E. M. Forster would be so proud. Or horrified. But mostly pleased. Rufus Wainwright is pushing the envelope about as hard as he can, & I love that.
Penguin Cam
The Monterey Aquarium has a live penguin cam you can watch on your lunch hour, or theirs – tune in at 10:30am or 3PM to watch them eat.
Happy solstice, & happy birthday to my friend Lara.
Creative Fundraising
An interesting article from The Village Voice about fundraiser party for top surgery for masculine spectrum types. Interestingly, this is about someone who’s removing hir breasts in order to have a more androgynous body, not a male one, per se.
I read at one of these years ago when My Husband Betty was just published, and it was very cleverly called Take My Breasts Away.
We did.
Two Things To Do Now
First, email Sheldon Silver and tell him to advance GENDA. His email is speaker@assembly.state.ny.us.
Then go tell CBS & FOX to take their heads out of their asses & show the condom ad; their shows are packed full of sexual situations and they’re being prudish about condoms? How lame is that?
Lisa Birnbach Asks Me Some Questions
I’ll be on The Lisa Birnbach Show tomorrow from 9:20-9:45AM.
Yep, you read that right: in the morning.
Like I Was Saying…
“Perhaps there’s more of a social pressure towards socializing these children to sexual norms” than previously thought, he added. Alan Fogel, a University of Utah professor of psychology who specializes in children, wasn’t surprised by the study results. By 2 years, children begin to see themselves in terms of categories – that they are boys or girls, he said. He suspects children are paying attention to gender stereotypes even earlier than 2 – though the BYU study found that 18-month-olds didn’t pay closer attention to the inconsistent activities. By age 1, babies can categorize male versus female faces, Fogel said. “There’s something about gender that’s very captivating for children,” Fogel said. “We don’t quite know why.”
(via Salon)
Rufus on NPR
NPR recorded, & made available on their website, the whole of the Rufus Wainwright show – not the night I saw, but the following evening.
If you look at the slideshow, toward the end you’ll see his Judy Garland impersonation.
Must Be My Dirty Mind
“You knew you had strapped on a very masculine piece of equipment.”
– Fred Olmstead, Vietnam-era pilot, on what it felt like to pilot an F4 Phantom
Sing If You Can
I love this guy (not Andrew Sullivan, the opera guy from Wales. Watch the video.)
DSM-V
It seems the DSM-V is going under review, with the completed new version appearing in 2011 or thereabouts.
I’m going to assume there will be changes to the GID diagnostics.