Links - 26th August 2019 (1)

Several US states consider legislation to decriminalise prostitution - "Lawmakers across the country are beginning to reconsider how to handle prostitution, as calls for decriminalisation are slowly gaining momentum.Decriminalisation bills have been introduced in Maine and Massachusetts; a similar bill is expected to be introduced to the city council in Washington DC in June; and lawmakers in Rhode Island held hearings in April on a proposal to study the impact of decriminalising prostitution.New York may be next: some Democratic lawmakers are about to propose a comprehensive decriminalisation bill that would eliminate penalties for both women and men engaged in prostitution, as well as the johns whom they service... Kamala Harris became the first candidate to endorse some manner of decriminalisation, an idea also floated by another contender, the former governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.“When you’re talking about consenting adults, I think that yes, we should really consider that we can’t criminalise consensual behaviour as long no one is being harmed,” said Ms Harris, in an interview with The Root.Supporters of decriminalisation see their efforts as part of a larger, decades long liberalisation of American mores, like lifting Sunday bans on selling alcohol and legalising marijuana.They also frame the issue as an act of harm-reduction for prostitutes and a tacit admission that modern law enforcement and age-old moral indignation has done little to stem the practice."

The Feminist Divide Over Decriminalizing Sex Work - "One woman, who asked only to be identified as Adrian, held a sign reading "Listen to Sex Workers," and another woman, who goes by SX, brought one that said "Consensual Sex Workers Against Sex Trafficking." They shouted a common mantra for sex workers: "Nothing about us without us." Anti-decriminalization activists attempted to step in front of them and cover their signs, and SX told Broadly hers was later confiscated by an NYPD detective.As the rally continued, some speakers made rhetorical gestures to Adrian and SX, calling them "ignorant" of their own oppression... Adrian told Broadly it's "frustrating" to be spoken about as though she doesn't know what's best for herself. "There are so many different experiences within the sex trade," she said. "Some experiences are horrible and exploitative. Other people have empowering experiences. Mostly, it's just a job—it can be very mundane. Sometimes you hate it, some days you like it. It's really frustrating having people paint us all as victims.""They don't understand the basic concept that you have ownership over your body and you have your own choice," SX added. "That basic idea isn't there for them. As much as they're listening to survivors and trafficked people they're not listening to consensual sex workers as well.""
It's feminist and empowering to tell women they're too stupid to know they're being oppressed
So much for My Body My Choice

Influencers Aren't Flooding Chernobyl to Take Photos - "Three of the four people that Zupan chose to highlight in his tweet aren’t influencers at all... people still struggle with how to best format their posts from solemn places. A crying photo will get you ridiculed for being inauthentic or cringey. Present yourself too seriously and you’ll look like you’re “posing for a rap album cover amid the abandoned buildings”... You could, as some seem to wish, not share anything at all. But as Natalie Shure, who researches history for TruTV, notes, “Most people do it specifically because they want to remember the site and what it meant to them. Those goals are in line with those of public history projects, not antithetical to them.”... most of these users are all trying to say the same thing: I was here."

Indigenous body positive brand asks white people not to wear their shirts - "California-based clothing brand, Nalgona Positivity Pride released a controversial statement specifically to its ‘White Allies’ asking them to not wear their clothes and thanking them for “not culturally appropriating”.The move has been criticised by some on social media for trying to empower one group while broadly negatively categorising another. For a brand that promotes positively, some believe this is perhaps not the right approach to get attention.
How long till they go bankrupt? Apparently cultural appropriation is okay if you're not white - as usual white people are evil
"DEAR WHITE ALLIES
ALL SHIRTS WITH INDIGENOUS DESIGNS WERE CREATED FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND PEOPLE OF COLOR TO WEAR.
BEFORE YOU PURCHASE ASK YOURSELF, "DOES THIS BELONG TO ME?" APPRECIATION FOR ANOTHER CULTURE DOES NOT GRANT PERMISSION TO TAKE, CONSUME, OR RE-PURPOSE MARGINALIZED CULTURES. INDIGENOUS CULTURES CONTINUE TO EXPERIENCE COLONIALISM, CULTURAL GENOCIDE, & LAND THEFT. WE ALL HAVE A ROLE IN THE DISEMPOWERMENT AND EMPOWERMENT OF LOCAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. ASK YOURSELF, WHAT HAVE I DONE LATELY FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES? HOW HAVE I USED MY PRIVILEGE TO HELP UNCOVER THE VOICES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN MY COMMUNITY?
SUPPORTING INDIGENOUS EFFORTS GOES BEYOND WEARING A SHIRT. WANT TO SUPPORT IN OTHER WAYS? PURCHASE OTHER NON-CULTURALLY RELEVANT SHIRTS OR DONATE TO NPP.
THANK YOU FOR NOT CULTURALLY APPROPRIATING"

The conversation surrounding cultural... - Sophie's Obsessions - "The conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has been so severely mutilated by white “allies” that the original intention behind that conversation has become almost unrecognizable in most social contexts. To explain what I mean, the conversation around cultural appropriation was started by black and native people to discuss the frustrations we feel at being punished socially and financially for partaking in our cultural heritage while white people could take, I.e. appropriate, aspects of our culture that we are actively shamed for and be heralded as innovators. It was about the frustrations we feel when the same white people who shamed us would take our culture and wear it as if they were the ones who created it while still actively shaming us for doing the same. The original push behind naming cultural appropriation and having these conversations were so that we as a society could evaluate why we were punished for our heritage while white People were not. It was supposed to be about seeking solutions. The idea was to create a society where we could celebrate our cultures with impunity. It was never about telling white people that they “weren’t allowed” to do certain things"
I've seen non-white people bitching too, so it's convenient to only blame white people

Restaurants on level 5 of Jewel Changi Airport hit hard by requirement to stay open till 3am - ""We can only serve appetisers after midnight and we came up with the midnight high tea menu to resolve this problem. It is available from 10pm to 3am but there are still no customers despite this"... The only restaurant that is doing well in the wee hours is Rumours Bar & Grill, which is the only outlet on the fifth level that is allowed to sell alcoholic drinks past midnight... The picture is more mixed for restaurants opening late in other parts of Jewel."

The Men’s Mental Health Double-Bind - "many mental health organizations and high-profile individuals are sending out an insistent message that men must talk more about their mental health... However, other individuals and organizations are sending out a completely different message, namely that men as a group need to remain silent and "check their privilege."... Such messages can be seen all over the Internet, with pleas for men to shut-up or stop whining. Of note, these pleas come from both men and women. These echo comments men often hear in face-to-face interactions, even from their intimates and their employers.Indeed, such perspectives can emanate from high places, including the U.S. Senate, with Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono recently stating, "I just want to say to the men in this country: just shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change." For some, male silence is a sign of moral rectitude.This situation creates a men’s mental health double-bind. On the one hand, men are being told to talk more and open-up; on the other hand, men are being told to check their privilege and be silent. This can only create cognitive and emotional distress... Numerous groups have attempted to organize discussions about issues affecting men’s mental health. These are sometimes met with hostility.For example, a group of male and female students at Ryerson University created a men’s issues group, holding events to discuss men's mental health. This group was refused official status by Ryerson University’s Student Union on numerous occasions, with members being stigmatized and abused by some campus activists... other groups have invited well-known mental health scholars as guest speakers, with unforeseen consequences. For example, the University of Toronto Men's Issues Society invited Dr. Warren Farrell to talk about men’s mental health issues, but his lecture was met with violence and vandalism by protesters who tried to shut down the event... Several British psychologists recently formed a male psychology group offering public lectures, a website, a newsletter and a social space to discuss men’s mental health issues (full disclosure: I am a member).As the group grew, the leadership applied for the group to be recognized as an official section of the British Psychological Society (BPS). This would require a vote from the whole BPS membership.Bizarrely, this was opposed by an organized group entitled "no to male psychology," which campaigned for a no vote. In the resultant ballot, over 4,000 BPS members voted, with two-thirds in favour of the new section. This was welcome news, but it can not go unnoticed that 30 percent of BPS members who voted did not want a male psychology section."
So much for feminism being about men

'Check your privilege' means 'Shut your mouth' - "Fortgang is quite right to complain that being obsessively on the lookout for white male heterosexual bias can obscure more than it reveals, in part by ignoring how much heterosexual white men can differ.In any case, Fortgang didn't complain about being asked to reflect on the incompleteness of his worldview. He complained about the dismissal of opinions based on who was uttering them.And while the phrase "check your privilege" could be used, hypothetically, to deepen a conversation instead of to shut it down, the critics don't seem all that interested in doing so. One of the most-linked critiques announces in its very first sentence that the author has been un-friending people who linked approvingly to Fortgang's essay.It's a free country, and people can be as narrow-minded as they like. But they should know that they're proving Fortgang's point about the illiberalism – on college campuses and elsewhere – that's too often behind the cliche."

The surprising truth about Indian food - "I was in a narrow kitchen in Mumbai, one of India’s most strikingly modern cities, watching an ancient Indian meal being cooked on vessels of baked clay. Utensils made from leaves, wood and metal were scattered across the kitchen. The food was being prepared using only ingredients native to the subcontinent, which meant that the sharpness of chillies (native to Mexico) and the starch of the potatoes (imported from South America) were missing.“No cabbages, cauliflower, peas or carrots, either,” said Kasturirangan Ramanujam, one of the cooks preparing the meal. But that won’t stop him from making an elaborate feast for my family that will include rice, the mulligatawny-like saatramudu, protein-rich kuzhambu gravy and an astonishing array of vegetables and snacks.This is the shraadha meal that is eaten by many Hindu families in southern India on the death anniversaries of close family members – in this case, the anniversary of my father-in-law’s passing. While the feast is believed to feed families’ departed ancestors, it has inadvertently created a living memory of the region’s culinary history, because it is made entirely from recipes and ingredients that have existed on the subcontinent for at least a millennium"

Man gets jail, caning for scrawling racist graffiti in Geylang - "She said that "a strong deterrent sentence" ought to be imposed, adding that the High Court had previously noted that offences involving racial relations needed to be deterred "as racial harmony forms the bedrock upon which peace and progress in Singapore are founded"... When asked by District Judge John Ng if he had anything to say, Chen, who was not represented, said "I think nine strokes is OK".The judge said that even though Chen was "prepared to accept the sentence", the court would be giving a marginally reduced sentence in view of the aggregation principle, which holds that the total sentence should not be crushing on the offender.He ordered the permanent marker used in the offences to be forfeited to police."
Strange how there wasn't a racial riot over this

Norway Now Kills More Whales Than Japan And Iceland Combined - "The IWC has not formally commented on Norway’s whaling since 2001 and the international community has not presented a demarche to Norway since 2006,"

The wrong side of history has become a crowded place. Time to rethink - "Like the crevice down the back of a sofa, full of coins and old bits of Play-Doh, the Wrong Side of History has become a crowded place in recent years. Among those consigned to it have been Brexiteers, anti-vaxxers, vaccine proponents, feminists who don’t accept the idea of gender as an innate essence, the leftwing Somali-American politician Ilhan Omar, and Benjamin Netanyahu. When the online publication Vox asked a panel of experts what we’d look back on with shame in 50 years, answers included the war on drugs, laws restricting the purchase of sex, and meat-eating. But perhaps what we should really look back on with shame is banging on about the right and wrong sides of history. A clue to the problem came when the ethicist Karen Swallow Prior, responding to Vox, nominated abortion as the thing we’ll come to agree was an immoral horror. The average progressive would object vehemently, of course. But who’s to say Prior is wrong? Appealing to the judgment of history involves consulting a bunch of imaginary people from the future, so it’s hardly a surprise when they turn out to agree with whoever is doing the consulting... Khan opposed Trump’s visit on the persuasive grounds that “the far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms”. But that helps to show why the “wrong side of history” idea makes no sense. If the far right’s eventual defeat were guaranteed, there would be much less to worry about. The real hazard, though, comes when the idea is used by contemporary pontificators to avoid confronting the possibility that they, themselves, might be wrong. Once you’re confident of history’s position, you needn’t ask whether your critics might have a point; you can dismiss them as anachronistic fuddy-duddies who haven’t caught up with the latest advance toward moral truth. The irony is that it is a good idea to reflect on the judgment of history – not to reinforce your opinions, but rather to unsettle them, and infuse them with a dose of humility. The past is full of periods when people endorsed ridiculous or horrifying views, but they evidently didn’t think so at the time. Why should any of us be immune, just because our time happens to be now?"