September 16th 2024
Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
5 minute read
September 13, 2024 12:26 PM EDT
There’s a hidden gender gap when it comes to digestive problems, with women taking the lead in this unpleasant contest. While men are hardly immune to gastrointestinal woes, certain digestive problems are considerably more common in women. “Women aren’t broken—they’re just different,” says Dr. Jeanetta Frye, a gastroenterologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. For one thing, she says, “women have more visceral hypersensitivity so they may feel gastrointestinal symptoms more intensely.”
Symptom sensitivity aside, there’s clear evidence that certain digestive disorders are more likely to affect women than men. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)—a disorder that involves repeated bouts of abdominal pain and changes in bowel movements (diarrhea, constipation, or alternating bouts of the two)—is two to six times more common among women than men. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects twice as many women as men, according to the American College of Gastroenterology.
In addition, celiac disease—an autoimmune disorder that causes bloating, chronic diarrhea, constipation, gas, and other GI symptoms and is triggered by eating gluten—is diagnosed nearly twice as often in women as in men. And functional dyspepsia (a.k.a. chronic indigestion) is also more common in women. So is a lesser known brain-gut disorder called cyclic vomiting syndrome—characterized by recurrent episodes of nausea, vomiting, and dry heaving, separated by symptom-free periods in between, says Dr. David Levinthal, a gastroenterologist and director of the Neurogastroenterology and Motility Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Across the board, “disorders of gut-brain interaction are more prevalent in women than men,” Levinthal says, and the same is true of motility disorders like gastroparesis (delayed emptying of the stomach) and chronic constipation.
A mysterious gender gap
Why are women more susceptible to GI disorders? What is it about being born female that puts their digestive systems at risk? The answer is complicated and not completely understood.
This much is known: Reproductive hormones may play a role. “The female hormones estrogen and progesterone have a profound effect on the GI tract in terms of motility, pain sensitization, and how the brain delivers messages to the GI tract,” explains Dr. David Johnson, chief of gastroenterology at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk and past president of the American College of Gastroenterology. As a result, women may experience flare-ups of GI disorders at certain times of the month (such as during menstruation) or during pregnancy.
Read More: 15 Things to Say When Someone Comments on Your Weight
For another thing, “women have a more easily activated immune system than men do,” says Levinthal. This is significant because immune function, including inflammatory processes, plays a role in celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease.
What’s more, the gastrointestinal tract itself is longer in women, and that difference in length can affect transit time through the GI tract, Johnson says. In addition, women’s stomachs empty slightly more slowly than men’s do—“why that is isn’t known,” says Levinthal, but it may explain women’s greater susceptibility to gastroparesis. Research also suggests that the intestine’s nerve cells are more sluggish in women, which may be why IBS and gastroparesis are more common in women.
Another possible contributing factor has to do with psychological issues. “Anxiety and depression, which are more common in women than men, can worsen the severity of disordered gut function,” Levinthal says. “Feeling stressed or depressed or anxious is linked with how our guts work.” When you’re stressed out or anxious, you may be more likely to experience flare-ups of these GI disorders.
Giving your gut the right TLC
Regardless of gender, it’s important to “do everything you can to be proactive about your digestive health rather than just reactive,” Johnson says. That means staying well hydrated and consuming a healthy diet rich in plant-based foods (like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds), and lean protein, and avoiding sugary, highly processed foods.
Read More: 9 Weird Symptoms Cardiologists Say You Should Never Ignore
In particular, “fiber helps good bacteria flourish in the gut,” Johnson says, which contributes to the health of the gut microbiome, the community of bacteria and other microbes that naturally live in the GI tract. Research has found a strong correlation between gut bacteria and the risk of GI disorders such as IBS, IBD, and others.
Being proactive about your gut health also means taking steps to manage stress, get plenty of sleep, and exercise regularly. “The more you move your body, the more your gut is moving, too,” says Dr. Samuel Akinyeye, a gastroenterologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. That movement is likely to help with many of these disorders.
If these measures don’t help sufficiently, there’s no reason to suffer alone. Medications and other treatments are available for all of these digestive disorders. “If you have symptoms you don’t understand, talk to a gastroenterologist,” Frye advises. “A lot of women are embarrassed to talk about their GI symptoms—I want them to feel empowered to discuss them. I tell my patients that it’s a safe space, and I’m not embarrassed to hear anything. This is why I’m here.”
September 15th 2024
Northants Police Chief Constable dismissed for gross …Banbury FMhttps://banburyfm.com › news › northants-police-chief-c…
21 Jun 2024 — Former Chief Constable Nick Adderley has been found to have committed gross misconduct and breached the standards of professional behaviour.
People also ask
Who was the Chief Constable who lied to the police?
Adderley was photographed wearing a Falklands war medal, a medal he has worn on his uniform since 2009. Adderley was 15 at the time of the conflict. The misconduct hearing heard that he “built a military naval legend that wasn’t true” and lied over many years to people in the police force.24 Jun 2024
Chief constable who lied about naval career dismissed for gross …
September 13th 2024
The “Peter Principle”: Why most companies are filled with people out of their depth – Jenny Thompson
Why would someone who has spent their entire career following orders become a great leader overnight?
Key Takeaways
- In 1969, Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull coined the term the “Peter Principle” to express how competent workers get promoted to a point where they are no longer good at their jobs.
- For example, this can happen when people who have been followers for all their careers are suddenly expected to be leaders.
- Here we look at ways we can learn from the Peter Principle — and how we can avoid its pitfalls.
Engaging content on the skills that matter, taught by world-class experts.
But it’s too much, too early. The wheels start to wobble. Peter misses deadlines and forgets to reply to emails. He works late into the evening but never seems to get things done. He doesn’t have a lunchbox anymore because he doesn’t have time to eat lunch. Peter is stressed, anxious, and woefully out of his depth. He’s been overpromoted and he’s incompetent.
Peter feels isolated and alone, but Peter is not alone. All over his company there are people like him —people who have been promoted to a position they’re unable to do well. It’s a problem that cripples any bureaucracy, and it’s got a name: The Peter Principle.
The Peter Principle
In 1969, Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull wrote the book The Peter Principle, where they laid out the theory that all employees will, eventually, hit a point in organizational hierarchy where they are ill equipped to do their job. The book was originally intended to be a satire — a lighthearted observation that most people can identify with. Hull and Peter argued that anyone good at their job will, eventually, get promoted. And they’ll carry on getting promoted until they reach a point where they are not good at their job. At which point they’ll not be promoted anymore but will linger in their post, flailing around in a job they’re not competent enough to do. And so, the book argues, a company will eventually be made up predominantly by people who are ill-equipped to do their job well. It’s a hierarchy of incompetence — children, dressed in suits too big.
One example of how this happens is the fact that “good followers do not become good leaders.” To work your way up the ladder, you often have to follow the rules, obey instructions, and pepper your interactions with varying degrees of sycophancy. You’re aiming to be likeable and friendly without being ingratiating. And so, “good followers” get promoted. But there comes a point in a promotion cycle when you need to stop following and take the lead. You need out-of-the-box thinking and need to rally the troops for a brave, daring assault that no one else saw coming. What Hull and Peter point out is that it makes no sense at all to assume that someone who’s lived their career in unoriginal subordination would suddenly become Abraham Lincoln with a corner office.
Learning from Peter
Of course, not all companies are filled with incompetents, and the Peter Principle is not some law of fate. Here are three things we can learn from Hull and Peter’s idea and how we can avoid it.
Top Stories
The learning pit. If you spend any time talking to teachers or parents, they’ll probably be able to tell you about “the learning pit.” The learning pit is where you throw a student a task that is far beyond their current abilities so that they can’t possibly achieve it yet. Then, with scaffolding and careful support, you help them climb out of the pit to fist-pumping success. The idea is that we all need a degree of pit-panic. We need to feel challenged and to struggle a bit if we’re to grow. No one gets stronger by lifting the same weight every day; you need to increase the load. The Peter Principle is not bad in itself but rather highlights the need to train or coach people “on the job.” With our opening story, we don’t know the ending. It might be that after a year of struggling, Peter learned competencies he didn’t know — he grew from the challenge and came out of the pit. But you cannot let someone drown before they’ve learned how to swim. Every promotion needs support. Every new role needs training.
The leadership gap. On Big Think+, the principal of Bersin by Deloitte, Josh Bersin, talks about “the leadership gap,” where companies around the world are finding it hard to recruit competent leaders. Echoing what Peter and Hull wrote 80 years ago, Bersin tells us, “Every individual performer, individual contributor who gets promoted to a supervisor or managerial job isn’t really taking on a new job. They’re really taking on a new profession.” For so much of our early working life, a certain skillset is required. That often involves following instructions and being a team player. Then, suddenly, we’re expected to give instructions and to be a team leader. Without some substantive transitional period between the two, we’re bound to meet this “leadership gap.” Of course, Bersin does not leave us empty-handed, and his advice on Big Think+ is invaluable.
Right person, wrong job. Sometimes, a promoted employee cannot be trained up suitably for a new role. Sometimes, their skillset simply won’t bend to the needs of the job, and their natural work style isn’t right for that title. In this case, what do you do? It seems silly to fire the person since they were clearly hugely competent up to this point. In our modern work culture, it’s hard to demote a person — pride and “Oh, I just bought a new house” put a stop to that. The best solution, sometimes, is to create a job that suits that person better. Or, better yet, to move them sideways to a position where their skillset will be better applied. History is littered with examples of this. Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant writer but unskilled at speaking, so he was given the role of drafting the Declaration of Independence while Samuel Adams handled the oratory. Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976, but after the company went public in 1980, he soon found managerial roles hard work and so consciously turned to engineering and innovation. In 2019, Xin Jin of University of South Florida and Michael Waldman of Cornell University concluded that “lateral moves” like this were correlated with job satisfaction and wage increases. The paper contains proven and practical advice about how any company can implement lateral moves well.
September 10th 2024
Former partner accused of killing Rebecca Cheptegei dies in hospital from burns
- Hospital confirms Dickson Ndiema Marangach’s death
- Olympian Cheptegei, 33, died days after being set on fire
ReutersTue 10 Sep 2024 10.06 BSTLast modified on Tue 10 Sep 2024 10.30 BST
The former partner of Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who had been accused of killing her by dousing her in petrol and setting her on fire, has died from burns sustained during the attack, the Kenyan hospital where he was being treated said on Tuesday.
Cheptegei, 33, who competed in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in the 1 September attack and died four days later.
Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died at 7.50pm local time on Monday, said Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret in western Kenya, where Cheptegei was also treated and died. “He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told Reuters.Quick Guide
Cheptegei, who finished 44th in Paris, is the third elite sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Her death has put the spotlight on domestic violence in the East African country, particularly within its running community.
Rights groups say female athletes in Kenya are at a high risk of exploitation and violence at the hands of men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.Rebecca Cheptegei’s family speak after death of runner set on fire by former partner – video
Nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 years have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022, with married women at particular risk. The 2022 survey found that 41% of married women had faced violence.
Globally, a woman is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes, according to a 2023 UN Women study.
Comment Most of the killings are in the Third World. Women who are dumoed or dump their ex partners have more subtle ways of killing a man. False domestic violence and false rape being high on their list when it comes to character assassination.
Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei’s attacker dies in hospital
Dickson Ndiema Marangach doused Cheptegei in petrol and set her on fire, leading to her death in Kenya on Sunday.
Published On 10 Sep 202410 Sep 2024
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The man who attacked Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died from injuries sustained when he poured petrol over the Olympic athlete, the Kenyan hospital treating him said.
Police said that Dickson Ndiema Marangach assaulted Cheptegei in her home in western Kenya on September 1. The mother of two sustained 80 percent burns and died last week.
Amid the war in Gaza, Palestine dares to dream of FIFA World Cup 2026
In the course of the attack, Marangach also incurred 30 percent burns and was being treated in the intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Kenya’s Rift Valley city of Eldoret.
Marangach died at 7:50pm local time (16:50 GMT) on Monday, Daniel Lang’at, a spokesperson at the hospital said.
“He died from his injuries, the burns he sustained,” Lang’at told the Reuters news agency.
Police in Kenya said Marangach snuck into her home in Endebess, near the border with Uganda, while she was at church with her children aged nine and 11.
R J Cook
August 27th 2024
Ofcom is the regulator for online safety in the UK, under the Online Safety Act. Our job is to make sure online services, like sites and apps, meet their duties to protect their users.
Does Ofcom regulate social media?
Instead, our role is to make sure social media sites and other regulated online services have appropriate systems and processes in place to protect their users. Importantly, in our role as online safety regulator, we will always take into account people’s rights, including freedom of expression and privacy.
Online safety rules: what you need to know – Ofcom
August 24th 2024
‘I turned to bodybuilding at 75 following a cancer diagnosis’
‘I’ve always been confident in myself, but this was a new level of acceptance’By Marilynn Larkin As Told To Talene AppletonPublished: 21 August 2024
Marilynn Larkin
After I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, my world was turned upside down, but I refused to let fear take over—I wanted to do something. So six months ago, I picked up
the phone to call the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation for more information before signing up to compete.
The promoters were thrilled to hear I was interested because they want more representation in the Masters (over 50) age group, especially in the women’s division. I’m currently 75 and I felt my participation could make a meaningful impact for the sport and in my own life.
Natural bodybuilding is all about building up your muscles and “sculpting” your physique the old-fashioned way—without steroids or any of those artificial enhancers. Just good, clean hard work, lots of lifting weights, and eating right. I competed once before—but that was 22 years ago.
My relationship with fitness began in my childhood as a tomboy who loved movement. I’m a mover and a doer—I’ve always loved to move
My love for physical activity blossomed through college, where I fenced and danced, among other badass and acrobatic pursuits. I don’t have many regrets in life, but I do wish I learned martial arts.
Marilynn Larkin
Marilynn at a dance class in New York City.
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When the fitness movement gained momentum in the 70s, I dove in head first, becoming involved with fitness studios like Elaine Powers Figure Salons (what a throwback!)
I decided to start working out with a personal trainer, who encouraged me to enter my first bodybuilding competition
I was 54 at the time, and the oldest person competing. I placed in the competition, but I wasn’t particularly interested in signing up for another one. I quickly realised that what I loved most about bodybuilding was the training process, not game day.
Throughout my training phase, people would stop me in the gym and on the street to ask me what I eat, how I train, or tell me I inspired them. I loved the feeling of inspiring others just by doing something I genuinely love, which ultimately motivated me to get my personal training and group fitness certifications in 2005.
I quickly realised that what I loved most about bodybuilding was the training process, not game day.
While I was working with clients as a personal trainer, I recognised a strong connection between posture, confidence, and self esteem. I went on to develop a posture program using resistance bands and I traveled around New York City to teach it at various professional conferences and schools.
Fast forward to 2023: My routine was disrupted emerging from the pandemic, leading me to delay seeking medical attention for a lump I initially attributed to soreness from doing 80+ pushups per day. By the time I sought help, the cancer had progressed, ultimately metastasising to my liver. Despite the severity of my diagnosis, I opted for lumpectomies and radiation over mastectomy and chemotherapy, prioritising my quality of life and minimising time away from the fitness routines that allow me to feel centred and at my best.
Marilynn Larkin
Marilynn posing at her first natural bodybuilding competition in 2002.
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Bodybuilding was more than just a physical challenge; it was a journey of self-acceptance, empowerment, and relentless commitment to myself
I knew I needed a challenge to help me move forward with my life following the diagnosis and I immediately thought of bodybuilding. The sport is all about allowing your body to reach its full potential and accepting it as it is, which is just what I needed. Preparing for the competition involved a 16-week training program under the guidance of my trainer (even though I’m a trainer, I like working with a trainer for my own workouts), who I’d been working with for three years and trusted completely. Despite setbacks from my cancer treatment, I was determined to rebuild my strength with conservative progressive overload, thoughtful programming, and a focus on balance and symmetry in my physique.
During those 16 weeks, I strength trained an average of three times a week and did cardio twice a week. My trainer made sure to vary the exercises to keep sessions challenging and prevent plateaus. We transitioned from my typical program of doing three sets of 10 reps at a particular weight to heavier weights with four sets of eight reps on average, targeting areas of my body that needed more focus, like my lower body, which I’ve always found tough to work on. We mixed up the exercises often—for example, switching up my favourite exercise, cable rows, to bent-over rows, single-arm rows, and other variations—to ensure that my muscles were consistently being pushed in different ways.
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In addition to in-person sessions with my trainer, I also worked with a virtual coach who taught me the bodybuilding poses and created an on-stage routine for me. So, I was pretty busy with three sessions per week at the gym and online group and private coaching workshops.
Mentally, the journey was tough but incredibly rewarding. I had to overcome the self-consciousness caused by the physical changes from my cancer, such as swelling in my belly from the liver metastasis. Before I could step on stage in front of a bunch of strangers in a spray tan and minimal clothing, I first had to accept the way I looked. I’ve always been confident in myself, but this experience demanded a new level of acceptance and reinforced my belief that physical fitness and mental resilience are deeply intertwined.
In June 2024, I competed in my second-ever bodybuilding competition
I placed first in the Masters division of the Hercules Pro/Am World Natural Bodybuilding Federation in White Plains, New York.
Fitness, for me, has always been about the journey, not the outcome. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about pushing my limits, trusting my body, and finding joy in the process. However I must admit, this accomplishment felt pretty amazing, and I’m still amazed that I did it.
My cancer has remained stable throughout the last year, and I’ve chosen to continue living with it rather than opting for aggressive treatment. I had thought about entering another competition taking place this September, but realised it would be too much along with launching my new motivational and posture platform, GET UNBENT. I’m planning to compete next in early spring 2026! Meanwhile, I’m training hard so I maintain my gains, while enjoying a respite from the pre-comp diet.
Nick Colvill
Marilynn posing on stage at the Hercules International Natural Bodybuilding Federation competition in White Plains, New York in June 2024.
These four factors were key to my strength transformation success
1. I found a trainer who I trusted completely and who played an indispensable role
Having someone guide me through a results-driven strength training program made all the difference, allowing me to feel supported throughout the journey. My trainer’s approach was not just about lifting heavier weights but also about ensuring symmetry and balance in my physique, which is so crucial for bodybuilding. We focused on areas that needed improvement, and my trainer always adapted the routine based on my needs and any limitations. This trust and consistent communication were crucial, especially during my recovery period when I had to rebuild my strength.
2. I didn’t let fear take over during the bodybuilding prep process and ever since my cancer diagnosis
I like to say, ‘Feel your fear, then go through it.’ I don’t want to say I never felt fear—I was scared to death after my diagnosis. But then I realised, there’s so much more I want to do, and bodybuilding became a way to push through my fears. It’s all about giving yourself permission to find what lights you up, then go after it.
3. I focused on the journey, not just the outcome
I gave myself permission to not let self-consciousness hold me back from pursuing this goal, regardless of what the finish line would look like. Practicing self-acceptance throughout my training (and life!) and finding support in my community throughout this process was paramount.
4. I continued to prioritise my nutrition.
As soon as I received my cancer diagnosis, I cut out alcohol and fried foods, cut way back on sugar, and committed to a clean diet. This made my bodybuilding prep smoother since I was already eating this way. I don’t view it as discipline, but as a commitment to myself and my goals. During prep, meals became simpler and more focused on fuelling my body for the rigorous training ahead.
Marilynn Larkin
Marilynn and a dance partner ballroom dancing in New York City.
Read: These are the 5 things to consider before getting a bob haircut
Related stories:
- Inside The Exercise and Diet Habits of Three Record-Breaking Female Bodybuilders
- How to strength train in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond
- Weight training for beginners: Benefits, tips, lingo + workouts
- 6 reasons why a weight loss plateau is totally normal
Cut through the noise and get practical, expert advice, home workouts, easy nutrition and more direct to your inbox. Sign up to the WOMEN’S HEALTH NEWSLETTER
August 18th 2024
Mumsnet has its flaws, but the depth of experience shared …
The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com › article › may › mumsn…
11 May 2024 — … Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. … Some of this resistance is good old-fashioned misogyny, but some is valid.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a columnist, feature writer and editor for the Guardian newspaper. In 2012 she co-founded The Vagenda, a feminist blog which was published in book form by Vintage. In 2014 Rhiannon was short-listed for a press award for young journalist of the year.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett was born in London, raised in Wales, and has lived in France and Italy. She now lives in North London with her husband and her cat, Mackerel.
She writes columns and reviews fiction for the Guardian, where she also edits part-time. She has also written for the Observer Magazine, i newspaper, Vogue, TIME, the New Statesman, Stylist, Elle, and many other publications.
Her first novel, The Tyranny of Lost Things, was about trauma and memory and was published by Sandstone Press in 2018. She also co-wrote The Vagenda (based on the successful feminist satire website of the same name) with Holly Baxter, which was published by Vintage. She is writing a second novel, Female, Nude, which is about art, class, and femininity, and is set in Greece, and her new book, The Year of the Cat, a work of creative non-fiction, is forthcoming.
PEW Literary Agency Limited, 46 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LP | +44 020 7734 4464
81-year-old woman becomes oldest person to have gender ..
Ruth Rose, a former RAF navigator who has three children with her ex-wife, began transitioning to female four years ago, aged 77. As well as undergoing hormone treatment, in July she went under the knife and became the oldest person in the UK to have gender surgery.
What age can you get gender reassignment surgery in the UK?
The age for accessing medical NHS gender identity treatment is decided on by the NHS, not the Gender Recognition Act. Surgical treatment is not available to people under 18. Cross-sex hormones are available to those aged 16 and above under guidance.
How long is the NHS waiting list for gender reassignment surgery?
Transgender health services are one of several NHS services that have recorded increasing waiting times over the years. The number of cases on the overall NHS list for consultant-led elective care, reached 7.6 million in January 2024, with some waits being more than two years, according to the most recent data .20 Mar 2024
Do all humans start as females?
During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female. After approximately 6 to 7 weeks of gestation, however, the expression of a gene on the Y chromosome induces changes that result in the development of the testes.
August 16th 2024
What parents get wrong about raising boys – iNews
What parents get wrong about raising boysinews.co.ukhttps://inews.co.uk › Lifestyle
How to raise happy, well-adjusted sons amid toxic masculinity? One author and mother of boys says she’s found something parents miss. Marisa Bates has the answer to raising boys in an age of ‘toxic masculinity.’
In her new book, BoyMum: Raising Boys in an Age of Toxic Masculinity, she spoke to dozens of young men and a wide range of experts and specialists to understand what is to be part of what she describes as a “microgeneration” – those who were entering puberty, aged around 11 or 12, just as Hollywood kick-started #MeToo
How To Break the Cycle of Toxic Masculinity
- Don’t be afraid to accept help, ask for help, and receive help from others.
- Allow other people to be their authentic selves.
- Avoid judging others or tearing them down simply for who they are.
- Pursue your own self-development.
- Work on reducing and controlling your hostile behavior.
At what point does masculinity become toxic?
Toxic masculinity is a term that has been gaining traction in the past few years. This term refers to the dominant form of masculinity wherein men use dominance, violence, and control to assert their power and superiority.
Incorporate these nine ideas for raising boys without toxic masculinity with your own, so you and your family can be part of the solution.
- 1Ditch Harmful Phrases. …
- 2Talk About LGBTQIA+ People. …
- 3Teach Respect For Women’s Bodies. …
- 4Slash The Sexual Conqueror Myth. …
- 5Call Out Wrongness. …
- 6Reframe Expectations. …
- 7Have Check-Ins.
Comment These are definitely not my views, which will follow soon. R J Cook
August 14th 2024
https://www.waterstones.com/author/robert-cook/435753/
Statistics on Male Victims of Domestic Abuse – ManKind Initiative
Over 483,000 men and 964,000 women are victims of partner abuse. (ONS 2022/23). One in seven men (13.9%) and one in four women (27%) will be a victim of domestic abuse in their lifetime (ONS figures 2022/23).
28 Mar 2024 — In a case called “the worst incidence of controlling and coercive … cases centre around male to female abuse. Charity Women’s Aid …
21 Feb 2019 — Alex Skeel, 22, recently shared his story of domestic violence in a BBC documentary Abused By My Girlfriend, where he described the horrific …
Male domestic abuse: stories of men like youMen’s Advice Line UKhttps://mensadviceline.org.uk › Male victims
Male domestic abuse: stories of men like you … Before Thomas was born, I bought a house in my own name (she told me that she had bad credit, so couldn’t go on …
24 Sept 2020 — Bradford-based charity Men Standing Up takes male domestic abuse referrals from across the country. … worse.” Ean Monk from the charity said: ” …
25 Oct 2023 — And because abuse is not widely discussed by both victims and perpetrators, many speculate intimate partner violence is probably vastly under- ..
Male victims of domestic abuse: a hidden problem that gets worse as we get older. 24/04/2019Sam Harrington-LoweAgeing, Coming of Age, Date order, Family, …
29 Apr 2013 — It is about domestic abuse and/or conflict, not domestic violence · The data does not differentiate between cases where there is one incident of …
Black people
Although completely accurate numbers are not easily available, researchers generally agree that, among ethnic minority groups in the United States, Black people are the most likely to experience domestic violence—either male-to-female or female-to-male—followed by Hispanic people and White people.25 Oct 2023
26 Feb 2021 — Domestic abuse includes non-sexual abuse, sexual assault and stalking. You can read more about the definition of domestic abuse used in the …
What countries does this apply to?
- England
- Scotland
- Wales
Article 10 protects your right to hold your own opinions
Article 10 protects your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference.
This includes the right to express your views aloud (for example through public protest and demonstrations) or through:
- published articles, books or leaflets
- television or radio broadcasting
- works of art
- the internet and social media
The law also protects your freedom to receive information from other people by, for example, being part of an audience or reading a magazine.
Restrictions to the right to freedom of expression
Although you have freedom of expression, you also have a duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people’s rights.
Public authorities may restrict this right if they can show that their action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to:
- protect national security, territorial integrity (the borders of the state) or public safety
- prevent disorder or crime
- protect health or morals
- protect the rights and reputations of other people
- prevent the disclosure of information received in confidence
- maintain the authority and impartiality of judges
An authority may be allowed to restrict your freedom of expression if, for example, you express views that encourage racial or religious hatred.
However, the relevant public authority must show that the restriction is ‘proportionate’, in other words that it is appropriate and no more than necessary to address the issue concerned.
Using this right – example
This right is particularly important for journalists and other people working in the media.
They must be free to criticise the government and our public institutions without fear of prosecution – this is a vital feature of a democratic society.
But that doesn’t prevent the state from imposing restrictions on the media in order to protect other human rights, such as a person’s right to respect for their private life.
Example case – Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom [1991]
The Guardian and The Observer newspapers published excerpts from Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher, which included allegations that MI5 had acted unlawfully.
The government obtained a court order preventing the newspapers from printing further material until proceedings relating to a breach of confidence had finished.
But when the book was published, The Guardian complained that the continuation of the court order infringed the right to freedom of expression.
The European Court of Human Rights said that the court order was lawful because it was in the interests of national security.
However, it also said that that wasn’t enough reason to continue the newspaper publication ban once the book had been published, because the information was no longer confidential anyway.
What the law says
This text is taken directly from the Human Rights Act.
Article 10 of the Human Rights Act: Freedom of expression
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
Article 11 protects your right to protest by holding meetings and demonstrations with other people
You also have the right to form and be part of a trade union, a political party or any another association or voluntary group. Nobody has the right to force you to join a protest, trade union, political party or another association.
Restrictions to the right to freedom of assembly and association
There are some situations where a public authority can restrict your rights to freedom of assembly and association.
This is only the case where the authority can show that its action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to:
- protect national security or public safety
- prevent disorder or crime
- protect health or morals, or
- protect the rights and freedoms of other people.
Action is ‘proportionate’ when it is appropriate and no more than necessary to address the issue concerned.
You may face a wider range of restrictions if you work for the armed forces, the police or the Civil Service.
What the law says
This text is taken directly from the Human Rights Act.
Article 11: Freedom of assembly and association
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
2. No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the state.
Example case
In August 2010, the English Defence League (EDL) planned a protest in Bradford. A counter demonstration by Unite Against Fascism was also planned. Some local people wanted the protest banned and there were concerns about a repeat of the violent clashes that had happened at previous EDL events. West Yorkshire Police had a duty to protect the protest unless there was clear evidence that violence would occur. They examined the human rights aspect of the situation and talked to local people, in particular the Muslim community, about the right to peaceful protest. After this explanation the community realised that the police had to allow the protest. Community groups worked with the police to persuade young people not to get involved in criminal activity on the day.
See the publication ‘Human rights, human lives: a guide to the Human Rights Act for public authorities’ for more examples and legal case studies that show how human rights work in practice.
Article 10 protects your right to hold your own opinions
Article 10 protects your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference.
This includes the right to express your views aloud (for example through public protest and demonstrations) or through:
- published articles, books or leaflets
- television or radio broadcasting
- works of art
- the internet and social media
The law also protects your freedom to receive information from other people by, for example, being part of an audience or reading a magazine.
Restrictions to the right to freedom of expression
Although you have freedom of expression, you also have a duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people’s rights.
Public authorities may restrict this right if they can show that their action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to:
- protect national security, territorial integrity (the borders of the state) or public safety
- prevent disorder or crime
- protect health or morals
- protect the rights and reputations of other people
- prevent the disclosure of information received in confidence
- maintain the authority and impartiality of judges
An authority may be allowed to restrict your freedom of expression if, for example, you express views that encourage racial or religious hatred.
However, the relevant public authority must show that the restriction is ‘proportionate’, in other words that it is appropriate and no more than necessary to address the issue concerned.
Using this right – example
This right is particularly important for journalists and other people working in the media.
They must be free to criticise the government and our public institutions without fear of prosecution – this is a vital feature of a democratic society.
But that doesn’t prevent the state from imposing restrictions on the media in order to protect other human rights, such as a person’s right to respect for their private life.
Example case – Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom [1991]
The Guardian and The Observer newspapers published excerpts from Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher, which included allegations that MI5 had acted unlawfully.
The government obtained a court order preventing the newspapers from printing further material until proceedings relating to a breach of confidence had finished.
But when the book was published, The Guardian complained that the continuation of the court order infringed the right to freedom of expression.
The European Court of Human Rights said that the court order was lawful because it was in the interests of national security.
However, it also said that that wasn’t enough reason to continue the newspaper publication ban once the book had been published, because the information was no longer confidential anyway.
What the law says
This text is taken directly from the Human Rights Act.
Article 10 of the Human Rights Act: Freedom of expression
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
August 13th 2024
| The Guardian – Transgender |
| Waiting list for children’s gender care rose after opening of new specialist hubs More than 5,700 under-18s in England and Wales by end May were waiting an average of 100 weeks for first appointment … |
Hilary Cass & The Cass Report
Hilary Cass completed her early education at the City of London School for Girls. She studied at the Royal Free hospital medical school, graduating with a degree in medicine in 1982.
Dr Hilary Cass OBE is a consultant in Paediatric Disability at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. She was President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health between 2012 and 2015, and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to child health.
Hilary has had two driving passions throughout her career; firstly, to develop inclusive, multi-professional models of care for children and young people, which cut across the boundaries between hospital, community, and primary care settings, and secondly to empower doctors in training to take control of their lives and the environment in which they work, because she believes that they are the best engineers of the future NHS.
After qualifying at Royal Free Hospital, London in 1982, Hilary trained as a general paediatrician, and then went on to develop her higher specialist training in the field of disability. She has held clinical consultant roles in three tertiary centres.
Over the years her clinical interests have included children with autistic spectrum disorders, children with cognitive impairment secondary to epilepsy, children with visual impairment, and management of children with multiple disabilities, with particular reference to feeding and communication problems. She runs a national service for children with Rett syndrome and has published widely in this area.
Since 2008, recognising the important interface between disability and palliative care, she started to take on a more active clinical role in this area. She established the Paediatric Palliative Care Service at Evelina London, before moving into her role as RCPCH President.
She attended the exclusive City of London School for Girls School ? The Cass Review was commissioned by NHS England in 2020, after a sharp rise in the number of patients referred to the NHS who were questioning their gender. In 2011-12 there were just under 250 referrals to the service; in 2021 – 22 the number had risen to over 5,000 referrals. The response was a “gender-affirming” approach to care, putting children on a life-altering path involving puberty blockers and hormone treatment. Vulnerable young people overwhelmed the service demanding medical interventions – despite a lack of evidence on the long-term effects.
Peter Lynas of the Evangelical Alliance writes :’ The Bible reminds us that we are made in the image of God. This is what grounds the Christian belief that all human beings must be treated with respect, love and dignity. From this flows the unique and transcendent value of every human being, the equality of every person and our understanding of inherent human rights.
…while the Cass Review obviously doesn’t contain a theological section, its conclusions are largely consistent with the biblical picture.
God created human beings in His image, both male and female. Man and woman are distinct, possessing equal value, made to glorify Him and together reflect His image. The human body, and therefore biological sex, is an intrinsic part of human identity. Cross-gender identification is problematic because it distorts the creational order of male and female.
A Christian Response to Cass
So, here are some of the key conclusions of the Cass Review that Christians should care about. The report highlights the “wholly inadequate” evidence for the medical pathway and instead recommends more holistic treatment. It highlights concerns around social transitioning – which means treating a child as their preferred gender in terms of name, pronouns and clothing choices. Dr Cass says that young children should have therapy before they are allowed to socially transition. In fact, the report says under-25s should not be rushed into changing gender, but should receive “unhurried, holistic, therapeutic support.” These “life-changing” decisions must be properly considered in adulthood as the report notes that brain maturation continues into the mid-20s.
Childhood trauma, neglect and abuse feature heavly in the cohort of patients seeking gender changes, the report shows. Puberty blockers and hormone drugs should not be given until a child is at least 18, and there was no evidence the drugs ‘buy time to think’ or ‘reduce suicide risk’. The report also looks at why so many younger females are wanting to change gender and highlights an anxious, distressed and digital generation who consume more social media, are exposed to more online porn, and have lower self-esteem and more body hang-ups – particularly young women and girls. This correlates with Jonathan Haidt’s research and his new book, The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness.’
Comment I think it is amusing when religious fanatics quote science, in their defence. But if we subsitute the word Nature for God, then we should see sense in what Lynas is saying. The difficulty in dealing with the problem of little boys wanting to be little girls or vice versa, is how can one challenge how vested intersts, such as feminism and resultant marginalising and blaming men for everything deemed bad. TERF feminists hate transsexuals. But blaming men, notably white men because feminists see black men as fellow victims, is just another arrogant attack on nature – or God.
Religous extremism flourishes in a society where billionaires like J K Rowling espouse that transsexuals are all rapists.That is the sort of hate speech that motivated young Brianna Ghey’s weird sick sadistic killers. Dr Hilary Cass is from a very privileged background and should not be allowed the last word on this subject when it comes to the psychology. The psychology of one parent families and deprivation is the big issue here.
The solutions are more complex than Cass condemining the medication. Young western people are dying of all sorts of drugs, including the anti psychotics that turn them into zombies and suicide cases. Religion has no place in this world. That includes Islam, because Marx was quite correct calling religion the opium of the masses. I say my prayers every day and have done so since childhood. It is an animal instinct. Talking to God makes many of us feel less alone when we are alone. But I would never be an acolyte of the mainstream churches because they are just as much in the business of social control as children’s gender identity clinics. Religions are, including Islam, key operators in the world of politics, with money in charge of their operations. They have little, if anything to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
R J Cook
Cass Review: Gender care report author attacks ‘misinformation’
- Published
- 20 April
By Thomas Mackintosh
BBC News
The author of the landmark Cass review into gender identity services for young people says she is “very angry” about “misinformation” spread about her work.
Dr Hilary Cass’s review this month found “remarkably weak” evidence on treatments such as puberty blockers.
The physician told the BBC some claims spread online about her evidence were “completely incorrect”.
She said adults who “deliberately spread misinformation” put young people at risk, which was “unforgivable”.
The Cass report, external, published on 10 April, looked at gender identity services for under-18s in NHS England.
It found gender medicine to be operating on “shaky foundations, external” when it came to the evidence for medical treatment like prescribing hormones to pause puberty or to transition to the opposite sex.
It said: “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
https://emp.bbc.co.uk/emp/SMPj/2.53.9/iframe.htmlMedia caption,
Watch: Dr Hilary Cass discussed gender care for children after her review was published
Speaking to the BBC’s More or Less: Behind the Stats podcast, Dr Cass was asked about particular claims spread online about her review – one that “98% of the evidence” was ignored or dismissed by her, and one that she would only include gold-standard “double-blind randomised control” trials in the review.
She said the 98% claim was “completely incorrect”.
- What does trans mean and what does the law say?
- Leaked emails reveal child gender service concerns
- Trans treatment waiting list a ‘death sentence’
A total of 103 scientific papers were analysed by her review, with 2% considered high quality, and 98% not.
“There were quite a number of studies that were considered to be moderate quality, and those were all included in the analysis,” she said.
“So nearly 60% of the studies were actually included in what’s called the synthesis.”
And on the “double-blind” claim – where patients are randomly assigned to a treatment or placebo group, getting either medicine or nothing – she said “obviously” young people could not be blinded as to whether or not they were on puberty blockers or hormones because “it rapidly becomes obvious to them”.
“But that of itself is not an issue because there are many other areas where that would apply,” she said.
“If you were doing a trial, say, of acupuncture, people would know exactly what treatment that they were getting.”
August 9th 2024
Britain’s oldest transgender person: ‘I became a woman at 81’
Friday 17 August at 3:25pm
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.657.0_en.html?gdpr=1#goog_672612661
This week, charity Age UK announced they are offering advice on gender change, to support the growing number of over-60s seeking the operation. This announcement has been applauded by 85-year-old gran Ruth Rose, who underwent gender reassignment surgery herself aged 81 – making her one of Britain’s oldest transgender people.
Born James, Ruth knew she wanted to be female since she was nine years old. Unable to live the life she yearned for, she married a woman and had three children. But, in the end, Ruth had to reveal her true self, and four years ago finally underwent the surgery she says made her achieve total acceptance as a female.
Ruth joins us with her story.
Invited to the freak show – by R J Cook
Comment More to come on this issue, including how two vested interest police forces conspired to present me as clinically insane, corrupted my medical care with triage input to my GP who duly forwarded it to the police who have had major problems recognising my status as a woman. Thames Valley Police even used fabricated evidence to arrest and detain me in February 2018 on the basis that I had sent senior officers evidence of myself working for my eldest son and his criminal associates as a ‘gay escort’ in a home based brothel.
My home was raided by 7 Thames Valley Police Officers to search my home, confiscating vital property, including mobile phones , computers, and documents in the hope of finding evidence of as many offences as possible to add to my already substantial criminal record ( sic ). They were led by the promising then young Acting CID Constable Bellamy who eventually took me to Crown Court in September 2018, for leaving upsetting progressively rude messages on his phone because he would not update me on his ‘investigations’ ( sic ).
All of this was misrepresented to the GIC, via my GP Dr R Kamble forwarding correspondence, as a criminal conviction when in fact the female judge said : “I listened to your messages in the order they were made. You started with a polite request for information. Increasingly frustrated, you ended up simply doing what the Ameriacans call venting.”
Reverting to her magistrates powers, she gave me a six month conditional discharge. However, in 2021, I discovered that the matter was still on record and presented as a serious criminal conviction for malicious communication and harassment.
This was all fed to the Gender Identity as fact for the purposes of character assassination and avoiding facing legal action. It is how Andrew Malkinson did 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit and for which the only evidence against him was a CPS conspiracy of lies.
That is what the police do to protect themselves. This gross misconduct toward me led to a psychiatric assessment that I am a paranoid schizophrenic, bi polar, alcoholic unfit for gender reassignment surgery unless I accepted powerful anti psychotic drugs. As I pointed out at the time, if I had taken those drugs, then I would not have known whether I was a mouse or a monkey, let alone a woman.
Directed to intervene by the London Gender Identity Clinic, in the run up to my gender reassignment surgery, the psychiatrist Dr Christopher Ramsay from Aylesbury’s Whiteleaf Centre made a surprise one hour visit 15 minutes after I had returned from a long overnight HGV shift on March 19th 2019. Working at the GIC’s behest, Ramsay was well briefed, going through the motions and acting on police input. Bearing in mind it was winter time and I had been driving for hundreds of miles and handballing freight, Ramsay used my talking too fast to get rid of him, as pressured speech and a sure sign of schizophrenia. He was accompanied by a large African male mental health nurse in case I got ‘uppity’ and a young male student psychiatrist who had been invited to the freak show.
Ramsay lied on subsequent record, that I had refused a second assessment. He concluded that I am a paranoid schizophrenic, delusional, bi polar long term alcoholic but ‘didn’t need hospital yet.’ Among other things, he informed my GP that if I saw all of the police and medical records on me, then I would be very upset. He added that I was more likely to die by misadventure than suicide.
That is life in police state Britain, a progressively authoritarian kingdom that makes Russia look like wonderland when they want it to be more like the U.K and what its elite allies across the western world require. The recent English so called far right riots are being blamed on Russia and used as an excuse for more and stronger policing. The causes of such social unrest must never be considered. Social media companies must face tougher laws with serious consequences for non compliance.
Within 3 days of his March 19th 2019 visit, Ramsay had uploaded a report to my NHS Records. Mental Health judgements are profound. Once a person has been labelled there is always public doubt and even fear. As I have discovered, this highly favoured police scenario when all else fails, can be very hard if not impossible to escape.
Because of this, my driving licence, vital to what was then a 12 year period as a commercial driver, was invalidated, getting me fired, costing me well over £`100,000 in net lost income to date and pushing me ever closer to bankruptcy.
The system, with its key operatives, puts its’ collective and careers first. Whistle blowers are damned. Ultimately, ordinary people, at the bottom of the social herarchy, do not matter. That is why there are so many miscarriages of justice and NHS failures. The police, who apart from computers, have faced no serious effective reform since they were created in the Victorian age, starting with Peel’s 1829 Metropolitan Police Act. This was primarily to protect the rich, which is what they exist and are expanding for now.
That second psychiatric assessment took me four years of internet posts and complaints, with more serious trouble from the police, to achieve. When at last it came in March 2024, I faced a more than competent female psychiatrist, with time, patience and skill to consider the evidence over time – as required by law.
The current legal sitiation and related work is restricting my time for writing editorial here. However, I hope to return to the sites main pages, and the wider world, shortly. At the moment, I have a 15,000 word legal document to complete.
on August 6th 2024. Image Appledene Photographics.
R J Cook
August 5th 2024
World’s biggest iceberg spins in ocean trap
Jonathan Amos and Erwan Rivault
BBC News
- Published4 August 2024
Something remarkable has happened to A23a, the world’s biggest iceberg.
For months now it has been spinning on the spot just north of Antarctica when really it should be racing along with Earth’s most powerful ocean current.
Scientists say the frozen block, which is more than twice the size of Greater London, has been captured on top of a huge rotating cylinder of water.
It’s a phenomenon oceanographers call a Taylor Column – and it’s possible A23a might not escape its jailer for years.
“Usually you think of icebergs as being transient things; they fragment and melt away. But not this one,” observed polar expert Prof Mark Brandon.
“A23a is the iceberg that just refuses to die,” the Open University researcher told BBC News.
The berg’s longevity is well documented. It broke free from the Antarctic coastline way back in 1986, but then almost immediately got stuck in the bottom-muds of the Weddell Sea.
For three decades it was a static “ice island”. It didn’t budge. It wasn’t until 2020 that it re-floated and started to drift again, slowly at first, before then charging north towards warmer air and waters.
In early April this year, A23a stepped into the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) – a juggernaut that moves a hundred times as much water around the globe as all Earth’s rivers combined.
This was meant to put boosters on the near-trillion-tonne berg, rifling it up into the South Atlantic and certain oblivion.
Instead, A23a went precisely nowhere. It remains in place just north of South Orkney Islands, turning in an anti-clockwise direction by about 15 degrees a day. And as long as it does this, its decay and eventual demise will be delayed.
- Scientists probe the secrets of mega icebergs
- Published17 April
- A23a: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg
- Oceans’ extreme depths measured in precise detail
- Published11 May 2021
A23a has not grounded again; there is at least a thousand metres of water between its underside and the seafloor.
It’s been stopped in its tracks by a type of vortex first described in the 1920s by a brilliant physicist, Sir G.I. (Geoffrey Ingram) Taylor, external.
The Cambridge academic was a pioneer in the field of fluid dynamics, and was even brought into the Manhattan Project to model the likely stability of the world’s first atomic bomb test.
Prof Taylor showed how a current that meets an obstruction on the seafloor can – under the right circumstances – separate into two distinct flows, generating a full-depth mass of rotating water between them.
In this instance, the obstruction is a 100km-wide bump on the ocean bottom known as Pirie Bank. The vortex sits on top of the bank, and for now A23a is its prisoner.
“The ocean is full of surprises, and this dynamical feature is one of the cutest you’ll ever see,” said Prof Mike Meredith from the British Antarctic Survey.
“Taylor Columns can also form in the air; you see them in the movement of clouds above mountains. They can be just a few centimetres across in an experimental laboratory tank or absolutely enormous as in this case where the column has a giant iceberg slap-bang in the middle of it.”
How long might A23a continue to perform its spinning-top routine?
Who knows, but when Prof Meredith placed a scientific buoy in a Taylor Column above another bump to the east of Pirie Bank, the floating instrument was still rotating in place four years later, external.
A23a is a perfect illustration once again of the importance of understanding the shape of the seafloor.
Submarine mountains, canyons and slopes have a profound influence on the direction and mixing of waters, and on the distribution of the nutrients that drive biological activity in the ocean.
And this influence extends also to the climate system: it’s the mass movement of water that helps disperse heat energy around the globe.
A23a’s behaviour can be explained because the ocean bottom just north of South Orkney is reasonably well surveyed.
That’s not the case for much of the rest of the world.
Currently, only a quarter of Earth’s seafloor has been mapped, external to the best modern standard.
An earlier version of this story contained an illustrative map of the English Channel containing an iceberg that was slightly over-sized. This has now been amended.
You’re Allowed to Have Dark Moods
6 minute read
Ideas
August 1, 2024 7:00 AM EDT
Alessandri is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the nation’s first bilingual university. Her first book, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods (Princeton), is out now in paperback
In the years leading up to my father’s death, he suffered. I know this because he didn’t hide it. I witnessed one of his worst days in the hospital one week after suffering a stroke. His potassium level dropped dangerously low, and the doctor decided to administer it intravenously through his forearm. I scanned my phone for information and learned that the arm is a nasty place to inject potassium. I found grown men online who reported having had to stop their infusion due to stinging pain in their arm. When the drip started, my father cried out ¡No me abusen! (“Don’t abuse me!”) ¡Sean buenas conmigo! (“Be good to me!”) ¡Por favor! (“Please!”). Hearing his cries made me want to vomit, and he didn’t stop until the drip finished. In his old age, my father lived by the rule “if it hurts, tell someone about it.”
In contrast, when my mother was in the early stages of her death just three months after my father passed, her plan was to stifle her cries. Like a lot of people, my mom was raised on the belief that you shouldn’t burden people with your pain, and she understood full well that hearing her in physical agony would break my heart. Despite her resolve to shield me from her pain, one evening, as the caregiver was adjusting her body, my mom let out a cry. Immediately, she turned to me and said “I’m ok.” She had not been able to stifle that one, yet her first thought went to soothing me. My mother’s selfless act brought a knot to my throat, but it didn’t surprise me.
Many of us were raised on the belief that telling people about your pain puts a burden on them, so we end up telling everyone we’re fine when we’re dying inside. I used to think that masking your pain was noble; existentialist philosophy taught me otherwise.
Read more: Let’s Talk About Our Grief
Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno wasn’t about to hide his suffering for the comfort of others. He wrote: “Whenever I have felt a pain I have shouted, and I have done it publicly.” Unamuno intended for his public cries to “start the grieving chords of others’ hearts playing.” Human hearts are like stringed instruments, he reasoned, and they can experience sympathetic resonance if they huddle close enough together. One bleeding heart can set off an entire symphony of compassion. We see it happen on deathbeds: When the power of positive thinking finally surrenders to breathing machines and ice chips, shared suffering can draw hearts into a sad embrace. When Unamuno’s six-year-old son died of meningitis, his grief was a catalyst for his fellow Spaniards to feel not sympathy but empathy, for him and each other. Unamuno told his readers that, although bodies use joy for connection, souls bond in sadness. Deep connection awaits us all, but it requires letting go of the idea that there is virtue in pretending we’re ok when we’re not.
Anyone experiencing a dark mood is faced with a choice: hide it from your loved ones or share it with them. If, like my mother, you believe that you shouldn’t announce your pain because it makes people feel helpless or burdened, then you’ll continue to hide your darkest moods from the people you hold dear. But if Unamuno was right that announcing your pain is a way of inviting people in, then my mother’s move to shield me from agony also kept me locked out of her sacred heart, whereas my father’s cries kept his heart open to me.
Of course, inviting a person to compassionately witness your dark moods is risky. In face, a student of mine at the University of Texas Rio Grande where I teach tested Unamuno’s theory. In an effort to forge deeper connections, she made herself vulnerable to the world, telling multiple people about her struggles. It did not go well, in part because the walls of U.S. society are still plastered with #nobaddays and #goodvibesonly. Under this regime, friends and loved ones get confused into thinking they’re meant to be cheerleaders, replacing our negativity with their positivity. Cheerleaders are those sweet people in our lives who remind us that we’re beautiful and strong when we’re feeling ugly or weak. “Don’t say that!” they counter at the first sign of self-doubt. “You’re going to get that job!” Cheerleaders feel responsible for making us feel better, which means that they perceive our dark moods as a problem, sometimes a puzzle.
Cheerleading often fails, but not because sufferers are addicted to negativity. When we hear “You got this!” instead of “I’ve been there” after we’ve disclosed something difficult, we can be left feeling lonely and misunderstood on top of sad or anxious. A nasty run-in with the bright side can give us a new reason for masking, not because we don’t want to burden our friends but because we don’t want them to pummel us with affirmations. We didn’t need to hear that it’s the company’s loss for not hiring us or that we’ll get the next one. In telling the truth, we were hoping that our people could remember what insecurity feels like and sit there with us, not stick their fingers in their ears and will our pain away.
What if humans are not responsible for making each other feel better? If everyone could agree that pain is inevitable and we are largely impotent against life’s losses, then fewer people might feel compelled to become cheerleaders. They could become confidantes instead. A confidante is the person we turn to when no one else gets it. They stay present when we tell the truth instead of trying to unlock our confidence. Without the pressure to be enthusiastic or offer words of wisdom, confidantes recognize that what we really need to know is that we are loveable even in our darkest mood, and they show us by showing up.
It’s not easy to be emotionally honest in a world that teaches its young to “be like a proton: always positive.” But the potential payoff of sharing dark moods with confidantes is huge: genuine connection, co-feeling, compassion, and a real sense that we are not the only one forging a path in this beautiful and terrifying world.
https://time.com/7006184/embracing-dark-moods-essay/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-gb
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