Post: #1

Honestly I'm at a lost for words at this point. Progressives are really scraping the bottom of the barrell.

From MLK's "Dream" to "trangendered camel rights" in just a few decades. Honestly I'm not even shocked anymore.

http://heatst.com/culture-wars/zoos-are-...pes-study/

The sociology department of the University of Pennsylvania is tackling only the most important issues of our time.

It has a paper in the most recent issue of Social Psychology Quarterly examining the various ways zoos are cesspools of dangerous gender stereotypes that parents (intentionally or inadvertently) reinforce with their kids.

The study says that adults seem to want to characterize zoo animals according to “binary” gender terminology, forcing the camels and penguins and elephants of this world to conform to either “male” or “female,” even though those particular zoo animals haven’t truly examined whether they would like to identify as their birth gender. Although zoology does allow for checking the actual sex of an animal, adults should, apparently, refrain from referring to zoo animals as a “girl” or a “boy,” unless they’ve asked the said animals.

Another problem: Parents tend to use zoo exhibits to model traditional family roles. The study says “adults mobilize zoo exhibits as props for modeling their own normative gender displays.”

Talking about “mother” and “father” animals, then, forces children to believe in traditional, gender constructs, which could harm their psyches as they grow older. Children will question whether their parents will love them even if they don’t fit a typical gender definition—all because that giraffe was characterized as male or female.

All of this makes the search for one’s place on the gender spectrum a difficult journey, apparently. No doubt, the UPenn sociology department would recommend that signs in zoos be changed to reflect a more fluid approach to wild animal sexuality.

Post: #2

Heat Street link... proceed with caution

/thread-55799...eat+street

Post: #3

Almost clicked on it.

Saw that it was Heat Street.

Went somewhere else.

Good summary though, Edantes.

Post: #4

At this point, I can only laugh at this kind of crazyness.

Post: #5

Post: #6

(08-29-2016 10:20 PM)Rocket75 Wrote:  

Is that the transgendered camel?

Post: #7

What's the issue with Heat Street? I'm not familiar with them.

Post: #8

(08-29-2016 11:26 PM)nek Wrote:  What's the issue with Heat Street? I'm not familiar with them.

They're a Dow Jones product. An astroturfed alt right news site. Not a bad thing, just be aware of it.

Post: #9

Here's the article's abstract:

Social Psychology Quarterly Wrote:We draw on public observations conducted in a zoo to identify three instances in which adults make use of its specific spatial and symbolic resources to transmit socialization messages to children according to “naturalized” models of hegemonic gender difference. First, adults attribute gender to zoo animals by projecting onto them human characteristics associated with feminine and masculine stereotypes. Second, adults mobilize zoo exhibits as props for modeling their own normative gender displays in the presence of children. Third, adults discipline boys and girls differently in the context of the zoo’s built environment, and in doing so, they communicate socialization messages to children regarding how to behave in conventionally gendered ways. In emphasizing the context of the zoo as a site for the naturalization of gender categories, we identify how adults transmit gender socialization messages to children that promote gender stereotypes associated with the biological determinism of the natural living world.

You want to tell these people that their entire academic career has been one giant waste of time.

Post: #10

How can uni's or journal's publish this kind of stuff with a straight face?

Post: #11

Here's Noam Chomsky breaking this bullshit down like few could: