Welcome to our weekly links round-up. The LRU is a compilation of items from the past week that may be of interest to VPers and is intended to broaden the kinds of conversations we have here. To submit articles to the round-up, e-mail also_warriors@vaginapagina.com
As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter.
This week's round-up includes: moobs and the gender police; lawmakers bared from speaking in MI House after asserting their bodies are their own...; Mayor Bloomberg visits Black church to say stop-and-frisk will continue; Greek sex workers arrested and subjected to HIV tests; mental illnesses "shockingly" undertreated in UK
As a reminder, in lieu of trigger warnings, I use keywords describing the themes of the piece. Please skim these before deciding to read the excerpt or click through for the full article. Outside sources are not safe spaces, and mainstream source's comments should almost always be avoided. The links I highlight don't necessarily reflect VP's views, or even my own, for that matter.
This week's round-up includes: moobs and the gender police; lawmakers bared from speaking in MI House after asserting their bodies are their own...; Mayor Bloomberg visits Black church to say stop-and-frisk will continue; Greek sex workers arrested and subjected to HIV tests; mental illnesses "shockingly" undertreated in UK
- My moobs and me: growing up with gynecomastia at Guardian (Keywords: UK, bodies, gender, gynecomastia)
This fixation on "man boobs" reveals our culture's obsession with binary gender, but we have all the evidence we need that biological sex and gender are not as rigid or fixed as we imagine. There are intersexed people. There are transgender people and genderqueer people. There are millions of men and boys like me with gynecomastia, a medically harmless (though socially lethal) condition. The prevalence of gynecomastia in adolescent boys is estimated to be as low as 4% and as high as 69%. As one article notes, "These differences probably result from variations in what is perceived to be normal." You think?
- Lawmaker barred from speaking after 'vagina' comment at Detroit News via This Week in Blackness (Keywords: US, law, abortion access, religion)
"If I can't say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?" Brown asked Thursday at a hastily called Capitol press conference. "What language should I use?" [...]
More info, including videos of the adresses in question.
House Republicans also wouldn't let state Rep. Barb Byrum speak on the House floor today.
Byrum, D-Onondaga, caused a disturbance on the House floor Wednesday when she wasn't allowed to introduce an amendment to the abortion regulations bill banning men from getting a vasectomy unless the sterilization procedure was necessary to save a man's life. - Mayor Bloomberg to Black Church: ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Is Here to Stay at Colorlines (Keywords: US, racism, stop-and-frisk)
On Sunday New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg went to a black church in one of the city’s most heavily policed neighborhoods to let them know ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ isn’t going anywhere. Just after citing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech the Mayor told the congregation at the First Baptist Church of Brownsville that ‘stop-and-frisk’ should be “mended, not ended.”
- Greek Sex Workers Face Forced HIV Tests; Malawi Workers Fight Back at Ms. Magazine (via Feministing) (Keywords: Greece, Malawi, sex work, HIV/AIDS )
At the end of April, Greek police began systematically arresting sex workers, forcing them to undergo HIV testing and posting the names and photographs of those who test HIV-positive on official police websites. The sex workers face criminal charges of intentionally causing ‘serious bodily harm,’ even though there is no evidence they were aware of their HIV status.
- 'Shocking discrimination' in mental health services at BBC (Keywords: UK, mental health, disability, NHS)
NHS managers in England have been accused of "shocking discrimination" in commissioning mental health services.
The Mental Health Policy Group from the London School of Economics said three-quarters of people with depression or anxiety got no treatment.
What have you been reading (or writing!) this week?
Edit: Yay, all fixied!
Edited at 2012-06-19 02:30 am (UTC)
I also have my first call for submissions up for Everyday Yoga, a photo project designed to start showing a wider variety of bodies in a wider variety of yoga postures. Please submit if you're interested!
An LJer who's also a member of
So they think it's more effective to shame people, and put them at risk for violence, than say, putting that $ into a campaign to promote condom use among sex workers and the people who utilize those services?