Samhita

Posts Written by Samhita

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Quick hit: You can have all the sexes, ultimately, it’s good parenting that matters

Yup, a new study released in Great Britain finds that children of same-sex parents are thriving. Via Think Progress, the study by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering released today has found that concerns about same-sex families are “unfounded.”

The report released by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) details the experiences of 130 adoptive families, 49 of which are run by heterosexual couples, 41 by gay men and 40 by lesbian parents.

Carried out by Cambridge University’s Center for Family Research into adoptive parenting, its release today (4 March) coincides with LGBT Adoption and Fostering week.

Professor Susan Golombok, director of the Centre for Family Research and co-author of the report, has said: ‘Overall we found markedly more similarities than differences in experiences between family types.’

Speaking to The Observer, she added: ‘The anxieties about the potentially negative effects for children of being placed with gay fathers seem to be, from our study, unfounded.’

Also, duh. Also, take that right-wingnuts trying to ban same-sex couples from adopting children.

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Scientists say a baby girl born with HIV has been cured

A turning point in HIV/AIDs medicine yesterday–scientists have found a baby girl that they believe has been cured of HIV through the application of heavy doses of anti-viral drugs within the first 2 days of birth.

via NPR,

The fact that the newborn tested positive for HIV within 30 hours of birth is a sign she was probably infected in utero, HIV specialists say.

Gay decided to begin treating the child immediately, with the first dose of antivirals given within 31 hours of birth. That’s faster than most infants born with HIV get treated, and specialists think it’s one important factor in the child’s cure.

In addition, Gay gave higher-than-usual, “therapeutic” doses of three powerful HIV drugs rather than the “prophylactic” doses usually ...

via ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

The Oscars gets bro-tastic

Seth MacFarlane put on quite the show last night hosting the Oscars. For a show that could use a dose of relevant humor, he chose a different path–making, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and sizist jokes. And beyond being offensive, they weren’t very funny either–instead awkward and uncomfortable, throwing off the tenor of the Oscars.

The opener, a song about actor lady “boobs” as they can be seen in movies, could have quite possibly been the “creative” concept that the rest of the show aligned around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TWLKP8j0zk

Now that you’ve sat through that, imagine watching the whole awards ceremony! BuzzFeed Shift put together a list of 9 sexist things they picked up on during the show.

In the face of this tacky framing, some ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

10 things we’ve learned from Vanessa

As you know, Vanessa Valenti, one of the driving forces behind what has made Feministing so great, left us to fully engage in her robust consulting career and business partnership with Courtney Martin. When people leave Feministing, they generally move on to more kinds of awesome, but Vanessa’s role in shaping this space can’t really even be quantified and we certainly don’t want it to be forgotten.

Vanessa is not only an amazing writer, she’s also a defender of voices less heard, a fierce (and intimidating if you are not nice to us!) advocate for her friends, a dance floor killa’, and truly, one of the most compassionate people I have ever known. We love Vanessa so much, ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Do we need another Feminine Mystique?

As Syreeta mentioned a few days ago in the Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet–the Feminine Mystique is turning 50. Fifty-years since the launch of this important, yet problematic book, and everyone is asking–how far have we really come? And where do we go from here? These are salient questions, even if they frustrate those of us post-gender theory nerds that fit squarely in the “it’s not just about women anymore” camp. Or those that have read about Friedan’s own disinterest in radical feminism.

In Room for Debate at the NYTimes, a few familiar names start the conversation. Courtney writes that the old “soul-killing minutiae” of suburban life has been replaced with a new “superwoman” ethos, forcing women to attempt having it ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

It’s time to Occupy Valentine’s Day! This year–send a Valentine to your favorite feminist!

Did Adele yell at Chris Brown for not standing up for Frank Ocean? (We hope so).

Similarly, how about no more passes for abusers?

Five things to remember about telemedical abortions when anti-choicers go HAM.

The jobs with the biggest and smallest gender pay gap.

Why VAWA is important for Native women.

On Melissa McCarthy, weight and the reviews for Identity Thief.

A recommendation of seventeen essays by female writers that everyone should read.

It’s time to Occupy Valentine’s Day! This year–send a Valentine to your favorite feminist!

Did Adele yell at Chris Brown for not standing up for Frank Ocean? (We hope so).

Similarly, how about no more passes

By Samhita • 13 years ago

It’ll take more than Bobby Jindal to fix this

Despite Republicans’ long standing campaign of boning up relationships in the Asian community–it turns out, Asians as a voting bloc lean to the left. This is significant for many reasons and brings up a lot of questions, like why? Well, the reasons are probably varied and nuanced, but what we can say is this–it is statistically significant and the right can’t ignore it (or use us as pawns in their PR campaigns about faux-versity).

Jamelle Bouie points out at the American Prospect–Asians are left out of the conversation on immigration, yet immigrate at a higher rate than Latinos. And he made a chart showing the shift in support towards Obama.

It’s hard to figure out exactly what the reasons are ...

By Samhita • 13 years ago

Fox news weight “expert” says Kelly Clarkson and Adele need to lose weight

No, seriously–it’s bad enough that Fox News wasted a segment on Adele and Kelly Clarkson’s weight post-Grammys, but instead of just being the tabloid news show they are, they tried to give real analysis. And they end up perpetuating crappy myths about weight, weight-loss and health. Neil Cavuto had on nutritionist Keren Gilbert who said, if either of them walked into her office, she would advise them to lose weight.

http://youtu.be/79_DAePotgs

Suggesting that Adele and Kelly Clarkson are hardworking and it’s surprising they are not thin spreads toxic ideas about weight loss, specifically that if you try hard enough you can get that model body (because obvi everyone wants that model bod!). This assertion is also false!

Let’s ignore that Gilbert glossed over the ...