Brace yourselves

[pasithea]

I'm sure there will be widespread panic in the heterosexual community over this:

http://children.webmd.com/news/20091116/phthalates-affect-way-young-boys-play

They'll probably try to do away with plastic toys for kids and return them to the days where kids play with sharp jagged bits of metal (as it should be)


Oh... Also... 145 is a pretty statistically small number for such an arbitrary behavior set. Seriously, 'play with trucks' is a marker of masculinity? That would imply that until the last part of the 19th century, all men were too 'feminine' right?


Also, I can't help but think that 'don't play like boys' means that they're less assholish. OMG MY CHILD ISN'T BURNING ANTS WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM!?!?!?!?

Comments

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

A study finds that male children born to women deprived of phthalates during pregnancy were more likely to engage in aggressive, low-empathy behaviour....

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

PLASTIC IS A LIBERAL CONSPIRACY!!!111111111!!!!1111!!!!!!!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

And increased propensity for fart jokes.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

How are boys going to learn about the important duties of males in life, like rape and war and violent crime if they don't practice it in play as children? This is outrageous! Corporal punishment all around.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

How will they ever grow up to be good consumers? This could spell disaster for football and NASCAR.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I obviously did not get enough of these during pregnancy.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Heh, well now Dr. Fear knows what to put in the water supply... ;)

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? There's a heterosexual community?

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Most people are born into it, if you can believe it!

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

I insist that one's gender and/or orientation is neither necessary nor sufficient to determine one's community. Nor is a culture or demographic automatically a community. There has to be a participation element.

In short, while there are communities that are heterosexual in nature (Or, rather, those that are actively and systematically homophobic), they are not part of a larger 'heterosexual community'. Nor would I let them lay claim members by sole virtue of a default setting.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

What's your orientation? Being suspected of faggotry sure put me into a different sort of community for my teen years, and lead to behavior patterns and secretive nature that defined my social interaction ever after. Sexual orientation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Eventually you're going to be sexually oriented toward someone, and they're going to feel a certain way about it, and tell their friends, who are going to have opinions of their own, and bam, right there, you've got a community involved.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if my post was going to come off wrong. And I suppose it did. Sorry about that.

I was splitting hairs, in that I do not think of heteros as having a hetero-defined community in the same way there's the GLBT community. There's no support network or any real kinship. Where there is kinship between heteros, it's not because they're hetero in and of itself, but of some other common trait. There wouldn't be any panic amongst a heterosexual community because there is no community there. However, panic amongst communities that are heterosexual and homophobic, be they religious or regional, would be interesting. That was the intended jest.

Whether or not my distinction really matters, however, you've rightfully pointed out as facile and not really relevant, so consider it retracted.

As for orientation, I'm reminded of Kevin Smith's quote, "Ma'am, I'm still not sure [if I'm straight]. And I've got a wife and child, how irresponsible is that?"

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Also, I feel the urge to append "You facile, dick." to the end of my previous statement but I won't. Oh, wait, I think I just did! Sorry, it was uncalled for.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

This is far from the first study linking pthalates to feminization of boys. I do sometimes suspect that the huge amount of plastic in my life was a contributing factor in my gender issues.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

o/` Life in plastic / It's fantastic o/`

[paka.livejournal.com]

You know... actual urogenital deformity or actual change in androgen levels would be an indicator that pthalates have an effect. But how exactly is "plays like boys" supposed to be quantifiable?

I'm sure pthalates do have an effect, but testing it on that is so subjective that I can only imagine this dude is riding the trendy research topic train.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Also, if anything, this will cause panic in a small group of religious and environmental fanatics -- two groups with surprising overlap, the same people who insist that sodium lauryl sulfate causes leprosy. The "heterosexual community" is a bit of a silly term, like referring to the "sworn universal brotherhood of potato-chip eaters." Which is not to say there is not hidden ideology and politics behind potato chips... but I don't think you're gonna find signs of collective will there unless you're really determined to find it. And honestly... that's how people end up in a "small group of $CAUSE and $CAUSE2 fanatics" in the first place. *whimper* Just be careful, okay?

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

'The Chip Men' sounds like a rather intriguing group name. You'd think blue chip or microchip or something. Some kind of power-mongering conspiratorial group.

[eslington.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of The Steak Conspiracy. (http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc170.gif)

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

There are people who think that sodium lauryl sulfate causes leprosy? *boggle*

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

I got to meet a few people that actually did the whole 'flouride == government conspiracy' thing. It was surreal. Especially since I had mentioned Dr. Strangelove.