I enjoy reading the LA Times because it usually includes one or more illuminating articles in each edition that is relevant (to varying degrees) to Attitude Reconstruction. On September 1, 2013, three topics grabbed my attention, and I wanted to share just in case you missed them.
1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, married or unmarried interracial couples were over twice as common in 2012 than 2000! They found that 9% of couples living together were interracial, but only 4% of married couples were. Researchers hypothesize it’s because when you bring marriage into the equation, there’s more chance for disapproval from family members. If you just live together, others feel less threatened in terms of worrying that their kin would abandon their roots. It’s also speculated that people who look for partners outside of their own race are probably more willing to go against tradition. And here is something really interesting: among same-sex couples 12% were interracial – helping to promote the idea that this population is even more willing to buck tradition!
2. Studying 900 heterosexual men and women on college campuses and websites, in the U.S.A. and the Netherlands, researchers found in couples where the woman succeeded, the man’s self-esteem lowered than when she failed. When a man succeeded, the woman’s self-esteem was not affected. Researchers concluded that even if the man was not in direct competition, he interpreted her success as a threat and as an indicator of his own failure!!! They do note results could be a bit skewed because of the relative young age of the subjects. Regardless, they postulate that perhaps collage-aged men feel more vulnerable and fear that their partner will leave them.
3. Three U.S. senators, Richard Durbin, Edward Markey, and Richard Blumenthal are leading congressional hearings with energy drink makers, such as Monster Beverages or Rockstar. They claim the makers of these drinks are targeting adolescents because of the number of high school and college students who use them to stay away and study (or party). Industry officials contend the drinks are targeted to men 10 to 35 who like sporting events such as NASCAR and X Games. But the energy companies’ Facebook pages show young folks with the drinks. Markey says energy drink marketers hold the philosophy “Hook ‘em early, keep ‘em for life.” (FYI – two 24 ounce cans of Monster energy drink have 480 milligrams of caffeine, about the same amount as 14 cans of cola. From 2007 to 2011 there were nearly 21,000 visits to emergency rooms involving energy drinks – 1500 of them by children 12 to 17.)
Regardless of our age, I say let’s stop glorifying multi-tasking, artificial endurance, and accomplishing. Let’s get back to drinking even more water, giving our brothers and sisters permission to partner up with those they love regardless of differences in race and religion, and redouble our efforts to derive our self-esteem from within rather than by comparing ourselves to others.
