The most heartfelt articles by female journalists tend to be demands that social values be overturned in order that, Come the Revolution, the journalist herself will be considered hotter-looking.
From the NYT, here is another example, this one on the dangers of skin-lightening creams. The reporter previously wrote about blacks who straighten their hair, provided a separate mini-article on the history of the practice, and says that she got her hair done by a "curly hair specialist." So I'm assuming she's black herself, probably a Gen X-er who heard the phrase "the politics of..." too many times in college circa 1991 and thought it would remain cool forever after.
I checked out her earliest articles from about 10 years ago, and they're all book reviews that don't relate at all to looks, whereas her recent articles all focus broadly on cosmetics, fitness, etc. When women are in their late 20s, they're not freaking out quite yet about their looks, but come their mid-to-late 30s, the deformities are too stark to ignore any longer. Had they followed mother nature's design, they would've already started a family by that age and looks would not matter very much to their sense of worth. But if the physically decaying woman is childless, she scrambles to find a way to sublimate her anxiety, and half of the world's cultural sewage is the result. (Whiny young males supply the other half.)
The easiest way for the average black woman to look better is the same as it is for women of any race -- put down the sugar, and cut back on carbs in general. Africans especially need to watch out for carbs because they've had even less time than Europeans to adapt to agricultural high-carb diets, and Europeans already do horribly eating that junk. This must also account for some of their attitude. High-carb diets, by depriving you of fat and especially the B vitamins, put you in an irritable mood. * Groups that have had less time to adapt will probably have their mood thrown even more outta whack than groups that've been eating corn, potatoes, and bread for a longer time.
By simply cutting way down on their carb intake, black women will overcome the two biggest obstacles they face in the mating market -- having extra fattage and a snappish attitude.
* If you look at B vitamin deficiencies, a lot of them are concentrated in the nervous system. I have four eggs a day, and I'm never in a bad mood. (Unlike the year in college when I was vegetarian and very moody -- even for someone that age.) If someone cuts me off, or a store is closed early, or I have to read some article that makes it sound like there's an epidemic of blacks dying from skin creams, I might reflexively get angry, but it never persists. Eggs are distinctive for their cholesterol and B vitamin levels, but when I eat other things high in cholesterol (like pate and dairy products), it doesn't have the same effect. It must be the boatload of B vitamins that keeps me in such a cheery or cocky mood most of the day.
Tubers, like potatoes, have been eaten by humans since we were hunter-gathers, so we should be well evolved to digest them. As long as someone's insulin response hasn't started getting out of whack, they're probably one of the better sources of carbs, lacking both sugar and all the anti-nutrients that go along with grains. Otherwise a great post.
ReplyDeleteI find I run better with about 15-30g carbs per meal. One of my favorite ways to get them is mashing up a small potato, melt a lot of clarified butter into it, then season with vinegar and sour cream. Makes a great bed for a steak as well.
Have you ever posted a typical week's diet before? I'd be interested in reading the specifics.
ReplyDelete"As long as someone's insulin response hasn't started getting out of whack, they're probably one of the better sources of carbs, lacking both sugar and all the anti-nutrients that go along with grains."
ReplyDeletePotatoes are loaded with starch, not really so different from sugar as far as your bloodstream sees it. It's pretty high on the glycemic index too.
I think the tubers we first ate would've been pretty fibrous and not very carby. In general, wild fruits, nuts, vegetables, pulses, grains, etc., are inedible. It's only after domesticating them that they serve at all. So we've had little time to adapt to the super-starchy potato.
The shift from chimpanzees eating fruit to humans eating roots/tubers plays a major role in Richard Wrangham's "Demonic Males". He attributes facets of primate social structure to their feeding habits: gorillas are foliovores and have a harem structure, and bonobos seem to inhabit an area without gorillas which leaves a different spectrum of food available to them. Wrangham's new book "Catching Fire" (which I haven't read) is about how cooking changed human culture, with meat in particular playing a big role. Brains are metabolically expensive, and Wrangham thinks the change in food source enabled the growth of our brains.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Sailer's rule,
ReplyDeletewouldn't folks eventually catch on to these articles, and notice the journalist is complaining about her own unattractiveness.
Once people notice, wouldn't these types of articles eventually die down. Since, as Robin Hanson would say, complaining about status shows lack of status.
Whining about lack of status does compound your lack of status, but only if that lack of status is fitting. If you're Harrison Bergeron, complaining about your low-status would awaken sympathy in any decent person's mind, because the should-be losers have ganged up on you to hold you down.
ReplyDeleteThat's why blacks, women, gays, etc., get a break in whining about their inferior status: the audience is willing to entertain the argument -- whether they ultimately buy it or not -- that their low status is the result of improper discrimination, a "legacy of oppression," or whatever.
By contrast, the audience isn't willing to entertain that argument when it comes from computer programmers, convicts, drug addicts, or even bums.
It comes down to how much sympathy the whiner expects to get from the audience regarding the "improper low status" argument.