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Democracy

The four magic phrases to use when you’re stopped by the cops

Everyone should know their rights.

via Flex Your Rights/YouTube

How to speak to a police officer.

Whether it's a traffic stop that turns into "We smell something in your car" or a "driving while black" situation, you have rights when you're pulled over, and it's for the best if you actually use them.

So how does this work, anyway?

Well, you have rights when you're pulled over. These have been established via case law, and ultimately, some stem from the Constitution itself. In order, here are the magic phrases, along with some graphics to help you remember.

1. "Am I free to go?”

In any situation involving the police, you can ask this question. Some people ask it slightly differently: "Am I being detained?"—which is a version of the same question. Basically, if they've got nothing on you, they have to let you go. If they answer no to that question, you are in fact not free to go. In that case, you are suspected of doing something, and it's their job to try to get you to admit to it or to say a bit too much and incriminate yourself.

2. "I do not consent to any searches.”

One of the trickiest things that some law enforcement folks try is to talk you into letting them search your vehicle—or house, for that matter. "So if you haven't done anything, then you're ok with us searching your car … right? I mean, if you're innocent. We'll go easier on you if you let us." Do NOT give up your rights that easily. Are you certain your buddy didn't leave a bag of weed in the glove box? Are you sure your boyfriend took his target pistol out of the trunk after he went to practice shooting the other day? Are you absolutely certain that the body in your trunk was removed and buried in that farm fiel … whoops. Did I say that last one out loud?! The point is, don't give up your rights easily. And believe me, cops are gooooood at trying to play psychological games. Which leads to #3.

3. "I want to remain silent.”

You have that right, and if things start getting thick, you need to use it. "We clocked you going 60 in a 50, but when you opened your window to give us your license, we smelled marijuana." The correct answer to something like this is, "I want to remain silent." The temptation is to say, "Yeah, my buddy and I smoked in my car this morning but I wasn't driving, blah blah blah"—but then you're already nailed. Time for them to get the dogs and search. Congratulations, you're on your way to the pokey for the night.

4. "I want a lawyer.”

If you've reach this particular point, then you're in deep doodoo anyway, so go ahead and ask for one, and say nothing until he or she arrives. Remember these four things. It will be hard in the moment, with your adrenaline pumping, your freedom in question, and when you're possibly in physical danger, depending on the cops involved and your skin color.

"Am I free to go?"

"I do not consent to any searches."

"I want to remain silent."

"I want a lawyer."

Perhaps a word involving the first letter of the four statements will help you remember: FoSSiL (Free, Searches, Silent, Lawyer)

Or maybe a mnemonic:

— Fiscal Suns Scramble Lives

— Fresh Sushi Smell Lemons

— Flexible Straws Sell Lobsters

— Free Subjects Steam Lobsters

The clip below is a shortened version of a much longer one that explains your rights, detailing what you can and cannot do in these situations.

This article was written by Brandon Weber and originally appeared on 09.12.17


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police
Science

The surprising reason medicine tends to work better for men than women.

Yet another reason why we need more equality.

Canva

Even the medical field has bias.

Men.

We have it pretty good. Especially when it comes to our health.

Not only do we get to write the health care legislation, but increasingly, we're getting all the good medical treatment.

We can thank lab animals for this — and the researchers who study them.

For a long time, researchers believed that male animals were better for trials of new medicine.

It was widely assumed that hormone cycles in females would screw up the results.

As a result, currently, over 75% of all lab animals are male.

animal research, studies, gender bias, disease

Lab mouse in a surgically gloved hand.

Image by Rama/Wikimedia Commons/CeCILL.

The problem is, when you test primarily on male animals, you're making medicine that's more likely to be effective for, well, men.

According to a report in New Scientist, researcher Natasha Karp and a team from the U.K.'s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute studied tens of thousands of mice of both sexes. They found that when you switch off genes in male mice, the mice express different traits then when you switch off the same genes in female mice.

If genes express themselves differently depending on the sex of the animal, the researchers found, so do some genetic diseases.

drugs, health, politics, community

Gene therapy: rad as hell.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

The team concluded that "drugs optimized for male animals may be less effective in females, or even cause harm." Of the 10 drugs that were pulled from the market between 1997 and 2001, they explained, eight were riskier for women.

Male animal-bias also means drugs that work better for women might not even make it into testing to begin with.

As with the debate over what constitutes an "essential" health care benefit (according to some hi-larious U.S. senators, mammograms shouldn't), when it comes to "who constitutes a full human," it appears men are the considered default setting, while women are an afterthought.

equal rights, equal representation, experiments, medical advancements

A bearded man looking off into the distance all manly.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

It's a pretty sweet gig for us men.

The thing is, women are half of us. We like them.

As fully formed human beings with lives, free will, hopes, dreams, and so on, it'd be nice if medicine worked better on them when they got diseases.

There's been some progress toward making medical experiments more equitable, at least where human subjects are concerned.

Clinical trials (on humans) used to involve pretty much no women. Now most are 30-40% female, though that still means women are underrepresented.

Thanks to efforts of researchers like Karp and her team, we now know we need to extend that progress to the animal kingdom as well.

"Unless there’s a really good reason not to, we should be using both sexes in biomedical research," Karp told New Scientist.

Male animals, she argued, have traits just as particular as female hormone cycles that make them similarly varied from an ideal "norm."

Ultimately, more comprehensive research benefits us all — men and women.

Better studies lead to more effective medicine, which leads to less sickness and sadness all around.

That's the hope anyway.

The animals of both genders who turn out to help us out with this project deserve a hearty "thank you."

If we start with equal treatment, we might finally get some equal treatment.

This article originally appeared on 06.29.17

From Your Site Articles
equality
Democracy

How fed-up flight attendants paved the way for women in the workplace

The Stewardess Rebellion changed way more than just the airline industry.

Wikipedia

Stewardesses from the 60s

Of course there are more glass ceilings to be shattered, but a ton of notable progress has been made for women in the workplace—from actively addressing sexual harassment, to lessening the gender pay gap, to providing better maternity support and access for women to start their own businesses.

And to think, we can largely thank a mass stewardess rebellion for that.

Back in the 1930s, when the few career options available to women were domestic in nature—like teaching or secretarial roles—working as a flight attendant, aka stewardess, promised a more glamorous and exciting life. A chance to see the world, one flight at a time.

However, the job wasn’t all perks. Airlines capitalized on advertising the stewardesses as sex objects, even using highly suggestive marketing campaigns where stewardesses would all but outright say they were available for sex work. Companies would also exclusively hire young (we’re talking 27 as the cut-off limit), unmarried, white women with specific body measurements to promote their elite luxury image.

The strategy worked—by the 1970s, there was a huge increase in ticket sales. But stewardesses were fed-up with discriminatory labor practices, and became one of the first groups to band together to push for change. Using Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, these women were able to not only transform the airline industry, but help women in other fields take-off as well.

Gleaning from books “Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants” and “The Great Stewardess Rebellion,” as well as personal accounts from the revolt, the video created by Vox below gives a quick overview of this often overlooked chapter in feminist history.

Please buckle your seatbelts.

From Your Site Articles
equality
Identity

He asked her to turn down a promotion to spare his ego and the story went viral

Things are changing and it's time we all get with the program.

Photo by Mike Lloyd on Unsplash

The times are changing... slowly.

Twitter user Kimber Dowsett was bored and waiting to catch a flight when she caught wind of a couple arguing.

Like most of us would (though we might not admit it), she quickly found herself listening in on the juicy drama.

When she realized what the argument was about, she pulled out her phone and began documenting the scene on Twitter for the benefit of her 24,000 followers.

The couple was arguing about money, but not in a "What do you mean you forgot to pay the gas bill?!" kind of way. It was bigger than that.

The woman had been offered a promotion at work, and Dowsett couldn't believe she was listening to the woman's partner — a man — telling her to turn it down.


He'd be "humiliated," he told her, if she made more money than him, explaining that if she really loved him, she'd turn the promotion down.

Couple beside me at the airport is arguing over money. He just told her if she loved him she’d turn down the promot… https://t.co/SfTzr10pj0— bat (@bat) 1513701391.0

Really.

As Dowsett continued listening in, the man twisted the knife, so to speak, insisting his partner put his feelings above her career.

Shocked and enraged, Dowsett sat at her airport gate, listening as the woman began crying, promising her partner she'd never jeopardize the relationship. When the man continued to insist she turn down the job, Dowsett couldn't help it. "I just want to punch him," she tweeted.

omg she’s crying and said she’d never do anything to jeopardize their relationship and he’s like “good then turn do… https://t.co/iZIOMbj6c2— bat (@bat) 1513701492.0

It only went downhill from there.

According to Dowsett, the man had simply assumed that his partner would eventually leave her job altogether to take care of the kids. There's no point focusing on her career anyway, he told her.

He just told her once they’re married and have kids she wouldn’t be working anyway so there’s no point focusing on… https://t.co/QBs4U6c5R1— bat (@bat) 1513701698.0
OMG SHE WIPED HER TEARS & SAID “kids? who said anything about me ever wanting kids?!” https://t.co/WrFXgAWIOz— bat (@bat) 1513701795.0

The dramatic fight ended, Dowsett wrote, when the woman stormed off, leaving her now-ex to go on vacation with his own damn self.

Apparently Dowsett wasn't the only person who overheard the fight, as the people waiting at the gate burst into applause for the woman when she threw her boarding pass at her ex and told him to have fun in Cancun.

SHE THREW HER BOARDING PASS AT HIM AND TOLD HIM TO HAVE FUN IN CANCUN. SHE JUST RAGE QUIT. OMG PEOPLE CLAPPED WHEN… https://t.co/LqUmmKCibm— bat (@bat) 1513701956.0

The Tweet thread went viral, with people applauding the woman or just enjoying the absurdity of it all.

For all the conversation's viral hilarity, there's more than a kernel of uncomfortable truth in this story.

The wage gap still exists, but women are becoming more and more likely to be the breadwinners in their households and relationships. And that's not just single mothers. Some estimates say about a quarter of all marriages include a woman who earns more than her partner — a number that has quadrupled since the '60s.

This is a good thing — obviously! It's a sign that women are kicking ass in the workplace and finally getting more opportunities to advance, despite the wage gap and sexual harassment and other barriers women face in the workplace.

As the argument above shows, however, it's not a comfortable transition for every couple. After all, there is immense societal pressure on men to "provide for the family" and on women to slide into motherly, caretaker roles.

For the love of equality, dudes, don't be like Airport Guy. Be proud of your wives and girlfriends and partners for their accomplishments.

"Equal pay" is only going to get more equal, and the number of women in heterosexual relationships who out-earn or match what their male partners make is going to march closer and closer to half.

Being a man does not entitle you to a higher salary. Not anymore. Being secure in your masculinity and being a supportive partner means celebrating your significant other's successes. It means encouraging them to be their best and being proud of them when they succeed, even if it means they might be doing "better" than you.

Yes, some people might think it's "weird" if a wife or girlfriend makes more money, but things are changing and it's time we all get with the program.

Don't get swept away with this outdated idea of how things "should be" — or risk being immortalized by a viral Tweet thread in which you come off looking like a total jackass. It's much better to just enjoy having a relationship with a talented, intelligent, and ambitious woman, if you're lucky enough to have one.

This article originally appeared on 12.27.17

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