Blogaround

1. Disney wants a wrongful death lawsuit thrown out because the plaintiff had Disney+ (August 14, via) "'The notion that terms agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer's right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this Court should not enforce such an agreement,' they wrote."

2. Imane Khelif files legal complaint for harassment over gender controversy (August 10) "Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is officially filing an online harassment complaint after getting caught up in a 'gender controversy' involving several news outlets and celebrities claiming that Khelif is transgender, which she is not."

3. In China, Drones Are Now Delivering Takeout to the Great Wall (August 19) "Instead, drones will fly along a fixed route from a depot to a landing site on the wall, with delivery workers hauling the packages from the merchants to the depot and then from the landing site to the customers."

4. WATCH: With a DJ spinning, states pledge delegates for Harris at 2024 Democratic National Convention (August 21) I'm linking to timestamp 7:51 here, where the representatives from Democrats Abroad cast their votes for Kamala Harris. Yes! Democrats Abroad represent! Go to votefromabroad.org to register to vote!

5. Black Myth: Wukong. This is a video game which was just released, and my husband is SO EXCITED about it. It's based on Chinese mythology- you play as Sun Wokong, the monkey king, from the classic Chinese story "Journey to the West." My husband is Chinese and plays a lot of video games, and he's very excited to finally have a game about Chinese culture, made by a Chinese company. Awesome!

6. Angry confessions (August 20) "I wind up shouting because I see others doing regrettable things that I personally regret and I want them to understand that they will come to regret it as well." (A post about being formerly "pro-life.")

7. Uterus transplant trial ends with bundles of joy (August 18, via) Wow this is amazing!

Blogaround

1. This tweet

you miss a lot of the gospel if you think the feeding of the 5,000 was just to prove jesus can do miracles instead of people shouldn’t go hungry

— Mason Mennenga (@masonmennenga) August 8, 2024

2. Pro-Trump Republicans should think twice about ridiculing ‘Tampon Tim’ (August 9) Yeah, apparently Republicans are mocking Tim Walz and calling him "Tampon Tim"? (Because of a law he made that school restrooms need to have free tampons/pads available.) Not sure how many Republicans are doing this- I don't want to misrepresent them and say it's a huge proportion of them, when maybe it's not. 

But anyway. This is just so ridiculous to think that "Tampon Tim" is an insult. Everyone who has periods has been in a situation where you need a pad or tampon and you don't have one, and it's so awkward and embarrassing. You have to go around asking other girls if they have one- worst case is if you don't know anyone and you have to ask strangers. This is a real thing we have all experienced, and it's very obvious how much of a GOOD THING it would be to have free tampons and pads available in public restrooms, and some Republicans on the internet are treating it like it's weird and gross?

This reminds me of that genre of joke about men being embarrassed to go to the grocery store and buy pads/tampons for their female partners. Supposedly that's so embarrassing and unmanly and you should never ask a man to do that for you. Come on, what on earth. Why are some men so weird about this, to the extent that it's a whole genre of joke? My dad was never weird about that- my sisters and I would just tell him which specific ones we needed, and he would do his best to find them, and there wasn't anything awkward about it. It's just a thing that you need. There's no reason to make a big deal about it. There's no reason a man can't go buy it for you if you need it. Come on, are these men afraid that the cashier is going to judge them and think they are unmanly or something? Don't you think the cashier is going to think "oh I guess he has a wife/girlfriend/daughter who needs these" which is completely normal and not a cause for embarrassment at all. (Or, more likely, the cashier does not care even one bit.) Fellas, is it gay to have a girlfriend who menstruates?

Anyway, that's what I think about this "Tampon Tim" meme- it's a very normal boring thing that people need, it's not some salacious scandalous forbidden item. Anybody who thinks "Tampon Tim" is an insult is just announcing to the world how ignorant they are about women's bodies and women's lives.

3. The Paris Olympics in Photos (August 12) Photos of Chinese athletes at the Olympics.

4. Samuel L Jackson invites YOU TO VOTE FROM ABROAD (August 14) Yes! I love this! Samuel L. Jackson is looking out for immigrants like me~ Vote vote vote!

5. More delays for astronauts stuck in space as Nasa ponders return (August 14) "The latter would turn an eight-day mission into eight-month trip." This is WILD. There are literally people stuck in space right now.

6. Apple’s requirements are about to hit creators and fans on Patreon. Here’s what you need to know. (August 12, via) What on EARTH. Apple is going to start taking a 30% cut if you use the Patreon app on iOS. !!!!! That is messed-up! If you subscribe to anyone's Patreon, definitely do it on Android or in a browser, not on an iPhone app.

(Oh hai did I ever mention I have a Patreon?)

7. “In Bible Times They’d Break a Lamb’s Leg–” (July 28) "The single instance story is, admittedly, hard to disprove. There may be some stupid leg-breaking shepherd out there who really did try to tame his sheep through a club to the femur one time. Then he got spotted by some deranged pastor who reported it to his congregation, and, before you know it, the story was off to the races faster than an angry three-legged sheep trying to run away from his stupid shepherd. It’s possible this happened one time, strictly speaking."

Great post from Dr. Laura Robinson about urban legends that Christians repeat about things that supposedly happened in the culture where the bible was written. I'm not familiar with the one about breaking a sheep's leg, which she discusses in her post, but I have heard the one about the camel and the "Eye of the Needle" gate. This is totally made-up and not real, and it's AMAZING to me how it completely changes the meaning and feeling of that bible passage about "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." Here's how that might play out in a typical bible study discussion:

"Jesus says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Wow, that's a pretty striking image. No way a camel can go through the eye of a needle. Sounds like rich people are really in trouble, then. This really worries me because we have a lot of money compared to the average person in this world- millions of people live in extreme poverty."

"Oh, well, what he actually meant was this: There was a gate in Jerusalem called the Eye of the Needle, and it was really narrow, and when people came with their camels all loaded up with stuff, they had to take everything off the camel, and make the camel kneel down and shuffle forward on its knees. So, what he's actually saying is, rich people totally can go to heaven, they just have to be willing to give up their stuff, and they have to love God more than they love their money."

"Oh thank goodness, that's so much better! So instead of a disturbing passage about how I might be unable to be part of God's kingdom because I'm not doing enough to use my money to help others, it just means I have to have the right attitude in my heart, I just have to feel like 'yeah I would give up my money if God wanted me to.' Wow that makes me feel so much better. And it doesn't require me to actually do anything."

8. Joe Biden Will Let You Finally Cancel Gym Subscription You Haven't Used Since The Pandemic (August 14) "Among other things, the plan includes a new Federal Trade Commission rule that will require companies make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for."

Blogaround

1. The tragedy of the murdered missionaries (June 12) "So when the State Department tells you to stay the F out, maybe THAT is God speaking to you."

This is a blog post written by someone who grew up as a missionary kid. I relate to some of this because I was very influenced by evangelical missions ideology back in the day- it was a huge factor in my decision to move to China. The thing that strikes me, reading this now, is I'm realizing I've always had the assumption that the best way to help poor people in other countries is to go there yourself. And not as some shallow "poverty tourism" thing, but really give up your whole affluent lifestyle and dedicate yourself to living in their culture, submitting yourself to learning a foreign language, truly internalizing the idea that you're not better than anyone else. That would certainly be the biggest sacrifice on the part of the missionary- and therefore I had the unquestioned assumption that it would do the most good. But, wait, actually that's kinda self-centered, isn't it? The idea that "this is the most difficult thing that *I* can do, therefore it must give *them* the most benefit." Maybe that's completely wrong. Maybe giving up your American lifestyle doesn't necessarily help more than, say, staying in the US and raising money for local people there who know what's what better than you do.

Also in her blog post, the whole part about how the US government issued travel warnings telling US citizens NOT to go to Haiti. Reminds me of when the US government issued travel warnings about China, during the zero-covid times, but I stayed here anyway...

2. Kamala Harris Releases First Presidential Campaign Ad (July 26) Oh I like this.

3. China Makes More Films Accessible for Blind People (July 29) "Audio description — often referred to as 'barrier-free movies' in China — is a separate soundtrack that plays simultaneously during a movie, describing the action as it is happening for blind and visually impaired viewers."

4. Trump tells supporters they ‘won’t have to vote’ again if he wins (July 29) What on EARTH. 

5. Brad Pitt Distantly Related to Barack Obama? (July 24) "The president shares an 18th-century Virginia ancestor with the superstar actor-producer. Edwin Hickman, who died in 1769, connects Obama and Pitt as ninth cousins."

Also from Snopes: Las Vegas Sphere Showed 'Blue Screen of Death'? (July 19) I saw this picture on social media and thought it was real- turns out it is fake. So, don't believe everything you see on the internet.

6. OnlySky relaunches with a focus on the future (July 28) 

7. Stephen Nedoroscik COMES THROUGH on pommel horse in U.S. bronze medal effort | Paris Olympics (July 30) Holy crap this is incredible.

8. This post about "Iron Man 2." (July 30) "It was TENSE AS SHIT, and I get the impression that the people making the movie weren't entirely aware of that?"

9. A Halfhearted Critique of Flag Culture (July 31) "It's not just the attention to or investment in flags, but the centrality of flags as a basis of activity, to the point of putting flags first, community second. These priorities become clear once you've seen people autocratically announcing flag designs for demographics that the designer isn't part of or communities that don't even exist yet (or may never exist)—as if declaring 'the flag' on other people's behalf is some kind of friendly supportive behavior rather than something presumptuous, misleading, and rude."

Blogaround

Arthur and Francine. Image source.

Got A LOT of links for you all today:

1. Animation: Encanto and Gifts of Trauma (posted January 19) [content note: spoilers for "Encanto"] "I have a soft spot for Bruno in particular because my own trauma means I can often predict all the bad ways a situation will go, and it's vexing to be disbelieved as a cynic or as someone who 'wants' things to fail just because I've seen some shit."

2. An Arizona priest used one wrong word in baptisms for decades. They're all invalid (posted February 15) "During baptisms in both English and Spanish, Arango used the phrase 'we baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' He should have said 'I baptize,' the diocese explained." Omg, imagine believing that *some man* has the right to judge if your baptism is "valid" or not, LOLOLOL.

(I also like Hemant Mehta's take on it.)

In all seriousness though, it's extremely easy to make fun of this story, but I am actually curious about if there are articles written on this from a Catholic perspective, that don't make it sound COMPLETELY BONKERS. Like, when we make fun of this, are we misrepresenting their position, or is it truly and literally as bonkers as it sounds? Might be good to hear a different perspective before we go all in on the mocking?

I did some quick googling and didn't see anything that looked much different from the npr article I linked, but if anyone does have a source that explains this in a non-bonkers way, I would be interested to read it.

3. How ‘Arthur’ grew up: Inside the beloved TV show’s emotional finale (posted February 21) "After 25 seasons, 253 episodes and seven specials, the PBS mainstay 'Arthur' aired its final episode, 'All Grown Up,' on Monday." Awww, "Arthur" was my favorite show when I was a kid.

"And I say hey, what a wonderful kind of day..."

4. Oh remember how in December/January the city of Xi'an, China, had a really bad covid outbreak and there were all these news articles about how Xi'an is doing such a bad job of making sure all residents' basic needs are met while they're in lockdown? (That's true- Xi'an did a bad job of that.) Well here's a follow-up to that: On January 24, China's Xi'an clears high, medium-risk areas for COVID-19. This means there are no longer any "high risk" or "medium risk" areas in Xi'an- the entire city is now classified as "low risk." "Low risk" means as far as we know (and this is after A LOT of testing), 0 people have covid. (Or, technically, anyone who has tested positive for covid is in a hospital where they're not able to spread it to anyone else, and there has been A LOT of testing on all their known contacts.)

Just want to point this out to make it clear to all of you who are not in China. This is how it works here- there are occasional "covid outbreaks" (which are a few dozen or a few hundred cases- Xi'an's was the biggest since Wuhan, I think, with 2000ish cases over the course of 1-2 months). The pandemic workers come in and test thousands or millions of people, put thousands or millions of people in lockdown, and then a couple weeks later, it's done, now there are 0 covid cases, the lockdowns end, and it's back to normal life.

It works. 

5. ‘Inerrancy’ and the 1611 Project (posted February 15) "You’d think such articles — there are many others like it in CT’s archives — would require some introductory disclaimer or explanation to contextualize them for contemporary readers. But then it’s hard to imagine what such disclaimers might say, given that no part of Ellis’ argument from 1957 can’t be found repeated in 2022 Christianity Today articles fretting about the supposed dangers that 'wokeness' or 'critical race theory' pose to the real, true gospel of biblical inerrancy."

This is really important. Back when I was in middle school and we learned about the civil rights movement, it was like, the white people who didn't want their kids to go to school with black kids were just one-dimensional racists who were clearly evil and wrong. But, the reality is, back then, white people were making these philosophical and nuanced arguments in favor of segregation- arguments that sound scarily similar to things you hear today. Arguments that even cited the bible, because they viewed the bible in the same way that I was taught to. 

Yes, they were bad and wrong and racist- but also not so terribly different from things I have thought and believed and said. And if white people don't know that- if we are not teaching our kids- if we are saying "oh those people from history were all hateful and racist and not anything like us"- then how are we going to do better?

6. The grift goes all the way to the top (posted February 10) "In public, [Jerry Falwell Jr.] pretended that he was the fire-and-brimstone Bible-thumper his father’s audience believed him to be—even as, in private, he and his wife Becki jetted off to Miami to drink and dance the nights away, far from the prying eyes of his fellow Christians."

7. The Winter Olympics don't really represent the world: Costs, climate and quotas keep the majority off the podium (posted February 22) "No African nation has ever won a medal in the Winter Olympics."

8. Rogers Musical (Full Version) (posted December 24) This is the "Rogers" musical from the Marvel show "Hawkeye," and if you are a Marvel fan, it is INCREDIBLE.

9. Ahmad Arbery's 3 killers found guilty of federal hate crimes (posted February 22)

10. True crime (part 1) (posted February 20) [content note: domestic violence, murder] "The politics of crime never seems to include criminals like Scott Peterson or Barry Morphew (allegedly). Their stories aren’t part of the narrative of crime. They’re just presented as entertainment. (Even Fox News reports these cases this way, as sordid entertainment wholly unrelated to the propaganda network’s otherwise relentless efforts to use 'crime' to foster rabid white resentment.)"

And also True crime (part 2). "He notes Barry’s comment to a local TV reporter — 'Suzanne trusted the Lord, and if one person got saved from this, she would think it was worth it' — and sees it as a chilling indicator of the faith-based calculus his cousin may have used to rationalize murder[.]"

11. [content note: eating disorder] Well, um, this is horrifying: HealthyWage: Weight Loss Challenges + Cash Prizes. It's a website where you can set a weight loss goal for yourself, pick a deadline, and place a bet with ACTUAL MONEY, and then if you reach your goal before the deadline, you get money. (And of course, if you don't reach your goal, you lose money.)

My first thought is, holy shit, this looks like a way to make money off having an eating disorder.

To test it, I followed the steps on their website, where it guides you through putting in numbers and it will tell you how much money you will earn. I pretended I weighed 90 lbs and want to lose 30 lbs. At no point during the process did a red flag come up and say "holy crap, if you weigh 90 lbs you should NOT be trying to lose weight." Instead, the algorithm very helpfully guided me along, doing the math with the numbers I had put in.

Screenshot from "Healthy Wage." HOLY CRAP, it is very NOT COOL to suggest to AN ADULT that 60 lbs could be their "ideal weight."

At one point, it even told me that I could totally lose 1-2 lbs per week, instead of 0.8 lbs (which was the result based on the numbers I had entered). Like, I saw this little warning symbol pop up, and I thought that's where the algorithm had flagged my hypothetical example as having a dangerous eating disorder, but NOPE, it was THE OPPOSITE:

Screenshot from "Healthy Wage"

One, um, at-least-not-as-bad-as-it-could-be thing I noted was, in the FAQs, it says if you get pregnant after starting your "challenge", then you should notify them and they will "pause" your challenge until your doctor says you can start up the "challenge" again (um, instead of refunding your money...).

I didn't actually create an account- maybe if I created an account to do this for real, an actual human would have looked at my numbers and said "HOLY SHIT this person should NOT be doing a weight-loss challenge." But, um, seriously, they should have taught their website algorithm to do that anyway.

Still, the whole thing is very "get paid to have an eating disorder", even if you aren't as extreme as my "90 lbs" example. I'm not sure they can realistically set a threshold and say "oh, if your weight is above this number, then we are totally confident that you are using this 'challenge' thing in a healthy way, no worries." I just think... when you start getting money involved, you introduce the possibility that someone is forced to keep going with it even if they end up realizing that it's actually not healthy for them to be on a weight-loss plan. Like what if the money becomes more important than doing what's best for your physical and mental health.

Yikes.

12. Can’t Believe We Have To Say This But Yeah, Dr. King Got Arrested A Lot (posted February 17) "By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the Civil Rights Movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King."

Blogaround

1. The Nasty Logistics of Returning Your Too-Small Pants (posted October 2021) "Perfectly good stuff gets thrown away in these facilities all the time, simply because the financial math of doing anything else doesn’t work out; they’re too inexpensive to be worth the effort, or too much time has passed since they were sold."

I also wonder a lot about what happens to stuff in stores that doesn't get sold. I have friends who worry about "oh no, I bought lunch and they gave me a disposable plastic spoon with it," but really, businesses must be throwing away tons of stuff that doesn't sell... what's the point of you getting yourself all worried about throwing away plastic packaging or "wasting food" or whatever, when your choice not to buy it means the business will be the one throwing it away instead of you?

I haven't done any research into the actual facts of that, so don't take what I say too seriously I guess (although, if anyone has sources about what happens to unsold products and how that should inform our worry over using too many plastic bags, please do leave them in the comment section). But I just find it really really suspicious that every store has a huge huge selection of things, and I get to browse through them all and choose the one that fits my specific needs- so what happens to all the others? Sure, some things can sit on the shelf indefinitely and they'll eventually find a customer who happens to need that exact thing, but what about more time-sensitive things like food or seasonal clothes or new books, etc?

2. We Don't Talk About Bruno (From "Encanto") (posted December 29) Hendrix and I just saw the new Disney movie "Encanto" in the theater, and wow it has a lot of good songs!

I also love how the Madrigal family had such a fun mix of interracial relationships. :)

3. Joey I’m not angry anymore (posted February 2) This is one of the Slacktivist's frequent link roundups, and I'm posting it here because of this part: "You might be thinking that the beginning of February is way too late for any thought of New Year’s Resolutions, but don’t fall into that trap. This is a trap I’m well acquainted with thanks to having grown up in white evangelical purity culture, a framework that trains you to think of virtue as a kind of original innocence and purity you must struggle to preserve, gripping it tight with white-knuckled determination."

Yeah, as an ex-evangelical, I can relate to that.

4. Where is Noah’s Flood in the Geological Column? (posted 2021) "What is going on here? Are we to understand that lions, panthers and leopards existed as separate species prior to the flood, and yet just one single pair from the entire 'kind' walked on to the Ark, only to walk off less than a year later and hyper-evolve back into the very same species once again? This is quite a convenient occurrence."

5. Creation Science Exposed: When Ego and Creation Science Meet: A History of the Answers in Genesis Split (posted 2008 maybe?) Okay maybe this is not interesting to anyone except me, but... It's the whole long story of how the creationist organization Answers in Genesis split in 2006, with the part that split off becoming Creation Ministries International. Wow, I did not know any of this! I was a devoted follower of AiG back in, what, 2003, 2004, and then didn't really think about creationism for a few years, then I heard of CMI in, what, 2008? AiG and CMI seem to be pretty much doing and teaching the same things. I had no idea there was a history there.

But also, I gotta say I'm 0% surprised that Ken Ham- whose entire job is writing articles about how atheists are evil and how Christians who don't believe in young-earth creationism are bad Christians who don't really respect the bible or care about God- was mean and unfair to people. 

6. Eileen Gu's HUGE final run grabs big air gold from Tess Ledeux | Winter Olympics 2022 | NBC Sports (posted February 8) This is INCREDIBLE.

Like, suddenly seems like everyone in China is a fan of 谷爱凌  (Gu Ailing), Eileen Gu. The story is, she grew up in the US but is competing for China in the 2022 Olympics. My son has both Chinese and US citizenship, so it makes me wonder about Gu's situation and her reasons for choosing China. Because my son will eventually have to choose too.

Blogaround

Two lab puppies playing in the snow. Image source.

1. Sunday favorites (posted February 18) The author of Isaiah says God has HAD ENOUGH "thoughts and prayers."

2. Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "King George and the Ducky" (posted February 22)

3. Why Some Winter Olympic Sports Are "Faster, Higher, Stronger" For Men Only (posted February 22) "Apparently only two dudes can lay on top of each other and fly down the ice on a sled."

4. Why Janelle Monáe’s ‘Make Me Feel’ Is a Brilliant Bisexual Pop Anthem (posted February 23)

5. Where Billy Graham 'missed the mark' (posted February 22) "According to Martin, Graham would preach that 'all men are created equal under God,' but backtracked when segregationists criticized him by saying he 'followed the existing social customs' in whatever region of the country he preached. He sometimes accepted segregated seating at his crusades for fear of offending whites."

6. Answers in Genesis’ Tone-Deaf Rainbow Tussle (posted February 26) "In other words, Answers in Genesis’ message to the LGBTQ community is 'the rainbow is actually a symbol that you will burn with fire for your wickedness.'"

Blogaround

Maia and Alex Shibutani performing ice dancing at the 2018 Olympics. Image source.

1. Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "Larry Boy and the Rumor Weed" (posted February 17)

2. Full List: Evangelical Advisers on Trump’s Affair with Playboy Model (posted February 17)

3. Progressive Proof-Texting (posted February 12) "A progressive evangelical is what you get when a white evangelical starts treating the “biblical data” on money the same way they treat the “biblical data” on sex."

4. A ‘Mass Shooting Generation’ Cries Out for Change (posted February 16) "They were born into a world reshaped by the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, and grew up practicing active shooter drills and huddling through lockdowns."

5. No, there haven’t been 18 school shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong. (posted February 16) [content note: mention of suicide, descriptions of gun violence and accidents] "[Only] Five of Everytown’s 18 school shootings listed for 2018 happened during school hours and resulted in any physical injury."

6. In Australia, Staying Loyal to Taiwan Can Mean Losing a Job (posted February 18) "During her second week waitressing at a barbecue restaurant in Sydney, a customer asked Yating Yang if she was Chinese. “No, I’m Taiwanese,” she said."

7. Lack of Citations: The YEC Peer-Review System Goes Awry Again (posted 2017) "At times they appear to intentionally refuse to cite other YEC [young-earth creationist] authors. More than likely, it’s a combination of causes along with a general desire to present a unified voice to an audience that just wants a simple answer. But this isn’t they way that science proceeds."

8. Gus Kenworthy makes history at Winter Olympics with gay kiss on live TV (posted February 18) Hooray!

9. I Still Think There Is a “Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” and Here It Is: You’re Not Allowed to Use It "Knock yourself out with scholarship on the Pentateuch, but make sure at the end of it all you affirm that Moses basically wrote it."

10. Late-night hosts turn serious when talking about Florida teen activists (posted February 21)

11. Lambda Legal Sues HHS after Lesbian Couple Blocked from Serving as Foster Parents (posted February 20)

12. Pixar Theory: Why does the Guitar take Miguel to the Land of the Dead? (posted February 14) [content note: spoilers for "Coco"]

13. Voldemort's Failed Horcrux | Harry Potter Theory (posted February 13) [content note: spoilers for Harry Potter] 

14. Anti-gay evangelical preacher Billy Graham dies, aged 99 (posted February 21) I liked Billy Graham, but let's not forget his anti-queer ideology.

Blogaround

A pillow with a pattern consisting of rows of big-eyed cat faces, along with a real live cat making the exact same face. Image source.

1. Flood Destroys Home Of Hate Group Leader Who Claims God Sends Natural Disasters To Punish Gays (posted August 17) But I'm sure for him it's not punishment, it's a trial that God sent to strengthen his faith.

2. Why do we still not know what causes PMS? (posted August 12) "To put how little research has been done into PMS into context, a search of titles and abstracts on ResearchGate found there are over five times more studies into erectile dysfunction than into premenstrual syndrome. That’s despite the fact that approximately 19 percent of men experience erectile dysfunction over the course of their lifetime, while over 90 percent of women report some symptoms of PMS."

3. Voldemort's Horcruxes Ranked (posted August 18)

4. Did you hear about some beaches in France that are banning the burkini? Or even forcing Muslim women to remove clothes? This is SO not okay. This is policing women's clothing, and I'm literally unable to believe that anyone thinks banning burkinis helps women be liberated in any way at all- the hypocrisy is too glaringly obvious. Libby Anne has this to say: "What I’m trying to get at is this—banning burkinis won’t change what burkini-inclined women wear to the beach, it will just prevent them from going to the beach. It will shut them out of a public space they could otherwise have access to and deprive them of opportunities they might otherwise have had. And for what? To make the local government feel like they’ve struck a blow against repression and “the enslavement of women”? They haven’t."

5. Gothard Explains Why God Allows Child Molestation: Part I (posted August 9) HOLY CRAP. It's literally what the title says. Like, as if we're going to read it and be like "oh that answers all my questions, I totally see why it's a good thing for God to allow child molestation." ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.

6. A Conversation On Affirming Theology #FaithfullyLGBT (posted August 20) "Never in church history until the past 50 years has celibacy been mandated for any group regardless of calling."

Also, Eliel Cruz gives us the biblical definition of sodomy. Hint: politicians who want to bar refugees from entering the US are guilty of it.

7. Why Is the NRA Ignoring This 14-Year-Old Girl Jailed for Shooting Her Abusive Father? (posted August 16) [content note: domestic violence, guns]

8. Women Athletes Gave Up Gonads And More To Continue Olympic Competition (posted August 15) "Would the IAAF ask a man to give up his gonads and remove half of his penis to be allowed to compete, simply because that man naturally produces more testosterone than the average male? The IAAF doesn’t even appear to have pursued the question of relative natural testosterone levels among male athletes."

9. Three things that need to happen before I defend men from Olympic sexism (posted August 16) "1. When sexualised analysis of men’s bodies begins to obscure men’s achievements and negatively affect their careers."

10. 9 Non-Threatening Leadership Strategies for Women (posted August 23) "Type using only one finger." lolololololol

11. Why America Needs a National Lynching Memorial (posted August 23) "In South Africa, important places and landmarks are recognized; there is an apartheid museum. There is a similar effort happening in Rwanda. Most Germans want you to go to Auschwitz and reflect soberly on the legacy of the Holocaust. In this country, we do the opposite. You wouldn't know whether you're in a slave trading space, you wouldn't know whether you're in a place where lynchings took place."

12. That time when a terrorist attack struck the Olympic Games (posted August 18) "As the party’s nominee in the general election, Trump has broadened that proposal, now calling for a ban on immigration 'from areas of the world where there’s a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies.' No word yet on whether that ban would include places like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina."

13. Why Is Colored Person Hurtful and Person of Color OK? A Theory of Racial Euphemisms. (posted August 24) "The lesson is that when there are negative associations with something or someone, periodic renewal of terminology is not a feint, but something to be expected. Until the thoughts or opinions in question change, we can expect the rust to settle in, the gnats to swarm back on—and the only solution, albeit eternally temporary, is to fashion a new term."

14. Interview With a Woman Who Recently Had an Abortion at 32 Weeks (posted June 15) "It was already so difficult to try and become a parent; you tried so hard, and it didn’t happen, and there are a lot of factors that framed this experience as pure punishment for you when the actual biological fact of it is punishment enough."

Results From My Cursory Investigation Into the Availability of Tampons in China

So last week, I read this article, which said Chinese people on social media praised Olympic swimmer Fu Yuanhui for talking about her period. The article included these statements: "Many [Chinese sports fans] said they had not realised it was possible for a woman to swim during her period" and "Eight decades after tampons first went on sale in the United States, a deep-rooted cultural resistance and inadequate sex education in China are blamed for the fact that only 2% of Chinese women use them, according to one recent study."

So, I was like "hmmm I've never tried to buy tampons in China. I've never noticed if stores here have them or not. I NEED TO GO INVESTIGATE."

That article says only 2% of Chinese women use tampons. Next time I'm at the grocery store, I will check for tampons.

— Perfect Number (@pnumber628) 2016年8月16日

I rarely use tampons so never thought to look for them in China. I've bought lots of pads,but now that i think abt it, haven't seen tampons?

— Perfect Number (@pnumber628) 2016年8月16日

I WILL TOTALLY GO CHECK AND GET BACK TO YOU ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE

— Perfect Number (@pnumber628) 2016年8月16日

This woman is going to check whether the shop she uses in China have tampons... https://t.co/DH2A5GZEKG

— God loves women ن (@God_loves_women) 2016年8月16日

I promised twitter I would do it, so off I went.

I mostly use pads, and it's no problem at all to buy them in China. There are tons of different lengths, thicknesses, with or without wings, overnight or day, etc. But I very very rarely use tampons- some months I use 1 or 2, some months I don't use any. [Question for other people with a uterus: uhhh is that normal? How many tampons do people typically use every month?] A year or two ago, when I was in the US, I bought a big box of tampons and ended up bringing them to China- not because I was like "oh I really need them and what if I can't get them in China" but because hey, they're perfectly good, I might as well pack them, they're useless to me if I just leave them at my parents' house, right? And I still have some from that box. So I had never asked the question, is it possible to buy tampons in China?

Anyway, I went out to a bunch of different stores- to do research for y'all- and here is what I found.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am in Shanghai. Shanghai is a very international city- I'm sure whatever I find will be a bigger selection than you see in smaller cities in China. I'm pretty confident you can find ANYTHING in Shanghai. (And if y'all are curious enough, I will totally go and look for tampons next time I travel to a less international Chinese city.)

First: small convenience stores

Lawson 罗森 Image source.

Lawson: This is a little convenience store where you can buy drinks, microwaveable dinners, little snacks, etc. There is also a very very small selection of cleaning products like laundry detergent, and hygiene stuff like pads. Oh and condoms.

Let's take a look at the period supplies in Lawson:

So... that's it? Well it's a tiny convenience store, we weren't expecting a huge, wonderful selection. There are several types of pads, but are there any tampons at all? Oh, what's this?

Look at that, I found 2 [identical] boxes of tampons. (The packaging says they are imported from Germany.) So... Lawson only has 1 option for tampons? We're not off to a good start here. Let's check the next convenience store:

Family Mart 全家 Image source.

Family Mart: Pretty much the same kind of little convenience store as Lawson. At the Family Mart I visited, I found the following selection of pads:

Yeah, that's all. You got your seaweed-flavored snack food (top shelf in the image), you got your pads (2nd and 3rd shelves), and you got your kleenexes and wet wipes (bottom two shelves). There are day pads and night pads, several different lengths, several brands. Pretty good for a convenience store. But no tampons.

7-11 Image source.

7-11: The 7-11 I went to wasn't even like a real store, it was more of a stand inside the subway station. Lots of snacks and drinks you can buy, and a few pads:

That's all for 7-11. Small packages of kleenex, day pads, night pads, pantyliners, no tampons at all.

alldays 好得 Image source.

alldays: Another tiny convenience store. Here's what I found:

Yeah, only one slim little shelf, in a corner, below the packing tape and individually-packaged spoons [???? oh China]. Looks like 4 different options for pads, no tampons.

All right we didn't have high expectations for these little convenience stores anyway, right? Let's move on...

Next category: Chinese grocery store

Lianhua 联华 Image source.

Lianhua: This is a grocery store, but I don't shop there because they just don't have anything remotely like western food. No lunchmeat, no imported section, etc. Anyway, here is the situation for pads:

Lots and lots of pads. Good selection- I bet you could find any length/thickness/whatever of pads you wanted. I did not find any tampons.

(Note: Okay picture me going into these stores, taking pictures of all the pads. I was worried that an employee would come over and ask if they could help me find something- at this point, I hadn't looked up the Chinese word for "tampon" so I would have had to tell them I was looking for "the one that you stuff inside." Fortunately that didn't happen.)

Next category: A store specifically for all kinds of hygiene/beauty products

Watsons 屈臣氏 Image source.

Watsons: This is a store where you can get shampoo, makeup, and all that kind of stuff. Also, condoms.

Pads, pads, pads, so many pads. Really nice selection of pads. Oh, what's this? I found tampons!!!

Fantastic! This is the best store so far. They have 2 brands: o.b. and In-V. o.b. has three different sizes and In-V has two different sizes. (All of them are marked "imported from Germany.") [进口 means imported- you can look for that in my photos.]

However, I later went to a different Watsons and found only o.b.:

So I guess it's kind of hit-and-miss.

Next category: Big grocery store

Carrefour 家乐福 Image source.

Carrefour: This is where I do most of my grocery shopping. And where I buy pads. Take a look at all the pads:

 I really love how they have the sample pads hanging there so you can see exactly how big they are. And on every single product's packaging, it says the exact length in millimeters. Very convenient.

 All right, there are shelves upon shelves upon shelves of pads, disposable underwear, pantyliners, etc. Any tampons?

Oh, what's this? I think I found them!

 Do you see them in that image above? Look on the bottom shelf.

Ha! I found tampons at Carrefour! There is only one brand (o.b.) and only two options available. (Again, the packaging says they're imported from Germany.) And I had to look for a long time to find these. They're down on a bottom shelf, really non-obvious.

All right, that covers all the places that I typically go to. But what about some big, expensive, imported grocery store, the kind of store that makes expats sigh longingly and say to each other "They had cheese. Real cheese. Ohhhh cheese. It was 50 kuai [$7.50], but I bought it... wow cheese." The kind of store I never shop at because everything's so expensive and I might get there and see a can of soup or a muffin mix [oh my god I want a muffin mix] and pay a hundred kuai for it because IT'S JUST LIKE THE ONE FROM HOME.

So here we go...

Next category: Imported grocery store

City Shop 城市超市 Image source.

City Shop: This is one of those international, heavenly grocery stores. Let's see if they have decent options for tampons.

So I walked in to City Shop and the first thing I saw was Mott's applesauce and I WAS SO HAPPY, do you guys know what reverse culture-shock is? OH MY GOODNESS, Mott's applesauce. (Only after moving to China and trying to explain to people what applesauce is did I realize the name is very confusing. It's not sauce. You just eat it by itself.)

Mott's applesauce for 38 kuai [$6]. I managed to control myself and not buy it.

Okay but seriously, do they have tampons? I found the following pads:

Oh hooray, I found tampons:

Only 1 brand of tampons (Wishu) at City Shop, and they are all "mini" size. No other choices. (According to their website, Wishu is a China-based tampon company started by a French couple. I'm not sure if they're importing tampons from Europe or manufacturing them in China. Their site says the tampons are "European quality." The point is, ALL the tampons I've found are imported or at least heavily influenced by Europe. Nothing native to China. Though here's an article that says China will soon launch its first domestic tampon brand. Hooray!)

And then, as I continued my adventure at the international grocery store, I saw chocolate chips- OH MY GOODNESS YOU GUYS, NESTLE CHOCOLATE CHIPS and had another reverse culture-shock moment.

Fun fact: You know how in the US, there's the stereotype that women like to eat chocolate when they have their period? Chinese culture doesn't have that concept at all. I asked a few Chinese female friends about it and they acted like it was the strangest thing they'd ever heard.

Let's sum up. Here is a table showing the results of my field research at different stores in Shanghai:

Store type	Store name	Number of tampon brands	Total tampon choices
Convenience stores	Lawson	1	1
	Family Mart	0	0
	7-11	0	0
	alldays	0	0
Chinese grocery store	Lianhua	0	0
Hygiene/beauty store	Watsons	2	5
Big grocery store	Carrefour	1	2
Imported grocery store	City Shop	1	1

Yep. Wow. Watsons is the winner. But wow. That is sparse.

Now, it's tempting to add up that "Total tampon choices" column, but that wouldn't be right, because I saw the exact same products in different stores. So let's make a new table to show the different brands and how many distinct products I actually found:

Brand	Available at	Number of different products
Bluetex	Lawson	1
o.b.	Watsons, Carrefour	3
In-V	Watsons	2
Wishu	City Shop	1
Total		7

Yep. There's the total. In all the stores I went to, I only found 7 different tampon products. Easily found hundreds of types of pads, but only 7 kinds of tampons. And as I said, I'm in Shanghai. If an average person wandering around Shanghai for a day can only find 7 choices for tampons, then there are DEFINITELY small cities in China where you can't find any at all. And if enough readers are interested, I will totally wander around a small Chinese city and tell you what I find. [Note: In China, "small city" means it "only" has 5 million people or so.]

All right that basically covers all the stores- but what about online? It's China, everyone knows you can find anything on Taobao. Let's take a look.

I searched "卫生棉条" (tampon), here's a screenshot of the results:

This is just the first bunch of results. When I scrolled down, there were more and more. Click the image to see a larger version.

Looks like a lot of different brands: Mytex, Tmaxx, o.b., Tampax, Playtex, etc. There are options that ship from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Wuhan, Nanjing, Dalian- many many cities. Yep, you can find anything on Taobao. (My favorite was this one because it has a [probably NSFW] gif that shows how to use them.)

So probably the best way is to buy them off taobao.

(Also, a quick google search for "where to buy tampons in shanghai" reveals there are TONS of English-speaking women/people with uteruses who are asking this question.)

So. Personally, I have a good thing going with my buy-a-box-in-the-US-every-two-years-and-use-them-rarely strategy. Tampons are really good to have occasionally but I don't use them that much. (Anyone want to talk about purity culture and how it blocked any awareness that my vulva is a real thing that it's possible to stick things in? I'm still getting over that.)

I'd also like to find out more about sex ed in China. I've asked two different Chinese friends about this, and they both said they didn't have sex ed, that it's not really something that exists in China. (One said their parents never talked to them about sex either, so they just kind of figured it out from porn. Ohhhhh dear. Oh by the way, porn is illegal in China. But you can't stop the internet, people will find it anyway. They can block google but they can't stop people from finding porn. Okay.)

On the other hand, until January 2016, China had the one-child policy. (Now it's been changed so Han Chinese couples are allowed to have 2 children. The one-child policy never applied to any minority ethnic groups, only Han Chinese, which make up 92% of the population of China.) Which means the government gives out free condoms. Like, there is a box in our apartment complex where you can just go and get a package of condoms, nobody is watching. In my opinion though, that's not enough- and it seems very backwards to have a one-child policy while not giving people thorough education about contraception. Seems like Chinese society isn't willing to talk about sex though.

ANYWAY the point is, tampons exist in Shanghai. They're not terribly easy to find, but you can find them. You won't have a very big selection though, unless you buy them online. I guess you can debate whether it's more convenient to put in the work of searching for decent tampons here or just bring back a whole bunch whenever you travel internationally. (As for the price: I don't really have a clear idea of how much tampons cost in the US, but it's gotta be more expensive to buy them in China because they're imported and hard to find.) In my opinion, though, this points to a bigger problem: Chinese women aren't given enough education about their own bodies. I'm glad Fu Yuanhui was willing to talk about it.

Blogaround

An adorable black kitty. Image source.

1. Out gay Olympic swimmer to Daily Beast: You just put my Olympic friends' lives at risk (posted August 11) "In the article Hines, a straight man, bragged about going on the gay dating app Grindr and getting Olympic athletes to reveal their identities to him."

2. Katie Ledecky wins gold, shatters 800m free world record (posted August 12)

I think this tweet summed it up nicely:

Katie Ledecky, pictured with the 7 next best swimmers in the world. pic.twitter.com/3C08xu9DL7

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) 2016年8月13日

3. what hast thou wrought: Christians and Trump (posted August 10) "They have to take that chance. They have to because being anti-abortion is all they’ve got."

4. Patriarchy and Performance: Olympic Gymnastics is SO UNFAIR (posted August 12) "Men get to do their thing in pants. Pants! Women have to wear sparkly leotards that they have glued to their hinies so nothing rides up their butt on national television. Because even if Simone Biles can do things with her body that literally no one else in the world can do, you know if she picked a wedge that would be the only news worthy thing for the next twenty-four hours."

5. Black People Deserve the Same Compassion We Give White Allies Who Screw Up (posted August 11) "I am NOT here for calls to show grace to white people for “trying” if there is ZERO acknowledgement that Black folks aren’t treated the same way."

6. Kenny Baker, actor behind R2-D2, dies (posted August 13)

7. Sinister rumors connect Hillary Clinton with tree-planting in Malawi (posted August 9) "He’s not interested in what the charity is doing, but he’s very, very interested in insidious speculation about what it maybe possibly could be imagined to maybe possibly have done."

8. NYC Muslims "outraged" over imam's daylight murder (posted August 14)

9. the brand new NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible-- some first impressions (posted August 15) "There are certainly debates about the composition of Isaiah, but every biblical scholar in the solar system, outside of some (by no means all) evangelical circles, agrees that the 8th-century prophet is not responsible for all 66 chapters, and that the final form of the book dates to the exilic and postexilic periods."

10. Trump’s “Obama founded ISIS” comments are outrageous. They’re also deeply ignorant. (posted August 11) "The issue here is that this plays into actual conspiracy theories about the founding of ISIS. Many people within the Middle East believe the United States is secretly helping ISIS in order to weaken states in the region. Trump’s phrasing just puts more fuel on the fire."

11. 'It's because I had my period': swimmer Fu Yuanhui praised for breaking taboo (posted August 15) "Chinese sports fans used social media to praise Fu for breaking the silence surrounding the menstrual cycles of female athletes. Many said they had not realised it was possible for a woman to swim during her period. “Our Ms Fu dares to say anything,” wrote one user of Weibo, China’s Twitter." Also, Fu Yuanhui's interviews have been shared a lot on Chinese social media this week, because she is HILARIOUS.

12. The media vs. Donald Trump: why the press feels so free to criticize the Republican nominee (posted August 16) "A case in point was Trump barring the Post from his rallies. Rather than endangering the Post’s reputation, it made the Post a symbol of free journalism within the profession. When editor Marty Baron (correctly) said Trump’s action was "nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press" and that the Post’s coverage of Trump would continue "honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly," every journalist I know cheered him for it."

13. A Conversation with Nate Parker about 'The Birth of a Nation' (posted August 11) "When you think about Nat Turner and what he did, if you're able to view this film without the baggage of racism, then it's very clearly a story of someone that was compelled by his faith to act as the hand of the God through his interpretation."

14. If abortion is murder, then you shouldn’t be a single-issue voter against it (posted August 15) "Someone is murdering a baby! Quick, let’s register some voters for a party that we hope will one day pack the highest court with enough justices to ensure that, some day in the future, such baby-killing is illegal."