Diary of a Mad Man

John Scalzi:
For a number of years, I’ve told people who have been thinking of getting me something for Christmas or whatever holiday excuse they have for gift giving that I’d simply prefer they not get me anything at all. The reaction to this often ranges from confusion (i.e., how can you not want gifts?) to exasperation that my insincere “no, no, you don’t have to get me anything…” ways just means they will have to be extra crafty in getting me a gift, since I’m not helping them by hinting at what I want.

I feel the same way but for different reasons. People ask me “what do you want for Christmas?” and don’t believe me when I say “nothing.” Yeah – they know I’m lying but I can’t tell them what I really want because they can’t get it for me.

In fact, there’s ALL KINDS of things I want for Christmas. If you have a spare $16,000, I’d LOVE to have one of these.

I’d love to have a real job that paid real money. I’d love to be able to start my Photography Seminars. I’d love to have an iPad 4. A Nikon D3s. A villa in Perugia. A boat (but not a Steve Jobs designed one). A girlfriend.

So yeah – there’s lots of things I want for Christmas.

Yesterday, my friend Tom Negrino posted this on Twitter:

John @scalzi writes a fan letter to anti-abortion politicians – from the POV of a rapist. j.mp/VKkQnz Grim, horrifying, and true.— Tom Negrino (@negrino) October 25, 2012

Today, I sent it to another friend. She wrote back:

That doesn’t scare me. As the owner of a vagina, I’ve thought thru most of those scenarios, except visitation :/— Control Alt Delete (@JennS79) October 26, 2012

I don’t think most men realize what women go through and have to think about on a regular basis. Read the Scalzi article again but read it from the point of view of not the rapist but of a woman.

Imagine what it’s like to go through life seriously having to have those kinds of thoughts in your head. Imagine what it must be like to be forced to think, on a regular basis, “What would I do if got raped?”

It brings to mind another article from a couple of years ago – “Schrödinger’s Rapist: A Guy’s Guide to approaching Strange Women without being maced”. While many have and will quibble with her numbers, her main point is still valid: women get attacked by men all the time. Women have to think about this all the time.

When you approach me in public, you are Schrödinger’s Rapist. You may or may not be a man who would commit rape. I won’t know for sure unless you start sexually assaulting me. I can’t see inside your head, and I don’t know your intentions.

So, give a thought to the women in your life and to women in general. Do what you can (and what they want you to) to make them feel safe.

Wired:
Again and again in the animal world, males have shorter lifespans than females, an effect scientists attribute in part to the deleterious effects of testosterone.

Now researchers who looked at historical records of Korean eunuchs castrated during boyhood found that the eunuchs lived considerably longer than ordinary, testicled men.

No – it just seemed longer…