Yesterday I was driving around in my hometown and listening to the radio. The DJs did a segment on the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse in a hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated, who was pranked by some radio DJs and tricked into giving out Middleton’s medical information. The DJs on my hometown …
Tag Archive: suicide
Dec 03 2012
Please Sign My Petition to Remove the “No Respect For Suicidal Teens” Facebook Page
[Content note: suicide] Yup, I’m using my blog to promote something. But it’s a very important something. In my blog post earlier today I mentioned this atrocious Facebook page, which cruelly mocks suicidal teenagers by calling them “selfish” and “ignorant” and inciting them to kill themselves. I had reported it to Facebook, and I just …
Dec 03 2012
The Problem With “Teen Angst” and Why You Should Take Teens’ Mental Health Seriously
[Content note: depression and suicide] There’s a disturbing and pervasive idea out there that the psychological troubles of teenagers are inconsequential and unworthy of attention because they’re just a part of “teen angst” or “growing up” or whatever. I’m thinking about this now because last night I ran across this Facebook page. It’s called “No …
Sep 11 2012
[storytime] At The Edge Of The Known World: What It's Like To Consider Suicide
Somebody, somewhere in the world, kills themselves every 40 seconds. Set a timer on your phone or watch for 40 seconds. When it beeps, another precious, beloved life is gone. Yesterday, September 10, was World Suicide Prevention Day. Although suicide prevention entails important things like improving mental health screening and treatment, increasing access to mental …
Sep 11 2012
[storytime] At The Edge Of The Known World: What It’s Like To Consider Suicide
Somebody, somewhere in the world, kills themselves every 40 seconds. Set a timer on your phone or watch for 40 seconds. When it beeps, another precious, beloved life is gone. Yesterday, September 10, was World Suicide Prevention Day. Although suicide prevention entails important things like improving mental health screening and treatment, increasing access to mental …
Aug 02 2012
Abortion and Suicide: A Spurious Link
In South Dakota, it is now legal to require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that they are putting themselves at risk for suicide. This move is brilliant from a PR standpoint. Unlike banning certain types of abortions entirely or, say, forcing women to undergo invasive screenings that are medically unnecessary, this seems completely apolitical …
Jun 14 2012
Depression is Not Sadness
Yesterday I came across the story of Junior Seau, an NFL linebacker who committed suicide on May 2. He shot himself in the chest and was found in his home by his girlfriend. Although little is known of Seau’s mental health leading up to his death, he had apparently suffered from insomnia for the last …
May 16 2012
What You're Really Saying When You Say that Suicide is "Selfish"
I’m still thinking about the Chet Hanks suicide thing from last week and the various responses to it that I saw online. Specifically, I cited two comments that referred to suicide as “selfish.” “Selfish” has to be one of the most common adjectives people think of when thinking about suicide. Those of us who are …
Jun 22 2011
"Why Are You So Serious All the Time?"
[TMI Warning] If you’ve ever asked me that question, or wanted to, read this. And watch out, because I’m about to get very, very real here for a few minutes.
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 […]
Contact!
Don't feel like commenting? You can also find/contact me here:
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!
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!
Recent Comments