The problem of men writing about sex

Emasculated — The problem of men writing about sex

"... and what a relief we might assume the reader to feel when this kind man imagines things from her perspective – that she has the right to find him physically repellent – and when he proposes a platonic friendship instead. The darkness is dispelled and the protagonist’s decency is rewarded in the next page by the young woman’s eventual erotic desire for him, his kindness overriding all."

"We’ve had to listen to men’s accounts of desire for a long time; now it’s women’s turn. Men are always reducing women to minor characters. Why should we listen to them exalting their lust? Isn’t this the cultural noise that allows a man like Weinstein to make his moves? Aren’t you embarrassed to be making the case you’re making?"

Aqui

What are little girls made of...?

"Movies teach us all sorts of things: how to aspire, who to fantasize about (all those princes will come), how to smoke, dress, walk into a room (always like Bette Davis). They teach us who to love and how, as well as the ostensible necessity of sacrificing love along with careers. They also teach us that showering, babysitting, being in underground parking lots or simply being female might get you killed. There isn’t a causal relationship between viewer behavior and the screen. There doesn’t have to be. Because movies get into our bodies, making us howl and weep, while their narrative and visual patterns, their ideas and ideologies leave their imprint."
Here.

Breaking the cycle of abuse

Breaking the cycle of abuse: an intervention for domestic violence offenders

In California, men on probation for domestic violence offences are required to complete the 52-week Batterers’ Intervention Program, aimed at teaching them strategies for managing anger and breaking cycles of abuse. The programmes vary widely in quality, and frequently suffer from high dropout rates and other accountability issues. However, two in three of the men who complete a programme do not reoffend. Group offers a bracing glimpse inside one such programme led by a skilled therapist named Dave, whose dedication to his job resonates throughout his compassionate yet firm interactions with the men in his class. The film offers cause for both frustration and hope, as Dave’s challenges to deeply entrenched attitudes towards masculinity and violence are met with a combination of resistance, recognition and understanding.

aqui

Ronaldo case

Muita informação em pouco espaço. Vale a pena ler.

"Como se o Estado Novo tivesse saído do país mas tivesse ficado dentro nós, aprisionados por aqueles valores de heróis nacionais, de mulheres que são sérias não têm ouvidos, não usam decotes ou saias curtas, não dançam em discotecas, não se abraçam a homens, não saem sozinhas com homens e muito menos à noite, não entram num quarto com um homem. E estamos a falar da exigência mínima. Porque foi aí, tão baixo, que chegámos. Já nem se está a falar em considerar que “não é não”, seja em que situação for, e dito por quem quer que seja: uma mulher desconhecida do parceiro, a mulher ao marido ou uma prostituta."

A máscara que caiu com Ronaldo, por Helena Garrido
Aqui

"A burca é usada para cobrir mulheres islâmicas apenas por causa desta concepção doentia de homem incapaz de se controlar, caso vislumbre uma nesga de corpo feminino. Um horror, ver os homens assim representados. Mas também entre nós persiste esta representação. [...] Mas a recusa do silêncio é o gesto verdadeiramente libertador e emancipador do movimento #Metoo. Houve quem lhes chamasse mulheres sem carácter. É não perceber que é precisamente contra essa condição a que foram destinadas que se rebelam."
Aqui

Sexual Double Standards

The Bias Against Understanding the Biological Foundations of Women's Behavior.
"Combating the forces that make people back off of scientific findings that might be controversial."

A Conversation with Martie Haselton, here.

We don’t know enough about important issues that impact women. We don’t know enough about potential side effects of using hormonal contraception. There’s a lot of speculation about it, but most of that speculation is problematic. If you eliminate women’s hormone cycles, what are the implications? That’s an important question. We still don’t know enough about hormone supplements for women later in life. We don’t even know enough about fertility. The data are also problematic. The data on fertility in women’s third, fourth, fifth decades of life are based on ancient records, 200 years old. The statistics that doctors will cite when they are telling women whether they need to see a fertility specialist or not are from a period before modern medicine was really in place, which is outrageous. More recognition of the biological influences on women’s behavior is going to awaken these areas of research, and that will have a positive impact. ​MARTIE HASELTON is a professor of psychology and communication studies at the Institute for Society and Genetics and UCLA. She is the author of Hormonal: The Hidden Intelligence of Hormones—How They Drive Desire, Shape Relationships, Influence Our Choices, and Make Us Wiser.

More about Martie Haselton

"We have a study that shows that women, when they start new relationships and then they say that they have fallen in love with their partner, their immune gene transcription profile suggests that they are increasing their anti-viral resistance." [min29:12]

Anger is an energy

"This is why I must quit comedy. Because the only way I can tell my truth and put tension in the room, is with anger. And I am angry, and I believe I've got the right to be angry. But what I don't have a right to do is to spread anger. Because anger, much like laughter, can connect a room full of strangers, like nothing else. But anger, even if it's connected to laughter, will not relieve tension, because anger is a tension. It is a toxic, infectious tension. And it knows no other purpose than to spread blind hatred, and I want no part of it because I take my freedom of speech as a responsibility. And just because I can position myself as a victim does not make my anger constructive. It never is constructive. Laughter is not how medicine… Stories hold our cure. Laughter is just the honey that sweetens the bitterness."
Hannah Gadsby, Nanette

The Long-Term Effects of #MeToo

As consequências previsíveis, inevitáveis e necessárias, de qualquer "desequilíbrio" instalado há demasiado tempo.

– Uma reflexão necessária.

No entanto, fazendo referência aos dados estatísticos mencionados por Heather Mac Donald, não consegui evitar que a lembrança da reflexão (ainda pertinente?) que Virginia Woolf, expressa no seu livro, "A Room of One's Own", me invadisse o pensamento.


Heather Mac Donald Warns about the Long-Term Effects of #MeToo