Some people probably shouldn’t try to make charts. I mean, take a look at this fucked up Venn diagram here:
There’s so much wrong with this diagram it’s hard to even know where to start. The letters are too small. “Narwhal” should be plural. The Sirens of Greek Mythology did lure sailors to their death with their songs, but they weren’t sea creatures. They were, rather, bird women – you know, with wings and everything. Also, while Miles Davis was indeed a thing (specifically a man) with a horn, to the best of my knowledge he never stood in a pond, at least not while playing said horn. And even if he had, it wouldn’t have made him a sea creature.
I suppose I should acknowledge that I’m the person who made this Venn Diagram. I would like to apologize for its many failings and for any damage it may have caused.
But, look, I’m not the only one who can’t design a diagram for shit. Consider this unholy mess, put together by Susan Walsh, a retrograde dating “expert” who runs a blog called Hooking Up Smart. Walsh devotes considerable energy to bashing feminists and sluts, sometimes at the same time. In a recent post, she attempted to spell out the economic costs of sluttery. This diagram was the result.
Even Walsh seemed to realize that it was a bit of a turd, and she offered it to her readers with a sort of apology:
I’m not an economist; this is really more of an exercise in common sense, as well as a work in progress.
No, you’re not. No it isn’t. And that’s no excuse. Essentially, Walsh just made up some bullshit, drew lines between different parts of the bullshit, and pretended it all made sense. There are so many things wrong with her flow chart that, as was the case with that Venn diagram above, I don’t know where to start. Graphically, it’s obviously a disaster.
And when you look at the, er, content of the diagram, it’s equally befuddling. Apparently the only possible results of a pregnancy that results from a “casual sexual relationship” being carried to term are “dropping out of school,” “promiscuity,” “substance abuse,” “violence,” and “crime,” followed closely by “prison,” then “EVENTUAL ECONOMIC STAGNATION!!!!!!!!!!” (And yes, she did use ten exclamation points.)
But my favorite bit of the diagram is the question “was sex consensual?” If it’s not, watch out! Someone might have to go to court! (For some reason she forgets to draw the requisite line to “prison,” perhaps because it is so rare for rapists to actually serve time?)
Here’s the thing, Ms. Walsh: sex that isn’t consensual is no longer an example of a “casual sexual relationship.” Sex that is not consensual is rape. Just as boxing that is not consensual is battery.
Walsh knows all this, of course. It’s just odd that in this diagram she seems to consider the supposedly dire consequences of “promiscuity” as far worse – for individuals and for society – as the consequences of rape.
She might want to make a few adjustments before she puts forth her next version of that chart.A better solution would be to simply delete it from her computer and pretend it never happened. That’s what I’m doing with my Venn diagram.
@Hellkell, you’re female, correct? I’ve yet to find a Dr. that could be convinced in any way that women won’t become baby-crazy sometime in their life.
@unintentionalfeminist
Yes. Good enough for Susan Walsh at least.
I think that lots and lots of premarital sex is probably a bad thing.
I’d like to see your work on that one.
that women won’t become baby-crazy sometime in their life
does that include being driven crazy by your kids?
You know, it occurs to me–I’d never make a chart of ways sluttiness is good for the economy. I figure it’s probably neutral, but anyway and much more importantly, I’m not in this for the sake of the *economy*.
And neither is Susan Walsh.
Then again, I don’t give a shit if someone decides to not be slutty. It’s their life. As long as it’s safe and consensual, it’s dick-all to me what you do with your junk. I’m not pro-slut so much as I’m pro-whatever-you-want… including monogamy and chastity.
I think it’s important to make that distinction.
So I click on unintentionalfeminist’s link . . . and there I am, next comment down!
I feel like Chun the Unavoidable.
Sometimes I consider just telling a doctor that I’ve already had kids, six of them, while I was in high school. Maybe photoshop some wallet pictures. But I have no idea if the doctor can falsify that, either through paperwork or just looking at the interior workings…
@Johnnykaje – the cervix does change shape after giving birth (at least, according to my gynecologist who was explaining why IUDs stay in better after giving birth), so a doctor could presumably tell if a woman had kids or not. You could always say you had six first-trimester abortions instead. That’d probably convince most doctors to sterilize.
@cynickal
I’m not sure why I’m answering this… By saying that I add nothing to the conversation, you add nothing to the conversation.
Um… What?
I doubt that even John Maynard Keynes would consider “destroying used cars” as an appropriate economic stimulus. My point isn’t that the government shouldn’t attempt to stimulate the economy. My point is that attempting to stimulate the economy by destroying value is stupid.
I should also clarify that I do not mean that spending money on premierships behavior is the same as destroying usable used cars in terms of value. I just mean to challenge Ozy’s notion that spending money always inherently good for the economy.
@cynickal: Yes, I’m female. I told one GYN that look, say I wanted to be a baker—I’d have gone to school or gotten a job as a baker already, do you see where I’m going with this? But no, I apparently don’t know my own damn mind.
Hm, if you have a uterus and are looking for a long term, highly effective, non-hormonal BC, I highly recommend a copper IUD. It’s easily reversibly, so the docs should be more willing to put it in for you, and it lasts for 10 years, at which point you can probably convince someone to snip you.
Anyway, I’ve had great success with mine.
Or MinervaB’s suggestion. Shocking people’s sensibilities can always be fun.
I am aghast at the doctors who refuse to sterilize women who want to be sterilized, because the doctor figures they MIGHT want to have children at some unspecified later time.
Nobody treats women who want bigger (or smaller) boobs the same way.
What an astonishingly repellent manifestation of patriarchal attitude.
I’ve seen that attitude raged about a lot in feminist comms too >__:| And if ppl make a mistake on their own body, they make a mistake… that’s life… I think most women go into this w/ eyes wide open
I kind of love her chart. It’s total bullshit, of course, but kind of awesome at the same time.
On the whole premarital sex thing, I’ve definitely had more than one partner. However, most of the premarital sex I’ve engaged in was with my husband. Of course, we’ve had lots of post-marital sex since getting hitched, none of which has produced babies. The lack of babies hasn’t lead to ECONOMIC STAGNATION!!!!!!!!! In fact, I’d say it’s had the opposite result; we’re actually getting by instead of being impoverished. We can afford to order the occasional pizza and buy new underwear.
“I began with a Google search, which revealed disappointingly little in the way of noteworthy analysis. So I’ve put together an original flowchart to illustrate the concept. I haven’t attached dollar numbers to specific effects, though I hope to do so in future. In the meantime, I’ve used a $-$$$$$ system to generally indicate where costs occur.”
Translation: First, I came up with a conclusion. I couldn’t find any evidence to back it up, but because I already decided the results of my non-existent empirical research I decided to make a diagram of my imaginary results anyway. Who needs a good methodology, anyway? That shit is for people who base their conclusions off of their data, not the other way around.
Their weak ass excuse is the idea that a woman would sue them later on for sterilizing them and “of course they never meant it!”
Now if I went in and the doctor nearly killed me with incompetence, yes of COURSE I would sue, not because I had elective surgery.
@ZRMcD
I believe that’s a universal constant, like gravity.
@Jonnykale, Why not? Just claim they’re on your s/o’s insurance that’s why you don’t have a record of them in the system. Go to Walmart and borrow some for the day to help. It might help it none of them look like each other.
@Developers, I apologize for going off half-cocked. I did google “Broken windows fallacy” as you suggested and ran into a lot of by-the-book-always-wrong Chicago or Austrian school publications. So when I dug into the wiki for it, it ended up being (as is usual for wiki) contradictory and I took the worst possible assumption. Deeper reading into the fallacy showed that, as with most economic theories, it had been warped by Friedman into supporting shock doctrine economics.
Isn’t it easier to reverse on women than men?
@ unintentionalfeminist: Needs more exclamation points!!!!! And I’m afraid I just can’t make out the link between the bank of England, Major League baseball, Islam-promoting Jewish Satanists and people having abortions. NWO, can you clarify? Put your crayon box to good use and draw us some charts.
my comment got eaten >:|
I said I hate when ppl try to control what adults can do w/ their own bodies :
Isn’t it easier to reverse on women than men?
dunno. Seems to me that an obscure procedure known as “adoption” works pretty well in both cases.
my comment got eaten >:|
STOP LOOKING AT ME!
Tubal ligation is quite a bit more involved than vasectomy, what with the tubes in question being stored all the way up in abdomen instead of right by the surface. I don’t think it has very good reversal rates either.
ECONOMIC STAGNATION!!!!!!!
I’m just going to use this as my justification for everything from now on.
I once had a ten page long argument over the issue of the broken window-he refused to believe that a broken window could ever have any positive economic impact.
I’m just going to use this as my justification for everything from now on.
“Go Get me some more rum!”
“Honey, I don’t think you need any more tonight.”
“Why do you Hate America? Do you want ECOMONIC STAGMATION?!?!”
“sigh. OK” (putting on shoes)