YoungVoteTheYoungVoteTheYoungVoteTheYou

16ToVote and an awesome new YOUTH movement!

Cross Posted from StudentActivism:

A group of Florida high school students is waging war against a local curfew.

The law — which bars under-18s from downtown West Palm Beach after 10 o’clock on weeknights and eleven on weekends — is, they say, unconscionable age discrimination. But that’s not all.

The law exempts married young people, but not those who are out with parental permission. On the contrary, it imposes fines on parents who “knowingly permit or by insufficient control allow” their children to break the curfew. “Insufficient control” is apparently nowhere defined — is a parent whose 17-year-old is in college expected to exercise “sufficient control” to keep him or her indoors at night? 

The most bizarre — and, in a bizarre way, comforting — provision of the two-year-old law is one which exempts young people who are “attending or traveling directly to or from an activity that involves the exercise of rights protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution” from the curfew.

That’s right. The curfew as written only applies to those young people who don’t intend to speak while they’re out on the town. If you’re going to be exercising your freedom of speech (or assembly, or religion, or the press, or, you know, petitioning the government for redress of grievances), you’re golden. If you’re heading out to sit by your grandmother who’s in a coma, though, you’re getting a ticket.

(Only not really. The city is mostly just using the law as a mechanism for rousting young people rather than going through the hassle of ticketing them — as of the end of March it had issued a thousand warnings but only five citations.)

It’s ridiculous, is what it is, and the National Youth Rights Association of Southeast Florida is doing something about it.

NYRASEFL leaders Zach Goodman and Jeffrey Nadel (both 16) spent a big chunk of the spring explaining to the mayor and city commission just how farkakte the law is, but didn’t get anywhere. Then in late March they retained local civil rights attorney Barry Silver, who managed to get a law that criminalized feeding the homeless (yes, really) overturned last year. But so far he hasn’t had any luck either.

So on the evening of May 1, they took to the streets, letting the city know when and where they would defy the curfew.

During the protest they were tailed by two officers on Segways, but otherwise left alone. Their presence does seem to have gotten under the cops’ skin, though, as police ticketed several teens who were waiting for their parents outside a nearby movie theater as the protest was going on.

NYRASEFL intends to make one final effort to convince the city commission to repeal the curfew law before filing suit against the city. We’ll keep you informed as the story develops.

Re: Bros Before Hos the Musical

I wrote an article a few weeks ago that was featured on Feministing's main blog about a youtube video titled "Bros Before Hos: The Musical," that generated a fair amount of comments and confusion. I refuse to re-post the youtube video, as I feel it was sexist and homophobic and perhaps even posting it in the first place was a bad idea. That said, my article was moreso a rant than a critique and as such I was criticized that I should be able to "take a joke" and not fight irrelevant battles. Typical way of dismissing anger about sexism and homophobia: feminists just can't take a joke.
I responded accordingly:

Based on the comments, I see that is confusion about the homophobia expressed in this video. Although some of you expressed that the sexism is blatant, others argue that the homophobia in this video is non-existent or even irrelevant. Although it didn't help that I lacked coherence in connecting the dots between sexism and homophobia. I think the first concept I must address is that sexism and homophobia are interrelated. Sexism is the institution that subjugates one gender to another. Homophobia re-instates that subjugation by ensuring that there is no blurring of lines between the genders. Speaking to an audience of men, Michael Kimmel says, "Homophobia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men." The men in this video re-enact the institution of sexism and keep it in check with homophobia. The structure of this event is organized neatly in the video as such: A) female figure in a menge-a-trois demands, lifting her status from object to subject B) the two male figures explore the conflict which arises in a sexist system when gender and sexual lines a blurred, ostensibly through sex, wherein gender lines are usually instated and/or re-instated C)The conflict resolves by ejecting the "single" guy from the group and instating heteronormativity.

There, I said it, now I can sleep at night.

Roid Models

I solemnly swear that I have been trying my hardest not to comment on the last two scandals in the world of jingo-ified sportmanship: A-Rod (dubbed A-hole by the NY Post, keeping it classy as usual) and his A-Roids, and Michael Phelps tokking it up. What deterred me from commenting was that I first saw the Phelps story on News of the World, and being struck by the paradox of major news outlets such as News of the World, whose name deceives the West by implying that the shit news they turn out actually has social relevance, reporting that, well, some guy was tokking up with his friends. Blasphemy! The reporters were probably smoking their bongs while writing these articles. But, I've conceded that the actions of these athletes do have social relevance, and not because they're going "to influence little Jimmy to smoke pot," mostly because he will smoke pot regardless - so long as this misunderstanding and sensationalization of marijuana persists.
My point of contention with this tyrannical criticism being thrown at Rodriguez and Phelps is that it is committed with the pretense that these men are "supposed to be role models." But sorry there, I missed the point where treading through a large artificial water container and knocking a horsehide-stiched sphere with a piece of tree constituted emulation. Rodriguez and Phelps are not supposed to be role models, and if they are then we don't need to reassess them or their actions, we have to reassess a society that celebrates their talents. I mean, what are their talents anyway? Well, Phelps won like a bazillion gold medals at the Olympic games, which means that he's the best at reasserting American supremacy over all those other little nations we step on within a battlefield where no one actually dies. Yay patriotism!
I know nothing about A-Rod other than that he took steroids in order to maximize his ability on the field, which is really just a sneaky way of maximing America's love for him. Oh and that he is romantically/sexually involves with Madonna and that a lot of people have been up all night over the matter. I think its less pathetic that A-Rod took roids than it is that we actually care about a group of men throwing a ball around.
However, I think its MOST pathetic that we breed men, generally working class and minority, to battle each other so that we can live out our jingoistic desires for simulated war. If anything, sports players are not meant to be role models, but roid models - the idea of them, as warriors, perpetuates a black market of products that are really just used to keep America "sports lovers" assured that each game will be a "good one."

Misinformation Special: Telling Young People That Their Bodies Are Shameful

Same old crap, cool new look. Passion for Christ Movement has jumped on the bandwagon of hundreds of other Evangelical groups that are infecting the airways of youth, trying to suck them in by making Pauline Christianity look "hip" and "cool," but ultimately selling the same old crap.
Passion for Christ Movement has launched the sale of "ex-masturbator" tees in some pretty ugly fonts. Some non-paid lackey at the church writes:

"Yeah we said it….Nobody talks about it, but most people have done it or are still doing it. It's seems to be a rite of passage for both girls and guys into the world of sex. Some say masturbation is not a sin, some say that it is. But is it really okay in the eyes of God?"

Why is God watching me masturbate? Doesn't that make him a bit pervy. Anyhow, Pauline Christianity, i.e. the books of the New Testament attributed to (St.) Paul, really aren't cool. For example:

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.


                                                                                                                         Romans 1:24-27

I mean, for serious, young people are ashamed enough about sex due to the misinformation soaked into their brains by MTV which is then rigorously contradicted at church, synagogue, or what have you the next day.  I am all up for discussing bodily functions, especially as they are sometimes used as addictions, but I am not up for discussing them with the implication that I will discontinue using my organs by the end of that discussion. And, to clarify, I am defining "addictions" in the context as: a distraction from the reality of life.
As a male I am more than aware of how masturbation, especially with the advent of pornography, may be used as an addiction. However, only when placed in the context of addiction does the act of masturbation become harmful. I know because I have enjoyed my body sexually separately from an addiction.
Hey, their the ones who wanted us to talk about it...

Parental Obsession with Gender Norms and Suffering Boys

If you ever thought England was a Kingdom filled with classy folk, tasteful diction, and nervously correct grammar then you've been mistaken. Fo shizzle. For one, I'm a two-time eye-witness, and two, some people there read the stain of my brain "news"paper The Daily Mail. Which should really be renamed The Daily Load of Crap.  The entire right sidebar on their website is designated to "Femail" which is just stories about Posh Beckham and plastic surgery mishaps. There's one article titled, "My wife Debee McGee looks better than Madonna." nuff said.
Anyhow, they have one article by Jill Parkin titled, "Stop feminising our schools - our boys are suffering' which argues that boys are failing out of school and refusing to apply for college because of the "feminising" agenda of the British school system. She writes contemptuously:

"The problems start in the classroom. Instead of the make-or-break sprint to the exam deadline, boys have to endure stultifying coursework.
This system of continuous assessment means that anyone who can call up Google on a computer can cut and paste answers from the internet at home. Girls, with their more patient approach to learning, thrive under such a system."

I suppose she gathered her sources from wikipedia's entry on Eugenics or Mein Kampf for idiots or something. In this parallel universe, young women are more patient because they are getting ready for motherhood where they will have to focus patient attention on the baby and, as Sarah Haskins puts it, in order to wake up at 6 in the morning to put beef chunks in a slow cooker so that her husband can go "Wow" 13 hours later. In regards to school, women are "genetically" wired away from competition and toward coursework and their vaginas just gobble up books. Excuse the image but I just have to deconstruct this conception. 
You know, the one about the gulf of difference between people with vaginas and people with penises. Parkin blames the school systems in GB for not acknowledging these difference. Don't you worry Parkin, the media makes up for any of the school systems discriminatory shortcomings.

The text reads:
"Healthy muscle function with Magnesium (for Him)
Healthy skin with Vitamins A and C, Copper, and Iron (For Her)"

Apparently all women need is healthy skin. skip the strong muscles and bones crap. Its not like our grandmothers are dying from osteoporosis or something. Better yet, women don't even have any muscles or bones.  OMGZ! That's why women can't open doors themselves! It all ties in together so neatly!
According to Parkin, these differences between young men and young women were not concocted by marketing interns at One-a-Day and they really are bones deep.

"What boys are made of is this: tremendous data banks that can recall years of FA Cup ties in minute detail; lashings of testosterone that needs constant burning off on a sports field; and a hideous competitive streak almost as vital to them as lifeblood itself."

I'll just post my response in an image:

With that wonderful image of one tough ass woman, I will say that yes, there are differences between people with penises and people with vaginas, and yes the school systems in the western world are doing serious disservices to young men, but no, "feminising," which is a polite way of saying "sissy-a-fying," is not to blame.  Parkin is using a tool which I call "misrepresentation of cause" in order to push her own agenda: a sexist agenda. Parkin is using the shortcommings of the British school system and misidentifying their cause with a push for gender fluidity.  God, I hate her.

Someone ought to break the news to CNN: We haven't entered some imaginary realm called "post-racial"

Quickly after Obama's presidential victory, CNN ran a story about "post-racial America." Yet, on January 1st, an unarmed, defenseless, compliant YOUNG BLACK MAN was murdered by a police officer in the Bay Area of LA.  The media has been describing Oscar Grant as a 22 year old father, however Oscar Grant wasn't murdered because he was a father, he was murdered because he was young and Black. America is neither post-racial nor post-adultist. We still disproportionately punish moreso people of those identities.
This story was caught on video and thanks to the internet, which enables the display of headline worthy news, is now known to the public. One can only imagine the number of young black (and latino) men who are injured or die due to police brutality. Certainly not all policemen and women act upon their socially conditioned racist patterns but, at the end of the day, policemen and women are everyday people and consequently they reflect the culture in which they live. Only difference is: police are armed with guns.
RaceWire, the ColorLines Blog, tells you what you can do right now.

Let's say it aloud: Bulimia.

In Germany, anti-Bulimia ads are being placed inside the lids of women's public toilets in college areas. Bulimia is the act of filling one's stomach with food to the point that throwing up is necessary or appears to be necessary. Many, many women or all ages are affected by Bulimia.
My gut reaction (or wayward yet intellectualized reaction) is that these ads may de-sensitize Bulimia, i.e. make it commonplace, and thus young women would not think twice about doing it because, well, everyone does it. But then I thought about the isolating aspect of Bulimia, namely, that it is a hidden activity and thus women are expected to just fix the problem and not make a fuss of it.
But please, make a fuss of it. 
I am actually interested in the "control" aspect of Bulimia and its intersection with general feelings of a lack of control among youth. Some psychologists who specialize in easting disorders insist that control is central to eating disorders such as bulimia and that the strong desire for women to regulate their eating habits functions as a convenient method of conforming to societal standards of beauty.  For young men its mostly internet pornography - they get to control their sexual situations while conforming to their roles as "predators."
See, we're alike!
Feministing also has an article.