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It could soon be illegal to publicly wear a mask for health reasons in NC
The North Carolina State Senate on Wednesday voted 30β15, along party lines, in favor of a Republican bill that would make it illegal for people in the state to wear a mask in public for health reasons. The bill is now moving to the House, where it could potentially see changes.
The proposed ban on health-based masking is part of a larger bill otherwise aimed at increasing penalties for people wearing masks to conceal their identity while committing a crime or impeding traffic. The bill was largely spurred by recent protests on university and college campuses across the country, including North Carolina-based schools, against the war in Gaza. In recent months, there have been demonstrations in Raleigh and Durham that have blocked roadways, as well as clashes on the nearby campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some demonstrators were seen wearing masks in those events.
But the bill, House Bill 237, goes a step further by making it illegal to wear a mask in public for health and safety reasons, either to protect the wearer, those around them, or both. Specifically, the bill repeals a 2020 legal exemption enacted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed for public health-based masking for the first time in decades.
- The Guardian
- βBreasts are a serious political problemβ: one womanβs quest to reclaim her chest
βBreasts are a serious political problemβ: one womanβs quest to reclaim her chest
Sarah Thornton had dismissed them as βdumb boobsβ until a double mastectomy changed everything. Her new book, Tits Up, explores what our beliefs about breasts mean β from feeding babies to bra design and Baywatch
Throughout her life, Sarah Thornton hadnβt given much thought to her breasts. They were there, of course, and theyβd fed two children. But they had also attracted unwanted attention, and latterly theyβd become a source of concern β with a history of breast cancer in her family, and after years of vigilance and tests, in 2018 Thornton was about to undergo a preventive double mastectomy. Preparing for the operation, she realised she still hadnβt given them much consideration, nor what it would be like to have βnewβ breasts in the form of implants. When they turned out to be bigger than expected, she was shocked, βbut in the end,β she says, βit wasnβt the aesthetic form as much as the feeling. It was like losing sentience. And it put me on a quest to understand these things that Iβd never thought too much about. These things Iβd kind of dismissed as dumb boobs.β
Thorntonβs new book, Tits Up: What Our Beliefs About Breasts Reveal About Life, Love, Sex and Society, is a deep dive into the bosom of our fixation with boobs. Writing the book, she says, has transformed how she views her own breasts. βI really did go from dismissing them as a kind of shallow accessory, to thinking of them as a really important body part β one we wouldnβt have a human species without,β she says. βOur top halves have been invaded by male supremacy and I did not realise how deeply patriarchal even my own view of breasts was. I was dismissing them as dumb boobs, partly because theyβre positioned primarily in culture as erotic playthings and I didnβt want to just be an erotic plaything.β
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