The Fixx: Trans* Tailors, New Consent Legislation, and Yes, People are Still Sending Unsolicited Dick Pics
The Fixx is a weekly editorial roundup for humanists. It includes our favorite articles, happenings and opinions.
Time to Suit Up
Your Sunday movie binging just got an upgrade thanks to the new HBO doc Suited. The film focuses on Bindle & Keep, a tailor shop in Brooklyn that caters to the trans* community. At a screening last Thursday, founder Daniel Friedman told the audience, “You don’t need a PhD in Gender Studies to make people feel really fucking happy about themselves.” HAVE TRUER WORDS EVER BEEN SPOKEN?
Check out the trailer here
Faux Real Though
If you haven’t read this exposé on lab-grown diamonds, you probably should. The technology surrounding these stones is only getting more sophisticated, so expect to see them front and center in the next few years. With the ethical issues surrounding diamonds, it’s not a bad idea to consider alternatives, but will the powers that be squash the movement before it even gets it’s time to —ahem— shine? Read the report here.
Denim on Denim on Denim
Chances are if your jeans are under $100, they were created unethically. Under $20? Yeah, even worse. This report breaks down denim costs from growing cotton, to pesticides, labor, and materials. Here’s a little snippet:
“When I walk into [a store] and I see a pair of jeans for $4.99, I scratch my head because I have no idea of how they do it,” Ron Balatbat, head designer at AG Jeans, told me last year. Amie Gaines, head designer at Level 99 Jeans said that you can’t go below $25 or $20 and have jeans that are made without the risk of exploiting and endangering workers.”
Cali Does Consent
California has just become the first state to require all high schools to teach about consent starting next year. Here’s a bit of the fine print courtesy of iSchoolGuide:
The affirmative consent law only applies to districts that require the health course for high school graduation. The Legislative Analyst’s Office said five of California’s largest districts, including the Los Angeles Unified, have such graduation requirement. The new law is set to take effect on Jan. 1, but the commission for the California Education Department is not scheduled to update the health education guidelines until 2018.
In the wake of the Stanford rape case, there’s clearly a lot more work that needs to be done surrounding sexual assault and don’t even get me STARTED on rape culture in general, but for the time being I’ll give a tiny handclap to this new legislation.
Yet Another Facebook Fumble
Ah, the unsolicited dick pic. It’s sort of a hallmark of our generation, isn’t it?Samantha Mawdsley wrote a review of a local café, prompting some creep to find her contact information and send her a dick pic. She replied like an absolute boss, with a barrage of dick pics she found online. She wrote,
“I’ve read about these mystical happenings but since I’ve been in a loving, pre-Tinder, three-year relationship, I never thought I’d witness the horror first hand. My initial thought was to ignore it, as we females are taught from such a young age. But… Nah! I decided to mess with him and call him out on all his ridiculous behaviors and double standards.”
Even though the screenshots she posted onto her Facebook account were censored, Facebook removed the post and deactivated her account. Read more about it here.
Jascmeen is a twenty-something writer living in Los Angeles. You can find her babbling on her blog and being weird on her YouTube channel.
