Quickies

Quickies: Transmasculine Visibility, Jazz Hands, and Biblical Literalism

  • The Obsession With Biblical Literalism – “A Christian theme park in Kentucky brings the ancient to life through a life-sized reconstruction of Noah’s Ark—but not without dipping into fiction.”
  • I Went on a Weeklong Cruise For Conspiracy Theorists. It Ended Poorly. – “What do you get when you stick some of the conspiracy world’s biggest celebrities and their die-hard fans on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a week? Some fascinating insight into our strange times. And one near fistfight.”
  • The Fabulous History of JAZZ HANDS! – “It’s been incorporated into cheerleading and show choir routines (hello, Glee), been featured as a gag on shows like The Office and Archer, and become a cheerful meme, with countless internet cats putting up their little paws. But long before the motion became a cheeky shorthand for musical theatre nerds, jazz hands popped up in improbable places. But where did they really come from?”
  • 20 Years Since Welfare’s Overhaul, Results Are Mixed – “The new program did work for millions of families, but not all. Many of the most disadvantaged people have been unable to get or keep jobs and they’re worse off than they were before, in part because there’s now a five-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits — and in some states, it’s lower. Arizona this year cut the limit to one year. The idea was that people would be encouraged to find work if they knew their monthly checks would end, but instead, some have been left high and dry.”
  • Transmasculine Visibility – “I emailed my new professors and told them my preferred name and pronouns so I could ensure that there would be no slip-ups once classes started. I did this for over three years before deciding I wanted to take hormones, and during those pre-T years, I often had to fight to get people to call me he either because they didn’t read me as male or because they knew me ‘before’ or because they actively resisted using them. At the time, I was very adamant that I didn’t want to go ‘stealth’ and disappear from the trans community, because I knew how important it was to me to have transmasculine role models. Before college, the only trans people I knew of were trans women on Jerry Springer whose identities as trans were revealed in an illicit fashion (and a horribly degrading way!).”

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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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