Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

For their government, “celibacy syndrome” is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. Its population of 126 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade, is projected to plunge a further one-third by 2060. Aoyama believes the country is experiencing “a flight from human intimacy” – and it’s partly the government’s fault.

Image source and full article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

“…I wonder if my lineage is one of women shrinking” [VIDEO]

Highly recommended!

1:40 you have been taught to grow out, I have been taught to grow in; you learn from our father how to emit, how to produce, how to roll each thought off your tongue with confidence – you used to lose your voice every other week from shouting so much.
I learned to absorb. I took lessons from my mother in creating space around myself. I learned to read the knots in her forehead while the guys went out for oysters…

H/T: http://www.upworthy.com/watch-a-student-totally-nail-something-about-women-that-ive-been-trying-to-articulate-for-37-years-6?g=3&c=ufb1

God, Gender, and Discomfort

Discomfort Part 1: Gender and Other Discomforting Topics

http://sebailey.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/discomfort-part-1-gender-and-other-discomforting-topics/

And, since I never want to make anyone uncomfortable, I know that it’s better to just stay silent.

Except that it isn’t. What’s better is to say something that isn’t quite right and then talk about the ways in which it is wrong. I hate the discomfort of being wrong, but the fact of the matter is that language can never get it fully right and so to think and explore necessitates risking some measure of wrong-ness. But just because it is some wrong doesn’t mean it isn’t also some right. To challenge the status quo and to create a new imagination I must risk the discomfort of wrong in order to also experience the joy and renewal of right.

Image source and article: http://sebailey.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/discomfort-part-1-gender-and-other-discomforting-topics/

The real boy crisis: 5 ways America tells boys not to be “girly”

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/25/5_ways_america_tells_boys_not_to_be_girly/

When boys are taught that they can’t “be like girls” it has the threefold effect. First, it alienates them from core aspects of themselves. Second, it portrays what is feminine as undesirable and inferior. Third, it forces boys into a “man box” from which emotions and empathy are excluded.

Image source and article: http://www.salon.com/2013/09/25/5_ways_america_tells_boys_not_to_be_girly/

What we need, instead, are more stories like this:
What I Won’t Tell You About My Ballet Dancing Son

Transgender issues are more complicated than some Christians portray

http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/08/19/transgender-issues-more-complicated-than-some-christians-portray/

Christians believe that God not only creates our bodies, but also our minds. Are one’s external created realities more revealing about God’s intentions than one’s internal created realities?

I suspect many Christians are like me and haven’t considered all the theological, ethical, and scientific intricacies of this issue. Perhaps we are afraid that what we discover will stretch the bounds of our thinking.

Image source and article: http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/08/19/transgender-issues-more-complicated-than-some-christians-portray/

Is Gender-Flipping The Most Important Meme Ever?

“The basic skill to develop, though, is the one that lies at the heart of flipping: asking, “What if?” If I were a woman, would I talk to me at parties? If women told men their complaints were irrelevant, would that attitude be worth worth fighting? If I were writing about a male musician, would I talk about his clothes and his famous exes this much? If I drew Hawkeye in the pose I’m sketching Black Widow in right now, would he look ridiculous?”

Image source and article: http://junkee.com/flip-it-and-reverse-it-how-to-fight-the-gender-wars/15081

For strong daughters, stop with the sex stereotypes

“A boy received best engineer. A girl got best friend. Another girl was the best helper, and another most compassionate. A boy received best break dancer. A girl was named most athletic, and the teacher told us how when all the class raced around the track this girl ‘beat everyone! Even the boys!…’

Many decades after the feminist movement of the 1960s, why are we still stuck in this gender-norming rut?”

Image source and article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/opinion/perry-gender-children/index.html