MeerderWörter’s Comments (group member since Jan 08, 2016)

MeerderWörter’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Florian wrote: "Motivated people who are talking about science :D So cool!!!

Hum, I do not know a lot about hormones, I am a chemist not a biochemist or biologist so I just have a few knowledge about that (I shou..."

I don't think access to information is the problem, I just have never looked this specific question up. I do know a tiny bit about hormones, that's why I came up with the question in the first place.

Emma wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "Okay, I am not really sure where to put this, so I will pack it into the Miscellaneous folder for now.

Yesterday evening... I was thinking about HRT - Hormone Replacement The..."

My thoughts are just - it sure is better to have 3of5 than 1of5, right?
Like, I know progesterone is responsible for taking care of the uterus, but... a simple Wikipedia search has shown me that estradiol is for more important than maintaining breast tissue, and thus I doubt that progesterone is only necessary for taking care of the uterus. Thus, you would need it even if you don't have one... I know this is not solidified on anything really, but that are just my thoughts on the whole issue.
But then I know that our bodies change hormones into other hormones all the time, testosterone into a form of estrogen for example... So maybe my concerns are without cause, and I am fretting over nothing?
Some more research is definitely needed!

Emma wrote: "Thank you for sharing, MeerderWorter - really important for me (and other white people like me) to read."

It really is important to read - for me too.

Okay, I am not really sure where to put this, so I will pack it into the Miscellaneous folder for now.

Yesterday evening... I was thinking about HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - and sex hormones in general.

So, the name is quite descriptive - hormone replacement therapy aims to replace/replenish the hormones that your body cannot produce anymore, or has never produced in the first place...

Just... yesterday I realized a few things... there are estrogen and progesterone, right?
Well, just that there is not ONE estrogen, but a few... estradiol being one of them... Look it up, it does amazing work:)
But what I am really thinking about is the following:
When you take HRT and have only ONE hormone - without replacing the others... I mean, there is a reason why we all have them...
You can say the same about male hormones, testosterone alone isn't the only one either... there's also Dihydrostestosterone and a bunch of others...

My point is: When you have to take HRT, then normally this is only with one, sometimes two hormones (in women that depends on whether you have a uterus or not, for example). What about the rest? They have a reason to be there in our body, they have a specific task.

Why rob our bodies of their hormones?

Sascha wrote: "Roses are red..
https://ibb.co/ch5b7R"

Perfect!
White supremacy sucks...

Dagny Moland wrote: "I have just seen the first season of a mini-documentary called Stuck.

It follows actor/writer/director Emilie K. Beck as she visits Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. It's basically touches on the ..."

It works in Austria... phew, not easy to stomach

Lewis wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "I have read this article and urge you all to read it as well. It is a perfect lay-out of how racism didn't end after Mandela fought against it, but how it is interwoven in our..."

Yes, it has raised a question or two for me as well. Mainly, since this is from a woman of colour from Australia, how to implement this in Europe. In Europe, there are many countries where there are only Europeans, with only few people of colour, and so I think:
In which ways is racism a problem here? In which ways is it not, that it is in other continents/countries. Basically, my main question after reading this article is:
How is racism a problem specifically here in Middle Europe, and how do we challenge and change it. I believe that many of the problems, are the same, but I don't think they are identical, that's where my question comes from.

Anybody want to chime in their 2 cents?

Pam wrote: "Sociologists are having field days right now with this.

Fighting the system gets you no where. You are less likely to get into positions of power to change anything you're labeled a trouble maker..."

Yep, sociology.
The Thomas-theorem is really interesting, as are other parts of American sociology(If man defines situations as real, they are real in their own consequences. Can be seen over and over again...)... There are "definition agents" who say what is and isn't.

About what Grace in message 17 said:
I too am not happy with the wearing of black at the Golden Globes, not when it isn't followed by more than that (and, anybody, did anybody ever mention #MistyUpham once? Just once? Because she should have been the star of that evening, the late star of course, as she doesn't live anymore...)
But what I have to disagree with you on, is about speaking out. Speaking out against sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape... it is difficult enough to come to terms with it oneself, but to go out there and say what has happened. It is NOT easy. It is NOT something you do easily. And let's face it, they would have been hunted by the media first and then been dropped like a hot potato.
Compare it with coming-out: It's NOT easy, and, is life-changing. I would have never been able to, had I not known other intersex people first. Never. So, the whole issue of: But why didn't they say something earlier: These men had power, they could crush their lives if they wanted to. And look around you, we live in a culture that still favours female submission when it comes to sexuality, and well, that's just a bit on why women haven't spoken out until yet.
So, sorry for derailing this here, but I just really needed to talk this off my chest...


And about Oprah running for President. Tbh, I have to agree with Pam, just because she's a good speaker, a good interviewer, doesn't mean she is a good president. A position like the US president... I don't say a woman isn't fit for that position, of course a woman is fit for that position, but not every woman. Because I think that without political practice, it is very hard to be a good president. Negotiating is different than uniting people together. I think from what I know about her, she is good at uniting people, but negotiating? It's a very powerful position she would have, with much power and responsibility. I don't say she can't make it, it's just, I don't think she is the born-to-be president.

Lewis wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "Okay, I hope I didn't make a fool of myself, but this is my reply, and remember that I am a white lassie from Austria, with everything that entails:



Topic: Jan 18: Why I'm ..."

What I think is important is to recognise how subtle racism works... and that being White and white are not the same. Okay, I am heavily Northern American based, when it comes to following the voices of people of colour, but I am willing to change that... the more voices the better.

Okay, I hope I didn't make a fool of myself, but this is my reply, and remember that I am a white lassie from Austria, with everything that entails:



Topic: Jan 18: Why I'm ...: K. Eddo-Lodge > Being Brown: The experience 10.1.2018-13.1.2018


message 1: Ashna
Ashna, there is no need to promise it to be a short one.:)

I agree, there is so much racism that needs to be acknowledged, as it is connected with history, and history is so often white-washed.
About what you had to endure, I am sorry for that. But, as you see, our view of the world is shaped by what we learn, by what others tell us. And, I have to say, and I hate that it is this way, but South-East Asia in general is depicted as poor here. And that is what sticks with one. Now, of course I know that not everyone is poor in South-East Asia, but I am 20, have had years out of school to think about a lot of stuff, and know that it is good to be inquisitive, I don't want to play the issue down here, as that is where the crux is... Just, they are not responsible... (I'm not implying that you say they are) Kids, because that is what they are, talk like the people around them. And they told you that they were taught this in school... So that is where the problem (and the solution) lies. Never should a teacher teach something so unreflected, so lacking of thought, so... stereotypical... And Ashna, you are so right, something that is not a topic of the major superior powers often means that it isn't being acted on... at all.

"Why Am I not Talking To White People About Race?"
To put it bluntly, I think, because we white people cannot understand. Not on the same level. We can read about it, but we never EXPERIENCE it in our own skin. And that is a huge difference. Also, I think, in many, many ways are we too comfortable with a system that benefits us so much to destroy it, to take it down...


message 2: Lewis
Yes, it is difficult for us to talk about it. But if we want to change it, we have to talk about it. What I hate the most is when I am belittled when I talk about racism. When I do talk about racism, my biggest fear is that I confuse something and make it worse. When I talk about history, that I confuse two people, and put the bad into someone else's shoes than the one who actually did it.
But the only thing I can do is try, try and most importantly, listen to the experts.


message 4: Chris
I don't have anything against boxes; I do have something against them being connotated in a bad way, no matter what the label actually means...
And wow, Maya Angelou sure has principles!!!


message 7: Georgianna
I have to say that Ashna nailed it with saying that education is a catalyst on why we have the views we have/such views.
Let's think about it for a minute, how long we are in education and how much time we spend there.... In Austria (speaking of Austria, as this is the country I am from and know the best) everybody has to attend school for at least 9 years, starting when you are 6. You spend 4 months of the year outside of school, but 1 month is split up for Christmas and Easter Holidays between the school year, so it is safe to say that you only spend 3 monts without your brain being occupied with school. Now think about that - 3/4 of a year, for at least 9 years, you spend in school/with school. So, of course, for the majority of children this is what counts - what they are taught there. Then you can add another 4 or 5 years, before you can go to university, if you want to.
What I want to say is: that is a very long time period, and one of the most formative ones we humans have as well... Not only is it important what we are taught in school, but also HOW and making the students realise WHY. But what is probably even more important is what is NOT being taught in school. Did you know that Lincoln is responsible for the biggest mass hanging in US history? Well, I definitely didn't learn that in school. There is so much more I didn't learn about history in school, that I really know that it would be arrogant to say I know everything about my country's history. There are centuries I have learned nothing about Austria. And I don't think that's okay...
History made us who we are... it explains so much... We have to acknowledge it, the good the bad and the ugly.
And Georgianna, you know what this "Great Wall"? reminds me of? A law that was in place in Nazi Germany that forbade Jewish and Non-Jewish people to marry. It went even farther, forbade even more... but reading that such a law is still in place somewhere in the world horrifies me... No matter where in my opinion, such a law is out of place anywhere in the world...
White-washing of history is, in my eyes, a real sacrilege as it erases so many who were really important and/or have achieved a great many things. Did you know, for example, that NASA were employing up to thousand women as computers, and many of them were black? Who would have thought this to be true, in segregated US-America in the 1940s and 1950s? Now that is really a farce that these extraordinary women, who put mankind onto the moon, are simply being eradicated from our history books.
You write that the image of what a beautiful Filipina should be is white with straight black hair. And I really ask myself why... the whole beauty standard stuff is something that is beyond me... Why is being white a beauty standard? Well, more important is maybe the question HOW it came to be the beauty standard. I really am guessing now, but I don't think I lean myself too much outside the window when I say it is because of colonialism. Of Europeans destroying the ways of lives of Indigenous Peoples. I'd be surprised if the beauty standards were the same before as today before colonialism started. I don't know, and I am gald when somebody could teach me more about this, but I think chances are very high that I am right with my thoughts on this.

Colonization brought so many changes, it brought havock over our societies, one way or another... I believe we all have to decolonize, in the way that is the way for us. Colonization has different results for us, and so decolonization will look different for us too, depending on the society we live in.
To say it with a distinction: We have to bury being White, not being white.

About behaviours being carried on and passed on? That requires a lot of self-work, of being vigilant (for lack of a better word), of questioning ones behaviour and again and again and again, and also, I believe, oh holding one another accountable.


message 8: Ashna
I agree, it is completely not understandable to me how a foreigner can be seen as superior, per se. I believe that you could say that maybe a certain foreign person is superior in morals compared to a certain person form the country. But a foreign person being superior simply because of their skin colour or something else they can't influence? That is bollocks to me. That is racist as hell when it is about skin colour.


message 9: Keith
I agree, the fact that history is written by the winners, the conquerors, the "ruling class", sure tells history. But it is only half the coin, only one side of the coin... and the descendants of the winners then carry on their flawed history as in the Americas, where Native people have to listen to Non-Natives telling them that they were savages and hoards and war-faring each other. <- The first two are simple lies, and really, intertribal warfare is not the same as a planned genocide. Well, the Natives respond: You brought civilization? Hm yeah, you gave us small-pox disease contaminated blankets, sent us off to reserves (which were first called prisoner of war camps, just FYI), forbade our ancestors to speak our language... we taught you that you have to bathe... TO BATHE!!!!
History really is a complex issue, and often it is much more "stories" than history.
I don't think history needs to be "re-written". I don't think that's the right term. I think more of... adding, uncovering, digging out... it all happened, but the responsibility lies with us. I don't think any tiny bit of it should be hidden, as it all happened, and covering it would be a disgrace to those who suffered it, and to those who did good.
Because you know, it all happened, the good, the bad and the ugly.


message 10: Lewis
Yes, all means should be used... all of them...


message 13: Manisha
Manisha, I agree. It's a start... and over time, amazing things can and will happen, if we work towards them...


message 14: Keith
Yes, I agree.. what the colonizing countrie did AROUND THE WORLD as never really taught to me in school... the founding of the US? Only 1776 was shortly mentioned and the Slave Trade we talked about maybe for 15 minutes... The founding of Canada? Non-existent. We only talked so little about it and NEVER about the Nations that have been (and I say "have been", not "had been", because that is a significant difference, notice, everyone) there before, since time immemorial, with their own laws and foods and medicine.
The way of teaching needs to change....
END! END! END! END!

P.S.: How come we have 211.000 members, but only 14(15 with mine) posts, that actually come from even less members...
Makes me wonder...

Leslie wrote: "Thank you for posting this Meerder! This is a big interest of mine, and of my son too. He wrote a book, The Freedom to be Racist? How the United States and Europe Struggle to Preserve Freedom and C..."

I just really wanted to have this here so we could all start a discussion. We need to change, otherwise nothing will ever change, except that we kill each other off.

Ester wrote: "Ester wrote: "Meelie wrote: "HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to 2017 with us all, still going strong ;)

So, you've seen the new book announcement, The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

Feel free to share..."

I agree, there should have been so many more monologues in there.... like, SO MANY MORE!!!

I have read this article and urge you all to read it as well. It is a perfect lay-out of how racism didn't end after Mandela fought against it, but how it is interwoven in our everyday lives, and how it is internalised, reproduced and hardly ever questioned and challenged by white people.
It points out what being an ally really is about, and how you cannot claim this word, this "title" it has to be given to you!

White people, we have to read this, we have no excuse NOT to engage in discussions about race and racism, but you know, never forget, that we are NOT the experts on race and racism, that are people of colour.
I wish you all read this article, as it is showing how racism works and what racism is and how it perpetuates the status quo. Intersectionality is key, and we cannot allow ourselves to look past racism, as it is a factor in EVERYONE'S life, regardless of our skin colour.

READ IT!!!!
https://othersociologist.com/2018/01/...

Now read it quickly,
Meerder

I listened to this right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zb0...
Whether you're a woman or whether you're a man, sometimes you got to take a stand, right?

Well, that's what they did at Standing Rock, they took a stand. (And actually are still doing...in court)

Sascha wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "I have planned nothing, but I think there won't be anything in Austria. Not that I have heard of at least."

Well, if you look at the calender/ map on the website of the Women..."

Oh wait, that does sound a bit off;)
Whether there is something planned or not, I cannot come, I am too busy at the moment... :(

Stella wrote: "Not sure if this goes here, but can't remember seeing it anywhere else. Sorry if someone else has already asked.

Is anyone on here doing anything for the one year anniversary of the Women's March..."

I have planned nothing, but I think there won't be anything in Austria. Not that I have heard of at least. Happy to hear that a voter registration kick-off will take place. To vote is so important!

Katrin wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "Katrin wrote: "I have trouble ordering it in Germany. They say it is not available. Does anyone have similiar problems?"

Ich hab das Buch noch nicht gekauft, aber ich schau m..."

Ich werd auch einen Buchladen aufsuchen. Und dann mal schauen. Beim letzten Buch The Power haben sie mir dann geschrieben, dass es vergriffen ist, was ich schon etwas merkwürdig fand...
Hoffentlich krieg ich's diesmal:D

Robin wrote: "The concept of classes in itself changed since Marx wrote about them. It's clear that most societies (except maybe in some developing countries) are not as stratified as his anymore. Actually, clas..."

Which is why it is used in nowadays sociology... as you said, it's not about money alone anymore, but much more about lifestyles...
You can bring together all kinds of information in Sinus Milieus, and thus they hold more information than just class alone.
Btw, class is by far not the only form of social stratification, but the most common one nowadays around the world.

Okay, in case I get a bit too much scientific there, apologies in advance...
And I have to say I haven't read the book yet, so I look forward to reading it.


Stratification is the state of having many layers... thus, social stratification is the state of being divided into social classes.

Marx' definition of class(he thought so much about the term I couldn't omit him) is:
a group of people with shared economic interests. What distinguishes the classes, according to Marx, is the possession or lack of possession of means of production...
I wouldn't say that today this definition is meaningless, but...

It's just that... nowadays there is another means of stratification that is being used, and I don't wanna say that class is not relevant anymore, no, not at all, but this other one actually gives you more information.
It's called Sinus Milieu. Well, actually Sinus Milieus, as there is more than one milieu that all together make up the whole society then. You still have class in there, but, and that is the really cool thing in my eyes, you also have "orientations", or with another word "values". What values do people hold, are they traditionalist, or want to reform more? It basically looks like a co-ordinate system, with a horizontal and a vertical axis, and on the horizontal axis you have the class, and on the vertical the orientation. And the area that the two axis span, is where the milieus are applied.

And, since this all sounds a bit dry, with so much theory, here you can have a look at one for Austria (in English), with an explanation as well:
http://www.integral.co.at/en/sinus/mi...

I think it's always important to look at stratification models when a whole society is being analysed and talked about.

Katrin wrote: "I have trouble ordering it in Germany. They say it is not available. Does anyone have similiar problems?"

Ich hab das Buch noch nicht gekauft, aber ich schau mal und sag dir, wie es bei mir in Österreich ausschaut. Zur Not müssen wir auf den Pay-It-Forward-Thread zurückgreifen und fragen, ob es uns jemand schicken kann. Vereinigtes Königreich und Kontinentaleuropa gehen ja noch von der Distanz:)