Cyber Monday's Benefits

Cyber Monday 2022 Benefits

Once again it’s Cyber Monday, the tech industry’s and the online retailers’ response and/or counter to Black Friday. So too, once again it’s time for Reflections From A Murky Pond to showcase some fine geek girls – 45 of them this year. 😀

This year, however, along with presenting a much larger gallery of Cyber Monday geek girls, I’m going to wax a little sociological. Geek Girls are a great benefit to Western Society. Like Velmas in cosplay, they reject certain norms for both appropriate gender-based activities – which were never truly accurate – and beauty/fashion standards.

Also, the simple fact that there is a market for Geek Girls, both real and fabricated for film, shows a broadening of standards for men. This is especially true of the latter, fabricated or “professional” Geek Girls. It’s a fine thing that geeks/nerds/tech-heads are now considered a valid market segment for prurience/pornography and that the successful model for them is one with similar interests as opposed to just being “hot.”

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Very Special Relativity

Albert Einstein TongueAlbert Einstein Tongue was without a reasonable doubt one of the greatest minds of the modern age. Einstein was both a scientist and a philosopher of science, a combination rarely seen today.

He is best known for his Theory of General Relativity and his Theory of Special Relativity. He should, however, also be known for his little-publicized Theory of Very Special Relativity.

Very Special Relativity (VSR, also known as the very special theory of relativity or VSTR) is the accepted sociological theory regarding the relationship between family and holiday time.

F=dc2

 
The formula for Einstein’s Theory of Very Special Relativity is Family(F) equals dysfunction(d) multiplied by the square of crazy(c). Thus, Einstein has mathematically proven the Family-Crazy equivalence during the holidays.

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Checked Privilege 8

The eighth of 46 point-by-point analyses of the “founder” of the concept of White Privilege, Peggy McIntosh’s claims of Whites having specific and special advantages solely because they’re White.

I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

— Peggy McIntosh
White Privilege and Male Privilege (1988)

There’s no real basis for Ms. McIntosh’s claim of privilege, even if one were to ascribe to the idea that being able to be sure that one’s children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race is a privilege or even pertinent.

Children of all races are, and have been, given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race whenever race was at all germane to the course of study at hand and there were members of their race involved in that course of study.

Now it is true that until very recently schools didn’t attempt to interject race into curricula where it was tangential at best to the course, so such testimonies to the existence of any particular race couldn’t be found in all curricula. It’s also true that the content of such testimonies might not be positive or uplifting in all cases either. Still, any parent can be assured that their children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race regularly in the course of their schooling.

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Checked Privilege 7

The seventh of 46 point-by-point analyses of the “founder” of the concept of White Privilege, Peggy McIntosh’s claims of Whites having specific and special advantages solely because they’re White.

When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

— Peggy McIntosh
White Privilege and Male Privilege (1988)

Simply put, the truth is not a privilege, where is why Ms. McIntosh’s observation is meaningless. Whites, by and large, made America what it is. It is not privilege to be exposed to the simple facts of the creation and growth of the nation.

From the birth of our colony, through the forming of our nation, and on to its evolution into a unique culture it has always been Whites who were the movers, shakers, and architects that shaped the form America would take, Non-Whites, most especially Blacks, were the tools and beasts of burden used to perform some of the work of doing this.

Can one lament this fact? Certainly. Can one say that it was something that we now consider heinous? Absolutely. Can one deny its truth? No.

That being said, Ms. McIntosh seems to have had a very sheltered and segregated life, one with little or no access to non-Whites. Negro History Week started in 1926 and expanded into Black History Month in 1976, so there’s been an established policy of showcasing non-White contributions to American history for nearly a century.

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Checked Privilege 6

The sixth of 46 point-by-point analyses of the “founder” of the concept of White Privilege, Peggy McIntosh’s claims of Whites having specific and special advantages solely because they’re White.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively represented.

— Peggy McIntosh
White Privilege and Male Privilege (1988)

Given that neither television nor print news and media makes a habit of running, especially as the lead story or on the front page, positive coverage, there’s a great deal of doubt about the postulate that underpins Ms. McIntosh’s claim.

That being said, if there is a racial disparity in the tenor of news coverage, one has to strongly consider that the “privilege” of seeing people of their own race positively represented that Whites enjoy and non-Whites, especially Blacks, do not is an earned one. Crime, especially violent and sensational crime, is far more prevalent in non-Whites than Whites and, at the same time, Whites are far more likely to make noticeable and newsworthy positive contributions to societal discourse.

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