Quickies: Anita Sarkeesian’s Haters, The “Whiteness” of Public Radio Voices, and Walking can Help With Depression

  • Here’s what Anita Sarkeesian’s harassers do with the rest of their Twitter time – “As it turns out, some of the most direct threats come from throwaway accounts, or ones that have been suspended. But some of them are extant, long-running feeds from people who… well, it’s hard to say that they have regular lives, or passions, because their timelines are mostly just racist or homophobic jokes and insults. But if you trawl deep enough, little pieces of normality peek out. And it makes everything all the more frustrating.”
  • Mad Men: Inside the Men’s Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned – “For some, the “manosphere” offers a place to air real grievances about issues such as bias in family courts or sexual abuse suffered by men. But it also has spawned a network of activists and sites that take Farrell’s ideology in a disturbing direction. Men’s rights forums on sites like 4chan and Reddit are awash in misogyny and anti-feminist vitriol. Participants argue that false allegations of rape and domestic abuse are rampant, or that shelters for battered women are a financial scam. Others rail against women for being independent or sexually promiscuous.”
  • Three Body Hacks You Shouldn’t Try at Home – “To improve themselves, a growing number of people are going beyond meditation or exercise. These brave pioneers are trying to hack their bodies with bacteria, special diets, and even electrical zaps.” It’s mostly just clickbait, but I liked the one about the eyes.
  • Is There A #PubRadioVoice That Sounds Like America? – “Chenjerai Kumanyika, a professor at Clemson University and aspiring public radio journalist, sparked a challenging conversation with his commentary about the “whiteness” of public radio voices. We hosted a Twitter chat about his essay and invited listeners and public radio professionals to share their thoughts using #PubRadioVoice.”
  • Carl Djerassi, 91, a Creator of the Birth Control Pill, Dies – “Dr. Djerassi wrote books, plays and 1,200 scientific articles; taught at universities for five decades; created an artists’ colony in California; and obtained a patent on the first antihistamine. His work on the science of birth control helped engender enormous controversies and social changes, altering sexual and reproductive practices, family economics and the working lives of millions of women around the world.” From Courtney.
  • Regular Walking Can Help Ease Depression – “Women who averaged 150 minutes of moderate exercise (golf, tennis, aerobics classes, swimming, or line-dancing) or 200 minutes of walking every week had more energy, socialized more, felt better emotionally, and weren’t as limited by their depression when researchers followed up after three years. They also had less pain and did better physically, although the psychological benefit was greater.” From Amy.
  • The biggest myth about vaccine deniers: That they’re all a bunch of hippie liberals – “We shouldn’t leap from this evidence to the assumption that refusing vaccinations is a special phenomenon driven by the ideology of the political left. There are also religious groups with low vaccination rates that have seen measles outbreaks, for instance, such as the Amish in Ohio and Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn – not groups that you could reasonably call “left wing.” And then, there’s rejection of the HPV vaccine in particular, which tends to be associated with the religious right.”

BONUS: saved by the bell hooks (from Ray). You need to see this mashup.

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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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8 Comments

  1. “real grievances about issues such as bias in family courts”

    I thought I read recently that this was a myth, that women do not really have an advantage in family court. (Unfortunately I cannot find the link to this information.)

    1. Economically the stats are ironclad — women come out worse in the average divorce. The man’s standard of living rises, the woman’s falls. Hard cold fact, on average.

  2. Well…Anti-vaxxers, rather than being Marin-county sandal-wearers, turn out to be: misinformed, credulous, lacking in critical thinking skills, at least on the fringe of conspiracy-mindedness.

    In other words they arrive at their position just about the way most Americans derive all their political/moral/scientific positions. All floating about in bubbles tailored to their enthusiasms and fears.

  3. So what is the difference between the homemade tDCS devices and the laboratory versions?

    Also, why would would someone interested in stimulating their brain with an experimental homemade device be dissuaded by the claims that it might cause temporary blindness?

  4. Just one note for the Mother Jones article: SJW began as a way to describe somewhat naïve middle-to-upper-class white allies who were ultimately useless because they were busy turning activism into a competition (among other, ah, issues, e.g. thinking the world is America, showing contempt for IRL activists, tendency to language-police).

    Racists and sexists then turned it into a term for normal people, so now we need another term to describe naïve and ultimately useless middle-to-upper-class white allies who think activism is some sort of competition. Which they will then use as a term for normal people. And we’ll need another term. Which they will then use as a term for normal people. And we’ll need another term.

    Oh, while this is Radio Free Europe (and therefore propaganda, but at least it admits to it), this got in my Facebook feed. Missionary stew, anyone?

  5. I’ve known that about depression and walking for most of my adult life. It’s still really hard to get out and walk.

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