When a man claims that he would be delighted if the roles were reversed in harassment, he is not actually thinking of what it is like to be a woman walking down the street–he is thinking of what it is like to be a man walking down the street, with all the physical security and social privilege that comes with being a man, enjoying the compliments of what must surely be, in this scenario, women he does not find repulsive or threatening. In other words, a man with this response to street harassment is imagining only a formal reversal of roles, holding constant everything about his experience of being a man except for the fact that he is the object of sexual attention.
~ Mary Ann Franks
Day: June 22, 2016
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It really, REALLY bothers me when I hear people frame climate change and other environmental crises as something that everyday, average-ass people are responsible for, and not corporations and entire governments.
Like literally, how can a regular-ass person ~opt out~ of all damaging behaviors while still being able to function in society?
You literally can’t.
The future of our planet is not down to whether or not someone recycles their water bottle.
It’s down to whether or not governments and corporations decide to quit sucking up all our resources and poisoning the earth with reckless abandon.
I mean obviously people should still live as cleanly and as sustainably as they can manage where they are and with what they have, but like. THAT isn’t the major issue.
govts and corporations have deliberately put the onus on yr individual choices so the system can continue being as destructive/profitable
God bless this post this pisses me off so much
Also this hyper-individualist shift of responsibility is largely an American thing and consumerism is framed as a solution- e.g., buy more shit that’s sustainable! That’ll fix the problem (buy a new, green water bottle! buy a new, green car! buy a new, green whatever-the-fuck that’ll just ultimately produce more waste)!
I took a course in sustainable engineering.
The professor mentioned that even if every private individual in the world were to conserve resources and the environment the ol’ Jimmy Carter way- by turning down the thermostat, recycling your glass and plastics and metals, cut down on luxuries, take shorter showers, etc., it would only get us 10% of the way to where we need to be in order to avoid global catastrophic climate change.
The vast majority of freshwater use is from industry and agriculture. http://www.worldometers.info/water/
The vast majority of CO2 emissions is from industrial and electrical generation sites and associated vehicles. http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html
Private individuals hardly make a dent, even in ideal conditions.
Thank you.
On the other hand,
– Opting to buy an appallingly inefficient SUV which requires many more resources in its manufacture, then uses more petrol/gasoline than a smaller vehicle for its entire lifespan, then trading it in at only a couple of years old for another one? Bearing in mind that each gallon of gasoline *also* contains a vast amount of embodied electricity (petrol refineries use terrifying amounts of energy that’s rarely factored in when calculating efficiency of vehicles)…
– Buying tons and tons of consumerist crap
– Throwing away around 50% of your food…
…all of this encourages and strengthens these companies. I’m not so naive as to believe that you individuals-acting-individually will change things. But removing the demand, and pushing companies to change is the only way we’ll get anywhere. As long as everyone still buys their crap, they’ll keep making and pushing it.
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Gordon Werner on Twitter
PAID I-1515 SIGNATURE GATHERERS ARE TELLING PEOPLE THAT IT’S A PRO-TRANS-RIGHTS INITIATIVE, RELYING ON COMPLETE IGNORANCE – DON’T FALL FOR IT, DON’T BE STUPID, REPORT IT IF YOU SEE IT.
In real life, I-1515 is a vicious anti-queer initiative that actually targets trans kids with abuse and puts a $2500 bounty on their heads and I am not even making that up.
IF YOU SEE IT, SAY SOMETHING.
AND SHARE THIS LIKE FUCKING WILDFIRE, THIS HAS TO GET OUT, PARTICULARLY TO APATHETIC DEMI-POLITICAL FRIENDS.
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Well this is horrifying.
I want to vomit
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Yall missing out
More specifically, I sleep without visions of gratuitous rape and violence in my head
Yup.
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PLEASE DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE ME BEFORE YOU. It is incredibly ableist and honestly insulting to the disability community. You want to know why I’m so upset about this movie? When i was about 8 i was doing a back handspring out in my yard and considering i did acrobatics it wasn’t a big deal. However, this time was different, i made a positioning error and would up landing on my neck. When i tried to get up i couldn’t, my legs and arms wouldn’t move. I started screaming and crying and my friends ran to go get help. I remember everything about what happened: my parents on the phone with 911, being in the ambulance, at the hospital in a neck brace getting all sorts of scans and tests done. I remember laying in my hospital bed being quadriplegic and absolutely terrified. My parents thought i would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life and so did my doctors. It was a miracle when feeling came back into my arms and legs. For those of you who do not know the plot of the movie/book it’s about a man who comes from a wealthy family and is in a horrible accident leaving him quadriplegic. He wants to end his life but his family promises to give him 6 more months and if he’s not happy by then he can end his life. During these 6 months he meets a new caretaker and falls in love with her. The trailers of this movie make it seem as though once he meets her life is better and he is finally happy. However, at the end of the movie he winds up having an assisted suicide his family is happy they no longer need to care for him and he leaves this girl a bunch of money so she can travel and “live boldly” as the movie puts it and it is portrayed as benefiting everyone. All i can think of is some scared little girl in a hospital bed paralyzed watching this movie because she thinks he finds happiness when really he ends his life. I’ve seen posts in the support group i run from disabled people saying this movie plot makes them want to end their lives. Not only that, i received a message on my blog yesterday from a young girl telling me she read the plot of the movie and it made her want to end her life, i talked her out of it luckily but what this movie is doing to the disabled community is horrific. Not only does this movie romanticize suicide it is making others who are disabled want to end their lives as well. If you see this movie you are feeding into the ideology that people who are disabled should all end their lives and the world is better without us. Don’t go pay to see this movie, it’s bad enough this is already a book.
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Australian comedian Jim Jefferies points out the ridiculousness of American pro-gun arguments. x x
*at the time of this performance, the Port Arthur massacre that resulted in 35 killed and 23 wounded was the worst mass shooting in history.
Funny. And also sobering. Cause I guess that every time we want to change something big in our constitution, we’ll need to have a civil war.
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Trevor Noah: Lost in Translation
This man is great, glad they let him host the daily show
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Breadsperimentation
So I’m still working on some kind of bread recipe that’s a bit like decent British bread, until I feel like doing something more sourdoughy.
After various experiments I’ve had the most success playing with this recipe.
1 cup warm water (tepid)
2 tablespoons sugar (trying a variety of things – thinking I might try molasses next)
2.5 teaspoons active dried yeast1/4 cup oil (used vegetable, as in the original recipe – now trying olive)
2 cups white bread flour
1/2 cup (ish) brown bread flour
1/2 cup (ish) spelt flour
Perhaps a dash of wheat gluten
1 teaspoon saltPlace the water, sugar and yeast in the pan. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add in oil, flours, gluten if using, and salt to the yeast and press start.
This makes a lightish loaf which isn’t structurally great but tastes nicer than the stuff we’ve bought. It’s kind of like a fair-quality UK supermarket loaf. Hardly amazing, but nicer than anything I’ve managed to find in the supermarket here.
I killed my sourdough, largely because it never seemed to be very exciting. I’d like to get in to making sourdough properly, rather than in the breadmaker, but haven’t quite summoned the energy. With shift work, sourdough’s a little tricky to keep alive and enthusiastic.