Before we delve into the posts we’re reading and loving elsewhere on the internet, don’t miss Philippa Willitts on how cis lesbians are being used to advance transphobic agendas.
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‘The Downsides of America’s Hyper-Competitive Youth-Soccer Industry‘ (Linda Flanagan for The Atlantic)
This is a really interesting look into the highly competitive world of youth soccer in the United States — the rules, restrictions, and expectations for players at the peak of their performance are ruining their childhoods.
Part of the reason soccer has this incredibly demanding top tier, said Rick Eckstein, a professor of sociology at Villanova and author of How College Athletics Are Hurting Girls’ Sports, is that it’s one of the most commercialized of youth sports; it contains a flourishing industry of tournament directors, private club and travel teams, and assorted soccer-related businesses whose financial interest is served by the status quo. And unlike basketball, say, which also has a sturdy commercial presence, soccer has developed so that the top players are identified and nurtured only through clubs.
‘Made to Suffer for Her Sins‘ (Christina Cauterucci for Slate)
The right very much believes in punishing women for their very femininity, an aesthetic rooted deeply in Christianist attitudes. This piece explicitly connects that social attitude to its policy consequences.
Deterrence is also a key element of the right wing’s philosophy on contraception and abortion. Some anti-abortion activists argue that permitting women to terminate their pregnancies encourages wanton behavior—specifically noncommittal, unprotected sex. In this sense, the prospect of forced pregnancy and childbirth, and the physical and/or emotional pain that goes with them, is meant as a punishment for the crime of promiscuity.
‘Undercooked: An Expensive Push to Save Lives and Protect the Planet Falls Short‘ (Sara Morrison for ProPublica)
It seemed like a good idea. What went wrong?
The Alliance’s plans for the future come with something of an ironic twist: It will now make greater efforts to promote and distribute stoves that use propane, a fossil fuel, the same blue-flamed byproduct of gas drilling contained in cylinders under countless American backyard grills. (Outside of the U.S. propane is most commonly called liquefied petroleum gas, or lpg.) These stoves, it turns out, burn much more cleanly and efficiently than nearly all biomass stoves, reducing the harmful smoke given off during cooking while having a negligible impact on the climate.
‘The quantified heart‘ (Polina Aronson and Judith Duportail for Aeon)
Artificial intelligence is constantly improving. Does that improvement hold the key to building better lives?
Some people might be more comfortable disclosing their innermost feelings to an AI. A study conducted by the Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles in 2014 suggests that people display their sadness more intensely, and are less scared about self-disclosure, when they believe they’re interacting with a virtual person, instead of a real one. As when we write a diary, screens can serve as a kind of shield from outside judgment.
‘Oregon’s Racist Past‘ (Linda Gordon for Longreads)
Oregon’s racist past is an open secret, and this piece is an excellent primer for those who want to learn more about it.
Powell quickly established Klaverns in Oregon’s six largest towns and soon boasted of fourteen thousand members, about 2 percent of the state’s population. He claimed a thousand members in Portland within three months, and nine thousand before long; Portlanders eventually constituted 64 percent of the state’s Klansmen. Crosses burning on Portland’s Mt. Tabor and Mt. Scott were visible for miles. Nearly every community with a population of one thousand or more had a Klavern.
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