There are a lot of misconceptions out there about body image and eating disorders. I can’t even begin to address all of them here. But there’s one I’ve been thinking about lately–that problems with body image are caused solely by comparing yourself to unrealistic standards, and can be solved by simply comparing yourself to the …
Monthly Archive: January 2012
Jan 09 2012
Islamophobia Does Not "Cause" Riots
So I was reading the current issue of Utne Reader (great magazine, by the way) and came across an article about Islamophobia, reprinted from Intelligence Report. At was a good article, at least up until the third paragraph. There, I saw something that made my eyes want to pop out of my head, migrate to …
Jan 08 2012
Everyone Should Go to Therapy
Recently I wrote a post about why some people might choose psychiatric medication over seeing a therapist. (Fine, so it wasn’t that recent. >.<) I promised a followup post about a belief that I hold concurrently–everyone should see a therapist. Now, before everyone freaks out, let it be known that I say “everyone” only in …
Jan 07 2012
"Shit Girls Say" Isn't Funny
Or, perhaps, it’s only funny if you don’t consider the context. Check it out: This is the first episode of the wildly popular web series Shit Girls Say, which draws its humor from portraying stereotypical (white) (middle-/upper class) women in quick bursts of cliched speech. And I can definitely see how many people, even many …
Jan 06 2012
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Breast Cancer Awareness
If you have ever seen a bunch of women posting Facebook statuses with a random color, or a location where they “like it,” and felt a mix of confusion and frustration, you are not alone. These memes are part of an effort for breast cancer “awareness,” a word that I use cynically here and only …
Jan 05 2012
"I really want to screw you, but you have so much baggage."
A guy actually said that to me once. He may have been the only person I’ve ever encountered who was willing to verbalize his shallowness and ignorance, but he’s far from the only one who thinks that people need to be perfect before you can get involved with them. That idea runs rampant in our …
Jan 01 2012
Learning Racism on the NYC Subway
I spent this past week in New York City with my mom and little siblings, who are six and nine years old, respectively. Aside from a few times that they were too young to remember, this was their first time in the city and they had a great time. On our last day in New …
About the Author
Brute Reason Tumblr
- I keep hearing all this stuff about how secularism/atheism has nothing to do with feminism and...I keep hearing all this stuff about how secularism/atheism has nothing to do with feminism and blahblah. Here’s the interesting thing. For me, my journeys to each of those identities were deeply intertwined with one another. Although I haven’t believed in god for a really long time, what really led to my final break with organized religion was when I travele […]
- "How unfortunate is it that my parents had to literally force me to wear beautiful parts of my..."“How unfortunate is it that my parents had to literally force me to wear beautiful parts of my culture because I was afraid of being ostracized, but Selena Gomez can take aspects of the clothing I grew up with and make money off of it? How unfortunate is it that South Asian immigrants and South Asian Americans are Otherized every single day for the way they […]
- "The next question people always ask me [about being a model] is, “Do you get free..."“The next question people always ask me [about being a model] is, “Do you get free stuff?” I do have too many 8-inch heels which I never get to wear, except for earlier, but the free stuff that I get is the free stuff that I get in real life, and that’s what we don’t like to talk about. I grew up in Cambridge, and one time I went into a store and I forgot my […]
- "It’s not just the internet. And we can’t push the problem aside with a wave of our hands and an..."“It’s not just the internet. And we can’t push the problem aside with a wave of our hands and an offhand comment of “Oh, that’s just how the internet is. Don’t you know better than to go to reddit?” For many women, reddit is not an isolated internet thing. It’s the community that we have to deal with face to face, day in and day out. So yes, we need to chang […]
- "I am one of the lucky ones. I managed to turn my history of science and philosophy degree into..."“I am one of the lucky ones. I managed to turn my history of science and philosophy degree into graduate education in a semi-practical field. I’m not too worried about my employment opportunities once I finish my PhD. But I have friends who are suffering. They are being bounced around between unpaid internships, or desperately sending out resumes, or stuck w […]
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Two things to keep in mind:
1. I am bad at answering lengthy emails. Sorry!
2. I may ask you for permission to blog about our correspondence. However, if you are harassing/abusive/trollish, then I no longer have to ask you for permission. Proceed with caution!
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