Here's your Setsuled's POV shot of a cat, Magda, the stray who hangs around my apartment complex. Where my hand is is the extent of my reach--upon seeing me, Magda trotted up to a spot behind some elevated shrubs where I couldn't reach and proceeded to roll about on her back and look at me perplexed as to why I wasn't petting her.
I hadn't seen Magda in over a month--the family who lived across the hall from me and who mainly seemed to take care of her moved away and I assumed they took her with them. But now she's back and she looks a bit thinner but I suppose she must be getting food from somewhere. Maybe mice, bugs, and lizards. I'm considering leaving food out for her but I'm not sure where to. My little patio isn't part of her usual rounds. It'd be easier if she'd let me pick her up and show her where my patio is. But as the song goes, I can't get next to her. I even tried the "slow blink technique" that's supposed to make cats more comfortable around you. Maybe it just made Magda comfortable with staying a discrete distance from me. I tried the same technique with the lions at the zoo last week and got about the same reaction.
To-day's the last day of my health class. This day did not come too soon. What'll I miss most? Having weekly assignments to define words like "gratitude" and "courtesy" or having gender stereotypes taught to the class as fact? A couple weeks ago, the instructor told the class about how women are much better at multitasking than men. That's true enough, if you only read the headlines of articles like this one at Huffington Post which says, "Women Are Better Multitaskers Than Men, Study Finds". The article itself, while still couched in leading rhetoric, will tell you what every other article on the subject will (sometimes grudgingly) tell you about the 2013 study--the only study these articles seem to talk about. They'll tell you that in most situations men and women were equally bad at multitasking but in a couple specific tests women were only 69% worse at tasks that men were 77% worse at. This isn't something you ought to teach in class about the fundamental differences between men and women. The headlines of these articles really ought to read, "No-one's Good at Multitasking So Try and Avoid It If You Can". Because I'd say talking men and women out of texting while driving or riding bikes is much more useful than stomping a wedge through gender politics.
The general bent of my health class instructor's lectures on the differences between the sexes actually leans more towards misogynist. She repeated the idea that men think about sex constantly, saying that they can't help it, and that women shouldn't "withhold sex" from their boyfriends just because they're mad about something else. In 2014, a college professor has implied that men should expect sex from their girlfriends as a right. Am I really so in the minority in feeling insulted by the idea that I wouldn't mind having sex with someone who doesn't want to have sex with me?
Of course, this pales in comparison to more violent acts prompted by misogyny in the past couple weeks. The shooting in Santa Barbara that left seven dead and the attack on two members of an all female pop group in Japan bear some telling similarities and differences. Three of the people who died in Santa Barbara were stabbed but one can't help but consider the two women in Japan who were attacked would certainly be dead now if the perpetrator had been able to get his hands on a gun. And maybe four fewer people would be dead in Santa Barbara if the killer had had more trouble getting his hands on a gun.
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