I’m a big Salem Witch Trials history nerd, and I was hoping this film would be something different.

have you tried pubic hair?

You’re not going to get a rash on your vulva if you refrain from powdering it.

Yes - as a southerner, I use baby powder to fight chafing in my thigh area AND on my vag (maybe I have big lips, IDK, but I get chafing there too when it is really hot)

Some of us A. understand how vaginas work, B. have never heard that talc causes cancer and C. have lady bits that become uncomfortable because of chafing when they get sweaty. It’s not about the smell, it’s about being able to run 3 miles without having your vag lips get swollen and bloody from chafing. If it were as…

Me too! I use it on my lady bits before I run to stop vag-lip chafing. I had NO idea it caused cancer :(

Actually, I am a poet and a lit teacher.

A lot of scientifically aware people are drawing offense from the statement. You can either a.) call them ignorant and dismiss them or b.) attempt to understand WHY responding to a question about contemporary film with a simplified version of a theory about human migration 50,000 years ago is reductive and not…

She says “we’re all from Africa, originally.” I don’t think she put that much thought into it - she was speaking off the cuff, grabbing at clichés (Africa, Cradle of Humanity, Ich Bin Ein Berliner) and making a very facile, dumb sounding hodgepodge, albeit a good-intentioned one.

If you disagree, have reporters follow you around for your entire adult life and see if at no point you say something that sounds like something messed up that other people say but wasn’t what you were saying.”

I know that’s what she’s talking about and that’s why it’s problematic. I know that’s she’s is trying to make a connection. But it’s reductive-that’s obvious right? Using an ancient shared genetic history to answer a question about Tunisian films in Berlin is reductive. Of course we are all human. Yes the earliest…

I think the “We’re all Berliners, we’re all Africans” part is not the problem, on it’s own. The problem is that it follows the “we’re all from Africa” part, which is a totally out-of-context and pat. It should only be used when you are talking about human migration/evolution, otherwise it does the possessive/reductive…

Nope.

Exactly. Her statement reminds me of something my (white) mom would say.

There’s are still a lot of problems with the “we’re all Africans” part. It’s both reductive and non reflexive (i.e. it posits that non-African peoples have some claim to Africa, but does not extend the reverse claim, that African peoples have claim to the rest of the world).

Sure. But that’s not the conversation we are having. The whole point of the article, is that things can be illegal and still ethically murky.

I don’t think we are arguing if Bowie broke a law. Like, for instance, the age of consent in Canada was, until 2008, 14. If Bowie had fucked Lori Maddox in Canada in 1976 or whenever, he wouldn’t have broken a law. But if Bowie fucked Iggy Pop in Texas he probably would have broken a law. If he smoke a joint or did…

15 year olds are not mentally or emotionally capable of making good decisions.

This is really problematic. She was 15. I work with 14/15/16 year old girls. I definitely see them as young women & think their feelings about and their ability to have control over their own bodies is important and should be respected. I think they should be able to get birth control and abortions without parental…

This is super important. Young women have agency. Young women have sexual agency as well. 15 year olds can and should be able to make decisions about sex and their bodies. The internet deciding that this sexual experience was not consensual takes away Lori Maddox’s agency—which implies that a 15 year old actually has…