An Edumacation
For the open and honest discussion of film, television, literature, and music, from someone who is cooler than your favorites.
We're also going to talk about race, culture, politics, and sexuality. Come and join the conversation.
Tags of Note:
Depression and Anxiety
TV Shows
Supernatural- Links
http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/7670-03.pdf
It’s on page 8.
edit: lol, and I got the stat wrong. It’s the top 1% that takes up 20% of health care costs. holy SHIT.
I signed up for a Coursera course on the American healthcare system, and I’m learning all sorts of frightening things.
Did you know that the top ten percent consumes twenty percent of all healthcare in America? The bottom fifty percent? Consumes three percent.
Just… think about that for a while.
Edit: the top one percent consumes twenty percent of healthcare in America, not the top ten percent.
immigrant parents remind you directly and indirectly that failure isn’t an option in a million different ways.
Unpaid No More: Interns Win Major Court Battle
A federal ruling against a major movie studio’s use of unpaid interns could have a wide impact on uncompensated labor, including internships for college credit. Workers’ advocates say many interns are preventing workers who can’t afford to work free from entering the labor force.Hopefully I am long past my intern days, but this is still exciting. Even if things don’t change much on the ground, knowing the ruling is there can be empowering.
had this been in place when I was doing my undergrad I’d’ve fucking done internships!
That’s a really good question. To be honest, I’ve been regretting putting it in there, because it was a bit throwaway — simplified what is a complex issue down to one line that doesn’t capture the whole truth.
The bindi is far from having no religious significance; it means a lot to those who wear it for religious reasons. But, it cannot be denied that in South Asia, the bindi has also become a fashion item, worn by secular women, non-devout women, and even Muslim women. It is a religious symbol and it is also worn for style. I cannot believe that all desis who wear the bindi in the west are doing so for religious reasons; some are surely doing it because they think it looks good, or just because they’ve always done it.
Maybe I’ll add a third meaning to the bindi; it is a marker of culture, of where you come from. You wear it because your grandmother wore it, because your mother wore it. I can see how the diaspora would feel attached to the bindi, regardless of its religious origins.
Someone asked me how I can be angry that Selena Gomez wore the bindi when others already have “appropriated” it into a secular symbol. Here’s what I would say to that question: there’s no cultural/racial component, when a South Asian non-Hindu woman adorns a bindi, which makes it a much less controversial example of cultural “appropriation”. If we accept that the bindi is a symbol of South Asian culture, one that is mocked and belittled by American culture to this day, it is insulting to see a symbol of American pop culture wear it in order to appear more “exotic”.
Others seemed to feel angry that the bindi had been made into a secular fashion item in the first place. I don’t really know what to tell these people. Frankly, I find an objection of this sort to be ridiculous. Culture is not a pure, immutable thing. The boundaries of culture shifts all the time. The bindi has never been just about religion, though it carries religious significance. It has been about culture, tradition, family. Those who might not care about the religious significance still care about the other values it represents. It is so ingrained in South Asian culture that to cleanly separate it from anything not explicitly religious is farcical, and it reminds me of the rhetoric of those Hindu fundamentalists who want to “Hinduize” every aspect of Indian life, even those that have nothing to do with religion.
Hope this helps.
just did another huge upload on shady lane shinies. all my stock is currently posted, as well as some stuff that’s already been sold for exemplification of what i can do.
go take a look! here’s what’s currently for sale.
i made enough last week to cover what i paid for last week’s meds. but i’ve got to refill them again this week. and so goes the life of the unemployed, uninsured, and chronically ill. indeed.
signal boost if you can, guys, i’d really really appreciate it. you’ve helped me out so much already, i can’t even begin to say thanks in a proper way.
Hey y’all, help Shae out.
I am crying
“But dearest,” said Elinor, alarmed, “consider: the first rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club!”
