I don't have a clever euphemism: Links for 1/24/2012 January 24, 2012

Kinsey Confidential – What Is Transphobia? And, What Is Cissexism:

While there is a growing body of research that examines the consequences of prejudice, discrimination, and violence faced by LGB people, little is known about the consequences of these experiences for transgender and gender non-conforming people.  Some of the consequences of these hostile, unfair, and harmful acts are obvious and immediate.  These range from the physical and emotional damage caused by transphobic violence to the increased risk for poverty and homelessness due to limited and constrained job opportunities because of transphobic discrimination.  The added stress (known as “minority stress“)of hostile attitudes and treatment for transgender and gender non-conforming people wears on their health, placing them at elevated levels of physical, mental, and sexual health problems. Additionally, because of transgender and gender non-conforming people are stigmatized, many are afraid to come out.  This translates, for some, into hiding one’s true identity and sense of self from others.  And, related to the stigma associated with homosexuality and bisexuality, the strict social norms regarding gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality also constrain the freedoms of cisgender people, as well.  We all risk facing ridicule, being shunned, or even experiencing discrimination and violence, if we step outside of the narrow range of acceptable gender identities and expressions.  As others have said, transphobia hurts us all.

Geekfeminism.org – Virginia Satir, ground-breaking family therapist:

From the cold, mechanistic language of cybernetics preferred by her male colleagues (who talked about “feedback loops” and “homeostasis,”), she developed a feeling vocabulary for family therapy, writing about “love” and “nurturance” and “self esteem,” concepts ignored or rejected by many family therapists who saw them as unscientific or touchy-feely. While the men of MRI sat behind one-way mirrors and gave deliberately confusing “paradoxical directives” to clients from a position of expertise as a part of their strategic therapy approach, Satir stood wives and children on chairs so they could be at eye level with their husbands or parents and talk to them as equals. She prescribed hugging and other forms of loving touch at a time when the prevailing wisdom in child rearing was still influenced by Cold War Era norms that counseled a hands-off approach, to avoid “coddling” children (ideas now thoroughly refuted by empirical research on infant and child attachment).

MySexProfessor.com – What’s Important Is That They’re Polyamorous:

So why am I sharing a story about how a small woman scared away three would-be-muggers? Partially because the story makes me smile, I like to see crime stopped in its tracks, and you rarely hear stories like this. Also, I love to think about what the would-be-muggers discussed later. However, the main reason is because a news story ran about this incident and I feel that the writer focused more on the fact that my three friends are polyamorous than any other detail. Yes, these three people are polyamorous. However, being polyamorous doesn’t instantly mean that you can scare off would-be-criminals any more than it means that polyamorous individuals have the best sex or never get jealous. Even the title of the article focuses on the relationships, “Muggers With A Fake Gun Thwarted By Polyamorous Inwood Family“, as if that is what is most important. Very few details about the family are shared, but apparently it was important to note who is involved with who as well as the fact that Ms Fox is “open about her polyamorous lifestyle”.

Washington Post – Google announces privacy settings change across products; users can’t opt out:

After March 1, a user who has recently watched YouTube videos of the Washington Wizards might suddenly see basketball ticket ads appear in his or her Gmail accounts.That person may also be reminded of a business trip to Washington on Google Calendar and asked whether he or she wants to notify friends who live in the area, information Google would cull from online contacts or its social network Google+. Privacy advocates say Google’s changes betray users who are not accustomed to having their information shared across different Web sites. A user of Gmail, for instance, may send messages about a private meeting with a colleague and may not want the location of that meeting to be thrown into Google’s massive cauldron of data or used for Google’s maps application.

Note: While I personally believe that Google is shifting towards a less-friendly and more aggressive stance that mines the living shit out of its resources (namely, us fleshbags that use their services), they’ve been FTC-spanked before. Nevertheless, they’re banking on the gravity of people’s stored data to outweigh any escape velocity users’ outrage might generate, and that is, in and of itself, really despicable. Look for the coming days to see Google clarify things, as well as “clarify” things – along with the tech pundits weighing in. It’s probably a good choice to start discussing what happens next if you decide you’re opting out of GooTopia.

Big Fat Blog – Stand For Kids:

Anyone who reads The Fatosphere Feed has already heard about Marilyn Wann's Stand for Kids Campaign. It's a HAES, body lib reply to Georgia's god-awful bullying billboards, which portray fat children as pathetic and inherently unhealthy. Atchka of Fierce, Freethinking Fatties has created a Stand for Kids Blog where he's republishing related posts.

The Guardian – Pork, the surprise remedy for a nosebleed:

"Cured salted pork crafted as a nasal tampon and packed within the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly, effectively, and without sequelae … To our knowledge, this represents the first description of nasal packing with strips of cured pork for treatment of life-threatening hemorrhage in a patient with Glanzmann thrombasthenia."

Shauna Myers – Why was MegaUpload really shut down:

"UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings," MegaUpload founder Kim 'Dotcom' Schmitz told Torrentfreak. Not only did they plan on allowing artists to keep 90% of their earnings on songs that they sold, they wanted to pay them for songs they let users download for free.

Official NYIP Photo Blog – Instagram’s Dirty Little Secret:

By reviewing Instragram's Terms of Service, you'll notice it says "By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly ("private") will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services."

In layman's terms, if you take a great shot of an important historical event and post it to Instagram, don't expect to get paid for it as the news wire will already be using it, for free.

MySexProfessor.com – Another View of Privilege:

This is why this essay by Natalie, born with a Y chromosome but living as a woman, is so fascinating: she started out life as a guy, but then had male privilege taken away from her when she chose to live as a woman. When discussing the differences between living as a man and living as a woman she writes: “But by far the thing that has been the biggest adjustment, the most prominent issue, the one that has caused me the most stress and emotional difficulty, and has been the biggest surprise and took me most off guard, is learning to live with cat calls and sexual harassment.” Natalie details her experiences having to deal with street harassment, cheesy come-on lines, and situations that made her feel downright unsafe. She concludes (and I totally agree): “So please, take it from someone who has a basis of comparison, who had it but sacrificed it, male privilege is real. Women don’t have it easier. And while we’re pretty much all being hurt by the gender binary, and no one is really benefiting all that much, women are getting the worst of it.”