The Fixx: Vibrator Company is Tracking What Turns You On, Amazonian Women Choose Forest Over TV & More
The Fixx is a weekly editorial roundup for humanists. It includes our favorite articles, happenings and opinions.
Bad Vibes
Who doesn’t like the idea of an app-controlled vibrator? Long distance couples are some of the biggest fans of We-Vibe, but one Chicago woman isn’t a fan of how her personal data has been collected.
The Guardian reports,
“The woman claims that the device maker violated numerous laws by collecting information about her and other users’ preferred vibration settings, the dates and times the device is used, ‘and incredibly’, the email addresses of We-Vibe owners who had registered their devices. The data collected, she claims, allows the We-Vibe maker to link information about use and preferences to a specific customer.”
This isn’t the first time We-Vibe has been in sketchy territory. Weeks ago at hacking convention Def Con, two hackers explained how since Standard Innovation (We-Vibe’s parent company) collects data on temperature and vibration speeds in real time, users’ experiences are susceptible to being hacked. We-Vibe has since corrected that problem. (Via The Guardian)
No One Has Each Other’s Back Like Obama’s Female Staffers
The women of the Obama administration have developed a strategy to make sure that they get their point across in meetings. It’s simple, it’s effective, and we all should be doing it.
They call it “amplification.” When one woman makes a key point, another woman repeats it and gives credit to the ideator. This makes everyone (including the Pres) take notice and prohibits other staffers from taking credit for the idea. (Via The Cut)
Amazon Tribeswomen Choose Forrest Over Village
In what can only be described as the ultimate diss toward modern civilization, after a year and a half of trying out village life two Amazonian women escaped back into the forrest. (Via Washington Post)
Trump’s Maternity Leave Plan Sucks
Under a Trump regime mothers-to-be can expect a six week maternity leave with tax credits. Fathers-to-be can expect, well… nothing. Trump’s plan does not include fathers or stay-at-home dads. The campaign actually confirmed this to the Huffington Post. Read the full post here. (Via HuffPo)
Cosmopolitan.com asked Ivanka Trump about her father’s maternity leave plan and things got pretty awkward. Here’s a few snippets:
I’m wondering — and this speaks to the maternity leave aspect of the plan — paternity leave is said to be a great factor in creating gender equality. So I’m wondering, why does this policy not include any paternity leave?
This is a giant leap from where we are today, which is sadly, nothing. Both sides of the aisle have been unable to agree on this issue, so I think this takes huge advancement and obviously, for same-sex couples as well, there’s tremendous benefit here to enabling the mother to recover after childbirth. It’s critical for the health of the mother. It’s critical for bonding with the child, and that was a top focus of this plan.
OK, so when it comes to same-sex —
So it’s meant to benefit, whether it’s in same-sex marriages as well, to benefit the mother who has given birth to the child if they have legal married status under the tax code.
Well, what about gay couples, where both partners are men?
The policy is fleshed out online, so you can go see all the elements of it. But the original intention of the plan is to help mothers in recovery in the immediate aftermath of childbirth.
So I just want to be clear that, for same-sex adoption, where the two parents are both men, they would not be receiving special leave for that because they don’t need to recover or anything?
Well, those are your words, not mine. [Laughs.] Those are your words. The plan, right now, is focusing on mothers, whether they be in same-sex marriages or not.
Read the whole interview over at Cosmo. (Via Cosmopolitan)
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.
