[Content Note: Fat hatred; classism.]
Hey, fatties who work in cold environs: There's GOOD NEWS about freezing your ass off all day—it'll totes help ya slim down! MAYBE.
An upside of your freezing cold office: Dutch endocrinologists argue in a new report that exposure to mild cold temperatures – around 64 to 66 degrees – can help you lose weight.
Here is a helpful graphic that accompanies the story!
It
could be!
The theory goes like this: Weight is determined by energy intake (the calories you consume) and energy output (the calories you burn). The authors of this new paper hypothesize that setting the thermostat to a cooler temperature will make our bodies work harder to warm themselves – which means more calories burned.
Keeping the thermostat turned low is not the solution to the problem of obesity – because there is, of course, no single answer, says Dr. W. D. van Marken Lichtenbelt, lead author of the paper. But Dr. Jeffrey Mechanick, a New York City endocrinologist who was not involved in this report, says it's a "reasonable" hypothesis.
"They say, 'Look, this is a serious problem; we've tried a bunch of different things, and nothing appears to be working that well, so we have to think outside of the box,'" says Mechanick, president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
The authors say there is evidence that cold temperatures activate brown adipose tissue, a form of fat that generates heat by burning calories from regular fat. "They're using those principles to say, 'Well, maybe there's an easier way. Maybe if we could train somebody to be in cold, that training could have them burn off calories and generate heat,'" Mechanick says.
LOLOLOL OMG. "Maybe if we could train somebody to be in cold." Yep. Sounds totally "reasonable" to me!
One of the things that training fat people (like circus animals!) "to be in the cold" would entail is telling many of us to ignore our bodies' signals for food, which is what happens to a lot of people (of any size) when you sit and shiver for a long time. You start burning a bunch of calories to stay warm, your body will likely start indicating it needs fuel.
So essentially this hot new theory boils down to: Fat people should be cold and hungry all the time in order to get thin. MAYBE.
True Fact: Prolonged exposure to cold and food deprivation are considered acts of torture. So, at this point, anti-fat crusaders are literally just proposing torture to make us thin. I MEAN FOR OUR HEALTH.
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[Content Note: Classism.]
Below, video of an exchange between Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary (a billionaire who is one of the featured investors on NBC's Shark Tank), from a CBC Television broadcast of The Lang and O'Leary Exchange, a Canadian business news television series (via):
Amanda Lang, a young thin white woman: The wealth, this according to Oxfam, of the world's 85 richest people is equal to the three and a half billion poorest people.
Kevin O'Leary, a middle-aged white man: It's fantastic. And this is a great thing because it inspires everybody—gets the motivation to look up to the one percent and say, "I wanna become one of those people. I'm gonna fight hard to get up to the top." This is fantastic news, and of course I applaud it.
Lang: [stares wordlessly at O'Leary]
O'Leary: What can be wrong with this?
Lang: Really?
O'Leary: Yes, really.
Lang: So, somebody living on—
O'Leary: I celebrate capitalism!
Lang: —a dollar a day in Africa is getting up in the morning and saying, "I'm gonna be Bill Gates."?
O'Leary: That's the motivation everybody needs!
Lang: The only thing between me and that guy is—
O'Leary: I'm not against charity—
Lang: —motivation? I just need to pull up my socks?
O'Leary: I am not—don't—
Lang: Oh wait—I don't have socks!
O'Leary: Look, don't tell me that you wanna redistribute wealth again. That's never gonna happen, okay?
Lang: All— You know what? You take a simple stat like this, which is neither good nor bad [sic], and it's just a fact—
O'Leary: It's a celebratory stat! I'm very excited about it. I'm— Wonderful to see it happen. I tell kids every day—
[crosstalk]
Lang: In case it comes up at a cocktail party—
O'Leary: No, no—Amanda, what's wrong with this statement...
Lang: One possible—one possible response to it—
O'Leary: If you work hard, you might be stinking rich one day.
Lang: We're talking about people in extreme, abject poverty. That's how you get three and a half billion in this category.
O'Leary; No, we're not! You were just talking about really rich people!
Lang: No. [blinks] Okay. Let me tell you later what you should say to this.
Now, O'Leary—for those who aren't familiar with his shtick—loves to say provocative shit like this to amuse himself. But don't mistake for a moment that because he delivers this classist garbage with a wry grin means he doesn't believe it. He believes it.
Or, rather more accurately: He knows it's colossal bullshit, but it's more amusing to him to elicit outrage by saying that extreme wealth inequality should be aspirational to the very poor than it is for him to have a serious discussion about how the sort of unregulated capitalism he has exploited to make himself a billionaire depends on a permanent global underclass.
Amusement at entrenched poverty is a luxury his wealth buys him, and which he clearly enjoys.
Kevin O'Leary is not a stupid fella. He knows how the world works. He isn't truly operating under the misconception that all it takes to get from living on $1 a day to billionaire is hard work. It's just a punchline to guys like him.
At least O'Leary has the mettle to let us see he thinks it's all just a big joke.
[Related Reading:
Wealth Gap.]
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I'm sorry this light in this video is so shitty, but hopefully you'll be able to get the gist...
Video Description: There is a blue blanket piled up in a heap on the couch. My fat, white, tattooed right arm reaches into the frame and begins to pull back the layers of the blanket. Suddenly, Matilda's wee head pops up. I giggle. "Whatcha doing?" I ask her in a squeaky voice. She snuggles backwards beneath the blanket. "D'you wanna go back under your blanket? Okay. Bye-bye!" I pile the blanket back on top of her. Pause. I unpeel the blanket heap once more. Her wee head pops up and she looks around. "Okay. Bye-bye!" I say, and cover her with the blanket.
Fin.
Matilda in her blanket.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
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This blogaround brought to you by toothpaste.
Recommended Reading:
Parker: [Content Note: Transphobia] The Definitive Caleb Hannan Reading List
Eastsidekate: [CN: Transphobia] The Difficulties of Being Cis
Trudy: [CN: Racism; dehumanization] Thoughts about the Richard Sherman Clip
Shannon: [CN: Racism; colorism; white supremacy; kyriarchal beauty standards] I Tried the Bleach and Failed
Fannie: [CN: Privilege; marginalization] Quote of the Day
Prison Culture: [CN: Death penalty; cancer] Those Left Behind: Fighting to Save Troy Davis
Andy: [CN: Homophobia] Illinois Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Repeal Marriage Equality Law
BYP: [CN: Racism] 92% of Black Male Teens Unemployed in Chicago, 83% Nationally
Cristy: [CN: Rape culture; sexual coercion] I Owe, I Owe, So Off to the Bedroom I Go? Nope. (Great advice, PLUS a bonus picture of Cristy and me snuggling!)
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
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Here is some stuff in the news today!
Moving the Race Conversation Forward—"a report by Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation that aims to reshape and reform the way we talk about race and racism in our country."
[Content Note: War on agency] On the 41st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the GOP Is Doubling Down on Its Anti-Abortion Strategy: "Over the past year, the Republican Party has attempted to re-brand itself to appeal more to female voters. But at least some members of the party aren't prepared to soften their rhetoric on women's issues. At the Republican National Committee's annual meeting, which begins on Wednesday in Washington, a coalition of conservatives plans to present a resolution urging the GOP to take a more forceful stance against abortion." A more forceful stance?! Zoinks.
[CN: War on agency] US District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles has "permanently blocked a 2011 North Carolina law that required abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and describe the images to the patient, even if the woman objected." Good. Eagles "ruled that the 'speech-and-display' provision of the law violated the First Amendment. State lawmakers had acknowledged that the ultrasound law was designed to persuade women not to obtain abortions. 'Requiring a physician or other health care provider to deliver the state's content-based, non-medical message in his or her own voice as if the message was his or her own constitutes compelled ideological speech and warrants the highest degree of First Amendment protection,' wrote Judge Eagles." Amazing.
[CN: Fire; death. Video begins playing automatically at link.] This story is heartbreaking for every reason: An 8-year-old boy died in a fire that engulfed his grandfather's trailer home, but before he died, trying to rescue his uncle, who had a physical disability, he saved six other people. RIP tiny little hero. Blub. (Also: I loathe the way that there can be a whole thing about the number of people living in the trailer without any explicit mention of the fact that the reason so many people were living in one trailer is poverty.)
[CN: Class warfare] The US Supreme Court is considering a case that "could threaten the constitutionality of public employee unions and undermine a long line of precedent. Justice Elena Kagan remarked: 'This is…a radical argument. It would radically restructure the way workplaces across this country are—are run.'" Lyle Denniston has more details about the case and its likely outcome at SCOTUSblog.
Speaking of radical decisions by the Supreme Court: How Citizens United Changed Politics, in 6 Charts. And "politics" doesn't even really begin to cover it. Citizens United has fundamentally changed our democratic process. Which wasn't exactly a paragon of voter parity in the first place.
[CN: Anti-feminism; clergy abuse] The Polish Catholic Church leadership "has declared war on 'gender theory,' saying it undermines the traditional family. ...The theory explores sexual orientation and the roles assigned by society to individuals based on their gender, but the Polish Church has borrowed the English word 'gender' to refer to a range of issues including contraception, abortion, and homosexuality." A wide range of issues that affect women, trans men, and gay/bi men. Neat! "Critics say that is a tactic to shift attention away from a paedophile priest scandal." I never would have guessed. By which I mean: That is totally predictable and not at all surprising, and also very gross and terrible.
Trigger the Cat saved her guardian's life by running for help. Blub.
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On last night's episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, there was an adorable scene with Terry Crews' character and his twin baby daughters, who are named Cagney and Lacey. Iain and I had to pause it, so we could talk about: 1. How awesome that is. 2. What a terrific show Cagney & Lacey was.
I said, "If all the entertainment industry is going to do anymore is remakes, they should remake Cagney & Lacey!"
To which Iain replied, "They'll probably remake it with two dudes."
LOLSOB FOREVER.
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[Content Note: Homophobia; bullying; self-harm.]
A study of Canadian high schools by University of British Columbia researchers has found that "explicit anti-homophobia interventions such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs)" reduce the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts for both queer and straight/cis students, as well as lower incidences of discrimination.
"We know that LGBTQ students are at higher risk for suicide, in part because they are more often targeted for bullying and discrimination," says Elizabeth Saewyc, lead author of the study and professor with the UBC School of Nursing. "But heterosexual students can also be the target of homophobic bullying. When policies and supportive programs like GSAs are in place long enough to change the environment of the school, it's better for students' mental health, no matter what their orientation."
...The study used data from the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey conducted by the McCreary Centre Society for grades 8 through 12, which involved 21,708 students. Participating school districts represent 92 per cent of enrolled students across the province. One in five students attended school in districts with anti-homophobic bullying policies and one in three attended schools with GSAs. Sixty per cent of students were in schools with neither.
Key findings:
In schools with gay-straight alliances implemented three or more years ago:
• The odds of homophobic discrimination and suicidal thoughts were reduced by more than half among lesbian, gay, bisexual boys and girls compared to schools with no GSA.
• There were also significantly lower odds of sexual orientation discrimination for heterosexual boys and girls.
• Heterosexual boys were half as likely to attempt suicide as those in schools without GSAs.
In schools where anti-homophobic policies have been in place for more than three years:
• The odds of suicidal thoughts and attempts for gay and bisexual boys were more than 70 per cent lower. Suicide attempts among lesbian and bisexual girls were two-thirds lower.
• Heterosexual boys had 27 per cent lower odds of suicidal thoughts than heterosexual boys in schools without such policies.
There is some data that suggests anti-bullying campaigns in schools may increase the odds of bullying by teaching kids new bullying strategies. I'm not sure how valid that is, but, even generally, I have a strong preference for visible inclusion and the demonstrable evidence of valuing marginalized students that organizations like GSAs communicate.
Telling a kid not to bully is important, but visibly communicating the humanity and value of hir classmates is at least as important.
Which, you know, often means also communicating the humanity and value of the bully to hirself.
[H/T to Iain.]
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This winter. Yikes.
Millions of commuters in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic faced a nightmare commute Wednesday morning thanks to bitterly cold temperatures, high winds and the aftermath of heavy snowfall.
The snowfall ended south of Boston by 4 a.m. Wednesday, according to The Weather Channel. But in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C, where the weather had caused havoc on the Tuesday evening commute, wind chills had plummeted well below zero.
The temperature in all three cities was between 9 and 12 degrees -- with wind chills as low as minus 7 in Washington, D.C. Wind gusts across the region will get up to 33 mph, the National Weather Service reported.
Residents of the region faced the prospect of digging themselves out of some heavy snowfall, the heaviest fell in Manalapan, N.J., which got 15.5 inches. A foot fell in New York City and 13.5 inches in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
...It was not only people on the ground subjected to winter misery: Almost 1,400 flights coming into or out of the U.S. on Wednesday had been canceled by 4 a.m.
...The freezing temperatures are set to continue until the weekend.
This is the sort of weather we're just getting past, and everyone dealing with this stuff on the East Coast has my profound sympathies.
This sort of weather is tough for everyone, but especially for people who don't have the resources to keep warm and for people with physical disabilities that make snow removal difficult. There are a whole lot of folks who are mobile enough to be independent until they're tasked with removing hundreds of pounds of snow just to access their cars. And in areas where there's no public transportation, that can leave people without help housebound for a long while.
It's a good time to be neighborly, if you're able-bodied and have the time to check in on vulnerable neighbors.
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Suggested by Shaker yes: "What was the last recipe you really wanted to try and finally had a go at?"
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[Content Note: Homophobia.]
Last Friday, I noted that Republican Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma had threatened to remove Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee who were not inclined to vote in favor of HJR-3, a proposed amendment that would codify discrimination against same-sex couples into the state constitution.
I just received a dispatch from Freedom Indiana that he has taken the extraordinary measure of switching the amendment to another committee altogether, presumably one controlled by Republicans who will support the legislation.
In a last-ditch effort to advance this deeply flawed, freedom-limiting amendment, Speaker Bosma has broken his word and interfered with the traditional legislative process.
Since it was unclear if there were enough votes to pass HJR-3 in the Judiciary Committee, Speaker Bosma has switched the amendment to a new committee, the House Committee on Elections and Apportionment, which will hold a hearing tomorrow at 3:30pm.
Despite frequently saying that no one person should make this decision, Speaker Bosma is trying to push this amendment through by any means necessary.
If you are in or near Indianapolis and want to participate in a(nother) demonstration against this garbage amendment and Bosma's flagrant disregard for the legislative process, Freedom Indiana
has details here on where to go and when.
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[Content Note: Guns; violence.]
One student is dead at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, after an unidentified gunman "shot and killed a person at [Purdue's] electrical engineering building Tuesday before surrendering to a police officer outside, the Indiana school's police chief told reporters." The shooter is under arrest, and is offering "little to no cooperation" at the moment, so his motives for the killing the male student are unknown.
My sincerest condolences to the victim's family, friends, and classmates.
I just don't even know what to say. There have been so many random shootings—two women dead in a grocery store, two different vehicles shot on the expressway, an armed robbery at a convenience store, which is probably not a comprehensive list—just in north and central Indiana in the past few days.
I am sad and scared and feel utterly impotent to do anything about it.
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[Content Note: Transphobia; rape culture; cis-centrism. Background: Part One; Part Two.]
There is an observation I make frequently about rape culture narratives, typically following defenses of a man who has engaged in rape apologia or rape humor and then claims to have been "unaware" of the realities about sexual violence. It goes like this: There is a difference between ignorance and being fluent in the narratives of the oppressor but not the oppressed. Example:
But let us consider, then, the alleged failure to consider rape culture of those privileged straight cis men who have never been victimized by sexual violence.
If those men never consider the rape culture, then how is it that virtually all of them know its tropes and narratives? How is it that virtually every male person is, by the time he hits puberty, capable of sophisticated victim-blaming, armed with a full arsenal of rape culture memes and stereotypes? How are they all so perfectly versed in the language of rape culture that tasks women with "crying" rape and "claiming" to have been raped, rather than reporting it? How is it that I have heard male children talking about how women lie about rape? And why it is that so many privileged straight cis men complain about being "profiled" or "made to feel like rapists" by women doing the quickening step in front of them, or giving them an anxious side-eye in an otherwise abandoned space?
For people who never consider the rape culture, they sure have an amazing working knowledge of it.
One of the things about the defenses of Caleb Hannan's piece outing Dr. V, including and especially
Bill Simmons' defense, is that they are predicated on the idea that Hannan, young and cloaked in cis privilege, was ignorant of issues and narratives surrounding trans* lives.
That is only true insomuch as he was ignorant of trans* people's perspectives and needs. But he was well-versed in transphobic narratives.
I keep coming back to
that tweet, the one in which he promotes his story by calling it "the strangest story I've ever worked on." He knows enough about trans* "stuff" to know that the story is strange. He knew enough to formulate his story in a way precisely in alignment with transphobic impulses to be invasively curious about trans* people's bodies and lives, impulses to be horrified at the disclosure of being trans. He knew enough to write a story perfectly crafted to serve existing transphobic memes.
That doesn't happen by accident.
Meaningful accountability is not saying, "I didn't know any better, because I'm ignorant." It's saying, "I didn't know any better,
because I am only fluent in the language of the oppressor." It's acknowledging that we are all part of a culture that socializes us to privilege cisgenderedness.
It's not just that Caleb Hannan and Bill Simmons and the other editors at
Grantland were merely unfamiliar with trans* issues; it's that they are extremely fluent in transphobia.
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I loved the image of this shadow cast by a bare tree across the snow in my front yard this morning.
It was so still and sunny this morning; now, there is another blizzard out my window.
I heard on the news last night that we've had more snow so far this winter than we usually have in an entire winter. And we've still got months to go.
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[Content Note: Transphobia; self-harm; harassment.]
Aoifeschatology: Afterthoughts and Aftershocks: Why a Dozen Different Editors Failed Dr V. I'm not even going to excerpt it. Just go read the whole thing.
[H/T to Jess.]
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I think Dudley wants something.
Confirmed.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
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[Content Note: Racism.]
"Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card."—Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page yesterday, in "honor" of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
I feel like saying, "Ha ha YOU FIRST!"—but that would suggest that President Obama does "play the race card," and what white people like Sarah Palin mean when they accuse a person of color of "playing the race card" is "having the unmitigated temerity to observe that there is racial oppression and white privilege in the world."
If anyone in this country "plays the race card," it's white people who wield our white privilege to try to silence people of color.
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Here is some stuff in the news today!
Pew Research finds that Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's approval ratings have taken a hit recently. Huh!
[Content Note: Environmental disaster; injury] As I noted yesterday, hospital visits have risen sharply in West Virginia following the lifting of bans on drinking water after a chemical spill. During a press conference yesterday, Democratic West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was asked about the safety of the water, to which he replied: "It's your decision. If you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking with this water then use bottled water. ...We've been in this thing for 11 days. It's a very complicated issue. I'm not a scientist, you know. I have to rely on the best information that I have." ("Right back atcha!" said everyone in West Virginia, probably.)
President Obama will meet with Pope Francis in March: "The president looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality." And definitely not talking about how reproductive freedom is a central piece of that issue.
[CN: Racism] Richard Sherman's Blackness Will Take Center Stage at This Year's Super Bowl. I saw some tweets and headlines about this yesterday, but didn't see the actual clip of Sherman until right before I went to bed. Based on the OUTRAGE!!eleventy!, I did not anticipate how completely noncontroversial Sherman's post-game interview would be, even with my rock bottom expectations of what racists find alarming.
Actual Headline: "Hillary's No Slam Dunk in 2016." Actual lede: "Could Hillary Clinton be the next Richard Nixon?" Oh god. Save me from US presidential campaigns.
[CN: War on agency] Republican Kentucky state representative Joe Fischer "has added an amendment banning abortions at 20 weeks to a domestic violence bill, saying that 'the most brutal form of domestic violence is the violence against unborn children.' The bill, HB 8, would expand domestic violence protections and is strongly supported by Kentucky house Democrats." Of course it is.
[CN: Clergy sex abuse] The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has finally released documents detailing how the Archdiocese handled cases of sex abuse by priests. And, in news that will surprise no one, the documents reveal the shielding of predators and the failure to report abuse to authorities. Naturally, Cardinal Francis George made time to point out that he wasn't in charge at the time and brag about transparency.
[CN: Homophobia] The UN will challenge Malawi's anti-gay laws in court. "They will also challenge the convictions of three men jailed in 2011."
[CN: Racism] Madonna non-apologizes for using the n-word on Instagram, arguing intent and saying "I am not a racist." Cool.
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