Month: January 2024

In the age of artificial intelligence and virtual reality it’s easy to assume that original art is in jeopardy of being replaced by technology. But Cristina Martinez, an Afro-Latina contemporary artist known for her fine art content on Instagram, sharing the often-untold stories of Black and Brown people, is an example of how technological innovations can enhance the artistic process and help bring voices to often underserved communities.

Herdandez recently took part in the Meta Sonic Listening Party in Miami, an event that brought together artists from various disciplines to collaborate in unique ways as part of Meta’s “It’s Your World” campaign, designed to bring. together emerging artists, musicians and Creators to reimagine the next generation of creative expression.

Martinez spoke with Upworthy about her experience taking part in the Meta Sonic Listening Party and how new technology is shaping her as an artist and storyteller.

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Upworthy: What inspired you to become an artist?

Cristina Martinez: I honestly feel like I don’t know how to be any other way. Ever since I was little, I’ve always felt drawn to express myself creatively, I didn’t always know what it meant.

I think just being an artist is who I am, I feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose here on Earth. One thing that keeps me going is the thought of all these amazing Black and Brown young artists that will come after me and you know, be able to look and see people that look like them doing the things that they dream of doing, which I think has changed a lot from when I was little. So I’m so blessed to be a part of that.

Upworthy: You mentioned how your art often focuses on highlighting those often untold stories of black and brown people. Do you think some of these different formats you’ve experimented with, like the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses can be both a powerful tool for your own expression, but also helping to find new ways to reach those audiences in different communities?

Cristina Martinez: I think that it can broaden your audience. Just being able to share these stories and impact people and let people you know, come across my artwork, or the artwork of another talented artists and being able to like see a little bit of themselves and the artwork, it just builds connection. The Meta Ray-Bans help document my process in general because I think that one of the things that often gets missed about Black and Brown stories is just like regular life stuff. Like we focus so much on trauma, but you know, Black and Brown joy and love and just happiness, all of these things. It’s like all of that can be captured and without even really trying. We just get to be who we are.

Upworthy: What was it like getting to take part in Meta’s “It’s Your World” campaign?

Cristina Martinez: It was very authentic. You know, partnering up with these companies, sometimes you can lose sight of lyour true self, because it’s this great opportunity. But with this, I feel like I’ve been able to make art that is authentic to who I am, like when I made a painting with my glasses with my daughter. I got to just lbe myself through the whole thing.

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Upworthy: Could talk a little more about what it was like using the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses while you were painting during the party?

Cristina Martinez: I think for people that create in a very small bubble, I think art is such a sacred thing. And creative people. You know, there’s all types of different creatives for me, I spent so many years like just creating for my sanity, and because I had to and so being able to still have that moment with my work. I think what’s really special about it is that you do you get to just still be yourself and have those intimate moments with whatever you’re doing, whether it’s interacting with friends, or, you know, being a mom or cooking or whatever. And then you can document it. And then I’ll let people into that space and inspire and connect with people later on. I think that that is a really special tool for a lot of people.

Upworthy: What it was like collaborating with Victoria Monet and learning to use the piano and Piano Vision with them?

Cristina Martinez: If I told anyone that actually knows me, like, ‘Hey, I’m about to go to this event and perform the piano,’ you know, everybody’s initial thing is to laugh. But when I was there, and I did it, it really was very cool. It was just like, it was a new first time experience for me, but it felt really, really good.

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Upworthy: For Upworthy readers that will be seeing you and your work for the first time, what do you hope they take away from experiencing your artwork?

Cristina Martinez: I think more than anything, I hope that my art inspires people to have compassion for each other. We all go through these things together. I like to acknowledge the realness of life and challenges and hardships and things that are unfair. But also to remind my viewers that on the other side of that is better days, bigger blooms, whatever you want to call it. I try to find the little things that are lights in hard parts of life. And I want people to see that.

New Year’s Day brought a pair of highly anticipated 2024 College Football Playoff semifinals, with the first game featuring a thrilling Michigan victory over Alabama in overtime. In the nightcap, the Washington Huskies and Texas Longhorns squared off in a Sugar Bowl tilt in New Orleans, and the game was riveting from start to finish. Though the Huskies never trailed, the game was close-fought throughout, including a 21-21 score at halftime and a one-possession margin for large swaths of the second half. In the end, however, standout quarterback Michael Penix and Washington’s offense did enough to secure a 37-31 victory and a meeting with Michigan for the national title.

In the first half, Penix connected on 11-of-14 passes for 255 yards and a touchdown, illustrating his efficient brilliance for all to see. Still, Texas managed to stay stride-for-stride with Washington, with the two teams effectively trading touchdowns all the way to the end of the second quarter.

Coming out of halftime, Washington asserted control with a touchdown drive. Penix found Jalen McMillan with a pinpoint strike from 19 yards out to put the Huskies in front by a 28-21 margin.

Texas then fumbled on the first play of the ensuing possession, setting up Washington for a field goal to give the Huskies a two-score advantage at 31-21. By the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Huskies were tacking on another field goal to take a 34-21 lead that they would never relinquish, though more fireworks did transpire.

After the two teams exchanged empty offensive possessions, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers found Adonai Mitchell for a touchdown with 7:23 remaining. That brought the Longhorns within six and put the pressure back on Washington.

Up to the task as usual, Penix engineered a methodical drive that proved to be pivotal. The Huskies covered 65 yards on 10 plays and, while Washington did ultimately settle for a field goal, that put Washington up by nine points with fewer than three minutes remaining.

Texas zoomed into the red zone in a hurry, though, picking up a field goal to set up an onside kick attempt that was the team’s final gasp. When Washington secured it, the game was all but over. The Huskies could not simply kneel the game out, with Texas still possessing two timeouts, and Washington faced potential disaster after an injury when running back Dillon Johnson went down after a third down carry.

Not only was that an unfortunate injury for Johnson and the Huskies, but it also gave the Longhorns more time for a last-second comeback bid. Washington did not execute its clock management in flawless fashion before the ensuing punt, and the Huskies also committed kick catch interference to gift 15 free yards to the Longhorns. That allowed Texas to take over at the 31-yard line with 45 seconds remaining, and the Longhorns threatened in a real way.

First, Ewers connected with Jordan Whittington on third down for a 41-yard gain to move Texas into striking distance.

Texas running back Jaydon Blue also made an impressive sideline catch to accrue 16 more yards and set up another first down at the 12-yard line with 15 seconds remaining. However, the Longhorns stalled from there, failing to score on the next four downs, including a throw into the end zone that got batted away as time expired.

Throughout the season, Washington’s passing game has been heavily responsible for its success and what is now a 14-0 record. That continued on this night, with Penix racking up 430 yards on 38 attempts (11.3 per attempt) without committing a turnover. That was nothing new for the quarterback who was the runner-up in 2023 Heisman Trophy voting, but Washington also has top-flight pass-catchers. Five players had at least 48 receiving yards for Washington in the game, headlined by projected first round pick Rome Odunze, who had six receptions for 125 yards in the game. Though the ending was a bit of a mess for Washington, in part due to mismanagement from head coach Kalen DeBoer, the Huskies played a fantastic offensive game and, as they have all season, made a few defensive plays to form the winning recipe.

Washington and Michigan will now meet at NRG Stadium in Houston on Monday, Jan. 8 with a national title in the balance. Both teams will enter with perfect 14-0 records and each program will be seeking its first national championship in more than 25 years. That matchup will be appetizing, especially with Michigan’s vaunted defense attempting to slow Washington’s potent offense, but both teams can celebrate impressive semifinal victories as they face a relatively quick week of preparation for the sport’s biggest night.

WWE promised the return of a former WWE champion and fans were treated to two.

As the announcement was made for a former WWE champion to return, Jinder Mahal made his way to the ring and tore down the audience, as well as America. As things continued, Rock’s music hit and he cut down Mahal.

Rock said Mahal was free to say what he wanted, but said he wasn’t free of consequence from the Rock. He continued to rip apart Mahal saying he might be the Modern Day Maharaja, but today he’s the “Day 1 Douchebag.” After getting the crowd to chant that, Rock then serenaded Mahal before Jinder cut him off and attacked The People’s Champ in the corner. Rock made his comeback and hit a spine buster before landing the People’s Elbow. Rock then pulled a belt off and hit Mahal with it before he rolled out of the ring.

After he beat up Mahal, Rock got on the mic and asked the crowd if he should sit at the head of the table, referencing the current WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns. Rock recently shared that a match with Reigns was previously locked in for WrestleMania 39, and continues to tease that eventually coming together.

Rock was in Pasadena earlier in the day ahead of the Rose Bowl and made the short trek over to San Diego, similar to what he did in September in Colorado before beating up Austin Theory.

The Boston Celtics have enjoyed quite a bit of success in recent years. Boston looks like the best team in the NBA so far in 2023-24, posting a 26-6 record and a league-best +10.4 net rating as the calendar flips to January. Prior to that, the Celtics reached the Eastern Conference Finals in three out of four seasons, including a run to the 2022 NBA Finals that nearly netted the franchise another championship. However, the 2018-19 season was much-maligned and much has been made of the lost promise of a team that was utterly loaded with talent and ended up falling short with a second round exit to the postseason.

Recently, Gordon Hayward, who was a key cog on the 2018-19 roster, joined Paul George on the Podcast P Show and shed some light on what transpired in Boston’s 49-win season that ended with a second round loss. In short, Hayward thinks the downfall was tied to having “too many agendas.”

Hayward’s explanation makes rational sense, and he doesn’t try to even absolve himself of the blame. The Celtics were incredibly deep with talent, pairing established standouts like Hayward, Kyrie Irving, and Al Horford with young players like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier. That team also had Marcus Smart, Marcus Morris, and others, and it really did seem like a team that fell short of expectations based on almost having too many pieces.

Hayward does lay out that many conversations were had behind the scenes, including what he joked to include about five “players-only meetings” that never had the intended effect because no one was willing to be the one to sacrifice. In the end, nothing worked and, by the time the 2019-20 season arrived, Irving wasn’t there anymore and Hayward slid down the pecking order behind Tatum, Brown, and even Kemba Walker. In some ways, this is a familiar tale, but it’s interesting to hear a current player talk about it in this way, and it’s a peek behind the scenes that is always informative.

It’s particularly interesting for Hayward to have this conversation with Paul George, who is currently on a team trying to navigate a similar situation with a lot of stars figuring out how to coexist. George is keenly aware of how things can go wrong and knows the conversations that have to happen to make it work — as evidenced by his question about whether Boston was able to have those difficult discussions in the locker room. He seems to want to learn from the mistakes of teams like those 18-19 Celtics, and might’ve gleaned some helpful info from his conversation with Hayward.

The first of the two 2024 College Football Playoff semifinals was an absolute slugfest between No. 1 Michigan and No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl, with a lot of defense, a few big plays from the offenses, and some wild swings via special teams that ultimately led us to overtime.

We knew from the start that it would be a wild game, as the first play of the game was a seemingly disastrous interception from Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was given a reprieve after replay showed the Alabama defensive back had his heel out of bounds before jumping up to make the pick. From there, defense continued to dictate most of the action with a lot of three-and-outs on both sides, with Alabama striking first on a muffed punt by Michigan (a theme of the game) and a touchdown run by Jase McClellan later in the drive.

Michigan would tie the game and then move into a 13-7 lead on a huge run after the catch from Tyler Morris late in the second quarter (followed by a botched snap on the extra point).

Bama would pull to within 3 with a 50 yard field goal from Will Reichard to end the first half, and retook the lead to start the fourth quarter on an inside run after a grizzly third quarter featuring a lot of punting back and forth.

Another 50-plus yard field goal gave Alabama a 7-point lead, Michigan finally found some second half offense as McCarthy led the Wolverines on a long drive, culminating in a Roman Wilson game-tying TD (after a big play by Wilson to set it up).

Alabama’s final drive of regulation stalled out at midfield, but they almost got a gift on another muffed punt by Michigan, this time on their own 6 that got recovered at the one, creating for a lot of heart palpitations for those wearing maize and blue in the Pasadena crowd.

In overtime, Michigan put the ball in the hands of their star running back Blake Corum, who had a pair of big runs, including the go-ahead touchdown as he ran through would-be tacklers to put Michigan on top.

While Michigan had special teams troubles all night, it was bad snaps that plagued Alabama all game, and rather fittingly, a low snap on 4th and goal from the 3 resulted in Jalen Milroe having to take a false step on a QB draw, where he was stuffed to give Michigan a thrilling overtime win.

It was a really wild game that saw both teams make big plays and big mistakes. There were turnovers, bad snaps, missed kicks, and muffed punts, but both teams kept grinding and kept fighting to force overtime, where Michigan was able to create more push up front on both sides of the ball to get the victory and punch their ticket to the National Championship game.

TV production has come roaring back into action after Hollywood devolved into chaos for much of 2023, but the good news is that a few handfuls of anticipated shows will be back in action for January 2024. Not only that, but Reacher will keep punching bad dudes all the way into the new year while that Amazon Prime crowd-favorite show has already begun filming a third season.

Additionally, there’s plenty to anticipate with a chilly new season of HBO’s True Detective (it’s time for a lengthy ladies’ night) and an AMC show, Monsieur Spade, that offers a new take on an old hardboiled detective. The latest Band Of Brothers followup will also debut on Apple TV+, and Kevin Smith’s Masters Of The Universe will take a final lap on Netflix, which is where Sofía Vergara will team up with the Narcos guys in a ladies’ night for drug-lording, too. Clearly, a few common themes are running through this winter on television, so get warmed up in your living room and prepare to enjoy.

Here are the must see shows for January.

The Brothers Sun: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming 1/1)

Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh is seemingly, you know, everywhere… all at once, and there are no complaints there, except possibly from this piano player from the awards circuit. Creators Brad Falchuk (Glee, American Horror Story) and Byron Wu (The Getaway) bring us the story of Bruce (Sam Song Li), who begins to realize that his mom, Eileen (Yeoh), hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about her past. Soon enough, it becomes obvious that a family business exists and has already been joined by older brother Charles (Justin Chien), a powerful assassin. Expect both comedy and action as roundhouse kicks collide.

Echo: Season 1 (Disney+ series streaming 1/10)

The MCU’s having a rough time lately other than the Jonathan Majors-free aspects of Loki, but nonetheless, Disney+ shows are coming, albeit at a less breakneck pace than a few years ago. Following a Hawkeye reveal, Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) receives her Echo origin story after her ruthless NYC adventures follow her to her hometown. The series co-stars Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin/Wilson Fisk and will reportedly even include Charlie Cox as Daredevil/Matt Murdock (although the Daredevil standalone show is currently undergoing significant retools before its own airtime).

Ted: Season 1 (Peacock series streaming 1/11)

Everything is being revived or rebooted, so Seth MacFarlane is taking another swing with this profane teddy bear. This series will act as a prequel film to the films starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, and Amanda Seyfried, but don’t worry, MacFarlane’s voice will return to drop all of those F-bombs because the franchise demands it.

Monsieur Spade: Season 1 (AMC/Acorn series streaming 1/14)

Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade returns, but this ain’t no Maltese Falcon. Instead, the not-afraid-to-be-bad Clive Owen follows up his A Murder At The End Of The World performance as a new incarnation of the hardboiled P.I. This story follows his quest to uncover an apparent serial killer of nuns, but things grow potentially supernatural as Spade vanquishes secrets and follows leads to solve the series of brutal murders. Despite the macabre subject matter at hand, expect Owen to embody Spade with a flourish.

True Detective: Night Country (HBO series streaming on Max 1/14)

Can Season 4 recapture the magic of Season 1? At the very least, this new story seems to be hitting some of the same atmospheric and tonal notes as the original story starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, who shall not be seen but are executive producing. There will be plenty of literal and figurative chills while Jodie Foster’s detective teams up with an old colleague portrayed by Evangeline Navarro. Together, they will attempt to unearth frozen truths involving horrors that took place during a Polar Night when an entire research died under mysterious circumstances. Are your teeth chattering already? Same.

Griselda (Netflix series streaming 1/25)

Here comes “the Godmother” of cocaine. Original Narcos co-creator Doug Miro and Narcos: Mexico executive producer Eric Newman team up to tell the story of Colombian drug cartel leader Griselda Blanco, a prolific cocaine trafficker as portrayed by Sofia Vergara. We haven’t seen the Modern Family star get dramatic on TV yet, so this series should attract eyeballs for more reasons than one. Griselda reigned in Miami in the 1970-’80s, and her tour of terror included operating under 20 aliases, moving hundreds of kilos per month, and ordering dozens of murders.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution (Netflix series streaming 1/25)

Kevin Smith (along with his worst tweet) is wrapping up his oddly controversial 1980s revival series on Netflix, and hey look, there’s still plenty of He-Man to be found here. Skeletor has become newly mechanized, and he’s still going for the soul of Eternia, but Tesla is now Sorceress Tesla, so hopefully, she will save everyone’s ass once and for all. The ragers will love that, for sure.

Masters Of The Air: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 1/26)

Here’s a stellar Band Of Brothers followup from Steven Spielberg (Amblin Television) in conjunction with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Playtone). This new series is based upon Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name about the “Bloody Hundredth,” i.e. the 100th Bomb Group, who risked everything they had to conduct bombing raids upon Nazi Germany. Austin Butler dropped his Elvis voice to portray a U.S. major alongside Callum Turner. There’s a “Buck” and a “Bucky” in the character list, and there’s also the ever-present Barry Keoghan joining in the camaraderie while the U.S. carries out perilous missions to take down Hitler’s Third Reich. It’s an adventure-filled yet harrowing viewing experience but fully worth the ride.

Expats: Season 1 (Amazon Prime series streaming 1/26)

Nicole Kidman (who appears to have firmly shifted to TV after HBO’s The Undoing and Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers) headlines this adaptation of the Janice Y. K. Lee’s 2016 novel, The Expatriates. According to Amazon’s synopsis, this series chronicles “the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly–then retold with glee.”

What do you think?

via Reasons My Son is Crying/Facebook

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWER

Given the narrow beauty standards in Hollywood, there are a lot of actors and actresses that look look amazingly similar.

Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt look a lot alike…

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As do Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel…

But has anyone ever said, “You know which 60-something actors look identical? Tom Hanks and Bill Murray.” Because they don’t look alike. Although, funnily enough, Bill Murray did famously turn down the leads in Hanks’ hits “Forrest Gump” and “Philadelphia,” but I’m guessing nobody has ever screamed, “Loved you in ‘Ghostbusters'” at Hanks as he walked down the street.

But for some reason, call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, the man making the “waaah” face in the orange raincoat above could easily be either man.

Here’s what people are saying on Facebook:

The truth (should you choose to accept it):

The photo above is of Bill Murray and Laura DiMichele-Ross holding her crying son, Alexander, at the Alfred Dunhill Links golf competition at St. Andrews in October 2012. DiMichele-Ross posted the photo to a popular Facebook blog “Reasons My Son Is Crying” in May 2013. The photo resurfaced in October 2016 on the Today Show website, reigniting the controversy all over again.

Regardless of what the Internet is saying, DiMichele-Ross backs her original claim that it’s Murray. “It’s totally Bill,” she reiterated in a comment on her post. “I can vouch cause I’m the one in the photo with the massive grin thinking ‘Oh my god this is going to be an awesome photo!'”

This article originally appeared on 10.26.16

Asexuality is often misunderstood.

In general, it’s believed to be the absence of any romantic interest, but asexual identity actually means that a person is not sexually attracted to anyone. Romantic feelings and the strength of those feelings can vary from person to person.

Currently, about 1% of adults have no interest in sex, though some experts believe that number could be higher. For a long time, information on asexuality was limited, but researchers recently have found information that gives us more knowledge about asexuality.

Being asexual can be tough, though — just ask the artists from Empathize This.

To demonstrate, they put together a comic on asexuality, defining it as a sexual orientation, not a dysfunction:

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This article originally appeared on 5.16.16

Studies show that having daughters makes men more sympathetic to women’s issues.

And while it would be nice if men did not need a genetic investment in a female person in order to gain this perspective, lately I’ve had sympathy for those newly woke dads.

My two sons have caused something similar to happen to me. I’ve begun to glimpse the world through the eyes of a young male. And among the things I’m finding here in boyland are the same obnoxious gender norms that rankled when I was a girl.

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Of course, one notices norms the most when they don’t fit. If my tween sons were happily boy-ing away at boy things, neither they nor I would notice that they were hemmed in.

But oh boy, are they not doing that.

In fact, if I showed you a list of my sons’ collective interests and you had to guess their gender, you’d waver a bit, but then choose girl.

Baking, reading, drawing, holidays, films, volleyball, cute mammals, video games, babies and toddlers, reading, travel, writing letters.

I imagine many of you are thinking at this point: That’s awesome that your boys are interested in those things!

There’s more. One loves comics and graphic novels but gravitates to stories with strong female protagonists, like Ms. Marvel and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

Cool! I love it.

And sports. They are thoroughly bored by team sports. They don’t play them. They won’t watch them. They will up- or down-arrow through any number of sporting events on TV to get to a dance contest or to watch competitive baking.

So? Nothing wrong with that.

Those are the kinds of things all my progressive friends say.

But it’s often not the message my sons themselves hear from the other adults in their lives, their classmates, and the media.

For example, the first get-to-know-you question they are inevitably asked by well-meaning grown-ups is, “So, do you play sports?” When they say, “No, not really,” the adult usually continues brightly, “Oh, so what do you like to do, then?”

No one explicitly says it’s bad for a boy not to play sports. But when it’s always the first question asked, the implication is clear: playing sports is normal; therefore, not playing them is not.

The truth is that one of them does play a sport. He figure skates, as does my daughter. When people find out that she skates, they beam at her, as if she suddenly has possession of a few rays of Olympic glory. In the days before my son stopped telling people that he ice skates, most of them hesitated and then said, “Oh, so you are planning to play hockey?”

But it’s not just what people say. It’s all those pesky, unwritten rules. When he was in second grade, my younger son liked the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series. But he refused to check any out of the school library. He explained: “Girls can read boy books, but boys can’t read girl books. Girls can wear boy colors or girl colors, but boys can only wear boy colors. Why is that, Mom?”

I didn’t have an answer.

An obvious starting point — and the one that we have the most control over — is to change the way we speak to the boys in our lives.

As Andrew Reiner suggests in a spot-on essay, we should engage boys in analytical, emotion-focused conversations, just like we do with girls. In “How to Talk to Little Girls,” Lisa Bloom offers alternatives to the appearance-focused comments so often directed at young girls: asking a girl what she’s reading or about current events or what she would like to see changed in the world. I could copy-paste Bloom’s list and slap a different title on it: “How to Ask Boys About Something Besides Sports.”

And with a few more built-in nudges, we might expand the narrow world of boyhood more quickly. Boy Scouts could offer badges for developing skills in child care, teamwork, and journaling. Girl-dominated activities like art, dance, gymnastics, and figure skating could be made more welcoming to boys, with increased outreach and retention efforts. My son could write his own essay about trying to fit in to the nearly all-girl world of figure skating, including the times he has had to change clothes in a toilet stall at skating events because there were no locker rooms available for boys.

I used to think that the concept of gender — of “girl things” and “boy things” — was what was holding us back.

Now I see it differently.

The interdependent yin and yang of gender is a fundamental part of who we are, individually and collectively. We need people who like to fix cars and people who like to fix dinner. We need people who are willing and able to fight if needed and people who are exquisitely tuned into a baby’s needs. But for millennia, we have forced these traits to align with biological sex, causing countless individuals to be dissatisfied and diminished. For the most part, we’ve recognized this with girls. But we have a long way to go when it comes to boys. As Gloria Steinem observed, “We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons … but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”

I acknowledge that young boys feeling pressured to be sports fans is not our country’s biggest problem related to gender.

Transgender individuals still confront discrimination and violence. The #MeToo movement has revealed to anyone who didn’t already know it that girls and women can’t go about their everyday lives without bumping into male sexual aggression.

But if our culture shifts to wholeheartedly embrace the whole spectrum of unboyishness, it may play some small role in addressing these other issues, too. Male culture will be redefined, enriched, and expanded, diluting the toxic masculinity that is at the root of most of our gender-related problems.

Boys and girls alike will be able to decide if they would rather be made up of snips and snails, sugar and spice, or a customized mix. And my future grandsons, unlike my sons, won’t think twice about wearing pink or reading about a girl detective at school.

This story originally appeared on Motherwell and is reprinted here with permission.

This article originally appeared on 06.20.18

Have you ever seen anyone put an avocado pit in water to grow an avocado tree? I’ve seen lots of people try, but only a few succeed. My mom has a tiny avocado tree growing in her living room that she managed to grow from the pit of a Hass avocado she ate. It’s small but thriving, and I’ve often wondered if it will ever grow actual avocados.

As it turns out, it could—but they won’t be Hass avocados.

Wait, huh?

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In a wow-that’s-an-interesting-factoid-I-never-knew-before video, an avocado tree grower explains in this YouTube video why a Hass avocado seed doesn’t grow into a Hass avocado tree. Avocados, apparently, are not “true to seed” plants, meaning if you plant the seed, you’ll end up with a different variety of the fruit the seed came from. Apples are the same—if you plant a Fuji apple seed, you will not get a Fuji apple tree. In fact, chances are really, really high that you’ll get an avocado or an apple that tastes terrible if you try to grow it from a seed of an existing fruit.

The guy from Sleepy Lizard Avocado Farm explains how it all works using an analogy with candy flavors. This is the genetics lesson we all needed in school when we were trying to figure out Punnett squares, and he explains it all so clearly.

Incredible how nature works, and so amazing what human beings have been able to figure out over millennia of agricultural advancements.

So how do you get a Hass avocado tree if you can’t plant a Hass avocado seed to grow it? As he explains in the video, you can plant the pit and start to grow the tree, but if you want Hass avocados you have to graft a branch of a Hass avocado tree onto the stem of the tree you’re growing.

Or, you can just buy a baby Hass avocado tree that’s already been grafted, which is probably a heck of a lot easier than figuring out how to graft one yourself.

So go ahead and sprout that seed in water and grow yourself a pretty avocado plant if you’d like. Just don’t expect any yummy avocados from it, since your chances are about 1 in 10,000 that it’ll happen.

Thanks for the fascinating lesson, avocado guy!

This article originally appeared on 07.06.21