"'I was poly before poly was a term,' he says, blue hair tied back, maroon nail varnish on his toes."

"Jay, an IT consultant and self-confessed computer nerd, grew up in suburban New Jersey and became interested in polyamory at the age of ten after reading Robert A Heinlein sci-fi books featuring sexually promiscuous open marriages. His first teenage relationship was nonmonogamous.... He moved to Somerville in the mid-1990s to find many people he knew coalescing around Boston’s university hub — either tech nerds he’d met in online chatrooms or those who attended the sci-fi conventions he would frequent. Large numbers of them were interested in polyamory. 'We had all independently been working on this thing [polyamory], and we found each other and we had a lot to talk about,' he says. He started organising casual poly meet-ups in people’s homes, applying the same academic rigour to discussions about romance as they did to technology. 'How do you handle jealousy? How do you handle getting a new partner when you’ve had one for a while?'"

From "Forget love triangles. Meet the ‘polycule’ with 80 people in it/Polyamory is on the rise — especially in one US city where romantic partners have organised themselves into ever expanding networks. Yes, it can get complicated, they tell Megan Agnew" (London Times).

Who knew the polyamory movement was so connected to science fiction? And yet one can imagine the sort of adolescent who gets submerged in science fiction while dreaming about an alternative to the existing world of finding a real-life girlfriend/boyfriend. Some entirely new structure is needed, he thinks.... blue hair tied back, maroon nail varnish on his toes.

ADDED: A little colloquy between me and ChatGPT.

"People in Mississippi can no longer use the social media platform Bluesky."

"The company announced Friday that it will be blocking all IP addresses within Mississippi for the foreseeable future in response to a recent US Supreme Court decision that allows the state to enforce strict age verification for social media platforms.... The company says that compliance with Mississippi’s law—which would require identifying and tracking all users under 18, in addition to asking every user for sensitive personal information to verify their age—is not possible with the team’s current resources and infrastructure...."

From "Bluesky Goes Dark in Mississippi Over Age Verification Law/Bluesky has chosen to block access in the state rather than risk potential fines of up to $10,000 per violation" (Wired).

"When i was 20 years old, i went through some serious mental health issues and decided i wanted a face tattoo."

"My local artist noticed i was in mental distress and told me that he would put semi permenant ink on my face of the tattoo i wanted. Wear it for a week without rubbing it off, then come back to him and decide if i still wanted it. I agreed and he stenciled it for me on my face. I came back shaking his hand a week later and decided to get a tattoo on my wrist instead. I will never forget what he did for me. Im 30 now, have a kid, wife, i work in IT for cybersecurity, and have no criminal history. I was setting myself up for failure. That artist saved me from a huge mistake i couldnt come back from"

Writes a commenter at r/shittytattoos, in a post with a photograph of someone's face tattoo (which seems to be what that person wanted to gift himself on the occasion of his 18th birthday).

"[Adrienne] Salinger would approach an interesting-looking kid in a mall or on the street and ask: might she come to their home and take their picture?"

"Salinger stipulated that her subjects were not to tidy up their rooms before she arrived—as if. With sessions lasting several hours, her intention was to grant as much agency as possible to the teens involved, and to counter the inevitable power imbalance between herself and her subjects.... Another rule was that parents had to stay out of the way. Even so, their presence leaks into many of the images and interviews. Greg H., pictured at thirteen in Kirkland, Washington, in 1984, has a mural of clouds, a mobile of planet-like orbs, and a telescope, all bespeaking parental investment in cultivating a wholesome interest. Anne I., sixteen, shot in 1990, in upstate New York, sits on her bed, with a white fluffy Teddy bear by her side and wall art of Jim Morrison hanging behind her, the two aptly illustrating the tenuous cusp between childhood and adolescence.... What appealed to Salinger about portraying people of that age, she says now, was the way in which they were so uncompromising. 'When you are a teen-ager, I think, you are really clear about what your viewpoints are,' she says. 'I wanted that fierceness of having your point of view without also having to pay rent, or think about having a job, or anything....'"

From "Teen-Agers in Their Bedrooms, Before the Age of Selfies/Adrienne Salinger’s cult photography book from the nineties makes a comeback" (The New Yorker).

That's about a book of photographs published in 1995, which is being reissued — here's a commissioned-earned link.

How would you like a photographer approaching your "interesting-looking kid" and asking to photograph them in their bedroom for hours and enforcing a rule that you stay out of there? It's so creepy by present-day standards that I'm surprised to see the artist vaunted in the New Yorker without questioning the intrusion on the child.

"The government has announced it will lower the voting age to 16 for all UK elections in time for the next general election...."

"Including 16- and 17-year-olds in the electorate does not change election outcomes and it does not make elections less representative. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds are just as qualified to vote as other, older voters. Research from Germany and Austria shows that they are able to pick a political party or representative that best represents their views to the same extent as other, slightly older voters. But some things may get better for young people and for democracy overall, especially if young people are taken seriously as voters and receive good education on political issues...."

Writes Christine Huebner, a lecturer in quantitative social sciences at the University of Sheffield, in "What happens when 16-year-olds get the vote? Other countries are already seeing the benefits" (Guardian).

Oh, please don't let this happen in the U.S. As I see it, 16 year olds will get the vote... when they turn 18. There's no problem to fix. By the way, I didn't get to vote until I was 21. 

"Mr. Guo, who obtained his pilot’s license at 17, was aiming to become the first person to fly solo in a small aircraft to all seven continents...."

"Antarctica was the only continent where he had yet to land, he said. On Saturday at about 5:30 a.m., he took off from Punta Arenas, a city near the southern tip of Chile, with a flight plan indicating that he was going to fly over the city and land again in Punta Arenas, prosecutors said. But without notifying aviation authorities, Mr. Guo flew his Cessna 182Q across the Southern Ocean and landed at a Chilean airstrip on King George Island at about 11:30 a.m., prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that Mr. Guo had submitted 'false flight plan data' and that when he deviated from that plan, aviation officials declared that his Cessna had been 'lost.'..."

From "Teenage Aviator Detained After Landing in Antarctica, Chile Says/Ethan Guo, 19, had been documenting his attempt to fly solo to all seven continents on social media. He is no longer in custody but has no easy way to leave an island off Antarctica’s coast" (NYT).

"I was a registered Democrat for 45 years. But two years ago, I registered as independent because of the Democratic Party’s embrace of what I see as a misogynistic, homophobic view of gender..."

"... that has contributed to the loss of lesbian-only and women-only spaces from dating sites, to shelters, to sports — in short, erasing our right to free speech and free association. I am a soft butch lesbian. I came out in 1978 at 18 years old. I was always a tomboy and if I were a teenager today, I would likely be medically transitioned. I strongly believe society must stop medicalizing gender nonconforming youths. As a lawyer in this recent Supreme Court case acknowledged, there is no evidence 'that this treatment reduces completed suicide.' And a major scientific review of this field of medicine described it as 'an area of remarkably weak evidence.' In fact, some research suggests that gender nonconforming youths grow up to be happy lesbian or gay adults. In these cases, medical transition would be a kind of conversion therapy. Further, there is no current way to determine which youths will detransition in the future. We know there are risks associated with puberty blockers and transitioning. One child harmed is one too many. The U.S. v. Skrmetti decision is correct, and it will safeguard children like the teenager I once was."

Says a letter to the editor in The Washington Post. The letter responds to the article "Tennessee can ban gender transition care for minors, Supreme Court says/The court’s decision allows the law in Tennessee and has implications for the 23 other states that have banned similar treatments in recent years."

There is no current way to determine which youths will detransition in the future and there is also no way to count the gay and lesbian Americans, living today, who would have transitioned if they'd faced puberty in the 2020s. 

AND: If we knew who they were, we could ask them if they're happy they did not live the life their teenage self would have chosen for them.

"Some people, including those self-identified liberals worried about going too far, will see reducing the number of people who choose to transition as a good thing..."

"... as proof that only mythical 'real' trans people — those who feel that they must transition, no matter how hard it may be — are seeking treatment. But I ask you to imagine that teenager, the one who has to leave Tennessee or this country. The one who has to go through 'natal' puberty when everything about it feels wrong. The one who spends those hours in front of the mirror not trying to make their hair look good but trying to hide body parts that make them hate themselves. The one who adjusts, stuffing their desire, their shame and their hope into some dark closet of the mind."

Writes M. Gessen, in "The Supreme Court Fails to See Transgender Teens" (NYT)(free-access link).

"A large number of animals were also removed from the home, including four Great Danes, three other dogs, a lizard, snakes, several birds, two hamsters and 29 chinchillas..."

"... according to Chief Harkins. Ms. Spencer’s social media is filled with love notes to Mr. Mosely, interspersed with images of her in sundresses posing with Great Danes at dog competitions."

From "Couple Imprisoned Girl for 7 Years and Kept Her in Dog Cage, Police Say/Investigators, who did not identify the teenager, now 18, said they believed she had been sexually abused by her stepfather" (NYT).

I know cruelty toward non-human animals correlates with cruelty toward human beings, but I wonder if an effusive, over-the-top love for non-human animals correlates with cruelty toward human beings. Are there not people who see dogs (or cats) as purer and better than humans and more deserving of loving care? Of course, one's dog will give unconditional love and never utter a word of criticism. Compare a teenager to a dog and — if you are incredibly stupid or deranged — you may descend into a Great-Dane-and-chinchilla-infested hell of the sort devised by Ms. Spencer and Mr. Mosely.

"Musk is notorious for sharing edgelord memes on X, the kinds of things that might be passed around by teenage boys."

"He also has a remarkably juvenile sense of humor. For example, he edited the X bio of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation to say it is 69 percent government-funded (69, get it?). He recently changed his name on the same platform to 'Harry Bolz.' His Department of Government Efficiency is itself named after an internet meme about a shiba inu. He proposed 'a literal dick-measuring contest' with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He bought Twitter and turned it into X after being annoyed by its moderation policies, which he compared to censorship, but once in charge, he experienced serial emotional meltdowns over content he didn’t like, some of which he then censored. He has gone on sprees of banning accounts that offended him in some way, while allowing white supremacists and Nazis to proliferate on the site. He often communicates on X using video-game jargon, the lingua franca of teenage boys...."

Writes Jill Filipovic, in "The Adolescent Style in American Politics/The version of manhood placed on display by Trump and his aides is the one imagined by teenage boys" (The Atlantic).

"Across the country, there is no clear guidance for young people on how to have healthy relationships and hookups..."

"... no collective understanding of what consent means. They need this desperately, especially now, with a president who was found liable for sexually abusing one woman and who has bragged about assaulting others. This essential education cannot come just from squeamish gym teachers. One idea would be to put more of this work into the hands of teenagers themselves. This is not without precedent. In 1973 a group called the Student Committee for Rational Sex Education conducted workshops in a dozen New York City public schools. Peer educators ran learning centers that they called 'rap rooms,' where students could stop by during free periods. Unlike their adult counterparts, the teenage educators made sex ed fun and playful, motivating their peers to voluntarily seek answers to their questions or to watch a demonstration of a contraceptive device."

Writes Hillary Frank, in "Our Kids Cannot Learn About Sex Just From Squeamish Gym Teachers" (NYT).

I don't like "how to have healthy relationships and hookups." Does "healthy" modify "hookups" as well as "relationships"? "Healthy hookups"? I'm sorry, I have no "collective understanding" of what that might be.

I enjoyed seeing the old term "rap rooms." There was a time when "rapping" just meant talking. 

As for "squeamish" teachers... I can think of worse problems. Just do your job and teach the material. It's a science topic. Skip the dogma.

Mount McKinley.

I'm reading "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," one of the executive orders Trump signed yesterday. Excerpt:

President William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, heroically led our Nation to victory in the Spanish-American War. Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territorial gains for the Nation. President McKinley championed tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive U.S. industrialization and global reach to new heights. He was tragically assassinated in an attack on our Nation’s values and our success, and he should be honored for his steadfast commitment to American greatness.

In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak. Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice....

Obama changed the name to Denali, and Trump opposed the change at the time — "Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!" With this order, he's done what he said he would do — though now it's about recognizing a man as a hero and not about a particular state that supposedly cares a lot about that man. Note that "Denali" was not a person's name, so Trump isn't elevating one state's hero over another.

Goodbye to Olivia Hussey.

"Olivia Hussey, star of 1968 Romeo and Juliet film, dies aged 73/Golden Globe-winning actor 'lived a life full of passion, love and dedication to the arts,' says family in statement" (The Guardian).

So many of us were profoundly affected by this movie. I don't know how old you were, but realize that you are seeing a 15-year-old girl:

ADDED: In 2019, I blogged about this movie as part of a project of rewatching movies that I had watched when they came out and had not rewatched since:

"She was only 15 when Warren Beatty lent her Natalie Wood’s bathing suit and took her for cigarettes and a swim."

"She was 16 when she met the 11-years-older, mid-divorce Salvatore Phillip 'Sonny' Bono, who lied to her about being a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte, and she moved into his apartment in exchange for cooking and cleaning — not sex, at first."

From "Becoming Cher Didn’t Come Easy/The first volume of her frank autobiography is a testament to resilience, chronicling a grim childhood and the brazen path to stardom, with and without Sonny" (NYT).

"About 3.3 percent of high school students identify as transgender and another 2.2 percent are questioning their gender identity..."

"... according to the first nationally representative survey on these groups, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.... This small group of young people has drawn outsize and often harsh political attention across the country.... In the C.D.C.’s survey, transgender and gender-questioning students reported feeling worse than even cisgender girls, who have drawn national attention to a crisis in mental health among young people.... Previous estimates of the number of transgender teenagers in the United States were considerably lower than 3.3 percent..."

From "3% of American High Schoolers Identify as Transgender, First National Survey Finds/A survey by the C.D.C. found high rates of sadness, bullying and suicide attempts among transgender and gender-questioning teenagers "(NYT).

I was surprised to see the phrase "This small group." I think it's a very large group.

I was also surprised by the phrase "worse than even cisgender girls." 

"When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities."

"These programs promised healing, growth and support but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out a window for two years. I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing."

Paris Hilton testified to the House Ways and Means Committee, quoted in "Paris Hilton recounts child abuse in congressional testimony/The 43-year-old media personality’s statement was her latest push for change in what’s often called the 'troubled teen' industry" (WaPo).

"Health officials in the Biden administration pressed an international group of medical experts to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries from guidelines for care of transgender minors..."

"... according to newly unsealed court documents. Age minimums, officials feared, could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments.... If and when teenagers should be allowed to undergo transgender treatments and surgeries has become a raging debate within the political world.... The draft guidelines, released in late 2021, recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormonal treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies. The proposed age limits were eliminated in the final guidelines outlining standards of care, spurring concerns within the international group and with outside experts as to why the age proposals had vanished.... One excerpt... stated that [assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel] Levine 'was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too. Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them.'"

From "Biden Officials Pushed to Remove Age Limits for Trans Surgery, Documents Show/Newly released emails from an influential group issuing transgender medical guidelines indicate that U.S. health officials lobbied to remove age minimums for surgery in minors because of concerns over political fallout" (NYT).

"24-year-old Samantha Hudson — who recently appeared in a new ad for Doritos out in Spain — was put on blast this week by right-leaning X users..."

"... amid her first promotional plug for the chip brand... calling out an alleged social media post where she reportedly declared a desire to do inappropriate things to a 12-year-old girl when she was 15.... Samantha reportedly apologized for the resurfaced posts after becoming famous... saying she doesn't remember writing 'such barbarities' almost 10 years ago. However — she did reportedly acknowledge that she previously 'dedicated [her]self to saying nonsense' in the name of dark humor."

From "Doritos Scraps Deal with Trans Influencer... After Backlash, Old Tweets" (TMZ).

There are so many reasons not to eat Doritos, but I'm afraid this boycott, coming from the right, is going to propel those on the left to re-envision Doritos as elite and edgy. I see this as a win for Doritos. Just putting the word "Doritos" in play right now is going to trigger the urge to eat the strangely compelling low-quality snack food.

So Samantha Hudson — at age 15 — tweeted debased desires? That's completely aligned with the debased desire to eat Doritos. I feel sorry for whoever receives this incident as an incentive to lean into the urge to eat Doritos. If that's not you, good. You should not be eating Doritos anyway. Everyone knows this.

"For better or worse, she wished the lawsuit were done with. 'It’s in God’s hands now,' [Olivia Hussey] said."

"'It’s all in God’s hands in the end.' Even if it failed, she said, she’d be okay. 'Most people on their deathbeds, even the most evil people, have to say, What have I done? And what was wrong? And what did I do right? I’m not afraid to die because I’m not scared of my reckoning.' She’d made her share of mistakes, and sometimes she wondered whether filing the lawsuit was one of them. But she could live with that. 'Nobody’s perfect,' she said. 'If we were perfect, there’d be no need for all this charade, this illusion that we call life. If we were perfect, we’d all be angels.'"

From "Romeo and Juliet Was a Tragedy/In 1968, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were the world’s most famous teens. In 2023, they sued Paramount for abuse" by Lila Shapiro (New York Magazine).

The lawsuit, filed the day before the Child Victims Act expired, is based on the idea that Hussey and Whiting were traumatized by the way the director, Franco Zeffirelli, forced them into appearing naked. They say the movie is "essentially pornography," "a poisonous product," and "evidence of a crime."

"As her taxi approached Russell Brand’s home, Alice remembers the driver begging her not to go inside."

"Recognising the destination, he had started to ask questions. Alice admitted she was 16 and still in school. She says the driver replied that his daughter was the same age and entreated Alice: 'Please, I’m asking you not to go in there, you could be my little girl, and I would want someone to do this for her.' He offered to take her home without charge, but Alice insisted she was fine.... During a relationship that lasted for about three months when Brand was a BBC radio presenter, she says that he referred to her as 'the child'..."

From "Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse new/Four women, including one who was just 16, make allegations after an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches" (London Times).