Holy god, it has been raining like a mother3ucker for over 24-hours now and I’m starting to get a little skittish. You’d think living in Japan would have cured me of my aversion to water, but apparently it hasn’t. Not that I don’t enjoy a warm, gentle rain now and again, but this torrential downpour makes me nervous. I need sun! And less than 5% humidity!
Whine whine whine. On to the Saturday roundup! [insert dueling banjos here]
Today marks my first day of practice with the Sydney Roller Derby League! I’m terrified that I’ll miss a bus, break an ankle or fart really loud when I fall. Not that I haven’t already done all of those things at least once in the last week, but a girl has to have goals.
I am a classy lady.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday wandering around Surry Hills/Darlinghurst (probably most famous for holding the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as well as Sleaze Ball) in Sydney. I immediately fell in love with the area around Oxford and Crown streets the first time I was rather harshly accosted (in broad daylight) by a couple of drunk men hanging out on the stairs of a local sex club. (I’m very serious – you don’t get better people watching then Darlinghurst!) There’s also a riotous assortment of sex clubs, shops and erotic venues which makes Darlo the perfect stop for research in another class of mine, Urban Anthropology, where I’m looking at the construction of erotic space in the Ottoman Empire (something that I have never studied before which is proving to be really, really fun).
...for research.
So, let’s talk about sex.
Karen Dolan at AlterNet (thanks again Mark for showing me the sweetness that is AlterNet) writes a short piece about the importance of sex-ed and contraception for kids. For those who won’t click the link (I know who you are and I’m watching you. Oh yes.) the following blurb nicely sums up her opinion with the added bonus of making me scream “Yes! YESHHHHH!!!” while banging my fists on my desk:
The idea that once a teenager, deprived of an education which teaches contraception, finds herself pregnant, is then expected to allow the embryo to come to term, to then either give it away or marry the father regardless of who, what or how he is doesn’t rank among my values.
Suck on that whitey!
Also at AlterNet, Dr. Marty Klein discusses “Yet Another Obscenity Trial” and I die a little inside.
Angela Bonavoglia over at On the Issues Magazine poses a provocative (and in my humble opinion) very important question: “Can prostitution be a freely made choice?”. If you have the time, I’d suggest that you take an hour or so to browse through the rest of the content at On the Issues. They have some fascinating stuff there!
Lisa Wynn at Culture Matters writes a delightfully snarky post (“Rrawr” had me choking on muesli) about the use of erectile dysfunction drugs cross-culturally and also touches on the new ban on female circumcision in Egypt. Both are worth a read!
Condom-free sex replaces the wedding ring? I dunno, Herpes is considerably harder to get rid of then an annoying spouse!
And in my final and completely sexually unrelated article (though it still makes you feel good), FemaleScienceProfessor writes a fantastic post about that oh-so-stupid feeling (not so fresh feeling?) you can sometimes get while working in scientific research. This one is just for you Mom.
What My Peeps Is Sayin'