Quickies
Skepchick Quickies 3.11
On March 11, 1993, Janet Reno was confirmed as (the first female) Attorney General of the United States by the Senate. On a slightly related note, here is a clip of Will Ferrell doing an impression of her on an SNL segment called “Janet Reno’s Dance Party.” This morning’s links are full of interesting articles–you’ll need a lot of coffee breaks to get through this!
- Sir Patrick Stewart: ‘Violence Against Women Is Learned’ – I am a biased TNG nerd, but damn do I love this man.
- Secrets of the Internet Adult Film Database – Language is NSFW. A nice breakdown of the statistics of the porn industry. From Will.
- The Allergy Buster: Can a Radical New Treatment Save Children With Severe Food Allergies?
- Feminism and Religion – Check out this new blog! Many of the articles are brilliant. From Amy.
- First Person: White House reporter balances working and breastfeeding.
- New Study Suggests Religion May Help Criminals Justify Their Crimes – From cerberus40.
- The Professor, the Bikini Model, and the Suitcase Full of Trouble – Save this story and read it over an extended coffee break.
- Can men be taught not to rape? – One woman’s “bizarre” suggestion that men can play a role in rape prevention. From Bug.
- Sex Ed Without Condoms? Welcome to Mississippi – I grew up in a different Southern state, and we didn’t have a discussion about contraception either.
- Eighteen For-Profit Companies Fighting to Eliminate the Birth Control Benefit – From Amy.
- Seeing at the Speed of Sound – The first-hand account of a lipreader. You have to read this.
- Scientists Identify Drugs’ Side Effects by Analyzing Search Data Collected From Millions of Users – From Jamie.
BONUS: Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton collect their own action figures (and more).
Bug_Girl’s link has two URLs and breaks. fyi.
I forgot to add the http at the beginning. Thanks for pointing it out!
That allergy treatment link was really interesting. I developed a severe tree nut allergy, it’s pretty annoying (not to mention dangerous). People always ask me “What did people with severe allergies do before there were Epi-pens and awareness?” I usually say “Die.”. They also ask me why there are so many people with severe food allergies, like I am supposed to know. If I could not be deathly allergic to nuts that would be awesome. I know there are a lot of quacks out there offering allergy treatments, and to be honest I didn’t trust any of them, but now that I’ve read this article, I might look in to it. I might at least try curing my pollen allergy before I let anyone put nuts anywhere near me because I don’t trust other people with my life.
The only thing is that if you were to have some sort of nut treatment, you have to take a maintenance dose at least every 3 days for the rest of your life or you may become sensitive again. That part was a little concerning for me.
Awesome series today, Mary! Thank you. I wish I could go back to the days when I was surprised that a simple statement like,”let’s teach or boys and men not to rape women” results in rape threats against the speaker. It’s also ironic that the same people *cough Hannity cough* who say that the answer to gun violence is to focus on fixing the perpetrators (“mentally ill”) are saying that the answer to sexual assault is to arm the victim. Why for one crime do they focus on criminalizing an entire group of society (undeservedly) but for sexual assault, it’s no longer about prevention of the crime by finding potential perpetrators- it’s about getting more guns in the hands of women? Gross.
Impressive group of links, lady! Thanks for curating these!
It seems to me that Janet Reno became the first women Attorney General of the United States because President Bill Clinton was determined to make history by appointing a women to the position. But Reno was single, childless, and unattractive. I remember there were two other women that Clinton appointed first who were married and had children, but the Republicans found excuses to reject them. So even Reno’s nomination was the result of sexism!
I was very young during the Clinton administration, so I missed out on that detail. Thanks for the perspective!