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Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend

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VirginiaDentata
07/10/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
I *really* don't like the whole "paying girls not to have sex" business. It seems like reverse prostitution: once again, attaching a monetary value to women's bodies.

Also, what college can I go to that only costs $365 a year?!

ETA: in an ironic twist, or hypocritical note, whatever, I'm drunk, but I am totally pro-prostitution. Make of that what you will.
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Edited by VirginiaDentata at 07/10/09 12:40 AM VirginiaDentata was starred VirginiaDentata was unstarred

alexa
07/10/09

@VirginiaDentata: I'm with you on this as well. Paying girls not to have sex is pretty demeaning. It seems like the state's just given up. "Well, reasoning with you hasn't worked. Let's just bribe you not to get knocked up." The stipulation that they have to go to college is also a pretty big f-you. Hey, not only are you too dim to figure out your own sexual business, you're too stupid to make any other big life decisions either. Therefore, we're going to make them for you.

Because college is the only route to success, and so many college grads are employable right now. *headdesk*

I can't wait for them to find out the hard way that there are smart girls in the world and get taken for a ride.
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egg cream
07/10/09

@VirginiaDentata: Well, they’re not paying the girls to not have sex, they’re paying the girls to make more responsible decisions – the program teaches them about birth control as well as abstinence.

The thing I don’t like about it is the fact that they only get the money if they graduate get into college. If you’re dealing with girls who are at risk for teen pregnancy, and who you believe are likely to drop out of high school and not go to college and therefore need a lot of encouragement, then how is saying, "We’ll pay you to make responsible decisions about your sexual health, but only if you also accomplish this GIANT UNRELATED GOAL that you apparently see as impossible" help? I imagine a lot of girls who aren’t sure about their ability to graduate or go to college are going to be like, "Well, I don’t think I can stay in school, so I guess I can’t stop myself from getting pregnant either." It just links sexual responsibility to academic success in a very weird way – like using birth control or feeling you have the right to say no are only for girls who are academically inclined, and if you’re not academically inclined, then you’re a whore and it’s no big loss if you get pregnant. Why not pay them for the three goals separately? One dollar a day for not getting pregnant, and a bonus if you graduate from high school, and another bonus if you enroll in college?
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Cesybabe or Nirvanah Crane
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
An Aussie TV show made a quite good joke about the dollar a day to prevent teen pregnancy in a piss take news broadcast 'although, there seems to be some teenage boys who have TWO dollars to give'
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kityglitr
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
I was pretty shocked to read that one of the commenters on NPR's site basically said that black women in this country straighten our hair because we want to, not because we want to be white. He's completely missing the history of skin lightening and hair straightening in America. To say that black people "want to be white" is a little off point. More like, people of color know they'll be treated better, will be assumed to be more intelligent, and will achieve greater success in the corporate world if we assimilate our natural characteristics to a western European norm. So, no, we don't want to be white, but the pressure of maintaining a white-centric appearance can lead a lot of us to hate ourselves and our own beauty.
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Mafalda para Presidente
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
Wait, you're telling me that Malia loves peace?

What a horrible, horrible girl!

Stuff it, critics. 1) She's only a girl, whose fashion choices are not equivalent to political statements. 2) Peace is good. No, really, I know it's hard to believe, but peace? It's a good thing.
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FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

@Mafalda para Presidente: It's hard enough being that age and wondering if your peers will approve of your sartorial choices. I can't imagine having your every outfit published and discussed. Poor kid.
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gangey
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
Regarding the article about "male pains" vs childbirth pains: All the "male pains" listed are ailments that can afflict women as well. So, howsabout we find some women who have both given birth and had the listed ailments and see what they think?
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redqueenmeg
07/09/09

@gangey: Good point. Also, haven't they already established that men have worse pain tolerances than women? I thought I read that somewhere. If true, then do we need to correct for that, or say that if childbirth hurts worse than a kidney stone to a particular woman, but a kidney stone hurts a lot to a particular man, then it's worse for men, or something?
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inabook
07/09/09

@gangey: I did like how for one of the things they listed, the pain was described as something along the lines of peeing razor blades-- because no woman has ever felt that, noooo.

*growls about UTIs*
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Nancy Lorenz
07/09/09

@inabook: I'd just love for this Dr Abby type to hear about endometriosis pain. Stabbing pains up the colon, flowering blades inside the pelvis, unrelenting cramping aches. "Man" pain my ass!
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MeganGlass 就是一个古代的三明治
07/09/09

@redqueenmeg: There's just no way to actually factor that into anything and measure it accurately. While it's true that women are said to have a higher threshold for pain, there are plenty of men out there whose tolerances for it are way above a lot of women's. One thing I'll say for the men though, with the kidney stones: They sure do have a lot more urethra to push that thing through, and that's gotta count for something.
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femputer
07/10/09

@Nancy Lorenz: "flowering blades" = brilliance. this is how I am going to have to describe it to the next unsympathetic doctor who says an advil ought to do the trick.
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alexa
07/10/09

@femputer: Hey, don't knock Advil. A nurse told me that the "recommended" dose was bs. Take 3 every six hours and unless it's unusually bad pain, you will be a really happy camper.

The more you know, doo doo doo doo *stars*
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YourScreenplaySucks
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
A group of high school girls, including one cheerleader, made the news on July 3rd when they stole $147 from a group of children, one of who was in a wheelchair.

The story continues, "As the girls fled the scene of the crime, they kicked three cancer patients out of the way before hijacking a bus full of kindly grandmothers and drove it straight into a ravine full of kittens & baby unicorns."
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Edited by YourScreenplaySucks at 07/09/09 6:07 PM

southernbitch
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
once again, i CANNOT WAIT for one of the obama girls to show up somewhere wearing an angela davis shirt. it's gonna happen! and the reaction is going to be.... probably sickening, but also amusing, in the way that these things often are.
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femputer
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
that Fair & Handsome ad!! Someone please translate, b/c all I *think* I caught was something like "American double strength" around 30 seconds....!?!
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Firefly in the Sky
07/09/09

@femputer: So basically the ad is about the dude who uses up his sister's Fair & Lovely (or whatever it is) cream and Shah Rukh is saying, what dude uses a girl's cream? Then he hands him the guy's version. For the part you're talking about, I heard American double strength too! I have no idea what that means though.
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Skellatrix
07/09/09

@femputer: From the Fair & Handsome website:
Emami in collaboration with Activor Corp, USA has created a unique fairness cream for men Fair And Handsome "Peptide complex patented in the USA" .

So yes, they did say that but not in the way we're a-fearin' (though this isn't much better)!

http://www.fairandhandsome.net/yourface.jsp
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Edited by Skellatrix at 07/09/09 6:20 PM Skellatrix was starred Skellatrix was unstarred

femputer
07/09/09

@Firefly in the Sky: thanks!
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wednesdayam
07/09/09

@femputer: You think that one's bad, take a watch at the 5th one in the Related Videos at the bottom once YouTube finishes this one - the skin lightening cream makes a lady so pale, she also ends up with blue eyes and blonde hair and gets mistaken for a foreigner at an airport ticket desk. My mind... she was blown by that one...
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FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
The "dollar day to not get knocked up" study really creeps me out; it has all sorts of unpleasant implications. I imagine that most young girls who qualify are of lower socioeconomic status, and additionally will probably self-select to participate if they don't have many other means to pay for college. This program basically amounts to paying a certain segment of the population not to procreate. Although I am all for reducing unwanted teen pregnancies, this doesn't sit well with me.
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Edited by FashionShowAtLunch at 07/09/09 5:58 PM FashionShowAtLunch was starred

Bunsen Honeydew
07/09/09

@FashionShowAtLunch: It's not really paying them to not pro-create, it's encouraging them to get an education first. No one is giving them money if they happen to not be knocked up when they're 23.

I don't really like it either, but I think my dislike of it involves judging young girls from their sibling's actions. I'd have to read into it more.

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Laulau
07/09/09

@Bunsen Honeydew: I could see how just assuming someone is going to follow in her family's footsteps could be part of the problem, self-fulfilling prophecies and all. But studies do show that children tend to repeat the steps of their parents, and apparently their sibs as well. There are questionable parts to this plan, but ultimately if some girls who wouldn't have gone to college and had the chance to make informed decisions (whether that's focusing on their career or becoming stay-at-home moms the day after graduation), get that chance, then that's great. Children feeling like they have no options is a really sad thing to see.
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Edited by Laulau at 07/09/09 6:05 PM Laulau was starred Laulau was unstarred

FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

@Bunsen Honeydew: I know they're not being discouraged from having children ever, but the whole thing just seems like bribery to me. Which is really gross when it involves women's reproductive choices.
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Francie Nolan
07/09/09

@FashionShowAtLunch: I agree. The idea of it is insulting. The best way to prevent girls from getting pregnant is to pay them? I guess the group meetings and classes that are also part of the program don't help enough. On the other hand, simpler mentoring programs aimed at alleviating teen pregnancy have been known fail. If that dollar a day gives them the need incentive, so be it.
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FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

@Francie Nolan: Absolutely -- if these girls go to college, then I'm all for it, icky feelings aside.
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vulcanized
07/09/09

@FashionShowAtLunch: I didn't really think of it that way. I guess that's because when I was growing up, several of my friends had family members who offered them money if they would go through high school without kissing anybody. Why yes, I did live in an backwards, sex-fearing religious area. Why do you ask?
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sonofabiscuit is sprinkling greatness
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
"Republicans are threatening to hold up the legislation on the Senate floor."

Can they, though? With the filibuster proof majority? Maybe I'm showing my political ignorance, but isn't that what the Republicans are threatening, something that they can't do? But some Democrats are ill and aren't physically there, so they can? Am I talking in circles enough yet?
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Edited by sonofabiscuit is sprinkling greatness at 07/09/09 5:55 PM

Dodgergirl
07/09/09

@sonofabiscuit is sprinkling greatness: Dems still have to get 60 votes for cloture, and that's not a foregone conclusion on something like this, unfortunately. There are a few Dems I could see defecting. I hope I'm wrong.
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FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

@Dodgergirl: Landrieu and Bayh are already making noises about this. I suppose they're trying to assert their centrism and make it clear that they're not "sheep" (in Bayh's words). While I understand voting against one's party on a particular bill, I do not understand threatening to disallow that vote to even take place. One wonders what the political strategy is.
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heykoukla
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
Malia's a smart kid. When I was her age, I drew peace signs all over my folder at school and it took weeks before another kid pointed out that what I had actually drawn was the Mercedes Benz logo.
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wankster
07/09/09

@heykoukla: Ha! I did that too. Genius.
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heykoukla
07/09/09

@wankster: I refuse to believe that every kid has not done the exact same thing.
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wednesdayam
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
Oh noes! A peace sign shirt!! (Let me guess, some of the folks making the fuss are super conservatives that yank out that old theory of the peace sign being an upside-down broken cross and it's actually Satanic, right?)
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Edited by wednesdayam at 07/09/09 5:57 PM wednesdayam was starred wednesdayam was unstarred

hellosunshine
07/09/09

@wednesdayam: SHE'S A TURRRRRR-URRRRIST JUST LIKE HER DADDY!!
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HBIC!
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
How old is Malia? Like 11? Who didn't own a peace-sign tee at that age?!
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Edited at 07/09/09 5:49 PM HBIC! was starred HBIC! was unstarred

Dodgergirl
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
Thank God Malia didn't wear her Smurfs shirt or Gargamel would be coming for us.
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Laulau
07/09/09

@Dodgergirl: You think he's not? It must nice to be as naive as you.
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FashionShowAtLunch
07/09/09

In reply to Malia Obama Horrifies World With Fashion Choice • NPR Investigates Skin Whitening Trend
How old is this girl? 12, 13? I would be scandalized if she weren't wearing a cheesy peace sign t-shirt.

I think mine was tie-dyed. And I wore it with cut-offs and some huge hideous earrings from Claire's that made my ears green.
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