Counterintuitive Spring 2023

A number of African-American women continue to damage  their hair more and more each year. Author and physician Loren Pickart speaks on the damaging affects and loss of hair in her article “The Truth About Hair Relaxers.” Pickart states relaxing hair seems to be the talk of the party in the African American women’s community; although this product damages their hair with all the chemicals it contains, they continue to use it and sell it in stores. Black women want to be apart of society so much that they rather damage their hair and change their looks to fit into the European style than just be themselves.

The idea of relaxer seems very counter intuitive, this is a whole race of beautiful different shades of women varying from mahogany to dark chocolate, that has fought almost 300 years for freedom and equality to be who they are, and not to be looked at as different. Now they have invented a product so that they fit the standard look of their past oppressors. It is confusing and ridiculous to me. A lot of black women could have long beautiful hair, curls of gold , but they continue to treat their hair with relaxer which in the end damages the hair follicle completely. The FDA clearly lists the dangers of hair relaxers and people still use them. Relaxer contains sodium hydroxide the most prominent chemical used in this product. This chemical is found in drain cleaners, so why use this chemical toxin? The strength of the product is clear now yet using drain cleaner chemicals does not deter African-American women from continuing to damage their hair. The pH factor in relaxers is 10-14; the stronger the pH the faster and longer black hair stays straight, resulting in deepening the damage to the scalp. The chemical penetrates the cortex or cortical layer and loosens the natural curl pattern.This inner layer of the hair shaft is not only what gives curly hair its shape but provides strength and elasticity. Once this process is performed it is irreversible.This process which produces the desired effect of “straighter” hair at the same time leaves hair weak and extremely susceptible to breaking and further damage.One must keep in mind that relaxers do not help the hair, but actually strip it. Seeing the dangers of using relaxer,  African american women ignore the damage just to fit the european standard and they can feel beautiful. Follow these steps for those who continue to treat hair with relaxer, and less damage may be caused  1. A protective base is applied 2. Relaxer is neutralized 3. Conditioning treatments are vital. Many women are against using relaxer products in present times because of the dangerous chemicals they contain and the damage it does to the hair and they are more aware of the dangers, not using relaxer leads to a safer route and stronger, healthier hair.

Pickart, Loren. “What You Need to Know About Chemical Hair Relaxers.”The Truth About Hair Relaxers. Real Published Science, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.

Fear is dreadfully healthy. View it as a a sort of bitter tasting medicine that could lead to a well balanced human mind. However, too much fear can cause trauma or stress on an individual. If someone suffers from mental or emotional conditions which require that stress is to be avoided, consuming fear as part of their diet may be rather difficult, if not an impossibility.

However, Fear is not only something that can be experienced in harmful situations or horror movies. Every day life is enough to inspire fear in an individual. The fear of a boss. The fear of rejection. The fear of change. All of these things and more are examples of fear that may but smaller, or larger depending on the individual, but these are examples of fear that should still be dealt with regardless in order to ensure a better quality of life.

If someone is prescribed to avoid stress; that person is being sentenced to avoid what life offers. It is good to experience fear regularly so that individuals know how to handle it when the time comes. Consuming fear through horror is something that can, among other amazing things (such as raising ones immune system), act as, a sort of, mental exercise and can lead to a better healthier state of mind. Perhaps the horror medium is some sort of gateway to be used by people who can’t handle the stress of life; to start building up to it by handling fictional challenges. Maybe its exactly what they need.

Work Cited

http://www.existing2living.com/8-reasons-why-fear-is-good-for-you/

Six health benefits of watching horror movies

Giving Addicts Drugs Is Temporary

Vancouver’s new policy involving supplying heroin addicts with a steady stream of smack is brewing up a whole new batch of controversy. Logically, it doesn’t make sense. Why give addicts what makes them addicts? But if one looks into what the issue really is, it’s not that addicts exist, it’s that their habits have repercussions on society around them. The traditional method to solving this, being rehab, is not working as well as it would be hoped to, and different methods, such as this, are being sought out. Possibly, the introduction of this system could lead to the dispersion of all things bad, namely drug-related violence and marketing.

On the other hand, this system could also leave things unchanged or altogether worse. It is true that supplying addicts with a safe source for drugs will improve some things, as they will no longer risk dirty needles and will no longer require sourcing for their next fix. These things are indisputable. However, they amount to mere pocket change when considering the colossal potential for disaster that could result in the program’s continued pursuit. In order for the program to be successful, everything would need to go smoothly with every addict signing up and attending regularly, which is impossible given human nature.

Work Cited:

• Campbell, Bradley. “Vancouver Combats Heroin by Giving Its Addicts the Best Smack in the World.” Public Radio International. PRI’s The World, 9 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
• Woo, Andrea. “Vancouver Addicts Soon to Receive Prescription Heroin.”The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail, 22 Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

The Mormons Aren’t Hurting Anyone

Even though turban-wearing scammers and the producers of horror novels would love to claim otherwise, dead people can’t talk.  Because of this inconvenient truth, there is no possible way for them to object to being baptized by the Mormons, thereby leaving we living folk to argue over whether or not it is wrong to subject Holocaust victims to post-mortem baptisms performed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The Jews, advocating on behalf of their dead brethren, indignantly claim that the posthumous baptism of Holocaust victims is both morally wrong and disrespectful.  However, I submit that this indignation and the rather vitriolic actions of the Jews are merely the result of a misunderstanding between faiths, and that the practice of posthumous baptisms does not, in fact, bring any harm to even a Jewish fly.

After Daniel Pearl, a Jewish reporter, died at the hands of terrorists in February of 2002, the Mormons promptly baptized him.  Many members of the Jewish community, believing that Pearl’s baptism discredited his living faith, immediately spoke out against the LDS Church, with Rabbi Moshe Waldocks saying that the act sent the message that “If you [Mormons] can’t get them [non-Mormons] while they’re alive, you’ll get them while they’re dead.”  While the Rabbi’s observation may be somewhat merited, it is fundamentally flawed in its assumption that posthumous baptisms are performed only for the sake of converting people to the Mormon religion.  Rather, baptisms such as Daniel Pearl’s are performed merely as an offering of what the Mormons believe to be a key part of salvation.  Indeed, Michael Otterson, a spokesman for the LDS Church, asserted that “[t]he sentiment is one of inclusiveness and reaching out, that God loves all his children.”  While it is true that all religions, Mormonism included, are interested in growing their congregations, the Jews have unfortunately failed to see Pearl’s baptism for what it truly is—a message of interfaith brotherhood, caused by a belief that God desires that all humans be saved, regardless of religion.

If we are to believe in “God’s motherly love for all Jews and Gentiles” referenced in Fred Bert Ithurburn’s God Loves Everyone, we can conclude that God loves all humans simply for their humanity, and not for their religion.  God, being rather busy with running the universe and damning sinners to eternal suffering, cannot be bothered by how a person chooses to worship, and is unlikely to believe that a Jew’s salvation will be perverted simply because said Jew was baptized by a Mormon.  Using God’s love as a measurement of a religion’s validity, and knowing that God loves Daniel Pearl, Anne Frank, and Elie Weisel equally as Jews or Mormons, we can reasonably assume that because God loves all people equally, no religion is superior to another; the Jews are therefore wrong and egotistical to claim that the posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims are a discredit to their “superior” religion.

Assuming that the Mormons are in fact a bunch of lunatics and that Judaism has been the right religion all along, we can still conclude that the Jewish discontent is a result of a religious insecurity.  If God wants to save only Jews, then the Mormons can send as many people to their fictitious “Heavenly Father” as they please—it won’t matter, because God will ultimately decide who is saved and who is given a one-way ticket to Hell.  Furthermore, we also must remember that the Mormons insist that the dead individual must choose to become a Mormon.  The Jews, however, seem to forget this and reflect their fear of a farcical religion by speaking out against a group that, unlike themselves, are not believed to be God’s chosen people.

As a result of their snobbish indignance, the Jews have been just as disrespectful to the Mormons as they believe the Mormons have been to them.  Following the death of Daniel Pearl, one individual took it upon himself to convert dead Mormons to homosexuality, without even offering the deceased a chance to accept or refuse the conversion.  Disregarding the disrespectful gestures towards the gay community that come with this website, I submit that the website was created because of a misunderstanding.

There is a fundamental disagreement between Mormons and Jews when it comes to the idea of post-mortem salvation, presenting the opportunity for even the most thoughtful of actions to be taken as offensive.  Because many Jews have very deep-seated beliefs, they simply misperceive the baptisms of Holocaust victims as a personal attack on their faith.  Alldeadmormonsarenowgay.com reflects this sentiment, as it aims to do the same thing that the Jews believe the Mormons are doing: going after another religion’s deceased.  This misunderstanding results in the anger that has been seen in the Jewish community.

The Mormons, as it has been asserted, do not intend any ill will towards the Jews, or any other benefactors of posthumous baptisms.  Rather, they seek only  to save as many people as possible, regardless of their state of life or their religion.  The Jews, however, not believing that a person can be saved after they die, mistake this gesture of inclusion for a disrespectful and sneaky attempt at converting dead Jews to the Mormon religion.  Unfortunately, the Jews have failed to recognize that by baptizing the dead, the Mormons are not trying to gain converts any more than a Christian missionary—that may be a part of the motive, but it is most certainly not the entire reason.  Ultimately, the reactions of the Jews to the practice of posthumous baptism can be explained in one simple sentence.  First said by John Merrick in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, “People are frightened by what they don’t understand.”

Works Cited

The Elephant Man. Dir. David Lynch. 1980. Film. *new source

Oppenheimer, Mark. “A Twist on Posthumous Baptisms Leaves Jews Miffed at Mormon Rite.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Ithurburn, Fred Bert. God Loves Everyone. 1st ed. Trafford, 2012. 51. Print. *new source

“All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay.” All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Women Are Liars And Cheats, Right?

Falsely reported rapes are, unfortunately, a reality that is a part of rape culture. However, only 2 to 8 percent of rapes that are reported are false; a statistic that is little known to the public. Of those that know this statistic, many do not believe it is true and insist that far more rapes are falsely reported. Part of this thinking is the dilemma of recanting a rape report. When someone reports a rape and later recants it, he or she is often assumed to have falsely reported the rape, and is punished. The perceived liar is punished because he or she no longer wants to go through with the process, most likely in fear of losing and being exposed. In reality, he or she is telling the truth and is just giving up the fight. This may be because the victim doesn’t want to subject his or her life to judgment by outsiders. These outsiders include police officers that are investigating the crime reported. When investigating a rape report, it is common for officers’ brutal judgment to further contribute to flawed reports. Often times, when victims report a rape to the police they are quickly questioned without sensitivity and sympathy. The brash attitudes of the interviewers may pressure the victims into saying things that can be misconstrued, forcing them to appear as though they are lying.

Sara Reedy’s experience symbolizes the consequences of the harshness investigators often express toward victims. The authorities punished Reedy after she was attacked, even though she was completely innocent. In July of 2004, Reedy was sexually assaulted at gunpoint while she was working at a local petrol station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The attacker stole money from the cash register, forced himself on her, and then left. At the hospital, a detective questioned Reedy. Reedy wasn’t the picture perfect victim, so the detective was quick to make judgments. Instead of taking time to sympathize and hear Reedy out, the detective discredited her and accused her of stealing the money and inventing the story as a cover-up, despite the incriminating evidence that was found at the scene of the crime. In fact, when he first interviewed her, the detective asked Reedy how often she “used dope” and where the stolen money was, insinuating that she was at fault. Since they believed Reedy was lying, the police charged her with theft and filing a false report. The officers’ unsympathetic attitudes and insensitivity sent Reedy to jail. A year later, Reedy’s attacker struck again. Fortunately he was caught, and he subsequently admitted to assaulting Reedy. If the police hadn’t been ignorant to Reedy’s situation and didn’t jump to conclusions based off of judgment of appearance, Reedy would have never been degraded, jailed, and would not have endured more trauma.

In another tragedy, an innocent young woman was punished and humiliated because of the lack of sensitivity and understanding in investigating police officers. In August 2008, the 18-year-old woman was attacked in her apartment that was part of an at-risk youth program in Lynnwood, Washington. The attacker broke into her apartment, gagged her, used shoelaces to bind her hands together, and raped her. All of the evidence was left at the scene; the shoelace, the gag, and even the sheets of the woman’s bed. In addition, there were injuries to her wrists and genitals. She did what she thought was the right thing by reporting the crime to the police. However, the unnamed woman said that detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. Jeff Mason didn’t believe her story. Instead she felt they were compelling her to recant her story. Again, the investigators were quick to judge the woman without sympathy. The woman felt as though she was in the wrong, and that she had no choice but to follow the instruction from the authorities to recant her report. Even though she knew what happened and had the physical trauma to prove it, she was wrongly instructed to pretend like the nightmare never happened. Following these instructions resulted in being fined $500 and charged with filing a false report. The innocent woman was punished for listening to the authorities’ insensitive instructions. Based on the report, the young woman was portraying signs that she was lying, like not looking the police officer in the eye and “inappropriate” body language. In reality, the woman was just showing signs of traumatization. She was gagged and raped by a man; it’s very likely she may have felt uncomfortable opening up to a man in authority, like a police officer. Especially if that man in authority was showing signs of disbelief and was putting “words in her mouth.” Two and a half years later, a man was arrested in Colorado for several rapes when police found pictures of the Lynnwood woman, as well as her ID card in his possession. He was found guilty and is serving a 327-year sentence. In order to find the young woman’s horrible experience true, her attacker had to strike again. If the police officers had trusted her integrity and studied the objective evidence gathered, the 18-year-old would never had to go through more trauma.

In legal terms, there are many reasons to why a rape is believed to be a false report. The Philadelphia police department’s response as to why 52% of rape reports were dismissed as “unfounded” explains some reasons: “The victim reports while under the influence of drugs or alcohol (although studies have shown that in 55 percent of rape cases, alcohol or drugs are involved; in acquaintance rape cases, that number is sometimes as high as 80 to 90 percent). Young women report rape to cover up truancy, pregnancy, lost money or sexual precocity. Adult women report rape to cover up infidelity, indiscretion, lateness or pregnancy. A rape is reported so that the survivor can obtain an abortion or the morning-after pill free of charge. Women report rape to ‘obtain revenge’ on a man who has ‘done her wrong,’ or to make her partner ‘feel guilty’ after a ‘lover’s quarrel.’ Girls lie about rape all the time, for reasons ‘known only to [themselves].’” All of these reasons are accountable, and there are indeed instances where false rapes are reported. However, for the Philadelphia police department to find over half of the rape reports as false or improbable is unfair; there are holes in their reasoning. For starters, finding a rape to be unfounded because alcohol was involved is absurd. Just because someone is drunk or high doesn’t mean he or she wasn’t raped, or capable of raping someone. In fact, if someone is under the influence, he or she is found to be unable to give proper consent. In addition, the Philadelphia police department disregards the accuser’s credibility by saying that “girls lie about rape all the time” for unknown reasons. These reasons may be that she is mentally ill and needs further assistance to help her deal with her illness. Or, the girl may not know what constitutes rape and may be mistaken. Plus, they completely ignore the fact that men can be rape victims too, and they do not explicitly mention reasons as to why they would falsely report a rape. In either way, the police department acts ignorantly by dismissing women’s integrity.

Works Cited

Matchar, Emily. “’Men’s Rights’ Activists Are Trying to Redefine the Meaning of Rape.” New Republic. 26 February 2014. Web. 9 November 2015.

Hallett, Stephanie. “Do Women Lie About Rape?” Ms. Magazine. 7 April 2011. Web. 9 November 2015.

Walters, Joanne. “Sara Reedy, the rape victim accused of lying and jailed by US police, wins $1.5m in payout.” The Guardian. 15 December 2012. Web. 9 November 2015.

Carter, Mike. “Woman sues after Lynnwood police didn’t believe she was raped.” The Seattle Times. 12 June 2013. Web. 9 November 2015.

Having Animals in Captivity Does More Good than Harm

Keeping animals in captivity is ethical. However, researchers claim that animals who are held in captivity are being harmed by their environment. Today the world is facing many changes such as rise in temperature and rising sea levels. In the bigger picture of the world today, captivity of different types of wild animals does more good than harm.

Some animals that reside in captivity are endangered species. Zoo keepers and researchers who work with these wild animals are devoted to caring for these species so that they don’t die off as a whole. In the wild they may not be able to fend for themselves on their own without help. Captive animals are provided with food to survive and the basic necessities to live. For example, different types of birds can’t survive in natural disasters. A such event happened in Puerto Rico in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo wiping a whole bird population to only thirteen birds. According to 8 Zoos Helping Animals Edge out of Extinction “Today, thanks to the efforts of zoo scientists at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, captive-bred birds at two aviaries number over 200 — and reintroduction is underway. Some 60 wild and captive-born Puerto Rican parrots now live free.” Without the help of the research at the zoo who took the species in their hands, these birds would no longer exist on the earth today. If reintroduction works the population of the birds could be larger in the wild as time passes.

Today sea levels are rising and some animals natural habitats are being cut down, forcing animals to go into environments they are not suited for. According to Zoos through the Lens of the IUCN Red List: A Global Metapopulation Approach to Support  Conservation Breeding Programs , researchers suggest that “conservation breeding programs (CBPs) may off the only feasible option to avoid the extinction of particular species until appropriate habitat can be found or restored.” During an animals time in captivity, they could be bred to produce more of that species under safe and conditions where there is the basics they need to survive and reproduce. If scientist reintroduced these animals at a higher rate, wild species population could rise out of extinction.

Although animals behaviors might change in captivity, such as some scientist are concerned, captivity does more overall good to the animals than harm.  The captive animals don’t necessarily need to be put in zoos, they can reside in other places specifically for wild animals to help them safely grow and sustain their population.

Works Cited

Consent is Sexy

The most common misconception in society is that women are “asking for it.” Whatever “it” is. Whether it’s attention, physical contact, or sex, people assume that women want “it.” They are under the impression that all women want the attention, as if they feed off of it like it is a drug.  If a woman leaves her house in a short skirt and a pair of high heels, men assume that she wants sex because she is dressed sexily. The idea that a woman can dress nicely for her own enjoyment seems foreign to men. Men think that every time a woman sees a man she wants him to notice her.  So when women fall victim to rape or sexual assault, it is automatically assumed that they were dressed sexually and were “asking for it.” Saddest of all, as a society both men and women see a short skirt and a pair of high heels as an open invitation for advances.

However, in the society we live in today, whether a woman is dressed scantly or modestly she receives all sorts of unwanted and unrequested attention. A video was released by Huffington Post last fall after a woman named Shoshana Roberts walked around New York City for ten hours and received over one hundred cat calls. A cat call is a sexual gesture towards a woman, whether it be whistling, shouting or an inappropriate comment. Shoshana dressed in jeans and a black crew-neck t-shirt, clothes that most would consider moderately conservative (definitely not “asking for it”).

Even without acknowledging the comments of her cat callers, she received unwanted feedback. One man followed her down the block for five minutes. Shoshana made no eye contact, walked briskly in the opposite direction and didn’t respond to his cat calls yet these men still assumed she craved the attention and was asking to be acknowledged. Even if these men are chasing her because they are truly interested, they need to realize that the way to a woman’s heart isn’t whistling at her like she is an animal.

Work Cited

Sieczkowski, Cavan. “Watch This Woman Receive 100 Catcalls While Walking Around For A Day.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.