for forcing women to take responsibility for birth control.

   
   

What have you been reading (or writing!) this week?

If you'd like to see an article included in next week's round-up, send me an e-mail at recidivist@vaginapagina.com . Non-US and positive links are especially appreciated. (I can't fit all the awesome links people send, but I'll try to post any that I don't include to Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter.) You can also just take matters into your own hands and post in the comments!

Comments

[also-warriors.livejournal.com]

I know I'm going to find a lot more links I set aside for the round-up but I have to go to work and I figured a little was better than nothing!

[joshuaorrizonte.livejournal.com]

I just want to warn people about the comments in the rape culture article. The article itself is amazing. The comments are full of disgusting misogyny (and rape culture).

[joshuaorrizonte.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Yet somehow, I still never remember to never read the comments until AFTER I do...

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

Me too. There's always that little, ridiculous hope that maybe the interesting discussion will continue in the comments.

[timesofsplendor.livejournal.com]

I make this mistake all the time!

[polylizzy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the article on ADHD. It is painfully difficult to explain to people just WHY i cant "just do" the things they think I should be doing.

Keywords: Gender, education, children, non-binary, gender-variant, US

[slinkslowdown.livejournal.com]

It's OK To Be Neither (http://rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_01/26_01_tempel.shtml): Teaching that supports gender-varient children.

A very positive and heartwarming story from a teacher who's striving to make her young students realize that being different--in any and all ways--is okay.

Re: Keywords: Gender, education, children, non-binary, gender-variant, US

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a great story. I wonder if the teacher has had any backlash from parents. Sounds like some have been supportive - I wonder if others have been uncomfortable and how she's dealt with that.

I'm always fascinated with the ways in which traditional manifestations of femininity or masculinity do or don't interplay with gender identity. The idea of calling Allie "gender variant" seemed a little odd to me, since she seemed clear that she was a girl. I certainly get what they mean...I guess I'm uncomfortable with the idea that a woman or girl who likes "masculine" things is automatically gender variant. (And I'm not really sure if I'm even making sense here!)

[frolicnaked.livejournal.com]

Mostly, what I've been writing in the past week:

Jiggles (http://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/jiggles/) [TW fat hate, street harassment] -- At the bus stop, some guy thwacked my arm because he thought it would jiggle.

Another Queer Q&A (http://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/another-queer-qa/) [TW homophobia] -- Issues surrounding realizing queerness in an intolerant religious community.

A Queer Tumblr Crosspost (http://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/a-queer-tumblr-cross-post/) [TW homophobia] -- On the interplay between sexuality and socialization.

Hiding: Now (http://anytimeyoga.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/hiding-now/) [also some fat issues] -- On exercising in public while fat.

[nightchild01.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting. I really enjoyed the rape culture and health =/= worth articles.

[sweetchild92.livejournal.com]

Love that they show guys being grossed out by a vasectomy procedure...but don't show them one of a tubal ligation or essure. Part of my negativity is also coming from uterus bearers being made to be fully responsible for birth control all throughout, be expected to put up with whatever side effects come out of it...and even at the ~end, it's still not something the man is willing to do (in the advertisement).

abortion, mental health, unwanted pregnancy

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

A new British meta study has shown that negative mental health outcomes are more closely related the circumstance surrounding a pregnancy, than whether the pregnancy is continued to term: abortionreview.org/index.php/site/article/1089/