Tangible Harm

There is a common dialogue that I've heard a lot during this election season, and it worries me. It goes something like this:

Me: "Aren't you worried about this candidate's stance on this Very Important Social Issue?"
Other person: "All the social issue stuff is just posturing. People are emotional voters, and they need to win those voters over by talking about social issues. But you'll see, as it gets closer, what they really want to talk about is the economy, and Issues That Matter. All the posturing won't matter by then."

Photo: CBS News

There is the first problem, which is the idea that social issues don't matter, only economic issues matter. And that leads right into the second, bigger problem, which of course is what I want to discuss: tangible harm.

This mentality ignores the fact that, while politicians are posturing and saying whatever they feel they need to say in order to gain the "emotional vote," they're spreading and promoting a culture that accepts harmful ideas, and in a culture like that, people tend to invest their resources in causes that promote harmful actions as well. In short, a backwards mentality will support a backwards culture wherein backwards things are commonplace, and as such, people get hurt. Posturing achieves tangible harm.

Border Patrol and the TSA
I had a wonderful conversation with my boyfriend recently that I feel illustrates this point very clearly. We were on a long car trip near the Mexican border and we were stopped for a quick search by the border patrol (this is normal in that area, even if you're not actually crossing the border). This got us on the topic of the constitutionality of the actions taken out regularly by agencies like Border Patrol and the TSA.

Photo: Flickr creative commons

The ineffectiveness of the measures taken out by the TSA at airports is a popular topic of conversation in political and scientific circles. In short, the conclusion that people continue to draw is that the TSA doesn't actually increase security at airports. Bombers, hijackers and terrorists in general can get on an airplane as easily as any common citizen can, and the TSA's implementation of x-rays, scanners, pat-downs and interviews doesn't actually change that. But this is an uncomfortable truth, one that people don't like to face. So, the government funds the TSA, a massively expensive project, to give the appearance of security. This simultaneously gives people peace of mind and the appearance that something is being done about the problem. But both are false, and in the meantime money is wasted.

My boyfriend has been repeating this argument to me for many years now, and for the longest time I just nodded and said "That's fine, it's low on my priority list. Next to a lot of the other backwards laws being proposed, having my suitcase rifled through isn't a huge infraction on my right to privacy." But this time he made his point clearer, and I'm starting to agree with him.

I asked him, if he could only pick one fight, which would it be: the TSA or the "mandatory ultrasound" bills being proposed in multiple states that require women seeking an abortion to undergo a medically unnecessary vaginal sonogram? I sat back and waited, comfortable in my assumption that everyone judges an invasion of privacy involving one's genitals to be more severe than that which involves ones suitcase, but his response surprised me. He said, without hesitation, that he would fight the TSA. This was his explanation:

Photo: Texas Tribune

Culture of Complacency
The TSA has become a commonplace infrastructure in American life, despite it being more or less common knowledge that the airport scanners accomplish nothing. What this means is that we have a nation (and, as a consequence, a planet) full of people who are complacent with the idea that their government can invade their privacy in the name of a ruse, a ploy to create the appearance of security.  This is an acceptable idea to us now, we have been desensitized to it. It is this sort of action that sets the stage for further infractions upon our personal privacy and freedoms. In short: the TSA made the ultrasound bill possible. Without this prerequisite, such a ludicrous, perverse manipulation of the law would be unfathomable. These anti-abortion bills would never have gotten as far as they have.

My boyfriend's point was simply that when you poison the national conversation about personal freedoms, this does noticeable and lasting damage. Words are not just words, they affect what we perceive to be acceptable and normal, and as such can pave the way for more and more backwards legislation.

I've always felt this way, but my boyfriend was able to show me that I was doing triage - attending to the worst wounds first - while knowing full-well that more would simply pop up in their place. Instead, he proposed, we should attack the problem at its root. Propoganda, anti-science thinking and outright lies about one's political agenda confuse and distort the truth, leaving people handicapped when they approach these topics. Once you see this effect taking place, you realize that a complacent attitude toward political posturing contributes in a very real way to quantifiable, tangible harm.

Some Thoughts on Sex Education

I've taken a lot of sex ed courses, from the 2nd grade separate-the-boys-and-girls and learn-about-our periods class to college-level psych courses on human sexuality wherein we parsed out straw feminism from true equality struggles. They all had one thing in common: they were dry.

Pardon the pun, but it carries an important point: sex ed should be fun, right? I mean, not sexually satisfying, obviously that's inappropriate, but talking about sex should be fun. And I think with a younger audience, especially teenagers, we risk alienating them when we try to keep it textbook and intellectual. I think bringing a little humor and levity to the subject could help make some of the more important topics accessible.

I remember a time when I was younger and there were discussions about whether or not condoms were cool. It wasn't quite that straight-forward, but in general kids were parsing out their urges to contradict authority figures, to seek out pleasure, and to keep themselves safe. Since then, I think the condom companies and culture at large have done a good job of branding condoms as sexy (it's not like it's hard to do,) and I think the same lesson could be applied to other parts of sex ed that are suffering from an overly textbook-type of treatment in these classrooms, namely: consent.



The concept of sexual consent has received a wide variety of treatments in popular culture. But in my experience, even attempts to make it light and funny still equate it to a contractual obligation. And while it might get a laugh for the time being, and does an effective job of spreading awareness about obtaining consent (as well as its highly conditional nature, which is something that often gets missed), I think that dry, vanilla image of a paper contract tends to stick with people.


The reality is that consent can be sexy, just like condoms can be sexy. It's simply unnecessary to break the mood and have a "serious discussion" in order to obtain consent properly. What's even more important is the message that nonconsensual sexual encounters, encounters where there is doubt about the other person's desires and intentions, are stressful, dangerous and (this one is key) un-fun. Consent is hot! And it's way more fun to have sex with someone who repeatedly, enthusiastically, desperately tells you how hot they are for you, and that they want you. Never mind that it's safer and healthier - it's more fun! I think that's a message that will stick with teenagers a lot better than simply stressing the importance of consent, and then scaring them with messages about rape. Because the first step to truly combating rape culture is to make consent cool.

In terms of branding, I honestly think this is another gimme, just like condoms were. We can talk about "communication" all day but when we phrase it that way, all teenagers are ever going to picture is two people sitting down having a very serious, very dry, very un-fun conversation about what they will and will not do in bed tonight. But as sexually active adults, we know that that's not always the reality. Talking about sex gets you hot. And consent can be obtained in ways that promote the mood, rather than killing it. Why are we hiding this super awesome truth from kids? It's something they would love to hear! And it would help prevent rape and sexual assault due to lack of communication, which is way more common than aggressive rape.

I'm not saying that no sex ed class has ever been fun or used humor to keep things moving. I've certainly had some entertaining sex ed teachers and professors during my schooling. But in my experience, consent is a topic that's treated with a lot of weight. I understand why; it's very important that this message get across. At the end of the day, it's about safety. But learning HOW to do it, how to obtain consent, how to have sex in safe, respectful ways doesn't have to be dry and boring. In fact, I feel that strategy is somewhat purpose-defeating.

Another problematic aspect of classic lessons about consent is the focus on the word "no." Of course it's important for kids to hear that if your partner says "no," you stop. But the tricky part is that people don't always say "no." Sometimes they can't, sometimes they won't and sometimes they're scared or nervous. The problem with using "no" as our starting point is that then we have to backtrack through a laundry list of "warning signs" that people need to keep an eye out for. By the time you're done with a lesson like this, sex sounds like a chore.

There has been something of a shift lately - and I hope it continues - to focusing instead on "yes." Rather than going forward unless there is an audible objection, how about we only move forward if there is a clear and obvious agreement? This is, in every possible way, a more positive message. And even more importantly: it's more fun.

In short, the first and best tool we have for combating rape culture is to first remind ourselves that sex should be fun. If everyone involved isn't having fun, you're doing it wrong. I think that's a rule of thumb that everyone can agree with.

Mitochondrial Donors in IVF

I want to revisit the article I posted about "three-parent babies." It's vaguely related to my research, but also I just find it plain fascinating (I do, after all, have something of a bias for mitochondrial research.)

The article describes a new technology that would allow people with mitochondrial diseases to avoid passing it on to their children. This technology involves the use of a mitochondrial donor for in-vitro fertilization. Let me start by explaining how this works.

Mitochondria have their own DNA, separate from the nuclear genome. When you think about your genes, you traditionally picture your 46 chromosomes, housed in the nucleus. You get half of it from your mother, half from your father. The mitochondrial genome is different in many respects, but for my purposes right now, I'll say just this: it's entirely maternally inherited. You don't have any mtDNA from your father, at all.

This means that if your mother carries genes for a mitochondrial disorder, you have a 100% chance of inheriting it. If your father has it, you have a 0% chance.

This is where IVF comes in. In mitochondrial research there is a technique called cybridization. This is a process where you take the nucleus from one cell and the mitochondria from another cell and combine them for a "cybrid" (cytoplasmic hybrid) cell containing two different sets of DNA. This is something that my lab does routinely, and it's great for screening for the effects of mitochondrial mutations without any "background" nuclear mutations confounding your results.

Image from nydailynews.com

In this context, rather than eliminating confounding variables, cybridization would eliminate the disease genes by using a mitochondrial donor. So, in essence, the IVF would go like this: take sperm and egg from the couple seeking IVF, and another egg from a mitochondrial donor. Fertilize the mother-to-be's egg with the sperm, then remove the nucleus from the now fertilized embryo, and move it over to the mitochondrial donor's egg (removing the donor egg's nucleus first). In this manner, you have now created an embryo with nuclear DNA from the two parents-to-be, and mitochondrial DNA from a third donor.

What this means for women with a family history of mitochondrial disease is that there is some hope that they will not have to pass on that disease to their children. While these diseases are rare, they are often severe, and it can be devastating to people trying to start a family. But this therapy has broader implications scientifically, socially and ethically.

On one level, the idea of the "three-parent baby" is completely accurate, but at the same time it is extremely misleading. All of your physical traits are encoded in the nuclear genome. Everything that makes you your parents' child is there. The nuclear genome encodes for something on the order of 30,000 proteins, while the mitochondrial genome encodes for 14. Why, then, can a mutation there have such a profound impact on a person's health? Well, those 14 proteins are very important. They make all the energy your cells need to run. Without them, your body shuts down. But again: they don't have anything to do with your physical characteristics.

Image from Nature.com

One thing that would absolutely change, and this is something I find fascinating, is your haplogroup. Haplogroups are genetic categories that define where your ancestors came from. They trace migration patterns of early humans all the way back to the original Homo Sapiens that lived in Africa. The DNA that is used to determine your haplogroup is mitochondrial DNA, entirely. All of human migration patterns are traced through maternal lineage, and the fastest way to do that is by looking at the mitochondria. At the moment, this is a useful technique: mitochondria are maternally inherited, so it's safe to assume that your mitochondrial DNA reflects your maternal lineage. But once this technology becomes available, there will suddenly be a small portion of the population for which this assumption is not true. Their mtDNA would reflect the haplogroup of the mitochondrial donor, not their mother.

I think another issue that the idea of the "three-parent baby" brings up, which is something of a red herring, is that suddenly we will have groups of three people caring for and being responsible for children. I don't think this will happen. Just as sperm donors are not held to any kind of parental responsibility, a mitochondrial donor would be free of any obligation. Does this raise ethical problems for custody, parental status, etc.etc.? No, I don't think so. Instead of trying to shoe-horn a completely new technology into existing definitions, I think it would be simpler and more accurate to adjust our ideas about what assumptions we make about someone's DNA, and what it means for their personal identity. A child who had a mitochondrial donor is just that; their parents are still their two (nuclear) parents. But, and I'm sure this is predictable coming from me, it's still really, really cool.

On the Male Birth Control Pill

Here's an article from WebMD to start you off. The bottom line is this: some researchers recently developed a pill that reversibly stops sperm development without hormonal therapy, and it's showing promising results in mice. This and other articles outlining this study list the side effects of hormonal therapies, and applaud this new technology for its ability to avoid them.

I heard about this study from a number of friends, one after the other, and they all had exactly the same reaction: "Hey, aren't those the very same side-effects that women have to suffer through with traditional hormonal birth control? Why is it okay for women to deal with that, but not men?" And to this I say simply: Hold up a minute.

In order to explain, I want to take some time to outline one of the most basic principles in biomedical ethics. When a drug or therapy is being tested for mass-market distribution, one of the first things considered is: do the benefits outweigh the side-effects? If the answer is no, it's a dud.

What is birth control for? It prevents pregnancy. From a purely social angle, this is a tool that benefits everyone (a concept I've outlined at great length on this blog), but these are biomedical ethics we're dealing with, not social ethics. Medically, pregnancy puts a massive burden on women. Its impact is felt for years, or in actuality, the rest of the woman's life. Pregnancy significantly alters a woman's health, but for men? The implications are entirely social and emotional. I'm not trying to imply that they are somehow less significant, only that they do not enter the equation when considering male birth control.

Because pregnancy is such a huge event for women, just about any form of birth control is considered acceptable. Once hormonal birth control was developed, it hit the market almost immediately. Why? Because nearly any side effects are acceptable when weighed against the alternative (an unplanned pregnancy).

But for men, this is a tricky question. We're talking about an entirely medical solution to an entirely social problem. The social impact of pregnancy for men is an invisible factor in the biomedical ethics equation. It simply can't be taken into account. There is no physical damage incurred upon men by pregnancy, and as such, almost any side effect whatsoever is considered unacceptable in this situation. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this makes the scenario entirely unique. Can you name any other medical advancements that have been developed solely to solve a social problem? Any medical treatment for which the tolerance level for side effects is zero? I can't think of even one. In that respect, this technology has no precedent.

So, before you go blowing the whistle, take a step back. I know this feels like chauvinism, but upon closer inspection, I think you'll find it's an entirely appropriate solution to a subtly complex problem.

So, what about the feminist issues I mentioned in my last post? This is exactly it: while family planning measures benefit everyone, a lack of access to said resources only hurts women. If you don't provide comprehensive sex education, birth control in its various forms and access to safe abortions, who suffers? The answer, without caveat, is women. Women have to bear the burden of unplanned pregnancy entirely. There are repercussions on every level of a woman's life when she has a baby she didn't plan on having. Her health, her social status, her financial stability, her emotional wellbeing are all shaken to the core. Men deal with a fraction of this laundry list of problems - if that - when these situations arise.

So, I try to be polite and academic when I remind you that family planning is for families, not just women, but the bottom line is, while it helps provide the resources we need to build a healthier, more stable society, it's also a massive safety net for women. Why are women staying in school longer? Why are women getting a wider variety of jobs? Why are women earning more money? Why are women having fewer health problems later in life? Why are women having fewer children and having their pregnancies appropriately spaced? Because birth control is widely available. Women can grow and flourish in every area of their lives with the comfort of knowing that they won't be derailed and devastated by an unplanned pregnancy. This issue, while important for everyone, cuts deepest for women. It's just an unavoidable truth; we can't change our biology, we can't change how we reproduce, but we can change the way we interact with that reality - by exerting control over our reproductive functions with modern medical technologies.

I'm sorry, sometimes I just need to geek out about that. The fact that we can even do that is amazing. It blows my mind sometimes that anyone would ever fight it. It's a beautiful time we live in. Relish it. You can live your life as you see fit. Across human history, that is a rarity in the truest sense.

But I digress. This advancement (aside from being really cool) is an interesting new piece in the game of sex politics. What will it mean? Will things be more balanced? Will responsibility for family planning finally be shared in equal parts? Will birth control for men be empowering for women? Will it even be popular? Or will it flutter around in relative obscurity, like the female condom? Will it be the first nail in the coffin of the "war on women?" Before we can answer any of these questions, it has to get past testing in mice. But it is a fascinating technology with a wide variety of possible social outcomes.

No matter which way it goes, I'm of the opinion that yet another resource in the family planning arsenal is never a bad thing.

Birth Control, Revisited

A few months ago I wrote a post about birth control, where I tried to outline what it represents on a social and societal level. There is a central piece to that argument that I want to try and make clearer, if I can. In that entry, I said: "...while the hormone pills used for birth control are chemically acting on the woman's body alone and for the purpose of preventing ovulation, that's just not the point. The point is about broader social consequences of not providing people with the tools they need to plan their families carefully, safely and responsibly." 

I was recently reading this article about Sandra Fluke and representative Joe Walsh, and there was a quote from Mr. Walsh at the bottom that got me thinking about this argument all over again: "We’ve got parents in this country who are struggling to buy sneakers that their kids can wear to school that just started," Walsh said. "We’ve got parents up and down my district who are barely keeping their house. And, and, and, we have to be confronted by a woman, the Democratic Party this is what they stand for. They're going to put a woman in front of us who is complaining that the country — you, me and you — won’t pay the 9 dollars per month to pay for her contraceptives."

I want to revisit my original argument by breaking down Mr. Walsh's comments for you. In doing so, I hope to shed some light on why there is suddenly such heated debate about birth control among politicians lately. 

There are many groups (Planned Parenthood, in particular) that have worked to bring the cost of birth control down for some time. But President Obama has made the issue a lot more public with his new legislation regarding health care and health insurance. Obama - along with what seems like the majority of the democratic party - believes that birth control should be widely available and as near to free as possible, at the very least, extremely affordable. I think this sudden popularization of the subject has brought up some deep rifts that weren't previously obvious - but why? It seems an innocuous subject, after all 99% of women of child-bearing age in the United States use birth control. It's not exactly a politically safe topic to oppose. But I think the issue of access - of tax dollars paying for it - brings to the surface some differences in the way people view birth control. In particular, there are two main paradigms that attempt to define just what birth control is, and what it means for women, for men and for families. I'd like to compare and contrast these two views.

The first is the view held by Mr. Walsh and others who - on average- tend to be on the far right end of the political spectrum. That is that birth control is medication for women. It enables a certain lifestyle for women (that is to say, the ability to be sexually active, possibly outside of the bounds of committed relationships, without the fear or concern of pregnancy). It is, in their minds, a women's issue. Birth control is women's business, and furthermore, there is some implication that it's frivolous to boot. It's a luxury - after all, you don't have to be sexually active. Abstinence is still an option. Because you have made a choice to be sexually active, then it only makes sense that you should pay for the luxuries that make this lifestyle possible out-of-pocket.

There is a certain aspect to this argument that brings the speaker's own opinions into play. I would personally describe a sexually active lifestyle as "modern," but many people view a modern lifestyle as luxurious. So I think this is a personal distinction that doesn't have any place in politics. It's not the place of politicians to push their beliefs on the populace (despite the fact that they do it regularly). But I digress, because I also find the heart of this paradigm - idea that birth control is only for the benefit of the woman - to be incorrect. To understand why, let's examine the other side.

What Mr. Obama, Ms. Fluke and others who share their ideology would rather discuss, as opposed to hormonal birth control for women, is the idea of family planning. This is more of a blanket concept that refers to the freedom to reproduce when, where, how, and with whom you choose. I like this part of the argument because it remembers to acknowledge that we are discussing nothing less than the ability to create life. Heavy stuff.

But the next step in this argument is notably more political. Because true, modern family planning necessitates a certain level of control over one's own biology, and this brings into the picture a host of resources developed by modern medicine that cost money. The assumption that people should simultaneously be able to live a modern (read: sexually active) lifestyle and still plan their families with a staggering level of control implies that a massive health infrastructure needs to be in place in order to bring those resources to the public. In this way, Obama's recent actions on this topic make sense. It's a logical consequence of his personal view on family planning.

This part of the second paradigm brings me back around to my original point. Hormonal birth control for women is simply one of a suite of tools in the family planning tool belt. It's the most powerful mechanism currently available for preventing pregnancy without necessitating abstinence. It happens to be used by the woman, but that's just the biological reality of the drug, and it doesn't change its broader social purpose. Men have the right to control over their reproductive activities, too. Which is why condoms are so cheap and commonly available; at present, it's the greatest tool a man has to protect himself against accidental pregnancy. But birth control is far more effective when used properly, and I think men have the same right to the peace of mind it provides as women do.

In closing, the two lenses through which people view hormonal birth control are as follows: it is either medication for women, or it is a social tool that, by necessity (because we cannot change biology) must be employed by women in order to work. These two views are obviously in direct conflict with one another, and tend to drive very different political actions with regard to birth control. It's probably obvious that I tend to align with Mr. Obama on this subject. But I don't blame people like Mr. Walsh for making this type of error. Birth control is a singular drug in that it has such strong social implications, and it can be difficult to see beyond the basic chemical mechanism to the larger role in people's lives and in society.

Now, if you're concerned that my attempt to paint hormonal birth control as a tool for the benefit of all people overlooks some very large feminist issues, you'd be right. And that's something I'd like to address in my next entry, which will be on the male birth control pill. I'll try to get it posted soon.

Why Feminism Empowers Men

A while ago, my boyfriend's brother posted this image on his tumblr:

I love it. I think it's spot-on. I just want to talk about this concept for a moment. And I want to start by posing the question: What even is feminism?

I think that, from a very young age, we receive subtle cues that tell us what our place is in society. By which I mean, it is implied that girls cannot achieve, while boys learn they have value simply because they are boys. In modern culture, there are growing pockets where this is less and less true, and I think that's wonderful, but overall this attitude persists.

Obviously it's damaging to women, but let's look for a brief moment at what this accomplishes in men. When you tell a young girl that she is not capable, what you are simultaneously and tacitly telling the boy sitting next to her is "This is how you achieve." And by telling boys that in order to excel, they must first put girls down, it communicates that they have no implicit value.

Feminism is the belief that people are equal, regardless of gender. That everyone can achieve and excel. Feminism rejects sexism in all forms, whether it puts down men OR women, and it encourages all people to fulfill their greatest potential and reject the notion that they must or are only capable of behaving in certain ways, which are defined by their gender.

Why, then, is it not called "equalism" or "genderism?" Because across human cultures, women are historically the oppressed sex. I honestly don't know why this is. Perhaps because women are overall physically weaker, or because pregnancy makes you vulnerable? But either way, if you told me there was a culture where a class of people that represented 50% of the population was put down and treated as second-class citizens, I would bet very, very safe money that that class is women.

Because of this, the biggest and most obvious step toward achieving gender equality is to first empower women. Once equality for women in all things has been achieved, then the other minor details should naturally fall into place, since they emerged from the patriarchy to begin with.

On a practical level, this also ends up being empowering for men. It means not victim-blaming in cases of rape, but also not telling men they are merely animals and not in control of their instincts. It means not pressuring men to be simultaneously rugged and clean, and women to be "sexy and chaste." It means not shoe-horning men into a dominant role in every relationship. It means telling men they are capable of being compassionate parents.

In the end, when you tell men that they are capable of treating women equally, in short, you're telling men that they are capable, period.

On Rape Apologetics

Okay, Mr. Obama. I get it. Every time you say "Rape is rape," the vote fairy smiles down on you and sprinkles votes in your morning breakfast cereal. And the Republicans really handed you a free-bee this week, so you just couldn't pass it up.


Golf clap.

But can we please slow down for a second? Disgusting apologetics like "rape-rape" and "legitimate rape" have been around for a while and will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. So can we focus instead on the horrific lies and fake "science" being touted by Mr. Akin in his recent comments?

Can anyone with a microphone on cable TV please take the time this week to point out that women who are raped actually have a HIGHER chance of pregnancy?


Anyone?


Please?

Catching Up

I apologize for the inappropriately lengthy hiatus. I submitted, presented and got accepted my thesis proposal, so I am now officially a master's candidate in my program. And then many other fun and awesome personal things happened that kept me busy and away from the blogosphere. But now I'm here to catch up and tell you about all the interesting articles I've been reading lately.

Firstly, I did an interview with Courtney Hilden at Under the Microscope, a blog by the Feminist Press about women in science. It was a fun experience, and Courtney drew my attention to something I hadn't really given a lot of thought: although I meant this to be primarily a science blog, I end up writing about gender issues quite a bit. It just happens to be a topic that interests me, and was in no way intentional. But anyway, cool! Check out the interview if you want to learn a little more about my Masters research.

Speaking of mitochondrial research, there was also an exciting article about the possible applications of cybridization in IVF (in-vitro fertilization) techniques, as a therapy for mitochondrially inherited diseases. This technology is much further along than I had originally realized, and it's a very exciting prospect for IVF technologies. The snag is that it creates a potential for babies with three parents, which is a major ethical issue. It's not as severe as it sounds, and if there's an interest, I can go deeper into the specifics of this topic in another post. But in any case it's a fascinating article and definitely worth a read.

As for gender issues, my attention was brought to an article written by Dr. Ben Barres, a prof at Stanford with whom I've had some limited contact. Dr. Barres studies glial cells, and when I originally got my bachelor's degree, I contacted him about joining his lab, should I be accepted to Stanford. His research is fascinating, but the article is more about his professional presence in the field. You see, Dr. Barres used to be a woman. And as a transgendered individual, he's had a chance to see the sciences from both sides of the gender fence. As such, he's been able to shed a lot of light on gender discrimination in the sciences. It's a super cool article and I highly recommend it, especially if you work in the sciences.

I'm still reading up on women's issues quite a bit, and as contraception has been kind of a big deal in politics lately, I've been trying to keep up on any new and interesting news in that area. I found out from this fascinating article on the history of the IUD that I had fallen victim to some very common misconceptions about how IUDs work, and under what circumstances they're used in the United States (as opposed to the circumstances under which they would be the most impactful). As it turns out, the IUD is mainly recommended for women who already have children only in the United States, but it is honestly a better first choice for teenagers and young women who: 1) plan on not having children for years at a time and 2) are more likely to forget their pills or otherwise not use conventional birth control correctly. But this technology is not marketed toward that group in the US at all, for purely circumstantial reasons.

And this one's just for funsies. Turns out, in a stroke of pure poetry on the part of the universe, Barack Obama might be descended from the first American slave. It's not 100%, but the people who did the research used solid techniques and the study seems to check out with professional genealogists. If it's true, it makes a tidy and beautiful story about the perseverance of the African American community.

Alright, that's it for now. I've got a few blog posts brewing in my brain. I'll try to check back regularly. Thanks for your patience. ^_^

On Photoshopping, Beauty Standards, and Anatomy

People have gone on at great length about the part that photo-editing plays in shaping our cultural definition of beauty, and I imagine they will continue to do so for some time. This subject recently had a new surge of popularity, when a young girl organized a protest against Seventeen magazine asking them to include non-edited photos of average girls. This protest has been covered to death, and the girl is every bit as inspirational as she sounds, but she's not what I want to talk about. 

Something I picked up from my dad when I was a kid is the art of hyperbole. In conversation with him, everything becomes either The Very Best or The Very Worst. It's a silly habit, but I find it can also be a valuable skill, in rare circumstances. I think the discourse on photo-editing is one of those circumstances. I've heard over and over again that this practice sets "unrealistic standards" and creates an "unattainable ideal," but I honestly don't think these arguments go far enough. So far, I've only seen one argument that gets it right. 

Greta Christina wrote a phenomenal piece on the pressures our culture puts on men. She focuses on how utterly absurd some of the standards to which we hold men are, and how many of these ideas actually conflict with one another. For example, just as we pressure women to be simultaneously "sexy and chaste," we also expect men to both be rugged and clean. But she doesn't leave it there, she wants you to know just how unreal these expectations are. She explains that the world isn't asking you to be prettier, fitter, thinner, what-have-you. The world is asking you to "turn yourself into a unicorn and start shitting diamonds." And that's where I want to pick this conversation up. 

Because Greta Christina is right. Look closely at the images below. As a photo-editor, it's so easy just to move a little line because it creates a shape that's more "pleasing," but when the image being manipulated is of a person, this can have drastic implications. This isn't just fat that's being erased, bone structure is being changed, organs shifted or removed entirely.

In this photo, Faith Hill's entire posture is changed. Her jawline is reshaped, her nose is narrowed, The curvature of her shoulder and back have been completely remolded. The amount of surgery this kind of photoshopping represents is not only drastic, it's dangerous and pointless.

I find this type of skeletal changes to be the most drastic in the area of the ribcage. Magazines always want to show slim, smooth waistlines, but when they remove mass in this area, it represents a fundamental change in the torso; look at the changes made in this Ann Taylor model's waistline. Where exactly are her lungs supposed to go? How does she breath?

Lungs, heart and stomach are all condensed or removed when this line is shifted. The architecture of the ribcage changes drastically. In essence, the photo on the right is no longer a human.

And this is the hyperbole I've been coming to: These photoshopped images are no longer pictures of humans. No person can look like this, not even the person in the photo. The bottom line is, we need lungs to live. 

What's even more interesting is that if the same model took another photo from a different angle, they would photoshop her differently, possibly creating a shape that is not physically compatible with the first. This means that, depending on what angle a person views you from, depending on the lighting conditions and your attire, you would need to shape-shift constantly in order to maintain a continued "pleasing" shape at all times. Not all of these shapes would be compatible with sustained life, and god forbid two people view you from two different angles simultaneously. How, then, would you please everyone? 

So essentially, these popular magazines have left the realm of reality and now are dabbling in obscure art. And while it was all well and good for Picasso to move body parts around in his paintings, this sort of photo-editing does real, tangible harm. If our cultural beauty standard is based on a fictional alien race of non-humans, then we'll all keep harming and killing ourselves to achieve something pointless, vapid and imaginary. 

If I could change the dialog about beauty, I would challenge people to view the images they see in magazines and advertising as those of an alien race. Those people don't exist, not in the real world. And we shouldn't allow ourselves to be influenced by them. This mindset serves to lift a massive filter that hangs over all of us; you start seeing the images in beauty magazines for the forgeries they are. 

This philosophy can at times feel forced. But after a few years of ignoring this beauty-culture entirely, I started leafing through the magazines at the grocery store again to see if things had changed (they hadn't.) When I looked at them, the only question that was left hanging in my mind was this: Is it really hyperbole if it's true? 

The Roeper School and Thoughts on Educational Theory

This week, an important figure in my family's life passed away. Her name was Annemarie Roeper. She was 92 years old, and she was cofounder of the phenomenal private school that my brother Max attended from 2nd through 12th grade. News of her passing quickly filled up my Facebook news feed (as I have a handful of my brother's school friends on there) and it gave me some pause. I found myself reading up on the Roeper Philosophy and reflecting on the part it played in my upbringing, despite my never having attended the school. I thought I'd take this as an opportunity to share some of my thoughts on child psychology and education, as I am beginning to suspect many of them were more heavily influenced by this remarkable woman than I ever realized.

For your reference, here is her obituary on the Roeper school website, here is a rather lengthy piece detailing the Roeper Philosophy, and here is something Max's friend Dan wrote up in his sociology blog on her passing(Dan also attended Roeper). They're all worthwhile reads, and will inform what I'm about to go on about.

The Roeper experience; the culture, the community, the philosophy and the educational structure all remained something of a mystery to me for several years. I was young at the time, and I only interacted with it in minimal, brief ways. But over time, the holes began to fill in and I started to see why this school played such a central role in my brother's life and upbringing.

There are a lot of noteworthy, fascinating and unique features to the Roeper Philosophy, but there's one in particular that I'd like to focus on. It's something that, in recent years, I've begun to praise my parents for; they have the ability to be simply, plainly honest with a young child. So many parents think that children require sugarcoating, metaphor, and little-white-lies in order to digest what we consider to be "adult" or "difficult" concepts. But, at the end of the day, children can comprehend far more advanced ideas than we tend to give them credit for. When I was young, if I asked a question and the answer was "maybe," then my parents said "maybe." they didn't force a "yes/no" dichotomy into a naturally grey situation. When parents do this, it breaks down trust, as the answer may later turn out to be false, and the child feels lied to. There is a certain confidence that you instill in a child when you give them the full truth, no matter how difficult you may perceive it to be.

This was always a central element in Max's experience at Roeper. Students at that school are given more control over their education than children who attend public school. I don't remember Max ever telling me that an authority figure had given him a "because I said so" or "because those are the rules" answer, even when he asked particularly challenging questions. Some of the pieces fell in place for me when I read Annemarie's obituary and saw that her mother studied with Sigmund Freud. Freud was the first major psychologist to suggest that experiences during childhood have any weight on adult development. It may sound obvious now, but at the time it was a radical and new idea that challenged everything people knew about parenting.

Plain honesty was one of the primary elements that smoothed the transition in my family during my parents' divorce. My parents never lied to me about the situation, and knowing that I could trust my parents to give me the truth gave me a solid grounding; something to hang onto when everything else was scary. Not only did this create a sense of confidence and control in me, but it reinforced my relationship with my parents - something that is desperately necessary during a divorce.

I also think this idea has begun to inform children's fiction, which is an exciting trend. One of the reasons I fell so head-over-heels in love with the Harry Potter series (along with the rest of the planet) was that it never lied to the reader. (spoilers!) Yes, in book 6, Dumbledore dies, but why? Because your parents won't be around to protect you forever. Yes, at times, evil triumphs, but why? Because life is often unfair and you can't control everything. I think that laying out difficult universal truths for children in a safe context like fiction is a healthy way to expose them to harsh ideas without frightening them. It's all part of preparing children for the real world - which, oddly enough, is another central feature of the Roeper Philosophy. A part, I think, born out of Annemarie's experiences in WWII. Terrible things happen. Lying to our children about it won't protect them.

Annemarie Roeper was obviously an extraordinary woman who had a profound effect on not only the community at her school, but on educational philosophy worldwide. I count myself very lucky to have felt the influence of her philosophy in my life. I'm sure I will continue to discover other elements of that culture that have crept their way into my personal thinking, and I will happily carry those lessons into my adulthood and eventual parenting experiences.

On Gender Roles

Lately I've been thinking about gender identity quite a bit, and as a subset of that, gender roles. I've always found the mindset that there is a specific role for each gender in relationships to be confusing at best, harmful at worst. But it's a dominant theme in American culture, so it's something that is difficult to ignore.

I have a friend here in San Antonio who watches a lot of "chick flicks." I don't think I've actually sat down and watched a mainstream romantic comedy since I was a pre-teen, so the whole genre had really gone off my radar before I met her. But I watched a couple movies with her recently, and I was really surprised to find that the whole conversation about heterosexual relationships hadn't really budged since the 1990's (and probably earlier than that as well, but I couldn't speak to that, as I was in diapers at the time.) The predominant theme seems to be that men and women are completely different species, each operating based on a specific set of rules. Exceptions to these rules are never addressed, and the rules themselves make an awful lot of dangerous assumptions.

Probably one of the biggest issues with this paradigm is that it ignores the ability to communicate. Most of these films (and other pieces of pop culture, I'm sure beauty and fitness magazines play into this mentality a lot as well, but I don't read them so I can't be sure) insinuate that it is impossible for a man and a woman to simply sit down and talk to each other like equals. Instead, an elaborate courtship game plays out wherein they try to get close to each other, usually with only broad stereotypes about the opposite sex to guide them on their way.

Common themes include:
-Men always want sex. It's literally impossible for a man to not be in the mood.
-Women never want sex. But they always use it as a form of manipulation.
-Men are never emotional.
-Women are never rational.
-Women never say exactly what they want.
-Men can't say what they want, because what they want is sex, and if they say that, they'll get water thrown in their face.

Okay, so far I probably haven't told you anything new. But here's my question, and I'm asking it honestly because I don't know the answer:

Does anyone actually take this stuff seriously?

Again: I'm really asking. Is there anyone on the planet over the age of 15 who buys into this stuff? Are there really adults walking around, working at their jobs, paying their rent or mortgage, living their adult lives, and assuming that this is how relationships in the real world truly operate?

Normally, I would say "No way, that's not possible! That would represent a massive emotional handicap, no one can function that way and maintain a healthy social life." But then a friend of mine linked me this article, wherein a real, live woman spells out an increasingly ludicrous, sexist list of  "Secrets Girls Don't Want Guys to Know." This list paints, in broad strokes, a cartoonish vision of the female stereotype depicted in the romantic comedies that I spent more than a decade avoiding.

She is insecure about herself, but confident in her ability to manipulate men. She is driven more by deception than by any kind of desire for a real connection. She has a love-hate relationship with mainstream beauty standards and an equally passionate love-hate relationship with compliments she gets from men. And, I think it goes without saying, she is pathetically shallow.

(I'll spare you the rant about how dangerous it is to insinuate that when women act offended, they're just being coy - for now. But I guarantee it will come up in a later post about consent culture.)

At first I thought, "Who would think it's ever safe or appropriate to speak on behalf of their entire gender? What sort of person would assume that their personal life experience is the epitome of womanhood itself?" because, to me, there is no logic in that action.

But then I thought back to those romantic comedies. And I realized, it's entirely possible that this woman has been conditioned, her entire life, to think that all women are the same. And that everything she reads or sees in popular culture should inform her sense of self, to the very core. It's possible that she has simply internalized the pop culture definitions of gender role so wholly that she cannot even conceive that they might not be true, or might not apply to everyone.

I suppose I've just answered my own question. Yes, some people do buy into this stuff. I guess the next question is: does it do tangible harm? And if so, how do we combat it?

To those, I have no answers. For now. But I suppose that, for now, all I wanted to do was get this off my chest.

On Birth Control

Lately the standard response to any argument against enabling easy access to birth control for American women seems to be telling anecdotal stories about women who have health problems for which birth control is the therapy of choice, or women who have health problems that make their ability to access birth control problematic.

I feel especially situated to offer up yet another case study of sorts, because I have a rare condition that prevents me from being able to digest birth control (or any hormonal therapy). It induces acute pancreatitis (excruciatingly painful, let me tell you) and I end up in the hospital. As such, I have to take a name-brand that enables absorbing the hormone in another way, such as Ortho Evra (the patch) or Nuvaring (the ring) or Implanon (the implant), etc. And these technologies are still under patent, so they're all extremely expensive, even with phenomenal insurance. If I were in any other socioeconomic situation, they may actually be prohibitively expensive.
I also have a friend who has severe endometriosis and has been on birth control since she was 13. She can't go off of it, it's extremely dangerous for her. She has scar tissue throughout her peritoneal cavity and her chances of ever getting pregnant - safely, at least - are very low. This is a girl who actually needs birth control to stay alive.

But I digress, because these anecdotes, at this point, aren't adding anything to the conversation. They're too easy to ignore. Why? Because they're anecdotes. As much as we would love for it to be possible for every law written by every lawmaker to solve every problem for every person, it can't. All they can offer are blanket solutions that help the majority of people. And this is exactly where we should start the conversation: restricting access to birth control hurts everyone, not just the few women - like my friend and me - with rare genetic disorders that make obtaining birth control problematic, expensive or dangerous.

By everyone, you should note, I don't just mean women. I mean everyone. Men, women, families, married folks, single folks, college students, high school students, everyone. Allow me to explain.

Let's start by breaking down any argument about any drug or therapy into two halves: the scientific half and the social half. All drugs are, at their core, just chemical compounds that we put into our bodies, either by ingestion or some other form of delivery. These chemical compounds have a variety of effects, some are desirable and some are not. Often, the same chemical will be marketed for two very different purposes. In one instance, effect A is the desired effect and effect B is called a "side effect" and is written on a little warning label on the side of the package. In the other case, effect B is the desired effect, and as such, effect A becomes a "side effect."

But when we package these chemical compounds, we market them and give them a brand; an identity that we can, well, identify with. And then the drug becomes something more. Hormone treatments are no longer just pills containing measured doses of either estrogen or progesterone, they become Birth Control. And Birth Control has a very strong social presence, it represents very different things to different people. This, I think, is where we run into issues.

Let's examine what the construct of "family planning" represents, whether it's accomplished by hormonal birth control for women, which prevents ovulation, or by abstinence, or by the use of condoms, or by some futuristic space technology that prevents ejaculation of sperm in men. Whatever the method, the goal is to control just when and how and with whom you choose to create life.

The ability to plan the births of your children, to have them at the appropriate times in your life represents a massive safety net, especially for economically vulnerable families. This means fewer teen pregnancies, fewer unplanned pregnancies, it means healthier, safer pregnancies that are appropriately spaced apart, it means fewer abortions and it means happier, healthier families. This is good for families, it's good for the economy, it's good for this country. Women are only the subject of attack lately because the most effective form of birth control that allows you to remain sexually active is hormonal birth control, and has to be taken by the woman. If birth control were taken by men, I highly doubt we would be having this conversation at all.

If we must analyze the sexist element in this conversation, then let's get one thing clear. Anyone who says that women have been successfully managing this business of pregnancy and birth for millions of years without the help of modern medicine is ignoring the staggering history of death-during-childbirth, birth defects, stillbirths, back-alley abortions, infanticide (actual infanticide, not the political rhetoric used by Newt Gingrich), life-threatening health complications in women, pregnancy as the result of rape and more. Pregnancy wreaks havoc on a woman's body, it shifts her organs, pushes her cells toward insulin resistance (that's a mild - or in some cases not so mild - diabetic state) and attacks every system in her body with massive quantities of steroid hormones. To ensure that she will have healthy, safe, planned pregnancies a woman requires the assistance of - and constant monitoring by - a qualified doctor. So let's not trivialize the difficulties that pregnancy can bring for a woman, especially if the pregnancy was not her choice (as in cases of rape).

 But while the hormone pills used for birth control are chemically acting on the woman's body alone and for the purpose of preventing ovulation, that's just not the point. The point is about broader social consequences of not providing people with the tools they need to plan their families carefully, safely and responsibly. It's about saving women's lives and preventing abortions. It's about building families in the safest context possible.

To take such a powerful medical tool, one that affords people some control over the most important aspects of their lives, and turn it into a political pawn by which to acquire more votes is morally and socially inexcusable. It is, at its core, politicizing peoples' dignity and freedom. And hiding behind the excuse of personal religious morals is a useless defense. My parents never told me that sex is only for marriage, they told me sex is for a committed adult relationship, and left it at that. I see nothing wrong with this particular moral compass, and I plan to pass it along to my children. The government wasn't formed to legislate peoples' personal philosophies on life. It was formed to protect our rights to lead our lives as we see fit, and restricting access to birth control is a direct violation of that goal.

So, let's not mince words on the moral here: birth control is good. No matter your religious objections, you cannot deny the evidence that everyone benefits from the ability to practice responsible family planning.