Spudtater's Journal

Am wearing a purple tie today. Only one person's asked me about it so far.

This recent spate of homophobic bullying, plus nickys' post on the subject a few days ago, has got me thinking about bullying. A lot is said about the subject, not all of it sensible. You frequently hear such useless, condescending platitudes as "ignore them and they'll go away", or "try standing up to them", which sound plausible only to those not in the situation of being bullied. The following is my attempt to bring some sense to the subject:

( Debunking myths about bullying )

Another one via calcinations:

Parents across the UK are understandably being made anxious by news reports today suggesting:

Rise in 11 year olds on the pill (Sunday Times)
One thousand girls on Pill at 11: Huge rise in contraceptive prescription for pre-teens without parents knowing (Daily Mail)
Huge rise in 11-year-olds on the pill (Telegraph)

[...]

Despite the media hype there are many medical reasons why young girls might be prescribed hormonal contraceptives [...] Unfortunately the data from the GPRD does not break down reasons for prescribing hormonal contraception to young women, so we cannot conclude precisely why they are using it. This hasn’t stopped media speculation it’s primarily for pregnancy prevention, wrongly suggesting all young girls on the pill are sexually active lolitas.

– 11 years old, on the pill and sexually active? The media loses the news again, Dr Petra Boynton, 2 Aug 2010, drpetra.co.uk

...in BHS.

A woman's voice admonishing her son: "No, sweetie, that's pink. That's for girls. Come over here and I'll find you something for boys." And as they appeared from behind the shelf they were previously hidden behind, I notice two things:

1. The item in question was a box of biscuits
2. The kid was dressed in jungle-camouflage trousers and a kiddie-sized bomber jacket.

I really hope that kid doesn't turn out to be gay, because he will never be able to come out to his family.

Why sexuality is all in our brains
Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, a study shows. Their responses are more like straight men's, it added. An earlier study suggested gay men's responses differed from straight men but were similar to heterosexual women. This adds weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behaviour, Swedish researchers said.

— Metro, 10 May 2006

You know, in an ideal world, this would not be considered news.

I am rather amused by the site GayEgypt.com.
Of course, it gets frequent threatening emails from fundie Muslims, and this wasn't helped when they put out an article proclaiming Mohammed to have been gay. (Pardon?)
But then they come up with things like this:

Vote 4 (sic) Egypts Prettiest Dictator.

OK so it's time for the hardest decision you've ever made. Which of Egypt's handsome twentieth century despots was the most winsome?

Just Click on the president or king whose looks give you that warm and tingly feeling. The tyrant you think most deserves the title "Gay Icon."

http://www.gayegypt.com/votforegmosh.html

8^)