Saturday, February 22, 2025

Peps, I have wondered how some of the rhetoric is landing on you. I have a seat somewhat out of the rain, being a gender conforming, heterosexual white middle class woman. No one is saying I don't have a right to exist or threatening the legality of my marriage or the legitimacy of who I love.

I do remember in the 80s feeling like it was open season on women, but maybe it still is, and it was my age that made me vulnerable. Just one small example, I was at a college party and some guy goosed me. DH (boyfriend at the time) was with me, and I turned to him and said, that guy just goosed me! DH yelled at him, and the dude apologized to DH, said he didn't realize we were together!! So I do have some of that fear of what can happen to a marginalized group. INCEL rhetoric sometimes has me terrified for my daughter and the entitlement some of these weirdos feel they have to "females". And they're feeling pretty emboldened right now, posting "your body, my choice" all over the internet.

And then there are the fears for people who are quite different from me. Oh my students! Are they and their families going to make it through this? My non gendered young folks, or my 30 year old friends who are transitioned.

It's ugly out there. I have to believe that good eventually prevails, but at what cost before it does win?

Agreed. Seems like the social progress of the last 50 years is getting tossed. It is hard to accomplish social change and so easy to tra**** Discouraging. ds

I had to look up INCEL... that one had not crossed my path before, but now I know. In my world I refer to them as Creepers, but I know exactly the type of mentally tweaked misogynistic male you mean.

I forget that women were/are treated like objects in this country. I was raised in a liberal household, in a liberal area (my dad was getting his PhD at UC Berkeley in the early 70s) and lived in a region that celebrated the work of Dr. King and embraced the Women's Lib movement. Women being treated as objects is outside of my personal experience. I am grateful for the reminder that it does.

Yes! My kids are struggling big time in this political climate. Not just LGBTQ+ issues but all of the government funding cuts. Will affect us too!

Interesting feedback on the scale! Seems related to CC's comment on hydration. My impression is that all these scales work essentially the same way so if you want true numbers it does sound like the DEXA scan is the way to go. I'll keep it because I needed a new scale and it will be interesting to see what it shows for trends over time.

I am worried about many issues related to the current political environment including those which may directly affect my children. I can't find Musk's full rant on X (because I'm not on it), just news stories paraphrasing it. Is it available anywhere else?

Let me see if I can find it again. If I do, I will post a link for you.