SIGNS OF THE TIMES (DECEMBER 9, 2017)

HERE IS THE LATEST MADNESS COMING FROM THE MODERN WORLD

INCLUDES:
More than quarter of millennials would replace human lover with DROID…
Australia Passes Gay Marriage Law That Will Force New Ministers to Perform Same-Sex Weddings
Academic journal warns against Eating meat, Promotes “toxic masculinity”
Illinois Boy Who Identifies as Girl Sues to Use Girls’ Locker Room to Change for Gym Class

More than quarter of millennials would replace human lover with DROID…

KEY FINDINGS  

- 27% of 18-34 year olds would form a relationship with a robot

- British men were three times more likely to form a relationship with a robot compared to women

-  Men are also more likely than women to prefer their social media lives to their real ones

- 70% said that smartphones are weakening human bonds 

- 42% of 18-34 year olds report feeling depressed or unhappy after seeing other people’s lives online

- 40% of people aged between 18 and 34 are concerned that robots will take their jobs 

As robots become an ever increasing part of our daily lives, humans could soon find love with the machines, according to a new report. The report suggests that over a quarter of 18-34 year-olds will feel it’s normal to form friendships and even romantic relationships with robots in the future instead of humans.

And it seems that men are more likely to embrace the bots, with the report indicating that
males are three times more likely to form a relationship with a robot than women. 

The report was created by Paris-based Havas, and examined the future of artificial intelligence, and people’s attitudes to the future of technology.

The findings were based on a survey of 12,000 people of mixed ages worldwide.

It found that in the UK, men were three times as likely to agree they could have a relationship with a robot in the future, compared to women.

And romantic relationships with bots will more common that you might think, with the report suggesting they could be taken up by as much as 27 per cent of 18-34 year olds.

Aside from robot-relationships, the report had several other predictions for the future.

The data suggests that men in the UK, men are also more likely than women to prefer their social media lives to their real ones, with nearly 20 per cent preferring the virtual world of social media.

Despite this growing connection to the online world for some, there was widespread consensus (70 per cent of respondents) that smartphones are weakening human bonds.

Yet it is younger people who are feeling the worst effects of this.

According to the study, younger people are more likely to feel depressed about their own lives after looking at other people’s social media channels, with 42 per cent of 18-34 year olds reporting feeling depressed or unhappy after seeing other people’s lives online.

The surging availability of robotic sex dolls means it is easier than ever for people to rely on technology for their sexual needs. Experts have warned we will soon see a rise in the number of ‘digisexuals’. Pictured right is Samantha, a realistic sex bot currently on sale in London 
 

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Australia Passes Gay Marriage Law That Will Force New Ministers to Perform Same-Sex Weddings

Australia’s Parliament has voted to legalize gay marriage. The bill defines marriage as ‘a union between two persons.’ It should become law in about a month. Churches, religious organizations, and existing ministers are not required to perform gay wedding ceremonies. However, ministers who are licensed after the law passes will have to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies or be in violation of anti-discrimination laws. Australian lawmakers rejected amendments to the bill protecting freedom of speech and religion. 

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Academic journal warns against Eating meat, Promotes “toxic masculinity”

An academic journal has published an article by a Ph.D. candidate at Pennsylvania State University that argues eating meat maintains a society where “hegemonic masculinity” is the norm.

Anne DeLessio-Parson, whose article was published in Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, based her research on Argentina’s “meat-centric” culture.

“I contend that in such a context, we cannot separate the ways people ‘do vegetarianism’ from how they ‘do gender,’” Anne DeLessio-Parson wrote. “Doing vegetarianism in interactions drives social change, contributing to the de-linking of meat from gender hegemony and revealing the resisting and reworking of gender in food spaces.”

DeLessio-Parson theorizes that being a vegetarian in the South American nation is a political act that contributes to the destabilization of the gender binary, or the view that there are only two sexes, masculine and feminine.

“[V]egetarians defy attempts to hold them accountable to gendered social expectations,” she wrote. “Women, for example, assert authority over their diets; men embody rejection of the meat-masculinity nexus by adopting a worldview that also rejects sexism and racism.”

The Penn State student became interested in the topic after spending five years as a vegetarian in Argentina, where she worked as a community organizer and teacher. In an interview with Campus Reform, DeLessio-Parson said it was during her time in the country that she came to believe that vegetarianism was both a lifestyle choice and feminist act.

“Women, one of the ways they push back against patriarchy, they say, ‘This is my body. You don’t get to tell me what comes in and out,’” she told Campus Reform.

After being picked up by numerous far-right media outlets, DeLessio-Parson’s study was lambasted by many social media users…of both genders.

4 Dec

Cabot Phillips✔@cabot_phillips

Breaking: MEAT is now a tool of the patriarchy to suppress women and reinforce gender stereotypes… https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10221 

Whitney Joseph@Whitjoseph

I guess im going to be reinforcing gender stereotypes at lunch today with my ground turkey…. and just when I thought I’d get to escape politics at lunch! 

People are crazy.

9:16 AM – Dec 4, 2017

“I guess im [sic] going to be reinforcing gender stereotypes at lunch today with my ground turkey…. and just when I thought I’d get to escape politics at lunch!” Whitney Joseph of Connecticut tweeted on Monday.

4 Dec

Cabot Phillips✔@cabot_phillips

Breaking: MEAT is now a tool of the patriarchy to suppress women and reinforce gender stereotypes… https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10221 

Frank Miller@Fmiller79

My daughters the carnivores are going to be really bummed that I don’t want to further hegemonic masculinity so they have to eat salad while I finish my steak

1:49 PM – Dec 4, 2017

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Illinois Boy Who Identifies as Girl Sues to Use Girls’ Locker Room to Change for Gym Class

An Illinois teenager who was born male but identifies as female has filed a lawsuit against his school district as he claims that he has been prohibited from using the girls’ locker room for gym class. The district says that the legal challenge does not correctly cite the accommodations that have been offered to the student.

The 18-year-old, who goes by the name Nova Maday, says that he is unhappy with the outcome of talks with Township High School District 211 and asserts that that he has to use either the nurse’s office or a separate single-user locker room at Palatine High School to change his clothes.

“I just want to be treated like every other girl in our school,” Maday said in a statement after filing suit on Thursday. “Even after the school district agreed to allow another transgender student to use the locker rooms in her school, they have resisted and made things harder for me. I just want to be able to get dressed for P.E. class without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.”  

According to the Chicago Tribune, Maday sent an email to his teachers in his freshman year to advise that he identifies as a girl.

“Information about me. First, I’m transgender. In case you are not fully sure what I mean by that, I do not identify as male, like I was assigned at birth. Instead, I identify as female,” he wrote. “I would like to state that my chosen name is Nova, and I would ask that you call me by this in class …”

While teachers began calling Mayday by his preferred name and pronoun, he was advised that using the girl’s locker room would not be allowed.

His lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), asserts that because Mayday has had to change in a separate location, he has missed notes on the wall advising where students would be meeting for physical education that day.

“Isolating and singling out Nova from the other girls by forcing her to dress separately for P.E. and requiring her to at times wander the halls looking for where her class was being held were extremely upsetting experiences for Nova,” it reads. However, the school district says that the lawsuit is misleading and does not correctly represent the accommodations that have been offered to Maday.

“District 211 has provided caring and responsive supports for transgender students who daily use bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity in multiple schools,” district Superintendent Daniel Cates outlined in a statement on Friday.

“The allegations in this lawsuit misrepresent the accommodations extended to this student and District 211’s approach to working with and supporting transgender students. Every transgender student in District 211 who has requested use of the locker room of their identified gender has been offered such access, along with other supports within an individual support plan.”

“The Illinois Department of Human Rights has already dismissed this case, stating there was no evidence of discrimination,” Cates continued. “We will vigorously defend and protect compassionate, fair and equitable support for all students, and, at the same time, we continue to defend our supports for transgender students at the federal level.”

As previously reported, Township High School District 211 was previously in headlines over a similar request as an unidentified high school student requested to use the girls’ locker room at at William Fremd High School as he had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

But the district declined, citing the privacy concerns of the female students. It in turn offered a private location to change, but the student rejected the accommodation. He then contacted the ACLU, which filed a federal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

The Department of Education responded by opining that the district had to permit the student to use the locker room of his choice due to Title IX requirements. The two sides continued in talks for a number of months, but the district held firm on requiring privacy for female students while offering various options for the transgender student, which were refused.

It said that it desired to “to protect the privacy rights of all students when changing clothes or showering before or after physical education and after-school activities, while also providing accommodations necessary to meet the unique needs of individual students.”

The Department of Education recommended that the district install privacy curtains in the changing area so that he could not see other students changing and female students could not see him. The district installed the curtains, but as negotiations remained impasse, the department gave district officials 30 days to settle the matter under threat of penalty, including the possibility of the loss of $6 million in federal funding.

The district soon voted to allow the accommodation for the student, but not without much objection from parents. In May 2016, 51 families, representing 73 parents and 63 students, sued the Obama administration over the matter, contending that it is unlawfully distorting and redefined the meaning of Title IX, and is forcing its wrongful interpretation on school districts.

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