Please plan accordingly.
Monthly Archive for September, 2007
This is one of a series of posts about Awesome Things To Do In Life.
A gang of six to ten ethically challenged Nova Scotia upperclassmen boys recently took it upon themselves to verbally harass a 9th grade boy for the high crime wearing pink to school, calling him a homosexual.
Seniors David Shepherd and Travis Price, above, decided to do something about it. Says David: “It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something.”
What did they do? They organized a protest, using the internet to encourage people to wear pink the next day to school. They purchased 75 pink tank tops, armbands and a basketball to distribute to other boys. They guess that about half of the school’s 830 students participated.
The Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald reports on what happened:
“The bullies got angry,” said Travis. “One guy was throwing chairs (in the cafeteria). We’re glad we got the response we wanted.”
David said one of the bullies angrily asked him whether he knew pink on a male was a symbol of homosexuality.
He told the bully that didn’t matter to him and shouldn’t to anyone.
“Something like the colour of your shirt or pants, that’s ridiculous,” he said.
As for The Boy Who Was Bullied:
When the bullied student put on his pink shirt Friday and saw all the other pink in the lobby, “he was all smiles. It was like a big weight had been lifted off is shoulder,” David said. No one at the school would reveal the student’s name.
Not only to these boys seem to get bullying, they get community organizing, and they get the importance of privacy. Awesome.
Thanks to Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town, which is where I read about the story, and is one of my favorite feminist blogs.
Updated to include numbers about zinc needs and zinc content in specific foods, and to change my recommendations and notes about raw foodism.
Encouraged by my mother, I’m trying to be a little more mindful of my nutritional needs, now that I’ve been some degree of vegan for coming up on a year. Unfortunately, it’s often hard to get credible answers about nutrition, which is a minefield of fluff science in both the vegetarian and meat camps.
So, I’ve been trying to read more peer-reviewed literature about nutrition. Here’s what I learned about zinc today.
What does dietary zinc do?
Zinc is important. Zinc deficiencies inhibit cell division (MacDonald, 2000), and neurotransmitter function (Huntington, 2002), and studies have shown that zinc lozenges speed recovery from flu. (Barton and Bertoli, 1997). Zinc deficiency can lead to hypergonadism, in which the testes or ovaries don’t produce enough hormone, can cause childbirth problems in women, immune system deficiencies, vision problems and many other diseases (Prasad, 2003).
However, there seems also to be evidence that zinc contributes in many ways to cancerous growth, and that men who take zinc supplements are at higher risk for prostate cancer (Leitzman et al, 2003), although smaller doses might be safe (Jarrard, 2005). And though adequate zinc benefits your immune system, excessive zinc supplements seem to lead to immune dysfunction (Chandra, 1984).
My verdict on zinc
I need to make sure I get enough, but there seems to be no need to go crazy about it. Small supplements are probably safe, but I can get enough without supplements, as long as I’m mindful about what I’m eating.
The recommended daily allowance of zinc is 9mg daily for females, and 11mg for males. According to the national academy of sciences, the most zinc you can take daily with no adverse health effects is about 40mg. (NIH, 2007)
Where do you get dietary zinc?
There’s a lot of zinc in oysters (16 mg per serving), and to a lesser extent in other meats (2-9mg). There’s zinc in most grains (1.3 mg in raisin bran) and beans (0.8 mg in kidney beans) too, but grains and legumes unfortunately also contain phylates which inhibit the absorption of Zinc and other minerals (and are an anti-oxidant, but that’s another story). What that all means is that meat-eaters seem to get most of their zinc from meat.
Luckily for vegans, there are phylate-free vegetable sources of zinc too. Pumpkin seeds have a very high concentration (2.1 mg per ounce), and zinc is also found in sunflower seeds (1.6 mg per ounce) and nuts, including cashews (1.6 mg per ounce), pecans, walnuts (1 mg per ounce), almonds, and peanuts. Most nuts and seeds, including tahini paste, seem to be in that range. A half cup of sprouted, raw peas has 0.6 mg of zinc. 150 g of raw broccoli has about the same. Carrots, peaches, and bananas have about half that per serving.
According to wikipedia, phytic acid is locked away in the hulls to beans and grains, and you have to cook them to get it out. So raw foodists might even be able to mix beans and grains with zinc sources with impunity. But this stuff is hazier, and I haven’t really done the research.
The USDA has a nice search engine for looking these things up.
My feeling is that if you’re eating mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and sprouts you’re getting enough zinc. If you’re eating a lot of cooked grains and beans, you’re probably not. Vegans with diets high in those things should make sure they have snacks of high-zinc foods (nuts, seeds) in between meals, and probably should have one meal a day of mostly raw fruits, vegetables, sprouts and grains.
Sex differences
If you’ve got testicles and you’re ejaculating regularly, you need to get about 40% more dietary zinc than people who don’t or aren’t. Sperm is very rich in zinc. It’s sort of like the situation with iron, where women need more of it because they lose a bunch during menstruation.
I’m not going to point out that this hints at another source of dietary zinc, because my parents read this.
References
Barton JC, Bertoli LF (1997). Zinc gluconate lozenges for treating the common cold. Ann Intern Med 126 (9): 738-9. link
Chandra RK (1984) Excessive intake of zinc impairs immune responses. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1984 Sep 21; 252(11):1443-6. link
Huntington, C. E. , Shay, N. F., Grouzmann, E., Arseneau, L. M., and Beverly, J. L.(2002) Zinc Status Affects Neurotransmitter Activity in the Paraventricular Nucleus of Rats. Nutr., February 1, 2002; 132(2): 270 – 275. linkJarrard, D. F. (2005) Does Zinc Supplementation Increase the Risk of Prostate Cancer? Arch Ophthalmol, January 1, 2005; 123(1): 102-103. link
Leitzmann MF, Stampfer MJ, Wu K, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Giovannucci EL. Zinc supplement use and risk of prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003;95:1004-1007. link
MacDonald RS (2000) The role of zinc in growth and cell proliferation. J Nutr. 2000 May;130(5S Suppl):1500S-8S. link
NIH (2007) Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Zinc. DHHS. NIH. Office of Dietary Supplements. Retrieved 9/16/07. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/cc/zinc.html link
Prasad, AS (2003) Zinc deficiency: Has been known of for 40 years but ignored by global health organisations. BMJ. 2003 February 22; 326(7386): 409–410. link
I just read a great post on the Feminist Law Professors blog about how to be a good Research Assistant, compiled from the notes of a number of professors. Â She asks, “what does (and does not) make for a successful professor-RA relationship.”
Most of the list applies not just to research assistants but graduate students in general, and many of the suggestions are things I personally need to work on. Perhaps my biggest regret over the last year is not devoting enough energy to maintaining good relationships with faculty.
Batter
1 1/2 c flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/4 t salt
1 c milk
1/4 cup Earth Balance
Fruit
1/8 c sugar
1 t cinnamon
10 peaches, sliced
Crumb Topping
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/4 c Earth Balance
2 t cinnamon
Cream the butter and the sugar for the batter. Add the other dry ingredients and mix well. Add the soy milk and mix lightly.
Combine the dry ingredients for the crumb topping. Add the butter and “cut” it into the dry mixture with two spoons, slicing the butter and stirring continuously until it forms a relatively even crumbly mess.
Set the oven to 375. Toss the fruit with the sugar and cinnamon. Grease a 9×13 glass casserole. Pour the batter into the casserole, add the fruit, and sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes.
I recently discovered this poem. Musings follow.
I’m Not a Man
Harold Norse (Hidden Transcripts, page 133, copied from here)
I’m not a man. I can’t earn a living, buy new things for my family. I have acne and a small peter.
I’m not a man. I don’t like football, boxing or cars. I like to express my feelings. I even like to put an arm around my friend’s shoulder.
I’m not a man. I won’t play the role assigned to me—the role created by Madison Avenue, Playboy, Hollywood and Oliver Cromwell. Television does not dictate my behavior.
I’m not a man. Once when I shot a squirrel I swore that I would never kill again. I gave up meat. The sight of blood makes me sick. I like flowers.
I’m not a man. I went to prison resisting the draft. I do not fight when real men beat me up and call me queer. I dislike violence.
I’m not a man. I have never raped a woman. I don’t hate blacks. I do not get emotional when the flag is waved. I do not think I should love America or leave it. I think I should laugh at it.
I’m not a man. I have never had the clap.
I’m not a man. Playboy is not my favorite magazine.
I’m not a man. I cry when I’m unhappy.
I’m not a man. I do not feel superior to women.
I’m not a man. I don’t wear a jockstrap.
I’m not a man. I write poetry.
I’m not a man. I meditate on peace and love.
I’m not a man. I don’t want to destroy you.
***
I’ve encountered similar anti-masculine sentiments from other pro-feminist men. Just look at the list of John Stoltenberg’s works from Wikipedia:
Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice
Why I Stopped Trying to be a Real Man
The End of Manhood: A Book for Men of Conscience
This ties in well with the feminist notions that that gender can be decoupled from sex, giving men an opportunity to abandon their destructive masculinities and that this–male gender empowerment–is called “feminism”. I agree with both of these notions on some level, but something about this scenario feels odd to me.
When was it decided that masculinity is rape, racism, promiscuity, STDs, money, violence, and destruction? It may be that these are traits historically tied to men, but is this really the way we want to construct gender?
Sarah told me about her mother’s dissertation work, which was focused on medieval peasantry. Turns out women owned lots of land and business back then. What does it say about them that we assign “the money thing” to masculinity?
Or is the point to construct masculinity and femininity as loathesome, limiting things that no one would want to be in order to to do away with gender entirely?
***
Maybe we should just make like David Neiwert and construct new, positive, overlapping definitions of what masculinity and femininity are until they blend together into one awesome mess.
How did I go my whole life not knowing that you can eat corn raw and that it is delicious?
Also, the dance scene in New Haven? It is a little weird. Seriously, stripper moves?
I’ve been working a little more on my 2nd year project proposal while I’m traveling. Ed gave me some really good feedback about my introduction that I started to try to incorporate. It’s still so raw, but I’ll keep posting what I’m working on. It makes me feel more accountable for continuing to work on it, bit by bit. The new introduction is below the fold.