Linkspam: December 11th, 2016


This month’s linkspam is predominantly about trans and gender issues. That might be a coincidence.

Prejudice, “Political Correctness,” and the Normalization of Donald Trump – Julia Serano has enough in here that she really could have written three essays, and then I would put it in my linkspam three times.  I particularly like the middle essay, where she talks about the uses of “political correctness”, and why activists think the word should be ditched even if it includes some genuinely objectionable activities.  I have said such things myself but could never say it so well.

Science isn’t Broken – In the past year or so, there have been many articles about the unreliability of science, and this is one.  I’m linking it just for the interactive toy that lets you try p-hacking.

I’m inclined to believe that science is doing just fine.  It’s journalists who have been too quick to trust an claim just because a study said so, and who are now surprised to find that studies are not so reliable as that.  Working scientists have always known to distrust studies’ conclusions.  This is true in physics too, being a “hard” science does not help.  In my field we don’t really calculate p-values, so p-hacking isn’t a thing, but we still have biases, just ones that are more difficult to characterize.

An epic battle between feminism and deep-seated misogyny is under way in South Korea – This is a pretty interesting read about the South Korean version of the culture wars.  It sounds like misogyny is really bad there.  The feminist organization Megalia is characterized as rather extreme, but in that context it might be warranted, I dunno.  This link was shared by a commenter.

Herbivores and MGTOW – Another article shared by a commenter.  This goes further into the differences between herbivore men and MGTOWs.  It seems that MGTOWs claim not to be obsessed with women, but based on their activity they are clearly obsessed with women.  What a surprise.

Thoughts on the Blanchard/Bailey Distinction – Blanchard and Bailey famously tried to distinguish between two types of trans women.  Basically, the straight ones and the non-straight ones.  Ozy starts with the assumption that these two clusters exist, and comes with explanations that are far more reasonable than what Blanchard and Bailey proposed.

Donald Trump’s Plan to Overturn Roe v Wade – Rebecca Watson simply explains to what extent Trump poses a danger to reproductive rights.

What You Learn About Human Sexuality on ‘Twin Earth’ – (Title is wrong, it’s about gender not sexuality.)  Inverse interviews two philosophers about the theory of gender they’ve been developing.  They are interested in questions like, “How do we recognize two categories of people in two different societies, subject to different laws and customs, and known by different words, as both picking out the women in those societies?” and “What even is gender?”  They have two papers about gender, and I intend to write reports about them in the future.

2015 US Transgender Survey Report – They’ve released results!  I haven’t read it yet.

Comments

  1. says

    Awesome, thanks for the shoutout 😀 For a laugh, check out that “formerly married MGTOW” who showed up in the comments of my article you linked. According to him, MGTOWs will be “forming PACs!” I’m quaking in my boots, truly.

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