the thing about being bullied for being weird as a kid is that even if you've always embraced being weird your brain is still always looking for the line where it's too much. you can be as proudly and intentionally weird as you want and you can love being weird but your mind is still convinced there's a point where you get too weird and people start treating you like a weird looking bug again. also it feels like you reach that point 500 times a day even if everyone you've spoken to today found you pleasant and likable and even if you're completely alone in your house with nobody looking at you at all.
I've been reading some stuff on punitive justice, and it made something click for me that I've observed a lot online but haven't been able to put into words before.
When someone does something wrong, that's bad, and the damage it does needs to be repaired while the person needs to try to do better in future to minimize repeating harm. We learn it in preschool - say sorry, don't do it again. If they keep at it, remove them from the situation where they can do the harm until they prove they're responsible enough to go back in.
So if it turns out someone DIDN'T do anything wrong, that should be a relief! There's no damage to fix, no internal errors to correct. Less work for everybody, literally no harm done. False alarm, all good.
The thing I've observed is, lots of people want them to have done something wrong. There's almost disappointment when it turns out there's no harm done. And I think that's because of this general undercurrent of punitive justice as morally righteous and desirable: someone does something wrong, you get to punish them. Turns out they're innocent? That's disappointing. Find another reason you get to punish them, or find another bad person you get to punish. But at the core of it is that desire to punish someone. Someone you can hurt in a way that makes you a better person for hurting them.
This particular brand of almost cannibalistic pseudo-justice is super common in tumblr, one of the most ostensibly liberal spaces on the internet; I see more borderline savagery in online discourse here than in the actually toxic parts of the internet that are just openly cruel for cruelty's sake. It's always thrown me for a loop, and has frankly also hurt me, because on the rare occasions I get personally dogpiled, it only actually stings when it makes me worry that I've legitimately hurt someone. If I did something wrong, or more realistically when I inevitably do something wrong, that would make it good and right for people to give me shit about it every day until I'm dead.
The thing that clicked for me most recently was this bit in Ijeoma Oluo's Be A Revolution:
Punitive justice is specifically, uniquely appealing to people who have suffered injustices. Of course it's the Tumblr zeitgeist. Everyone here is a marginalized person failed by at least one system. Punishing someone for perceived injustice is how someone the system has deemed worthless proves their value in blood, even if the person being punished hasn't harmed you directly - even if they haven't harmed anyone. "Righteous" anger isn't about the target in these cases, it's about the inflicter. This is how much my pain is worth.
And that kind of violent validation is so alluring and so very dangerous. It seeks an outlet, wearing the justification of justice. Who's in reach? Who's an acceptable target this week? What's a good reason to use?
Is there anything they could do that would make me stop?
"Men should put the seat down when they're done peeing so that I don't fall into the toilet when I sit down to pee"
"Actually women should be putting the seat back up when they're done peeing as a courtesy so that I don't have to touch it and put the seat up before I pee"
Actually, both the seat AND lid should be down when no one is actively using the toilet, because this prevents things from accidentally falling into / accidentally being dropped into the toilet. Also having the lid down when you're flushing is important because it prevents the toilet from spraying out bacteria.
I miss when ads were a single click and then they’re gone. Now every ad has a minimum of three phases where you watch a video, exit the still frame of fake gameplay, and then exit the app download. That doesn’t even touch on the ones that forcibly take you to another app after opening a tab in safari without you ever touching the screen.
I hate advertising. I hate that you can’t do anything without companies jumping down your throat with mostly bullshit ads. I hate that billboards exist. I hate that every company unanimously decided to make their ads longer and longer. I hate that ad blockers try to charge you money and there are in app purchases to remove ads. I hate that my attention has become commodified. I hate that there’s nothing I can do about it.
I hate you Ozempic craze I hate you 'heroin chic' I hate you weight loss ads on public radio I hate Burn Fat Fast ads every thirty seconds I hate you I hate you I hate you
I grew up before the term 'thigh gap' was invented I grew up before 'hip dip' was invented I was born before 'muffin top' was a thing before 'clean girl look' was a thing before 'glass skin' was a thing before razoring off peach fuzz was a thing and I'm so so so fucking tired of us inventing new concepts purely for the purpose of convincing people to hate their own bodies enough to buy products
Last time Tuberculosis ran through the USA a small number of people got it on purpose to look skinny and waifish and delicate and used makeup to look flushed and bony and when the Victorians figured out tapeworms people would infect themselves on purpose to starve themselves smaller and women and now in the year of our lord 2026 there is a noticeable fraction of the USAmerican population genuinely thrilled about a treatment-resistant microbial parasite that makes you shit and vomit your brains out for a month because side effects include weight loss and STILL we talk about being skinny like it's the natural default setting for all healthy people as if it's a self-sustaining standard and not an imaginary goal that we are constantly constantly constantly beating ourselves with a whip to acheive
Hi my darlings, welcome to my new series where I, a biochemist, debunk science related scams and misconceptions. In today’s episode, we’re debunking collagen supplements!
What is collagen?
Collagen is the main structural protein present in your body. It is mainly present in bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and skin. Collagen keeps these tissues together, along with making them strong, flexible, elastic, and also capable of repair when damaged.
But after all, what is a protein?
Everyone’s heard of the word protein, but not as many people can define exactly what it is. Proteins are a class of biomolecules, meaning there are many, many proteins out there, with their own individual functions.
Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. In humans, there are 20 naturally occurring amino acids, and they can join up in all kinds of ways to form different kinds of peptides, which in turn fold up into more complex structures — proteins!
Here is a simplified diagram of protein structure:
Amino acids can join up in all sorts of ways, in different sequences and different numbers. This is how proteins as a class can be so vast, and how they can fulfill so many different functions in your body.
What happens when you ingest proteins?
When you eat anything containing proteins, your digestive system breaks them down into individual amino acids or smaller, more manageable chains (peptides).
All proteins get this treatment, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Your body breaks down proteins in food into amino acids/small chains, then uses them as building blocks to make up whatever proteins it wants. This can be collagen, enzymes, antibodies, anything your body deems necessary.
You cannot deliberately target the proteins you ingest towards anything in particular.
When you ingest collagen, it gets broken down like any other protein, and your body will do whatever it needs with those smaller building blocks.
This is why collagen supplements are a scam. You cannot ingest collagen and target it towards anything specific.
How is collagen produced? Can you do anything about it?
Your body naturally produces collagen, and while that production does slow with age, people of all ages produce collagen. It’s a natural part of healing wounds and keeping tissues together in your body!
Science is still figuring out exactly how to promote real collagen synthesis in humans. Vitamin C is a necessary cofactor in collagen production, and while you can’t make sure all of the vitamin C you ingest goes towards making collagen, if you are deficient in it, it will in fact make collagen production slower.
This is why scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) wreaks all sorts of havoc in your connective tissues. Your body needs it to build collagen.
The same logic applies here. You can’t target the proteins you eat towards collagen production specifically, but if your body doesn’t have the amino acids (which come from proteins) to build that collagen, then it obviously can’t make it!
Basically: make sure you aren’t deficient in the stuff your body needs to build collagen, even though you can’t guarantee that’s what your body will do with it.
And you don’t need fancy supplements for that. If you have adequate protein and vitamin C in your diet, you should be set!
Collagen supplements? More like certified SUPPLESCAM!
You might’ve seen dermocosmetics out there that list collagen as an ingredient. Unfortunately, that’s also kind of a scam, because collagen cannot penetrate the skin barrier.
Your skin is very selective with what it lets into your body, and collagen is simply not on the guest list. Molecules need to meet many criteria to pass through the skin, and one of those is size.
You might think of all molecules as being equally tiny, but that’s not the case. Some molecules are millions of times larger than others. As far as molecules go, collagen is HUGE, and way exceeds the size limit on what can penetrate your skin.
Think of your skin barrier as having “doors”, the size of yours at home. Small alcohols like ethanol are toddlers that can easily pass through. The hormones in transdermal patches, like estrogen, are fully grown adults. Smaller essential oils, the kinds in lotions, are couches that need a little manoeuvring, but can still get through.
Collagen is two Burj Khalifas stacked on top each other. It’s 600x the size limit of what can penetrate your skin. The most it can do is sit on top of your skin, where it can act as a humectant (meaning: help keep it moisturized), but it will NEVER get absorbed into your body.
Even if it did, your body wouldn’t incorporate it as-is either. When it comes to proteins, your body prefers to manufacture stuff in-house.
#for real though:#the skin gap probably explains a lot of Thermostat Wars#women's clothing is often a LOT more revealing (and made of much flimsier material) than men's clothing
Huh, you know I never considered that but come to think of it, The Skin Gap could be a major contributing factor to these gendered "thermostat wars" you hear about.
Not only that, but I remember a few years ago everyone was talking about these studies coming out showing that the temperature of most office buildings is actually a more comfortable temperature for men, but slightly too cold for women. Again, can't help but wonder how much The Skin Gap contributes to this discrepancy. If you look at the difference between the average business casual outfit for men vs the average business casual outfit for women, it's not just that the skin gap is at play here and the woman's outfit is more likely to be showing skin, but also the woman's outfit is more likely to be made of thin and flimsy material.
Let's use some random Google image search finds to compare the amount of bare arms and legs, low/wide necklines, low-cut shoes, etc in this "business casual" wardrobe:
Yes, and it's not just that you can see the skin gap at work here (in all of the men's outfits the legs and chest are fully covered, and the same cannot be said of the women's outfits) but also even from a picture you can see how the material for the women's outfits looks so much thinner and flimsier than the material the men's clothing is made out of.
This isn't shaming or berating the women who wear these outfits by any means, this is directed at the clothing industry for marketing and pumping out clothing made of thin flimsy material that leaves large parts of the body uncovered for women, while marketing and pumping out clothing made of thick sturdy fabric that gives full coverage to men (as well as the social norms behind all of that enforcing all of this).
And also, it really can go both ways. I've worked with so many men over the years who do lament that they can't wear shorts to work, especially in an office setting, without either getting looks or straight up being told their outfit is unprofessional and they need to put pants on, and they'll come right out and say they're jealous of their female colleagues who can come to work in shorts, or skirts above the knee, and have that be accepted as a professional outfit suitable for the workplace.
#also may i recommend a YA novel called The Obnoxious Jerks#about a group of guys who protest their school dress code by wearing skirts because shorts are forbidden
I just might add that to my reading list, thank you.
As for the examples here, I could see something similar to the bottom outfit being an acceptable school uniform in some places, especially for primary school aged boys.
As for an adult man working in an office? At the very least he would almost definitely get some weird looks and/or snickering from his colleagues, but the chances that he'd get taken aside and told her needs to dress more seriously and professionally would actually be quite high.
This is despite the fact that the top outfit, when worn by a woman, would be perfectly acceptable in the same setting (despite actually having less coverage than the bottom outfit).
if you want more examples of the skin gap, I think this video also does a good job of demonstrating more examples of the skin gap.
#I didn't think that the skin day explains all the temperature gender discrepancies#but it sure does exacerbate the problem
Indeed, that's why I was saying "contributes to". As someone else pointed out in the comments, androgens do tend to make one run hot, so I would totally believe that men generally do have more of a tendency to run hot.
However, if androgens do tend to make one run hot, that means that the skin gap if anything should run the opposite way than it does in reality. If men tend to run hot, men should be the ones in shorts or skirts (including in formal/professional settings) to help the legs keep cool, wearing clothing out of thin gauzy material for more breathability, and wearing low cut tops to help the torso keep cool.
I think if we swapped the skin gap from what it actually is in reality it would probably make it a lot easier to find an office temperature that makes everyone happy.
It's also important to mention that, yes, women *could* dress warmer... but there's limits to that, too, in a professional setting. There's only so many layers you can add while still maintaining a professional look.
Everyone always talks about how business casual (and other office dresscodes) "allows" women to wear lighter, thinner, more-skin-showing outfits, but it's also the opposite. If I wore the same outfit as some of the guys at my office, I'd be considered overdressed and dressing too seriously/severe.
Of course, I can just say "fuck that" and do it anyway, but women are judged (pretty harshly at times) for what they wear, so the pressure to wear the lighter, thinner, colder clothes definitely is there.
It's also not so simple as 'woman COULD dress warmer/more modest' because those types of clothes are simply not being sold. I went shopping somewhat recently with my sister to find clothes for a job interview, and every store we went to only had button-ups that were also mesh. Short sleeves. Peekaboo necklines. Tank tops.
Warm, covered clothes straight up just aren't widely available.
#i gotta add this is something you really notice as a hijabi#or if for whatever reason you prefer modest wear#its noticeably harder just to find decent-looking/decently made long sleeves or long skirts ( or like. looser trousers )#and usually necessitates some level of layering ( e.g. turtlenecks or undershirts or jackets/jumpers - to cover arms)#and yeah like people have said the materials are usually not great for temperature regulation
It's interesting you mention that, because the woman who coined the term "the skin gap" is an Orthodox Jewish woman, and in her original blog post where she coined the term "the skin gap" she talks about how the women most heavily impacted by this are Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women.
As an Orthodox Jewish woman she realized how it was almost impossible to find clothes in mainstream retailers that fit the standard of modesty for Orthodox Jewish women. But looking across the isle at the men's clothes, it's hard not to notice the massive disparity in tightness / coverage.
#this is all true#but I should also mention that going on T made me SO fucking warm all the time#I used to hate the thinness of women’s clothes#now I envy it#these standards are fair to literally no one
"These standards are fair to literally no one" is the best and most succinct summary I've seen of this thread.
When I worked in corporate, the idea that men would want to wear shorts and short sleeves in the workplace during a record breaking heatwave was deemed unprofessional and deserving of mockery
I asked several people for any reason that is not just blatant sexism why women’s legs are deemed more acceptable in the workplace than mens, and nobody could give me an answer.
Some people simply had never even considered it and that blew my mind.
I got advised by my Dr that I should cover myself from the sun because of Lupus.
Seriously, looking for clothes that cover me that I also find stylish and comfortable will be an adjustment. Luckily the winter is starting, because I don't know what I will do in the spring/summer.
NPR has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services will not be finalizing its most aggressive attempt to end gender-affirming
"The Trump administration is abandoning its most aggressive attempt to end gender-affirming care for youth nationally, according to an official document obtained by NPR.
The document shows that the Department of Health and Human Services will not be finalizing a proposed rule that would have blocked all Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care."
The Burger still gets made, even if you go Vegan. If you don’t buy it, it just winds up in the trash. If you want to do something meaningful about waste, you need legislation: It must become a crime to waste food in those ways.
If you care about Animal Cruelty in Factory Farms, you need to get legislation passed. It must become a crime to mistreat animals in those ways, and when malfeasances occurs, the onus of responsibility for those crimes must fall upon wealthy shoulders. That, also, requires legislation. It requires regulations, and regulators.
The largest source of Microplastics is wear and tear on automobile tires. It doesn’t matter what brand of shampoo you buy. It doesn’t matter which company you support with your dollar. The issue of Public Transit is too large-scale to be handled at anything less than the municipal level.
It’s not enough to just not participate in society
If you want the world to Change, you must leverage the mechanisms of political power.
Oh wow so me saying "no government documentation should ever include a gender marker for any reason" has been right all along. For exactly the reason I stated when people were giving me shit for not supporting x markers on documents.
I can't help it... I care... @katethecurious - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
