The Week in Woke

The Guardian: Male bonding doesn't have to be about "bravado and bros." It can also be about spray-painting your pubic hair and dancing with other naked men on stage.

Dr. Evil comments: "Riiiiight."

Male bonding doesn't have to be about bravado and bros. Dancing on stage naked taught me a better way

I have a feeling Uncle Touchy taught him this "better way" some years back.

Friendships based on sport and alcohol don't always allow us to be our true selves. Shared vulnerabilities enrich our lives

This "man" is appearing twice weekly in some naked gay production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

He claims that his body issues often compel him to seek "validation from women."

Dr. Evil again: "Riiiight."

On stage, the spray paint made our pubic hair hard, and the voices of the opera singers made our hair stand on end as we danced around with them in the illuminated darkness, our facial expressions frozen. A captivating experience of sound, light and movement.

We were fragile, powerful, ridiculous and funny at the same time. Our cocks dangled in unison to the music. Male togetherness, so often difficult to combine with presence, vulnerability and meaning, seemed in this context easy and self-evident.

Previously, relating to men in groups had scared me; it was simply not possible to for me to hang out with a group of men without freezing up. But this was different.

I have been thinking about this experience since the return of war to Europe. Sweden has abandoned its neutrality and we are told we must be prepared for the threat of Russian aggression, for war. The military has long been one of the most glorified forms of male association in our culture, in movies and in books. A powerful, noble male bond is forged via a shared will to compete against another group of men, to the death if need be.

The military may now be an outdated picture of ideal male companionship, but large groups of men doing anything together other than playing sports, performing, drinking or fighting can still be hard to imagine. Intimacy between men in groups, when it occurs, is traditionally created by an external threat, imagined or real. If that pressure is missing, we still often become incapable, lacking common points of support.

Group settings in which men are allowed to be sensitive beings can be difficult to find beyond the high-pressure arenas of professional sports. Within the limited confines of these ritualistic forms all the emotional and relationship issues that men have to grapple with must be confronted.

But the oppression is palpable....

A motley collection, we sat in dressing gowns in the smoking room and waited for our next call. We felt free to sit there and chat about everything and anything. After a few months of stripped-down waltzing, the arias and the community had etched themselves so deeply into my body that, 20 years later, I still struggle with the impulse to throw off my clothes and dance when I hear the notes of Wagner.

Expressions of male friendship have changed since then. I now go to the gym two days a week with my gym bros, and while we work out we can talk about almost anything. A friend and I recently started a podcast about culture and masculinity....

It's called, coincidentally, "The David French Show."

The big problem we still have with masculinity and friendship is that, like art and literature for that matter, friendship involves ceding control and becoming vulnerable in the eyes of another person. Masculinity doesn't have to be about football and pub bravado any more than it need be about war. Likewise, male mutual support can be found in the most surprising places. But my question would be: has the male community modernised enough to allow this vulnerability?

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Exposing our true selves can release us from the trap of received ideas about masculinity; it lets us take ownership of our essential fragility and, even at the risk of disappointment, makes us more human.

Senor Chang has my proxy.

A Colorado school district won't allow students to opt out of Homosexuality lessons.

Jennifer Nuelle:

A Colorado school district is implementing an "LGBTQ+ tool kit" that will force students to attend lessons on related topics even if their parents disapprove.

The tool kit was created by the Denver School District and updated in July, prohibiting students from opting out of LGBTQ+ lessons and curriculum, no matter if a student or their parents have different beliefs. There is no parental permission required for teaching these topics and the only possible way to opt out is for sex-ed lessons.

The Denver Public Schools also offer several books on "LGBTQ+ topics," the document states. The tool kit notes that the age-appropriate "LGBTQ+" topics being taught will be allowed for every grade level.

The tool kit also outlines a glossary of LGBT-related definitions and specific rules staff must follow when handling a student who is transitioning, the document states. The document notes that no student, regardless of whether they are transgender or non-binary will be left out of an overnight trip and that a student's "sexual orientation" and gender are to remain private on these trips.

The Denver school district does not require parents' consent when using a student's pronouns at school, according to the document. The tool kit provides an entire section on how to help a student transition, even if their parents are unaware.

It states in the document that faculty are not to "out" students and that it is prohibited to share a student's "gender identity" or "sexual orientation" with their family. The kit also mentions that all "sexual orientations are valid" and that transgender individuals have more than one "sexual orientation."

...

The Denver School District was unable to be reached for comment.

Northwestern is forced to now mandate "antisemitism training."

But don't worry -- the Regime can never condemn antisemitism without also condemning "other forms of hate," including "Islamophobia."

Because you can never just tell an Islamist that hating Jews and calling for their extermination is wrong. You have to reassure him that he's the Real Victim Here.

Northwestern University will be requiring all returning students to attend training on antisemitism and "other forms of hate" at the beginning of the fall semester.

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The university also will play host to "a set of lectures and panels on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism as well as the history and politics of the conflict in the Middle East," the message said.

You have to provide "historical context" which justifies the antisemitism, even as you pretend to stand against it.

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"Activities that lead to intimidation and impede an environment where dialogue and education can flourish cannot occur again," Schill wrote.

And who did that, I wonder? Was it the Jewish students chanting at Islamic students that they should be wiped out, "from the river to the sea"?

Or was it the Islamic students doing that to the Jewish kids?

This spring, Schill, along with the presidents of Rutgers and UCLA, faced a grilling from a U.S. House "Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos" panel. A North Carolina congresswoman called Schill's deal with anti-Israel Northwestern activists -- which included "five full-ride scholarships" for Palestinian students, the hiring of two Palestinian faculty, and a residence for "Middle Eastern and Muslim students" -- "disgraceful."

The largest teachers' union in Massachusetts is now threatening to... sue critics.

Critics who object to putting a radical activist in charge of the curriculum on the hot button of Israel.

And they'll sue you for objecting.

Massachusetts' largest teachers union is threatening to sue a group of Republican state lawmakers who condemned the group for tapping an anti-Israel activist to create learning materials about the Gaza war.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) said this month that it "will not hesitate to take legal action if warranted" against the Massachusetts House and Senate Republican Caucuses for a July letter objecting to the union tasking Ricardo Rosa with developing model curricula about Israel and "Occupied Palestine."

The Republicans objected to Rosa -- who has a record of anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric -- developing the materials. The lawmakers observed that Rosa advocated for a "Free Palestine" in the days following October 7, called the United States a "settler colony," glorified terrorist and plane hijacker Leila Khaled, and voiced his support for a professor who called Zionists "swine" and encouraged protests in Jewish neighborhoods.

In response, the MTA board of directors called the Republicans' letter "reprehensible," defended Rosa from the lawmakers' criticism, and threatened legal action.

"Ricardo Rosa, MTA's Director of Training and Professional Learning, has been reprehensibly attacked for simply performing his job at the MTA," the MTA wrote, in response to Republican lawmakers' claim that Rosa's inflammatory statements "demonstrate a clear commitment to a political agenda rather than educational integrity."

The union, which represents 117,000 educators, came under fire for condemning the United States for being complicit in a "genocidal assault" in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.

We definitely want these people teaching social studies, ethics, and America's values through history classes.

Diversity is our strength. Below, German women attempting to walk on the streets in their own country are confronted by "our strength."

Objectively, it's a Bad Thing, especially for women, to be harassed on the street by unhinged foreign hate-preachers.

This is not "our strength."

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:00 PM

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