"Many of you know of the Bechdel Test for movies. I remember reading it and being surprised at how many movies fail the test ... there are three parts of the test ... there must be two women in the movie, they must talk to each other, about something other than a man. That's it. Yikes. I thought of that while watching this scene in Game of Thrones. How rare this was ... I propose a disability version of the test ... The Dave Test ..."
Watching the Oscars last night meant sitting through a series of crudely sexist antics led by a scrubby, self-satisfied Seth MacFarlane. That would be tedious enough. But the evening’s misogyny involved a specific hostility to women in the workplace, which raises broader questions than whether the Academy can possibly get Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host next year.
Many people say they want to lose weight to improve their health, but this may not actually be their primary motivation. In one poll, more than three-fourths of the 231 dieters surveyed said that they would take a pill that would guarantee they would achieve or maintain their desired weight even if it would lower their life expectancy. This is not so surprising when you consider weight-loss attempts for what they really are: efforts to protect against weight-based discrimination.
A new meta-analysis of the relationship between weight and mortality risk, involving nearly three million subjects from more than a dozen countries, found that all adults categorized as overweight and most of those categorized as obese have a lower mortality risk than so-called normal-weight individuals. If the government were to redefine normal weight as one that doesn’t increase the risk of death, then about 130 million of the 165 million American adults currently categorized as overweight and obese would be re-categorized as normal weight instead.
"From an early age, boys learn that violence is not only an acceptable form of conflict resolution, but one that is admired." A history of masculinity, and how it relates to guns, in the United States.
The case of ”The 50 Superheroes You Most Want to Have Sex With,” or rather, the content of the commentary on the post of that name by writer/director James Gunn last year. Full of shocking, ugly vitriol towards women and gay/lesbian superheroes.
The online version of China's Communist Party newspaper has hailed a report by The Onion naming North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as the "Sexiest Man Alive" - apparently unaware it is satire.
The People's Daily ran a 55-page photo spread on its website Tuesday in a tribute to the round-faced leader, under the headline "North Korea's top leader named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."
Issues surrounding race and gender on AMC's "The Walking Dead." Beware: serious spoilers, especially if you haven't watched Season 3.
relevant to everyone's interests.
"A few short weeks ago after my coming out, the three of us, Tom, Andy and I were being interviewed, one of the reporters ventured away from the subject of the film towards my gender. Imagine that, a reporter. My brother quickly stepped in, 'Look, just so we’re clear,' he says, 'if somebody asks something or says something about my sister that I don’t like, understand that I will break a bottle over their head.' [applause] Few words express love clearer than these."
