Today, we answer some of your most pressing questions. What would a Recency-era version of Men’s Fitness look like? Can dinosaurs run in heels? Are you fucking kidding me?!?! (We get that one a lot.)
Ijeoma Olua and Roxane Gay brought some real talk about public outrage about the deaths of black people vs. the death of Cecil the Lion. And if you care about both, they’re not talking about you, so hush. It’ll probably take you like two minutes on Facebook to find the people they mean. Like this guy.
Racist Friend from High School ‘Very Upset’ Over That One Lion: http://t.co/gh22iD9xCJ pic.twitter.com/FQazrDmoYB
— Reductress (@Reductress) July 30, 2015
More people regret having kids than aborting them.
One woman’s story about donating fetal tissue to spina bifida research in the hopes that it might help other would-be parents avoid the same awful diagnosis. Also, this:
Black Girl Dangerous has some excellent analogies for white people who try to downplay racism.
Young people today? Actually kinda awesome compared to us Olds. (And bless Damon Young for avoiding the word “Millenials.”)
12 things y’all need to stop saying to us redheads.
Dame has an interesting look at how pop culture is embracing feminism, which has led to an upswing in misogyny as well.
Related, 4Chan tried to trick people into registering for a fake feminist convention and no one fell for it because we’re not morons.
Also probably related, some retailers have started covering up Cosmo as if it’s a porno mag. Slate‘s Laura Bradley suggested that maybe the people protesting should actually read an issue to see how the magazine has become more feminist and has been publishing serious articles about women’s issues, including birth control and Planned Parenthood. Call me cynical, but I’m guessing that’s the impetus for the censorship, because Cosmo‘s covers have always been covered in sex talk and cleavage.
We might have all jumped the gun a bit in declaring losers who harass women during online video games to be actual losers, because the data’s pretty messy. The study isn’t necessarily wrong, but more research needs to be done before we can really make any broad statements.
Pop Culture
Well played, Kerry Ingram. Well fucking played. (Ingram played Shireen Baratheon on Game of Thrones; spoilers for last season!)
NPR has a great list of 100 swoon-worthy romance novels (some of which are series, so even more to read!), with apologies to fans upset that their faves couldn’t make the final cut.
Of course, the comments turned predictably stupid.
Didn't take long for our first "I seriously wonder if these books (and movies) raise females' expectations of men to unattainable levels"
— Tessa Dare (@TessaDare) July 29, 2015
Gotta love the juxtaposition of "females" and "men" in that quote from my last tweet. Says everything so succinctly, doesn't it?
— Tessa Dare (@TessaDare) July 29, 2015
And bless Tessa Dare and friends forever for the #RegencyMensFitness hashtag (highlights at Storify if you don’t have time to read all of the tweets).
Kinda diggin’ the red boots on Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park: High Heels Edition.
Science!
Did you know the difference between pterosaurs and dinosaurs? I was pretty fuzzy on the detail, aside from knowing that “pterodactyl” is an outdated term and that they aren’t dinosaurs, but io9 has a nice explanation of the classifications.
The science (and misandry!) of fireflies.
Freaking out about gluten (which is NOT as bad as everyone thinks it is unless you actually have celiac disease, which affects maybe 1% of people) may be distracting us from figuring out why our immune systems seem to be acting up.
Funny Stuff
Alexandra Petri fixed Glamour‘s list of 13 ways to trap a man.
"This Is An All-Inclusive Space," Says All-White, All-Male Audiencehttp://t.co/3yIR8HOt5O#HardTimes #SafeSpace pic.twitter.com/Fz162d3YWp
— The Hard Times (@REALpunknews) July 27, 2015
