Do I Really Even Have to Say Anything?

At the library

At the library yesterday, a young girl came up to me holding a picture book, The Princess Knight by Cornelia Funke.

She asked me whether the picture on the cover was of a girl.

I said that it certainly was a girl on the cover.

She responded, "That's weird," and walked away.

I'm not sure whether to be happy that this book exists or sad that it's still considered weird for girls to be portrayed doing non-traditional things.

Sexist Eating Disorders Awareness Campaign

A few weeks ago, signs went up in our college's dining center.

They read as following:

For information about or help with an eating disorder, please call CAPS [Counseling and Psychological Services] at [phone number redacted] to arrange for a consultation with a counselor.

Pretty good advice, right?

There's just one problem with this campaign.

These signs were only put in the women's restroom.

As if only women had eating disorders, all women were at increased risk of eating disorders, and only women could be concerned about someone with a possible eating disorder.

While it is true that the majority of people with diagnosed eating disorders are female, even conservative numbers estimate that 5 to 10 percent of patients diagnosed with anorexia and 10 to 15 percent of patients diagnosed with bulimia are male,¹ with one Harvard University study showing that up to 25 percent of patients with these disorders are male.² In addition, males account for 40 percent of individuals with binge eating disorder.³

In other words, even the most conservative numbers estimate that 1 in 20 people diagnosed with eating disorders are male. Not to mention that these numbers only reflect the number of people diagnosed with eating disorders, and the true rate of incidence is probably much higher. Men are less likely to seek help for eating disorders due to the stigma of them being perceived as "women's diseases," and are less likely to be diagnosed with them for similar reasons.⁴

In light of these numbers, why did Psych Services only see fit to put these signs in the women's restroom?

Because no matter what the numbers say, people think that eating disorders only affect women. Because people think that only women are affected by images in the media and only women care about their appearance. Because people think that men who struggle with these issues don't exist.

I'm sick and tired of this kind of thinking. This is going to sound heretical on a feminist blog, but we need to acknowledge that men have problems too. We need to acknowledge that the kyriarchy hurts everyone, women and men alike.

As an aside, one of my female friends hasn't used the women's bathroom in the dining center since these signs went up. I must condemn any action which makes people uncomfortable using the toilet facilities to which they are entitled.

This campaign excludes people who might be affected by eating disorders, reinforces harmful stereotypes, and makes people uncomfortable using the restroom.

Surely there's a better way to go about this.



1. Braun, Devra Lynn. "Eating Disorders in Males." Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health eJournal. 1997;2(2).

2. Hudson, James I. et al. "The Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication." Biol Psychiatry. 1 Feb. 2007; 61(3): 348–358.

3. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. "Binge Eating Disorder." June 2008. Accessed 19 Apr. 2010. http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/binge.htm

4. "Men Less Likely to Seek Help for Eating Disorders." Mental Health Weekly 9 Apr. 2001.

Hey Google...

Why haven't you put up a Google doodle for International Women's Day?

But you did for Vivaldi's 332nd birthday a couple of days ago?

I mean, 322's not even a round number...

WTF Utah?

First, read this article: Utah Bill Would Criminalize Illegal Abortions (NY Times)

Now that you're all back with me...

WTF Utah? Let's make every miscarriage a potential criminal investigation. Because miscarriage isn't painful and stressful enough as it is. Let's make every child-bearing woman in the state of Utah a potential criminal suspect. 10 to 20 percent of all known pregnancies end in miscarriage.¹ Is Utah going to investigate all of them? Make sure the woman wasn't doing anything untoward in the days before she miscarried? Take the women down to the station and grill them while they're grieving and trying to figure out if there was anything they could have done to prevent it?

Also, if you're seeking an illegal abortion, that's a pretty good sign that you don't have access to a legal one. Whether that's because you don't have the money, you're underage, you're fearful of what would happen if husband/boyfriend/family/pastor/neighbors/etc. found out, you don't have an abortion provider in your community, or any other reason, that's not cool. Please. No more back-alley abortions. No more coathangers. Safe, legal abortion for all women who choose to have one, and a society that allows that choice to be a completely free one.

If you live in Utah (or even if you don't), contact Governor Gary R. Herbert to urge him to veto this bill. You can fill out the contact form at http://governor.utah.gov/goca/form_comment.html, or call him at 801-538-1000 or 800-705-2464.

1. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/miscarriage/DS01105

From the ACBs

Two threads on the Haverford College ACBS:

Attractive, sweet guys who aren't tremendously self-absorbed
Attractive, cute girls who aren't tremendously self-absorbed

Why are the guys sweet, but the girls cute?

Why are the girls' personalities being erased from the discussion?

I know that one doesn't turn to the ACBs for enlightened discussion, but this just seemed a little strange to me, especially as the "cute girls" thread was created as a response to the "sweet guys" one. Why did the person creating the thread change the qualifications in the title, instead of directly copying over the title and just changing "guys" to "girls"?

I'm assuming no malicious intent, but this just shows the different qualifications society has for girls and guys. Guys have to have a personality, guys have to be nice, guys have to have something going for them other than looks. Girls don't have that "problem." They just have to look nice. Being a whole human being not required.

Gift Guide Fail

I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the following article: Gizmodo's "Gifts for Significant Others Neglected By Tech-Addicted Lovers".

Does anyone see the obvious fail in the article? Hint: what gender is the significant other?

Of course! Even though the article is ostensibly about "significant others" and "lovers," gender non-specific terms, it's really about what guys should get their girlfriends for Christmas (It actually admits this in the url: http://gizmodo.com/5416345/8-gifts-for-girlfriends-neglected-by-tech+addicted-boyfriends). Because of course only guys are tech-obsessed, and of course all girls are intimidated by technology. Thanks for reminding me of that, I had forgotten while I was busy blogging (using the HTML editor, not the WYSIWYG one) on my laptop and trying to figure out the cheapest source for a barcode scanner and a free database with good metadata that I can use to catalogue our library.

Also, some of the specific advice in the article bugs me too:

23andMe: What better way to make up for neglecting your girlfriend than by giving her the most personal gift possible: a detailed analysis of her genetic code. She'll be able to learn about her descendants as well as get clued in on what sorts of diseases she needs to look out for in the future. And as an added bonus, all that data she'll get will require a good amount of time for her to go through. Time you can spend playing video games.

So instead of spending time with your girlfriend, have some website give her a dense packet of all the ways her genes could kill her, so you can have more time to play video games? If you don't want to spend time with her, why are you going out in the first place? Also, where were you planning to get the DNA sample for them to analyze? Were you going to ask her first? This is getting into serious creepy and invasion of privacy and personal autonomy areas.

Classmates.com membership: Nothing will make her appreciate your half-assed brand of boyfriending like a trip down ex-boyfriend lane, especially the high school sections. Look, you might not be able to make it through a dinner without dicking around with your phone, but at least you didn't get fat and never leave your hometown like these schlubs. Here's to being the most palatable of an unpalatable group!

Great, so instead of giving a gift that shows any consideration of what she actually wants, buy her a membership to a website under the assumption that you'll look good in comparison to people from her past. Why bother actually being considerate when you can settle for not-as-bad-as-your-ex-right-honey instead? Ever occur to you that maybe if you're practicing a "half-assed brand of boyfriending" and can't "make it through dinner without dicking around with your phone," that maybe you should shape up and be a decent human being?

Asus O!Play: Getting a gadget for a gadget-wary girl might seem like an obvious blunder, but think about it: with this thing, you can stream downloaded movies and TV shows to your TV that you can watch together! As long as you are well prepared with some of her favorite movies and shows, you'll be able to sneak in some gadget-lust fulfillment in a way that you can enjoy it together instead of by yourself. A novel thought!

Let's all repeat, the purpose of gift-giving is to give something that the recipient will like and enjoy, not something you want for yourself. Purchasing something for yourself and pretending that it's for your girlfriend doesn't count.

Don't get me started on the heteronormativity of the article, how it assumes that in any partnership where one member is tech-obsessed and the other is less so, that it must necessarily be a heterosexual couple. Or actually, that it assumes that all couples are heterosexual.

So in summary, all couples are boy-girl, all girls are intimidated by technology, and all tech-geeks are male, selfish, socially dysfunctional, and terrible boyfriends.

Thank you, Gizmodo, I don't think I'll be taking any more of your advice. Come back and we'll talk when your perceptions of people have caught up to the twenty-first century, not just your gadget recommendations.

Repost - What happened to Hope Witsell

Reposting this from Sylvia Has A Problem because everyone should read it.

And then get mad.

I have days where I want to tear down this entire sex-negative, kyriarchical, repressive culture of ours and start over. Reading this is one of those days.

I cannot express how angry this makes me.

Hope Witsell was thirteen.

Let that sink in for a minute. Thirteen years old. Eighth grade. Driven to suicide by sex-negativity, bullying, and victim-blaming.

Sex-negativity kills people. Bullying kills people. Victim-blaming kills people.

This makes me sick.

Please, let's build a society where this never happens again. Ever.



Obligatory resource list:

Please, if you're thinking about suicide, get help. It will get better, I promise.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (TTY): 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)
Hopelink: 1-800-SUICIDE (1.800.784.2433)
The Trevor Helpline (LGBTQ youth): 866-4-U-TREVOR (488-7386)
Covenant House Youth Crisis Line: 1-800-999-9999

Hanging Christmas Lights x Biology

Today, we hung Christmas lights on our dorm entrance. In addition to the fun of hanging in and out of three separate windows on the second floor, we encountered the everlasting problem of how to refer to the ends of the strands of lights.

Male and female? Seemed much too sexist and biological essentialist for our liking.
Thingie and other thingie? Definitely not specific enough.
Indented and convex? Not ideal.
Having essential electrical contacts and lacking essential electrical contacts? Not accurate, and further privileging male genitalia.

The best we came up with was giver and receptor, which I'm still not happy about.

Any better suggestions?