That's what their constitution says, but is that how it's actually applied? By the accounts we have of Uyghurs who've been detained in re-education camps, many of whom were lured back to China on false pretense after immigrating elsewhere to avoid persecution, and detained without trial for months or years on end, it doesn't seem that the PRC are actually all that benevolent to all ethnic minorities in their country.

In a similar vein, look at the US Declaration of Independence which talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom. Most of the founding fathers were slaveowners, and slavery persisted for a hundred years after America gained its independence. They talked a mean game about liberty and justice, but whereas in one breath they talk about freedom and kindness to your fellow man, in another breath they enslaved people and committed genocide against the indigenous population. The content of that document contrasts against how they treated other people in reality. Who they saw as people was contextual.

Just because the PRC have a statement about how no ethnicity is discriminated against, it doesn't mean they follow that law. And with how obtuse they are with how they treat the Uyghur people and the re-education camps they have set up in the middle of the desert, we have no way of determining whether they're abiding by that law or not. China is one of the least transparent nations in the world, both to the outside world and to human rights groups like Amnesty International - in an ideal world we could take the word of law as gospel, but we've heard so much from Uyghur survivors of these camps and we've witnessed the PRC deny the existence of those camps before branding them "re-education camps" for terrorists and criminals and downplaying how many there are.

So yeah. It's messed up, in a just world we'd have measures in place to prevent the persecution and mass incarceration of minority groups, and we should stay vigilant as to how the Uyghur population are being treated in China. Because if people don't keep an eye on them today, there might not be any of them tomorrow.

The Mountain Goats, Counting Crows and Maria Mena are my top three artists at the moment.

I'd move to the city. I don't mind the country, there's convenience and security in where I'm living, but I really need to spread my wings y'know.

While I've heard that hormones do have something to do with it - trans women apparently feel their emotions a lot more intensely once they start taking estrogen, for example - a big reason imo is that there's a social pressure for men not to cry.

We're denigrated from a young age for crying. Our parents discourage us from crying, whether it's comments about how only girls cry or that crying makes you a baby.

And as an adult, I get it - crying kids are annoying, and they're a handful, and the less time kids spend crying is seen as for the better. But it messes with our emotions when we internalise that message of crying being bad.

Like somehow it's only socially acceptable to cry when your kids are born or when a particularly good dog passes away. To stand there still as a stone, showing a stoic front, is the epitome of manliness to many. That's why Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation is such a beloved character - he rings true as both an example and a pastiche of that mindset.

People who are otherwise suffering and who could benefit from a release of emotion that isn't channeled through alcohol and violence feel pressured to meet that standard, despite what they need. We feel the need to inhabit a particular box to keep up appearances, and even when we realise how unpleasant our lives are or how miserable we are, spending a lifetime inhabiting that box makes it incredibly hard to cry when we realise just how much we need to.

Hormones probably factor into it to a degree, sure. But I think that social pressure to "be a man" is a significant factor in that statistic.

I googled "dating forum" and found this website. it's easier to connect with people in a more conversational environment, so I'm looking forward to hanging around and seeing what's up on here.

I'm 25, I'm Australian and I'm interested in music, reading and gaming. Currently going through a period of upheaval, and I'm trying to meet new people as I move into the next stage of my life.