A Dad needed some advice about his son, and decided to go to the AITA (Am I The A...hole?) subreddit to get some answers.
He starts off his post by explaining that he has a son, Jake, who is 10, and a daughter, Rebecca, who is 14.
Monday, July 31, 2023
Wife calls her husband “homophobic and transphobic” because he tells his 10-year-old son he can’t wear his sister’s makeup and clothes
Megyn Kelly loses it after transgender athlete wins women’s professional golf tournament
EXCERPTS:
Political and cultural commentator Megyn Kelly criticized the media and sports world for celebrating 32-year-old Breanna Gill, who won the Australian Women’s Classic professional golf tournament.
Numerous major media outlets failed to note Gill’s transgender status as controversy swirls about the physical advantages of biological males.
“This is a biological man,” Kelly responded bluntly. “A fact not even mentioned in much of the major press coverage celebrating ‘her’ win over the actual women in this tournament.
“It’s a fraud, it’s immoral, and it HAS TO STOP,” Kelly argued.
Kelly noted that the WPGA Australia’s report made no mention of Gill’s transgender identification.
Former NCAA swim star Riley Gaines also shared her thoughts on social media by tweeting, “Who’s surprised a male is being recognized as the ‘winner’ in the women’s category.”
“Gill’s victory opened up the transgender debate in golf, with a viral tweet from the Women’s PGA Tour of Australasia showing Gill with the trophy being viewed over seven million times before being deleted,” the report noted. “The comments had been turned off but that didn’t stop almost 3,000 quote tweets.”
Scottish player Hailey Davidson became the first transgender to see major success in professional golf on a US mini tour in 2021.
Davidson identifies as the “world’s 1st openly transgender person to win a professional golf tournament.”
READ FULL STORY HERE - https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/megyn-kelly-loses-it-after-transgender-athlete-wins-women-s-professional-golf-tournament/ar-AA1eBp4O?ocid=SK216DHP&pc=SK216&cvid=f08580055ce0483da7efefdfc4d1a9c9&ei=87
For 1st time in 99 years, California crowns transgender woman in beauty pageant
Sunday, July 30, 2023
NOTE TO JJ: Is there more space in the closet?
Dear JJ:
I am from the Maldives and thus your South Asian compatriot in the Indian Subcontinent.
Maldives officially proclaims itself as a 100% Islamic nation which is kinda silly because no two humans think alike. Yet this dubious policy persists in the law in the form of the 2008 constitution that states that only Sunni Muslims can claim citizenship. Therefore there is that silly question of the fate of Shia and Sufi Muslims in my so-called paradise. If they lose citizenship automatically, where do they fit in? To which country do they belong to? Is the US willing to accommodate them as refugees?
Needless to say this results in everything stacked against all the minorities such as the LGBTQIA+ community. However, oddly enough, because it's a small population (only 382,000 like Iceland), there's a sense of kinship in the community which could fit a small town in the US and therefore everyone knows what everyone else is doing. There are no private secrets, only public ones.
However, homosexuality still remains a taboo subject that's only discussed among close friends and relatives. It won't make national news unless anyone is caught in the act and indicted and sentenced - like this poor Bangladesh expatriate (https://avas.mv/en/122941) who was convicted of alleged blackmail using "porn" he created by filming himself in homosexual acts with more than 250 high profile Maldivian gay men. Needless to say homosexuality is both a “sin” and a “criminal” act as far as Maldives’ laws are concerned.
There do emerge from time to time the iconoclasts who dare to openly discuss on social media minority rights such as secularism and gay rights. But the mainstream media are unable to break the mold as they fear a backlash from the right wing Conservative Islamic lobby. So they largely practice self-censorship and stick to safe, harmless, and acceptable subjects such as making fun of politicians.
I have a friend who was hounded so much because he openly blogged about Evolution and Big Bang that he was forced to shut down his blog in order to save his sanity.
Another friend had to refrain himself from discussing such sensitive subjects following unrelenting bullying on cyberspace.
And worse, a blogger was brutally stabbed to death and a journalist sympathetic towards Sufi ideals beheaded.
So the issue of minority rights has disappeared from Maldives' social media platforms which is tragic but understandable. Those who openly did fight for such rights have gone silent. Because of the emergence of terror groups, they realized that it's not worth the fight even if left wing Liberal Maldivians support such rights. It's not worth it to face insurmountable odds that are stacked against us.
This is why I feel that secularism is a key factor that will unchain people from the shackles they are in. Without freedom of belief, people will not have the right to demand information of the kind they want.
What is now happening is that the younger generation now do not feel the need to make the non-mainstream the mainstream. They don't feel the need to make Maldives secular because they feel there is more space in the closet.
My younger days were at a time when there was no internet and therefore no information. Hence, I was traumatized by the belief that my homosexuality was unnatural and some kind of test or punishment God made me suffer for reasons not clear to me. I prayed to Him fervently, practically imploring to Him to transform me to a heterosexual but years passed and He practically ignored my prayers which led me to ignore Him in return and embrace my sexual orientation. This was not a difficult transition by then because I already had internet access and was enlightened that homosexuality is not an unforgivable sin but a natural human condition.
Fortunately now, the internet has made our younger generation realize that there's nothing to worry about in their physiology and psychology. So they are happy and do have support networks among their peers. Their friends support their characteristics, such as homosexuality, and they therefore don't feel alienated. They are happy among their friends who accept them just as they are. So for them there's no need to fight anymore because their closet has more room than that exist in the mainstream society.
What little acceptance the queer Maldivians of old had is now been erased with the emergence of the threats from active terror groups. I remember the time when campy and effeminate and cross dressing men openly went on with their lives without a worry and without a fear of backlash. Not any more though. They have been forced back into the closet and I wonder how they are dealing with that now.
Even if there's more room in the closet, there are gay friends who tell me they want to be open about it such as being able to hold hands with their boyfriends while walking on the capital island Male's thoroughfare. Perhaps this is something like the need to share and express themselves.
I publicized my homosexuality sometime back on my social media platforms but that might have been a mistake although it might have something to do with my being feeling alienated because I didn't understand what was going on as far as my sexual orientation was concerned. I wish the internet had come to me earlier, during my formative years.
So things have come a long way and I don't have any issues with youngsters either choosing to remain in the closet or not although if they decide to come out of the closet there's a real danger they could be targeted by terror groups.
Warm regards,
XX Ali
Saturday, July 29, 2023
NOTE TO JJ: My niece's exposure to adult info
Dear JJ:
My elder sister yesterday visited my parents and I happened to be there. She was telling our mother and father that her 11-year-old daughter told her that she knows "everything" now and therefore whether she can now watch 18+ rated movies.
It seems my niece had told my sister she knows what homosexuality is, that she knows who lesbians are, and also is aware of everything about transgender people, the Pride flag with the rainbow colors, and the LGBTQIA+ movement in general.
Apparently she also told my sister she knows about God's punishment delivered to the people of Prophet Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah for their sodomy.
My sister said that she is informed that sex education starting age may differ in various countries depending on social and cultural sensitivities.
My sister said that she supposed that giving a smartphone and tablet with internet access resulted in my niece coming to know all about that "adult" stuff at such a tender age.
All throughout the meeting I kept quiet without expressing my views because I was not exactly supposed to be there when my sister was discussing such sensitive information with my parents though I was dying to ask her why she was unaware of things like how parental controls can be applied.
In a dejected tone of voice, she said that the only thing now left to do seems to educate and inform my niece that such sexual "perversions" and "transgressions" were sinful and outlawed by God.
She went on to say that she had considered homeschooling my niece but that one of her friends did carry out homeschooling for her daughter but later found out that not sending a child to school could result in the child facing difficulty in socializing.
My sister said that she should have been careful right from the start because even seemingly harmless games such as Minecraft exposed my niece to children from other countries which led her to learn a lot about "unpleasant" things as a result of the cross cultural information that were being exchanged.
Warm regards,
XX Richard
Thursday, July 27, 2023
MAGA pastor warns 'Barbie' movie will turn daughters 'into the lesbians'
Conservative pastor and supporter of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement Shane Vaughn recently criticized the 'Barbie' movie, warning that it will turn daughters "into the lesbians."
"We're living in a world that hates men, especially white men, and they hate patriarchy, they hate the head of the house. It's toxic feminism...and this is what the 'Barbie' movie promotes," Vaughn said in a video posted to Twitter by RightWingWatch. "The hatred of men, turning men into boy toys, emasculating men, while they rule."
"There is a spirit that if you take your daughters or your granddaughters to watch this movie, you are turning them into the lesbians," Vaughn added.
SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/maga-pastor-warns-barbie-movie-will-turn-daughters-into-the-lesbians/ar-AA1eojR8?ocid=SK216DHP&pc=SK216&cvid=74992dbb263a48f5ac18e2ac84e4285d&ei=75
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
What is intersex?
Intersex is not just about a person having both male and female genitals.
It's more complicated than the erroneous perceptions I had earlier.
I saw a drawing of a person's genitals who has a vagina below his balls which was depicted in the movie "The Danish Girl".
And now I am reading Booker Prize winning Indian author and essayist Arundhati Roy, who rose to fame with her first novel "The God of Small Things" who has integrated an intersex person in her second novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness".
So I hit ChatGPT to find out more about intersex people and here's what the chatbot offered:
Intersex is a term used to describe individuals who are born with variations in their sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female. These variations can be related to chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, or external genitalia. Intersex conditions are diverse and can manifest in a range of ways.
Typically, human sex is classified as male or female based on a combination of biological factors, including chromosomes (XX for females and XY for males), hormones, and reproductive anatomy. However, intersex individuals may have atypical combinations of these factors. For instance:
Chromosomal Intersex: Some individuals may have chromosomes that do not fit the typical male (XY) or female (XX) patterns, such as XXY, XYY, or other variations.
Gonadal Intersex: This refers to cases where an individual may have both ovarian and testicular tissue, or may have gonads that do not match their chromosomal sex.
Hormonal Intersex: Some individuals may have variations in hormone production or responsiveness, leading to atypical development of sexual characteristics.
Genital Intersex: In some cases, an individual's external genitalia may not clearly align with typical male or female characteristics.
It's important to note that intersex is a natural biological variation and not a medical condition in itself. However, some intersex individuals may experience medical and social challenges, including stigmatization and discrimination.
It's crucial to approach intersex individuals with sensitivity and respect their right to self-determination and bodily autonomy. Many intersex advocacy groups are working to raise awareness, support individuals and families, and advocate for the protection of intersex people's rights.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
BOOK - Belly Dancing: The Sensual Art of Energy and Spirit
(https://www.amazon.com/Belly-Dancing-Sensual-Energy-Spirit/dp/1594770212)
I don't plan to read it of course because I am not a woman and am not interested in all the New Age stuff that accompanies this form of art. I just thought I would shoot a snapshot for anyone interested.
I don't see any distinction between adhering to religion or science because both demands us to put our blind faith in them although none of them can provide us with an objective and independent truth about what reality is, and I am suspicious of anything that requires me to put blind faith in them.
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Brain scans can identify left-wingers and right-wingers
People of different opinions process political data differently. Brain scanning suggests activity patterns cluster with ideology.
That those who lean to opposite ends of the political spectrum think differently from each other is obvious. That such differences show up in brain scans is intriguing.
Brain scanning is a low-resolution approach to studying neural activity, incapable of seeing how the cells which do the actual thinking are connected to each other.
Yet, using this fairly crude technique, two groups of researchers now claim to be able to distinguish the neural responses of left- and right-wingers. READ MORE - https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/02/02/people-of-different-opinions-process-political-data-differently
Is three too young for children to know they're a different gender? Transgender researchers disagree
Many gender clinicians now recommend parents 'socially transition' kids who persistently express a transgender identity.
But research has shown most children will give up their transgender identity by the time they are adolescents.
Not all researchers agree, though, that this research is valid. READ MORE - https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/440851/can-you-really-know-that-a-3-year-old-is-transgender
Young trans children know who they are
A new study shows that gender-nonconforming kids who go on to transition already have a strong sense of their true identity—one that differs from their assigned gender. READ MORE - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/young-trans-children-know-who-they-are/580366/
Critics hype 'Barbie' as a stunning 'takedown' of toxic masculinity and 'a master's thesis on feminism'
"Barbie" star Simu Liu said he was excited to see how the new "Barbie" film challenges heteronormative ideas about gender.
Meanwhile, Indiewire praised the film's "outside the box" and "funny, feminist fantasia" and singled out Gosling's performance of "newfound male rage" and "patriarchal power" as a particular highlight.
Over at The Playlist, writer Marshall Shaffer lauded the film for inverting and gender-flipping the Bible's infamous Garden of Eden parable.
"Just as the term' woman' derived from its relationship to 'man,' Barbie's male counterpart was only '& Ken' – never on his own. It's thus Ken, tempted by the forbidden fruit rendered as patriarchal ideology, who strays and spoils Barbie Land," Shaffer said.
Polygon commended the film's ability to peel back "America's masculine anxieties of the moment." READ MORE - https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/critics-hype-barbie-as-a-stunning-takedown-of-toxic-masculinity-and-a-master-s-thesis-on-feminism/ar-AA1ed38N?ocid=SK216DHP&pc=SK216&cvid=6cf35505ecd9451fb1b20a85984b600e&ei=46
The trans flag was created in 1999 by transgender navy veteran Monica Helms
First flown at a Pride Parade in Phoenix in 2000, it is made up of the colors blue, pink, and white. The light blue is placed to represent boys and the pink for girls, while the white is used to symbolize those who are transitioning or feel they have a neutral or no gender. It is designed so that whichever way the flag is flown it will always be correct.
When Monica Helms was in the Navy, she served aboard the submarines USS Francis Scott Key and the USS Flasher. Her missions had her going out on deployments of up to 70 days each. She served for eight years, hiding something she didn’t quite understand.
Helms would come to understand it and, with a little nudge from the universe, fully embrace herself. After making her transition, she fought for the rights of transgender people, especially those who served in the U.S. military, while creating one of the enduring symbols of that struggle, the transgender pride flag. READ MORE - https://www.military.com/history/how-navy-veteran-monica-helms-created-transgender-pride-flag.html
Friday, July 21, 2023
How AI is bringing film stars back from the dead
Celebrities such as James Dean can be brought back to life as digital clones thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, but it is raising troubling questions about what rights any of us have after we die. READ FULL STORY FROM BBC - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230718-how-ai-is-bringing-film-stars-back-from-the-dead
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Will blockbusters ever be sexy again?
Why do most modern heroes have all the erotic charm of a Ken doll?
...Bringing sex back won’t just satisfy horny Marvel fans. The value of both sex as an idea and sex scenes in particular is that they help bring larger-than-life characters down to earth. Knowing they have the same carnal desires as the rest of us tells us something about who they are and how they interact with the people in their lives. Why are they bothering to save the world if they don’t love anyone in it?
...If you remove sex from blockbusters, you also remove much of the humanity, and then it becomes all too easy to remember that you’re just watching action figures bounce off each other. READ MORE: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/modern-blockbuster-movies-sex
Sunday, July 2, 2023
ESSAY: My unconscious impulsive risky habits (Part 1)
I visited the amazing Maldives this week on the occasion of Eid holidays at the invitation of a Muslim friend from the Muslim majority country in the Indian Subcontinent.
In addition to visiting pristine local islands and luxury resorts, I found the capital Male', one of the world's densest cities in a nation which has a population of half a million, quite a pleasant vibrant destination in its own right.
But there was a factor my friend pointed out that needs to be aware of: the Maldives which issues visas on arrival to people of every country is now a thriving society with an underground life that we should be aware of, i.e. that not every non-Maldivian is a tourist or an expatriate but could be possibly involved in activities such as black market economics, money laundering, human and drug trafficking, prostitution, and what not.
So even though we became friendly with Maldivians in local islands, we didn't mingle with any "foreigners" in Male' because we didn't want to inadvertently get involved in the burgeoning subcultures.
As I recently pointed out how I avoided becoming a potential victim of a crime, in light of what happened to a Maldivian friend of mine who became a victim of some goons, and the blackmail scandal of a Bangladeshi man who filmed himself engaging in gay sex with high profile Maldivians (https://avas.mv/en/122941), I and my Maldivian friend largely stuck to becoming friends with only his extended family, Maldivians from local islands and resorts, and avoided all "foreigners".
However, on the last day of the Eid holidays, for some inexplicable reason, I let down my guard, and risked myself becoming a victim of a potential scam by organized crime. Fortunately it didn't ultimately result in any danger but made me engage in conscious reflection of what makes me sometimes take foolish decisions like characters we read in fiction by philosophers such as Albert Camus's existential musings.
What happened was that on the very last evening of Saturday, marking the end of the Eid holidays, I decided to take a stroll by myself alone through the main thoroughfare of Male'. The capital is reclaimed up to the very edge of the house reef and therefore there are only two beaches, albeit artificial ones, on the east and west coasts.
The main street from the east to the west measures roughly 2.5 kilometers and I decided that a walk can be not only relaxing but a pleasure to enjoy the sight of an assorted collection of cute men of all skin colors from South Asia, where I hail from, in addition to nationals from other countries. Call me a pervert for engaging in discreet activities like this but I found out that I am not alone in this activity and that a lot of passersby give side-long glances as if checking me out while others openly stared at me. Surprisingly, some of them even smiled at me, and I did in return, although I wasn't looking for a fling. I don’t think that gawking is a social feature in just “third world” countries because almost every Black man gawked at me and my half-French half-Maldivian girl friend when we visited Paris, France.
I finally made my way to the west coast and by that time I was feeling a bit tired and decided to return to my friend's house, where I was lodging, by bus. So I waited by the bus stand near the west coast and a Bangladeshi man on a scooter smiled and stopped. He kept smiling and I thought I should at least find out why.
When I went near him he pointed east and asked "Henveiru?" which is one of the four wards in Male' and the one on the east coast.
I asked him whether he was a "cycle taxi" rider, a term used to refer to riders of motorcycles operated by some cab centers. As me and my friend had no intention of ever going to places on motorcycle taxis, although we took cars, I had not installed an app called Avas Ride which I later found out was a useful service, and which my friend later told me would have provided me with the information on how to acquire the motorcycle cab service without resorting to get the service from people on scooters who offer rides outside of the jurisdiction of the app's service. My friend also told me that “foreigners” are not permitted to enroll in this service.
The man nodded to indicate that he was a motorcycle taxi staff and I asked him how much is charged to which he replied "20 Maldivian Rufiyaa" (equivalent to roughly one US dollar). My friend later told me that the rate is actually 15 Rufiyaa and that the man had arbitrarily charged an extra 5 Rufiyaa. To my chagrin, I had even given him an extra 5 Rufiyaa for being nice to me on his own initiative. So overall I had paid him an extra 10 Rufiyaa out of my ignorance and he smiled and said "Shukuriyyaa" which is the Arabic term Muslims use as "Thanks". He was silent all the way to the east coast and after I paid him, he smiled and turned back on Majeedhee road and went west. He did not request to exchange contact numbers, something Maldivian cab drivers sometimes do.
When I related this turn of events to my friend, he was horrified, and rightly so. I felt terrible too, and the most troubling issue I identified from this incident is why sometimes I take risky decisions against all good sense. It frustrated me that I don't have any answer for that yet and I am strongly harboring an intention of consulting a psychiatrist to discover what factors run deep inside me to result in my out of control decisions and actions. I am seriously wondering why I take foolish decisions and stupid actions such as the characters I read in novels that lead them to tragic climaxes.