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To Listen, Read, and Watch This Weekend, #ListenReadWatch, Feb 17-18, 2024

LISTEN

📢The Progress in Women’s Sports, on The GIST of it all.

“February 7th marks NGWSD, an annual celebration dedicated to acknowledging women’s history in sports, celebrating current achievements, and recommitting to the continued fight for equality.

So on today’s episode of The GIST of It, co-hosts Ellen Hyslop and Steph Rotz are starting the party early, digging into the history of the day, some of the ongoing barriers to participation in sports for girls and women, and all of the incredible recent progress that’s been made. Queue it up and let’s keep on leveling the playing field.”

📢Or if you’re in the mood for a cry, there’s my sad song playlist. Suggestions? Leave them in the comments below.

READ

Here’s two suggestions:

🕮 People Who Moralize Fatness—But Not Other ‘Risky’ Behaviors—Are Telling On Themselves by Kate Manne, in Jezebel

“A wealth of literature shows that the size of our bodies is largely out of individuals’ control, in being due to genetics, the food environment, common illnesses and medications, and a whole host of other unchosen factors. But even to the extent that fatness is (for some people, and to some extent) under our control, analogies suggest that this is not a genuine moral issue.

People make all sorts of trade-offs to enrich their lives in some way, to pursue their desires and whims and pleasures, at the expense of potentially serious health problems and even increased mortality. Take the person who regularly goes BASE jumping, despite the risk of serious injuries and death; take the person who attempts to climb Mount Everest, despite the risk of altitude sickness and falls and frostbite; take the person who races cars, despite the risk of crashes and conflagrations; take, to use the philosopher A. W. Eaton’s pertinent example, the person who tans their skin, despite the risk of cancer. Provided they take reasonable precautions, such as using the right equipment, and do not endanger others, we do not tend to condemn or shame these people. We regard them as entitled to live their lives, and to have humane and fitting healthcare if they do run into problems. We even generally regard them as entitled to run the risk of dying significantly younger. And we are right to regard them as having these entitlements.”

🕮 Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

By Anne Helen Petersen

“…there was something striking about hearing people use that term [marrying my best friend] at their weddings, when there was a maid of honor or best man standing right next to the couple. I felt like I was watching best friends get publicly demoted. If you have a spouse, they’re already assumed to be the most important person in your life, so I was curious about why many people feel compelled to have a spouse grab the top title in the friendship category, too.”

WATCH

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