Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia - Scientific American Blog Network

Nearly everyone in middle school biology learned that if you’ve got XX chromosomes, you’re a female; if you’ve got XY, you’re a male. This tired simplification is great for teaching the importance of chromosomes but betrays the true nature of biological sex. The popular belief that your sex arises only from your chromosomal makeup is wrong. The truth is, your biological sex isn’t carved in stone, but a living system with the potential for change.

Read full post: Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia - Scientific American Blog Network

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Sadly, many self-styled skeptics, especially in the UK, subscribe to this oversimplification destined to introduce a child to a complex subject (what Jack Cohen & Ian Stewart dub "lies-to-children")as if science stopped there. It's the same attitude that they lambast in others on other subjects in their blogs and elsewhere. It's easy to demonstrate e.g. that homeopathy is bunk or that vaccines save lives. That doesn't make you a geneticist, endocrinologist, psychologist, social scientist. Or, indeed, a very nice person.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop posted a defense of its jade eggs for vaginas. It’s a mess. - Vox

Goop mockery crystalized into a fervor early this year when the site posted this whopper of a headline: “Better Sex: Jade Eggs for Your Yoni.”

The post featured a Q&A with Shiva Rose, a “beauty guru / healer,” who claimed that inserting egg-shaped jade rocks into the vagina “can help cultivate sexual energy, increase orgasm, balance the cycle, stimulate key reflexology around vaginal walls ... [it goes on for awhile]... and invigorate our life force.” And Goop, of course, would be happy to sell you said eggs for just $66.

The backlash to this absurdity was swift and furious...

Read full article: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop posted a defense of its jade eggs for vaginas. It’s a mess. - Vox

Over-sexed? Under-sexed? Homeopaths have the all the answers!

The homeopath and homeopathic entrepreneur Fran Sheffield has made appearances on this blog before; for instance, I quoted her stating that homeoprophylaxis has a remarkable record of safety – vaccines less so. From the homeopath’s point of view they are still associated with risks: the dose is too strong, they have toxic additives, and they’re […]

Read the rest here: Over-sexed? Under-sexed? Homeopaths have the all the answers!

Gwyneth Paltrow’s toxic lube advice | Dr. Jen Gunter

Today’s episode of Gunter v. GOOP involves the post on lube, written of course by a naturopathic doctor, for Gwyneth Paltrow’s tepidly awaited first sex issue. After all, why ask a board certified OB/GYN when you can ask someone with infinitely less training in both medicine and science. Want to know about naturopathic training, read this fantastic piece by a naturopathic doctor who became disenchanted when she realized her training was clearly insufficient to provide safe medical care.

The piece on lube starts with the typical heart wrenching plea about chemicals and focuses on the mantra that basically everything else except a food oil is potentially unsafe for the vagina. It’s a mixture of the most superficial knowledge...

Read the full post here: Gwyneth Paltrow’s toxic lube advice | Dr. Jen Gunter