Summer, Not Modest, Is Hottest

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is not saying that we should self-regulate to prevent other people from doing sinful things on our account. He is saying that we may need to self-regulate to prevent other people from doing totally permissible things they think are sinful (but aren’t) on our account.

This is the meaning of the phrase “cause to stumble”. We want to help our fellow Christians avoid “stumbling” into the sin of legalism toward themselves; we are never told to limit our own liberty by being paranoid that we might make someone “stumble” into the sin of actual sin.

So, please, for Christ’s literal sake, stop telling women that when they wear bikinis or sundresses they are “causing their brothers to stumble”, because that is not at all what Paul meant, and it’s mega-hot outside.

You Just Shouldn’t

If your response to something you dislike or disagree with in your chosen subculture is, “I just can’t with this,” you’re writing in the wrong place.

Non-writers can afford the luxury of being too triggered or disgusted to respond to something. Writers focusing on one particular niche topic may feel free to disregard or shrug off ideas in a different niche than their own. But if an idea in your subculture starts to gain traction—any attention or viability at all—excusing yourself from the conversation with “I just can’t with this” probably means you should excuse yourself from the conversation entirely.

This isn’t a knock against people who have wounds or trauma that make it too difficult for them to address certain subjects. And it may just mean you need to narrow your focus. For example, if you, a fashion blogger, have experienced emotional trauma from fat-shaming such that you can’t write about body image issues, fine: you’re a fashion blogger who doesn’t write about body image. If, on the other hand, you claim to be a fashion blogger who does want to address body issues, but every fifth article you read on the subject makes you shut down for the day, you probably need to stop writing on this subject.

I can hear you thinking now, “Oh sure, invalidate my opinions because of their strong emotional component.” Nope. Your opinions are totally valid. Your status as a writer is not. If you want to have a voice in a certain discussion, you have to be present for the entire discussion. Nice, considerate people—people who already feel kindly-disposed to you and eager to hear your thoughts (that is, the core of your existing audience)—will listen to whatever you have to say, even if you need to duck out of the conversation halfway through. If you want everyone else to pay attention to you, though, you’re going to have to grit your teeth and stay in the conversation, refusing to back down in the face of not only strong, direct opposition but unintentional triggering as well.

If you want to call yourself A Writer, you don’t get a choice about this. Do you think war correspondents with PTSD get to keep their beat as long as they don’t have to see anything too grisly?

In an initiative aimed at rooting out future leakers and other security violators, President Barack Obama has ordered federal employees to report suspicious actions of their colleagues based on behavioral profiling techniques… The techniques are a key pillar of the Insider Threat Program, an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges. — Conor Friedersdorf, Obama’s ‘Insider Threat Program’: A Parody of Liberal Faith in Bureaucrats

The second Tropes v. Women! (by feministfrequency)

My Rant Today on Egalitarian Marriage — Storify

NOTE: Dead link, as Storify no longer exists. Left here for archival purposes

If you don’t want to read an extensive Twitter sermon on the true hardship of egalitarian marriage, let me literally BEG* you not to read this.

*My thanks to Merlin Mann.

The thing with writing is the better you get, the longer everything takes, because you are working in more modes simultaneously. — Twitter / matociquala: The thing with writing is the…

avasdemon:

AVA’S DEMON || MARCH 7th || 2013

Current readers, click * here * for the update!

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As always, re-blogs really help people discover the comic!

This comic is really pretty and inventive, and it only recently started, so you can easily catch up on the whole thing.

Just found a fantastic new web comic through Aaron Diaz.

(via Ava’s Demon)

Lady Armor- Exposed!

womenfighters:

Finally somebody admits it. When you’re a warrior, showing skin gets you nowhere. Unless your goal was a swift, embarrassing death.

I was surprised it wasn’t on dA. I scoured the internet for the original source and only found more submissions to funny sites, so I’ll keep looking and let you know when I find it.

FOUND: http://luckyfk.deviantart.com/art/Fantasy-Armor-355029113