Nature or Nurture?

According to familydoctor.org, "A common misperception is that troubled family relationships cause people to be homosexual, but no scientifically sound research supports this myth."

the same site holds that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest what makes a person homosexual.

Thoughts?

Sex Appeal in Music Videos

Of all the pop culture/media facets we have, the music industry seems (at least to me) to be the most sexually forward. There is so much sex in music videos like

Britney Spears' Circus  64,254,589 views
Sunblock's Baby Baby1,576,282 views
N.E.R.D.'s Lapdance 2,086,127 views
Lady Gaga's Alejandro 107,710,824 views!!!!!

I think that a discourse about sexuality is really valuable because it creates discourse about all kinds of sexual preferences. Sex in the media, especially the candid kind of sexuality in Gaga's videos, makes it shameless to be a sexual being. And we are all sexual beings. I think the shamelessness is a good thing. To me, it is an amazing thing that the media has the power to eliminate taboos. During the Motion Picture Production Code (1930-68) discourse about anything explicit was banned. Sex was not talked about and a lot of sex was taboo - especially gay sex.

I like when girls kiss girls

Like it when girls kiss girls? (see also the bar-sexual blog down a little bit for a similar theme to the one this video celebrates.) BECAUSE YOUTUBE DOES

Pittsburgh Slim has got himself 4,047,545 views on Girls Kiss Girls. And regardless of how you feel about the theme in the video, you gotta admit that a viewing of this size is pretty phenomenal.
heres the vid
Thoughts???

GABRIELLE'S FINAL PAPER

PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK :D on my blog

wait, what?

I don't see why there is such a deep divide in the Democratic/Republican party philosophies and some of their actual stances.

My understanding of each, in a nutshell:

Republican Philosophy: Republicans champion the Bill of Rights and favor minimal government intervention so that the individual can retain as many rights as possible. One source says, The purpose of government is to ensure that the rights of the individual are protected, and at the same time the government must restrict its activities to providing only the services that individuals cannot provide alone, such a national defense.
Republican Stance: Against gay marriage

Democratic Philosophy: Sacrifice individual rights for the "common interest"
Democratic Stance: Pro Gay Marriage

Obviously this is a highly generalized, crude analysis, but I can't help but think that for both parties the stance is inconsistent with the philosophy.

Now, wouldn't legalizing gay marriage be a victory for expanding the Bill of Rights? and strengthening the rights of the individual? And, oppositely, wouldn't keeping marriage between one man and one woman benefit the "common interest"- satisfying the needs of the heterosexual majority??

I just don't see the logic here...

cruel and unusual punishment?

In Helling v. McKinney, the Supreme Court ruled that a prisoner's exposure to second hand smoke could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. 

This got me wondering about the Turner vs. Safley case. (ruling: marriage is a fundamental right; it is an "expression of emotional support and public commitment."  This decision was unanimous.) [philly.com handout, Boies]

But then I started wondering about an alternate rationale for the marriage ruling. Could withholding marriage rights from prisoners be considered cruel and unusual punishment?

make your own damn sandwich!!!!

Gender equality is awesome. 

On that note, 

don't forget the talk on

Lesbian Art and Perspectives

in the Gender Equity Center 

Stewie Lower Lounge

Wednesday September 29th

12:30 to 1:30

!!!!

AND we get extra credit if we go!!!!

(just kidding)

speakingggg of gender equity

 

The Ethics of (en)Forcing the Gender Binary

In "The Meaning of Difference," the authors write that hermaphrodites are commonly thought to be 

"accidents of birth".

This is one example of the very little consideration to the ethics of the standard "forced sex" surgical policy for born hermaphrodites. Furthermore (aside from the surgery itself), as in the case of the "girl" in Drecher's "From Bisexuality to Intersexuality", s/he is kept totally ignorant of the fact that she had been surgically assigned his/her gender. 

To me, this is absurd.

my opinion:

--> Personally, I think that an individual's reproductive rights are their most fundamental, untouchable rights because their reproductive organs and sexuality are the deepest, most untouchable part of self. I think that no one but that individual should have the ability to control their sexuality/sexual organs, including parents. 

-->This is why I support freedom in all that this position encompasses (provided no harm is done to any party (no bestiality, nonconsentual sex, or incest, thanks...)). So, yes, I support birth control, marriage for all, abortions without parental consent or notification, etc. 

-->Meanwhile I oppose clitorectomies, circumcision, arranged marriages, forced chastity, and even imposing views on others about what sex should be.

-->I also oppose nonconsentual sex assignment surgery. 

Recent news: DADT is not old news

.............

I am surprised that this political cartoon is still relevant. I thought DADT was old news.

After the failure of the DADT repeal in the Senate, the United States REMAINS one of the only countries that still has a discriminatory policy in its military. According to this site, the United States and Turkey are the only countries in NATO that do not allow gay servicemen/women to be military members. 

"Among the armies in the Western industrialized world, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK allow gays and lesbians to serve freely and openly"

(same website)

Riddle Me THIS

In case any of you missed the link in sophia_mt's tweet the other day, it was to this video (sorry, I can't figure out how to embed here) where Good Morning America posed this age-old riddle to children:

Q: “A father and son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly. The boy, in critical condition, is rushed to the nearest hospital for emergency surgery. The surgeon looks at the child aghast and says, "I can't operate on him! He's my own son!" Who is the surgeon?”

A: His Mother.

Generally, the children that were surveyed were stumped by this riddle. Good Morning America did not give the exact percentage of kids that got it right/wrong but they did point out that the youngsters created a “new answer”  - they proposed that the child had two gay fathers.

This is remarkable, as sophia_mt tweeted, because this riddle has never been answered this way before.

I also find it remarkable that so many people cannot fathom a female surgeon. (probably partly because the word “surgeon” has a male connotation. Maybe if the riddle used the word “doctor”, people would not have such sexist assumptions?)

I was curious as to just how many people were stumped by this riddle (..admittedly, I was). Online, I could not find immediate statistics, so I took some of my own J. Conveniently I was in the library where I found 10 different people, about half female and half male, who had not heard the riddle before. I read each of them the riddle and got the following responses:

Correct response “mother”: 1 person

New category of responses “other father”: 3 people

Could not answer the riddle: 6 people

My results seemed to mirror Good Morning America’s observations. No one seemed to be able to immediately associate “surgeon” with the female (even the person who answered “mother” took time and a couple of incorrect guesses)

So, since more people found “other father” as a faster solution to the riddle than “mother”, is the assignment of gender roles harder to overcome than the possibility of gay marriage?

LOL!

Boggled?

I found a list of commonly agreed upon traits that define what most people expect of males versus females. It reminded me a lot of the boggle game on wednesday (which had me identifying with a surprisingly large number of male characteristics) so when I found this "official" list of stereotypes, I compared them to my own traits and highlighted the ones I identified with. 

Masculine	Feminine
Inexpressive	Emotional
Aggressive	Expressive
Ambitious	Compassionate
Analytical	Childlike
Assertive	Gentle
Successful	Loyal
Competitive	Sensitive
Forceful	Tender
Independent	Understanding
Dominant	Yielding
Strong personality	Gullible
Athletic	Refined
Invulnerable	Warm

Does this mean that  my personality is 

9/15 = 60% male 

and

6/15 = 40% female?

Try yours :) !?? 

Old news, ongoing theme

Usually when the phrase "gay rights" is spoken, it is thought of to be synonymous with "gay marriage rights". 

---> However, it turns out that there are many, many rights that heterosexual couples have that members of the LGBT community did/do not.   I was actually completely unaware of the amount of freedom that is denied to gay couples until I stumbled upon this (now old news, but totally shocked me) ;

"The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Texas' gay sex ban, ruling that a state law that punished homosexual couples for engaging in sex acts that are legal for heterosexuals was an unconstitutional violation of privacy." Fox News

I was amazed to read at first that "gay sex acts" (namely anal sex) could even be legislated by Texas and actually made illegal. Then I read on and my mind was blown - only gay couples could not have anal sex. Heterosexuals could still have perfectly legal "gay sex". 

????????!!!!!!

Homosexuals were literally denied the right to have sex. 

The reason I bring that old article up is because inequality is still quite prevalent when it comes to all aspects of life. There are 1138 rights, benefits, and protections of marital status that homosexual couples are denied. 

This law in Texas was just a drop in the bucket.