What You Need To Know About Obama’s New Letter Of Guidance For Transgender Students.

I’m fairly certain that Bernie has never tried to kill Hillary. Then again, my Latin teacher said that our only primary source for Cateline’s actions is Cicero’s speeches, which are not exactly going to be the most trustworthy in this scenario.

au where the Romans make political memes

For months, every morning when my daughter was in preschool, I watched her construct an elaborate castle out of blocks, colorful plastic discs, bits of rope, ribbons and feathers, only to have the same little boy gleefully destroy it within seconds of its completion.

No matter how many times he did it, his parents never swooped in BEFORE the morning’s live 3-D reenactment of “Invasion of AstroMonster.” This is what they’d say repeatedly:

“You know! Boys will be boys!” 

“He’s just going through a phase!”

“He’s such a boy! He LOVES destroying things!”

“Oh my god! Girls and boys are SO different!”

“He. Just. Can’t. Help himself!”

I tried to teach my daughter how to stop this from happening. She asked him politely not to do it. We talked about some things she might do. She moved where she built. She stood in his way. She built a stronger foundation to the castle, so that, if he did get to it, she wouldn’t have to rebuild the whole thing. In the meantime, I imagine his parents thinking, “What red-blooded boy wouldn’t knock it down?”

She built a beautiful, glittery castle in a public space.

It was so tempting.

He just couldn’t control himself and, being a boy, had violent inclinations.

She had to keep her building safe.

Her consent didn’t matter. Besides, it’s not like she made a big fuss when he knocked it down. It wasn’t a “legitimate” knocking over if she didn’t throw a tantrum.

His desire — for power, destruction, control, whatever- - was understandable.

Maybe she “shouldn’t have gone to preschool” at all. OR, better if she just kept her building activities to home.

I know it’s a lurid metaphor, but I taught my daughter the preschool block precursor of don’t “get raped” and this child, Boy #1, did not learn the preschool equivalent of “don’t rape.”

Not once did his parents talk to him about invading another person’s space and claiming for his own purposes something that was not his to claim. Respect for her and her work and words was not something he was learning.  How much of the boy’s behavior in coming years would be excused in these ways, be calibrated to meet these expectations and enforce the “rules” his parents kept repeating?

There was another boy who, similarly, decided to knock down her castle one day. When he did it his mother took him in hand, explained to him that it was not his to destroy, asked him how he thought my daughter felt after working so hard on her building and walked over with him so he could apologize. That probably wasn’t much fun for him, but he did not do it again.

There was a third child. He was really smart. He asked if he could knock her building down. She, beneficent ruler of all pre-circle-time castle construction, said yes… but only after she was done building it and said it was OK. They worked out a plan together and eventually he started building things with her and they would both knock the thing down with unadulterated joy. You can’t make this stuff up.

Take each of these three boys and consider what he might do when he’s older, say, at college, drunk at a party, mad at an ex-girlfriend who rebuffs him and uses words that she expects will be meaningful and respecte, “No, I don’t want to. Stop. Leave.”

The “overarching attitudinal characteristic” of abusive men is entitlement

(I’m not getting it because it’s her style, just because I like it.)(Not that there’s anything wrong with getting your hair cut specifically to look like a celebrity.)

How should I get my hair cut? send me suggestions!

Binary gendered language is one of those things that often goes unnoticed even at churches that are trying to be LGBTQ inclusive. Breaking the binary is a simple change that can make a difference.

How might you incorporate this language into your prayers, sermons, and church activities? 

(Source: Latina Rebel)

re: self-inserts

I summon the demon Campbell Mark Swan. I wrote the words along the perimeter of an almost closed circle, drawn on a blank page of a notebook laying on my floor. I knew it wouldn’t actually work, but I still felt an excited anticipation as I closed the circle.

Keep reading

reblog if you believe that gender neutral bathrooms should be available everywhere

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip, set up their tent, and fall asleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes his faithful friend. ‘Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.’ Watson replies, ‘I see millions of stars.’ ‘What does that tell you?’ Watson ponders for a minute. 'Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Timewise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?’ Holmes is silent for a moment, then speaks. 'Watson, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent.’

(Trigger Warning: rape) Well, I couldn’t find any statistics on what percent of interactions in which a woman turns down sexual advances by a man end in violence. However, I did find a study on what percent of men are rapists. (http://www.davidlisak.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/RepeatRapeinUndetectedRapists.pdf) It found that (roughly) 6.3% of men have raped or attempted to rape someone. The majority of those had done so more than once, and averaged 5.8 times. The rapists had also committed an average of roughly 10 “acts of interpersonal violence, including rape, battery, and child physical and sexual abuse.” 6.3% might not seem like a lot, but it’s definitely enough to justify trust issues.

too true.

“it’s just my opinion”

Newsflash: Opinions can be bigoted. Often times opinions are bigoted. Bigotry operates off of opinions. It being your opinion doesn’t absolve you of bigotry, it just proves it more when you say such.