I don't see increasing visibility of drag queens as a step towards deconstructing stereotypical gender norms. Quite the opposite. Most drag queens are males (who identify as males!) using gender stereotypes to perform "female". It reinforces narrow gender expectations. Unfortunately a lot of what is going on in the transgender sphere (I'm stepping out of the drag sphere here, not conflating them) also works to reinforce gender stereotypes-- because if being a woman isn't about being biologically female, what can it be other than fitting-in-a-box-called-female-gender that is at least in part defined by...stereotypes. I see stereotyped behaviors, clothing, preferences being reinforced not deconstructed. Focusing so very much on gender ultimately reinforces the artificial construct that is gender.

We've had plenty of evidence over the past decade of actors representing foreign interests manipulating online rhetoric to further polarize and divide factions in the US and elsewhere. 2016 election, brexit, covid...bots and misinformation everywhere. We aren't entirely doing this to ourselves.

I don't know how good this review site is, but it compares a few different greens powders,: https://smarter-reviews.com/lp/sr-green-powders?tr=pjPmrKZ&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjws7WkBhBFEiwAIi1682fG7VxYTtpMzzQcYxSI6Sz9YFwYXldneizvvSoMyQfrP7hQi40zthoCmc0QAvD_BwE

You are wise to not allow your ex to be any more involved in your life than necessary. I'd be super wary of a credit card cash advance, interest starts accruing as soon as the funds are disbursed and interest is usually high. If you have a bit if time, you might consider looking for a new credit card with a zero interest deal on new purchases for a set time (often a year). The no interest thing doesn't usually apply to cash advances, but you might be able to put your regular expenses (groceries etc.) on the no interest card and save up the money that would have gone to those expenses for moving costs. It sounds a bit complicated but it's a round-about way to get a short-term no-interest loan. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't super responsible with money because when the introductory interest-free period ends you are right back to credit-card interest rates.

Since I'm not envisioning anything at all there's definitely no left-to-rightness.

I can't picture any letters!

I can't picture an apple. I have a mental concept of an apple, but it isn't exactly visual.

My brain is mostly full of words--spoken words. I carry on imaginary conversations inside my head all the time.

I just realized that when people talk about not being able to un-see something they literally mean that the image is stuck in their mind forever. My mind is a pretty non-visual place, I don't have any kind of clear images in there--traumatic scenes or faces of family members or anything else. I often wish there was some way to experience the reality inside another person's head. We tend to assume that other humans experience the world more or less the way we do, but I think there are actually some pretty dramatic differences from person to person.

I'm loving that this discussion took an academic turn.

I don't get ads, I think because I signed up for a teacher account. Maybe that's an option. It also seems to give me unlimited hearts.

I perceive some pretty egregious gaslighting of women happening in several sectors of contemporary culture.

How can a man dressing as a stereotyped caricature of a woman have nothing to do with women? These stereotypes didn't just develop independently in a vacuum, with men randomly deciding to stuff the bodices if their patterned-after-feminine-styles-clothing to make it look like they have big breasts based not-at-all on imitating women's clothing and women's breasts, for example. Would you be comfortable saying that blackface is a third thing having nothing to do with Black people? You can't imitate someone in an exaggerated and stereotyped manner and tell them that your imitation has nothing to do with them.

I didn't notice! Typos are the plague of my life.

Re: appropriateness for kids. When (and where) I was growing up, chocolate cigarettes were marketed to kids. That's just fine, right, cause they aren't real cigarettes they're chocolate. Except it's no stretch to see a link between marketing chocolate cigarettes to kindergartners and the ease with which adolescents took up smoking (stairwells at my school absolutely reaked of smoke all the time). If we don't want to promote smoking, we don't market chocolate cigarettes to kids. It's a no-brainer to me that if we don't want to promote men performing as hypersexualized caricatures of women, we don't market drag storytime to kids. "They're not doing sexually suggestive stuff at storytime" isn't the point. That a large percentage of the adult population doesn't seem to find drag as a caricature of women offensive is perplexing to me, but...women have always been expected to deal with what men want so I'm not shocked. Don't argue though that those of us who DO find drag offensive and demeaning should be just fine with a tamed-down version for kids. I'm not a fan of chocolate cigarettes.

Thank you for pointing this out.

I absolutely have people in my circle who go to drag shows. People quite close to me. And of course I know kids in queer spaces. Who doesn't these days? I don't have anyone in my circle who is a drag performer.

Men performing a caricature of women = money. Sadly I'm not surprised.

I know nothing about them, but--if it's women performing a stereotyped and objectifying portrayal of men, I don't see that as a thing to promote. But I wouldn't consider it the same level of problematic as drag queen culture for reasons related to why a black person painting their face white isn't on the same level as a white person painting their face black.

Drag Queen performance as a genre thrives on stereotypes and objectification of women.

Are you OK with anyone wearing blackface as long as they don't identify as white? The traditions, performances, and culture associated with drag queens are an offense against women.

Wearing what one wants is different from a public performance of a stereotype relating to a group you don't belong to.

Thanks

By that logic, could we say that dressing up and acting out a stereotype of a black person isn't mocking black people, it's just mocking racism?

Re: "it's funny" as an explanation for promoting something--demeaning and offensive stereotypes are absolutely things that many people laugh over. That doesn't make them either harmless or worthy of promotion.