Gendercide -- The Newest & Most Violent Trend in Pregnancies Worldwide

I'm going to touch on a rather touchy subject today. Above, you will find a video released from the anti-abortion group LiveAction, but before I go into much detail about that, I would like to make a few things clear about myself since abortion seems to be a hot topic lately what with all the insane laws that have been being passed lately, which you can Google if you'd know like more about them.
First of all, I am prolife. I believe that life starts at conception and that abortion is wrong. I view it as murder and, honestly, I think there are better options out there. I mean, even if you're a pregnant teenager, you could still give the baby up for adoption if you don't think raising it is the right option for you. I also don't like the fact that abortions allow some women who are prochoice -- some, NOT all -- to, for lack of a better word, whore around with whoever they want without having to deal with the consequences of their actions. And if you are a pregnant teenager -- or just a pregnant woman in general -- who's out there, reading this and thinking, "But I don't wanna get fat and go through all the drama and BS that goes with being pregnant!"....Well, here's my opinion on the subject -- if you didn't want end up that way, you shouldn't have been having sex in the first place, especially while you're still in high school. Or you should have been on birth control at the very least, which brings me to my next point.
I am not against birth control. I say this only because I am a member of a popular activist, environmentalist petitioning website on which a commenter stated, "Well, logically if you're pro-life and against abortion, then that must mean you're against birth control, too." Whether or not that person was being sarcastic, I have no idea, but it was still a stupid thing to say, IMO -_-
Personally, I think birth control is great for teenagers and college students and I think parents should probably start educating their children about condoms and birth control as soon as they start high school. Why? Because parents don't want their teenage children to have sex in middle or high school and not all teenage children are going to want to have sex at that age, but some of them will. So, IMO, those who do want to have sex or at least are curious about it in middle or high school should at least be able to come to their parents and say, "Mom/Dad, I think I'm ready to go on birth control/start buying condoms," then sit down to a long-ass lecture about STIs, teen pregnancy, and all the responsibility that comes with sex quite similar to the one they're likely to hear in health class the next day.
Please, do not think that I am anyway condoning teens having sex or teen pregnancy. I have a six-year-old sister living at home a couple states away, so, believe me, this is definitely something I worry about when it comes to her future. I am simply condoning the fact that kids are gonna stupid shit, especially when they're teenagers, so their parents might as well be accepting of it rather than yelling at them and threatening them in some way, shape, or form because, honestly -- at that age - I'm not sure they care.
Anyway, moving back on to the topic of the day as you can see from the video you have posted above, there is a new and deadly pregnancy trend that has both prolife and prochoice activists a-buzzing. That trend is being called "gendercide" and it is believed to have started in China. However, there are apparent reports of gendercide in places like Bangladesh as far back as 1971. In any case, the trend has spread globally to parts of Europe and Canada and even to the US. Now, I bet by this point, you're sitting at your desk, wondering what the heck gendercide is?
Well, simply put gendercide is when expectant parents have a late-term abortion performed because they wanted a baby of the opposite gender. It is usually most common, according to the reports, in cases where the parents were hoping for a boy, but found out they were expecting a girl instead. Despite the fact that the practice is most common in China, the trend has gotten so popular that it is now illegal in some countries and parts of Canada for the ultrasound technician to reveal an unborn infants' gender to their parents in order to prevent them from a performing a late-term abortion caused by gender disappointment, thereby forcing the parents to default to Team Green. Now, just imagine how you would feel if you were pregnant and went in for an ultrasound, expecting to find out the gender of your unborn child only to find out that the doctor wasn't allowed to tell you all because some people would rather have sons than daughters?
Not only is it unfair to you, but it's unfair to your family and to other people's families.
Not only that but in extreme cases, women are pressured into gendercide abortions not just once but multiple times. The article below tells the story of a woman from India, who was forced into gendercide abortions six times by family members who would have rather her had a son instead of a daughter --
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/04/23/india-woman-forced-into-six-sex-selection-abortions/
In my mind, these gendercide abortions are sick and they are murder and they are ten times worse than any regular abortion. By the time a pregnant woman finds out the gender of her child, it's brain and lungs and pretty much everything else has either already developed or already started developing, which makes it murder in my book.
In the end, though, I'm not going to attempt to force my opinion down anyone else's throat. I understand that everyone has an opinion and not everyone is going to agree with mine, and I'm not about to attempt to make a bunch of strangers on the interweb agree with what I have to say. If it were someone close to me who was considering abortion, then yes, I would probably try to talk them out of it and I know that I would be disappointed in them.
That's all for today's topic. If you would like to sign a petition against the gendercide abortions, please visit protectourgirls.com and search the video I have posted above.
To see what other features and whatnot I will be writing about in the near future, please visit the Announcements page.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed your visit to the site.

Name Bias

Me. You didn't really think I was a vampiric penguin, did you?

I realize that this isn't exactly a new development -- name bias has been around a lot longer than people realize -- and perhaps, it may sound silly to say that someone's life could be effected in someway based on what their name is, but the sad truth is, a person's name really can have a positive or negative effect on their life. I first realized this when I began frequenting a highly opinionated baby name board in an attempt to find unusual and creative names for characters of a story I was working on. The board was filled with women who insisted -- and continue to do so -- that the best names for children were classic names along the lines of John, Margaret, Rhett, Pearl, Audrey, and ect., ect. Every day, a different woman would post, inquiring about a name that was more creative -- or cre8tive -- than the last and every day the board's regulars would post mostly negative comments, ranging from strange to just flat-out trashy.
The reasoning behind this?
A study performed by the authors of the book Freakonomics, which has gone on to become a hit documentary. In the study, five-thousand resumes were sent out to employers. Half of those resumes were signed with black names and the other half were signed with white names but were the same otherwise. The reasoning behind this being that research from a previous study had proven that African-American citizens were the ethnicity most-likely to choose a unique name for their children. After the resumes were sent out, the researchers found that the resumes signed with white names were the ones that got more call-backs from the employers, and that the resumes signed with black names were thirty-three percent less likely to receive a call-back from the employers despite having the same skills and education as an applicant with a white name. What does this mean?
In short, it means that if you give your child a more unique name, you could potentially be making their life more difficult than it would be had you named them John, Mary, Lucas, or Elizabeth essentially. It also means that there are a lot of prejudiced and judgmental employers out there, making other people's lives harder than they need be, but they aren't the only ones. When asked, members of the aforementioned baby name board -- both stay-at-home mothers and hard-working, employed mothers -- stated that if they saw or heard a name like Rashonda or Tyrone, they would assume that both the person and their parents were uneducated citizens of a low-class income status whereas if they saw or hear a name like Henry or Elise, they would assume that person and their parents were well-educated citizens of a high-class income status.
Am I the only one who finds it sad that people think like this?
I'm sure that I'm not, but sometimes I feel that I am and I'm sure that you're wondering why I care.
Well, you see, that's because this name bias effects not only African-American names, but names of all ethnicities and historical backgrounds. Take my name for example -- Maria. Maria is typically a name associated with Hispanic, Latin, and Italian communities. I am none of those things. Don't believe me -- take a look at the picture at the top of the page and read the caption. That is me and aside from the fact, I don't look distinctly Hispanic, Latin, or Italian -- or at least I don't think I do -- my own research on surnames from my family tree has shown that my family is mostly Eastern European, stemming most noticeably from Germany and Ukraine with some Celtic and Native American blood thrown in. Still, though, people find out what my name is online and automatically assume I'm one of those three things, usually Hispanic and what are Hispanics currently associated with?
Being illegal immigrants, among other things unfortunately because I know for a fact that that certainly is not true for all of them. However, that doesn't stop people from associating my name with that negative stereotype, which means I am more likely to be judged unfairly because of my name, and that goes for other people in my situation, too.
Let's say I was pregnant -- which I'm NOT -- and was having a daughter and decided that I wanted to name her Sakura. Perhaps you've heard that name. It's very popular in anime and manga or Japanese cartoons and comic books. Now, in Japan Sakura is considered a beautiful, classic girls' name and not only that but when translated, the name means, "cherry blossom" as in cherry blossom trees of which there are several hundred of in Washington D.C.  The name is quite similar to the European name Elizabeth, but if I wanted to use the name, I would be judged poorly for doing so because I'm not Japanese and my child would be judged poorly because of my decision to name her Sakura. How do I know this?
I asked.
Not only is this unfair to me, but I believe it is unfair to anyone else who wants to use a "unique" name, despite the fact that it is perfectly legitimate in another culture and heritage and has a perfectly pleasant meaning. It's also unfair to all the children, who grow up only to find out that they have work ten times harder to get a job than John Doe who spent his senior year of high school in rehab or Jane Doe who worked in a strip during college for fun and all because of their names. What are we going to do change it, though?
What can we do?
Well, our choices as parents and future parents are to either given in to the norms of society and pick what a lot of people would call a respectable name for our children and future children or to pick a unique name and deal with the hardships that come with it, knowing that we will have a picked name for our children that we love and that means something special to us. Even though, I don't have any children nor am I expecting any children any time soon, I have already made my decision.
What will you choose to do when that time comes for you? Please, feel free to share.
Thank you for reading.
~vampirepenguin19

Welcome -- I Vant To Suck Your Fishs' Blood!

Not really.
I actually hate fish, which may seem weird for a penguin, but, hey, whoever said that penguins had to like fish?
I'm sure that by now you've probably realized that I'm totally joking and I'm just normal person, and if you haven't, then WTF are you smoking? Whatever it is, drop it please as there shall be no smoking on my blog, thank you.
Anyway, if you frequent fanfiction.net, then I'm sure you're at least somewhat familiar with me, vampirepenguin19. You may have read one of my fanfictions or heard one of your friends bitch about how I said something mean about one of their fanfics in a review, and if that's the case, then I am truly sorry. Sorry that you're friend can't recognize constructive criticism when they see it. You should probably tell them to get out of the writing biz fast.
If you don't frequent fanfiction.net and have absolutely no idea who I am, welcome and please take a glance at my fanfics if you and when you have a chance.
Either way, I'm sure you may have guessed that I take writing a little more seriously then most people, even if it is just writing fanfictions. Well, the reasoning behind that is because I've been trying to be professional writer since I was nine. I've even sent manuscripts into publishing companies -- they were rejected because I didn't have a literary agent. It doesn't really matter now, though, because you see I have decided to set that dream aside in favor of becoming an elementary school teacher. I'll still write fanfictions from time to time, but I've long since realized that writing novels is not a realistic career choice and there things in life that more important to me other than being constantly rejected by book publishing companies. One of those things is working to prevent bullying in elementary schools as I myself was bullied not only in elementary school but also in middle school and high school as well. By the time I was sixteen, I was having stress-related seizures and on antidepressants (and seizure meds).
I now have Social Phobia, so I've decided to set out to make sure that no other small children end up the way I did -- my mother still hasn't forgiven me for all the hospital bills I cost her, although, to be fair, I'm fairly certain that the surgeries needed to prevent Club Foot were in no way my fault.
I'll probably get around to writing a book eventually, but for now reducing bullying in elementary schools and turning small children into young environmentalists is more important to me.  I would rather see happy, smiling children than my name on a bookstore shelf, and that's all that matters.