Outlier - A Definition

There is the US leading a pack of post-Communist states in life expectancy at only 4 times the cost. (Source)

Seeing Women Who've Just Given Birth

In The Guardian today you can find this brief, smart essay on the possibility of using photography to pluralize our views of women - in this instance women who've just given birth. The essay rightly notes the vicissitudes of this task - both the narcissism of celebrities and the re-working of tired tropes. But the basic message - "When images of breastfeeding and postpartum tummies enter our popular culture, they will help to provide a path away from ignorance and embarrassment." - seems on the mark to me. And, of course, as I noted earlier today this is a timely topic in our household!

" Today . . . it is politically effective, and socially acceptable, to deny scientific fact."

Two things about this Op Ed - "Welcome to the Age of Denial" - from The New York Times caught my eye. The first is that the author, Adam Frank, is a colleague from the University of Rochester. The second is that among the egregious examples he recounts is the disastrously ignorant behavior of many parents in Oregon where my young son lives with regard to immunizations. Even though I think the view of science (and especially its insulation from politics) Frank presents here is a bit of a caricature, I largely agree with the thrust of the argument.

Renaissance Photography Prize

I tend to take a reasonably dim view of prize competitions in photography or any other profession, including my own.  Most are thoroughly politicized, self-congratulatory in an unseemly way, and work primarily to reinforce tired conventions and practices.

That said,  not all competitions are the alike. And I recently received an email from Jo Caldwell, who works with the Renaissance Photography Prize. It seems like a terrifically worthy undertaking. Here is there short self-description. Note - the deadline is nigh!

The Renaissance Photography Prize is an international competition showcasing outstanding photography from emerging or established photographers.

Funds raised from entries are donated to support younger women with breast cancer.

Entering gives photographers the chance to have their work judged by some of the top names in the industry as well as being exhibited in London.

There are over £5,000 worth of prizes to be won and the winning series will be published in HotShoe Magazine.

The competition closes on 7 May 2013.

Vaccines

The small town where August lives is in many ways a nice place. It is notorious, however, for having absurdly large numbers of kids who have not been immunized (some not fully, some not at all) against common childhood diseases. Indeed, the school his mom decided he should attend (with no consultation whatsoever from me) is apparently a magnet for families who are vaccine skeptics of one or another sort. Many of the parents seem not to care that common worries about putative links between immunizations and autism disorders are known to be totally bogus. They also seem oblivious to the fact that vaccines work effectively only when levels of immunized children reach a critical mass. (So their own decisions are putting other people's kids at risk too!) Today, a world summit aimed at insuring all kids can get the benefits of vaccines was convened in Abu Dhabi. Here is a testimonial from Desmond Tutu and here is another by Dr. Seth Berkley on why this is crucially important not just for communities but for individual children. And, of course, this is true not just in exotic 'developing' nations but, as this report and the marginal links make clear, in rich capitalist countries too!

Doonesbury Offensive #4-#6 ...

Three more in the Doonesbury series that the newspapers feel obliged to omit. (All three strips © Gary Trudeau.) I came across this brief interview with Trudeau at the WSJ that addresses the 'innocent kids' complaint:

"There’s always been some concern that adult subject matter should be quarantined from a page that attracts children. Unlike late at night, when South Park and Colbert are on, impressionable minds are wide awake when the newspaper arrives. But as editors well know, the vast majority of comics readers are adult. More to the point, children don’t read Doonesbury. They never have. They think it’s stupid and boring, a view shared by some of their parents. My older son ignored it his entire childhood, until one day when he was around 11, something clicked and he sat down and read 25 years of work in two weeks. I’m not sure he’s looked at it since."

Read the rest too. While Trudeau won't call the editorial decisions to pull the strip censorship, I will. If, as he suggests, the editorial types know that there is no real danger of corrupting youth, they are simply pandering to right-wingers who will howl with outrage nonetheless. This is like saying that we need voter ID cards to prevent electoral fraud even though we can point to no instances of such fraud. The right wants to impose policies and take no flack. The editors are conniving in that agenda.

Doonesbury #3, Physicians Cannot Be Trusted

We cannot trust women to articulate and pursue their own well-being. But we surely cannot trust physicians! Unless, of course, they are whining about having to provide medical care that they object to on religious grounds. (Comic strip © Gary Trudeau.)

Doonesbury #2, Where is the Real Outrage?

As might be expected the Democrat & Chronicle, our local Gannett newspaper, has adopted the most censorious position on this week's Doonesbury strips. Pathetic. The editor at the D&C and her peers elsewhere apparently think the strips cross the bounds of 'good taste.' I think that the real outrage in all this is a bunch of right-wing zealots passing laws mandating that as pre-requisite to obtaining a legal medical procedure women must agree to be impaled by an ultrasound wand and hectored by medical personnel. Where is the D&C's outrage on that?

You can read Trudeau's views on the dust-up here. This is his bottom line:

I chose the topic of compulsory sonograms because it was in the news and because of its relevance to the broader battle over women’s health currently being waged in several states. For some reason, the GOP has chosen 2012 to re-litigate reproductive freedom, an issue that was resolved decades ago. Why [Rick] Santorum, [Rush] Limbaugh et al. thought this would be a good time to declare war on half the electorate, I cannot say. But to ignore it would have been comedy malpractice.

The Global Political Economy of Labia

I noticed a pair of news items over the weekend. The first, from The New York Times, proclaims the anticipated demise of genital cutting as a 'coming of age' ritual imposed on young girls in Senegal among other African countries. The second, from The Guardian, recounts the emerging practice of women opting for 'designer vaginal surgery' in the United States. So, which is more objectionable - the adults of a community performing a ritual of passage or a gaggle of 'cosmetic' surgeons peddling useless but profitable surgical procedures?

Susan Meiselas & Dumeetha Luthra : In Silence

"Article 25 (1) Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to social security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood i circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same protection." ~ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Photograph © Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photo.

In conjunction with this report by Human Rights Watch, Susan Meiselas & Dumeetha Luthra have produced this video slide show - In Silence ~ Maternal Mortality in India - addressing the epidemic of deaths ~ so many that the actual numbers remain unknown ~ among women during childbirth.