Quickies

Skepchick Quickies, 2.27

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

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22 Comments

  1. Anyone else running into a WaPo paywall at page 3? Why do they always occur right as the story gets interesting?!

  2. Gotta love Hypnagogia… I remember talking excitedly with a friend about out-of-body experiences we had both had. He was less than excited when he realized I didn’t think it was anything more than an interesting experience, and that I hadn’t actually gone anywhere… :P

    1. I’ve never had an “out of body experience” with Hypnagogia (I’ve gotten close with, erm … chemicals, however, ahahaha), but man, Hypnagogia is FREAKY. I was just talking to someone about it. He mentioned that someone he mentions hears “whispers” a lot at night, and maybe it was a ghost? NOPE! It’s just your brain fucking with you!

      I sometimes get someone spooning me, and whispering creepy things into my ear. Or music. Or yelling my name, or other things. And it’s all so fucking real, even though I know it’s not. It’s something that’s plagued me since I was a child. I think it’s a testament to how logical I tend to be, because I never once thought it was something supernatural, even when I didn’t even really know what it was. I just figured I was dreaming while awake and paralyzed. And hey! I was right. :P

      I have a friend that gets really loud “ZAPS!” in her brain as she sleeps, among other weird things, and when I explained to her what it was, she was so relieved. She thought something serious was wrong, haha. She says now that she knows what it is, it happens less/it’s not as intense/she can eventually get it to stop with enough concentration.

      The sleeping brain is fascinating.

      1. “He mentioned that someone he mentions hears” — Someone he *knows*. Ugh. This is why I don’t comment before coffee.

    1. Yeah, me too. After all the damn studies that show that abstinence-only education not only does not work but tends to create even more teen pregnancies, they still do this shit. I will never, ever understand they very conservative.

      And you know, I was just thinking; it’s not so much religion that’s the problem, it’s conservatism and traditionalism that screws people and societies over. UGH. (Though of course they can be very much intertwined; still, I’ve known some “conservative” atheists/agnostics.)

      1. Not to mention all the kids who get and spread STIs, and all the damage done by teen pregnancy; like that children of teen moms are at higher risks for certain diseases and also for abuse and neglect. There’s damage it does to the teens having children under the age of 21 has health risks for the mother too, not to mention a potential life of poverty (or at least significant challenges in getting out of poverty). There is so much more harm done in NOT knowing I can’t even begin to understand why someone would think the right thing to do is hide all this information from their children.

  3. I remember reading somewhere that a decent chunk of Americans thought it should be legally required here for women to change their names upon marriage. I’m always astonished by how many people still seem to believe that it’s somehow wrong for a woman to keep the name she’s probably had from birth when she gets married. I’m glad Indian women now have the choice of how to handle their last names after marriage. (I wonder if Indian men are allowed to change their names upon marriage.)

    1. If I ever get married (hah!), I am never changing my last name. “Marilee Cornelius” just rolls off your tongue (“It’s like a sentence!” someone once said) I love, love my name. I don’t have a middle name, either, so it makes it even better, though I have always wanted to take my mom’s maiden name as my middle name, which is also an awesome last name (Barnum, and yes, I’m related to PT Barnum). So basically my name kicks ass and I’m not changing it for anyone.

      I’m glad Indian women can now do the same, though I do wonder how many will choose to do so, considering the stigma.

      1. Oh yeah, that was a total non-negotiable for me. In fact, if my husband had hesitated even a second over my not changing my name, I wouldn’t be married.

        It’s funny: my name isn’t even that remarkable. I’ve joked that I have the most generic white girl name ever. But it’s my name, and it’s served me well for nearly three decades. It’s a part of who I am, and I had absolutely no interest in changing it.

    2. I didn’t change my last name, and I knew since I was a teenager that I wouldn’t. I’m not really sure why, it’s not that I like my name or how it sounds or even that I’m attached to it. I just don’t want to change my name.

      However, other people will change it for me. When I get letters, generally people address it to me with my SO’s last name. I have to actively tell people that I didn’t change my name.

  4. I remember sex ed in high school…it was called BIOLOGY! Really does abstinence have any thing to do with ‘sex ed’. If we are going to go with abstinence only education maybe we should call it ‘serta solo ed’.

    1. Well, biology is of course an important subject, but it doesn’t generally include information on STIs, among other things.

      I grew up RIGHT on the AZ/Cali border, and the house I grew up in was on the Cali side (we went by AZ time, though … it’s a complicated area lol), and there was a K thru 8th grade school on the Cali side (almost an hour away and only 200 or so students, lol), so I ended up going to a California school for my JR. High years. Which was awesome, becuase we got really great Sex. Ed. The schools “in town” (AZ side of the river) did not get much of a Sex Ed.

      I learned ALL ABOUT AIDS, and even remember a gay man with AIDS coming in to talk to us once. We also had a little group that went and did talks on AIDS. I remember that abstinence was a big part of it, but so was the proper use of condoms, and testing. This was back in like, 93 and 94!

      I was lucky. The AZ students, not so much.

      Anyway, that tiny school is now closed so the students get bused (about 10 minutes away, haha) to the slightly larger schools “in town” so they get Arizona sex ed. Bleh. :/

      1. ” We also had a little group that went and did talks on AIDS.”

        And I want to clarify that it was us, the students, that did those talks, and we even did one “in town” for some meeting or something I vaguely remember. And it was about sex education in general, including STIs and stuff. Kind of awesome, now that I think about it.

      2. I grew up in the Midwest in MI. My biology class also covered diseases. I don’t remember if it was taught with sexual reproduction though. My high school biology teacher really cared about young people. A truly great man! I don’t know what they do about AIDS education these days. We must be about the same age. I remember Channel 1news in the classroom and that they covered various topics about AIDS frequently. We were all relieved when we learned you can’t get AIDS though touching or hugging someone. I seem to remember condom talk on the program. My high school’s ‘sex ed class’ which ran with our PE class was pretty bad and strongly promoted the abstinence route. I agree that sexual education is very important. Nothing like giving young people some information so that they are better prepared to make good life choices.

    2. Due to a weird collection of circumstances, I wound up with sex ed four times in high school… once in NJROTC in Louisiana, once in Biology in Louisiana, once in Health in Texas, and once in Biology in Texas. Surprisingly, for the states I was in (no pun intended), I had fairly good groundings each time. My biology teacher in Texas took anonymous questions; my biology teacher in Louisiana had a sizable chart showing the effectiveness of various kinds for both pregnancy prevention and STDs (Abstinence was rated at 100%; I was not yet snarky enough to point out Jesus). Chief showed us hastily edited movies intended for Marines and seamen (again, no pun intended). I honestly don’t remember my health class.

  5. Utah leads the nation in per capita spending on porn, so people will be getting sex ed – just not the kind the Quorum of Apostles would endorse.

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