Links - 26th November 2013

Mannequins Give Shape to a Venezuelan Fantasy - NYTimes.com - "Venezuelan women were increasingly using plastic surgery to transform their bodies, yet the mannequins in clothing stores did not reflect these new, often extreme proportions. So he went back to his workshop and created the kind of woman he thought the public wanted — one with a bulging bosom and cantilevered buttocks, a wasp waist and long legs, a fiberglass fantasy, Venezuelan style. The shape was augmented, and so were sales... the beauty queens’ fame helped fuel a fascination with cosmetic surgery and procedures like breast implants, tummy tucks, nose jobs and injections to firm the buttocks. Osmel Sousa, the longtime head of the Miss Venezuela pageant, takes credit for the trend. He recommended a nose job for Venezuela’s first Miss Universe, which he says made her victory possible more than three decades ago. “When there is a defect, I correct it,” Mr. Sousa said. “If it can be easily fixed with surgery, then why not do it?” For Mr. Sousa, beauty really is skin deep: “I say that inner beauty doesn’t exist. That’s something that unpretty women invented to justify themselves”... The little data available indicates that Venezuelan women do not get plastic surgery more than their counterparts in many other countries... “Beauty is perfection, to try to perfect yourself more and more every day,” Ms. Mieles said. “That’s how people see it here.”"

Obituary of the life-less - The People's Funny Pictures Blog - Quora

Sex workers using anti-HIV drugs instead of condoms - "emergency use of PEP is not the best way to go about it, he says. Instead it would be better for prostitutes to take a type of antiretroviral designed to be taken before exposure to HIV - known as Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)."

The condom conundrum: how to persuade Africa's prostitutes to practice safe sex - "“If a man uses a condom, the women will ask him ‘Are you sick?’ If a woman uses one, he will ask her ‘Are you having other men?’ Most people have negative attitudes to condoms. There is very little use by couples”"

Casual Sexual Relationships and Mental Health in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood - "Casual sexual relationships are relatively common in emerging adulthood. Yet the mental health implications of engaging in these relationships are unclear; past research has found negative associations, positive associations, or no association with mental health. In addition, little research has accounted for mental health status prior to entering casual sexual relationships. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 12,401), we measured mental health prior to engaging in casual sexual relationships and subsequent mental health after engaging in these relationships. We found that suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms in adolescence were associated with entrance into casual sexual relationships in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, casual sexual relationships were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting suicidal ideation in emerging adulthood."

AMARE launches official complaint against SMRT’s violent ad against men | New Nation - "the public transport operator has been showcasing a subway advertisement for many years that clearly shows an act of violence against men. The woman in the ad, who has a shoe fetish, is seen beaming with glee at her shoes like Imelda Marcos, while the man behind her is subjugated and suffering in silence. Akshun Bayday, president of the men’s rights group, said: “It took us men a long time to speak up against this kind of violence because we have over the years been silenced into fear.” “A lot of this kind of messaging saying violence against men is alright has been normalised to the extent we don’t think twice about it. But not anymore.”"

Government Weighs Permitting Cellphone Calls on Planes - "Rules against making cellphone calls during airline flights are "outdated," and it's time to change them, federal regulators said Thursday, drawing immediate howls of protest from flight attendants, airline officials and others... In October, the Federal Aviation Administration lifted restrictions on the use of most personal electronic devices during takeoffs and landings, but not cellphone calls, which fall under the FCC. The FAA long had barred the use of electronic devices below 10,000 feet because of concern they could cause electronic interference with aircraft systems during landings, the phase of flight when accidents are most likely to occur. The FAA based its decision to ease the restrictions based on recommendations from an industry advisory group, which said use of tablets, music players and other devices doesn't cause dangerous interference on modern airliners"
Finally, a superstition dies

Penis church, vagina stadium: Can genital-shaped architecture really be accidental?

This kid is going to be one hell of a witty person when she grows up.

Scott Borg's answer to Japanese Culture: How have the fundamental principles of Japanese culture changed in the seventy years since Ruth Benedict attempted to explain its distinctiveness and coherence in her book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword? - Quora - "It is deeply insulting to the Japanese to suppose that they operate with a hodgepodge of beliefs that have no inner consistency or depth. Yet this is what is implied by people who claim you can't generalize about Japanese culture. If a culture is self-consistent and has any degree of philosophical depth, then it should be possible to articulate the principles that give it coherence... Discussions of this subject are further complicated in the West by the special burdens faced by expatriate Japanese. Westerners feel they should accord special respect to comments on this subject by people of Japanese descent. This is partly just racism. The assumption is that if you look Japanese you should be an especially reliable informant about things Japanese. Yet even if Japanese expatriates lived long enough in Japan to have absorbed Japanese culture deeply, they have many emotions to overcome and many agendas to put aside before then can speak accurately about this subject. There is, for expatriate Japanese, a great temptation to avoid acknowledging things about Japanese culture that would alienate Westerners and that many expatriate Japanese have come to find embarrassing. There is a temptation to defend Japanese culture, even at the cost of accuracy. There is a tendency to substitute for the Japan that still exists, a wished-for Japan of the future, a Japan of "our generation," a Japan that might one day exist, but doesn't quite yet. There is a tendency to protest too much, when an observation feels disconcertingly true. There is above all the temptation to feel superior to the limitations of a writer of the recent past. This last temptation is itself, of course, a kind of ethnocentricity and temporal-centricity. The result can be a mixture of self-righteous indignation and smugness that is not very helpful."
Blind anti-stereotyping zealotry actually insults the groups you think you are defending

The Assguardians - The People's Funny Pictures Blog - Quora

'Self-aiming' rifle turns novices into expert snipers

Timeline Photos - Welcome to the Internet - "Someone really didn't think this out at the JFK memorial."

Bleeding Feminism: Internalized Misogyny: "I'm Not Like Most Girls!" - "girl-hate. It's so rampant that it's contributed to the stereotype that all girls are catty and horrible and some of us have started insisting that we're "not like other girls" to separate ourselves from all these generalizations, saying that we'd rather hang out with boys, because "boys have less drama". Here's the thing, though: homogenizing the entire female gender down to one or two negative stereotypes is sexist. When girls perpetuate it, it's called "internalized misogyny". And sadly, I've found that girls are guilty of perpetuating misogyny almost as often as men are"
If a girl saying she's not like other girls is (internalised) misogyny, slamming men for 'privilege' is (internalised) misandry

Why has feminism become obsessed with censoring 'the enemy'? - "There is a good reason, says Professor Feona Attwood, co-editor of the academic journal Porn Studies, for the resurgence of these pro-censorship campaigns. It is easier for puritans to focus on online porn, lap dancing or sex work rather than “material problems” such as poverty or education... the underlying message of Object and UK Feminista’s campaign is problematic; they are telling young feminists to fight to ban people from consuming media which portray them as pneumatic sex objects, rather than fight the message.
"

Kenyans chase down and catch goat-killing cheetahs

Against Feminisms | Quiet Riot Girl - "When I make my case against feminism, whether it be in a reasonable, rational manner or an exasperated, angry tone, I am challenging the basis of ALL FEMINIST THEORY. People say to me, ‘you can’t generalise like that’ ‘feminism is not a monolithic group’ ‘there are many branches of feminism’ ‘feminism is a broad church’ ‘feminism is not a club’... here is my rationale for why I oppose ALL and EVERY FEMINIST THEORY. If you are a feminist but do not subscribe to any of these assumptions/beliefs, then let me know. But I expect there is not one feminist who doesn’t broadly speaking accept these tenets:
1) Feminism is based on an assumption that overall, men as a group hold power in society and this power, damages women as a group.
2) The above assumption, no matter what feminists say, relies on a belief in and a reinforcement of the essentialist binary view of gender...
3) This means that in order to present these assumptions as ‘fact’, men are demonised by feminism as a whole...
4) The focus on men’s power over women in ‘patriarchal’ society ignores other divisions between people and is essentially, ‘heteronormative’...
5) Feminism does not allow for these above challenges to be made to it without it having a hissy fit or banning its critics from websites/fora or saying ‘but you don’t understand’ or ‘feminism is not monolithic’. Feminism cannot stand up to critique.
6) Feminism is based on self-interest"

S'porean women have height issues when finding dates - "70 per cent of the women surveyed said they will not date a shorter man. This is despite the fact that the Singaporean men surveyed said they are happy to date a taller woman. The survey also found that Singaporean women also prefer to date a man who is better educated and have higher salaries as compared to them. While such results may appear to show that Singaporean women are demanding, Lunch Actually CEO Violet Lim explained the reason for her female clients' requirements. She said: "I think it is understandable that women have high requirements when it comes to dating because as women are getting more educated and doing better for themselves when it comes to their career, they feel that they have achieved a certain comfort level in their life, and they are not willing to compromise on their quality of living.""
I doubt we would get this justification if it were the men who were demanding