Post reblogged from Disreputable Bitch with 98 notes
“Don’t you mean gender is a social construct?”
No, no I don’t.
Although the sex/gender divide is certainly useful in certain contexts, there are a few huge problems with it.
It’s a form of Cartesian duality that divides the mind as somehow separate from the body. Meaning, it treats the two as completely separate and unrelated. Particularly with transsexual people, this is a dangerous idea. It easily leads to thinking that gender dysphoria is something merely in one’s head. The reality of it is, hormone therapy treats the body, and thus treating the body relieves the mind. If the mind and body were truly separate, treating a person who is transsexual with hormone therapy would have no effect on their psychological and emotional well-being.
It’s also problematic because it typically describes gender as merely a cultural thing (denying that there are people strongly identify as one or more genders) and sex as merely a biological thing, leaving gender as the only thing “worthy” of analysis. The truth is, sex is just as socially constructed as gender ideals/gender roles are. The two constantly influence one another; sex and gender ideals coexist simultaneously and cannot be so easily separated. How we view sex has changed dramatically over the years.
The problem with leaving sex unchallenged is obvious. When we define it as XX means female, XY means male, we leave out people who are XXY, etc. It also erases the existence of XX intersex and XY intersex people. If we then define it as genitalia, we run into a similar problem. We will find women with penis-sized clitorises (and some with no vagina), men with micropenises (some with vaginas), and people whose phallus is undifferentiated in other ways (such as men with more severe forms of hypospadias where the urethra is not on the phallus at all)(thus, leading to the question, what exactly differentiates between a clitoris and a penis? The “sex” of the person who has it?).
There are many ways in which a person can vary during sexual development, including, but not limited to, sex chromosomes, hormones, internal morphology, external morphology, genitalia, and reproductive organs/gonads. Which brings us to the question: how many of these must differ for a person to be intersex? In how many people do these all match perfectly? Which of these matters the most in assigning a person a sex? There is no singular answer, and the definition of the situation is a product of culture and history.
Defining it in different ways merely moves the goal post, and we can never come up with a satisfying answer until we again consider gender, this time the gender identity of the person. Merely going by what they (people who are intersex) were assigned at birth leads us to the same problem that many transgender people have, that is, the institutional denial of self-identity.
Source: afoucauldianasshole
Video reblogged from Say Weeeeee! with 63,112 notes
Everyone probably knew this was coming.
#i legit CRY at this commercial #it actually makes me CRY #boom-dee-ada-boom-dee-ada #i just love the fucking world okay? #sobbing now
I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS COMMERCIAL
I was just thinking about these commercials and how I wanted one on my tumblr, and now here it is!
Awkward confession time: whenever I feel like the world is shit and I can’t keep dealing with it, I watch this and/or read about cool science things to remind me that it’s not all bad.
For all of you having bad days
I am actually trying so hard not to cry my makeup off at this. This is sincerely one of the most important self-care videos in my life.
finally a commercial that actually means what it says. it’s not about selling cars or getting you to go to an amusement park, it’s sincerely telling you the world is amazing
Source: skythrown
Photo reblogged from Dancing Rainbow Daleks with 72,086 notes
FINALLY. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
People seriously need to realize that because you have social anxiety, depression, or even bipolar disorder, it’s not that anybody would want that. It’s not that people are able to just “suck it up and stop being a wimp” it’s because your body physically cannot produce the right amount of chemicals that a normal body should have circulating in it’s system. People have absolutely no control over what they feel, no matter how much they try to change themselves to “please” others in life, and it seriously is rather frustrating. I myself cannot give you first hand information, but my very close friend has depression and social anxiety, which are both horrible combined and standing alone. She takes pills to help her dopamine and serotonin levels rise up a bit so she can properly function during school and not draw into herself. It’s hard to talk to her without her flinching away because she had been severely bullied years before for being different. What I’m trying to express is that it makes me really angry to see people who wish they were different chemically being bullied. They certainly don’t wish that upon anybody, they didn’t want it themselves, and it’s not something that can be fixed with a simple “suck it up bitch”. They can’t.
Now imagine yourself falling into a twenty foot deep hole and the sides are slick with oil, not knowing how you got there, and unable to get out no matter what you do. You try climbing, crawling, sliding, screaming, clawing, tearing, but nothing works. Then somebody that is perfectly capable to help you appears at the opening and tells you that it’s your fault that you got stuck down there, it’s your fault that you can’t climb back up, and it’s your fault that you want to kill yourself.
People need to realize. It’s not what people consciously want.
Nobody. And I’m going to say this again. Nobody should be bullied because they are going through depression, anxiety, or bipolar. Nobody should be bullied for anything.
PERIOD.
It’s the same thing as being in love. You don’t know why you feel this way, but you do. You can try to stop it, try to peel your heart and feelings away from somebody, but you can’t.
It’s the same with depression.
Source: over-there
Photoset reblogged from Let's Go Kill This Bosh'Tet with 3,718 notes
AMAZING KINETIC SCULPTURES BY BOB POTTS
Bob Potts is a kinetic Sculptor in upstate New York. His work renders motions inspired by nature into graceful and silent mechanical forms. The craftsmanship of his work is visible in every detail.
[ gif made by DevidSketchbook ]
Source: devidsketchbook.com
Video with 1 note
Hello I made a thing.
I’ve been meaning to do this basically ever since the first “Boom de yada” Discovery Channel commericals came out. Sorry I’m not sorry.
All images used in this video are linked and credited over at my blog.
(the anglerfish thumbnail pleases me)
Photo reblogged from kvlt fiction with 5,577 notes
Full-scale anatomical crocheted human skeletal/organ model by artist Shanell Papp
Source: malformalady
Photo reblogged from Question 12 and a half with 62,508 notes
FDA approves pill to prevent HIV infections
The drug, Truvada, is the first medication intended to prevent HIV infections in people having sex with infected individuals.
(JEFF CHIU/AP)
IT JUST GOT REAL
What good news for the world.
Remember when this made the news weeks ago and US news outlets didn’t find it worth reporting?
BLESS THIS
This should have like, 1,000% more notes.
This is amazing.
Are you telling me that those Ryan Gosling cupcakes have 45,000 notes and this post hasn’t even reached 5,000?
Relevant.
And it was on this day that this appeared on my dash, and I said “Damn, finally some good news!” and reblogged the hell out of it.
Source: bostonglobe.com
Photoset reblogged from with 41,088 notes
Emily Whitehead the girl whose cancer was ‘cured’ by HIV virus.
seven-year-old girl has become the first child leukaemia patient to be successfully treated by doctors using a disabled form of the virus that causes Aids to reprogramme the immune system.
When chemotherapy failed to work for Emily Whitehead, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, she underwent a new experimental treatment at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
It involved tricking her immune system into fighting the cancer cells.
Dr Stephan Grupp, Director of the Centre for Childhood Cancer Research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS: “We’ve treated the first couple of patients and we’ve been blown away by the results”.
They’ve been very exciting.
“We collect cells of the immune system from a patient, so we use the patient’s own cells. We put in a new gene in those cells that makes the cells go after cancer cells and then we put those cells back in the patient.”
Photoset reblogged from not a blogger. a khaleesi. with 188,863 notes
Axolotls have the unique ability to regenerate most body parts. In a period of months, they can grow entire new limbs and even portions of the brain and spine.
they also have the ability to make cute little smiley faces and be completely adorable
Source: devoureth
Post with 4 notes
GUYS
I want to start a legit blog, so that if anyone ever asks for a sample of my writing, I can direct them to something that is 1) mildly interesting, 2) not a stilted/sleep-deprived school essay, and 3) not tumblr (which is fun and lovely, but slightly lacking in legitimacy).
Ideas for blog themes so far include books (the reviewing/sporking of), and medicine, which is one of my enduring interests and will hopefully be my Actual Adult Career.
Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?
Photoset reblogged from fuck yeah, science fiction! with 12,345 notes
Bioluminescent bacteria
Taking cues from the firefly, a Dutch electronics company has created a product called “Bio-light”—an eco-friendly lighting system that uses glowing, bioluminescent bacteria. They’re not powered by electricity or sunlight, but by methane generated by the company’s Microbial Home bio-digester that processes anything from vegetable scraps to human waste. The living bacteria are fed through silicon tubes, and as long as they’re nutritionally-fulfilled, they can indefinitely generate a soft, heat-free green glow using the enzyme luciferase and its substrate, luciferin. They’re kept in hand-blown glass bulbs clustered together into lamps, but you can’t light up your house with them yet—the glow isn’t nearly bright enough to replace conventional artificial lights. They do, however, get people to think about untapped household energy sources and how to make use of them. The company, Phillips, also envisions the use of these Bio-lights outside the home—for nighttime road markings, signs in theatres and clubs, and even biosensors for monitoring diabetes.
Source: sciencesoup
Photo reblogged from you is science with 151 notes
A kidney epithelial cell from Potorous tridactylus, the long-nosed potoroo.
Image by Dr. Torsten Wittmann, Scripps Research Institute.
Source: microscopyu.com
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