Urk

2009-01-24 21:39
aesmael: (tricicat)
There's a case in Canada where it appears, absent testimony to bolster charges of abuse, a Mormon leader has been charged under a law banning polygamy instead.

[livejournal.com profile] lost_angelwings showed me some news about this last night, in which it was claimed prosecutors had been reluctant to invoke this law for fear it would get overturned when challenged. Naturally I found myself hoping it would be removed because of this trial, and hopefully these suspicions of abuse gotten to the bottom of more directly.

Unfortunately I did not realise just how strict the law in question is. Yet another obstacle forcing reconsideration of life plans, and more immediate reason to hope it is struck down.
aesmael: (haircut)
"Why do you want to X?"
"Because my friends are and participating with them will provide us with shared memories and socialisation which will serve to further strengthen the bond of our friendship."

It seems contradictory to me, even hypocritical, that children are taught they ought to want to do things with other children but that they ought not do something because their friends are. I think what people are really after is ostensibly to teach from a young age the ability to recognise harmful or undesired actions and be in possession of the capacity to refuse participation in these even in the face of social pressure.

Except that parents or other authoritative people in a young person's life tend to want em to acquiesce to the pressures they place on em to engage in activities they approve of and to avoid those they disapprove of, often without particular reference to whether the person in question shares this desire. So we end up with apparently contradictory messages, such as that excursion in primary school in which teachers were insistent that I come join the other students in watching a video on why conformity is bad, rather than being off doing my own thing. I found that hilarious.

A certain degree of cooperation is necessary, so far as I can see, to keep a society functional, but I do not recall being taught this. Instead we get the message that we should do as everyone else is expected to, but not do what everyone else is doing, and thereby be anything we want to be.

Let's turn this around. Instead of[1] teaching people to resist peer pressure, let's teach people not to exert social pressure to coerce participation from the unwilling. Why must the onus be always on the victim to avoid being victimised? Why not teach people not to abuse the power and influence they have over others?


[1] As well as, really, but I like having a corrective footnote
aesmael: (tricicat)
    Thanks to iGoogle, a quick sweep through the most recent entries in my feeds.
  1. kimberella|Larvatus Prodeo in exile So much for the religious right [Family First made barely a blip in election; I think they were split with the Christian Democrats]
  2. The Merchant of Menace|The Anti-Theist and Misoclere Society Blair Admits His Delusional Psychopathy [Faith is not a justification for anything to anyone but oneself. I do not agree with the characterisation of all religious believers as delusional or liars - I believe most are simply mistaken]
  3. Heather Mallick|Comment is free Top quality sleaze [I know not what to make of this]
  4. Autumn Sandeen|Pam's House Blend Beginning An Occasional  Series On Hometown Activism [California Democratic Party adopts resolution supporting anti-discrimination legislation protecting transgender people]
  5. ScienceWoman|On being a scientist and a woman Minnow 36: Old science project [Had not seen this blog before (I subscribed to the Scienceblogs Combined Feed once I realised I could not read all my subscriptions anyway. Looking forward to seeing more from her.]
  6. David Michaels|The Pump Handle Money Changes Everything (Still More Evidence) [Links to this very interesting article on the influence of money on how doctors look at and frame the positive and negative features of drugs]
  7. writerdd|Memoirs of a Skepchick Are ratings harmful? [I think they are pretty silly]
  8. Tim Lambert|Deltoid Slap happy Overington [Australian journalist accused of slapping Labor candidate for Wentworth]
  9. Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Promote Peace, Get Harassed [Of all the responses to students wearing peace shirts and putting up posters, scrawling swastikas over them and wearing Confederate flags shirts in opposition is surely one of the worst]
  10. Orac|Respectful Insolence Takin' care of business: A triple dose of...well, you don't want to know [Blog mascot picture post - man dressed as enema bottle]
  11. Joseph j7uy5|Corpus Callosum Agomelatine: A New Approach For Depression [I often find this blog enlightening and interesting. This is not an exception.]
  12. Austin Cline|About.com: Agnosticism/Atheism Mailbag: Purpose of Life [Go read. I tend to agree with Austin Cline. I did actually make that assumption - reincarnation is not out of line for Christians I have met. The rest I suppose flows from the language being used (English). Or, y'know, I could accept being mistaken.]
  13. JP|SF Signal When Did Star Wars Jump The Shark? [Probably]
  14. Jim Downey|Unscrewing the Inscrutable This is a remarkably bad idea [Just another day]
  15. Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Heisman Trophy: Tim Tebow [Not something I know or care about]
  16. Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Scalia Hires Two Orthodox Jewish clerks [The comments are... interesting]
  17. Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Michigan Protects Transgendered State Employees [I am slightly less pleased after rereading and seeing it is only state employees and not everyone working in the state{1}]
  18. Abel Pharmboy|Terra Sigillata Docs as drug reps: a physician's inside story [Another (longer) take on the story linked at item #6]
  19. PZ Myers|Pharyngula Faith is not a prerequisite for science [Paul Davies gets on my nerves too. PZ Myers does not. Blake Stacey, also awesome.]
{1} It often annoys me seeing trans women described as ladies. I get the impression there are not many women these days who enjoy being called 'ladies' these days and it strikes me as patronising, as in "Ladies, ladies, calm down". *shrug*
aesmael: (writing things down)
    The main character in a story I am writing was the child of a polyamourous triad and I find myself stuck for how to refer to family members. I was mostly having problems referring to her non-biological parent, but other terms would help too.

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