quoththeraven

My mother sent away for pamphlets from the companies selling what passed for menstrual supplies back then (this was before maxipads) when I was ten or so and gave me a book that described intercourse and went through basic anatomy and the facts about reproduction at about the same time.
 
In sixth grade, the boys and girls were split up and given separate slide or movie presentations on reproduction and sexual development. That was the extent of my sex education in school other than the making out that inevitably happened on every school trip in high school.
 
Anything I knew about birth control and STI prevention I learned on my own, other than the poster I saw in a school hosting a choral event I was part of that said "VD is not the flower of love." I also don't remember any mention of masturbation, which I had discovered for myself (entirely by accident) when I was nine or so.
 
The emotional aspects of sex also were never covered.

Until my warranty runs out.

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That's hilarious - and totally unfair.

It is still confusing to the more literally-minded of us. And I'm not convinced it's always used ironically.

If homosexuality is considered a deviation from "normal" masculinity, then it makes sense to either exaggerate the difference (camp, "swishiness", use of feminized terms, etc.) or to embrace hypermasculinity (Tom of Finland, uber muscled types). It's also possible to ignore heteronormative standards altogether and just be natural, whatever that is and wherever it lands on the current "masculine/feminine" spectrum.
 
In the former case, homosexuality becomes defined in terms of its relationship to heterosexual norms, which is why it gets labeled "internalized homophobia." That may also be why some of this behavior is identified as artificial; however, the embrace of buffness and steroids is functionally equally artificial but isn't perceived that way because it fits widely-held stereotypes and beliefs as to what is "naturally masculine."
 
Also people who want their preferences respected should expect pushback when they express them as absolutes that don't respect other people's preferences.

How I prefer my cats to greet me

https://mobile.twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/825021859557232642

Take this as a Gallery for cute animals. Uplifting, happy stories only, please.
 
This the kind of thing I use on Twitter as my barricade against despair and a reminder that life goes on and there is joy to be found in it.
 

There are three more photos in the set that I'm unable to copy here.
https://twitter.com/EmrgencyKittens/status/824855728691122178?s=02
 
I also follow @CuteEmergency, which features mostly dogs and which I believe is run by the same person as @EmrgencyKittens.
 
Let me bring a little happiness onto your timeline.

For the other three photos, see
https://twitter.com/CuteEmergency/status/824850683450912769
 
Please, add your own photos, links and videos!

There are plenty of well-educated, smart escorts, so that doesn't seem like a persuasive distinction.

Respect. Black women on Twitter mince no words in their political discussions even though their views are often ignored by the people and media at large.

It's probably individual. I fart less than I used to. Go figure.

Opus the penguin wants to live in the world of the royal wedding forever.

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Paging @Gar1eth, who hasn't been around since mid-November (then again I've been gone since February or so): this year's Maccabeats Hanukkah song is a cover/parody of BTS' Dynamite.
 
Cover:

Original:

Live performance of original for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert

Yes, this is the same group I've been annoying you about for years and no, not planning on stopping anytime soon, not even if they win the Grammy for best duo or group pop performance for Dynamite. (Yes, they were nominated and I fully expect them to be invited to perform it at the Grammys.)

She's a complicated person, like most of us are. I appreciated her gumption and didn't appreciate her cluelessness. Stacked up against her insensitivity about Katrina is her personal kindness to and interest in the domestic staff at the White House. She came from a class and era that believed rich people had a duty to give back to the wider community, that while they earned or were entitled to their privilege, they also had a responsibility to make the world a better place. With a few exceptions, like Warren Buffett and Bill and Malinda Gates, that's pretty much gone.
 
But all this talk of accomplishments and what not are giving me hives. I actually agree with her and with those who interpret her words as advocating balance, where work doesn't preempt family time or seeing one's children grow up and attending their games or plays. And the denigration of relationships over career and personal accomplishments comes across as a lowkey dig against women, against whom the deck is stacked at work and if they are mothers are encouraged to put family first and act as unpaid child care worker, chauffeur, coach, etc.
 
It's a little ridiculous to be criticizing someone else's life and words when you haven't, and aren't interested in, walking in her shoes.

I was in college then and as a fan of rock, soul and funk, disco wasn't exactly in my wheelhouse, but looking back I liked enough of it that thinking of myself as a "disco sucks" girl isn't accurate either. I especially liked Donna Summer (except for "Love to Love You," which bored me silly), Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around," and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."



Some enterprising K-pop girl group should cover "Turn the Beat Around." That could be as big a hit as I.O.I's cover of "Whatta Man."

I went grocery shopping Sunday morning and they had tape up preventing entry into the produce section directly from the entrance and directing traffic around the adjacent bakery, deli and cheese sections in order to corral everyone checking out into a single line for checkout along one wall far away from the cash registers. There were no explanations, so I thought they were limiting entry (even though no one was monitoring it) until I saw that a line had formed and there was an employee directing people to cashiers. Fortunately by the time I was done there was no line, and it turned out the employee managing the flow of customers was also checking to see if you had more than one item that was being rationed.
 
There was absolutely no toilet paper despite signs limiting purchases (fortunately I'd bought some early in the month and didn't need any) and very little bottled water, but what got me the most was that the 18 pack of large store brand eggs I normally buy for $2 or thereabouts was completely out. I bought the least expensive eggs I saw, which were a dozen store brand brown cage free organic for $2.50. Unsurprisingly, egg purchases were also limited to one per customer along with bread and milk (there were adequate supplies of both, but I use lactose free milk, so I don't know about regular milk). I can already tell I'm going to need more bread, though.
 
The store wasn't crowded, but people weren't always staying the recommended six feet away. (And in some cases it was impossible - the aisles aren't that wide.) If I'm already stopped to get something, please don't stop within six feet of me, for crying out loud!

Because we don't need that level of detail.

Because we don't need that level of detail.

Some commercial websites pay for their data-usage, If you’re posting links only, the host website is paying data usage. If you’re posting the photo, the hosting website buys the data usage.
 
This is why Message-Forum.net prevents posting photos, only links.

Confused. You can not post photos, only links to photos on the m-f.

Just download the pic, upload it to a free hosting site and then delete it from your machine.
 
https://imgbb.com/
 
Yes, extra steps, but you'd be surprised at how much bandwidth costs a website.

There was a lot of fear since for a long time it was unclear how HIV was spread. Even after the modes of transmission were clearly established, some people in positions of authority continued to spread misinformation and promote hysteria. William Dannemeyer, a Republican congressman from Orange County CA, supported a ballot initiative submitted by Lyndon LaRouche which would have quarantined HIV+ people. Lorraine Day was an orthopedic surgeon at UCSF who promoted unsubstantiated claims about the risks to doctors when performing surgery on HIV+ people. She also promoted fake cures for cancer. It turns out Dannemeyer and Day were soulmates (both were Holocaust deniers) and they spent years of wedded bliss together until Dannemeyer relocated to hell last year.

Not among the general population. Their attitude, even for those whose hearts were in the right place, was that it was a "gay" disease. But among gay men, in the early 80s, it was terrifying

HIV is not very infectious. It is relatively fragile and doesn't survive long in ambient conditions. Even though it isn't very infectious, it is extremely virulent-it kills its host almost 100% of the time.

Very true and sad about HIV and the right wing agenda. COVID-19 has brought about a lot of anti Asian and anti Asian American racism. True is wasn't until "innocent" people or famous people were affected and died from HIV that we go more awareness.

Another major difference between AIDS and COVID-19 is that from the beginning, it was clear that only certain kinds of people who engaged in certain kinds of disreputable behaviors were affected by AIDS. It was easy for Reagan and his administration to avoid dealing aggressively with the disease, or even mentioning its existence, because those kinds of people and those behaviors weren't associated in the public mind with the people who supported him. COVID-19 doesn't discriminate on the basis of political ideology, religious identification, or sexual orientation: anyone can get it, by engaging in the most common activities of daily life. There wasn't much panic over AIDS among the general public once it was clear that most of them weren't at risk; they had to be persuaded into feeling sympathy for the initial victims. It wasn't until heterosexual women, men who didn't use drugs, and babies were affected that compassion for those with AIDS became generally respectable. Many people like to ignore that uncomfortable fact now, but I ran an AIDS Hotline as a volunteer from 1986 to 1989, and I know who was calling with concern and who wasn't.