Hiatus

As some of you know my health isn't so hot these last six months. I'm sorry for the long gaps between posts but I just don't have the spoons to keep up with my daily life let alone blogging. I will get back to it and hopefully my health will improve sooner rather than later but for now - I am going to have to continue my unplanned hiatus as yet another thing has failed on me that requires yet another specialist and even more medication.

Cheers and thanks for the patience
Lee

Update aug 26:
I've gotten a discogram and have essentially confirmed that I'll have to have a disc replacement. Well, likely at some point four of them but here in the states I can only get two at a time so I'll get two replaced then later the other two because they are all dead. I don't recommend a discogram, they suck horribly.

Update jul 30

I'm starting to feel better and while I'm far from 100% I am working regularly again and am getting out a bit. The deep depression I've been in is fading back away so I feel like I should be around again. I've been working through some posts for asexy on sex, and am working on ideas for queer transformations and a good night for science. I'll be trying to write a post during work for at least one of my blogs every day. I may resurrect on dread more to write about games. I am actually feeling excited to write for y'all so look for content soon!

Herpes good food/bad food response

This is a response to this tumblr post as reblogged by fuckyeahsexeducation. It appears to be sourced from e-how. I have posted each section in the article, then my response below it. 

Foods to Avoid

When a herpes outbreak occurs, you should do your best to avoid foods with a high arginine content. Arginine essentially provides the food necessary for the survival of the herpes virus. High-arginine foods include coffee, chocolate, nuts, oatmeal, raisins, seeds, whole wheat bread, brown rice, coconut and lentils. You should also avoid eating fruits with high citric acid content, such as oranges and grapefruits, during an outbreak. In general, you should avoid processed foods and artificial cola drinks.

This is an area where it's a bit more complicated than you think. Dosage matters. Take over what you should or under and you run into problems. A study by Naito et. al. Found that Arginine suppresses the growth of HSV-1 but only up to 50-60 nM. They also found that it is time dependent and that it doesn't directly interfere with the recurrence of the virus. SO what does this mean? It means that you can have your mocha and not really worry about its effect on your herpes. Should you binge on them? No, but in moderation your coffee, brown rice, whole wheat bread and coconut shouldn't do you any harm. As for the claim about citric acid I couldn't find any studies on that – positive or negative. As far as I can tell this came from nowhere.

Good Foods to Eat

Lysine, on the other hand, serves to combat herpes when an outbreak occurs and helps prevent outbreaks as well. Foods with high lysine content include cheese, chicken, eggs, fish, milk, potatoes, beef, brewer’s yeast, yogurt, sprouts, avocados, papaya, mango, apricots, apples, figs, beets and lamb.

Lysine – according to Griffith et. al. Lysine does indeed seem to suppress the clinical manifestations of herpes virus infection. This means that it helps speed up recovery and helps suppress another outbreak. HOWEVER. These results were found with a daily dose of just over 1,000 mg. The lower dosage studied in McCune et. al. Study on the same therapy (around 600 mg per day) found no results. While consuming these foods might give you an increase in lysine intake – you're better off talking to your doctor about options for when you get an outbreak and how to prevent them. If your doctor agrees that a Lysine dosage might help – they can assist you in getting a safe, reliable dosage so that you don't need to gamble on the unknown dosages you might get from foods. Remember – the amount you take matters. A dose too small might not do anything and a dose too large could do some serious damage. 

Sour

Other Dietary Considerations:

Broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts contain a compound known as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that may be effective in suppressing herpes. Green tea is also a good thing to work into your diet, as it contains antiviral and antioxidant properties. Most organic herbal green or white teas are good. Consume lots of sprouts as well, because sprouts contain powerful enzymes and vitamins, even more than the actual vegetables themselves. Try to consume fruits and vegetables in raw form rather than cooking them, as cooked vegetables usually have lower vitamin content. Drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juice can do wonders for the immune system and your overall health. There are also some good enzyme and vitamin supplements on the market that can help control herpes. Vitamin C, B5, B6, zinc, and magnesium are all good choices.

Here's the deal on this portion. Have a healthy diet and you don't need to worry about any of this. Yes, green tea is lovely but the research is mixed, we can't say that it will do any good to help with HSV-1 because we don't have results showing this. Based upon the scant evidence I have been able to find in reliable places I am inclined to lean toward this not helping anything save a very minor effect in oral herpes infections that are currently active. Of course there is a huge placebo effect there still.

“Consume lots of sprouts as well, because sprouts contain powerful enzymes and vitamins, even more than the actual vegetables themselves.” What does this even mean? How can something contain more “powerful enzymes and vitamins” than the actual vegetable? I don't get it.

As for the cooking vegetables claim to somehow reduce the vitamin and mineral content in vegetables the evidence is mixed. The method of cooking, the type of vegetable etc. all make a difference. According to Masrizal et. al. Microwaving or steaming most vegetables retains most of the vitamin C, iron, and beta-carotene content. Other studies, one such conducted by Leichter et. al. Shows that what reduction there is in boiled vegetables is usually merely leached into the water it's boiled in. My conclusion from this? If you want to keep your cauliflower nutrients make a stew or soup out of it and poof, you still have them.

“There are also some good enzyme and vitamin supplements on the market that can help control herpes. Vitamin C, B5, B6, zinc, and magnesium are all good choices.” Or, take your valtrex, and talk to your doctor. If, and only if, you have a vitamin deficiency do you need supplementation and your doctor can help you with that. Otherwise you will merely have at best expensive pee and at worse too much of the vitamin's which can be harmful. Eat a healthy diet, get a bit of sunlight and drink water – the vast majority of people don't need supplements and if anyone other than your doctor (mind you that's a real doctor not a naturopath, herbalist, nutritionist or other such bunk) tells you to take a supplement because you're somehow needing supplementing get a second opinion from your doctor. For some more information about supplements check out the amazing work done by the Science Based Medicine people –  Here,  Here and Here.

As far as the whole “Drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juice can do wonders for the immune system and your overall health.” thing – yeah, fresh vegetable and fruit juice is a great way to get your daily intake of fruits and vegetables but what do they mean 'do wonders for the immune system'? What part of the immune system? How does it help? Does drinking your fruits and vegetables make any difference when compared to eating them? Yes we do need them to help keep up our health but it doesn't do anything different than consuming those particular edibles would anyway. You need the nutrients and your stomach isn't particularly picky about how it gets them. The immune system is complicated and saying things like it 'can do wonders for the immune system' is an immediate red flag for something not to take particularly seriously. Especially without a decent citation.

Other:

I took a look at the citations e-how provided (which don't show up on the tumblr story) and they were sketchy to say the least. Is it surprising that “global herbal supplies” is recommending supplements? Or that the naturopath over at herpes coldsores has a whole host of diet changes with no supporting evidence to recommend? Or that a site flogging books and herbs is recommending something similar with a similar level of evidence? I'll stick with the literature. I personally get oral cold sores and have my whole life, I do indeed practice what I preach and go to the doctor (again – a real one, a MD) when I have an outbreak. She gives me Valtrex – my outbreak goes away in a day or two. It's a virus, we have it for life and pseudoscience trying to persuade us to change our quality of life on the abstract hope that we can somehow prevent an outbreak is ridiculous. Go with the evidence, talk to your doctor and work with them to manage your progress. If you think you are deficient in a vitamin – again, talk to your doctor. There are simple tests that can be done to see and if you are a proper, safe supplement can be prescribed. Thanks to the lack of regulation in the supplement industry on the shelf pills may not actually contain what they are claiming. Some have been seen to have more or less of the dosage, some have other contaminates in them, some herbal supplements have even been found to have high levels of heavy metals. You can take your chances – I'll stick to something that is regulated and has been tested. Overall it comes down to your choice – do you go with something that isn't proven, has clear biases in the recommendations, and isn't regulated well or tested, regulated medicine given by a properly trained MD?

Have evidence I missed? Let me know. I would love to be wrong.

Sources:

Leichter et. Al - http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search/display.do?f=1981/US/US81054.xml;US7940855

Masrizal et. Al - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-4557.1997.tb00483.x/abstract

Griffity et. al. A multicentered study of lysine terapy in Herpes simplex infection. Dermatologica. 1978;156(5):257-67.

McCune et. al. Treatment of recurrent herpes simplex infections with L-lysine monohydrochloride. Cutis. 1984 Oct; 34(4):366-73.

Naito et. al. Antiviral effect of arginine against herpes simplex virus type 1. Int. J Mol Med. 2009 Apr;23(4):495-9.

A few definitions

I had someone call me on the fact that some of the words I use aren't always in common usage so I thought I would start a definitions list. Given how busy this last weekend has been and my upcoming surgery this seemed right up my alley for something I could do during the 6 hours or so of riding in a car I had over the last weekend. If you see any errors in this list or have things you think should be added, let me know! I am always up for corrections and comments. 

Asexual - a person who doesn't feel sexual attraction towards other people

Agendered - a person who feels they have no gender

ASAB - assigned sex at birth - afab or amab for female/male

Appropriation - taking something from another persons identity that isn't a part of yours.

Body map - a persons internal map of what their body should look like. A person generally experiences some level of dysphoria if this doesn't match their body.

BDSM - bondage, discipline, dominance/submission, sadomasochism

Busted language - language that is oppressive to another group of people

Cis - an overarching term for people whose asab and gender identity match

Cis sexual - a person whose body map matches their body

Cis gendered - a person whose asab matches their gender identity

CASAB - coercively assigned sex at birth

Demisexual - a person who is sexually attracted to people only after getting to know them

Dysphoria - the feeling that something isn't right with your body, either something is there and shouldn't be or something is missing

Erasure - the systematic failure to have things a person can identify with in the culture, e.g.  Not having trans* people represented in schools

Fetish/paraphilia - something that is typically non sexual that arouses a person or is required for sexual gratification

Grey-asexual  - a person who isn't sexually attracted to people the majority of time

Gender fluid - a person who feels their gender is variable and doesn't fit in the binary

Gender queer - a person who feels their gender doesn't fit in the binary

Gender fuck - a person who intentionally expresses their gender to play with people's preconceptions

Heterosexual - a person who is sexually attracted to what is considered the opposite sex

Homosexual - a person who is sexually attracted to the same sex

Intersex - a person who, at birth, the doctors determined their genitalia was "ambiguous." typically doctors would "correct" the ambiguation, thankfully this is being done less and less. Often this leads to ASAB becoming CASAB.

Misgendering - not using the correct gender signifiers for a person

Neutrois - a person who is agendered and experiences dysphoria

Passing - trying to appear as another gender than your asab, e.g. Afab Trying to pass as a male

Queer - a person who feels that modern societal norms don't fit them for their gender, sexuality or expression thereof. Also a political ideology

Sapiosexual - a person who is sexually attracted to intelligence

Sadomasochism - a person who enjoys giving (sadism) and receiving (masochism) pain

Trans* - the overarching term for a person whose asab doesn't match their gender identity

Trans sexual - a person who is trans* and has or intends to have gender alignment surgery or hormones

Trans gender - a person who is trans* and does not intend to have gender alignment surgery or hormones at this time

Tokenizing - having one person represent a whole group

On Passing

Why do so many trans sites and trans people seem so concerned with “passing?” I don't get it and yet I fall prey to it as well. Sometimes the overarching concern is to be attributed as cis but sometimes the effort seems to be in deliberately being either misgendered or confusing. I know the second part if a choice (though in my gender classes I have felt pressure to 'show' my gender fluidity, which is ridiculous) but it's the first one, the pressure to be attributed as cisgender that really gets me.

I understand wanting to appear cis for safety reasons. There is a huge privilege you gain by being perceived as a part of the typical cis binary. This helps smooth the way in so many ways that cis people likely don't realize. Just not having the thread of being harmed, verbally or physically, by appearing cis (or at least lessening that threat) is likely worth it for many trans and non-binary people. There isn't anything wrong with choosing to accept a certain level of misgendering and dysphoria for safety reasons. That being said, it is an individuals choice to make and one which shouldn't be a decision which others try to influence.

Unfortunately the pressure to 'pass' is something that a lot of people, trans and cis both, put on trans people who aren't passing or who don't 'fir' a mold for their identity. For example, currently the 'in' thing for gender queer people is a kind of hardcore androgyny. Those who don't fit that are questioned to see if they are “real” gender queers or if they are faking it. Unfuck that, a person's gender expression doesn't necessarily equate to their gender identity for one and for two holy no true Scotsman fallacy badman. They aren't “real” gender queers if they don't “fit” a preset idea of what a gender queer person “should” be. That's bullshit flat out. The range of “acceptable” presentation for cis males and especially cis females is massive. Why do those who aren't cis and who aren't binary have such a narrow range of acceptance?

Just look at the difference between a cis female and a trans female. The cis person can range in gender expression from a super femininity to the most hardcore butch and they are still accepted as female. Their femininity, may be questioned, their orientation may be questioned, but almost never their gender. Now for the trans person, unless their gender expression is what is typically considered feminine or they pass well and no one knows their trans history their gender is regularly questioned and is often rejected, even by other trans people. Hell, likely especially by other trans people. I have heard more trans people accuse those of us who aren't trying to pass of “making trans people look bad.” No we aren't, those who insist on being in a box of trans expressions with no deviations are.

This behavior is ridiculous, those who are trans have every gender expression represented just as cis people do but this policing of what is a “true” trans or gender queer or neutrois expression is just horizontal oppression and merely perpetuates the idea that if you don't “fit” you are other. As a whole trans* people are already showing that cis ideals aren't working, non-binary people are showing that binarist ideals aren't working. Rather than accepting that peoples expression needs to “fit” to their gender identity we need to allow for people to express themselves and their gender how they feel is right for them not for some ideal of gender. The cis privilege of gender expression needs to be taken up by trans* people. No matter your gender identity cis male or trans gender queer you should not be condemned for your choice of expression of that gender. We need to move away form this oppressive dialogue of passing and allow people to freely express who they are.

A bit about reclaiming words

The only thing that gives me pause about reclaiming words that I, in my target group identities have had used against me is the fear that the privileged people who hear my reclaimed words will think to themselves “Well they use that word why can't I?”. Words have contexts, histories and meanings and we need to be careful of that. We need to realize that when people are reclaiming that it can be a perilous time for them because the words still hurt and the words are hard to use and the words remind us every damn time we use them that we are oppressed.

It is worth it though. It is worth taking back the power and the hurt and the glory and the pain to fully live. To not let a word with history and power over us hurt us anymore. It is not something that can be done for another person though. They have to do it themselves. A person has to find their words that they want to empower themselves with and if those words need to be reclaimed from their oppressors, more power to them.

It is their choice though. What words, what sounds, what sights, smells and feelings they want to reclaim. What they have the ability to handle right now to reclaim. That needs to be respected. For me, personally, I love the word 'cunt' for my reproductive organs because it's something that has been used to demean me in the past. HOWEVER I know that a lot of people, especially a lot of people with vaginas or who other perceive as having vaginas really really don't like that word. So I don't use it a lot and if I know someone has a problem with it then I will do my best not to squick them in their space.

On my pages, in my blog, and in my head however it is mine and because of that I am empowered.

If that is how a person is reclaiming then awesome.

If that is how a person is using it then awesome.

If that is how a person is being empowered by it then awesome.

I have however seen supposed reclaiming that is harmful.

I have seen people 'reclaim' words used against them and then turn around and horizontally oppress other people in their own target group, with their own identity, with the very word they say they are reclaiming. If the word is still being used to harm, to hold someone down, to trigger bad memories, to attack, then it is not being reclaimed it is being propagated.

Reclamation is not about stealing power from others it is about empowering ourselves so that the words with their whole history of harm and abuse of our own people aren't hurting. When we used these words to harm people who have had them used as weapons by oppressors already we are setting that process back.

That is the difference to me.

California's Universities may be asking about Sexual Orientation

In the news recently was the possibility of the California public university system adding to their demographics collection for applicants questions about their sexual orientation. I have mixed feelings about this depending on the question. For example, one of the news reports mentions a private school in Illinois that has “3% reporting to be homosexual, bisexual or transgender.” One thing that I have never understood is why 'transgender' is on a list of sexual orientations. It's not a sexual orientation, it's a gender history. A person can be a homosexual trans woman, or a bisexual trans man, or even something not even mentioned like a pansexual trans gender queer.

This gets into part of the problem I can see happening. According to the same news source the new law that asks universities to allow students and staff to be able to “identify their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” This would be really cool and validating if it was done right but from what I can tell so far the question is mainly going to be about sexual orientation, and the only orientations I have seen listed yet are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and questioning. This is really invalidating to the students who don't identify with this limited list of orientations. If it was a fill in the blank, or even had the option of 'other' it would be a little better. Even though 'other' is still rendering a person into that status and is dehumanizing at least then their voices could possibly be heard but as is it isn't looking likely.

Another disheartening part of the stories is the discussion of the UC Undergrad Experience Survey which listed gay/lesbian or self-identified queer together and bisexual and questioning as separate categories. My first response was 'wait what?' This is completely ridiculous and tells me that whoever designed the survey questions has no idea what the different orientations are.

Elmhurst College was also reported but they seemed to do things a little better by asking “would you consider yourself to be a member of the LGBT community?” See, while that isn't perfect it is at least a bit better. There they are asking what they want to know – are you part of the community we are interested in serving. It feels like they aren't doing lip service to wanting to actually know about the sexual orientations of the people on campus but actually asking the question of if you would use the services provided for LGBT people. This doesn't have as much pretense as questions on your actual orientation.

More services for QUILTBAG students is great and a worthy goal so I am glad that the uni's are trying to do something to help ensure that these students are getting the services they need but it needs to be done right. At the moment, I have little faith that the schools will be putting questions on their admittance forms that validate non-binary students, especially given that most still have 'sex: male/female' on there. Maybe this is a step in the right direction but it seems to me like another way to keep rendering those who aren't binary in gender and orientation, or those who aren't sexual, invisible.

All of the quotes in this are from LA Times, the article can be found here. 

Orientation – just when you thought it made sense.

When most people think of orientation they think of sexual orientation but the reality is that it is more complicated than that. Who people are attracted to sexually is only one aspect of orientation there is also who people are attracted to romantically as well as what other people attribute your orientations to be. These different aspects line up in most people, though the attribution can be different for some who aren't heterosexual or obviously homosexual but for those who aren't of a 'mainstream' orientation or whose sexual and romantic orientation this aspect of who they are can be rendered invisible.

Sexual orientation can be divided into a number of categories, not all of which many people have heard of. The categories are hetero, homo, bi, pan, omni, a, demi, and sapio. Heterosexual people are those who are sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex (whatever that means, usually this is used for people in a binary-identification of sex or gender). This is also called androphilia when people don't want to attach a gender to the people involved. Homosexual people are those who are attracted to people of the same sex, this has the same binary implications as heterosexuality does. This is also called gynephilia for similar reasons to androphilia. Bisexuality is the last binary identification and is sexual attraction to 'both' genders.

Pansexual and omnisexual are sexual attraction to all genders and attraction that isn't based off gender respectively. These two orientations are often put together into the same category. Asexual people aren't sexually attracted to other people and demisexual people require a relationship before sexual attraction occurs. Sapiosexual people are attracted to intelligence without regards for gender or sex. Romantic attraction has the same categories as sexual attraction but deals with who a person is attracted to have a romantic relationship with.

Orientation attribution is what other people assume your sexual and romantic attribution. Usually people assume that these two attributes match but that isn't always the case. Unless yours happen to not match however there is a distinct possibility that you have never realized that they are two different orientations. People who are assumed to be heterosexual/romantic are given cis privilege even if they aren't hetero, even the assumption of homosexuality and bisexuality give a person cis privilege that the other orientations don't get. Far too often a person who is of a non-binary orientation is rendered invisible, even in human sexuality classes where the professor should know better.

One thing that happens far too often, especially in homosexual communities is the assumption that orientation must be stable. A person changing their orientation is seen as a traitor to the community and even if that doesn't occur in many cases they aren't welcomed back into the community to the extent that they were previously. The reality however is that all orientations have some degree of fluidity. While many people have relatively stable orientations, like with gender, orientation can have a small, moderate or high level of fluidity. These fluctuations may just be for one person, or just every so often but in others there is a significantly greater level of fluctuation. Maybe the person identifies as homoflexible – a designation that says that the person is mainly homosexual but isn't entirely objecting to the possibility of an attraction to a person of another gender.

There is a lot of research into sexual orientation already, though most of it is on hetero, homo, and bi sexual people. Research is minimal on asexuals, and nearly non-existent for the other orientations. I think the best way to do this research would be to do a survey of people to find their sexual and romantic orientations both via self report and adaptations of scales previously used to detect sexual orientation. A lot of these scales can easily be adapted for use on looking at romantic orientation as well.

Looking into orientation attribution would be done in the same way as the other attributions; asking a group of people to identify peoples orientation based off of a profile of the person. In this case a written case report of various people from a variety of sexual and romantic orientations and having the people involved write down what they think the case studies orientations are. Another way to do this would be to have a staged video of a dance or party then have the participants watch and determine what the people at the event have for orientation.

As with the other categories that deal with fluidity sexual and romantic orientation fluidity can be measured retrospectively via a survey asking people how their orientations have changed over time. This can then branch out into a more in-depth set of research where people journal their orientation perhaps on a monthly basis over the course of time to see if it changes. The longitudinal study would have to take place over a number of years so that there would be a complete picture of peoples fluidity. This would be the most difficult to develop a measure to test because orientation fluidity isn't socially acceptable in may areas and many people have a goal of finding one person to settle down with and thus don't do a lot of changing of orientation after that.

As for practical uses of this I think that the best place this information can be used would be in couples therapy to establish a background on the clients. I am not sure that this orientation information alone would have much practical use beyond that but used in suite with the other areas of sexuality and gender this can give a clinician working with a person a lot of information to go on when they are assessing someone for gender or sexuality related problems. Establishing a clear baseline that doesn't deny the person's identity is vital so that a good therapeutic outcome can be reached.