We'll have to wait and see how less progressive Democrats feel about him. I'm hearing that people might consider Harris/Walz to be an unbalanced pair given they're both more progressive than your...
We'll have to wait and see how less progressive Democrats feel about him. I'm hearing that people might consider Harris/Walz to be an unbalanced pair given they're both more progressive than your standard Democrat. Personally I'm not too worried, but I'm way further left than most people so I'm not quite calibrated for what people want.
I can't help but wonder if maybe messaging about this fact (that gen z and millennials make up the biggest block of voters) shouldn't be spread around more. I'm not sure that these two generations...
I can't help but wonder if maybe messaging about this fact (that gen z and millennials make up the biggest block of voters) shouldn't be spread around more. I'm not sure that these two generations realize how much power they've come to wield. I can't speak for gen Z but as a millennial it feels like there's latent disenfranchisement that still needs to be dispelled… it's taking a while for me to internalize the shift at least.
It's hard because it doesn't feel like GenX has gotten their time in the limelight yet, which would clearly signal that it's "our" time as Millenials/GenZ. Likely obviously GenX is here and there...
It's hard because it doesn't feel like GenX has gotten their time in the limelight yet, which would clearly signal that it's "our" time as Millenials/GenZ. Likely obviously GenX is here and there in the legislative branch, but the executive and judicial branch have long been strongholds of Silent and Boomer gens. Until now, that is. So hopefully the next few years open the eyes of Millennials and gen Z.
As always, Gen X may yet be forgotten and never get a president. Harris and Walz are both the youngest possible Baby Boomers. It's not discussed much since generations aren't that important.
As always, Gen X may yet be forgotten and never get a president. Harris and Walz are both the youngest possible Baby Boomers. It's not discussed much since generations aren't that important.
Gen X starts in the mid-60s conventionally, so I think categorizing someone born in 1964 as a Boomer is a little silly. People born so close to the fuzzy "boundaries" around these generations are...
Gen X starts in the mid-60s conventionally, so I think categorizing someone born in 1964 as a Boomer is a little silly. People born so close to the fuzzy "boundaries" around these generations are difficult to categorize anyway, and the categories generally cease to be useful in that context as a result.
I won't disagree generational cohorts are a bit fuzzy and overused. The years are extremely well defined though, and she and Walz are boomers per every major survey organization.
I won't disagree generational cohorts are a bit fuzzy and overused. The years are extremely well defined though, and she and Walz are boomers per every major survey organization.
I got my wires crossed and forgot he's just six months older than her. Gen X can claim them and even my mom who was born at the end of the 50s identifies more with older Gen X than older boomers....
I got my wires crossed and forgot he's just six months older than her.
Gen X can claim them and even my mom who was born at the end of the 50s identifies more with older Gen X than older boomers.
They're the equivalent of the Xenniels (where I sit). I'm not gonna knock down Gen X's hopes. They can live their best aspirational life.
To be more precise, the United States Census Bureau defines baby boomers as "individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964". Harris' date of birth is October 20, 1964, so...
To be more precise, the United States Census Bureau defines baby boomers as "individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964". Harris' date of birth is October 20, 1964, so she's Gen X as far as census demographics are concerned.
However, the later part of the Boomer cohort experienced very different socioeconomic conditions from the earlier Baby Boomers - post-Watergate, post-Oil Embargo, post-Vietnam War, high inflation and unemployment, the Reagan years... Harris and Walz have more in common with Gen Z and X-ennials than you might give them credit for.
The specifics of the years and time frames varies a bit, but they're Boomers by almost every major definition. Still, generational cohorts are messy and don't neatly explain every group's...
The specifics of the years and time frames varies a bit, but they're Boomers by almost every major definition. Still, generational cohorts are messy and don't neatly explain every group's experiences as you point out.
I'm not trying to criticise them just to be clear. Ageism is bad, so I'd be really happy if they caused the public opinion of Boomers to grow more nuanced.
Generation X is a relatively small generation and will likely never be all that influential. The Baby Boom generation, as implied by the name, was unusually populous. And Millennials are the...
Generation X is a relatively small generation and will likely never be all that influential. The Baby Boom generation, as implied by the name, was unusually populous. And Millennials are the children of Baby Boomers, so they are also populous.
We will likely see this same pattern play out with Generation Z (children of Gen X and quite a small generation) versus Generation Alpha (children of Millennials).
It's a joke about how you reuse such margarine containers for leftovers. It's a bit like the joke about the blue round shortbread cookie tin that is known as a "sewing kit" if that resonates at all.
It's a joke about how you reuse such margarine containers for leftovers.
It's a bit like the joke about the blue round shortbread cookie tin that is known as a "sewing kit" if that resonates at all.
But do they actually vote? I've talked to many young people that just don't understand why they'd bother voting (across the political spectrum). It's frustrating and makes me wish the US had...
But do they actually vote? I've talked to many young people that just don't understand why they'd bother voting (across the political spectrum). It's frustrating and makes me wish the US had mandatory voting.
While I don't have any special insight to offer or anything, I think it depends a lot on which cross-section of these generations we're talking about. My millennial coworkers at the past couple of...
While I don't have any special insight to offer or anything, I think it depends a lot on which cross-section of these generations we're talking about.
My millennial coworkers at the past couple of companies I've worked at all voted for example, and there's been a few news stories that've made the rounds about the misdeeds of local and state-level candidates getting aired out in videos that go viral with gen Z on TikTok (the latter of which has inspired a lot of ire toward the platform among republicans).
Voter participation numbers absolutely need to improve, regardless.
The democratic party seems to be trying to keep the hype train rolling for now. I think in the last 45-60 days, they need to make a concerted push on getting out to vote. This strategy makes...
The democratic party seems to be trying to keep the hype train rolling for now. I think in the last 45-60 days, they need to make a concerted push on getting out to vote.
This strategy makes sense, and at least in my opinion, is probably going to pay the most dividends.
Hype helps attract volunteers, and volunteers are what's needed to get people into the poll booths. I am an overseas voter located in Australia, so I have to start preparing to vote months in...
Hype helps attract volunteers, and volunteers are what's needed to get people into the poll booths.
I am an overseas voter located in Australia, so I have to start preparing to vote months in advance to allow for how long it takes mail to travel to the other side of the world and how long it takes officials to process my documents. Starting around May or so, I will typically be contacted by several different individuals offering to Zoom call with me and guide me step-by-step through the process of ensuring I'm still registered to vote, gathering ID documents, filling out ballot request forms, figuring out what address I need to use, etc. (I vote in a Republican-controlled swing state, so requirements are poorly documented and change frequently.)
This year has been quite unusual because get-out-the-vote volunteers have been weirdly absent. It's only in the last couple weeks that I've noticed GOTV activity starting to pick up. I think it's because there weren't enough volunteers before, when Biden was the candidate and failing to drum up enthusiasm.
I think this disadvantage is somewhat neutralized by the fact that Trump/Vance is also an unbalanced ticket. Also, I somewhat buy into the liberal trope that left-of-center economic policies are...
I'm hearing that people might consider Harris/Walz to be an unbalanced pair given they're both more progressive than your standard Democrat.
I think this disadvantage is somewhat neutralized by the fact that Trump/Vance is also an unbalanced ticket.
Also, I somewhat buy into the liberal trope that left-of-center economic policies are actually popular, and it's just that people have been brainwashed into reflexively voting against labels (e.g., "socialist") rather than learning what the policies actually are. If that's true, then maybe sufficiently effective communication can cut through the brainwashing. And maybe having an opponent who can't coherently articulate policy gives us an opportunity to do that.
They kind of feel like a natural progression to me, although admittedly I'm probably more progressive than the average liberal. They're a little progressive, but not Bernie-level. We're working...
They kind of feel like a natural progression to me, although admittedly I'm probably more progressive than the average liberal. They're a little progressive, but not Bernie-level. We're working our way to that level, and maybe someday we'll reach Europe-level liberal? Maybe?
I'm reminded of a very old political/religious joke, which I'll condense here: A guy is somehow given the choice between going to Heaven or Hell when he dies. He goes down to Hell first, and the...
I'm reminded of a very old political/religious joke, which I'll condense here:
A guy is somehow given the choice between going to Heaven or Hell when he dies. He goes down to Hell first, and the Devil gives him a tour of the place- and he ends up seeing all these really wonderful, awesome things that makes him think that hell isn't so bad after all. He then goes to Heaven, and apparently Heaven is boring after what he just saw in Hell. So of course the guy chooses to go to Hell. This time when he arrives, NOW it's your typical Christian-associated place: fire and brimstone, torture, etc. The guy asks the Devil what this is all about, and the punchline is: "Oh, that was just the campaign mode. This is the real deal!"
Or to summarize: for all that is happening during the election campaign, anything can happen once they get into office. See also: Kristen Sinema.
I doubt he was picked so much as had no enemies in the party and on the Harris team. This is something of a roll the dice campaign IMO, so the people who would insist on the lab grown inoffensive...
I doubt he was picked so much as had no enemies in the party and on the Harris team. This is something of a roll the dice campaign IMO, so the people who would insist on the lab grown inoffensive Veep spent all of their political capital ousting the lab grown inoffensive Peep, so for better or worse, we got what we got.
The power of a football coach doing this in the 90s in the Midwest is so huge. In contrast ours would excuse any girl from conditioning class if she said she had cramps because it was gross.
The power of a football coach doing this in the 90s in the Midwest is so huge. In contrast ours would excuse any girl from conditioning class if she said she had cramps because it was gross.
I think excusing a student from class is the right thing to do, but @DefinitelyNotAFae also added, “because it was gross,” which, the only way that they would know that the teacher believed that...
I think excusing a student from class is the right thing to do, but @DefinitelyNotAFae also added, “because it was gross,” which, the only way that they would know that the teacher believed that is because the teacher would exclaim out loud in class that the cramps are gross. As a former teacher, I can pretty comfortably vouch that this would be a great way to publicly mortify a school-aged girl.
Can confirm, there are nonverbal signals like a particular look or turn of upper lip, or subtle things like saying "any of you other ladies need to sit out, don't bother asking just go". Folks can...
Can confirm, there are nonverbal signals like a particular look or turn of upper lip, or subtle things like saying "any of you other ladies need to sit out, don't bother asking just go". Folks can tell when there's subtle hostility
Yeah it was definitely a "periods are gross and vaguely shameful and don't touch my weightlifting equipment when you're bleeding from your whatever. Even talking about it is the worst thing I can...
Yeah it was definitely a "periods are gross and vaguely shameful and don't touch my weightlifting equipment when you're bleeding from your whatever. Even talking about it is the worst thing I can imagine, go away"
Which I'll fully admit teenage girls took advantage of at some point because we had to argue not to lift on our game days (the football players got a pass) but not to sit out due to periods.
My female gym teacher in school was a total hardass about not letting anyone out for claiming to have cramps. She was also the health teacher and pointed out that light exercise is good for...
My female gym teacher in school was a total hardass about not letting anyone out for claiming to have cramps. She was also the health teacher and pointed out that light exercise is good for cramps. Which I assume is true for mild period cramps in a healthy person. To be fair, if a kid is getting cramps so severe that they can't do light exercise, they should probably go to the nurse or stay home from school rather than just sit out of gym class specifically.
The way cramps are treated though leads people with incredibly painful cramps to be told that they're not so bad, including adult women capable of clearly sharing how bad they are due to a longer...
The way cramps are treated though leads people with incredibly painful cramps to be told that they're not so bad, including adult women capable of clearly sharing how bad they are due to a longer experience with them. I was told cramps are worse as a teen and tbf I'm just now realizing I've never questioned that. But as someone who has been told as an adult I may have PCOS (hormonal BC means I'm not sure) I bet I did have really awful cramps and not because they were the first ones I'd experienced. I have seen women, who may have not had bad experiences with cramps themselves or who thinks it's normal to hurt that much, be some of the worst policers. Much like women doctors who say the IUD won't hurt.
If it were more acceptable to miss class for a period, I'm sure I would have. I think of the period simulator demonstrations where the women are like "yeah that's normal" and the men are very uncomfortable and sometimes unable to stand. The expectation that women and girls focus through that is unreasonable.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to portray the "just power through it" strat as ideal, especially since there is a non-negligible portion of people with really bad period pain. But I do think that,...
Yeah, I definitely don't want to portray the "just power through it" strat as ideal, especially since there is a non-negligible portion of people with really bad period pain. But I do think that, especially on male-dominated sites like this, there's a tendency to view period cramps as this universally horrific insurmountable thing, so they can't imagine people making it through a gym class while having period cramps even though under most circumstances, it's very doable. I think this perception also harms people who do have really bad period pain because it often convinces them that's normal rather than a health concern.
It's ironic because my experience of male oriented spaces is the "aren't you just overreacting" sort rather than the "oh gods the horror." It's a broad range of human experiences and truly I can...
Yeah, I definitely don't want to portray the "just power through it" strat as ideal, especially since there is a non-negligible portion of people with really bad period pain. But I do think that, especially on male-dominated sites like this, there's a tendency to view period cramps as this universally horrific insurmountable thing, so they can't imagine people making it through a gym class while having period cramps even though under most circumstances, it's very doable. I think this perception also harms people who do have really bad period pain because it often convinces them that's normal rather than a health concern.
It's ironic because my experience of male oriented spaces is the "aren't you just overreacting" sort rather than the "oh gods the horror."
It's a broad range of human experiences and truly I can only share mine, but there's at least 1-2 days a month (when I have regular cycles) that I should reasonably take off work. Not just for pain but all the ancillary symptoms as well.
I'm more worried about the under-reporting of pain and symptoms and such than the over-reporting of it. Because my experience was the opposite of what you described. It wasn't "you're in too much pain to get through gym class" and was far more "go sit on the stage, bleeding on my equipment is gross." It wasn't "you can stay home from school" but "no you need to go, you can't stay home for a week every month, everyone else goes."
To be clear to anyone who might come away with the assumption you mentioned: we all lifted weights (this was conditioning not regular PE) almost every day, we weren't taking a week off every month-ish. (As a teen my periods were not that regular either). The excuse was occasional and my comment was about how our football coach was definitely not supporting a Gay Straight Student Alliance or a wholesome dad sort, at least not to us.
And I fully admitted some of us would take advantage of it some days, as any teen might, for me that was because we weren't treated equally as athletes. And I didn't think we should lift on game days if football didn't.
Yeah, thinking on it more, I think what I'm talking about is more of an over-correction in more progressive spaces to what you describe in your comment, which is more the status quo most places....
Yeah, thinking on it more, I think what I'm talking about is more of an over-correction in more progressive spaces to what you describe in your comment, which is more the status quo most places. Realistically the truth is somewhere in between but I definitely understand that dismissing pain that exists is way more harmful than going "too easy" on people who aren't experiencing severe pain.
Oh for sure, probably a billion people go about their lives with a period at any given time. (That feels like reasonable math) Everyone's experiences are going to be very unique and not everyone's...
Oh for sure, probably a billion people go about their lives with a period at any given time. (That feels like reasonable math)
Everyone's experiences are going to be very unique and not everyone's life will allow time off daily labor, though some cultures expect it. I do get a lot of schadenfreude from people using the period simulators (a tens unit of some sort) and watching people with periods be unphased and those without being floored.
This comment thread is coming at a serendipitous time because, while I usually stop my period entirely with birth control, I ran out and haven't renewed my prescription yet, so I'm currently...
This comment thread is coming at a serendipitous time because, while I usually stop my period entirely with birth control, I ran out and haven't renewed my prescription yet, so I'm currently waiting on the withdrawal period. My periods have always been pretty textbook but that's not going to stop me from whining 😅
I'm trying not to get my hopes up or be too invested in another country's politics, but everything I read about the guy, and the few video clips of the guy I've seen just screams "Wholesome Dad"...
I'm trying not to get my hopes up or be too invested in another country's politics, but everything I read about the guy, and the few video clips of the guy I've seen just screams "Wholesome Dad" to me .
But he's a clever one and not a softie at all.
What a smart move to go with "weird". In a landscape where calling folks Hitler or even legitimately calling someone a felon doesnt even register, I love that calling them weird got to their skin. It's exactly the kind of high school drama passive aggressiveness that we need. And honestly, it's so dang nice to see a normal guy in politics again. None of that smarmy snarky greasy type. Or even the slick smart elite type.
Make America normal again. Out with the weird.
I hope a bunch of his former students and his daughter's friends can chip in with strategies on how to Nice Guy/Mean Girls this election. Have him be the nice guy attack dog while Harris just smiles and look presentable, because anything that she does will be criticized as too emotional or too frigid anyway. Have Walz take all the quippy one liners and go on the attack in that folksy way. If there's one thing bullies can't stand, it's being laughed at.
The more I hear about this guy, the less plausible it seems that A. he is actually real, and B. the Democrats were smart enough to pick him.
We'll have to wait and see how less progressive Democrats feel about him. I'm hearing that people might consider Harris/Walz to be an unbalanced pair given they're both more progressive than your standard Democrat. Personally I'm not too worried, but I'm way further left than most people so I'm not quite calibrated for what people want.
Do remember GenZ and Millennials now make up the biggest block of voting age adults. I think they made the best choice for the biggest appeal.
I can't help but wonder if maybe messaging about this fact (that gen z and millennials make up the biggest block of voters) shouldn't be spread around more. I'm not sure that these two generations realize how much power they've come to wield. I can't speak for gen Z but as a millennial it feels like there's latent disenfranchisement that still needs to be dispelled… it's taking a while for me to internalize the shift at least.
It's hard because it doesn't feel like GenX has gotten their time in the limelight yet, which would clearly signal that it's "our" time as Millenials/GenZ. Likely obviously GenX is here and there in the legislative branch, but the executive and judicial branch have long been strongholds of Silent and Boomer gens. Until now, that is. So hopefully the next few years open the eyes of Millennials and gen Z.
As always, Gen X may yet be forgotten and never get a president. Harris and Walz are both the youngest possible Baby Boomers. It's not discussed much since generations aren't that important.
Wait I thought Harris was just barely boomer (but frankly Gen X claims her). Walz is younger than her but not X?
They were both born in 1964 which makes them boomers. Gen X can claim whoever they want, but they're baby boomers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gen X starts in the mid-60s conventionally, so I think categorizing someone born in 1964 as a Boomer is a little silly. People born so close to the fuzzy "boundaries" around these generations are difficult to categorize anyway, and the categories generally cease to be useful in that context as a result.
I won't disagree generational cohorts are a bit fuzzy and overused. The years are extremely well defined though, and she and Walz are boomers per every major survey organization.
I got my wires crossed and forgot he's just six months older than her.
Gen X can claim them and even my mom who was born at the end of the 50s identifies more with older Gen X than older boomers.
They're the equivalent of the Xenniels (where I sit). I'm not gonna knock down Gen X's hopes. They can live their best aspirational life.
To be more precise, the United States Census Bureau defines baby boomers as "individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964". Harris' date of birth is October 20, 1964, so she's Gen X as far as census demographics are concerned.
However, the later part of the Boomer cohort experienced very different socioeconomic conditions from the earlier Baby Boomers - post-Watergate, post-Oil Embargo, post-Vietnam War, high inflation and unemployment, the Reagan years... Harris and Walz have more in common with Gen Z and X-ennials than you might give them credit for.
The specifics of the years and time frames varies a bit, but they're Boomers by almost every major definition. Still, generational cohorts are messy and don't neatly explain every group's experiences as you point out.
I'm not trying to criticise them just to be clear. Ageism is bad, so I'd be really happy if they caused the public opinion of Boomers to grow more nuanced.
Generation X is a relatively small generation and will likely never be all that influential. The Baby Boom generation, as implied by the name, was unusually populous. And Millennials are the children of Baby Boomers, so they are also populous.
We will likely see this same pattern play out with Generation Z (children of Gen X and quite a small generation) versus Generation Alpha (children of Millennials).
Look the first millennial major party candidate is gestures a guy that claims to be from Appalachia but has margarine in his country crock tub.
can you explain the margarine thing for the uninitiated? I like margarine but I also like butter - maybe there's a regional thing?
It's a joke about how you reuse such margarine containers for leftovers.
It's a bit like the joke about the blue round shortbread cookie tin that is known as a "sewing kit" if that resonates at all.
But do they actually vote? I've talked to many young people that just don't understand why they'd bother voting (across the political spectrum). It's frustrating and makes me wish the US had mandatory voting.
While I don't have any special insight to offer or anything, I think it depends a lot on which cross-section of these generations we're talking about.
My millennial coworkers at the past couple of companies I've worked at all voted for example, and there's been a few news stories that've made the rounds about the misdeeds of local and state-level candidates getting aired out in videos that go viral with gen Z on TikTok (the latter of which has inspired a lot of ire toward the platform among republicans).
Voter participation numbers absolutely need to improve, regardless.
The democratic party seems to be trying to keep the hype train rolling for now. I think in the last 45-60 days, they need to make a concerted push on getting out to vote.
This strategy makes sense, and at least in my opinion, is probably going to pay the most dividends.
Hype helps attract volunteers, and volunteers are what's needed to get people into the poll booths.
I am an overseas voter located in Australia, so I have to start preparing to vote months in advance to allow for how long it takes mail to travel to the other side of the world and how long it takes officials to process my documents. Starting around May or so, I will typically be contacted by several different individuals offering to Zoom call with me and guide me step-by-step through the process of ensuring I'm still registered to vote, gathering ID documents, filling out ballot request forms, figuring out what address I need to use, etc. (I vote in a Republican-controlled swing state, so requirements are poorly documented and change frequently.)
This year has been quite unusual because get-out-the-vote volunteers have been weirdly absent. It's only in the last couple weeks that I've noticed GOTV activity starting to pick up. I think it's because there weren't enough volunteers before, when Biden was the candidate and failing to drum up enthusiasm.
I think this disadvantage is somewhat neutralized by the fact that Trump/Vance is also an unbalanced ticket.
Also, I somewhat buy into the liberal trope that left-of-center economic policies are actually popular, and it's just that people have been brainwashed into reflexively voting against labels (e.g., "socialist") rather than learning what the policies actually are. If that's true, then maybe sufficiently effective communication can cut through the brainwashing. And maybe having an opponent who can't coherently articulate policy gives us an opportunity to do that.
They kind of feel like a natural progression to me, although admittedly I'm probably more progressive than the average liberal. They're a little progressive, but not Bernie-level. We're working our way to that level, and maybe someday we'll reach Europe-level liberal? Maybe?
Yeah, I'm conditioned to ask "what's the catch?" at this point.
I'm reminded of a very old political/religious joke, which I'll condense here:
A guy is somehow given the choice between going to Heaven or Hell when he dies. He goes down to Hell first, and the Devil gives him a tour of the place- and he ends up seeing all these really wonderful, awesome things that makes him think that hell isn't so bad after all. He then goes to Heaven, and apparently Heaven is boring after what he just saw in Hell. So of course the guy chooses to go to Hell. This time when he arrives, NOW it's your typical Christian-associated place: fire and brimstone, torture, etc. The guy asks the Devil what this is all about, and the punchline is: "Oh, that was just the campaign mode. This is the real deal!"
Or to summarize: for all that is happening during the election campaign, anything can happen once they get into office. See also: Kristen Sinema.
I doubt he was picked so much as had no enemies in the party and on the Harris team. This is something of a roll the dice campaign IMO, so the people who would insist on the lab grown inoffensive Veep spent all of their political capital ousting the lab grown inoffensive Peep, so for better or worse, we got what we got.
Both Sanders and Pelosi apparently wanted him
The power of a football coach doing this in the 90s in the Midwest is so huge. In contrast ours would excuse any girl from conditioning class if she said she had cramps because it was gross.
How is that in contrast? What would the right thing have been to do?
I think excusing a student from class is the right thing to do, but @DefinitelyNotAFae also added, “because it was gross,” which, the only way that they would know that the teacher believed that is because the teacher would exclaim out loud in class that the cramps are gross. As a former teacher, I can pretty comfortably vouch that this would be a great way to publicly mortify a school-aged girl.
He didn't yell it or anything, but he absolutely made it clear that they were disgusting.
I was not clear enough in my OP and that's on me.
Can confirm, there are nonverbal signals like a particular look or turn of upper lip, or subtle things like saying "any of you other ladies need to sit out, don't bother asking just go". Folks can tell when there's subtle hostility
Yeah it was definitely a "periods are gross and vaguely shameful and don't touch my weightlifting equipment when you're bleeding from your whatever. Even talking about it is the worst thing I can imagine, go away"
Which I'll fully admit teenage girls took advantage of at some point because we had to argue not to lift on our game days (the football players got a pass) but not to sit out due to periods.
My female gym teacher in school was a total hardass about not letting anyone out for claiming to have cramps. She was also the health teacher and pointed out that light exercise is good for cramps. Which I assume is true for mild period cramps in a healthy person. To be fair, if a kid is getting cramps so severe that they can't do light exercise, they should probably go to the nurse or stay home from school rather than just sit out of gym class specifically.
The way cramps are treated though leads people with incredibly painful cramps to be told that they're not so bad, including adult women capable of clearly sharing how bad they are due to a longer experience with them. I was told cramps are worse as a teen and tbf I'm just now realizing I've never questioned that. But as someone who has been told as an adult I may have PCOS (hormonal BC means I'm not sure) I bet I did have really awful cramps and not because they were the first ones I'd experienced. I have seen women, who may have not had bad experiences with cramps themselves or who thinks it's normal to hurt that much, be some of the worst policers. Much like women doctors who say the IUD won't hurt.
If it were more acceptable to miss class for a period, I'm sure I would have. I think of the period simulator demonstrations where the women are like "yeah that's normal" and the men are very uncomfortable and sometimes unable to stand. The expectation that women and girls focus through that is unreasonable.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to portray the "just power through it" strat as ideal, especially since there is a non-negligible portion of people with really bad period pain. But I do think that, especially on male-dominated sites like this, there's a tendency to view period cramps as this universally horrific insurmountable thing, so they can't imagine people making it through a gym class while having period cramps even though under most circumstances, it's very doable. I think this perception also harms people who do have really bad period pain because it often convinces them that's normal rather than a health concern.
It's ironic because my experience of male oriented spaces is the "aren't you just overreacting" sort rather than the "oh gods the horror."
It's a broad range of human experiences and truly I can only share mine, but there's at least 1-2 days a month (when I have regular cycles) that I should reasonably take off work. Not just for pain but all the ancillary symptoms as well.
I'm more worried about the under-reporting of pain and symptoms and such than the over-reporting of it. Because my experience was the opposite of what you described. It wasn't "you're in too much pain to get through gym class" and was far more "go sit on the stage, bleeding on my equipment is gross." It wasn't "you can stay home from school" but "no you need to go, you can't stay home for a week every month, everyone else goes."
To be clear to anyone who might come away with the assumption you mentioned: we all lifted weights (this was conditioning not regular PE) almost every day, we weren't taking a week off every month-ish. (As a teen my periods were not that regular either). The excuse was occasional and my comment was about how our football coach was definitely not supporting a Gay Straight Student Alliance or a wholesome dad sort, at least not to us.
And I fully admitted some of us would take advantage of it some days, as any teen might, for me that was because we weren't treated equally as athletes. And I didn't think we should lift on game days if football didn't.
Yeah, thinking on it more, I think what I'm talking about is more of an over-correction in more progressive spaces to what you describe in your comment, which is more the status quo most places. Realistically the truth is somewhere in between but I definitely understand that dismissing pain that exists is way more harmful than going "too easy" on people who aren't experiencing severe pain.
Oh for sure, probably a billion people go about their lives with a period at any given time. (That feels like reasonable math)
Everyone's experiences are going to be very unique and not everyone's life will allow time off daily labor, though some cultures expect it. I do get a lot of schadenfreude from people using the period simulators (a tens unit of some sort) and watching people with periods be unphased and those without being floored.
This comment thread is coming at a serendipitous time because, while I usually stop my period entirely with birth control, I ran out and haven't renewed my prescription yet, so I'm currently waiting on the withdrawal period. My periods have always been pretty textbook but that's not going to stop me from whining 😅
Look it's uncomfortable even at best, and for me the period poops are often worse than the cramping itself. Take care of you!
I'm trying not to get my hopes up or be too invested in another country's politics, but everything I read about the guy, and the few video clips of the guy I've seen just screams "Wholesome Dad" to me .
But he's a clever one and not a softie at all.
What a smart move to go with "weird". In a landscape where calling folks Hitler or even legitimately calling someone a felon doesnt even register, I love that calling them weird got to their skin. It's exactly the kind of high school drama passive aggressiveness that we need. And honestly, it's so dang nice to see a normal guy in politics again. None of that smarmy snarky greasy type. Or even the slick smart elite type.
Make America normal again. Out with the weird.
I hope a bunch of his former students and his daughter's friends can chip in with strategies on how to Nice Guy/Mean Girls this election. Have him be the nice guy attack dog while Harris just smiles and look presentable, because anything that she does will be criticized as too emotional or too frigid anyway. Have Walz take all the quippy one liners and go on the attack in that folksy way. If there's one thing bullies can't stand, it's being laughed at.