Forever 21: Blacktastic

I guess today's three pieces are almost like an outfit, sans shoes. Huh. Well, I love the long black cardigan, above; I'm a big fan of cardigans, period, and anything that makes dresses slightly warmer is OK by me. 

I like the bold lines on this piece.  (Also the blue. I'm thinking I should do a post that's SGA-themed, with Atlantis-blue stuff... and maybe some leather bustiers, because, you know, Teyla. The only thing hotter than someone with good diplomatic skills [cough, Picard, cough] is someone who can also kick your ass.)

And who doesn't love leather incorporated into jewelry? People with no poetry in their leatherless souls, that's who.

Karmaloop: Jungle Bombshells

Guys, you know what this reminds me of? All the best old B-movies. In high school I used to get the cheesiest, trashiest old black-and-white movies from the video rental joints in town (we had two of them) and stay up insanely late on the weekends watching them. At least, I think I did. Many of my memories from high school are hazy, largely thanks to the enormous amount of denial I've poured into them. Anyway, what I'm saying is, that swimsuit screams "I am a helpless damsel, rescue me."

I like the neckline on this one. Very old school. 

...this one is allegedly supposed to be feathers, apparently?

Edibly Etsy: NB Designs

Let's lead with the weird, here: mouse embryo pendant.

Now that that's out of the way... band-aid studs. You know what NB will forever mean to me? "Nota bene," note well: my first (and favorite) Behavioral Neuroscience professor told us that he'd use that abbreviation a lot in his class, and he did. I adopted it, of course, along with half of his mannerisms, because when you're 19 and idealistic and you have an idol, that's what you do. He's got a circle of adoring undergrads tagging along after him most of the time, and he deserves it; he's a very good professor and he maintains professional distance without sacrificing personal warmth.

I do wish he hadn't popularized tie-dye to that extent, though. The Neuro classes got a little... blinding.

I also like this DNA pendant.

Modcloth: Bright Edges

I've been watching spring waiting in the wings lately, and it's making me want bright colors in all of this gray. Like this neon pink dress.

Or these delightfully fancy platforms.

And if you're in the mood for a little thematically-appropriate music, I have to say I've been enjoying Marina and the Diamonds lately, especially Oh No!

Rant: Sexism and Research

So I've been enjoying Dr. Grumpy lately, what with having some free time and all, and as I was reading through the archives today, came across this post. It's from a while ago, but it just chapped my ass so personally I had to respond.

Here's my response:

I'm having a flashback to freshman Psych and the Golden Fleece Award. You should Google that shit if you're not familiar with it.


Anyway, this is my field (right down to the lesbians), although not my research. A couple of points:


1. This kind of research is dirt-cheap. I did a similar study for the cost of the paper it took to get informed consent. And the labor, of course, is students--free. And it's not like we give the participants anything.
2. There's the "Knew it All Along" bias, which is bad in every field but exceptionally bad in social psychology. No matter what your findings are, people say, "I already knew that." With perfect confidence. Even if you present Group A with one set of findings and Group B with diametrically opposed findings. (It's been tested!) So, your perception of how much you knew this to begin with... probably not the best source.
3. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data"--you've heard that one before, right? And anecdotal experience is definitely not the best thing to cite when moving forward with a study about homophobia or sexism. Half my audience (of middle-aged white dudes with doctorates) doesn't believe sexism still exists anyway, because they've never seen someone get patted on the ass and called "sweetie" at work. There's a different standard for demonstrating something in a scientific context than in a social context.
4. The take-home message of this study is that men don't believe that sex between two women is "real" sex. It's not threatening because women don't have sexual agency--women can't possible enjoy sex, or form meaningful romantic and sexual attachments with each other. If they do have sex, it's probably because they wish a man was there. It's really all for the men, in the end. Women aren't people. They're blow-up dolls.
And that's sexist, homophobic bullcrap worth studying.
 
I wanted to tack on a whole lot of stuff about homphobia and sexism being deeply interconnected, the hostile/benevolent sexism dichotomy, etc., but I figured I tend to write absurdly long things anyway and I should quit early. Especially since, as I mentioned, I enjoy this blog. Unironically, non-sarcastically.
 
I get frustrated pretty readily with this sentiment, though. This "Why do we bother studying social psychology?" sentiment. Does sexism matter? Does racism? Guess who the people studying effective interventions are in both cases.
 
And if you want a medical link, here's one: queer people who experience homophobic work environments have higher salivary cortisol levels than controls. SHOCKER. Another one of those pieces of apparently obvious research, on a subject that was getting ignored by pretty much everybody except queer researchers. And you know what higher cortisol levels means? Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation. Which means hippocampal cell death: say hello to depression and memory problems! Also higher blood sugar, with increased risk of diabetes, infection, and cancer! Yeah, good thing mental state doesn't fucking affect physical health, right? Thank God we don't study how prejudice negatively affects the mental and physical health of the discriminated-against population, because that would be such a waste of fucking time.
 
And if we want to change the discriminatory environment, we need to study it.
 
Talk about obvious.

United Nude: New Shapes, Old Shapes

Well, I did warn you I was going to be busy for a while. I'm afraid that's not going to change much--I'm still in organic chemistry with lab, although the good news is that I'm about to start my last quarter of it, and I'm coming up on the end of my volunteering commitment, although I remain (for the time being, grants being what they are) employed. 

So, on that note, look at some pretty shoes from United Nude! First up top is Abstract.

Haiku. I love this one--you don't often see that combination of right angles and smooth curves. 

A men's shoe with some substance, or lack thereof: Hollow. 

 

And I debated over whether to include this one, because it's so clearly a spiritual rip-off of McQueen, but... it's neat?