Tag Archives: Psychology

Gendered Insults

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It’s a theme I notice a lot: trans* people being happy to be insulted, so long as it’s in the correct gender.

Maybe this is controversial, but I dislike that.

I understand why, or at least, I think I do. It can be an easy way of diffusing a comment; ‘yeah, you think you insulted me, but jokes on you, because you gendered me right.’ Or simply the sheer giddiness of being gendered correctly outweighs any potential hurt.

I just can’t believe that makes it ok.

A misogynistic slur doesn’t become ok just because it was directed towards a trans-woman. It’s not ok to be insulted because you’re trans*. It’s not ok to ignore the societal implications of an insult just because of a warm fuzzy feeling.

I think it’s a very sad thing when someone can  be happy to be insulted like that. Everyone should be validated in their gender, so that no one has to feel like this.

‘was not alive at the time of testing’

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As a psychology student, I have to spend an awful lot of time reading psychology articles and reviews. Some of them are incredibly boring, others are more engaging (for example, a review of what was learned from the case of HM).

One, however, stands out as particularly interesting. Also amusing, which is unusual.

It would be the study of a singular, dead Atlantic Salmon.

Yes. You read that right: dead.

At this point, you would be more than forgiven for going what on earth is any area of psychology interested in studying dead salmon for?!

Well, it turns out that the MRI reported brain activity in this salmon.

This actually has some rather important ramifications for the use of MRI’s in brain study, which is why psychologists are interested.

Mostly though, as a 1st year undergraduate, I’m just amused by the poster reporting the study: http://prefrontal.org/files/posters/Bennett-Salmon-2009.pdf and the story behind how this came about: http://prefrontal.org/blog/2009/09/the-story-behind-the-atlantic-salmon/