Quickies

Quickies: Hezbollah Culture, New Nutrition Labels, Combating Native Stereotypes

On March 3, 1913, thousands of women marched in a suffrage parade. The parade included “ten bands, five mounted brigades, 26 floats, and around 8000 marchers.” And Helen Keller! (If I had a time machine, I would totally travel back to the time of the suffragettes, among other destinations.)

Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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12 Comments

  1. Do the new nutrition labels make any real difference? What’s the benefit? I guess it’s cool the calorie number is in a bigger font size.

    The First Lady said this — “Unless you had a thesaurus, a calculator and degree in nutrition, you were out of luck,” Mrs. Obama said. “Our guiding principle here is simple – that you as a parent and a consumer should be able to walk into a grocery store, pick an item off the shelf and tell whether it’s good for your family.”

    Does the new label do that? Can you look at the new label in the link above and tell whether it is good for your family?

    Honestly, the label isn’t even that much different. It has an extra line for “added sugars” (which, of course, you can bet will be de-meaning-ified by the FDA regulations which will dilute and overcomplicate the determination of what constitutes an “added” sugar.

    I wonder how much the new label design cost to develop?

    And, in general, I think people really aren’t helped by either the old label or the new label. If the first lady is right, and people really just want to know whether food is “good” for their families — then I think both labels fail miserably.

  2. From the “Things that Occupy a Woman” article — yes, it is a very common theme for people to ask women if they are seeing someone. Especially other women, I think. Men generally learn quickly not to ask such questions of women. It’s like asking a woman if she’s pregnant. You. Don’t. Do. It.

    Men get asked about their dating habits too. From friends, it’s like “are you dating anyone, yet?” And, if you say, “no, not really.” They’ll insultingly ask if you’re gay. Unless, of course, you actually are gay, in which case the heterosexual friends won’t ask at all, generally speaking.

    Parents of boys often ask about it. But, I do think it’s probably more something women get more pressure about. Traditionally, I think the way boys were asked about their “girlfriends” was in a “you sly boots” sort of manner….. “do you have a girlfriend? I bet you do! Dating the whole 8th grade, eh!?”

    It is something parents should definitely be mindful of. Help daughters learn to deal with relationship issues and grow into sexual beings. But, don’t make that priority one all the time. Maybe start with some lead-in inquiries about interests, thoughts, and dreams. Dreams especially with young kids. Dreams are the best.

  3. That’s some literacy test. I don’t think I could figure the ambiguous and obtuse instructions for those 30 questions in 10 minutes, much less mark everything.

    1. I always knew about the literacy tests, but I had no idea they were that horrible. (Although obviously the only way to “pass” is to be white.)

  4. I knew about the tests, too, and heard much grumbling in the mid-60s that “every voter should be able to read.” I’m sure the grumblers that I knew never had to take such a test. My grandparents, who lived in SW Georgia, could barely read and would have been unable to pass this test in 10 minutes, except for being white.

  5. Reading that test: I thought of 2 completely different interpretations for question 21, question 29 is clearly just fucking with people who got that far, and question 30 is missing some words…

    It is literally impossible to pass if the checker doesn’t want you to, on top of being nearly impossible to finish in 10 minutes.

    1. Technically, they can’t make a constitutional argument for a literacy test (since literacy tests are banned under the Twenty-Fourth Amendment), but they’re trying to make it so you need a photo ID to vote, but they don’t have to provide you with a free one. Which is nakedly about disenfranchising the poor, since no one’s risking a felony conviction over one vote.

      That literacy test was, I got to about the middle of it before it became impossible.

  6. Yes, I agree with you all. I can do it, but it took 10 minutes just to read the fucker, and anybody could slip up at any one of those points. Question 30 though, just like some Venn diagrams, clearly has an asshole at the center of it!

    (That might be funny on some level, but actually I just feel sad and outraged)..

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