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dropintomanga · 4 years

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About Fans Telling Mangaka They Read Scanlations

When creators and celebrities attend fan conventions to meet with audiences that love them, it’s often a wonderful time for everyone. However, there’s still some cases where fans have to be reminded that while it’s okay to let guests how much they love them, there’s always a limit to how much a guest can take.

This past weekend, one of manga’s top mangaka, Paru Itagaki of Beastars fame, had a panel interview at the virtual anime convention Otaquest Connect. She talked about her thought process while creating the series, her inspirations, and what she liked about the 1st season of the Beastars anime. While this was a really good interview, it’s the final words that Itagaki says that stood to me. It’s all regarding an experience that many mangaka have been through when they use Twitter and overseas fans have a chance to communicate with them.

I’m talking about when overseas fans express their feedback to mangaka on social media about weekly/monthly chapters that aren’t published in Japan due to scanlations of them being released before official Japanese street dates.

Itagaki actually mentions this in the end of the interview. She said that she gets a bunch of responses on her Twitter account from overseas fans about the latest chapters of Beastars. While she’s grateful for the support, Itagaki points out that fans are accessing them through less-than-legal means and tells fans to buy official translations if they’re available.

This is probably the first time I’ve heard a mangaka actually say something a manga publisher would say. I’ve heard anime convention stories where fans mention they read certain manga titles online at scan sites in front of representatives at manga publishers’ booths. I recalled hearing a story from Toronto Comics Art Festival 2018 when Inio Asano came and someone in the autograph line for him told Asano straight-out that they read his work online.

Of course, it’s easy to say “Stupid fans and their entitlement over piracy!” I know there’s some trolls who think piracy is the true answer for exposure. But as a industry person I follow on Twitter was saying about how pirate sites like Kissanime/Kissmanga got huge in the 1st place, he believes that the majority of their users are innocent as those aggregator sites normalized fans’ desire to have a central hub for everything anime/manga related. The sites also diminish the value of anime and manga by raising user expectations to a somewhat insane degree. In a sense, many anime/manga fans that were using those sites were being manipulated. Add the fact that they’re usually young, impressionable and starving for attention and you have a formula that creates misunderstandings for everyone.

I do think most manga fans don’t know any better when it comes to talking to mangaka. Part of me does blame aggregator sites and also celebrity culture. Mangaka are celebrities in their own unique way, sure, but they are human beings like you and I. I think when we get a chance to interact with a celebrity via social media, fans would take any moment to express their love in all kinds of ways. Social media is supposed to reduce friction and encourage connection. However, it raises expectations in that the fan has to be satisfied at any cost. That expression of love can grow to stalking in the worst case scenario. Social media reinforces this expression with little regard to safety by continuously providing suggestions on famous people they might follow that’s relevant to their interests.

A lot of fans want someone they can relate to and or emulate. They’re not taught to look up to the people around them who make a much better impact than any celebrity can. I do know that close and immediate role models are hard to come by as many anime/manga fans tend to be social outcasts. I mean, those relationships take a long time to build, so why not go for the quick fix of building one with a famous person they like. I also think people want to appreciate someone badly and that can lead to awkward moments.

For Beastars, I know a lot of fans can relate to the struggles of Legoshi, Haru, Louis and the rest of the cast. A good part of the internet just filters out the true reality of official-translated manga versus scanlations, thanks to aggregator sites that don’t care about the anime/manga industries. All the platforms do is provide basic answers that don’t make you think. And if you don’t think, it makes you easier to control and not ask questions that you really need to ask.

I don’t have any easy answers on how to get fans to stop talking to mangaka on Twitter about leaked/early chapter releases. You have to challenge that mindset head-on. A good place to start is to ask them questions while telling them the truth about the manga industry’s perception of scanlations. Ask those fans what compels them to tell mangaka about their new chapters. Please don’t shame or guilt-trip when they give answers that you may not like. It just encourages fans to double-down on their behavior. Let them know that they’re capable of doing the right thing or take steps to doing so.

I also started to think about what it really means to have gratitude for someone. I’ve read stories from essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic that don’t want to be just thanked by upper-class workers who can work from home. What they really want is actual financial support that helps them survive. Words don’t mean much when gratitude is often used by the giver as a way to feel better about themselves. In a way, a lot of people who are technically higher up in large companies use gratitude as a way to justify not giving lower-level employees increased salary raises/benefits. How many times have we heard stories about notable media sites telling writers who aren’t paid well to be grateful that they have a chance to write for a big site such as their’s?

Gratitude can be used as a way to shut someone up in cases of bad situations. It prevents change that may need to happen. Think of all the times when someone with mental health problems and mental illness is told that they should just cheer up and be grateful they’re alive when they really need their negative feelings/concerns to be validated.

I sensed this with Itagaki as she’s bluntly pointing out what a lot of mangaka are unable (or don’t have the guts) to say on Twitter or at a convention. Honestly, if someone pirates manga, they pirate. I get it. If you can only buy a few series you really love, there’s nothing wrong with doing that. I just want fans to have better manners when it comes to talking to creators about reading their works online. You don’t need to always says thanks and/or even say anything at all. All those kind of “positive comments” do is make mangaka feel less of themselves as if their work isn’t worth paying for. As someone who dislikes the idea of chasing happiness, I think we have to discuss how positive thinking can get toxic.

In a time where everyone has an opinion about something, it’s perhaps a good time to learn what mangaka and every creator does - bask in the right kind of silence that leads to powerful actions that benefits BOTH yourself and other people with respect.

Photo Source: Otaquest Interview with Paru Itagaki (February 28, 2020)

#manga #mangaka #manga industry #manga culture #celebrity culture #fandom #gratitude #dark side #scanlations

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25000yearcycle · 4 years

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Unmasking the Surgical Mask

Unmasking the Surgical Mask: Does It Really Work?

by Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today October 5, 2009

For a century, the surgical mask has been the symbol of a safe and sanitary medical environment. The problem: researchers don't really know if that's true.

With the H1N1 influenza pandemic spreading every day, experts are still debating what type of mask to wear and how much protection that mask truly provides, particularly for those at the front lines of transmission -- healthcare workers.

Major health agencies, including the World Health Organization, the CDC, and others, have offered confusing and sometimes contradictory guidelines.

Moreover, those guidelines differ for healthcare workers and ordinary citizens worried about the spread of H1N1. Even among healthcare professionals, there are different guidelines for medical wards and operating rooms.

Still, most healthcare professionals have concluded that, at the very worst, a mask can't hurt, even if it may provide a false sense of safety.

The notion of covering the nose and mouth for infection control actually dates back more than a century to the period when German physician Carl Flügge discovered that exhaled droplets could transmit tuberculosis.

The modern surgical mask, successor to the crude gauze strips those early doctors and nurses employed, is still primarily designed to prevent the passage of relatively large particles, such as sputum droplets and hair.

A high tech version -- the so-called N95 respirator -- seals tightly around mouth and nose and is made of material certified to block 95% of particles 0.3 μm or larger in diameter, roughly the size of a single virus. There's something resembling agreement that, worn properly, these do their job.

Conflicting Guidelines

CDC recommends surgical masks as part of the overall arsenal deployed against seasonal flu, but along with the Institute of Medicine, CDC has recommended only N95 respirators for protection against H1N1 -- in part, because animal studies suggest airborne transmission of the virus via small particles.

Not so for the World Health Organization or the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

They collectively recommended regular surgical masks except in high risk circumstances, such as during open suctioning of airway secretions and other procedures that could "aerosolize" the H1N1 virus.

There's a good reason for this lack of consensus: a dearth of quality evidence in a scientific arena dominated by anecdote and laboratory experiment.

"Some of these practices that have been in place for decades haven't been subjected to the same strenuous investigation that, for instance, a new medicine might be subjected to," Mark Rupp, MD, president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, told MedPage Today.

Masks, he noted, "are fairly innocuous, relatively cheap, and so people are not really very interested in going through the extensive investigation that would be required."

Conflicting Evidence

In the past two weeks, researchers have released results from the first two randomized clinical trials investigating efficacy of masks and respirators in protecting healthcare workers from respiratory infection.

Did they settle the issue?

Hardly. In fact, their conflicting results simply added fuel to the debate, according to CDC's Arjun Srinivasan, MD.

The first reports came in August, during IOM deliberations over standards for healthcare workers' personal protective equipment, when C. Raina MacIntyre, MBBS, PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, presented preliminary results of her randomized clinical trial.

That study involved nearly 2,000 emergency and respiratory ward nurses and physicians in Beijing who were cluster-randomized to wear surgical masks, fit-tested N95 respirators, or non-fit tested N95 respirators during all work hours for four consecutive weeks during the cold and flu season.

Having been through the SARS scare in 2003, the Chinese are regarded as very serious about mask use in the hospital and outside.

At the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in September, MacIntyre presented the dramatic results: Consistent use of N95 respirators prevented 75% of respiratory infections, while consistent surgical mask use was no better than low use for prevention of clinical respiratory illness (6.7% versus 9.2%, P=0.159) or of influenza-like illness (0.6% versus 1.3%, P=0.336).

The case against old-fashioned surgical masks seemed clear.

"To me it would not seem justifiable to ask healthcare workers to wear surgical masks," MacIntyre said in an interview.

Then another shocker. A second head-to-head study appeared, this time in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It's conclusion: surgical masks were just as good as N95 respirators.

The 478 emergency department, medical unit, and pediatric nurses in this Canadian study who were randomized to use a surgical mask when providing care to patients with febrile respiratory illness during the flu season caught seasonal flu at about the same rate as those who wore fit-tested, N95 respirators (23.6% versus 22.9%, P=0.86).

For H1N1 influenza, surgical masks again met noninferiority criteria versus the N95 respirator (8.0% versus 11.9%, P=0.18).

Design may have accounted for the discrepancy between the trials, at least in part, suggested Srinivasan, who co-authored an editorial accompanying the JAMA study with an IOM committee member colleague.

"These types of studies are very difficult to do," he told MedPage Today.

The driving factor in effectiveness is how frequently and intensely the wearer is exposed to infection, he said. So one possibility is that masks may have been enough for Canadian nurses in generally lower risk settings, but not for the high-risk Chinese healthcare workers.

In Surgery: Masks Unmasked

Lack of evidence has also plagued surgical masks in their traditional setting, and where their use is still nearly universal: the operating room.

But not for lack of study.

In fact, three large, randomized controlled trials were conducted in the 1980s to determine once and for all if surgical masks actually did prevent surgical wound infection.

Here, where bacteria were the major concern in wound infection, the enemy targets were larger and might not require the fine filtration necessary to keep a respiratory virus away, researchers theorized.

But the trials "showed absolutely no efficacy" for that original purpose, MacIntyre noted.

"Really, the surgeon might as well wear nothing on their face," she said.

Still, the CDC recommends a mask in the operating room, citing long-standing tradition and the benefits of protecting nose and mouth from splashes of blood and other bodily fluids.

MacIntyre noted that a face shield is a better option against splashes because surgeons have to wear eye protection with a mask anyway.

But mask wearing "is so inculcated into the practice of medicine that it's going to be very hard to change," said John G. Bartlett, MD, former chief of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins.

Tradition and aesthetics play a role in the issue. Patients would not accept a surgeon who doesn't wear a mask because they are so ingrained as a symbol of a safe surgical environment, Bartlett said.

And since the masks are fairly inexpensive and easy to wear, it hasn't been worth challenging the status quo, he declared.

Nor are there likely to be more studies to decide the issue one way or the other, added Rupp. "Those studies are difficult to do because the percentage of patients who develop a surgical site infection is very, very low. So the impact of wearing a surgical mask is difficult to demonstrate," he said.

Masks for the Masses

Unlike the operating room, where it would be impossible to stop people from wearing masks, there are few places outside the hospital where it hasn't been hard to persuade people to put them on.

One of the exceptions is Asia, which has developed has a strong culture of mask use, both in medical settings and in public venues, largely as a result of the SARS epidemic in 2003, Bartlett said.

"Those people did whatever they could to try to prevent SARS," he recalled. "If it turned out that the H1N1 virus became more virulent and started to be a really serious disease, then people would be much more fastidious about how they used the disease prevention tools."

The CDC recommends that people who are ill with suspected or confirmed H1N1 flu wear face masks when at home around family members, in healthcare settings, at school until they can be taken home, and when it's necessary for them to be out and about.

However, the only high-level evidence for efficacy of masks in the community was a trial from Hong Kong -- published online last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine -- involving flu patients who were randomized to hand hygiene alone or in combination with surgical masks.

Compared with controls, employing hand hygiene alone or with face masks tended to reduce transmission of the flu to those living in the same house, but not significantly so.

However, when these interventions were initiated within 36 hours of symptom onset, face masks plus hand hygiene reduced risk of transmission by a very significant 67%.

Although the entire benefit can't be attributed to face masks, the results suggest masks may make a difference, MacIntyre said.

Because exposure to pathogens is typically much lower for the general public than for healthcare workers, "surgical masks may be enough in the community," she said.

Rupp agreed, saying he takes a "better safe than sorry" approach. His medical center asks patients with potentially droplet-mediated infections to put on a surgical mask.

"There probably isn't a whole lot of extensive study on the use of this in clinical situation," Rupp said. "We do think it's a pretty obvious way somebody can go about containing their secretions."

N95 masks would likely provide even more protection, MacIntyre said, but there's is fairly clear consensus that they would be intolerable for someone with a respiratory illness.

"They are relatively difficult to breath through; they can be associated also with feelings of claustrophobia and kind of a suffocating sensation," Rupp added. "It's difficult enough to get them to wear a loose fitting and relatively comfortable surgical mask."

Practical Masking

Practical issues such as compliance and supply have been part of the argument for use of surgical masks rather than N95 respirators in most clinical settings.

In a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece last week, several IOM committee members acknowledged that N95 respirators are currently in short supply.

They suggested that healthcare institutions place priority on N95 respirators in the highest-risk areas, "such as enclosed spaces in the respiratory care unit, patients' rooms, and ambulances."

While the IOM was instructed to not take these issues into consideration in its guidelines, a CDC spokesperson said that agency is making them a large factor in revision of its interim guidelines for healthcare worker respiratory protection.

In the end, however, infectious disease specialists always come back to the bigger picture.

Debate over the role of respiratory protection in preventing influenza transmission doesn't "excuse anyone from failing to implement other measures that are known to protect patients and healthcare professionals from influenza," Srinivasan's JAMA editorial concluded.

"Masks and respirators should be considered the 'last line of defense' in a hierarchy of infection control measures."

Handwashing, good etiquette when sneezing and coughing, and staying home when sick are still the keys to preventing spread of infectious disease, it said.

#Coronavirus #maskingtape #covid_19 #health #surgical mask

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eng2100 · 5 years

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blog 08 - neuromancer

So as an introductory note, I’m actually quite a big fan of cyberpunk. I’m a hobbyist DnD player and the first campaign that I’ve Dungeon-Mastered for was actually a simplified version of Shadowrun that I wrote all the backstory and lore for. It’s in what I would call a “sequel” right now that I’m very much enjoying. So bla bla bla I was excited to get to Neuromancer this whole time because I’m a genre fan.

a brief primer to cyberpunk

So western Cyberpunk owes its roots largely to the detective fiction genre-- most notably the hardboiled detective archetype, a darker western interpretation of your Sherlock Holmes type who is usually a jaded antihero that works for money, but still has a sense of justice deep down. You see this more reflected in Blade Runner than you see it in Neuromancer’s Case, but there are still a number of correlations (Funnily enough, Neuromancer and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep both end on nearly the same line-- “He never saw Molly again.” and “...and I never saw her again.” respectively.) Interestingly enough, Case kind of spawns his own kind of cyberpunk hero trope-- the rebellious hacker, seen in Neo.

If detective fiction owes itself to the inescapable aura of The Great Depression, then cyberpunk owes itself to the Reagan administration. Cyberpunk’s whole thing, at least in the west, springs forward from the fear of unregulated corporate growth in tandem with the rise of technology, and what the mixture of the two might bode for humanity at large. Both Neuromancer and Blade Runner owe their entire aesthetics to the vision of a world taken over by neon advertisements, bereft of nature, replaced by plasticity.

Now, why the primer? Well, I think it’s important to preface the discussion of this novel with the idea that cyberpunk is a deeply political genre in a way that not many other genres inherently are. (All fiction is, of course, inherently political, whether intentional or not, but most genres don’t regularly feature as much political charge as cyberpunk, is what I mean.) Neuromancer is politics from an era before most of us in this class were born, and as such, atop being a seminal work of genre fiction, it’s a lurid look into what the landscape looked like in the 80s. We are living now in the times that 80s Cyberpunk once called “the future”-- and, well, what does it look like for us? Are we living in the Urban Sprawl?

not quite

Our dystopian future is significantly more...mundane than coffin hotels and the television sky over Chiba. You might say we got all the corporate deregulation and none of the glimmering aesthetic slickness of cyberpunk-- we really are living in the worst timeline. If i’m going to have to labor under capitalism for the rest of my short life, couldn’t I at least have a slick pair of mirrorshades?

the text

There’s a lot about Neuromancer to like. It earned its reputation wholeheartedly-- it is definitely the legendary cyberpunk novel that it is well-known for being. Its writing style can often be abstract at the same time that it’s luridly detailed, and it uses strange and interesting words to create vivid images in the reader’s mind of this foreign landscape of the Sprawl. It uses a lot of “old world” associations to lend deeper weight to its descriptions (the Tank War Europa game comes to mind in tandem with the Screaming Fist operation that looms over the plot).

The book doesn’t shy away from the visceral nature of its own plot and setting-- drug binges and cramped love affairs in coffin hotels, fear and violence are all described in visceral detail that grounds the book hard in its reality while simultaneously indulging in a sort of dream-like surreality. I really admire the ways in which Gibson writes physical sensation whether it comes to the sex or the pain or the weirdness of cyberspace. The introduction of the novel sort of failed to catch me until Gibson went into detail about Case’s harrowing journey after losing his ability to jack into cyberspace and the intense, surreal affair with Linda Lee. Perhaps my biggest issue with the writing of Neuromancer is, however, Gibson’s tendency to throw a lot of world-building terminology at you really fast. Nothing bogs down a fictional story more than having to pause to wonder what certain words mean.

Describing cyberspace during a time in which VR wasn’t even a thing yet had to have been a challenge and a half, but Gibson found interesting ways to visualize the experience, and coined interesting terminology for it (ice and icebreakers, most notably). The Sense/Net bits are also pretty cool, but I’m also biased because anything that gives Molly Millions more screentime is just the best thing.

Did I mention Molly is my favorite character? I just can’t get over her. It sucks that her and Case break up in the epilogue, but it also feels fitting in a weird way. She really struck me as a standout character for a woman in a cyberpunk novel-- she’s an active player in her own sexuality, she’s violent and the stronger of the two between herself and Case. She has a sort of unapologetic way about her that feels very fresh even today. The first time Case uses Sense/Net to see through her eyes, I was hit in an unexpectedly hard way by the description of people in a crowd moving out of the way for her-- for most girls in real life, that’s a fairly unheard of experience, and to me, as a female reader, it did a lot to establish to me just how powerful she is.

That being said, this is a good place to segue into the conversation you know my Obnoxious Feminist Ass has been waiting to bring up.

cyberpunk vs women

You can tell a lot about a person’s base assumptions about the world by the way they talk about people in their works of fiction. Now when I say “base assumptions” I don’t mean their political leanings, I mean something that’s on a deeper, more subconscious level-- in this way, base assumptions are inherently neutral in a way, they’re incapable of being truly malicious, even if they’re harmful, because they’re just the base coding of how a person regards things inherently.

What I’m getting at is that at the time of writing this book, I don’t think Gibson had much of a regard for women at all. When the first mention of women in your novel is calling them whores, I’m going to be forced to assume both that you don’t like women very much and that women are primarily sex objects to you-- or at the very least that women factor into your view of the world in a very marginal way that is largely informed by porn culture. Now, let’s suppose that maybe it’s actually the POV character Case that’s just a raging sexist-- that theory might hold water if this were a character trait that is brought up as a flaw, or indeed, if it were really brought up at all in his personality, but it’s not.

To my great frustration, in the Neuromancer world, it seems like “whore” is about the only job available for women! Who knew the job market would shrink in such a way? Now, perhaps you could argue that Gibson was actually trying to make a point about the way in which porn culture commodifies women into sexy leg lamps for male consumption, and I won’t claim to know his intent, but to me, it doesn’t really seem that deep. It seems like to me that, to Gibson, women being mostly vapid sex workers in his dystopia is a foregone conclusion-- he didn’t think about it that hard, that’s just his stereotypical image of what women in an criminal underbelly do.

This problem of a lack of regard for female perspectives in cyberpunk narratives that largely concern themselves with themes of objectification and oppression under capitalist systems and the regurgitation of harmful sexist tropes certainly isn’t exclusive to Neuromancer. Cyberpunk is a economic-political type of genre, so oppression in the genre tends to fall upon class lines rather than race or gender lines-- and perhaps, this could occur in a far flung future in which capital manages to supersede bias, however, I can’t help but feel that this is a lazy way to write a political narrative. Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, and The Matrix all have distinct problems with addressing the idea of intersectionality when it comes to the ways in which ones gender and race plays into their role in a capitalist system.

Cyberpunk, for all its shining successes as interesting fiction and pointed political commentary, totally fails in the regard that it co-opts the struggle of lower-classes and applies the romanticized aesthetic to white male characters completely unironically. (You can read a pretty good take on Dystopias and post-racialism here.)

east versus west

So, when I went over the primer to the rise of Cyberpunk earlier, I left something out (on purpose!). During the 80s, there was another prime ingredient to the mix of the nascent genre’s formation: the rise of Japan as a technological leader in the global market. Before World War 2, and indeed, during it, American’s conceptualization of the future, was, well, American. They viewed themselves as the originator of innovation within the world and the blueprint from which the rest of the world should be based. However, this all changed in the post-war era as Japan began to participate in the market, leaving behind their isolationist ways-- suddenly, Japan was what the vision of the future looked like in American imagination-- the Tokyo urban sprawl.

The imagery of Japan is ubiquitous in western Cyberpunk, whether hardcore or or softcore or simply an incidental portrayal of futurism. Disney’s Big Hero 6 features San Fransokyo, San Franciso and Tokyo jammed together complete with neon signs in Japanese letters. During the 90s, Marvel launched Rampage 2099 and Spider-man 2099, both set in glittering neon cityscapes. The series Firefly featured a strange universe in which everyone seems to speak Chinese pidgins (but there’s no Chinese people in the show, funnily). MTV had Aeon Flux, a U.S. take on anime. Even movies like Total Recall borrowed the bright neon flavor. Video games such as Deus Ex and Cyberpunk 2077 feature these influences heavily, with less-bold-but-still-there influence being seen in games like Remember Me and Detroit: Become Human.

There’s an interesting cultural exchange going on between the east and west when it comes to Cyberpunk, as the 90s were rife with cyberpunk fiction in both places-- The U.S. saw The Matrix (which was inspired by Ghost in the Shell, as admitted by the Wachowskis in a phrasing that I find really annoying as an animator: “We want to make that but for real”.), while Japan had the seminal Ghost in the Shell and Akira. It’s interesting to note the stark contrast between western and eastern Cyberpunk-- eastern Cyberpunk misses entirely western Cyberpunk’s detective fiction roots, for one. For two, eastern Cyberpunk tends to concern itself more with philosophical questions about the nature of the soul in relation to technology and deep-seated cultural fears about weapons of mass destruction and government.

Neuromancer is deeply entrenched in eastern aesthetics-- many Japanese brands are brought up explicitly by name within the model (Mitsubishi, Sony, etc.). Gibson cites the “Kowloon Walled City” of Hong Kong as something that haunted him after he was told about it, and the idea of Coffin Hotels owes quite a lot to it. Gibson is quoted as saying:

“Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya, when one of the young Tokyo journalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand media-suns - all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information - said, ‘You see? You see? It is Blade Runner town.' And it was. It so evidently was.“

One of Neuromancer’s primary settings is The Night City, a supposedly gaijin district of Tokyo on the bay-- this...sort of explains why there don’t seem to be a lot of Asian people in Asia, but the issue still stands. This isn’t a game-breakingly “I wouldn’t recommend this book” bad case, but it is something that I felt I should point out. Neuromancer is a foundational work to the genre, which means that not only are its successes carried over, but many of its flaws as well. Now, I don’t want this cricitism to sound like I think William Gibson is a raging bigot or anything-- I really don’t! I follow him on twitter and he’s a perfectly likable guy, actually. Problems aside, I really enjoy his work.

conclusions

Going into the future, I don’t think Cyberpunk is going away anytime soon, and certainly much of it owes its roots to Neuromancer. With shows like Altered Carbon and games like Cyberpunk 2077 on the horizon, I’m interested to see the ways in which our current economic political climate may effect what our vision of a technological dystopia may look like. Cyberpunk is easily one of the most interesting genres of fiction, and if you haven’t looked into it deeply, I highly recommend checking it out.

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stephenmccull · 3 years

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Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

But the sounds were muted inside a mobile medical RV parked near the stadium, and the tone was professional. During halftime of Mexico’s game against the U.S., soccer fan Oscar Felipe Sanchez rolled up his sleeve to receive the one-dose covid-19 vaccine.

Sanchez is a house painter in Colorado Springs. After getting sick with covid a few months ago, he thought he should get the vaccine. But because of the illness, he was advised to wait a few weeks before getting the shot. Asked if he’s glad he got it, Sanchez answered through a translator: “Yes! He’s more trusting to go out.”

Bringing the mobile vaccine program to an international soccer match was the latest effort by the state of Colorado and its local partners to meet unvaccinated residents wherever they are, rather than ask them to find the vaccine themselves.

Long gone are the days in early spring when vaccine appointments were snatched up the instant they became available, and health care workers worried about making sure patients were eligible under state and federal criteria for age and health status.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

With about half of Colorado’s 5.78 million people now fully immunized, the challenge cuts across all demographic groups. According to the state’s vaccination dashboard, men are slightly more hesitant than women and rural residents are more hesitant than urban dwellers. Younger Coloradans have been less likely than their elders to prioritize the shots.

But perhaps no group has been harder to get vaccinated than Coloradans who identify as Hispanic. Despite Hispanics making up more than 20% of the state population, only about 10% of the state’s doses have gone to Hispanic residents, according to the state’s vaccination dashboard.

The gap is not as wide nationally: Hispanics, or Latinos, make up 17.2% of the U.S. population, and 15.8% of people who have gotten at least one dose — and whose race/ethnicity is known — are Hispanic.

At first, the gap in Colorado seemed to be an issue of inadequate access to health care. Nearly 16% of Hispanic Coloradans are uninsured, according to a KFF report. That’s more than double the rate for white Coloradans. That disparity may play a role, even though the vaccine itself is free, with no insurance requirement.

Denver has hit the 70% threshold for resident vaccination, but some Latino neighborhoods are getting vaccinated at much lower rates, according to Dr. Lilia Cervantes, an associate professor in the department of medicine at Denver Health.

“There are some very high-risk neighborhoods where most of the community are first-generation or foreign-born individuals,” said Cervantes. “And that is where we’re seeing the highest disparities.”

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

If the state hopes to reach broad levels of protection from the virus, Cervantes said, “I think that it is critical that we improve vaccine uptake in our most marginalized groups, including those who are undocumented and those who are Spanish-language dominant.” Cervantes added she’s concerned the state will keep seeing a higher covid positivity rate in those marginalized groups, who make up much of the essential workforce. “This past year, I think we have seen stark health inequities in the Latino community.”

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

He worries cases, hospitalizations and deaths will keep flaring up in less vaccinated communities, especially predominantly Hispanic populations in parts of Colorado or other states where overall vaccination rates are poor. “They’re at risk, especially moving into the fall of seeing increasing waves of infections. I think it is really critical that people really become vaccinated,” Holguin said. Even as parts of Colorado and parts of the U.S. — like the Northeast — are getting vaccinated at high rates, for the mostly unvaccinated “covid infections in certain communities still will be devastating for them,” he said.

He’s especially concerned about migrant farmworkers, who often have poor access to the internet and may struggle to find good information about the vaccine and avoiding the virus. “So overcoming those access, cultural, language barriers is important,” he said.

When asked what the state has done to reach out to Latino Coloradans, a health department spokesperson pointed to over 1,500 “vaccine equity clinics” in 56 counties; the Workplace Vaccination Program, which partners with businesses and organizations to provide vaccine clinics at worksites; and a Spanish-language Facebook page and covid website. She said the state’s “Power the Comeback” campaign is available in English and Spanish and aims to reach disproportionately affected populations with awareness ads, testimonial videos and animated videos.

About a third of all adults in the U.S. are unvaccinated, a “shrinking pool” that skews younger and includes people more likely to identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, according to a KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report.

They also tend to be poorer, less educated and more likely to be uninsured. The KFF report found 19% of unvaccinated adults are Hispanic; of that group, 20% said they will “wait and see” about getting vaccinated, and 11% said they’d “definitely not” get it.

Both Cervantes and Holguin credit local, state and community groups with aggressively looking to boost vaccination rates among Latino Coloradans, while also encouraging them to keep recruiting trusted community voices from within, to help deliver the message.

“You know, it’s not going to be Dr. [Anthony] Fauci saying something, that someone translates in Spanish, that you need to get vaccinated,” Holguin said. “There’s going to be people in the community convincing others to get vaccinated.”

At Empower Field, soccer fan Diego Montemayor of Denver echoed that sentiment, saying some fans who got shots themselves urged friends who came to the stadium to visit the RV and get one, too. “When they hear people that they trust sharing their experiences, that goes a long way,” Montemayor said.

Community health advocate Karimme Quintana agreed. She had come to the game as well to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. She works as a promotora de salud pública, a public health outreach worker, focusing her efforts on Denver’s majority-Latino Westwood neighborhood. Quintana said that population may trust someone close to them more than even a doctor.

“They need to be more educated about the covid because they have a lot of questions,” said Quintana, whose button read “¿Tiene preguntas sobre covid? Pregúnteme.” (“Do you have questions about covid? Ask me.”)

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

University of Colorado Health nurse Danica Farrington said the vaccine effort at the soccer tournament was heavily promoted beforehand on billboards and big screens inside the stadium during the game.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. ��That’s pretty influential.”

The carnival atmosphere at the stadium helped him make the pitch, said Jesus Romero Serrano, a community ambassador with Denver’s mayor’s office: “It’s a Mexico game versus Honduras! So lots of Latinos are here. This is the perfect place to be, to reach the Latin community. Absolutely!”

To capitalize on the playful spirit of the day, Romero Serrano wore a Mexico soccer jersey and a red-and-green luchador wrestling mask. In his work with the city government, he’s what you could call a community influencer. He filtered through the tailgate crowd in the parking lot, handing out cards about where to get a vaccine.

As he circulated, he admitted it’s sometimes hard for some Latino Coloradans to overcome what they see as years of historical mistreatment or neglect from medical providers. “They don’t trust the health care system,” he said.

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

A few miles from the stadium is the Tepeyac Community Health Center, in the predominantly Hispanic Globeville neighborhood. That’s home base for Dr. Pamela Valenza, a family physician and the chief health officer at the clinic. She tries to address her patients’ fears and concerns about the new vaccines, but many have told her they still want to wait and see that people don’t have serious side effects.

Valenza’s clinic recently held more vaccine events, at more convenient times that didn’t interfere with work, like Friday evenings, and offered free grocery cards for the vaccinated. She said she likes the idea of pairing vaccines with fun.

“The Latino culture — food, culture and community — is such a central part of the Latino community,” Valenza said. “Making the events maybe a little bit more than just a vaccine might encourage some community members to come out.”

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years

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Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. “That’s pretty influential.”

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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in-my-minds-reflection · 5 years

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Literature & Reading// Fiction and American Lit

Going into EWU I had little to know knowledge of what a literary analysis actually was, nor did I have any idea how to do it without plain summary. However, through Ian Green’s Intro to Fiction and American Lit I class I have developed my skills tremendously and I can create theses so much more easily and know how to prove them. These classes have improved my writing so much and with them I know I can apply some of the different techniques he used to teach me into lower level classes, so those students may find success earlier than I did. I have also been able to find a stronger interest in classics in literature and with a teacher who did not encourage just the canon and the white man’s perspective, I can help create an environment in which voices are actually represented in what we read and learn through.

The Language versus the Origin: Identities Exist Long Before Their Labels Do

NOTICE: It is important to note that throughout this paper, as a writer, I can only critique these scholars from a homosexual, cisgender female point of view. As a scholar, one must note that they inherently have biases especially when writing about a group of people they do not identify as and it must be noted as such. Whether one identifies as a woman or a womxn or a they/them or anything else, it must also be recognized that much of this language has only erupted in the last thirty years or so and we must infer from the descriptions other’s use.

While the ideas of gender roles have existed for hundreds and thousands of years, those not aligning to the binary of these pink and blue stereotypes as we know now have been around for just as long. While the acceptance of these non-traditional ideas is still formulating in big waves, the language that we have to surround these topics has increased exponentially in the last few decades. However, this allows for much disagreement over older texts that deal with gender and sexuality and whether they “were” gay, transgender, or non-binary among other identities, and whether as scholars we can accurately pinpoint the identities without having these explicit messages that “This Character is Trans”. In regard to Mountain Charley, a tale of a person who was born and raised “female” who took upon a male identity in parts of adulthood, and other 19th century American texts, gender is discussed and critiqued in negative ways because to the inability to perfectly define the sexual and gender experience due to the lack of language available during that period. Professor Peter Boag, a history teacher at WSU, has multiple articles about gender in 19th century Western novels. Boag says, “This reveals a problem that confronts historians: it is anachronistic to impose our present-day terms and concepts for and about gender and sexuality — such as transgender — onto the past” ([The Trouble…]325), but if someone were to describe in detail how to make banana bread, but instead called bananas plantains and measure everything in the metric system and titled it “Fancy Loaf”, would it still be incorrect to point out that it is still, literally, banana bread? Though it is notable that the word “transgender” only became commonly used within the last quarter of the 20th century (Boag [The Trouble…]324), the language not being available for use does not excuse that existing not within a gender binary but instead a gender spectrum has happened for all of history. While the west is typically thought of as being settled by white men, the Homestead Act allowed for anyone to purchase 160 acres for only fourteen dollars (Patterson-Black 67). Between five and ten percent of all homesteaders were women (Patterson-Black 68) as the only requirement was to be head of a family or twenty-one years of age. This uncommon knowledge has been holding back the gender ratios as well as power structure that was at work of the nineteenth century that we can distinctly trace back with a paper trail. While female homesteaders were perpetuated as dependent on their husbands, dance hall participants, or prostitutes (Patterson-Black 69), the real women who took on this land ownership were strong and independent workers. If these women were to exist in these generally “masculine” roles, why can’t other people existing on the gender spectrum have also taken advantage of the “wild wild west” and its opportunities? While we have a large dictionary of words to describe various sexuality and gender labels, the incorrect and offensive terms are still used. Boag says, in his article from only fifteen years ago: “Of course applying our terms and concepts of transgenderism and transsexuality to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century is problematic. The concept of transsexuality only crystallized in the 1940s and 1950s when advancements in medical technology allowed individuals who felt they had the wrong sex or body to surgically reshape them. Since then, transsexual identity has expanded to include those who choose not to, or are unable to, surgically change their bodies to conform with their gender identity. In the last quarter of the twentieth century a broader concept of transgenderism emerged. The new understanding includes transsexuals, but it also embraces a whole set of people who, perfectly satisfied with their bodies, nevertheless identify with the gender "opposite" of the one society normally assigns to their bodies; it also counts people who truly transcend normative gender categories, wanting to be seen as neither female nor male.” (Boag 479-480) The term “transsexual” is not a term used to describe those who are transgender and most of the population is very uncomfortable of this term; one’s gender experience is not limited to their genitals and whether or not they would like to alter it. While many trans people would like to transition as much as they can medically, not everyone wants to or needs to, and either way they all fall under the broader term of transgender (or trans-masc or trans-feminine). This language used to refer to such a broad group of people is not a positive or useful thing to do, especially when in the twenty first century now that there is easy-to-access language to discuss these things. This idea ties into the transmed community who believe that one must medically transition and desire to to be trans, whereas not everyone who experiences dysphoria that comes with being trans would have their dysphoria solved from being on hormones or getting surgeries, and for some, medically transitioning is just not possible. One’s genitals does not in any way determine their gender, and only may help someone feel comfortable with their body upon altering them. Boag says, “Such a sequence of events undoubtedly helped Greeley reclaim balance in his sense of gender norms and sex roles which had recently been upset by encountering a "woman" dressed as a man in a region where, and at a time when, few women could actually be found. Moreover, the meaning embedded within this story about changing physical locations and gender identities anticipated a theme that decades of later regional historians and popular writers assumed as axiomatic: the West was a man's world, a place either not welcoming to, or simply devoid of, women-creatures best relegated to the more domesticated East” (478) in response to a journalist finding a womxn dressed in traditionally “male” clothing working in the west, which turned out to be not quite as prosperous as he once thought. This section of Boag’s article, “Go West Young Man, Go East Young Woman: Searching for the Trans in Western Gender History”, is exactly contradictory of what Patterson-Black claims in her article in which she is researching women in the great plains. While Boag notes what the writers and historians said during this time, he ignores the researchable statistics and within this ignores all of the women who made their way across America. In researching gender in the nineteenth century, one might come across a book called, “‘The Horrors of the Half Known Life’: Male Attitudes toward Women and Sexuality in Nineteenth Century America” by G.J.Barker-Benfield, a man. This book “covers” (albeit very, very generalized) the ideas a man would have about a woman during the 1800s; from gynecology to multiple chapters about sex, this text, much like the articles by Peter Boag, can not accurately define the life of a woman during this period. This book not only perpetuates the binary gender idea rather than one existing on a spectrum, but also titles its chapters “Man Earn--Woman Spread” and “Architect of the Vagina” whereas not all women “spread” for men nor do all women have vaginas. While the in the intro, Barker-Benfield notes that he is a man and is to be met with criticism for creating this text following a variety of other men creating “feminist” texts about women, this did not prevent his publishing nor did it make him second guess these incredibly sexualized phrases about the real experiences of womxn. It is important to question why something would need to be published about the male version of the womxn’s experience when that is almost solely the history we receive anyway. The Horrors intro is almost entirely about how feminists are interested in the gynecological aspect of the text, but this limits all women to only their sex, and not even all women. While Horrors does recognize the difficulty of a non-male lifestyle in the nineteenth century within its title, the encouragement of a binary gender situation obscures and ignores all the womxn who did not participate in the standard gender roles of the time and who existed beyond the binary. “Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco” by Clare Sears opens with the true story of a womxn, who in 1866, was caught “cross-dressing” in public on the arm of another person (who the author calls a man or possibly a woman). The mxn who were regularly arrested for dressed in feminine style clothing called for her arrest, as she had just been ignored during her first appearance so the police arrested the womxn, Eliza DeWolf, the next day (Sears). This text addresses the increasing number of laws against “cross-dressing” put in place, aggressively, in the nineteenth century. While this did have a detrimental effect on those not “dressing in accordance to their sex” (however possible that is), it also publicized those who did it and therefore increased awareness of the womxn who were not wearing “less than three pieces of women’s clothing” (Sears). Other than the language of cross-dressing, the people who suffered these laws were able only to express their gender identity without the structure and the labels we have today and without these, they were even less understood. However, the act of “cross-dressing” is not a politically correct one; clothes do not have gender and people should and get to decide how they identify on their own. By referring to the people who chose to dress eclectically between standard feminine and masculine clothing items, it is easy to assume that they are just doing it for fun or to be weird or because they are weird, and not because they identify differently and present differently on the spectrum than the majority of people in that day and age. While these people did dress in clothes traditionally the opposite of what their assigned gender is (based on sex), it is inappropriate to call them cross-dressers at any point in time. Gender and sexuality ultimately exist on an intersectional spectrum. Darnell Moore, of Columbia University and inaugural chair of Mayor Cory Booker's LGBT Concerns Advisory, writes that queerness is both inherently structured within each class and then, due to its intersection, is also structureless: “Yet, and again, even in its quests to resist structures, the "queer" exists as another space wherein structure is once again reconfigured and operationalized, particularly as it relates to the ways that some bodies and political interests are made visible in queer movements while others are not” (Moore 259). It is nearly impossible to interpret Mountain Charley’s gender and sexual identity because, at the time of writing, the language did not exist. However, this lack of structure and identity labels does not disprove that Mountain Charley very well could have been butch, transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, or a myriad of different identities. Moore says, “[this] critique, however, was not enough to correct the erasure. Instead, we developed the Queer Newark archive, a structure of documents and material culture, as a means to render visible the lives of queer subjects who have been othered out of queer histories by, often, other queer” (259-260). This is important to note, that while there may be clearer historical texts out there of people being definitively queer (gay or lesbian for example), it should not have to erase the other examples that are less obvious. It is still ever important to recognize those who do not have that label, whether their story was created before or after the label existed, and not to erase them from history, just because they are not outright saying they are homosexual. In chapter three, when Charley decides to act upon the solution they composed, it does appear as Charley’s “only option”. “At length, after casting over in my mind everything that presented itself as a remedy, I determined upon a project, which, improbable as it may appear to my sex and to those who have followed my life thus far, I actually soon after put into execution. It was to dress myself in male attire, and seek for a living in this disguise among the avenues which are so religiously closed against my sex” (Mountain Charley 18). Note that the only concern is against religion, however, Charley does feel that they could find themselves in this role despite their sex. Charley “fully determined to seek a living in the guise of a man” (Mountain Charley 19). While one could argue that this was their only option, the truth is that Charley ultimately could have found another man to marry or become a beggar; most people would not want to live as the gender they do not identify with unless it was life or death, and at this point the options were poverty, admitting the mistakes they made to their father, or finding a new husband. While Charley never explicitly says that they are a man confidently, rather only commenting on the comfort of being in that “persona”, it is not improbable to assume that Charley was not a cisgender woman. “Although I had resumed my womanly dress and habits, I could not wholly eradicate many of the tastes which I had acquired during my life as one of the stronger sex” (Mountain Charley 29). Had Charley been cisgender, there would have been an experience of gender euphoria at the return to “womanly dress”, instead, Charley was not comfortable in this femininity and still found something to identify with in their masc side. Gender has no perfect definition; it is something that exists as a spectrum and almost no one lies perfectly on either edge. The spectrum is not a single line either, there is not just male and female with a combination in the middle but instead it is more of a circle with different points along the edges: agender, cisgender, genderqueer, bigender, two-spirit, and the list goes on. While the visibility of gender non-conforming people has improved infinitely since the nineteenth century, what with these different labels being created and being publicized, it still is not a perfect utopia of freedom of expression. Much of Mountain Charley’s concerns over dressing “like a man”, such as religion, are still ever present today. Much as one may argue that Charley had to dress as a man to survive, there are thousands of people today who have to dress aligned to one sex or another to survive in the same way. Charley’s story could be comparative to trans-masc or trans-feminine individuals who have to dress according to their assigned gender at birth to continue to have a safe life, whether it exists as protection from being kicked out of their home, attacked or assaulted, or to continue to partake in their own religion. Not only this, but Charley variates between comfort in their masculine dress and their feminine dress and it is inconsistent; there is no true gender euphoria within either. Charley, by this definition, falls under the umbrella of genderqueer. While gender does exist more than dress, the “personas” Charley takes on impacts their personality and skews either side together to create a non-binary individual. While Charley does not have any language to determine this, nor do they necessarily need any because labels are not important for everybody, it is important to be able to consider any and all texts queer texts and not omit anything. Boag says “Period stories of Monahan as well as those of the Mountain Charleys and even Horace Greeley's clerk are progress narratives in their own right: the cross-dresser's transformation into a man is temporary and for some specific purpose. But more, the progress successfully terminates when the subject resumes a womanly identity, passing the remainder of her life, as one period observer put it, in "a sphere suited to her sex." (“Go West” 497). While these womxn often dressed in quintessentially male attire to “save” themselves, they have to go back to what is “suited to her sex”. These womxn were obligated to reveal their sex and align with their sex, whether or not they felt more like themselves when they were dressed in that masculine attire; it was easier to wrap up the story of these Mountain Charleys to have a conclusion that they are “normal” and weak feminine ladies who desire to return to that life, rather than to live out their lives as butch womxn, men, or gender non-conforming individuals. Boag’s argument that these stories are just for “cross-dressers” is not accurate; it is a way to expose the womxn who did not live on their designated gender line and allow for other people to view it in a positive manner. Ultimately, as scholarship is continually written about these people in history, the language one uses must be updated and relevant with the times; we have the words to describe these people and we should use them. However, we should use them with caution--no one knows these people and their “true” stories, but one can identify transgender and queerness in any text from every point in time, despite the word “transgender” only finding its grounds less than a quarter of a century ago. The biases these authors have must be taken into account as one reads their scholarship and it is important for us, as readers, to recognize transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+ commentary in works and let others know that it is not okay. Due to language and certain views, Mountain Charley and other 19th century texts are critiqued negatively due to either their representation or alleged non-representation of transgender or non-binary individuals.

Works Cited: Barker-Benfield, G J. The Horrors of the Half-Known Life. Routledge, 2000. Boag, Peter. “Go West Young Man, Go East Young Woman: Searching for the Trans in Western Gender History.” The Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, 2005, pp. 477–497. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25443237. Boag, Peter. “The Trouble with Cross-Dressers: Researching and Writing the History of Sexual and Gender Transgressiveness in the Nineteenth-Century American West.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 112, no. 3, 2011, pp. 322–339. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5403/oregonhistq.112.3.0322. Guerin, E J. Mountain Charley or the Adventures of Mrs. E.J. Guerin Who Was Thirteen Years in Male Attire. University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. Moore, Darnell L. “Structurelessness, Structure, and Queer Movements.” Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3/4, 2013, pp. 257–260. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23611522. Patterson-Black, Sheryll. “Women Homesteaders on the Great Plains Frontier.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 1976, pp. 67–88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3346070. Sears, Clare. "Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco". Duke University Press, 2015.

#literature & reading

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tinydetectivestudent-posts · 7 years

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Weight loss can be tied to when, not just what, you eat

If you are trying to lose weight and improve your health, you may already be aware of what you eat during the day.

You can skip breakfast. At lunch you can choose a salad with plenty of vegetables, no croutons and low-fat dressing - on the side, of course.

Then three hours.

You are incredibly hungry and envy sweets, sweets or chips. You finally have the cave, eat some candy or other treatment.

At 6pm, you tore up cooking, snacking on everything you see.

Despite all their efforts to cut carbohydrates at meals, you see a lot of pasta or a pizza. And then another. But you are still not satisfied. Dessert calls, and you want something sweet again. A scoop or two of ice cream is satisfied at the moment, but you continue to graze the night until finally you are so tired, crashing into bed.

So what is the cause of all this drama regime continues to occur almost on schedule?

"I began to notice a common pattern where my patients were so good with your calories limited during the day but in the afternoon and evening collapsed," said Tamara Duker Freuman, a nutritionist who Helped hundreds of people lose weight from the last decade in a food according to the time it describes as the "synchronized circadian diet" plan.

"It was the continuous grazing at night ... That is what followed socavándolos. Often thought they were eaters of frenzy ... but really, they were really hungry.

"If you do eat a little more at breakfast and lunch, if only added a few hundred extra calories in the morning, they would get to eat and lose weight under control," he said.

Front loading search feed

It is true that excess calories at any time of the day will result in weight gain. But skipping meals or eating fewer calories earlier in the day seems to stack the odds against us. The result: Weight loss is difficult to achieve. In fact, more and more research points to the fact that when you, you have to frontload rather than your calories a much better chance of ridding pounds.

"What we have seen is that people with diets with the same number of calories loaded in the front part of the day are the best in terms of subjective and objective measures of satiety," said Freuman. "They feel more sated at night, and there are actually differences in their hormones from hunger and satiety ... and this seems to contribute to the success of weight loss. "

A study of 420 overweight and obese individuals divided into two groups: early and late eating eaters, according to lunch time (before or after 15 hours). The final eaters also ate the low-calorie breakfast or breakfast breakfast most often than the early eaters.

At the end of the 20-week study period, delayed eaters lost less weight compared to previous eaters (17 vs 22 pounds on average, respectively) and lost more slowly, although both Groups ate about 1400 calories a day and consumed similar amounts of fat, protein and carbohydrates.

Another study followed two groups of overweight women with metabolic syndrome in the same weight loss diets of 1,400 calories for 12 weeks. The only difference between the groups was that their calories were distributed differently throughout the day: both groups consumed 500 calories at lunch but one group consumed 700 calories for breakfast and dinner 200 calories Another group Ate 200 calorie breakfast 700 calories and dinner (the group of "great dinner").

The nutrient content of the food was exactly the same for both groups, the only difference is that the lunch and dinner meals were changed. After 12 weeks, the breakfast group lost about 2½ times more weight than the group of larger meals (8.7 pounds for the large breakfast group versus 3.6 pounds for a large group dinner). Has lost more than 4 inches around your waist.

The large breakfast group experienced a 33% decrease in triglyceride levels, a marker associated with a risk of heart disease, while the group that ate food with more calories experienced an increase of 14.6 %. The largest breakfast group also experienced larger reductions in fasting glucose, insulin and insulin resistance scores, all of which indicate a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to the authors Of the study.

Thus, loading before calories and carbohydrates is not only favorable in terms of weight loss, which have had beneficial effects on other health indicators in general, including a reduction in the risk of type diabetes 2 and cardiovascular disease.

This second study "opened my eyes," says Freuman. "It was not only that people were less hungry and ate less at night, but stressed the fact that there might be some sort of underlying metabolic magic, where the moment of calories and carbohydrates that most Imported total amount of calories and carbohydrates consumed in a day, and helped me intuitively understand what I was seeing my patients. "

Circadian rhythms: "metabolic magic"

More and more research suggests that when you eat can be as important as what you eat. And it is closely linked to the complex science of circadian rhythms.

According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a cycle of about 24 hours, responding primarily to light and darkness in the environment of an organism.

Circadian rhythms are animated by biological clocks in our bodies. The brain has a master biological clock, influenced primarily by the light that says "peripheral" clocks in the muscles and organs at what time of day it is. Because of these watches, most of the metabolic processes that take place in us operate at different speeds for a period of 24 hours.

"Because circadian rhythms, there are variations in certain levels of hormones, levels of enzymes and glucose carriers in different parts of the day, which affect differently the way metabolized calories, carbohydrates and fats" , Said Freuman who presented case studies of patients who improved their weight and health by eating in tune with the circadian rhythms in the New York State Academy's annual meeting of nutrition and diet May 2016.

Circadian rhythms can help explain why eating late at night increases the likelihood of weight gain and decreases the speed at which you lose weight compared to eating earlier in the day.

For example, research suggests that calories burned to digest, absorb and metabolize nutrients in the foods we eat, known as diet-induced thermogenesis are influenced by our circadian system and are less than 8 hours 8 am, According to Frank AJL Scheer, director of the medical chronobiology program of the Sleep Disorders Division and Circadio at the Brigham and Women Hospital in Boston.

Other metabolic processes involving insulin sensitivity and fat storage also work according to circadian rhythms and can greatly affect the likelihood of weight gain or weight loss at different times of the day.

"These different metabolic processes flow at different times of the day and play a role in how your body metabolizes the energy of the food, which ultimately affects your weight, blood sugar control and cholesterol - And has enormous implications for the optimal moment to eat is considered, "said Freuman

Captains take care breakfast

Circadian rhythms can help explain why skipping breakfast is associated with an increased risk of weight gain, even among those who consume comparable amounts of calories in a day.

"The link between obesity and skipping breakfast never thought it was due to over-compensation of calories at subsequent meals due to excessive hunger ... but research still shows no difference in total energy consumption Between breakfast models, "said Freuman.

"Nothing else to skip breakfast - in addition to potentially eating more calories later in the day - to explain the increased risk of weight gain between the breakfast of employers," he said. A more likely answer: Eating more calories on the back of the day is synchronized with the metabolic circadian rhythms.

"We're metabolically less robust than age," he said. "So even if you've run away with jumping breakfast and eating out of synch in their 20s or 30s, you can eventually catch up. "

Night workers can also benefit from eating in tune with their circadian rhythms. You can alter the meal schedule for synchronization with the metabolic circadian rhythms at breakfast at the end of his working day at 7 or 8 in the morning and then eat your heaviest meal when they wake up, about 3 or 4 morning.

Freuman discourages night shift patients to eat at night. "We do not want to eat a lot of calories, so we'll give you a sip of tea or a thermos of miso soup or, if necessary, a little something like an apple to minimize calories overnight.

"Your metabolism works in a certain way whether you're awake or asleep - even if you're awake for most of the night still want to eat most of your calories during the light day sleep. The has little to do with it" , Said Freuman.

Eating tips in tune with circadian rhythms

So how do we eat in tune with our circadian rhythms? The key is the front loading of your calories and carbohydrates. Freuman suggests the following, she advises her patients:

1. Do not skip breakfast

Ideally, breakfast should be sufficiently satisfying to avoid the need for a mid-morning snack and must have a minimum of 300 calories, according to Freuman. You should always include high-fiber carbohydrates, which are digested more slowly than refined carbohydrates, and should include protein, which helps keep hunger under control.

Good breakfasts include a cup of oatmeal cooked with low-fat milk and a small handful of walnuts, two slices of Ezekiel or brown bread with avocado slices and mashed tomatoes or tortilla two eggs With vegetables, fruits and a slice of whole wheat bread.

If you are not hungry when you wake up, you can postpone breakfast for a few hours - but should not be omitted, like Freuman.

2. Have the "special blue plate" for lunch

"Lunch should be like special blue plate ... the main meal of the day," said Freuman.

For Freuman's simple strategy lunch suggests half filling the plate with non-starchy vegetables, then split the second half protein (like fish or grilled chicken) and rich in slowly digested carbohydrate fibers (like beans or quinoa). "A salad with grilled chicken is fine, but try adding a sweet potato oven, a spoonful of chickpeas or even a thick hot soup and lentils," he said.

If you prefer a sandwich for lunch, pair it with vegetables rich in fiber. "A turkey sandwich is part of a good lunch, but not a whole lunch. Try adding pumpkin soup or carrots with hummus.

Other recommended Freuman breakfasts include baked salmon with green lentils and cooked vegetables or a Plate of Quinoa Mexican Quinoa, Black Beans, Chicken, Avocado and Salsa, along with lots of vegetables.

The best way to plan for lunch can be used last night's leftovers. "I cook dinner at home and bring my leftovers for lunch the next day. When I get home from work, I'm not tearing the house apart. "

3. Take a snack

An afternoon snack may be necessary if lunch and dinner are more than five hours apart. However, it does not need more than 200 calories, and should be high in protein and fiber. "That will prevent you from feeling hungry," Freuman said.

Snacks that will satisfy include an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter, grape tomatoes with string cheese, a plain or hard Greek yoghurt egg with fruit.

4. Go Low - Carbohydrates For Dinner

Dinner should be light and low in carbohydrates. "The more you can lose carbohydrates for dinner, as well as the effects of distorted night calories attenuated," said Freuman.

Dinners can include cooked fish and vegetables, wrapped in lettuce tacos or a turkey burger (except bread) and a salad with a light dressing.

"I'll make meatballs of turkey for my kids and give them pate too, but I'll have mine on a bed of spinach - and the next day I'll put the pasta for lunch. "

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health1information · 7 years

Text

Weight loss can be tied to when, not just what, you eat

If you are trying to lose weight and improve your health, you may already be aware of what you eat during the day.

You can skip breakfast. At lunch you can choose a salad with plenty of vegetables, no croutons and low-fat dressing - on the side, of course.

Then three hours.

You are incredibly hungry and envy sweets, sweets or chips. You finally have the cave, eat some candy or other treatment.

At 6pm, you tore up cooking, snacking on everything you see.

So what is the cause of all this drama regime continues to occur almost on schedule?

"It was the continuous grazing at night ... That is what followed socavándolos. Often thought they were eaters of frenzy ... but really, they were really hungry.

"If you do eat a little more at breakfast and lunch, if only added a few hundred extra calories in the morning, they would get to eat and lose weight under control," he said.

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Circadian rhythms: "metabolic magic"

More and more research suggests that when you eat can be as important as what you eat. And it is closely linked to the complex science of circadian rhythms.

Circadian rhythms can help explain why eating late at night increases the likelihood of weight gain and decreases the speed at which you lose weight compared to eating earlier in the day.

Captains take care breakfast

Circadian rhythms can help explain why skipping breakfast is associated with an increased risk of weight gain, even among those who consume comparable amounts of calories in a day.

"We're metabolically less robust than age," he said. "So even if you've run away with jumping breakfast and eating out of synch in their 20s or 30s, you can eventually catch up. "

Eating tips in tune with circadian rhythms

So how do we eat in tune with our circadian rhythms? The key is the front loading of your calories and carbohydrates. Freuman suggests the following, she advises her patients:

1. Do not skip breakfast

If you are not hungry when you wake up, you can postpone breakfast for a few hours - but should not be omitted, like Freuman.

2. Have the "special blue plate" for lunch

"Lunch should be like special blue plate ... the main meal of the day," said Freuman.

If you prefer a sandwich for lunch, pair it with vegetables rich in fiber. "A turkey sandwich is part of a good lunch, but not a whole lunch. Try adding pumpkin soup or carrots with hummus.

The best way to plan for lunch can be used last night's leftovers. "I cook dinner at home and bring my leftovers for lunch the next day. When I get home from work, I'm not tearing the house apart. "

3. Take a snack

Snacks that will satisfy include an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter, grape tomatoes with string cheese, a plain or hard Greek yoghurt egg with fruit.

4. Go Low - Carbohydrates For Dinner

Dinner should be light and low in carbohydrates. "The more you can lose carbohydrates for dinner, as well as the effects of distorted night calories attenuated," said Freuman.

Dinners can include cooked fish and vegetables, wrapped in lettuce tacos or a turkey burger (except bread) and a salad with a light dressing.

"I'll make meatballs of turkey for my kids and give them pate too, but I'll have mine on a bed of spinach - and the next day I'll put the pasta for lunch. "

News source

Lose Weight from Blogger http://ift.tt/2q5eBvR via IFTTT

#Lose Weight

0 notes