Links - 24th May 2015

Feminist conference says clapping 'triggers anxiety,' asks attendees to use 'jazz hands' instead - "A U.K. student feminism conference is asking attendees to refrain from clapping and use “jazz hands” instead so as to not trigger anxiety in others. The National Union of Students (NUS) Women’s Campaign announced the clapping “ban” at the West Midlands conference on Twitter Tuesday, shortly after receiving a request from the Oxford University Women’s Campaign... NUS sent out a similar tweet earlier in the day that also discouraged “whooping.” “Whooping is fun for some, but can be super inaccessible for others, so please try not to whoop! Jazz hands work just as well #nuswomen15,” they said."

‘Need a shirt to iron?’ Gal goes looking for ‘feminist support,’ gets razzed instead - "You telling me I'm not funny or cool is a micro-aggression and it will not stand. IT WILL NOT STAND. *jazz hands*"
"if somebody in the self-care room offers to care for another, can that be construed as a "micro-aggression"?"
"I'm sorry, @sarahgillborn, but blocking is triggering."
"These people are supposed to be strong women and they need "self-care" and "safe space" rooms?"
"Hey, be nice. @sarahgillborn very bravely blocked me after one tweet. That takes some serious backbone."

N.Y. feminists protest 'sexist' billboard advertising kitchen: 'I prefer an office' - “A vast majority of Teakwood’s clients are women. Frequently they are the decision makers about major expenditures. This billboard — and the entire ‘Your wife wants me’ campaign — is good-natured, tongue in cheek fun meant to appeal to women who have a sense of humor, a sense of history and healthy self-esteem. We applaud the students involved in the protest for their excitement about their cause. And we thank them for drawing attention to the gorgeous Teakwood kitchen on the billboard.”

Couple furious after police allow gypsies to live in their stolen caravan - "Kathleen McClelland and partner Michael Curry now have only one option to get their mobile home back – through expensive civil proceedings. The pair spent their retirement savings and a further £10,000 kitting the vehicle out before it was stolen in 2011. Eighteen months later police said it had been discovered less than 10 miles away in Hook, Hampshire. But, amazingly, officers said they had “no lawful powers” to retrieve the 26ft-long Bailey Louisiana camper. Ms McClelland said: “They’ve told us social services would have to be involved to get the family accommodation before they could seize it. “Otherwise they said it could breach their human rights. We’re devastated. It was all we had."

'Sharia compliant' sex shop to open in Mecca selling halal sex toys for Muslims - "Its website describes all products as “Sharia compliant” and claims they can “provide a deeper meaning to sexuality, sensuality and even spirituality”.

5 Arguments Against The Ban On Pornography - Jeraldine Phneah Singapore Gen Y Blogger: Personal Growth, Sociopolitical Issues, Travel

Self-perceived effects of pornography consumption. - "The self-perceived effects of "hardcore" pornography consumption were studied in a large representative sample of young adult Danish men and women aged 18-30. Using a survey that included the newly developed Pornography Consumption Effect Scale, we assessed participants' reports of how pornography has affected them personally in various areas, including their sexual knowledge, attitudes toward sex, attitudes toward and perception of the opposite sex, sex life, and general quality of life. Across all areas investigated, participants reported only small, if any, negative effects with men reporting slightly more negative effects than women. In contrast, moderate positive effects were generally reported by both men and women, with men reporting significantly more positive effects than women. For both sexes, sexual background factors were found to significantly predict both positive and negative effects of pornography consumption. Although the proportion of variance in positive effects accounted for by sexual background factors was substantial, it was small for negative effects. We discuss how the findings may be interpreted differently by supporters and opponents of pornography due to the reliance in this study on reported self-perceptions of effects. Nonetheless, we conclude that the overall findings suggest that many young Danish adults believe that pornography has had primarily a positive effect on various aspects of their lives."

Legend of The Red Dragon at lord.stabs.org - About LORD - "LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) is a simplified text based RPG (Role Playing Game). It was created during the BBS (Bulletin Board System) era by a popular fellow named Seth Robinson. LORD takes the whole story line of a typical MUD, and breaks it down into a text based role playing game where you can play your turn within several minutes. You can play every day, or once every other week, and still maintain an active role in the game."
I played this in Secondary School!

Exercise Can't Save Us: Our Sugar Intake Is The Real Culprit, Say Experts

State-funded LGBT-organization put on a wetsex show for 15 year old students - "The state funded organization RFSL (“The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights”) arranged, together with a few students, a “Pride Week” at Kungsholmen Gymnasium (Kungsholmen High School). The week was supposed to “spread a sense of openness and love in the school”. The Pride Week ended with a “happening” in the schools auditorium where a few people put on a show. But this was no Shakespeare; it was the “love” and “openness” of the LBGT-lobby. A woman on stage undressed herself, got beaten by a man and after she fell to the ground, the man started… peeing on her."

Buddhist temple singles parties: The enlightened way to find a romantic partner

Chess Grandmaster Says There Is Gender Inequality In The Game Because Men And Women Are 'Hard-Wired Very Differently' - ""It would be wonderful to see more girls playing chess, and at a higher level, but rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact," he added. Short defended his comments in an interview with Sky News on Monday. "Men have brains which are 10 percent larger," he said. "They also have considerably more gray matter. Women have very, very much more white matter." He acknowledged sexism is a probably an issue in chess, but maintained that there are inherent differences between the sexes. Short is right that there are some differences between men's and women's brains, said Jordan Gaines Lewis, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at the Penn State College of Medicine, but the chess player seems to have overstated their influence while downplaying possible societal issues."
Comment: "Isn't it funny, that every time feminism discusses leadership qualities, they reference women's superior "emotional intelligence" as a huge plus and one of the best arguments for women in leadership positions, but all of a sudden we should now doubt that emotional intelligence even exists, because in this case it might work against female chess players and their qualities?"

Touring 'Hamlet' gets a standing ovation at UN - "For all the good feeling at the United Nations, Paratene, who plays Polonius, Claudius or the Ghost, had no illusions about the power of art going up against long-held international beliefs. "It would be foolish of us to go in thinking that we could get the diplomats to operate better," he said. "All we can do is tell the story and if they glean from that something that makes the Israeli representative go to the other side of the room and sit next to the Palestinian representative and maybe kiss each other on the cheek and talk and listen, that would be very nice. But that's not what we're here to do. We're here to tell a story.""

The Sunny Side of Smut - "In 2007 Alan McKee, a cultural studies expert at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, designed a questionnaire to assess sexist tendencies. He enclosed his survey in shipments of pornographic material distributed by a mail-order company and also posted it online. Responses from 1,023 pornography users indicated that the amount of pornography the subjects consumed did not predict whether they would hold negative attitudes toward women... But the questionnaire may have missed a key nuance. In a study published in 2004 in the Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, researchers at Texas Tech University administered a different survey to male and female college students and found that although consumers of pornography did not display more negative attitudes toward women, they were more likely than other respondents to believe that women should be protected from harm—what the investigators call “benevolent sexism”... What if it turns out that ­pornography use actually reduces the desire to rape? It is a controversial idea, but some studies support it. Work in the 1960s and 1970s reported that sexual criminals tend to be exposed to pornographic materials at a later age than noncriminals. In 1992 Richard Green, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, disclosed in his book Sexual Science and the Law that patients requesting treatment in clinics for sex offenders commonly say that pornography helps them keep their abnormal sexuality within the confines of their imagination. “Pornography seems to be protective,” Diamond says, perhaps because exposure correlates with lower levels of sexual repression, a potential rape risk factor... What mattered most, Twohig found, was whether the subjects tried to control their sexual thoughts and desires. The more they tried to clamp down on their urge for sex or porn, the more likely they were to consider their own pornography use a problem. The findings suggest that suppressing the desire to view pornography, for example, for moral or religious reasons, might actually strengthen the urge for it and exacerbate sexual problems"

Stricter rules in Geylang and Little India as alcohol laws kick in - "Under the Act, those found guilty of drinking after 10.30pm in a public place will face a fine of up to $1,000. A repeat offender may be jailed for up to three months. A shop which sells alcohol after permitted hours may get a fine not exceeding $10,000. But MHA stressed that the police will take a "calibrated and even-handed" approach in enforcing the law. If a person is caught drinking illegally, police will take down his particulars in the first instance and ask him to dispose of the alcohol. If there is public annoyance, police can also ask the person to leave the place. If he complies, no further action will be taken."
Prosecutorial and police discretion apply everywhere. Indeed they are even necessary, since the law cannot be phrased so as to cover every single possibility

Incident might have been a mistake - "The incident, which has prompted Cagadoc to file a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission today, all started when Luc told her at the dinner table that he was ashamed to eat in the Filipino tradition - breaking up food with a fork and then pushing it into a spoon. Earlier that day, Luc Cagadoc, a lean, bespectacled Grade 2 student at Ecole Lalande, had been reprimanded and forced to eat at a table alone by the school's daycare lunch monitor, who told his mother Luc ''eats like a pig.'' Allegations that Luc had been punished for his culinary traditions rocked the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys, a French schoolboard with an increasingly diverse student body."