Tuesday, November 07, 2006
amzb.blogspot.com | commentThursday, August 31, 2006
I thought there ought to be a post for August.I am not dead yet. I haven't posted because I haven't felt like it. Eventually I may say something of substance. | comment
Sunday, July 09, 2006
It seems the jury is still out on whether size matters. | commentSaturday, July 01, 2006
Oh hell, I suppose now that I must...Respond. Then:
1. I'll say something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours | comment
Friday, June 30, 2006
Browsing the internet yielded this history of masturbation--an interesting read, if a little long.One section of it in particular bears repeating. The following excerpt details techniques employed in the 19th century to prevent children from masturbating. Prepare to be alarmed and disgusted.
Physicians involved in the social hygiene movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries continued to diagnose and treat conditions thought to be sequelae of masturbation. Cures varied from concocted food products and diets designed specifically to decrease sexual drive to techniques and devices used to prevent sexual arousal and masturbation (Patton, 1985, 142). For example, Sylvester Graham invented his famous crackers as part of a diet of whole grains and vegetables designed to decrease sexual desire (Rowan, 2000, 118).
In his book, Plain Facts (1888), J.H. Kellogg, M.D., cautioned readers that masturbating was the most dangerous of sexual behaviors. According to Kellogg, the causes of masturbation included idleness, abnormal sexual passions, gluttony, sedentary employment, and exciting and irritating food (Kellogg, 1888, 236-237). Kellogg's recommendations for preventing masturbation in children included serving cold instead of hot cereals for breakfast, bandaging their genitals, and/or tying their hands to the bedposts at night (Michael, et al., 1994, 161).
At the turn of the century, a number of other techniques were used to keep children's hands away from their sex organs. These included confinement in straitjackets or wrappings of cold, wet sheets while sleeping; applying leeches onto the genitals to remove blood and congestion allegedly created by desire; burning genital tissue with electric current or a hot iron; castration; and removing the clitoris (Masters, Johnson, & Kolodny, 1984, 286; Patton, 1985, 142).
Anti-masturbation contraptions included "a genital cage that used springs to hold a boy's penis and scrotum in place and a device that sounded an alarm if a boy had an erection" (Michael, et al., 1994, 161); metal mittens for covering children's hands; rings of metal spikes meant to stab the penis if it became erect; and metal vulva guards (Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny in McNab, 1993, 11-12).
To reduce female masturbation, Isaac Baker, an English physician, performed clitoridectomies. In the U.S., physicians advocated and performed male circumcision to prevent masturbation in male infants. In fact, the American tradition of circumcision is based on the fear of sexual arousal and subsequent masturbation resulting from the stimulation a boy might allegedly experience while cleaning his uncircumcised penis (Bullough and Bullough, 1995, 77-78; Harrison, 2002, 303).
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, parents were encouraged to prevent their children from masturbating with the following techniques:
* They could take their children to a wax museum where the effects of post-masturbation disease were displayed with life-size, grotesquely deformed statuettes, or they could show their children engravings of a woman who lost her nose by masturbating (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 7).
* They could make sure their children had at least two bouts of strenuous gymnastic exercise every day so that they would fall asleep at night without having enough energy to masturbate (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 10). But parents should not allow their children the sport of horseback riding, especially galloping, until their characters were more perfectly developed (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 88). Boxing and other exercise of the upper body were especially recommended (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 146).
* They could see to it that their children swam every day or had cold baths or showers. It was believed that preventing a buildup of sweat on the skin would reduce the kinds of bodily irritations that led to masturbating (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 11).
* They could keep their children away from "heat-producing" environments, such as feather beds (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 85).
* They could make their children wear bathing suits with bags of camphor inserted in the crotch (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 6).
* They could keep an eye on the children's diets. Children were to avoid hot or "exciting" foods: spices, rich meats, venison, salted fish, and wine. They were to avoid constipation, which could bring on the desire to masturbate. They were to have simple, nutritious foods: grains, milk, cheese, bread (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 11, 85, 146).
* They could limit the amount of fluid their children took in because "abundant urine retained too long in the bladder . . . draws too much blood to the very part from which we want to draw it away" (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 11).
* They could insist that their sons refrain from shaking their penises after urinating, even it meant dripping a little urine in their pants (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 11)
* They could, like many other parents, tie their children's hands to the bed rails at night (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 11, 138, 144).
* They could buy chastity belts, garments (e.g., hand mufflers and straitjackets), and devices into which they could strap their children to prevent them from being able to reach or touch their genitals, or they could purchase toothed urethral rings that would prick the penis if it became erect, metal strap-on-and-lock sheaths to cover the penis or vulva, or electric alarms that promised to put an end to wet dreams (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 12 figure 1, 111, 114-5).
* They could be sure that their children's teachers furnished their classrooms with anti-masturbation school benches, forcing boys to keep their legs apart. "Thus both the rubbing and the heating of the genital parts are avoided," eliminating one of the causes of masturbation. Preferred classroom furniture did not allow the lower part of a student's body to be hidden from the teacher's view. Likewise, long coats were to be avoided by students (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 14, 88).
* They could fatigue their children with medicinal teas: orange flowers, centaury, violets, marsh mallow, couch grass, purslane, lettuce, and lily (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 15).
* They could terrify their children into abstinence by brandishing knives, scissors, or surgical instruments at them with threats to cut off their genitals (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 143, 147-9).
* They could have the foreskin of their child's penis infibulated — pierced, then pulled beyond the glans, and closed shut with an iron ring (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 89, 113-4).
* They could have the hood of their child's clitoris infibulated — have the child's labia stitched together with metal sutures. Or they could have the clitoris amputated (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 111-4).
* They could have the urethra of the child repeatedly cauterized so that it would always be painful and unpleasant to touch (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 112, 114).
* They could have a doctor apply caustic chemicals such as potassium bromide to the child's clitoris or penis. The pain and tissue destruction were intended to terrorize children out of their masturbatory habits (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 113-4).
* They could marry their children off, because marriage was the ultimate and most effective preventive. It was the method that King Leopold I of Belgium intended to use with his oldest son as he explained in an 1853 letter to Queen Victoria (Stengers & Van Neck, 2001, 15-16). | comment
Thursday, June 22, 2006
It has been decided. Next year I will be living in the Dudley Co-op amongst hippies and vegetarians alike.The Dudley Co-op is a group of 32 undergraduate students housed in two houses north of the Yard. It was originally created as a low-cost living alternative: since they cook and clean for themselves, the room and board fee can be reduced. Since I am on Financial Aid, this doesn't affect me all that much. But what does affect me is that the food is absolutely delicious: the dinners are home-cooked and vegetarian, and it's really high-quality stuff. Gone are the times when I go all day without eating!
But really, I mostly just wanted to get out of the dorms. Around March I realized that my living environment was all wrong. I don't know if this will be any better, but I need to try something different. Hope it works out. | comment
Monday, June 19, 2006
I have said little in the last month or so. This is because there has been little to say. I'm at home--finally well again--and doing almost nothing. I need to get a job. The family has moved even deeper into the bowels of Etobicoke; email me if you want the new address and telephone number.I am idle and unhappy. When you have lots of time to think about things, you tend to realize how unsatisfied you are with the way your life is shaping itself. | comment
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Eh, sorry about the annoying 13-year-old whining. I was tired and cranky. It happens. | commentTuesday, June 06, 2006
Erik shaved off half of his head. The left half. I'm not sure why. | commentSunday, June 04, 2006
In other news, I am still really really sick. There is a pussy, infected abscess somewhere in the back of my throat and it just refuses to go away. My whole throat, jaw, and in fact face is swollen up because of it, and now the infection has gone into my ear. And I still cannot swallow more than liquids through the tiny hole that remains in my throat.Penicillin doesn't seem to be working. The doctor had said that I might need something stronger if penicillin proved ineffective, and it looks like that may be the case.
But it's Sunday. So that means I have to wait until tomorrow to see him again. In the meantime, I am miserable and frustrated, and I just want this to go away. | comment
Just now I found a naked picture of myself on the internet. Primal Scream. You have no idea how excited this makes me.
I look fat in it, though. | comment
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Sorry for the lack of talk. I've been very sick--still am sick, in fact. But it's all good now: after a great hubbub (bad timing and medical incompetence made for a delay; I was going to blog about it, but I'm too tired) I have finally been diagnosed with a nasty throat infection and given the penicillin I need. I am hopeful that I will soon be able to swallow. | commentThursday, May 25, 2006
The deed has been accomplished!Identity and details of the event will remain undisclosed. | comment
