Insticts, Intuition, Emotion, the knowledge of the body

Jonah Lehrer talks about the science of making decisions. If you use your intellect alone, you will dither forever between the Wheaties and the Cheerios. People use intuition and instinct; their back brains, to help in decision making. He talks about the role of dopamine-- if there is a dopamine imbalance; people may exhibit addictive behaviors. If people (or animals) are under great stress; the mind will shut down.

Michael Pollan writes and talks about the "rise of nutritionism" as a kind of false expertise, a false doctrine that leads to bad decision making about what to eat. He advocates using older received wisdom to help in the decision making process. "What would your great great grandmother consider to be food?" That is womens' knowledge.

The Gift of Fear attempts to teach women to listen to their instincts to help protect themselves in dangerous situations. Even listening to your instincts is gendered: women are told to suppress this knowledge, to "be nice" to strangers, to give others our attention, not to be a bitch.

There is an element of "Geek Boy" culture in which men will say something along the lines of, "I'll tell you little lady, what movies you should be watching/which music is better/why my show is better than your show". The man attempts to prove his coolness and knowledge by providing facts and expertise. This denies the power of intuition, emotion, and the knowledge of the body. It privileges a certain kind of intellect above all other kinds of intelligence. Does he know your tastes better than you do? Why is he exhibiting this behavior?

ETA!
It also fits in with this tendency of doctors to deny the patient's pain or experience (link to eruthros). The doctor has expertise, after all! And the patient only has the experience of the body! And the cultural expectation is to defer to expertise.

Follow Friday

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die". Just introduce us to some new things to read. (via damned_colonial)

My suggestions!

thingswithwings: fannish meta, podfic, vids, antioppression, insightful observations, deep analysis.

eastwick_fic: For fanfic about the TV show Eastwick. Not much there yet, but let's see some more! This show is so awesomely femme-slashy!

access_fandom: How can fandom be more accessible? And I use "fandom" loosely: conventions, the fanfic community, media, etc. Talk about disability and access issues, disabling language, portrayals of disability, intersectionality, and whatever else you would like to bring to the discussion.

Privilege, I have it

It's been called to my attention that certain language I've been using related to eating is disturbing and possibly triggering. I will stop using it. I apologize. In addition, it's always de-friending amnesty day at this journal; and if you want to be taken off filters amnesty applies there as well.