Dustin Rodriguez

Recent Activity

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  Dustin signed the petition | over 1 year ago

  Five Minutes to End the War on Science
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  Dustin commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Valerie Bertinelli and the Bikini Body Disorder

  Consider that as recently as 25 years ago, and for ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY before that, children and adolescents (and adults for that matter) regularly encountered incidental nudity.  In elementary school, children frequently swam naked (gender separated in my fathers school).  Starting in junior high (a time during which it is extremely beneficial to see many nude people to inform your own ideas about the human body) they showered together after gym class.  If they participated in sports, they also showered together.  If they went to a public pool or gym, they would certainly encounter nude people in the lockerroom and showers.  By the time they reached 18, most people had seen dozens and dozens of regular people nude.
  
  Today?  Most people reach 18 never having seen more than a handful of people nude.  No nude swimming, no showering after gym, no showering after sports practice.  Incidental nudity has been completely removed from the world of children and adolescents.
  
  The parental approach of "better safe than sorry" is destroying the young.  In general, media images have far, far, far less impact than people commonly give them credit for.  But in the case of body image, since they have absolutely no frame of reference to compare to, the way the brain works makes it so that they adopt the images in the media as a standard.  If they had significant experience seeing normal people naked, the images in the media would be perceived as as fantastical as any flying superhero and would have little effect on them.  But today, parents and society abuse children severely by neglecting their development.  Parents and society act like children mature simply as a matter of course, just a matter of getting older and having good nutrition.  This could not be further from the truth.  Absence of experience prevents brain development.  Intense personal experiences are what the brain evolved to develop from.  This is why children and adolescents are driven to risky behavior - they require it to grow into a functional adult.  This is why children and adolescents want to see people naked - they require it to even have a chance of developing a rational body image.
  
  Because they have been so severely sheltered and overparented, people reach out to the only resource available to them, the media.  And what do they find in the media?  Not people.  The things shown in the media are not people who exist.  They are edited and manipulated and the images do not represent a realistic person.  How could anyone expect people to grow up with a reasonable body image when bodies are one of the things parents and society exert tremendous effort to prevent them from experiencing?
  

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  Dustin commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Is the Iraqi Government Executing LGBT People?

  The USA already had a chance to stand up.  Last December, the UN has a resolution calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
  
  The USA was the only western nation to refuse to sign.
  
  Obama recently changed that, though, and signed it on the US' behalf... after he determined that it committed the US to no legal obligations.  Wouldn't want to have to actually DO something about sexual equality, it seems.
  

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  Dustin signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Legalize Marijuana