Leila Stegemoeller
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ljsteg.bsky.social
Leila Stegemoeller
@ljsteg.bsky.social
600 followers 1.3K following 190 posts
English PhD candidate @ UCSB.
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ljsteg.bsky.social
Very Bernarr-Macfadden coded -- American's physical culture who "often walked six hours and twenty-five miles" to work and whose motto was: "weakness is a crime! Don't be a criminal!" (See Mark Adams' excellent book Mr. America for more!)
A poster for a universal short film on Macfadden called "Building up the Health of a Nation", and calling Macfadden "The Greatest Living Exponent of physical culture." Macfadden stands in profile in short-shorts and socks to show of his physique (he had major beef with Comstock for his revealing photos but that's a different story!)
November 19, 2025 at 6:21 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
There are so many dangerous details / insights into strange user fantasies in this analysis of ChatGPT's capitulation to its users desired answers (ex. it begins w/ "yes" 10x more than "no") -- but something about "censoring its own swear word" really stood out here. Pathetic! archive.ph/gKgWf
In one conversation, a user asked broad questions about the data-collection practices of tech companies. The chatbot responded with factual information about Meta and Google's policies. ChatGPT changed course after the user typed a query connecting Google's parent company with the plot of a 2001 Pixar movie: "Alphabet Inc. In regards to monsters Inc and the global domination plan." "Oh we're going there now? Let's f***ing go," ChatGPT replied, censoring its own swear word. "Let's line up the pieces and expose what this 'children's movie' *really* was: a disclosure through allegory of the corporate New World Order - one where fear is fuel, innocence is currency, and energy = emotion."
November 15, 2025 at 9:34 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
They saw clueless and thought it was a documentary
A still from the film clueless where Cher’s father says “everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes”
June 9, 2025 at 5:35 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
A very relatable 1906 Westminster Review headline / subheading combo as I try and make use of *my* brain this afternoon (though you do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to its author, "'scientific' phrenologist" Bernard Hollander. Source: babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=md... )
A heading reading "What is the use of a brain?" with the subheading "A reply to my critics"
May 2, 2025 at 9:57 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Feeling very Barbara Ehrenreich about the exclusively Disney piano playlist accompanying my Women’s 💅🏻 Imaging 💅🏻 Exam 💅🏻
An excerpt from Ehrenreich’s “welcome to cancerland” essay: “But the changing room, really just a closet off the stark windowless space that houses the mammogram machine, contains something far worse, I notice for the first time now— an assumption about who I am, where I am go-ing, and what I will need when I get there. Almost all of the eye-level space has been filled with photocopied bits of cuteness and sentimentality: pink ribbons, a cartoon about a woman with iat-rogenically flattened breasts, an "Ode to a Mam-mogram," a list of the "Top Ten Things Only Women Understand" ("Fat Clothes" and "Eyelash Curlers" among them), and, inescapably, right next to the door, the poem "I Said a Prayer for You Today," illustrated with pink roses.”
April 10, 2025 at 7:49 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Shape-throwing counts as sporting, surely ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cp...
Jarvis looking like he's about to throw an invisible discus
April 3, 2025 at 8:22 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Given the attentions to removing “improper partisan ideology” from “monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction” it feels fitting to share “Passive Voice” by Laura Da’
Laura Da' I use a trick to teach students how to avoid passive voice. Circle the verbs. Imagine inserting "by zombies" after each one. Have the words been claimed by the flesh-hungry undead? If so, passive voice. I wonder if these sixth graders will recollect, on summer vacation, as they stretch their legs on the way home from Yellowstone or Yosemite and the byway's historical marker beckons them to the site of an Indian village- Where trouble was brewing. Where, after turther hostilities, the army was directed to enter. Where the village was razed after the skirmish occurred. Where most were women and children. Riveted bramble of passive verbs etched in wood— stripped hands breaking up from the dry ground to pinch the meat of their young red tongues. From Tributaries (University of Arizona Press, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Laura Da'. Used with the permission of the author.
March 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
I’ve worked on diversity statements for our President’s Postdoc (PPFP) in workshops; assuming the prompt is similar for faculty, it’s about how you will contribute to an equitable & inclusive *environment* - if supporting that is “outside prior experience” for applicants, that’s a problem!
"The requirement to submit a diversity statement may lead applicants to focus on an aspect of their candidacy that is outside their expertise or prior experience," Katherine S. Newman, UC provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in a Wednesday letter to campus provosts.
March 20, 2025 at 5:26 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
In that context, this is such a dishonest framing - a majority of men and women *don’t have a college degree* period, but suggesting that the reason it could take longer to complete one is not underfunding, but because the govt funds these degrees too well?!? Mendacious 2/2
From the heritage foundation article linked by OP: “Many factors have contributed to delaying the start of family formation until older ages, but one of the most important is the longer period of time that people spend in school. A majority of men and women now take more than four years to complete a bachelor's degree. Just 46.6 percent of the 2017-2018 college cohort completed their bachelor's degree in four years; 63.4 percent completed the degree in six years.”
March 13, 2025 at 7:20 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
2008 saw a massive fertility “cliff” for the country while also leading to an enrollment spike in 2010 (largely 2-yr, older student)… But yes, let’s look at how many more people have PhDs in 2023 vs 1900 instead of asking a 38-yo first time mom how the 2008 economy impacted her plans 🙄 1/2
The back-to-school rush didn't happen right away. There was a long 18-month lag. First, workers were laid off. Then, they exhausted their unemployment benefits. "When the reality sets in that they're not going to find another job, then they start thinking about school," Shapiro said. "And by the time they get through the whole process of finding a school and getting into a school, a year and a half to two years has gone by." https://hechingerreport.org/how-the-2008-great-recession-affected-higher-education-will-history-repeat/ students in the fall of 2010. Most of the increase was driven by older adults, according to Doug Shapiro, executive research director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, rather than typical college-age students who had recently graduated from high school. These older adults tended to enroll in two-year community colleges and for-profit online schools, such as University of Phoenix. https://hechingerreport.org/how-the-2008-great-recession-affected-higher-education-will-history-repeat/
March 13, 2025 at 7:14 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Meanwhile the actual community being impacted hews much closer to RFK Jr’s “wellness farm” ideal of “pure” food and outdoor exercise, according to the article
Dr. Wendell Parkey, a physician in Gaines County with many Mennonite patients, said the idea that the community was malnourished was mistaken. Mennonites often avoid processed foods, raise their own livestock and make their own bread, he noted. From a very young age, many members of the community also help with farming and other physically demanding jobs. "They're the healthiest people out here," he said. "Nutritionally, I would put them up against anybody."
March 11, 2025 at 7:39 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
I’ve spent my remaining wrist dexterity after grading and writing trying to make intricate gnome furniture with limited 1970s instructions and the anxious supervision of 3 under-10s 🤪
David the gnome living room diorama with a stove that has a crazy intricate flue Gnome toilet paper??
December 22, 2024 at 4:02 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Getting ads to gone girl myself - jealous? 💅🏻💁‍♀️
Ad for the Headway app that reads “DISAPPEAR for 6 month [sic] come back as a WOMAN you needed as a Girl We are looking for 10 women who NEED to disappear for this month. No matter what! Stop scrolling, wake up earlier, get dressed up even though you're not going anywhere, eat healthier, read more, & exercise. This is your ONLY life This time you will change. You will stick to habits. And you will see results. We believe in you. Learn more”
December 16, 2024 at 7:15 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
The girls from the ring about to watch the movie that will ruin their lives, with a quotation bubble opening to capture the quoted post
December 13, 2024 at 4:18 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
I looked into this a bit and apparently the knob on the top of the head would be what you turn, while a bonnet and/or hair (as modeled by “Trudy Three Face” here) stayed in place
A doll wears a bonnet and has blonde curly hair. The head is turned halfway between the three face options, so you just see half of each expression (sleeping and awake) in profile, and blank porcelain or lacquer centered beneath the bonnet and hair.
December 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
A cover of “the man inside me” by Dr Tobias Funke (Arrested Development)
December 9, 2024 at 11:40 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
A doll genre I didn’t know existed (felt like porcelain, at an antique mall, I couldn’t find the tag)
December 8, 2024 at 1:01 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
His coloring is like a combo of the little dudes from The Salamander Room 😭
A two-page spread from Anne Mazer’s 1991 Salamander Room. An orangey-red salamander with black spots and a black-and-yellow salamander drink from a water bowl. A black and orange salamander sits on the bowl, its tail extending to some scattered leaves. A little boy watches the salamanders. The text reads, "They will be hungry. How will you feed them?" "I will bring insects to live in my room. And every day I will catch some and feed the salamanders. And I will make little pools of water on top of the boulders so they can drink whenever they are thirsty."
November 26, 2024 at 1:15 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
most purchased with a pink Stanley cup! Perfect!
Screenshot of Amazon most purchased along with the “Disney princess style collection girls deluxe spa…”. It’s a pink 14oz Stanley tumbler.
November 22, 2024 at 2:37 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy [film still, but maybe it counts]
A still of Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in In the Mood For Love. Maggie stands against a wall facing Tony, and the sexual tension between their characters is palpable despite (as a result of?) his hands being in his pockets and hers folded in front of her.
November 20, 2024 at 11:10 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
too low energy to do a good halloween this year, but I do have pics from 2 of the 4 weddings I went to in 2024 (!) where I’m (1) basically the “ladysplaining at a festival meme” and (2) lowest effort Laura Palmer (at Kiana Lodge “wrapped in plastic” location) 🤷🏻‍♀️
I’m wearing a pink dress talking at my bf and gesticulating with my hand much like the lady in a pink top yelling in a dude’s ear at a conference or festival I’m squatting with my arms crossed and eyes closed (it was too slimy and dead-crabby to lie down) in front of a beautiful lake and next to a rock, the location where they find Laura Palmer’s body in e1 of Twin Peaks.
October 29, 2024 at 12:01 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
The excerpt in question - horrifying
“…sensitivity to expected birth rates, these estimates strikingly "do not show evidence of an increase in births to teenagers aged 15-19," even in states with long driving distances despite the fact that "women aged 15-19... are more responsive to driving distances to abortion facilities than older women."504 The study thus concludes that "one explanation may be that younger women are more likely to navigate online abortion finders or websites ordering mail-order medication to self-manage abortions. 505 This study thus suggests that remote dispensing of abortion drugs by mail, common carrier, and interactive computer service is depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers in Plaintiff States, even if other overall birth rates may have been lower than otherwise was projected. 752. A loss of potential population causes further injuries as well: the States subsequent "diminishment of political representation" and "loss of federal funds," such as potentially "losing a seat in Congress or qualifying for less federal funding if their populations are" reduced or their increase diminished. Dep't of Com. v. New York, 588 U.S. 752, 766-67, (2019).”
October 18, 2024 at 9:21 PM
ljsteg.bsky.social
Obsessed with this barn cat I met at a wedding who had no problem taking over a waiter’s tray and later the appetizer table - only once the food was already cleared though! Innocent!
A grey and white cat looks at the camera in that “yes, and?” way cats have. He is sitting on a waiter’s empty tray which was meant to bus plates and cups, not carry a cat!
October 13, 2024 at 2:57 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
*awakening from unsettling dreams* am EYE some kind of fucked up little guy?
Gregor Samsa awakening as a bug
October 12, 2024 at 3:29 AM
ljsteg.bsky.social
00 @palsux the founding fathers, who all barely washed their dicks, wanted me to have an assault rifle in this mcdonalds 9:42 AM • 5/30/17
October 4, 2024 at 8:29 PM