Did NH lawmakers wear pearl necklaces to mock activists testifying about gun violence? - "A few Republican members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives sparked an uproar after images circulated on social media showed them sporting pearls to a hearing on gun control.But the group that gave out the necklaces deny they were meant to mock concerns about gun violence.Volunteers from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who came to the statehouse in Concord on Tuesday to testify about gun violence, felt the lawmakers wore the necklaces to imply they were "clutching their pearls"... the state Republican party called the uproar "fake news" and said the pearls were given to the state legislators by the Women’s Defense League of New Hampshire as a sign of support for gun rights. The Women's Defense League opposes gun control measures and encourages women to "empower themselves by safely and accurately learning how to use firearms."... the Women's Defense League has been giving out the pearls since 2016 to "show solidarity with their groups' position on Second Amendment issues."... But Watts' opinion that the pearl necklaces were meant to mock gun control advocates went unchanged."
Apparently it is good to silence women (by not allowing lawmakers to express their wishes) - if they have conservative views
Why Are Lesbian Teens Having More Babies Than Heterosexual Peers? - "teen who identify as lesbian have significantly higher pregnancy rates than their heterosexual peers. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s true. It’s also true for teen gay males: they are substantially more likely to impregnate their sexual partners than are heterosexual males... Numerous studies across many nations find that sexual-minority youth aged 14 to 19 have pregnancy rates two to seven times greater than their heterosexual peers. And their pregnancy rates continue to rise at a time when the overall teen pregnancy rate is declining in the United States.Only one study to date, published earlier this year, has examined the pregnancy rates of adult sexual-minority women. It reveals the same thing: unintended pregnancies are higher among sexual-minority women than their heterosexual peers. Their proportions for ending pregnancies by abortion are double that of heterosexual women... being gay or lesbian is supposed to be absolute and unchangeable—like sex, race, or ethnicity. This pregnancy phenomenon confounds that narrative in a dramatic way, and it can’t be ignored. Could it be that being lesbian or gay is not quite as absolute or fixed as gender theorists want us to believe?... it means that these categorical identities we call “gay” and “lesbian” don’t exist as we assume they do. They certainly do as political or social identities. But in functional actuality, where it really matters, these pregnancy rates greatly challenge that narrative... Northwestern University’s J. Michael Bailey questions whether a female sexual orientation exists at all. He contends that we cannot miss that male and female sexual natures are markedly different things, so much so that the singular, lifelong lesbian is a rare creature. Female sexual interests and behaviors are shaped more by social, cultural, emotional, and situational developments than some deeper internal drive.In her important book “Sexual Fluidity” Professor Lisa Diamond laments the mistaken assumption that lesbianism is fixed like male homosexuality and argues that this belief is the result of gay-normativity and male prejudice in gay research... A young woman recently told me that she is a lesbian, but her sexual attraction is to men. Apparently she’s not an outlier."
I suppose queers being hornier is a 'stereotype'
Anti-Feminism - Posts - Feminist News: "More women than men attending med school for the first time ever"
"I can't be the only one who finds it strange that a movement claiming to champion equality sees a female dominated field as a victory and a male dominated one as a problem."
Chinese father decides to drop in on daughter’s school … via helicopter - "A Chinese man who sent a helicopter to his daughter’s school in Beijing has defended himself against accusations he was flaunting his wealth by saying it was purely for educational purposes... He said he thought explaining how helicopters flew might help the children better understand the theory of gravity... Last October, a father in eastern China dropped his son off at school in a Ferrari faced a social boycott after he refused to use a less expensive car."
Helicopter parenting!
I want the - "Cool. Be extremely careful. If you get pregnant and miscarry, and they can’t prove you didn’t miscarry on purpose, you can get thrown in jail for a long time in Georgia. #SexStrike"
"I know! I want to fight this from every angle. (My family’s from AL, where they’re on the verge of even worse legislation.) But I want men to do some of the fighting for once in their freaking lives. It always comes down to women sacrificing and I’m sick of it."
"“I want the men to do some fighting for once in their freaking lives” she says..... *war cemetery photo*"
🥄🦓ʝԹԺȝ🦓🥄 on Twitter - "Bucky and Cap are brothers, and really the only family each has. I understand wanting to see romances of different types, but this immediate push to have two men having a close relationship mean "they're in love" does far more damage than good and is in and of itself a stereotype"
"Agreed. It also heavily implies platonic love is somehow lesser and less worthy of respect and observation than romantic love. It is every BIT as powerful"
On slash and the denial that close male friendships exist in the desire to push the liberal agenda
Avengers: Endgame Was Ruined By Its Straight Agenda - "Avengers: Endgame may be the straightest Marvel movie to date—an impressive feat considering the amount of attention paid to its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gay cameo.It’s not exactly news that the MCU is dominated by straight, white men, both on-screen and off. By focusing on the original Avengers team, Endgame highlighted the lack of diversity in Marvel’s earlier years —and illustrated how queer storytelling is more complicated than just showing (or not showing) a gay character on-screen. Basically, this film’s conception of a “happy ending“ is so rooted in heteronormativity that it ruined the final act for several key characters"
Hilarity aside, Cap has a girlfriend. So does wanting to gay him put paid to the lie that gay people don't want to convert straight people to homosexuality?
Female Aggression in Cross-Cultural Perspective - Victoria K. Burbank, 1987 - "Cases of female-initiated aggression, ranging from verbal abuse to murder, are found in all regions of the world. Female aggression is largely directed against other females and generally involves little injury. Co-wives and other rivals in sex and marriage are the most common victims. Husbands are the most common male targets. Female aggression is often a means of competing for men or subsistence products, but it may also be a means of defense"
Consent to Sex is Not Consent to Pregnancy
But for men, sex is consent to child support
Kelantan: Sexy dresses, indecent behaviour see more than 300 hauled up for counselling - "More than 300 people in Kelantan have been slapped with notices to attend counselling sessions for wearing sexy dresses and behaving indecently at public places."
What would Reza Aslan say?
South Korea's latest big export: Jobless college graduates - "Almost one-third went to Japan, which is undergoing a historic labour shortage with unemployment at a 26-year low, while a quarter went to the United States, where the jobless rate dropped to the lowest in nearly half a century in April. There are no strings attached. Unlike similar programmes in places such as Singapore that come with an obligation to return and work for the government for up to six years, attendees of South Korea's programmes are neither required to return, nor work for the state in the future... The top 10 conglomerates including world-class brands such as Samsung and Hyundai, make up half of South Korea's total market capitalization. But only 13 per cent of the country's workforce is employed by firms with more than 250 employees, the second-lowest after Greece in the OECD, and far below the 47 per cent in Japan... South Korea is bringing in more foreigners to solve another labour problem – an acute shortage of blue collar workers. South Korea has the most highly educated youth in the OECD, with three-quarters of high school students going to college, compared with the average of 44.5 per cent... Lee Sun-hyung, a 30-year old athletics major, used K-move to go to Sydney to work as a swim coach in 2017 but earned less than A$600 (US$419) a month, one-third what her government handlers told her in Seoul."
Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies - Princeton University - "The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts 2002 (SPPA) found that 39 percent of the adult population of the United States attended at least one of seven "benchmark" arts activities (jazz, classical music, opera, musical plays, plays, ballet, or art museums) in the twelve months prior to the survey. (This proportion excludes elementary, middle, and high school performances.)"
Connecting Australians: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey, June 2017 - Australia Council
In Australia in 2016, only 45% of adults attended any arts festival at all. 46% attended a visual arts and craft event, 53% a dance or theatre event (better than the US but still not evidence of massive popularity. Also there's no footnote about school performances being excluded, so maybe some were just seeing their kids
Is eating in public a crime during Ramadan? - What's On Dubai - "During Ramadan, it is not permissible to eat, drink or smoke in public between imsak, which is 10 minutes before dawn, until the sun sets, at iftar.This rule is reiterated in the UAE’s Federal Law No. 3 of 1987, also known as the Penal Code. Article 313 of the Penal Code renders it a crime for anyone to consume food or drinks in public at daytime during Ramadan.Notably, this rule applies to everyone in the UAE, irrespective of faith or whether they are fasting."
A post by I,Hypocrite on Today - "YouTube’s Newest Far-Right, Foul-Mouthed, Red-Pilling Star Is A 14-Year-Old Girl"
"Strangers Keep Calling Child Protective Services On This 11-Year-Old Drag Star."
11-Year-Old Boy Dressed In Drag Dances At Gay Bar, Gets Dollar Bills Thrown At Him - "an 11-year-old boy dressed in drag danced on stage in a sexual manner at a gay bar in Brooklyn, NY, called 3 Dollar Bill. The child, Desmond Napoles, was dressed as a Gwen Stefani-lookalike — full drag make up, a blonde wig, and crop top included — as he bounced around onstage to No Doubt's "Just a Girl" and collected dollar bills from male adults viewing the number... Though many have been outraged at Desmond's parents because of the clearly over-sexual nature in which the child has appeared publicly, the media have been relentlessly promoting the "inspirational" "drag kid."Left-wing site The Daily Beast gushed over Desmond and his progressive parents in a disturbing piece from February, titled, "RuPaul Loves 'Drag Kid' Desmond. You Will Too. Fiercely." In June, the TODAY Show promoted the over-sexualized child: "Meet the 10-year-old 'drag kid' taking over social media with inspiring message," reads the caption to a video interview with Desmond."
On Desmond is Amazing
Laughter: The New Symbol of the Far-Right – Lucy Brown - "we have Soph — the 14 year old far-right, foul-mouthed, red-pill YouTube star who seems to be rising to fame at lightning speed thanks to her rampant Islamophobia and /pol/ inspired online ramblings. We have tried everything, from harassing her parents, to publishing damning articles about her white supremacy, to having her kicked off the internet entirely."
This was probably satire, but it references real acts
6 Facts About The History of Bubble Tea in Singapore - Singapore Trivia - "Bubble tea made its debut in Singapore when Bubble Tea Garden, a café or what was called “bubble tea hut”, opened at Marina Square in 1992"
Why Canada is a guinea pig for global markets - "Facebook says Canadians are highly social and tech savvy, noting there are over 24m people using a Facebook-owned app each month in the country.This is not the first time that Facebook - which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram - has tested products in Canada. Last year, along with Colombia and Thailand, Canadians were given early access to the firm's early foray into online dating -simply called Facebook Dating.And in 2017, its first foray into providing advertising transparency was in Canada.But the social media behemoth isn't the only company that has found value in using Canada as a place to show proof of concept for new products and innovation before bringing them to wider markets... "In Canada we have really a very diverse population with more than 200 languages spoken throughout the country," says Danny Heuman, chief analytics officer with market research firm Environics Analytics.It's not just the immigration factor - it has the highest proportion of foreign-born people of any G7 nation - but its cross sections of people across the income spectrum and from urban and suburban regions... Most Canadians live within 100 miles (160km) of the US border, a proximity has leant itself to a lot of social and cultural overlap.Mr Heuman says Canadians will have similar tastes to Americans when it comes to things like media, pop culture and foods. And it's just as wired as the US with a similar technological infrastructure and with most residents owning smartphones... "I do see Canada being more reflective of the world than the US, for example," says Mr Heuman."Canada seems like a logical place to go because we are like the US but we are also like Australia, we are like the UK, we're still a little bit like Germany, we're still a little bit like Sweden and Norway and other countries like that."