“Steven Universe” and Butchness

One of the great things about “Steven Universe” is its overall celebration of the different types of female body.

Women can be curvy and bootylicious

They can be tall and skinny

They can be short and chunky

Fragile and fine-boned

Quirky and androgynous

Big and fat

And everything in between.  They all have their own beauty, their own strengths, and none is considered “better” or more desirable than anyone else.

But there’s on exception, and it’s the one big problem I have with the show.

Let’s talk about Jasper.

Awright. I love Jasper.  She’s a cool character, a great design, and I can’t bloody wait to see her return come June.  But both my husband and I have noticed something rather concerning about her that others don’t seem to have picked up on.  

Because Jasper is the only explicitly masculine Gem.

I’m not trying to police gender roles or say that something is more womanly or more manly, but if we look at Jasper’s design, it’s definitely more stereotypically masculine than that of the other gems.  Broad shoulders, huge hands and arms, bulging with muscle, no real hips, no obvious breasts.  The only comparable gem design is Ruby, and both Ruby and Sapphire, with their short statures and exaggerated expressions, are quite childlike (which I can’t help but wonder was a deliberate design choice to de-sexualize their relationship and avoid freaking out the censors further).  

And you know what?  That’s awesome.  Butch women are fucking starving for representation out there. It’s great to see a show that celebrates the diversity of womanhood showing that women can be masculine too.  

Except.

Jasper is the most naked and accepted villain of the show.

I once read a post about how you can judge most of the characters on the show by Steven’s first reaction to them.  If you think back, when Steven first met Lapis, or Peridot, he was curious and hopeful, friendly and open.  When Steven first met Jasper, his first reaction was terror.

And this still holds true even though both Peridot and Lapis openly and nakedly tried to murder Steven and his friends.

But their redemption is still considered more plausible and acceptable than Jasper’s, even though Jasper’s actions were to incapacitate and capture, not kill.

Now, this may have changed somewhat since the introduction of the Diamonds, but even still, I see a lot of fanart and posts about how alluring and mysterious Blue Diamond is, and mockery of Yellow Diamond’s costume and neck.  And a lot of posts about how frightening Jasper is, and how she deserves to be shattered.  I’ve seen a lot of Jasper-love posts too, just to be clear, but it seems like both by deliberate action on the part of the writers (giving her the most brutal, violent dialogue, for example) and the reaction of the viewers, Jasper was the most quickly accepted pure villain.

And this would be fine…if Jasper wasn’t the only butch gem.  Because there’s a nasty, nasty history of butch/masculine women being seen either as jokes or, more damagingly, as monsters.

There is a dearth of butch women in popular media, let’s face it.  And there’s a major issue of butch women being erased as well (the TV series “Hannibal” turned Margot Verger from a bodybuilding butch to Katharine fucking Isabelle, for example, though I guess we should count our blessings; the movie version deleted her entirely).  Butch women either do not exist, are jokes from cartoons, or are monsters.  And Jasper seems to be fitting this stereotype.  And I probably wouldn’t feel so strongly about this…except for Rose.

Let’s look at Rose Quartz.  I fuckin’ love Rose Quartz’s character and design, not just because she’s fat (but you go you BBW you), but because she is girly as fuck.

The image of Rose Quartz charging into battle with her badass broadsword and her lacy ballgown and her fluffy pink curls is one that I fucking treasure.  So often, it seems that being a warrior, and particularly a soldier, is inherently linked with masculinity.  Even if a woman does become a fighter, she is mocked for holding onto the “frivolous” trappings of femininity.  Even in the cases of the great female warriors in both mythology and pop culture, most of them shed what we would consider their femininity, wearing male clothing, participating in traditionally male activities, scoffing at delicate “girly” pastimes and dress.  There are exceptions, of course, most notably Buffy Summers from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, but for the most part, female warriors are “tomboys”.  Even in folklore and history, female warriors are often shown either as masculine in mannerisms (though still skinny, pretty-faced, and obviously feminine once the armour comes off), or asexual.  And here’s busty, ruddy-lipped Rose with her princess frock and her sabre, and you go girl.

But.

Let’s look at her alongside Jasper.

…hoo boy.  So we have Rose’s soft, styled pink ringlets, Jasper’s unkempt mane.  Rose’s pillowesque, defined bosom beneath the sweetheart neckline, Jasper’s flat chest under a geometric bodysuit.  Rose’s plump, kissable, full lips, Jasper’s thin mouth, easily curling into a dog-like snarl.  Rose’s soft, rounded arms and hands, Jasper’s defined musculature.  

Let’s keep in mind, please, that Rose has thus far been portrayed as the real force for good in the show.  She’s the hidden motivation behind all of the heroes’ actions, everything done in her name, as she would have wanted.  So what does Rose represent? Warmth, compassion, love, motherhood, hope, kindness, humour, gentleness.  

What does Jasper represent?  Anger, coldness, brutality, ferocity, sadism, disregard for others, bloodlust, vengefulness.

I do not think it was any accident that, in Pearl’s flashback in “Sworn to the Sword”, Rose Quartz was shown squaring off against (a) Jasper.

So why is one blatantly presented as femme and the other as butch?

Why does one make it easier to read a female character as a villain, and one as a hero?

Do I think the showrunners did this on purpose?  Fuck no!  I think they’re actively trying to avoid this kind of stereotyping.  But I think they’re victims of the same kind of subconscious programming that we all are.  They wanted Jasper to be intimidating and Rose motherly, and in the media and culture we all see, intimidating = masculine and motherly = feminine.  It’s the same bullshit we’re all fed since birth.  I mean, in this image of Jasper manhandling Lapis, would it seem as brutal and frightening if Jasper were dressed/designed as Rose?  Even though Rose and Jasper are likely of equal power?

I don’t think so.  And that’s a problem, not just with the show, but with how women are represented in media as a whole, that a woman who is masculine must be violent and brutal.

I hope that Jasper receives more characterization in the future, as the showrunners have promised.  And I hope that more butch, masculine gems will show up.  Because masculine women, whether cis or trans are still part of grand spectrum of femininity, and they deserve their goddamned positive representation along with the rest of us.  Because they are just as beautiful, and just as much part of the spectrum of womanhood, and they deserve to have that known.

I see and understand your point, but Topaz is quite butch herself. Even though she starts out all silent and intimidating, we later find that she’s not actually malevolent in the slightest, she’s just stuck following orders. I do think, regarding some of Sugar’s comments about Jasper, that she in fact WILL be redeemed (hopefully without completely sanding off her “rough edges”) and that there’s a lot about her that we don’t know. Still, it would be GREAT to see more positive butch presentation in this show, speaking as someone who’s kinda butch myself.

Absolutely!  This post was written mid-season two, long before the introduction of Topaz.  Topaz is some much needed positive butch representation!

On Being Pro-Life with Exceptions...

TW: ABORTION

One thing I hear repeatedly from pro-life people is that they don’t believe in abortion except in cases of rape or incest (or the mother’s life is in danger, but that’s another issue). And even if you do believe that abortion is morally and/or legally wrong except in these cases (which I don’t), here’s my question: How do you enforce it?

It’s a simple fact that most rapes go unreported; even fewer result in arrest, and even fewer result in prosecution. So, with that in mind, what are the criteria for allowing an abortion after a woman has been raped?

Is her word good enough? Because I can tell you right now, if I fell pregnant under any circumstances I would have no problem lying through my pearly whites to get the procedure done. If not, what do you need? A police report? An arrest? A guilty verdict? Because that is going to omit the vast, vast majority of rapes.

If your thought is that surely this will make victims more likely to report their rape, I would like you to explain that to the terrified 14-year-old who didn’t realise she was roofied at a party and has zero evidence that she didn’t have a consensual encounter with the nice college football champion, or the domestic violence victim too frightened to report her husband because he threatened to murder their children if she did. Also, if your criterion is a guilty verdict, you are gonna have to talk to the justice department about vastly speeding up their processes, because by the time Daddy is sentenced that zygote will be a fucking toddler.

And the other side of that…what is the penalty for a woman who receives an abortion, but is then found to have lied? What if she gets an abortion on the promise she was raped, and then the accused is acquitted? Does she get arrested next?

I have yet to hear adequate answers to these questions, and it’s something that really bothers me whenever the “exceptions for rape and incest” caveat comes up.

Interestingly, I found an article recently that pretty much refutes most of what you say here, more or less.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/rape-incest-and-abortion-searching-beyond-the-myths#4

However, as for my personal opinion, I have exceptions for abortion that I’ll add onto a bit later. But concerning rape and incest, based on that article above, most women choose not to abort it as it’s a healing process. Normally, I’d prefer not to have circumstances determine the worth of the unborn baby, but if it’s an especially traumatizing event, then it’s there say as it was not consensual in the first place.

Medical evidence will be able to tell if it’s rape or consensual because of signs of forced entry or not. 

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gynecology-and-obstetrics/domestic-violence-and-rape/medical-examination-of-the-rape-victim

Therefore, if under the suspicion of lying, the victim (may or may not be) will have to probably concede to a medical examination as the article above lists the signs of forced entry or else her claim may be seen as lying as there have been false reports of rape that exist.

These times are very tolerant towards abortions, especially since most of them tend to be out of convenience since less than 1% of abortion cases are caused by rape. If that’s either because raped victims chose to keep their baby or it was simply unreported, then who knows. However, that’s the statistic I will utilize for this situation. But if the mother was found to be lying just to have an abortion, then it will have to rely on the question of whether abortion is seen as murdering the unborn child or not. People have varying opinions on it which can then influence the judgement of her sentence, if she ever is acquitted. 

If there’s any I missed, then please point it out as I would like to address them during my next reply. However, this is what I have so far. Your thoughts, if you would be so kind?

Wow, dude.  Here’s a tip: if you’re gonna try to refute a pro-choice argument, don’t link to a pro-life propaganda site, particularly one whose most recent reference is literally 30 years old.

“Most women don’t abort because it’s a healing process?  And the proof of this is anecdotal evidence from a child raped at the age of twelve?  Here, have a study from two years ago by the Harvard School of Medicine which interviewed over 600 women who’d had abortions over the course of three years: over 95% of them not only did not regret the abortion, but believed it was the best choice for them.

Also, your “solution” about there always being clear physical signs of rape is one of the classic misconceptions.  Genital injuries after rape are varied and can be extremely difficult to see; this study from 2011 found that, depending on the examination technique used, the percentage of rape victims that showed genital injuries ranged from 5% to 87%.  So, depending on where the victim happens to be located and the techniques used by local medical and law enforcement staff, she could have a 95% chance of being declared “not raped” by your criteria.  

Let’s not forget, also, that there are plenty of kinds of rape that do not leave injuries.  Reproductive coercion/abuse is a massive, massive issue.  It can range from a husband sabotaging his wife’s birth control pills to some douchebag “stealthing” during a one-night stand because he doesn’t like condoms.  Those are still forms of rape, and they leave no physical signs. 

And on another note…”these times are very tolerant towards abortions”?  Are you talking about France, or Japan, maybe?  Because you can’t be referring to the US, where people have to fight their way through protesters to get into clinics, where clinics exist since so many have closed down, where multiple states restrict funding for abortion (Oklahoma on just these criteria, by the way; rape and incest only), where 24 states require counselling and wait periods (that women who have had to take time off work so they can go to out-of-state clinics because their local Planned Parenthood got shut down often cannot afford to deal with), where federal funding of abortions for federal government employees and their dependents is banned, and where the president of the country has said that women who have abortions should be punished.  Oh, and let’s not even talk about the situation in countries like Northern Ireland, where women have died after being denied an abortion.

And “convenience”…I suppose wanting to feed the rest of the family is “convenience”.  Wanting to finish your education is “convenience”.  Wanting to escape an abusive relationship is “convenience”.  Realising that you would make a terrible parent and committing a child to the hit-and-miss foster care system is “convenience”.  Not wanting to pass on crippling genetic defects is “convenience”.  Having serious health problems that would give pregnancy serious and possibly permanent physical side effects is “convenience”.  I guess, yeah, if that’s how you define “convenience” then sure, that’s why most abortions happen.  And all of these are valid reasons.  All.  Of.  Them.

Please do some more research before you try talking to me again.  And if you’re one of those “nothing will change my mind about abortion being murder types”…well, don’t talk to me again.  Please.

Lmao, if you knew the very definition of convenience, you’d know that it doesn’t include cases of abuse or rape. It means having sex despite not wanting a child and knowing the consequences yet choosing to ignore them. Don’t apply your misinterpretation of convenience to situations that don’t even make sense.

Second, abortion is murder.

http://abort73.com/abortion/common_objections/

Fighting to get into a clinic doesn’t justify your refute. I would’ve expected better than that. 60 million children have died since abortion was legalized in the 1950′s, and this last year, 330,000 unborn babies have died. I would think that’s leniency to abortion, don’t you think?

You do know that women can always buy a new pack of birth control pills than just sitting there and letting it happen, lmao. And if the guy “stealths” during a one night stand, then of course he’s liable to charges, but that doesn’t deem a baby’s existence. You’re just finding excuses to diminish the value of a life.

As of concerning rape, maybe they don’t leave behind evidence or it’s coercion, however, even if signs vary, there still is evidence that can be utilized. These scenarios still are separate from the issue of a baby’s worth, but if traumatizing, then it’s their personal opinion. However, it still doesn’t determine that one’s opinion supersedes someone’s life before they’re even born. 

Again, concerning traumatizing situations, I’d prefer that the baby be kept alive, but it’s up to them personally, despite it concerning more than two lives. And even if evidence of rape is hard to see, it’s still there and that can’t be refuted. Just using that excuse is rather lame.

Oh, last thing before I wipe you from my mind forever, I will point out that at least 13% of those 330 000 abortions performed were due to serious birth defects, but please, don’t let that get in the way of your self-righteous rhetoric.

Lmao, you afraid? Also, nice to know.

Terrified.  Utterly terrified of your refusal to do actual research in favour of parroting “Abortion’s bad! Abortion’s bad!” since that actual research might force you to think occasionally.  Shaking in my booties of the idea of wasting my time any further.  Shoo, fly.  Go back to church and tell them all how you scared the big mean pro-choicer.

On Being Pro-Life with Exceptions...

TW: ABORTION

One thing I hear repeatedly from pro-life people is that they don’t believe in abortion except in cases of rape or incest (or the mother’s life is in danger, but that’s another issue). And even if you do believe that abortion is morally and/or legally wrong except in these cases (which I don’t), here’s my question: How do you enforce it?

It’s a simple fact that most rapes go unreported; even fewer result in arrest, and even fewer result in prosecution. So, with that in mind, what are the criteria for allowing an abortion after a woman has been raped?

Is her word good enough? Because I can tell you right now, if I fell pregnant under any circumstances I would have no problem lying through my pearly whites to get the procedure done. If not, what do you need? A police report? An arrest? A guilty verdict? Because that is going to omit the vast, vast majority of rapes.

If your thought is that surely this will make victims more likely to report their rape, I would like you to explain that to the terrified 14-year-old who didn’t realise she was roofied at a party and has zero evidence that she didn’t have a consensual encounter with the nice college football champion, or the domestic violence victim too frightened to report her husband because he threatened to murder their children if she did. Also, if your criterion is a guilty verdict, you are gonna have to talk to the justice department about vastly speeding up their processes, because by the time Daddy is sentenced that zygote will be a fucking toddler.

And the other side of that…what is the penalty for a woman who receives an abortion, but is then found to have lied? What if she gets an abortion on the promise she was raped, and then the accused is acquitted? Does she get arrested next?

I have yet to hear adequate answers to these questions, and it’s something that really bothers me whenever the “exceptions for rape and incest” caveat comes up.

Interestingly, I found an article recently that pretty much refutes most of what you say here, more or less.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/rape-incest-and-abortion-searching-beyond-the-myths#4

However, as for my personal opinion, I have exceptions for abortion that I’ll add onto a bit later. But concerning rape and incest, based on that article above, most women choose not to abort it as it’s a healing process. Normally, I’d prefer not to have circumstances determine the worth of the unborn baby, but if it’s an especially traumatizing event, then it’s there say as it was not consensual in the first place.

Medical evidence will be able to tell if it’s rape or consensual because of signs of forced entry or not. 

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gynecology-and-obstetrics/domestic-violence-and-rape/medical-examination-of-the-rape-victim

Therefore, if under the suspicion of lying, the victim (may or may not be) will have to probably concede to a medical examination as the article above lists the signs of forced entry or else her claim may be seen as lying as there have been false reports of rape that exist.

These times are very tolerant towards abortions, especially since most of them tend to be out of convenience since less than 1% of abortion cases are caused by rape. If that’s either because raped victims chose to keep their baby or it was simply unreported, then who knows. However, that’s the statistic I will utilize for this situation. But if the mother was found to be lying just to have an abortion, then it will have to rely on the question of whether abortion is seen as murdering the unborn child or not. People have varying opinions on it which can then influence the judgement of her sentence, if she ever is acquitted. 

If there’s any I missed, then please point it out as I would like to address them during my next reply. However, this is what I have so far. Your thoughts, if you would be so kind?

Wow, dude.  Here’s a tip: if you’re gonna try to refute a pro-choice argument, don’t link to a pro-life propaganda site, particularly one whose most recent reference is literally 30 years old.

“Most women don’t abort because it’s a healing process?  And the proof of this is anecdotal evidence from a child raped at the age of twelve?  Here, have a study from two years ago by the Harvard School of Medicine which interviewed over 600 women who’d had abortions over the course of three years: over 95% of them not only did not regret the abortion, but believed it was the best choice for them.

Also, your “solution” about there always being clear physical signs of rape is one of the classic misconceptions.  Genital injuries after rape are varied and can be extremely difficult to see; this study from 2011 found that, depending on the examination technique used, the percentage of rape victims that showed genital injuries ranged from 5% to 87%.  So, depending on where the victim happens to be located and the techniques used by local medical and law enforcement staff, she could have a 95% chance of being declared “not raped” by your criteria.  

Let’s not forget, also, that there are plenty of kinds of rape that do not leave injuries.  Reproductive coercion/abuse is a massive, massive issue.  It can range from a husband sabotaging his wife’s birth control pills to some douchebag “stealthing” during a one-night stand because he doesn’t like condoms.  Those are still forms of rape, and they leave no physical signs. 

And on another note…”these times are very tolerant towards abortions”?  Are you talking about France, or Japan, maybe?  Because you can’t be referring to the US, where people have to fight their way through protesters to get into clinics, where clinics exist since so many have closed down, where multiple states restrict funding for abortion (Oklahoma on just these criteria, by the way; rape and incest only), where 24 states require counselling and wait periods (that women who have had to take time off work so they can go to out-of-state clinics because their local Planned Parenthood got shut down often cannot afford to deal with), where federal funding of abortions for federal government employees and their dependents is banned, and where the president of the country has said that women who have abortions should be punished.  Oh, and let’s not even talk about the situation in countries like Northern Ireland, where women have died after being denied an abortion.

And “convenience”…I suppose wanting to feed the rest of the family is “convenience”.  Wanting to finish your education is “convenience”.  Wanting to escape an abusive relationship is “convenience”.  Realising that you would make a terrible parent and committing a child to the hit-and-miss foster care system is “convenience”.  Not wanting to pass on crippling genetic defects is “convenience”.  Having serious health problems that would give pregnancy serious and possibly permanent physical side effects is “convenience”.  I guess, yeah, if that’s how you define “convenience” then sure, that’s why most abortions happen.  And all of these are valid reasons.  All.  Of.  Them.

Please do some more research before you try talking to me again.  And if you’re one of those “nothing will change my mind about abortion being murder types”…well, don’t talk to me again.  Please.

Lmao, if you knew the very definition of convenience, you’d know that it doesn’t include cases of abuse or rape. It means having sex despite not wanting a child and knowing the consequences yet choosing to ignore them. Don’t apply your misinterpretation of convenience to situations that don’t even make sense.

Second, abortion is murder.

http://abort73.com/abortion/common_objections/

Fighting to get into a clinic doesn’t justify your refute. I would’ve expected better than that. 60 million children have died since abortion was legalized in the 1950′s, and this last year, 330,000 unborn babies have died. I would think that’s leniency to abortion, don’t you think?

You do know that women can always buy a new pack of birth control pills than just sitting there and letting it happen, lmao. And if the guy “stealths” during a one night stand, then of course he’s liable to charges, but that doesn’t deem a baby’s existence. You’re just finding excuses to diminish the value of a life.

As of concerning rape, maybe they don’t leave behind evidence or it’s coercion, however, even if signs vary, there still is evidence that can be utilized. These scenarios still are separate from the issue of a baby’s worth, but if traumatizing, then it’s their personal opinion. However, it still doesn’t determine that one’s opinion supersedes someone’s life before they’re even born. 

Again, concerning traumatizing situations, I’d prefer that the baby be kept alive, but it’s up to them personally, despite it concerning more than two lives. And even if evidence of rape is hard to see, it’s still there and that can’t be refuted. Just using that excuse is rather lame.

Oh, last thing before I wipe you from my mind forever, I will point out that at least 13% of those 330 000 abortions performed were due to serious birth defects, but please, don’t let that get in the way of your self-righteous rhetoric.

On Being Pro-Life with Exceptions...

TW: ABORTION

One thing I hear repeatedly from pro-life people is that they don’t believe in abortion except in cases of rape or incest (or the mother’s life is in danger, but that’s another issue). And even if you do believe that abortion is morally and/or legally wrong except in these cases (which I don’t), here’s my question: How do you enforce it?

It’s a simple fact that most rapes go unreported; even fewer result in arrest, and even fewer result in prosecution. So, with that in mind, what are the criteria for allowing an abortion after a woman has been raped?

Is her word good enough? Because I can tell you right now, if I fell pregnant under any circumstances I would have no problem lying through my pearly whites to get the procedure done. If not, what do you need? A police report? An arrest? A guilty verdict? Because that is going to omit the vast, vast majority of rapes.

If your thought is that surely this will make victims more likely to report their rape, I would like you to explain that to the terrified 14-year-old who didn’t realise she was roofied at a party and has zero evidence that she didn’t have a consensual encounter with the nice college football champion, or the domestic violence victim too frightened to report her husband because he threatened to murder their children if she did. Also, if your criterion is a guilty verdict, you are gonna have to talk to the justice department about vastly speeding up their processes, because by the time Daddy is sentenced that zygote will be a fucking toddler.

And the other side of that…what is the penalty for a woman who receives an abortion, but is then found to have lied? What if she gets an abortion on the promise she was raped, and then the accused is acquitted? Does she get arrested next?

I have yet to hear adequate answers to these questions, and it’s something that really bothers me whenever the “exceptions for rape and incest” caveat comes up.

Interestingly, I found an article recently that pretty much refutes most of what you say here, more or less.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/rape-incest-and-abortion-searching-beyond-the-myths#4

However, as for my personal opinion, I have exceptions for abortion that I’ll add onto a bit later. But concerning rape and incest, based on that article above, most women choose not to abort it as it’s a healing process. Normally, I’d prefer not to have circumstances determine the worth of the unborn baby, but if it’s an especially traumatizing event, then it’s there say as it was not consensual in the first place.

Medical evidence will be able to tell if it’s rape or consensual because of signs of forced entry or not. 

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gynecology-and-obstetrics/domestic-violence-and-rape/medical-examination-of-the-rape-victim

Therefore, if under the suspicion of lying, the victim (may or may not be) will have to probably concede to a medical examination as the article above lists the signs of forced entry or else her claim may be seen as lying as there have been false reports of rape that exist.

These times are very tolerant towards abortions, especially since most of them tend to be out of convenience since less than 1% of abortion cases are caused by rape. If that’s either because raped victims chose to keep their baby or it was simply unreported, then who knows. However, that’s the statistic I will utilize for this situation. But if the mother was found to be lying just to have an abortion, then it will have to rely on the question of whether abortion is seen as murdering the unborn child or not. People have varying opinions on it which can then influence the judgement of her sentence, if she ever is acquitted. 

If there’s any I missed, then please point it out as I would like to address them during my next reply. However, this is what I have so far. Your thoughts, if you would be so kind?

Wow, dude.  Here’s a tip: if you’re gonna try to refute a pro-choice argument, don’t link to a pro-life propaganda site, particularly one whose most recent reference is literally 30 years old.

“Most women don’t abort because it’s a healing process?  And the proof of this is anecdotal evidence from a child raped at the age of twelve?  Here, have a study from two years ago by the Harvard School of Medicine which interviewed over 600 women who’d had abortions over the course of three years: over 95% of them not only did not regret the abortion, but believed it was the best choice for them.

Also, your “solution” about there always being clear physical signs of rape is one of the classic misconceptions.  Genital injuries after rape are varied and can be extremely difficult to see; this study from 2011 found that, depending on the examination technique used, the percentage of rape victims that showed genital injuries ranged from 5% to 87%.  So, depending on where the victim happens to be located and the techniques used by local medical and law enforcement staff, she could have a 95% chance of being declared “not raped” by your criteria.  

Let’s not forget, also, that there are plenty of kinds of rape that do not leave injuries.  Reproductive coercion/abuse is a massive, massive issue.  It can range from a husband sabotaging his wife’s birth control pills to some douchebag “stealthing” during a one-night stand because he doesn’t like condoms.  Those are still forms of rape, and they leave no physical signs. 

And on another note…”these times are very tolerant towards abortions”?  Are you talking about France, or Japan, maybe?  Because you can’t be referring to the US, where people have to fight their way through protesters to get into clinics, where clinics exist since so many have closed down, where multiple states restrict funding for abortion (Oklahoma on just these criteria, by the way; rape and incest only), where 24 states require counselling and wait periods (that women who have had to take time off work so they can go to out-of-state clinics because their local Planned Parenthood got shut down often cannot afford to deal with), where federal funding of abortions for federal government employees and their dependents is banned, and where the president of the country has said that women who have abortions should be punished.  Oh, and let’s not even talk about the situation in countries like Northern Ireland, where women have died after being denied an abortion.

And “convenience”…I suppose wanting to feed the rest of the family is “convenience”.  Wanting to finish your education is “convenience”.  Wanting to escape an abusive relationship is “convenience”.  Realising that you would make a terrible parent and committing a child to the hit-and-miss foster care system is “convenience”.  Not wanting to pass on crippling genetic defects is “convenience”.  Having serious health problems that would give pregnancy serious and possibly permanent physical side effects is “convenience”.  I guess, yeah, if that’s how you define “convenience” then sure, that’s why most abortions happen.  And all of these are valid reasons.  All.  Of.  Them.

Please do some more research before you try talking to me again.  And if you’re one of those “nothing will change my mind about abortion being murder types”…well, don’t talk to me again.  Please.

Lmao, if you knew the very definition of convenience, you’d know that it doesn’t include cases of abuse or rape. It means having sex despite not wanting a child and knowing the consequences yet choosing to ignore them. Don’t apply your misinterpretation of convenience to situations that don’t even make sense.

Second, abortion is murder.

http://abort73.com/abortion/common_objections/

Fighting to get into a clinic doesn’t justify your refute. I would’ve expected better than that. 60 million children have died since abortion was legalized in the 1950′s, and this last year, 330,000 unborn babies have died. I would think that’s leniency to abortion, don’t you think?

You do know that women can always buy a new pack of birth control pills than just sitting there and letting it happen, lmao. And if the guy “stealths” during a one night stand, then of course he’s liable to charges, but that doesn’t deem a baby’s existence. You’re just finding excuses to diminish the value of a life.

As of concerning rape, maybe they don’t leave behind evidence or it’s coercion, however, even if signs vary, there still is evidence that can be utilized. These scenarios still are separate from the issue of a baby’s worth, but if traumatizing, then it’s their personal opinion. However, it still doesn’t determine that one’s opinion supersedes someone’s life before they’re even born. 

Again, concerning traumatizing situations, I’d prefer that the baby be kept alive, but it’s up to them personally, despite it concerning more than two lives. And even if evidence of rape is hard to see, it’s still there and that can’t be refuted. Just using that excuse is rather lame.

Oh look, linking again to a pro-life propaganda site rather than using any actual facts.  And completely dismissing the effect of domestic violence, and ignoring my point that not all forms of rape are provable by purely physical means.  What is this mysterious “evidence that can be utilized/is hard to see” of which you speak? You know what, never mind.  I’m sure it’s another link to propganda rather than any actual evidence.  So just do me a favour and never speak to me again.

On Being Pro-Life with Exceptions...

TW: ABORTION

One thing I hear repeatedly from pro-life people is that they don’t believe in abortion except in cases of rape or incest (or the mother’s life is in danger, but that’s another issue). And even if you do believe that abortion is morally and/or legally wrong except in these cases (which I don’t), here’s my question: How do you enforce it?

It’s a simple fact that most rapes go unreported; even fewer result in arrest, and even fewer result in prosecution. So, with that in mind, what are the criteria for allowing an abortion after a woman has been raped?

Is her word good enough? Because I can tell you right now, if I fell pregnant under any circumstances I would have no problem lying through my pearly whites to get the procedure done. If not, what do you need? A police report? An arrest? A guilty verdict? Because that is going to omit the vast, vast majority of rapes.

If your thought is that surely this will make victims more likely to report their rape, I would like you to explain that to the terrified 14-year-old who didn’t realise she was roofied at a party and has zero evidence that she didn’t have a consensual encounter with the nice college football champion, or the domestic violence victim too frightened to report her husband because he threatened to murder their children if she did. Also, if your criterion is a guilty verdict, you are gonna have to talk to the justice department about vastly speeding up their processes, because by the time Daddy is sentenced that zygote will be a fucking toddler.

And the other side of that…what is the penalty for a woman who receives an abortion, but is then found to have lied? What if she gets an abortion on the promise she was raped, and then the accused is acquitted? Does she get arrested next?

I have yet to hear adequate answers to these questions, and it’s something that really bothers me whenever the “exceptions for rape and incest” caveat comes up.

Interestingly, I found an article recently that pretty much refutes most of what you say here, more or less.

http://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/rape-incest-and-abortion-searching-beyond-the-myths#4

However, as for my personal opinion, I have exceptions for abortion that I’ll add onto a bit later. But concerning rape and incest, based on that article above, most women choose not to abort it as it’s a healing process. Normally, I’d prefer not to have circumstances determine the worth of the unborn baby, but if it’s an especially traumatizing event, then it’s there say as it was not consensual in the first place.

Medical evidence will be able to tell if it’s rape or consensual because of signs of forced entry or not. 

http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gynecology-and-obstetrics/domestic-violence-and-rape/medical-examination-of-the-rape-victim

Therefore, if under the suspicion of lying, the victim (may or may not be) will have to probably concede to a medical examination as the article above lists the signs of forced entry or else her claim may be seen as lying as there have been false reports of rape that exist.

These times are very tolerant towards abortions, especially since most of them tend to be out of convenience since less than 1% of abortion cases are caused by rape. If that’s either because raped victims chose to keep their baby or it was simply unreported, then who knows. However, that’s the statistic I will utilize for this situation. But if the mother was found to be lying just to have an abortion, then it will have to rely on the question of whether abortion is seen as murdering the unborn child or not. People have varying opinions on it which can then influence the judgement of her sentence, if she ever is acquitted. 

If there’s any I missed, then please point it out as I would like to address them during my next reply. However, this is what I have so far. Your thoughts, if you would be so kind?

Wow, dude.  Here’s a tip: if you’re gonna try to refute a pro-choice argument, don’t link to a pro-life propaganda site, particularly one whose most recent reference is literally 30 years old.

“Most women don’t abort because it’s a healing process?  And the proof of this is anecdotal evidence from a child raped at the age of twelve?  Here, have a study from two years ago by the Harvard School of Medicine which interviewed over 600 women who’d had abortions over the course of three years: over 95% of them not only did not regret the abortion, but believed it was the best choice for them.

Also, your “solution” about there always being clear physical signs of rape is one of the classic misconceptions.  Genital injuries after rape are varied and can be extremely difficult to see; this study from 2011 found that, depending on the examination technique used, the percentage of rape victims that showed genital injuries ranged from 5% to 87%.  So, depending on where the victim happens to be located and the techniques used by local medical and law enforcement staff, she could have a 95% chance of being declared “not raped” by your criteria.  

Let’s not forget, also, that there are plenty of kinds of rape that do not leave injuries.  Reproductive coercion/abuse is a massive, massive issue.  It can range from a husband sabotaging his wife’s birth control pills to some douchebag “stealthing” during a one-night stand because he doesn’t like condoms.  Those are still forms of rape, and they leave no physical signs. 

And on another note...”these times are very tolerant towards abortions”?  Are you talking about France, or Japan, maybe?  Because you can’t be referring to the US, where people have to fight their way through protesters to get into clinics, where clinics exist since so many have closed down, where multiple states restrict funding for abortion (Oklahoma on just these criteria, by the way; rape and incest only), where 24 states require counselling and wait periods (that women who have had to take time off work so they can go to out-of-state clinics because their local Planned Parenthood got shut down often cannot afford to deal with), where federal funding of abortions for federal government employees and their dependents is banned, and where the president of the country has said that women who have abortions should be punished.  Oh, and let’s not even talk about the situation in countries like Northern Ireland, where women have died after being denied an abortion.

And “convenience”...I suppose wanting to feed the rest of the family is “convenience”.  Wanting to finish your education is “convenience”.  Wanting to escape an abusive relationship is “convenience”.  Realising that you would make a terrible parent and committing a child to the hit-and-miss foster care system is “convenience”.  Not wanting to pass on crippling genetic defects is “convenience”.  Having serious health problems that would give pregnancy serious and possibly permanent physical side effects is “convenience”.  I guess, yeah, if that’s how you define “convenience” then sure, that’s why most abortions happen.  And all of these are valid reasons.  All.  Of.  Them.

Please do some more research before you try talking to me again.  And if you’re one of those “nothing will change my mind about abortion being murder types”...well, don’t talk to me again.  Please.

The California condor does not have the large sternum that would usually anchor its powerful flight muscles.  As such, it has a hard time taking off and has to beat its wings hard until it gets to a certain level off the ground.  Once they’ve reached this level, however, they are accomplished soarers and gliders, sometimes traveling for miles upon miles without flapping their wings even once.  They can achieve speeds of up to 90 km per hour, and heights of over 15 000 feet.

The California condor is North America’s largest land bird.  At around 30 pounds in weight and with a wingspan of up to ten feet, it is sometimes mistaken for a small plane when seen flying at a distance!  In addition to this, it is one of the world’s longest living birds, with some individuals living for over 60 years.

Given the strange appearance of the platypus, it’s perhaps no surprise that European scientists thought it was a joke.  Naturalist George Shaw stated that it was “impossible not to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of the animal, and to surmise that there might have been practised some arts of deception in its structure.”  He even took a pair of scissors to the taxidermied specimen to check for stitches. 

Another naturalist, Robert Knox, stated that many in the scientific community thought that the platypus was a joke put together by Chinese sailors, who were known for playing these kinds of hoaxes.  He wrote, “Aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers, the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art.”

The platypus’ bill isn’t just for looks!  Unlike a bird’s hard, horny beak, the platypus’ bill is soft, flexible, and leathery, with a texture sometimes compared to that of suede.  The bill is a sensory organ, and is loaded with receptors that detect both touch and electrical signals given off by living things.  The platypus is one of only two mammals able to detect electrical fields (the other being a species of echidna).  Because it seals its eyes, nose, and ears shut when it dives, the platypus hunts its prey using only the sensors in its bill, rooting in the mud and searching for the electrical signals that let them know they have found an animal to eat.

The platypus has a very unique pair of eyes.  Double cone cells are photoreceptors found in the eyes of most fish, birds, and reptiles, but that are never seen in the placental mammals.  The platypus is one of only a very few mammals that have double cone cells in their eyes.  In fact, recent studies have suggested that the eyes of the platypus are much more similar to the eyes of certain hagfish and lampreys than to most other animals.

The platypus hunts blind, shutting its eyes tight when it is under the water.  However, certain features of its eyes, such as a curved posterior lens surface, are similar to those found in sea lions and otters, suggesting that at one time the platypus was a visual hunter.

...this makes me unreasonably happy.

The platypus is one of the Earth’s few venomous mammals.  Both male and females platypuses possess spur buds on their hind legs; the females lose theirs in the first year of life, but during the breeding season the male’s crural glands produce a powerful venom.  These spurs can move at a right angle to the animal’s legs, and can be flattened or raised depending on the situation.  They are most likely used against other males platypuses during the breeding season, but can also be used in self-defense.  The venom is strong enough to paralyse smaller animals and sometimes kill dogs, though there have been no reported fatalities in humans.  “Non-fatal” does not mean “painless”, however; those who have suffered a platypus sting report it as being excruciatingly painful.  One army veteran who was stung by a platypus reported that the resulting pain was worse than being hit by shrapnel, and he was still experiencing discomfort and stiffness 15 years after the incident.

The platypus is born with teeth, specifically two premolars and four molars, in their upper jaws.  However, these teeth drop out around the time the baby is weaned and leaves its mother’s burrow, leaving the animal with horny plates in its jaw for grinding and macerating food.  An adult platypus will also scoop up mouthfuls of sand and gravel with its prey to help mash it up.

@staff, please add a “prove you’re not a robot” screening device before allowing one blog to follow another blog.  Gross sites are constantly sending out bots to follow me and anyone else they can find with the hope of attracting hits to their sites.  I am sick of weeding them out of my followers list, and it could be so easily fixed.

Please fix this.  Don’t make me block each one individually, it’s depressing and sleazy to deal with.

hey @staff this shouldn’t be difficult to do.

Actual good idea.

The porn blogs are getting extra ridiculous. @staff please do us a thing?

Also @staff there are minors to think of who these bots are following. There’s no way to not see the content when trying to block them. Think about the legal ramifications. Just saying. 

Did there used to be a “Report” button? Probably not, but it gets tiring blocking so many gross gross porn bots, @staff. If we could report them, at least we’d feel like there was a CHANCE some of them would get taken down.

Plus, there’s sex repulsed aces @staff​ Please add this feature. It could also really tamp down the gross link spammers that still clog up tags every now and again.

not that I don’t think this is a good idea, but has anyone actually got directly in touch with the staff about this? because I’m 100% sure they don’t check their mentions

Please!  I actually run a blog for an endangered species charity, and the number of porn blogs I have to block is completely ridiculous.

Do you know what the plural of “platypus” is?  Many people don’t!  The assumption is often “platypi”, but this is incorrect, as this is a Latin pluralization and the word “platypus” is derived from the Greek.  The correct grammatical term would be “platypodes”, but most scientists simply go with the word “platypuses”.

The platypus is one of only five species of monotremes, mammals that lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young.  Monotremes have a number of “primitive” features, including a reptile-like gait (their legs are on their sides, rather than under their bodies), lack teeth in adults, have a unique jaw structure, and lack a corpus callosum (the tissue that connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain).  The other four monotremes are all species of echidna; the platypus is the only living member of its genus and family.

One of the most prominent myths about the platypus told by Australian aborigines is that, back in the Dreaming, the platypus, believed to be a hybrid of a duck and a water rat, was pressured by the other animals to join one of their groups.  Since he shared features with all of them, the birds, land animals, and water animals all courted the platypus, struggling to persuade him to ally with them.  But in the end, the platypus chose none of them.  He decided he did not need to be part of a group to be special.

In 2002, two years after the Spix’s macaw had been declared extinct in the wild, a young woman who happened to be a parrot lover answered the phone at the veterinary office where she worked.  The woman on the other end stated that she had a Spix’s macaw, and was looking for tips on how to care for it.  Mickey Santi, the woman who had answered the phone, was both surprised and skeptical, but agreed to come out and see the bird.  When she got to the woman’s house, she was horrified; alone, bedraggled, and crammed into a 2x2x2 cage, was indeed a Spix’s macaw.  The middle-aged owner of the house, who claimed to have had the bird since the 1970s, had no idea of her pet’s rarity.  

It’s likely that Presley, the macaw, was stolen from the wild and sold as a pet.  He had lived in this cage so long, with his wings clipped, that he could no longer fly.  For decades he’d lived with an Amazon parrot, but that companion had recently died, leaving Presley alone and miserable.  He was underweight, and his perches were too wide, leaving him unable to perch properly and his toes weak.  He had no toys, was being fed only pellets, and his owner “had trouble” giving him a bath.  

Santi managed to persuade the woman to give Presley up, and moved him to a larger enclosure that she built herself.  Terrified that he might catch some illness or another, she purchased toys only from wholesalers and insisted on people showering before they came into contact with the bird.  She also played recordings of Spix’s macaws calling to each other, and for the first time, Presley seemed to get excited and take an interest in life again.

Eventually, Presley made his way from Denver, Colorado, where he had been living for nearly 30 years, to Sao Paolo, Brazil.  Santi literally smuggled Presley the first leg of the journey, a flight from Colorado to Florida, by stuffing him under her shirt throughout the journey.  Finally, Presley was brought to the Lymington Foundation in Brazil, where a small captive population of Spix’s macaws were being kept and bred.  Presley, estimated to be 40 years old and having spent almost three quarters of his life in a cage, was finally home.  His journey is the inspiration behind the movie “Rio”.

Sadly, unlike his fictional counterpart, Presley never had a family.  Despite attempts to find him a suitable mate and breed him, Presley never fathered any chicks.  Although he was a much healthier and happier bird with his new family, he died in 2014 without leaving any offspring.