Linkies

[hummingwolf]

First: If you are a LiveJournal user and you don't follow news, you probably should. Anyway, the most important bit is that LiveJournal now has new settings & flagging tools for "adult content," which you can read more about here. Note that by default, your search settings are "Use Moderate Filtering"--filter out explicit adult content. My guess is that many of you, when you do use the search feature, don't want to filter any results out at all, so it's a good idea to go to your viewing options (settings) page and change that.

Right then. In news unrelated to LJ, but related to the late great TV show Firefly: "I, Malcolm" by Nathan Fillion. Oh, Captain! (Link via musesfool.)

Unrelated (or at least not directly related) to any Joss Whedon show, nancylebov links to The Fantasy of Being Thin. The essay begins with this quote:

Obese patients are often encouraged to believe that weight loss is an appropriate way to combat depression, save a failing marriage, or increase the chance of career success. The irrationality of hopes pinned on weight loss is so striking that dieting might almost be likened to superstitious behavior…. Passing from childhood into adolescence, leaving home, marrying, starting a new job, having a baby, experiencing marital difficulties, adjusting to children leaving home, and growing old — all these life situations may become unexamined reasons to diet. In other instances, concerns over weight mask even more serious problems.”

-Wooley and Garner, from “Obesity treatment: the high cost of false hope,” published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 91, no. 10, 1991.

Many of you will recognize that the essay applies to more than just dieting. "Because, you see, the Fantasy of Being Thin is not just about becoming small enough to be perceived as more acceptable. It is about becoming an entirely different person – one with far more courage, confidence, and luck than the fat you has." Replace "being thin" and "fat" with, oh, "having a college degree" and "being a college dropout" or whatever other combination of words applies in your life.

Comments

[compostwormbin.livejournal.com]

Obese patients are often encouraged to believe that weight loss is an appropriate way to combat depression, save a failing marriage, or increase the chance of career success.

Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight for one's height and body type is important for good health. But weight loss is no cure-all. To truly change one's life other kinds of changes are needed. This is an unfortunate oversimplification.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Nothing is a cure-all. But too often, people are taught to believe that it is. And if you don't lose as much weight as someone thinks you should, then you "obviously" don't really want to make all those other changes in your life.

[szeretni.livejournal.com]

Have you heard anything about why it could be a bad idea to flag your own LJ to be Adult? *curious*

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

If you want to set your own LJ to Adult, I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't. As far as I know at this point, it really should not matter one way or another.

Most of people's major concerns seem to revolve around the ability of other users to flag individual posts of yours without your knowledge. If underage users are unable to read entries you would like to have them read, then that could be seen as a type of censorship, or at least a form of control that someone else has over your content.