Folks,
I have gone two times to Dodgeball at Lafayette Church and it is so much fun I want you all to come too. The church has a large gymnasium, so it isn't played under the watchful gaze of Christ (arguably). But, the people are real nice, even if you hit them in the face.
It is from 7-9, you can come late. $5 for a whole lot of fun.
come on!
-James
James's Journal
My Podcast Link
08/27/2009 10:40 #49639
Dodgeball08/25/2009 12:21 #49624
Caster SemenyaCategory: gender
Have you heard about this?
Caster Semenya is an 18 year old South African female who came in first place at the IAAF games in Berlin. She ran an unbelievable 800M race with an incredible time.
Normally, a victor receives respect and admiration for having accomplished an amazing feat. But that is not what is happening. Rather we are hearing cries of She's a Man, Baby!
Here she is. Critics say she has a deep voice, a little facial hair, and pronounced musculature. Something they are not saying about the winner of the bronze, Jenny Meadows
There have been unconfirmed reports that she has undergone sex-verification. More than just checking out her lady bits, some blood work has also been done which, again unofficially, she has 3x the normal levels of testosterone than a normal female. This is well and good, but it is common for athletes with such low body fat to have elevated testosterone levels. Further testing is required to see if this is related to drug use, though those tests have been performed already.
What this comes down to, is gender policing. IAAF rules create a male and a female category and their rule book does not define either. Our culture believes there is a sex binary, one or the other. When in fact there is a wide variety of perfectly natural variations.
Being clinically intersexed encompass over 10,000 conditions, hermaphroditism being one of the more rare. One of the more common is in males, where the urethra is two separate tubes, one for semen, the other for urine. This is a step towards females who have a separate urethra and a vaginal canal (apologies for anything wrong with my terminology). The functional difference is cosmetic. The man does not produce less or more of a hormone. Yet, in this framework can we say this person is entirely male?
The other big news maker of the event Usain Bolt of Jamaica. He broke a world record twice, once in the 100m and again in the 200m. He isn't as tall as other sprinters. But he does have abnormally long legs, giving him a much longer stride. The Gold Medal wining Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps may have a genetic ability to flush out lactic acid faster than most of the population. Both of these are perfectly natural variations, and yet they are not considered unfair advantages.
Here, what may be a perfectly natural variation on female, is being considered disqualifying, despite no rule against it. This seems to be more about our culture's need to reinforce its unnatural views on gender and less about fairness in the sport.
As a result, an 18 year old who was greeted as a champion at home, is being forced to undergo international scrutiny and embarrassment. Well played IAAF.
Caster Semenya is an 18 year old South African female who came in first place at the IAAF games in Berlin. She ran an unbelievable 800M race with an incredible time.
Normally, a victor receives respect and admiration for having accomplished an amazing feat. But that is not what is happening. Rather we are hearing cries of She's a Man, Baby!
Here she is. Critics say she has a deep voice, a little facial hair, and pronounced musculature. Something they are not saying about the winner of the bronze, Jenny Meadows
There have been unconfirmed reports that she has undergone sex-verification. More than just checking out her lady bits, some blood work has also been done which, again unofficially, she has 3x the normal levels of testosterone than a normal female. This is well and good, but it is common for athletes with such low body fat to have elevated testosterone levels. Further testing is required to see if this is related to drug use, though those tests have been performed already.
What this comes down to, is gender policing. IAAF rules create a male and a female category and their rule book does not define either. Our culture believes there is a sex binary, one or the other. When in fact there is a wide variety of perfectly natural variations.
Being clinically intersexed encompass over 10,000 conditions, hermaphroditism being one of the more rare. One of the more common is in males, where the urethra is two separate tubes, one for semen, the other for urine. This is a step towards females who have a separate urethra and a vaginal canal (apologies for anything wrong with my terminology). The functional difference is cosmetic. The man does not produce less or more of a hormone. Yet, in this framework can we say this person is entirely male?
The other big news maker of the event Usain Bolt of Jamaica. He broke a world record twice, once in the 100m and again in the 200m. He isn't as tall as other sprinters. But he does have abnormally long legs, giving him a much longer stride. The Gold Medal wining Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps may have a genetic ability to flush out lactic acid faster than most of the population. Both of these are perfectly natural variations, and yet they are not considered unfair advantages.
Here, what may be a perfectly natural variation on female, is being considered disqualifying, despite no rule against it. This seems to be more about our culture's need to reinforce its unnatural views on gender and less about fairness in the sport.
As a result, an 18 year old who was greeted as a champion at home, is being forced to undergo international scrutiny and embarrassment. Well played IAAF.
08/21/2009 21:02 #49594
Captan Jack'sSo,
a new take out place opened on Elmwood right near the ghetto liquor store and We Never Close. Captain Jack's Fish and Chips.
First, I am super excited they did all that work on those two store fronts. One now has this restaurant, the other will have the Elmwood Village Association in it. Both are awesome neighbors.
Second, I love fish and I am bit disappointed by my fish options around here. Oh, Friday fish try? Thanks. Hey, wanna watch 2girls1cup the Musical? It is about that appetizing.
On their menu they have:
Sea Dogs
Fish tacos
Lunker
Crabcakes
Seafood Ravioli
and other treats including non-fishies.
I treated myself to a sea dog and a fish taco.
The sea dog is basically a foot long fried fish stick on a hot dog bun with tarter sauce, which was yellow, odd. It was good for what it was and totally worth the $3.99
The fish taco was.... the same thing. A jumbo fish stick with mango salsa, tarter sauce, and in a tortilla.... making it a burrito and not a taco, god damn it.
Both were meh. The service needed work, but everyone was friendly and apologetic when they made a mistake. They just opened so that is bound to get better. But the food... I need something more than just a fancy-pants way of dolling up a fish stick.
I will try some of their other offerings, but if I see another fish stick I am calling it quits.
a new take out place opened on Elmwood right near the ghetto liquor store and We Never Close. Captain Jack's Fish and Chips.
First, I am super excited they did all that work on those two store fronts. One now has this restaurant, the other will have the Elmwood Village Association in it. Both are awesome neighbors.
Second, I love fish and I am bit disappointed by my fish options around here. Oh, Friday fish try? Thanks. Hey, wanna watch 2girls1cup the Musical? It is about that appetizing.
On their menu they have:
Sea Dogs
Fish tacos
Lunker
Crabcakes
Seafood Ravioli
and other treats including non-fishies.
I treated myself to a sea dog and a fish taco.
The sea dog is basically a foot long fried fish stick on a hot dog bun with tarter sauce, which was yellow, odd. It was good for what it was and totally worth the $3.99
The fish taco was.... the same thing. A jumbo fish stick with mango salsa, tarter sauce, and in a tortilla.... making it a burrito and not a taco, god damn it.
Both were meh. The service needed work, but everyone was friendly and apologetic when they made a mistake. They just opened so that is bound to get better. But the food... I need something more than just a fancy-pants way of dolling up a fish stick.
I will try some of their other offerings, but if I see another fish stick I am calling it quits.
james - 08/22/09 12:58
Me too. I will try it again soon, but I wont get either of those items again unless I am broke and drunk.
Me too. I will try it again soon, but I wont get either of those items again unless I am broke and drunk.
paul - 08/22/09 02:53
I was hoping you would love it.
I was hoping you would love it.
james - 08/21/09 23:14
It sure as heck wasn't saffron. That was my guess as well. It goes with the hot dog theme as well.
It sure as heck wasn't saffron. That was my guess as well. It goes with the hot dog theme as well.
uncutsaniflush - 08/21/09 22:32
I would suspect that the "yellow" in the tartar sauce is probably mustard based on my personal experience. Over the years, I've experienced a number of "home-made" tartar sauces that use hot dog mustard.
I would suspect that the "yellow" in the tartar sauce is probably mustard based on my personal experience. Over the years, I've experienced a number of "home-made" tartar sauces that use hot dog mustard.
08/21/2009 10:26 #49585
Winkers08/18/2009 22:28 #49573
Am I reading this right?This is an ad I saw on the web
And here is what it says
"Hey you, ya you overweight white guy in his early 20's. How is unemployment treating you? And gosh, that sure was a shame when your girlfriend dumped you at Gencon because you wanted to watch her have sex with the Sailor Moon cosplayer. We can make it all better.
Yes, we will pay you up to an obscene amount of money to be a Twitter Spambot. Money, unobtainable women who don't mind the scent of Poractiv, and the respect your parents and friends can't give you.
Come on. Join us."
And here is what it says
"Hey you, ya you overweight white guy in his early 20's. How is unemployment treating you? And gosh, that sure was a shame when your girlfriend dumped you at Gencon because you wanted to watch her have sex with the Sailor Moon cosplayer. We can make it all better.
Yes, we will pay you up to an obscene amount of money to be a Twitter Spambot. Money, unobtainable women who don't mind the scent of Poractiv, and the respect your parents and friends can't give you.
Come on. Join us."
metalpeter - 08/19/09 19:58
Well maybe that is right. I'm guessing though that since typing doesn't take that long you would have to type a lot of things to get that hours pay and you can't get to many hours in a week. Who knows though.
Well maybe that is right. I'm guessing though that since typing doesn't take that long you would have to type a lot of things to get that hours pay and you can't get to many hours in a week. Who knows though.
You know what, you're right, gender is different from sex, that's true, I forget that and admit my lack of knowledge or insight when it comes to these issues. Thanks all for helping me out. Thing is, you know, there are some questions that are hard to ask because you don't want people to think you're trying to be a douche.
Ugh, what a mess. I wish like jason said s/he could just enjoy her victory.
But yeah.... sex and gender are not the same... and then internal/external genitalia are not the same... And ambiguous genitalia are more common than you might think. I believe M/F is 'officially' determined by your chromosomes. And basically, if you have a Y you are male- and anything else (XX, XO, XXX, etc) is female. (But XXY, XYY etc are male).
It would be pretty unusual to be XX with male genitalia, but to be XY with female parts is pretty common... babies will have female genitalia unless certain (hormonally driven) steps happen during development... i.e. female is the 'default' pathway... so if something goes wrong it's usually 'men' 'looking' 'female' etc.
But yeah... they probably should put some sort of policy in place. if they're going to complain that she's not female, they probably should define female.
The IAAF is an international organization, much like the Olympics. So culturally I would guess that there is still strong male/female categories but they are less rigid than in the US. This stuff was figured out before by the South Aftican national sporting agency. A few people in the IAAF are demanding international verification though.
3X is remarkable, but it isn't unnatural, particularly for someone with almost no body fat. And the report about the visual exam is unverified as far as I have seen. I have seen reports saying everything was normal, and reports saying it was inconclusive.
But, of course, the exam was inconclusive just because they couldn't verify that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary internally.
James while this entire story is bizarre, it should be said that it is true that athletes normally have elevated testosterone levels. Just not 3x though. I said WTF after hearing that a visual exam was inconclusive. What the hell does that mean?
What culture is the IAAF? This is a competition where there is a male category, and a female category. Inevitably these topics are going to arise. Jim asks a good question - if you're in the middle what do you compete as? I don't know what that answer is....is it what body parts you have?
These people are trying to determine what "fair" means in terms of gender and athletic competition. What's a shame is that Caster ends up being a science experiment instead of being able to enjoy her victory. If her gender is an issue, why let her run the race and win? Shouldn't this stuff be figured out before the race? I think since they let her run, unless they determine there is serious funny business going on, she shouldn't be punished. Then a broader conversation can begin.
I completely agree with you James. It is funny how things like this pop up every now and then and reveal the truth about how important gender is for us...no matter how "post-feminist" we supposedly are.
There are many cultures that deal well and adequately with intersexuality (and transgender/transexuality)and are less bogged down by the male/female binary. Ours is not one of them.
First of all Bolt is amazing. Currently there is no one who can run as fast as him, when he broke records at the Olympics they would have been better but he slowed up since no one could catch him.
In terms of the Gender thing or wait I mean Sex there is a difference between those two. The fact of the matter is this, do to all the things you can do with drugs you have to test to see if she is really a man or a women. All those out wards looks could be just that she is manly, or it could be she is what ever you define a man as. It could also be drugs there are all kinds. This by the way is not the first time this has happened. Don't have a year but there where some swimmers who got looked into since the program became so good and that wasn't the first time either.
Though, even among purely XX and XY individuals there is a range of variation that falls outside our neat little categorization. Then there are crazier things such as XXY, XXYY, and so on. But, you might not know that from looking at these individuals.
Basically: you can be phenotypically female (outwardly female), but still have male DNA (XY chromosomes, not XX) -- or anything in between -- so DNA tests can confirm some scenarios.
There's no yes/no test though -- and if you're in the middle what should you compete as?
I don't know if dude's a lady or not. I suppose the tests will bear that out. Actually, I'm shocked we even have tests to determine this stuff. What I know is that Caster blew the competition away. Yeah, Caster has mannish features somewhat. But is she a man? Would being a man mean you have a competitive advantage? Personally, I think men should be in the male competition and women in the women competition. In terms of sport there can't be this ambiguity. I don't understand everything about gender, and as such can't say whether someone can be, say, 60% female and 40% male. What if it can be that way? I'd say that in terms of athletics, being more male than the girl next to you is a boost.
I don't know about the disqualification - to me you'd have to have solid proof she's faking her gender. Poor gal just wants to run.