Hello, today we are answering the first question in the Dear JSTOR series – where you can ask us, via mail or message by starting your query with “Dear JSTOR”, anything about anything! Research, advice, the color blue, and we’ll try to help.
A user wrote in asking “is it true that there is only one study in existence on the effects of binding your chest (for trans men)?” Short answer: yes. Longer answer: there is other research on the effects of chest binding, however, there is only one that studied its affects on transgender men.
This study is the only one to address the effects of chest binding on trans men, however, it cites other studies that have examined the effects of binding for lactation suppression and gynaecomastia. For many trans men, “chest binding is considered a necessary rather than elective daily activity due to associated mental and emotional health benefits.”
The study participants were asked about how chest binding affected their mental health and “self-reported mental health effects were almost universally positive, with qualitative data indicating decreases in suicidality, anxiety and dysphoria and increased self-esteem, confidence and ability to go out safely in public.”
The study also found that trans men who chest bind universally reported at least one health side effect, which also seemed to correlate to the number of days and hours per day the binding was worn, and for how many years the person had been chest binding. Potential physical side effects can include: numbness, lightheadedness, fatigue and weakness, as well as skin sensitivities and issues. Those with less physical side effects seemed to bind for less time or used less intense methods (i.e., layered sports bras vs. commercial binders). The mental side effects of increased well-being and sense of self, however, need to be taken into consideration by doctors when discussing any potential negative side effects.
So now one of you should do another study!
Also, if you have questions about transgender healthcare, please visit the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health: http://transhealth.ucsf.edu/
A North Korean book on the history of Old Joson? On a scale of 1 to Worker’s Paradise how cringy is this going to be?
A lot of dodginess going on here, as expected. There’s the fact that the whole framework of history seems to have been shoehorned into historical materialism, in fact I’m pretty sure North Korean scholars can’t make historical output that strays from that dogma.
There’s also the equation of the Chinese hanja character hwan (桓, strong) with the Korean root hwan (환, bright), which I hadn’t come across before and is interesting. The extrapolation doesn’t follow the best linguistic practice of comparing records and usages to come to the conclusion, though. This makes me wary because I’ve seen far too many outlandish linguistic claims made without basis, though at least the claim here is more modest. I still dislike the way this comparison just jumped to the conclusion without showing the work, though. Not to say anyone has to reinvent the wheel every time they make a point, maybe that work has already been done by historical linguists in North Korea (and here in the South for all I know), but in that case I would expect a citation and, preferably, at least a recap of the main sources and steps taken to reach that conclusion.
The equation of hwan (桓) with dan (檀, birch) seems to have support from the records so at least it seems more trustworthy, but again, there are not enough indications of which records use them interchangeably, or citations to indicate where that comparison has been made. I would have preferred direct quotes in the text, too. This level of work simply would not pass muster for any serious scholarly publication here.
Another potentially interesting claim, made unserious and unreliable by lack of sources and process: The claim that the Chinese name for proto-Koreanic peoples (or one group of them, it’s been in flux), maek (貊, Northern People), comes from baek (百, hundred) which in turn derives from the Korean root bak (박, bright). Maybe it’s not a wildly out-there claim, but I’m not believing it until I see it confirmed with much better and transparent work.
Also did they just push the founding of Old Joson forward by almost THREE THOUSAND YEARS, from 2333 BC to 5011 BC, give or take 267 years they say, by dating what are claimed to be the founder’s remains? And can carbon dating (or whatever they were using) be that exact? It’s one of those findings that would be groundbreaking if it weren’t for the million warning signs that instantly pop up, starting with my being about 95% sure that this is a cheap ploy for prestige with a specifically political agenda behind it to prop up the regime. Like HOW do you know this is the actual founder of Old Joson, are there textual or other indications of the identity, does the grave match the styles found in the archeological findings of that era? Did this dig even happen? Even if it did, there’s no way I trust the claims at all without independent verification–not easy when it comes from North Korea where there is zero academic freedom or transparency of information.
Still reading on because it’s going on to points that are important to my own work, leading into tribal names, but obviously I can’t fully rely on this work. It’s worth a read as a side reference, but with giant asterisks and question marks all around.
And now I have books on socialisst feminism theory in my reading list for the novel. I suppose it was always a matter of time, with female characters and domestic work being such important parts of the story. I want to kill the idea that only activities like hunting and fighting are worthwhile while housework, foraging and raising children are boring and unimportant–and, even more problematically, that the women who do these traditionally feminine things are boring and unimportant. That’s just a sneaky form of misogyny, that the only way women can be worthy is if they do things deemed as traditionally male and therefore worthwhile, but if they do girl things they’re just like other girls and so can’t be heroes.
SO EXCITED to read articles discussing the possibility that groups of Baiyue, the peoples who inhabited modern South China and North Vietnam, lived in ancient Southwest Korea.
We always knew a large group of South/Southeast Asians lived in Korea since ancient times. It’s an archeological and genetic fact, not to mention something you see in the faces of people you pass in the street. My husband has what is called the “Southern” facial structure. So does his mom, and so do about 20% of modern Koreans. But to be able to put a name to these groups and get hints of where they came from? Fucking amazing.
Grave styles. Tools. Agriculture. Even language? I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming in the library when one of the articles speculated that 半乃 found on a tile fragment from the Korean Southwest might be BaanNaa, “village with rice field” in a major language of the Baiyue peoples.
It’s all rather speculative by necessity, but that’s why I’m writing a novel and not a thesis, right? I’m just trying to give a sound basis to my fictional vision of ancient Korea. And whatever Korea looked like 2,000 years ago, it was most certainly not pale and homogeneous the way some nationalists imagine it.
SO EXCITED to read articles discussing the possibility that groups of Baiyue, the peoples who inhabited modern South China and North Vietnam, lived in ancient Southwest Korea.
We always knew a large group of South/Southeast Asians lived in Korea since ancient times. It’s an archeological and genetic fact, not to mention something you see in the faces of people you pass in the street. My husband has what is called the “Southern” facial structure. So does his mom, and so do about 20% of modern Koreans. But to be able to put a name to these groups and get hints of where they came from? Fucking amazing.
SO EXCITED to read articles discussing the possibility that groups of Baiyue, the peoples who inhabited modern South China and North Vietnam, lived in ancient Southwest Korea.
Hmm I think that’s a natural end for that scene and it’s gotten more than long enough at 3,000 words lol. Time for the pivotal capture scene–I wrote a version of this scene years ago, like in 2014-5? But there’s been so much drift since then, I’m sure it’s going to be very different this time.
Note to self: Never rely on saving website URLs, screenshot everything and save it if it looks interesting. Like half the URLs I saved no longer exist, holy shit.
Hi, I’m Anny and I’m currently writting a research in college about the audience reception of the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We also had to pick a online platform to research and I choose Tumblr because it’s my community and I think that’s important to highlight all the conversation that began on the site after the movie premiere, and I wanna see if that influenced the final decision of people to watch the movie or not, also seeing if that influenced on the box office sellings or not. Help your girl out, the survey only have ten questions and it’s super quick to take. Here’s the link to the survey, and please, reblog the post to help it spread. Also thank you if you reply to the survey!
Okay going to have to start looking for places and programs where I can actually try ancient Korean spinning and weaving because no way in hell can I get it right without getting my hands dirty. The first draft might be workable with whatever information I can glean on paper and online, but I can’t half-ass it for the final product.
So er… I’m looking for a quote that talks about two people on a journey together and it should be somewhat epic. Do you guys know one? I keep looking and I just find nothing that fits
L.J.'s Obsessions 