Sunday, August 30, 2009

'Crude': The Film Chevron Doesn't Want You to See

I put a link to the site over in the side bar.

Originally posted HERE


'Crude': The Film Chevron Doesn't Want You to See

By Han Shan, AlterNet. Posted August 26, 2009.


The new film exposes an environmental tragedy experts call the "Amazon Chernobyl," and believe is the worst case of oil-related contamination ever.

American oil giant Chevron is now the 5th largest company on the planet. But I doubt Chevron executives have had much time to savor their 'Masters of the Universe' status lately. Instead, I imagine them working overtime with their internal public relations team and mercenary army of PR spinmasters, lobbyists, and sponsored bloggers they've brought on to fight what looks more and more like a losing battle. What's got them burning the midnight oil?

Two weeks from today, a powerful new documentary film is opening in New York, and then playing in select theaters across the country. Called CRUDE, the film tells a shocking story that Chevron does not want the world to know.

Three years in the making by acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster), CRUDE chronicles the epic legal battle to hold Chevron accountable for its systematic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon -- an environmental tragedy experts call the "Amazon Chernobyl," and believe is the worst case of oil-related contamination on Earth. While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, Texaco, now Chevron, deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of crude oil, and left hazardous waste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor. The company operated using substandard practices that were obsolete in order to increase its profit margin by $3 per barrel of crude. Of course, the local people and ecosystems paid the price instead, but they're fighting back.

Centering on a landmark lawsuit filed by the indigenous people and campesinos who continue to suffer a severe public health crisis caused by Chevron's contamination, CRUDE is a high-stakes David vs. Goliath legal drama with 30,000 Amazon rainforest dwellers facing down the San Ramon, California-based oil behemoth.

Amazon Watch's Clean Up Ecuador Campaign - featured in the film - is leading grassroots efforts to promote the theatrical release, enlisting human rights and environmental allies across the U.S. in an outreach and word-of-mouth marketing campaign. Numerous organizations have pledged support and committed to concrete efforts to build the profile of this must-see film, including Rainforest Action Network, Oxfam USA, WITNESS, EarthRights International, Human Rights Watch, and Global Green, to name just a few.

CRUDE is not a simplistic piece of agit-prop. Filmmaker Joe Berlinger shows all sides of this monumental case and the stories and people behind it. Chevron is given plenty of opportunity to share its perspective. Unfortunately for them, in the end, truth does appear to pick a side and it's not Chevron's.

Watch the trailer below:


Ultimately, the film gives us a glimpse of the beauty and mystery of the Amazon and its indigenous cultures, and puts a human face on the devastation left there by three decades of oil operations. But it does a lot more. Among other things, it also tells the story of what it takes to go up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet.

Especially inspiring is the story of Pablo Fajardo, the young former oil field worker who completed his law degree by correspondence course and is now the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. Pablo argues passionately and courageously for the impacted communities, and you won't be able to help cheering him on.

Advising Pablo is another lawyer named Steven Donziger, who helped file the original lawsuit in New York back in 1993. Coming across as somehow simultaneously cynical and idealistic, Donziger is brash and and big and loud and manipulative. And if you're rooting for the plaintiffs, you'll find yourself thinking "I'm glad he's on our side."

And there are a slew of other fascinating real-life characters, from a Cofán indigenous leader who travels from the jungle by foot, canoe, bus, train, and plane to speak about the plight of his people at a Chevron shareholder meeting in Houston, to a Chevron attorney who comes across like the Tilda Swinton character from Michael Clayton (how does she sleep at night?). We meet Trudie Styler - wife of Sting and founder with him of the Rainforest Foundation - who visits the affected communities and quickly becomes passionately, earnestly involved.

It's easy to get behind CRUDE because it not only tells an important story. It tells it in an inspiring, powerful, engaging, and dare I say it, entertaining way. Joe Berlinger had a hit with his last film about Metallica going through group therapy. He brings the same storytelling acumen to this story that already had dramatic elements galore.

The theatrical release of CRUDE comes at a moment of unprecedented importance in the campaign to hold Chevron accountable and achieve justice for the people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. What's more, a victory for this grassroots campaign will send shockwaves through the oil industry and corporate boardrooms around the world, forever changing the way companies do business.

With CRUDE coming out in theaters, we have an unprecedented opportunity to massively increase public awareness of this issue and massively increase public pressure for Chevron to be held accountable. But it begins with getting people out to the movies!

The film opens in New York on 09/09/09, followed by runs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and thirty more smaller cities across the country [full list]. This sounds great but think of it compared to G.I. Joe, which was playing in 4,000 theaters at the same time a couple weeks ago! Theaters nationwide will be watching to see how the film performs in the first few weeks to decide whether to screen it themselves so please, help us spread the word.

Blog about CRUDE, post the trailer and poster and web banners on your social networks, follow and retweet @crudethemovie & @amazonwatch, become a fan of the film on Facebook, and join our mailing list for news, updates, and action alerts.

Visit www.ChevronToxico.com/crude for resources to help you promote CRUDE and get involved with the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign. Join us now so you can join us for the campaign's victory party in the near future!

You can also visit the official film website at: www.crudethemovie.com. to read more about the making of the film, to sign up for updates from the filmmaker, and to see the latest play-dates.

Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is currently serving as a coordinator of the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.

The 'Perfect' Porn Vulva: More Women Demanding Cosmetic Genital Surgery

At the risk of sounding like a militant feminist, I love my vagina. I love being a woman. I like the way it looks and wouldn't change anything about it. I've heard of genital mutilation women, but naievely thought this primariy happened in Asia and Africa. Well apparently the practice has moved to North American shores. The only difference, and a fact that makes it worse in my opinion, is that they are brainwashing women into consenting to such atrocities. Please see the article below.
ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

The 'Perfect' Porn Vulva: More Women Demanding Cosmetic Genital Surgery

By Rebecca Chalker, AlterNet. Posted August 11, 2009.


Women are risking their lives to achieve an unrealistic and unnecessary ideal.


Type "labiaplasty," "vaginoplasty" or any of nearly a dozen female genital cosmetic surgeries into any search engine, and a flurry of doctors' Web sites will pop up touting the self-esteem, sexual enhancement, comfort and fashion benefits of female genital cosmetic surgery.

These sites, typically decorated with airbrushed pictures of lovely women in various states of undress or even nude, are replete with before-and-after photos of trimmed-down labia and gushing quotes from satisfied customers.

Many of these sites promise ecstasy, plus: "Laser vaginal reconstruction can accomplish what ever [sic] you desire."

Some patients seem happy with the results.

"When my husband and I had sex, well, it was like nothing I've ever experienced before," a 40-year-old woman reports, six weeks after a three-hour combination labiaplasty, vaginoplasty and clitoral unhooding, costing at low estimate of $15,000 (a high estimate: at least double that). "I had an orgasm probably within three minutes. … I feel like I've found what I had lost ... I feel like I'm 25 again!"

Her surgeon reports this case study as "Strengthening Our Love For Each Other."

Dig a little deeper though, and you find stories tinged with grief and regret about genital "enhancement" surgeries gone wrong.

"Had the surgery 1/07," one woman reports. "Can't say enough [about] how much I regret it. The problems I had it done for can't even compare to the pain and discomfort I'm having now. The surgeon, who has extensive experience, doesn't know why this is happening."

One of the newest wrinkles in the business of sex is the explosion of genital cosmetic surgery.

Not surprisingly, women constitute 90 percent of patients requesting these surgeries. Both physician and popular Internet sites prey on women's sexual insecurities by promoting appearance and alleged sexual benefits, but pay scant attention to the wide range of normal genital appearance, the variability of sexual response and possible harm.

The New View Campaign Working Group on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery, a project that I participated in, identified unresearched claims made about female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) and analyzed how the rhetoric used by the body-modification and sexual-medicine industries has co-opted core feminist concepts of empowerment, self-determination and choice for profit.

Our review of medical, academic and popular literature, and a survey of physicians' promotional materials provides a disturbing picture.

There are nearly a dozen genital "remodeling" procedures.

The most popular by far is labiaplasty, the trimming of one or both sides of the inner lips or labia minora, or cutting out a V-shaped wedge. As a part of the clitoral system, the inner lips are sexually sensitive, so removal of this densely innervated tissue to get better sex seems, well, counterintuitive.

The next most popular surgery is vaginal tightening: vaginoplasty or vaginal rejuvenation, which involves removal of part of the vaginal lining and tightening tissue and muscles surrounding the vaginal opening.

The question about the development of scar tissue and disruption during future vaginal births is typically left unaddressed.

Reduction of the glans or tip of the clitoris (clitoropexy) for is done for purely aesthetic purposes. The only function of the glans is sexual sensation, so trimming can in no way enhance sexual pleasure. The protective clitoral hood (or "unhooding") is rarely requested, but is often offered (for additional cost) along with labiaplasty. The idea that reduction or removal may enhance clitoral sensation is pure mythology.

Hymen restoration or repair (hymenoplasty) is done to provide the illusion of virginity when the hymen has been broken through normal activities or intercourse. Some women are having hymenoplasty as a "Valentine's present" to their lovers.

Removal of a tough or "imperforate" hymen for functional reasons is variously called hymenotomy or hymenectomy.

The wildly controversial "G shot" is an injection of a quarter-sized dollop of human-engineered collagen through the vaginal wall into the urethral sponge, the spongy tissue surrounding the urethra.

Developed and franchised by Dr. David Matlock of Dr. 90210 fame, this procedure must be redone every few months. According to Matlock's Web site, and unpublished data, this injection results in "enhanced sexual arousal and sexual gratification for 87 percent of normal sexually functioning women."

Many women sing the praises of the shot: "After my G shot, I get sexually aroused performing yoga." But comedian Margaret Cho reported no sexual enhancement at all and says it felt like she was "sitting on a hemorrhoid donut."

Other procedures include pubic mound reduction, reducing or poofing up the outer lips or labia majora and "building up and strengthening" the perineal body.

Regarding the ecstatic reviews, psychologist Carol Tavris notes that "One of the most well-documented findings in sociology is called the 'justification of effort' effect: The more time, effort, money and pain that people invest in a procedure, program, surgery, or other activity, the more motivated they are to justify it.

"How easy would it be for you to find a Marine willing to say that cadet hazing and suffering were unnecessary and brutal?" Or "… to get George Bush to say 'Gee, I guess going to Iraq was a bad decision?' "

All women by far are not enthused. "Perhaps the only rejuvenation going on is the doctor's wallet," an anonymous contributor to the Wall Street Journal blog opined. On Women's Health News, Rachel Walden observed "… spending $3,500 to $20,000 cutting up your hoo-ha isn't going to fix what's wrong with you."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted in 2007 that these "procedures are not medically indicated, and the safety and effectiveness … have not been documented. No adequate studies have been published assessing the long-term satisfaction, safety and complication rates," although the college dropped the ball by failing to institute regulations or sanctions.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons informally agrees with this policy, but does not have a formal policy of its own.

Women may believe that their doctors are proficient in these techniques, but ob-gyns, family-practice physicians and urologists are promoting and performing these lucrative surgeries with minimal training.

By Matlock's estimation, doctors in all 50 states, and around the world, operate as "franchisees" of his business. Although he has been asked repeatedly for documentation on safety and effectiveness, Matlock has refused to publish any outcome studies, citing his need to "protect his intellectual property."

The most reliable evidence of the possible negative after-effects of genital surgeries is reported in follow-up reports on children with intersex conditions. In many cases, labia reduction removes sexually sensitive tissue, may cause lifelong hypersensitivity or numbness, pain on intercourse, infection, adhesions and scarring.

Some doctors acknowledge the downside of these putative enhancement procedures.

"We have seen many unfortunate examples of terrible, scarred, uneven results of labiaplasty from other physicians who have attempted labia-reduction surgery with typically poor results, which are usually permanent," Dr. Robert Roh, a New York City gynecologist, reports on his Web site.

Dr. Red Alinsod, an Orange County, Calif., gynecologist, concurs: "The numbers of patients requiring labiaplasty revisions have dramatically increased over the past several years. It is not a common procedure but one that is steadily on the rise as more surgeons attempt to perform labiaplasty surgery without knowledge of the basic tenets of aesthetic vaginal surgery."

No guidelines for "normal" genital appearance exist. An article in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology by Jillilan Lloyd and colleagues notes that "Previous work has defined the labia minora as hypertrophic [enlarged or overgrown] … if the maximum distance from the base to edge was [greater than] 4 centimeters." After careful measurement of 50 volunteers ages 18 and 50, these authors report "wide variation in all parameters assessed," with the width of the labia minora varying from 7 to 50 centimeters in width.

Describing protuberant labia minora as "looking like a spaniel's ears," French surgeons reported a high patient satisfaction rate for 98 women who answered a post-operative mail questionnaire.

Although they defined labia minora hypertrophy to be greater than 4 centimeters, they concluded "… we believe that hypertrophy of the labia minora is definitely a mere variant of normal anatomy." The 7 percent dissatisfaction rate was caused by poor aesthetic or functional result, or unrealistic patient expectations. The authors concede that "… 40 percent of the patients did not respond to the questionnaire, or were lost to follow-up, thus giving a potentially lower satisfaction rate."

Normal female genitals are virtually invisible in the popular media, except through pornographic sources. Lloyd and her colleagues note, "With the conspicuous availability of pornography in everyday life, women and their sexual partners are increasingly exposed to idealized, highly selective images of the female genital anatomy."

In 2005, shock-jock Howard Stern went live on the E Channel and found that the frequent appearance of porn stars enhanced ratings. Houston, a popular porn star and strip club dancer, appeared on Stern's show and talked about reducing her labia to look better on film. Carlin Ross, of www.dodsonandross.com remembers how Stern milked the topic.

"He could see that the porn stars were good for ratings, and they would bring their labia trophies cast in clear resin like an award and auction them off on Ebay."

Surgeons have also noted the impetus behind this trend. "Some women just want to look 'prettier,' like the women they see in [pornographic] magazines or in films," one New York City ob-gyn says. Another doctor reports that his patients want their vulvas to look like "the playmates of Playboy."

Based at least partially on the porn model and on the invisibility of normal genitals in the media, on Web sites, in chat rooms and women's magazines they are establishing a narrow norm and aesthetic ideal.

These negative messages feed a long history of misogynist genital disgust, and misinformation creates an environment of dissatisfaction and a demand for female genital cosmetic surgeries that would fall within the definition of female genital mutilation articulated by the WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA in 1997:

    Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. … In some forms of Type II … only the labia minor are cut.

Women's right to choice is a core feminist concept, but choice made in the vacuum of the deficient discourse on FGCS is little more than wishful thinking.

The entrepreneurial medical and media narratives do not provide a useful understanding about the appearance and function of the female genitals, hence, informed consent is impossible.

Sexual attraction, response and pleasure are complex interactions of psychological and physiological processes that change with age, partners and experience, and regardless of the perceived short-term benefits of genital surgeries, reconfiguring the genitals is unlikely to have significant impact on sexual fulfillment.

And it's not just grown women that are drawn to the procedure.

Hosting a chat room on the subject, the Web site scarleteen.com elicited this hyperemic query: "i dont think this is normal can i just cut my labia off." ... "hello whats the younest age you can have labiaplasty sugery?" [sic]

Click here for more information on female genital cosmetic surgery and on the New View Campaign's fall protest.

Rebecca Chalker is the author of The Clitoral Truth and teaches the "Cultural History of Sexuality" through her Web site.

Why Are People So Afraid of Bisexuals?

This is a REALLY great article! I can relate to a lot of what she says! And it's written well and funny in a warm and friendly way.
ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

Why Are People So Afraid of Bisexuals?

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted August 5, 2009


I don’t like the term bisexual; I prefer to think of myself as a person of no fixed sexual orientation. It better suits the amorphous world I inhabit.

“How do you identify?”

“Oh, I’m a PoNFSO.”

Okay; it’s a little unwieldy, and abbreviated, it hardly rolls off the tongue. So, neither fish nor fowl, I content myself with being the bacon in the LGBT sandwich.

I didn’t come of age as a free-spirited bisexual. I always knew it was what I was, at least from the point at which I knew what the term meant. As a child, I had crushes on both boys and girls. When my best friend in high school lost her virginity, I was beside myself. But how was I to tell her I was in love with her -- especially after I had spent the previous year utterly smitten with a boy?

I remember being very little, maybe four, watching the Ed Sullivan Show, mesmerized by the siren on the screen, Miss Peggy Lee. In my memory, she is wearing a satin evening gown and a feather boa. I’m laying on my belly, looking up at the television. I can still feel the scratchy texture of the fake-braided rug on my elbows as I propped up my head with my arms. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be Peggy Lee, or just wanted to touch her.

But I was equally magnetized by Frank Sinatra -- the brash insouciance, the jacket slung over the shoulder, the cock of the fedora. I didn’t know whether I wanted to touch Frank Sinatra, or be Frank Sinatra.

Splitting the difference

When I was 19 or so, I told my mother that I was bisexual. She did what a good Catholic mother should -- the functional equivalent of sticking her fingers in her ears and singling the la-la song. It was a non-response born of kindness, and she had reason to hope I was just going through a phase. I hadn’t had an encounter with a woman yet; that would have to wait another 23 years.

For most of my adult life, and across all sectors of my life, I had tried to split the difference between the acceptable and the unacceptable. I had wanted to be an actress and a musician, a career path not condoned by the world of the newly-minted middle class from which I sprang. So, I opted to be a writer, thinking this was somehow more respectable.

I was rarely drawn to lovers who fulfilled anybody’s dream of respectability. I liked hippies and artists and working-class men with big brains. I never really saw myself as marriage material, but when the man I was in love with asked me to marry him, I said yes. I didn’t want to lose him.

And somewhere, deep inside me, I Iiked the patina of respectability that came with having a husband. Never mind that I was a lefty writer and he was a hippie carpenter, or that we were penniless, apparently by choice. The operative terms were that I was a wife and he was my husband. I could pretend to be almost normal.

I treated my bisexuality in a similar way, as if my marriage rendered it moot. I figured that if I just didn’t go there, I wouldn’t have to go there. It might have even turned out that way, if my marriage hadn’t busted up.

(Here I’m afraid I must disappoint you, reader; my marriage did not fall apart because of some torrid affair with a woman, on either my or my husband’s part. No, it came apart for the usual reasons that marriages do: disputes over money, career goals and whether to have a child.)

A geographical cure was in order, I thought. I moved from the New York area to Washington, D.C. There, on my new job, I met a handsome young woman who happened to be a lesbian. She was brilliant, a writer, and had great taste in music. I no longer had a reason not to go there, so I went. The sex was as natural as any I'd ever had. I was 42.

Playing lesbian house

At last, my bisexuality was fulfilled. I was a full-fledged member of the LGBT community, right?

Well, a funny thing happened when I told my lover’s friends that I was bisexual. They looked at me askance. One took me aside to tell me that she didn’t have any patience for straight girls who were “playing lesbian house.”

Time went on, the affair ran its course. But even though I had become a presence in the LGBT community, whenever I identified myself as bi, it seemed I met with resistance. For many of my new friends, it seemed, calling yourself bisexual was just a reluctance to admitting being gay.

I began to believe them. After all, I had no idea who I was anymore. I was as close to being a broken person as you could be and still hold a job. Just about every shred of my former identity was gone. I was no longer a wife and no longer a journalist. (I had given up my career in an attempt to save my marriage.)

Until my affair with the woman I’ll call Willa, I had clung to my Catholic identity, even though I railed against the church in my writings. Now that I was practicing something that the pope called “intrinsically evil,” there didn’t seem to be much point in that. I had even abandoned the Great State of New Jersey, from which I, as a lifelong resident thereof, had derived much yahoo pride. And I was no longer a heterosexual -- not that I ever really was.

I was little more than a quivering exposed nerve, and a nerve knows not what it is, just that it feels things. I was almost grateful to let someone else define me.

So I became a lesbian for a year or two. I bought a fedora.

When I told two of my brothers, each separately, that I was gay, they both seemed skeptical, saying the same thing: “Don’t put a label on yourself.” I told myself they weren’t ready for the truth. When I told an old flame, he replied, “Addie, you’re not a lesbian. You’re a bisexual. Get over it.” It was the truest thing he ever said to me.

Slowly, it began to dawn on me that calling yourself bisexual was not some kind of a cop-out; it was, in fact, to claim an identity that no one really wanted. Then I fell into bed with an old friend -- a man -- and had a perfectly wonderful time. Want it or not, that identity was mine.

One from Column A, one from Column B

There’s not much percentage in being an “out” bisexual. Many gay men and lesbians question the legitimacy of that identity, and many straight people either feel profoundly threatened by it, or take too prurient an interest in it. The truth is, bisexuals, by the fact of our existence, screw with everybody’s perception of how sexuality works.

The LGBT community, some years ago, became dangerously invested in proving that gay men and lesbians are born gay and lesbian. That may or may not be true -- no one’s come up with definitive proof either for or against that proposition -- but the political imperative to prove the gay-at-birth theory is defensive, emanating from a conservative frame that implies if you’re not born that way, then what you’re doing with that other consulting adult in your life is wrong.

While it could be argued (and I’m sure someone has data they think proves this) that bisexuals are born that way, the ease with which we choose partners of one or another gender complicates the whole “born gay” narrative. I don’t know if I was born this way, and I really don’t care. It’s who I am; what more do you need?

Nobody seems to know how many of us there are, because nobody can quantify how many actual bisexual people live as heterosexuals, having sex with only members of the opposite sex. A 2005 survey by the Centers for Disease Control found that 1 percent of men and 3 percent of women 15–44 years of age had both male and female sexual partners in the 12 months before the survey was taken. But figures among younger people suggested that many people with more adaptable sexual orientations change their behavior as they age, perhaps in order to live more acceptably.

“Among females,” the CDC authors write, “5.8 percent of teens and 4.8 percent of females 20–24 years of age had had both male and female partners in the last 12 months; percentages were lower at ages 25–44. Among men, about 1 percent had had both male and female partners in the last 12 months at each age.”

Some 10 percent of women in the 18-44 age group, said they were attracted “mostly to males”. (A similar question put to men yielded a much smaller percentage: 3.9 percent said they were attracted “mostly” to females.)

These results seem to bear out the idea of the Kinsey scale, in which sexual orientation is seen as a mix of gender attractions in most people. Despite these findings, people tend to wear their sexual orientation like a suit of armor, and that leaves bisexuals largely outside society’s categorical systems.

Straight people, in my experience, tend to regard bisexuals as sexually insatiable wife- and/or husband-stealers, people who need at least one from Column A and one from Column B just to make through the day. However titillating a thought that might be, it just doesn’t work that way. To me, a person’s gender is just another attribute, like the color of his eyes, or the texture of her hair. Sometimes you fall in love, rendering monogamy the likely outcome -- just like regular folks.

Shape-shifters

Perhaps most disconcerting to both heterosexuals and members of the gay and lesbian communities is the way bisexuals float between worlds. We are society’s shape-shifters. Partnered with a member of the opposite sex, we appear straight. Partnering with a member of our own sex renders us gay, at least in the eyes of the world. We can choose the degree of freedom and oppression we choose to accept. Hence, we are not to be trusted.

I’ve known the perils of gay-bashing and taunting, as I kissed my girlfriend on the street or, in the former case, was just dressed a little too butch while walking through a gay neighborhood being cased by thugs. But I’ve also experienced the pleasure, pain and societal legitimacy of legal marriage. Neither choice was born of any falseness to my sexual orientation.

Nebulous by nature, bisexuals don’t really have much of an organized community of their very own -- at least not one that I’ve stumbled across or am particularly interested in finding. (Unlike transgender people, our survival simply doesn’t depend on knowing others who are just like us.) Consequently, we often partner with straight or gay people, rather than other bisexuals. This is not without its dilemmas.

For a couple of years, I dated a lesbian musician, until such time as we moved our relationship to the platonic plane. Not long afterward, a gorgeous, smart, funny man, also a musician, asked me out. The only problem was that a member of his band was close to the woman I call my ex-non-girlfriend, and he was unaware of our relationship. So what would ordinarily be a third-date conversation about my peculiar condition became an extremely awkward first-date conversation; I felt the need to give him the back story before he got it from somebody else. He really wanted to be above it all, but he just couldn’t get past it. “You think that’s natural?” he asked me. Two dates later, we were kaput.

Then there was the young man who recently wooed me. I was perplexed why he was pursuing me, some 15 years his senior, until his eyes lit up a bit too lustfully when we discussed my sexual orientation. (I’m a blogger in the LGBT community, and he had Googled me.) I’m not eager to be anybody’s fetish.

Queering the deal

I’m old enough to remember a time when there was no “B” or “T” listed in the titles of gay and lesbian organizations. There is some irony in the fact that bisexuals and transgender people occupy a similar place in the greater LGBT community, transgender people arguably being the most oppressed of the lot, and bisexuals arguably being the least (depending on who we‘re partnered with).

Although I don’t always feel entirely accepted in the LGBT community, I have been the recipient of great good will there. And so, I will always be “out”. Any man I may meet who can’t deal with that is just not my man.

When my life fell apart and I took up with Willa, it was the gay and lesbian community that saw me through. Eventually, I took my place in the LGBT arts community, and when I lost my health insurance, got my health care gratis at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, a wonderful organization born of the AIDS crisis. The LGBT community has supported my work as a writer, and I have experienced great generosity from my friends, who largely hail from the community.

Every now and then, I hear some bisexual person grousing that we are kept to the back of the LGBT bus. I just can’t work up the dudgeon; a lot of gay and lesbian people struggled and even died so that I might have the freedom to be true to myself. That’s why, in the end, I prefer to identify as “queer”; that puts us all in the same boat, our identifying characteristic being not who we sleep with or what mix of genitalia and gender identity we possess, but the simple fact that we are not the majority, and face obstacles because of it.

It took a long time, but I’ve learned to be grateful for my bisexuality. Because of it, I like to think I have a more nuanced understanding of gender and sex than do many others. After all, I have both a satin evening gown and a fedora, and I wear them equally well.

Adele M. Stan AlterNet's acting Washington bureau chief, and the author of Debating Sexual Correctness (Dell).

Stop the Humiliating 'Sex-Testing' of Champion Runner Caster Semenya

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

Stop the Humiliating 'Sex-Testing' of Champion Runner Caster Semenya

By Dave Zirin and Sherry Wolf, The Nation. Posted August 22, 2009.


South African runner Caster Semenya shouldn't be the one humiliated by "gender testing"-- it's the outdated views of athletic officials that are embarrassing.


World-class South African athlete Caster Semenya, age 18, won the 800 meters in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships on August 19. But her victory was all the more remarkable in that she was forced to run amid a controversy that reveals the twisted way international track and field views gender.

The sports world has been buzzing for some time over the rumor that Semenya may be a man, or more specifically, not "entirely female." According to the newspaper The Age, her "physique and powerful style have sparked speculation in recent months that she may not be entirely female." From all accounts an arduous process of "gender testing" on Semenya has already begun. The idea that an 18-year-old who has just experienced the greatest athletic victory of her life is being subjecting to this very public humiliation is shameful to say the least.

Her own coach Michael Seme contributed to the disgrace when he said, "We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It's a natural reaction and it's only human to be curious. People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her roommates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide."

The people with something to hide are the powers that be in track and field, as well as in international sport. As long as there have been womens' sports, the characterization of the best female athletes as "looking like men" or "mannish" has consistently been used to degrade them. When Martina Navratilova dominated women's tennis and proudly exposed her chiseled biceps years before Hollywood gave its imprimatur to gals with "guns," players complained that she "must have a chromosome loose somewhere."

This minefield of sexism and homophobia has long pushed female athletes into magazines like Maxim to prove their "hotness" -- and implicitly their heterosexuality. Track and field in particular has always had this preoccupation with gender, particularly when it crosses paths with racism. Fifty years ago, Olympic official Norman Cox proposed that in the case of black women, "the International Olympic Committee should create a special category of competition for them -- the unfairly advantaged 'hermaphrodites.'"

For years, women athletes had to parade naked in front of Olympic officials. This has now given way to more "sophisticated" "gender testing" to determine if athletes like Semenya have what officials still perceive as the ultimate advantage -- being a man. Let's leave aside that being male is not the be-all, end-all of athletic success. A country's wealth, coaching facilities, nutrition and opportunity determine the creation of a world-class athlete far more than a Y chromosome or a penis ever could.

What these officials still don't understand, or will not confront, is that gender -- that is, how we comport and conceive of ourselves -- is a remarkably fluid social construction. Even our physical sex is far more ambiguous and fluid than is often imagined or taught. Medical science has long acknowledged the existence of millions of people whose bodies combine anatomical features that are conventionally associated with either men or women and/or have chromosomal variations from the XX or XY of women or men. Many of these "intersex" individuals, estimated at one birth in every 1,666 in the United States alone, are legally operated on by surgeons who force traditional norms of genitalia on newborn infants. In what some doctors consider a psychosocial emergency, thousands of healthy babies are effectively subject to clitorectomies if a clitoris is "too large" or castrations if a penis is "too small" (evidently penises are never considered "too big").

The physical reality of intersex people calls into question the fixed notions we are taught to accept about men and women in general, and men and women athletes in sex-segregated sports like track and field in particular. The heretical bodies of intersex people challenge the traditional understanding of gender as a strict male/female phenomenon. While we are never encouraged to conceive of bodies this way, male and female bodies are more similar than they are distinguishable from each other. When training and nutrition are equal, it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between some of the best-trained male and female Olympic swimmers wearing state-of-the-art one-piece speed suits. Title IX, the 1972 law imposing equal funding for girls' and boys' sports in schools, has radically altered not only women's fitness and emotional well-being, but their bodies as well. Obviously, there are some physical differences between men and women, but it is largely our culture and not biology that gives them their meaning.

In 1986 Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño was stripped of her first-place winnings when discovered to have an XY chromosome, instead of the female's XX, which shattered her athletic career and upended her personal life. "I lost friends, my fiancé, hope and energy," said Martínez-Patiño in a 2005 editorial in the journal The Lancet.

Whatever track and field tells us Caster Semenya's gender is -- and as of this writing there is zero evidence she is intersex -- it's time we all break free from the notion that you are either "one or the other." It's antiquated, stigmatizing and says far more about those doing the testing than about the athletes tested. The only thing suspicious is the gender and sex bias in professional sports. We should continue to debate the pros and cons of gender segregation in sport. But right here, right now, we must end sex testing and acknowledge the fluidity of gender and sex in sports and beyond.

Dave Zirin is The Nation's sports editor. He is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). Sherry Wolf is an independent journalist the author of the new critically praised book Sexuality and Socialism (Haymarket Books). She is currently organizing for the LGBT National Equality March for full civil rights in October.

Just In Case You Needed Another Reason To Be Scared Of Sarah Palin

Look a this....I find it nauseating...
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT ALTERNET.ORG

Sarah Palin's Facebook 'Friends' Celebrate Ted Kennedy's Death: "One Less Socialist," "Good Riddens"

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 9:30 AM on August 26, 2009.


One commenter: "Now if we could just talk God into taking Arlin Spector, Harry Reid,and Nancy Pelosi America would be Eutopia!"

This post originally appeared in PEEK.


Late last night, to her credit, Sarah Palin posted the following statement on her Facebook page on the passing of Ted Kennedy:

I would like to extend our sympathies to the Kennedy family as we hear word about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. He believed in our country and fought passionately for his convictions.

Several of her Facebook pals lauded her "classy" move.

Others? Not so much.

"thank you for maintaining my belief in you as a real american, however this country is now much better off, one less socialist, anti freedom senator."

"Now if we could just talk God into taking Arlin Spector, Harry Reid,and Nancy Pelosi America would be Eutopia!"

"good riddens"

"If he makes it into Heaven (& I doubt he will with his stance on abortion) I hope that God makes him babysit all the aborted children for eternity. God have mercy on his soul."

"Ted Kennedy dying has made my day...."

"He cannot fillibuster God. Good ridencance to a sorry person."

"It's about time, we can only hope Pelosi and Ried will be joining him very soon. All 3 of them should be buried in Moscow for whom they work so tirelessly."

... and perhaps my favorite:

"Sarah - I need to contact you. I need to know how to fight this current govt. We must find a way to get them removed, standing by and watching all the evil occur, is like watching water run quickly down the drain, each of our freedoms gone daily. Please advise me what direction to take my group. Thank you"

For all 1,676 comments (and counting), go here.

Stay classy, Palin fans!

(h/t to Greg Mitchell via Twitter)

Digg!

Tagged as: facebook, ted kennedy, sarah palin

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.

Oat Bran Banana Muffins

Found this recipe originally at COOKS.com, altered it slightly. These are really tasty AND gluten free! As long as you can handle oats anyway, I'm sure if you needed you could find gluten free oat bran.

Oat Bran Banana Muffins
yield: approx. 18 small muffins

3 cups oat bran
1 cup almond milk
1 cup mashed ripe banana
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 tsp. molasses
4 egg whites
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 cup raisins
1 cup crushed walnuts
2 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease two muffin tins and line with paper liners.
3. Combine oat bran, milk, and banana, let sit for 15 minutes.
4. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
5. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 30minutes(depends on your oven)
6. Cool on wire rack.

9,000 year old Neolithic fishing trap found in Hill of Tara landscape during excavations along path of M3 motorway

Here is an even better article on what they recently found at Tara
ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE


9,000 year old Neolithic fishing trap found in Hill of Tara landscape during excavations along path of M3 motorway

Posted in Archaeology, Events, Historical Importance of Tara, News at 9:16 am by Vincent

fishingtrap

The Irish Times reported on Friday, August 28 2009 that a 9,000 year old fishing trap was found in the Hill of Tara landscape, near Dunsany, during excavations by the National Roads Authority (NRA), along the path of the M3 motorway. The incredible find was reported in a story entitled, ‘Artefacts uncovered during roadworks give fresh perspective on early Irish life‘, which covered the NRA National Archaeology Seminar 2009, which took place in Dublin on Thursday, 27th August, entitled ‘Creative Minds: production, manufacturing and invention in ancient Ireland’. The Irish Times article stated:

“Ronan Swan of the NRA told of a fishing trap uncovered at Clowanstown on the route of the M3 near Dunsany. It was made of saplings and was probably 9,000 years old.”

Details of the fishing trap can be found in the Final Excavation Report for Clowanstown1, available in the archaeology section of the NRA web site. The trap and a lot of other Neolithic fishing materials, along with axes, jewelry and evidence of industrial and ritual activity and were located within an area containing five mounds or man-made monuments. The site sits beside a wetland which was previously a lake, and you can view the report with images on the NRA web site, the text of which is reprinted below, with some images.

topographical-sur

Final archaeological report for Clowanstown 1, County Meath

Probable Mesolithic fishing platform and Early Neolithic burnt Mounds.

This site was located within Contract 2 (Dunshaughlin to Navan) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway and was identified during advance testing by Jonathan Dempsey in spring 2004 (04E0418). Topographical and environmental work commenced in advance of excavation in September 2006. Full resolution revealed a probable Mesolithic fishing platform and Neolithic burnt mounds located near the centre of a former lough.

Location

Five Mounds were situated at the western edge of a raised bog, including organic sediments up to 3.45m deep, overlying thick shell-rich marl, sealing probable gravels and sands laid down at the base of a small lough. It seems likely that deposition of the basal silts commenced reasonably early in the Holocene.

An early mooring

Six substantial stakes defined a rough arc around the landward side of the central depression, perhaps providing a structure to fish from as well as a mooring for a dugout. A number of large stones may be ballast or anchor stones. The stakes were driven up to 1.85m into the underlying marl, whilst three had subsided heavily, suggesting a heavy weight on them. Two stakes had not been sharpened, demonstrating the saturated state of the underlying strata when they were inserted.

fishingtrap2

Fishing baskets

Two pairs of conical baskets twined with one to two year old alder withes, were found within the central depression. One basket measured 1.12m long x c.0.4m in diameter at the open end, which was finished with a double row of twining. The closed end appeared to have previously been externally bound and trimmed. Small stones weighted the baskets in position, which were probably baited or provided with funnel entrances. A number of c.20mm diameter fire hardened stakes and woodchips were found in the immediate vicinity. The woodchips were apparently of stone-axe cut timber. Occasional larger stones included a hone stone.

Tiny wooden canoe

To the east: additional stakes; a small wooden plank and an unidentified carved wooden object were recorded. The wooden object appears superficially similar to a dugout canoe but is only 360mm long and may have been a toy, a carpenters model, a votive offering, or a functional container with no intended similarity to dugouts. As the lough dried up a number of drainage gullies developed and sphagnum peat began to form.

The platform

A natural platform beside three flooded depressions was the focus of apparent late Mesolithic activity. A sub-oval layer of burnt timbers consolidated the platform measuring c.7m x 5.9m. A later trough removed a probable central hearth and truncated a posthole/pit. Two thin stakes deeply driven either side of this central area may have supported a rack for smoking fish. A number of: burnt stake ends; flint, chert and siltstone leaf shaped flakes, points and blades; hazelnut shells and occasional stones and animal bones were retrieved. It seems likely that this layer may represent the collapse of a small late Mesolithic structure designed for preparing fish and fishing equipment. This is likely to have involved: repairing, baiting and emptying baskets; hardening and sharpening stakes and spears; preparing, smoking and eating fish. A period of relative abandonment was characterised by the slow build up of humified sphagnum peat and scrub carr as the lough retreated.

The burnt mounds

Activity recommenced with the infilling of the central depression (Mound A) with redeposited marl and limestone. No extraction site has been recognised for the marl though it appears similar to layers 1m below. Both the marl and the stone appear to have been locally imported.

Mound A:

Within Mound A, a conspicuous sequence of at least 9 burnt layers where each was sealed by a layer of redeposited marl and limestone, gradually raised the Mound above its surroundings. Each burnt layer included charcoal, burnt sandstone and limestone fragments and very occasional fragments of carinated bowl.

Seven, sub-rectangular troughs varying from 3.8m to 6.5m in length by 1.8m to 2.6m x c.0.4m average depth, related to the successive phases of burning. Many of the troughs had primary layers of burnt sandstone and limestone and most had been backfilled with peat. A shallow, bowl-shaped pit was positioned downslope of each trough except one. The troughs were positioned progressively further downslope and away from Mound A so that the furthest one was over 20m away. The furthest troughs may relate to Mound C.

Immediately to the southeast of Mound A and beneath Mound C, two spreads of crushed cremated bone, occasional fragments of carinated bowl, burnt flint and occasional lithics had been trampled into the peat. One near complete carinated bowl included burnt internal residue. A number of highly structured deposits involving redeposited marl, crushed cremated bone, burnt flint and fragments of carinated bowl had been deposited beneath Mound C and Mound D, apparently concentrated on the artificially extended natural depressions beneath the centre of each. The primary deposit beneath Mound C was interned in a wooden or bark container measuring c.0.65m diameter x 0.12m deep.

Mound D: [Descriptions for Mound B and C are missing from online NRA report]

This was a low crescent shaped mound of burnt stone waste from Mound A, measuring c.15m x 7m surrounding the landward side of Mound A. Photo: Recording a section through mound D, Clowanstown 1

Mound E:

A fifth mound south of Mound A also centred on a series of structured crushed, cremated bone deposits, which included a small stone mortar.

Decommissioning

The centre of Mound A was re-cut for a cylindrical wooden container. This container measured c.0.65m in external diameter c.0.45m internal diameter x 0.72m maximum surviving length and was made of a single trunk. It had an external rebate seemingly to allow a composite wooden base to be bound in place. This had been replaced with quarried limestone slabs (Gabriel Cooney pers comm.) and a redeposited marl layer. Two holes of c.25mm diameter were cut into this rebate c.120mm apart. This container may have originally held a liquid.

Mounds A, C, D and E were all sealed with burnt cairn material forming a monument over each. A more extensive stone spread then sealed the cairn material including a number of lithic and bone finds as well as evidence for at least seven animal skulls (Mound C) and further crushed cremated bone including predominately cattle, sheep/goat, occasional pig, bird and small mammal. The lithic finds included three polished stone axes, a polished stone wedge, three polished stone pendants and at least three polished bone pins as well as leaf-shaped projectile points and scrapers. These final stone sealing layers appeared to have affectively consolidated access between the mounds creating an enduring monument.

clowan1_14Polished bone pin from Clowanstown 1

[Report by Matt Mossop, Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. On behalf of: Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda. Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. Goodagrane, Halvasso, Penryn, Cornwall. TR10 9BX Phone : 01326 341 061 or Email : enquiries@archaeologicalconsultancy.com ]

Clowanstown 1 final excavation report

Clowanstown 2 final excavation report

Clowanstown 3 final excavation report

section2

Artefacts uncovered during roadworks give fresh perspective on early Irish life

Yet another reason to save Tara folks!
Please sign the petition: http://www.savetarapetition.net
Write letters: lettersed@irishtimes.com

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

Friday, August 28, 2009

Artefacts uncovered during roadworks give fresh perspective on early Irish life


TIM O'BRIEN

THE REMAINS of a 9,000-year-old fishing basket uncovered at Clowanstown in Co Meath, a monastic bell-making facility at Clonfad in Co Westmeath and an “exceptional” raised wooden trackway close to the Dromod-Roosky bypass, were described at an archaeology seminar yesterday.

Some of the discoveries challenged knowledge of life and settlement patterns on the island, the annual seminar was told. The seminar deals with artefacts uncovered during national road building programmes.

Details were also provided on those who were described as Ireland’s oldest-known landscapers, the earliest-known wheel and some of the earliest clothes-making techniques.

Archaeologist Dr Farina Sternke said an excavation at Tullahedy in Co Tipperary had uncovered the remains of a palisade encircling a natural mound which had been altered over time via the dumping of several layers of glacial soil. It was, said Dr Sternke, “the first known major Neolithic landscaping project” of its kind in Ireland.

The excavations also uncovered 3,335 lithic finds or stone tools, including 144 polished stone axeheads and fragments.

Archaeologists Caitríona Moore and Chiara Chirotti said excavations at Eldercloon Co Longford as part of the Dromod-Roosky bypass on the N4 had uncovered “an extremely well-preserved complex of wooden trackways and platforms” located in a raised bog.

The structures varied from large multi-phase trackways to small, simple structures built across short stretches of wetlands. Radiocarbon dating suggested there was 4,000 years of activity starting in the Neolithic period.

Also recovered from the complex were the remains of bowls, spears and three wheels, including a portion of an unfinished block wheel which has been dated to the late Bronze Age (2200 BC-600 BC). It is believed to be the oldest wheel found in Ireland.

A later sign of industry was the discovery of a facility to manufacture church bells, at Clonfad Co Westmeath.

Paul Stevens of archeologists Valerie J Keeley Ltd said the excavation produced “one of the largest metalworking assemblages ever recovered from an Irish site of this date and type. A replica of the hand bells manufactured at Clonfad was made and is on view in the Athlone county library.

NRA archaeologist Richard O’Brien suggested that a number of large beads found at excavation sites across the country may be “whorls”. These are short, generally circular perforated objects used to give balance to spindles used to spin textiles. The use of whorls pre-dated the spinning wheel and would have been popular in clothes making for about 3,500 years prior to the 15th or 16th centuries.

Archaeologists Eoin Grogan and Helen Roche told the seminar that new discoveries of prehistoric pottery, for example Late (2900-2500BC) and Final Neolithic period (2500-2200BC) suggested a “more extensive and intensive settlement” than previously envisaged.

In a paper contributed to the seminar the archaeologists said some of the new pottery material, particularly grooved ware and beakers, had “dramatically altered our understanding of the patterning of these types at both a regional and national level”.

Ronan Swan of the NRA told of a fishing trap uncovered at Clowanstown on the route of the M3 near Dunsany. It was made of saplings and was probably 9,000 years old.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times