Roosters: Nature's Good Boys?

An ongoing investigation

Hello all,

Brief reminder that 1) if you are signed up to this newsletter but don’t see them in your inbox, check your spam folders / “promotions” folder! And 2) if you want to read paywalled content and can’t swing a subscription right now, send me an email at awardsforgoodboys@gmail.com.

Last week I wrote about the “men would literally do ______ than go to therapy” meme, and why I hate it. Here’s an excerpt:

Which still undoes itself, as an idea: it is unfortunately, perhaps, not true that people who go to therapy enter half-baked and emerge a beautiful ready to eat cookie. People are more complicated than that. The projection many make of being able to track when someone has done good work on themselves because of therapy is simply that: projection.

Today I have tweets and articles I think you should see and share, and then also some important bird news, this time about roosters.

To read:

• Stolen Air by Kim Kelly

• Time to Say Goodbye newsletter

• The Radical Case for the Traditional Haggadah by Emily Filler

• Mariame Kaba, Abolitionist and Author, on We Do This Til We Free Us by Kandist Mallett

• How Being Disabled in a Pandemic Forced Me to Sue Los Angeles County by Jackie Quinn

• The Protected Class: An examination of the first documented gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. By Cerise Castle

• Amazon definitely has pee bottles (my title sorry) by Ken Klippenstein

• Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn’t Equal Antisemitism by Sumaya Awad and Daphna Thier

libby watson @libbycwatson

I am SO excited about this post: I asked @realLandsEnd to write about her experience applying for SSDI benefits for Sick Note. She did an incredible job of explaining just how complicated, burdensome and cruel the system is, so please take a look:

sicknote.coGuest post: Fighting for disability benefitsBeatrice Adler-Bolton on the trials of getting SSDI.

Orgs to support + tweets (email me if you want me to boost something!)

An org that works with other orgs to make their presence, processes, and practices more accessible to the disabled community. 100% disabled staffed and lead. Always looking to help more orgs! LEARN MORE about Neighborhood Access here.

lizz ehrenpreis @bestingbetty

I’m offering digital illos to folks who donate $60+ to @RedCanarySong, a grassroots collective of Asian sex workers and allies. In the wake of the recent shootings, they are rallying to do a ton of work on behalf of the victims, survivors & their families.

Never Ending Books Collective: Save and revitalize the Never Ending Books storefront — a sanctuary for New Haven’s artists, bookworms, and performers.

Also to read:

Ananya Roy @ananyaUCLA

#EchoParkRiseUp has exposed the police-prison logics of “homeless management” — of how the liberal offer of shelter & services, always tied to carceral rules & inevitably temporary — is undergirded by police violence. The police AND the liberal lubricators have to be abolished.

Sejal Singh @Sej_Singh

Jesus: the 6th Circuit suggests that public university professor might have a First Amendment right to single out, misgender, and purposefully degrade their trans students.

Ktown for All 💜❤ @KtownforAll

What is we all emailed Mitch O'Farrell and his colleagues and asked him to resign? #ResignMitch bit.ly/emailmof

Ari Berman @AriBerman

Breaking: Brian Kemp signs 95 page Georgia GOP voter suppression bill allowing GOP takeover of state/county election boards, unlimited challenges to voter eligibility, restricting drop boxes & making it crime to give voters food & water in line. It will be challenged in court

zeynep tufekci @zeynep

Folks who are fully vaccinated: guidance on how they are safer and what they can do with other vaccinated folk. Outdoors? Please, go do more outdoors. Indoor/public stuff? Be more strict until broader vaccination coverage which is really around the corner.

Nishant Deshpande @deshpn

@zeynep Lots of people are hurting due to the lockdowns - in many ways - as you have said previously. When should we open up? Do you have a set of criteria in mind? The harm caused by not opening shouldn't surpass harm caused by opening.

Da’Shaun | they/them @DaShaunLH

Shaun King published an article today stating that he raised ~$100k on Tamir’s behalf. Samaria Rice has previously claimed she only received $60k from Shaun (money which was seized by the courts, not given by Shaun, and put into the Tamir Rice estate—not Samaria’s possession).

Sing in Solidarity 🌹🎶 @SingSolidarity

SUNDAY, we're hosting a special virtual fundraiser concert featuring some never-before-seen recordings from our outdoor fall rehearsals, @azny17's animation, and more! Everything you donate will help us continue to create vibrant socialist cultural work. bit.ly/SiSFundraiser2…

Roosters: nature’s good boys?

shelby lorman @sdlorman

did a rooster write this ???

This week I really needed to know more about how eggs work, and found myself completely blown away by this description of roosters I found in the process. Roosters find and give treats to hens? They break up fights? They are BEAUTIFUL CLASSIC FARMYARD ICONS? THEY ARE GORGEOUS TO LOOK AT (IN MANY CASES)?

crooker t washington @writerbxtch

“Encourage egg laying” is definitely rooster-centered language

shelby lorman @sdlorman

did a rooster write this ??? https://t.co/Am1KozfspD

What is the point of them? Hens do not need them to lay eggs, but they do need them to fertilize them, if said eggs are going to hatch. They are very loud. They provide order, according to the rooster who wrote the google description. No shame, but roosters don’t have cocks. When they want to fertilize an egg? That’s vent to vent baby! A cloaca kiss.

shelby lorman @sdlorman

ok tell me if i'm wrong but i understood it as: hens are gonna lay eggs with or without rooster. u can eat these eggs. BUT u need the rooster cum for the eggs to hatch. they don't have dicks - when they fuck hens it's vent to vent. am i correct here

It does not seem like a great situation. I’ll let you google more about that if you’re interested.

ID: a screenshot of a NY post article that reads “man gouges neighbor’s eyes out over loud rooster, sheriff says”

• See also: How one rooster is splitting a French town with debate

• And: Rooster kills police chief after raid on illegal cockfight

Reading about roosters…you do kind of root for them? But they also certainly seem like good boys: they are loud and annoying but still framed as underdogs, with much of the writing I found about roosters dripping with this woeful tone, this plead to please remember the rooster and his handsomeness, his utility.

I am just starting this rooster journey—have you got any facts for me? Sound off in the comments, thank you, can’t wait.

Here is my dog:

ID: a photo of my medium sized dog Clementine in a mud puddle. An actual puddle of mudd. She’s looking up at me with “who me?” eyes.

Sending love,
Shelby (and clem)