Blogaround

1. The Performative Sexuality of Matt Walsh (January 19) 8-minute video from Jessie Gender. "Okay, obviously on its face this is the funniest ****ing thing I've seen this man say, and I have seen this man say some really fun, dumb ****, amongst all the horrible horrific fascist nonsense that he says and [transmisic] bullshit."

2. This Cat Is NOT "Totally Normal"!! (January 20) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. Wow, this is amazing. "It's absolute nonsense and yet you can actually find a way through this!"

3. 7 Ways to Be An Ally to Autistic People (January 2) "Joking around and whatever is perfectly fine, but sometimes when I can’t figure out if people are being serious or just joking and ask for a quick clarification, they either refuse to answer or actively make my question part of the banter like it wasn’t meant to be serious.  Don’t do this to people, it’s rude."

4. Google promised to delete location data on abortion clinic visits. It didn’t, study says (January 17, via) "A year and a half has passed since Google first pledged to delete all location data on users’ visits to abortion clinics with minimal progress. The move would have made it harder for law enforcement to use that information to investigate or prosecute people seeking abortions in states where the procedure has been banned or otherwise limited. Now, a new study shows Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases."

5. What It's Like to Be Denied an Abortion in Your State (January 18, via) [content note: pregnancy loss] "I just could not believe it. It was already hard enough dealing with the fact that my baby wasn't going to make it. This was a wanted pregnancy; this was a planned pregnancy."

6. Tim Scott Quoted Fannie Lou Hamer At A Trump Rally And Now I Want To Punch My Fist Through A Wall (January 22) "At that time in Mississippi, if you registered to vote, your name and address ran in the paper for two weeks so the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists could terrorize you if you were Black."

7. Ohio pastor charged for housing the homeless in his church sues city in federal lawsuit (January 24)

8. The Biden Administration Is Ending Bank Overdraft Fees as We Know Them (January 18) "Under the new rule, overdraft fees at large banks will be limited to the service's cost–expected to be as low as $3 per incident. Currently, the typical consumer is charged $35 for each overdraft."

9. Focus on the Family's Scary Stance About Men Jailed for Domestic Violence (January 22) [content note: abuse, domestic violence] "Why is there no testimony from a man saying, 'I learned that trying to control my wife wasn’t okay'?"

10. Take a Hint! How Chinese Officials Are Subtly Promoting Having Children (January 24) "The challenge even prompted the China Family Planning Association — formed in 1980 to help implement the one-child policy — to seek the public’s help in formulating new propaganda slogans for the three-child policy in 2021." Oh yeah that's what we need, propaganda slogans. That'll do it. [/sarcasm]

I find it a bit goofy that this article is framed like "the Chinese government is promoting these images of families with 3 children, hoping it will convince people to have more kids" [my paraphrase, not an exact quote] which is, uh, how shall I put this, obviously ridiculous. Can you imagine any parent being like "well I have 1 child, and WOW childcare is expensive, but oh look here's a statue of a family with 3 children, I should totally have more kids!!!" LOLLLLLL.

It would make a lot more sense to frame it as "Because the one-child policy was in place for 30-some years, in Chinese culture it's now seen as 'normal' to only have 1 child (for example, the typical image of a family is a mom, dad, and 1 child). Now that China has changed to a 3-child policy, the government is trying to promote more images of families with 2-3 children, to show that this should also be seen as 'normal.'" Like not with the expectation that this is going to *convince* people to have more kids (lol what on earth), but simply as a way of helping people see that there can be different sizes of families and that's all fine.

11. Journal Club: Has Virginity Lost Its Virtue? (January 24) "Study 2 took data from a national survey to see how likely people were to consider a relationship with a virgin."

12. Raped, pregnant and in an abortion ban state? Researchers gauge how often it happens (January 24, via) [content note: rape statistics] "As an abortion provider in Montana, Dr. Samuel Dickman has seen patients routinely who tell him they became pregnant after a rape." This study estimates 64,000 pregnancies from rape in states where abortion is banned, since Roe v Wade was overturned.

13. Call for Submissions | February 2024 Carnival of Aros | The Meaning of “Romance” Across Time and Place (January 18) Good topic! I haven't written anything for the Carnival of Aros before, but I will probably write a post for this one, because I have some things to say about the differences in romantic traditions in Chinese and American culture.