Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Eat


I want to devour you
Piece by piece
Roll you around in my mouth
And chew.

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Golden.

Golden
A sheen
A haze
Your light skin
Shines

Like your mind.

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Fingermarks

Dark and round
Imprinted on my skin
They speak of you

They do not hurt
When I press them
(And I press them)

But they whisper
Your name.

Saturday, November 01, 2014

Self-entertainment


I sexually harassed a bot.

The shame!

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Scare quotes

The local paper had a story about the police looking for a witness to a crime.

The crime was in scare quotes. Of course, it wasn't a mugging or assault, it was 'rape'. If witnesses were being sought in any other crime, I do not believe there would be scare quotes around the word.

I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise, the default in the mainstream is to disbelieve or at least cast doubt on the victim straight away.

'Rape'.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A woman scorned

I rarely read YouTube comments, because, you know, YouTube comments. But I watched Rebecca Watson's video about "The Hidden Cost of Leaking Celebrity Nudes" and then had a quick squiz at the comments.

There was this one:
"Nice assumption that the hackers were men. A bit sexist if you ask me. Are you saying women can't be hackers? Have you not seen Angelina Jolie from the film Hackers?" (Bolding mine)

The derp is strong with this one. Do I need to explain why this gave me a great guffaw?

...

Now, more seriously, I'm not comfortable with Watson's argument here, although I know she's tongue in cheek, but the hatred of Kim Kardassian - well, it's disturbing to me.

It's the US version of the absolute venom directed at Katie Price, although Katie Price did not acquire her notoriety in the same way. They are caricatures in public life and while they may use this as their vehicle for fame and money, men who equally have worked up fame from nothing don't get the same level of spite, in my opinion. I mean, that bloke from TOWIE and Peter Andre - they have their detractors, but the staggering bile? No, they're more often portrayed sympathetically and as nice but dim chaps. Maybe they are more likeable and the women really are the ebil and manipulative, or maybe that's the sexist script we're buying.

I don't know. I am just really not comfortable with (in particular a feminist) holding someone (a woman) out to scorn, whatever the motivation. Unless it's for their views or opinions. But for who she is, eh, don't we have enough of that?

I daresay Kim and Katie sleep soundly in an insulating cocoon of cash, and I hope they do.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

I learnt a thing!

In more cheerful internet wandering through comments, I learned a new thing. I got to read about Emily Rosa, who as a 9 year old conducted an experiment that debunked Reiki.

Cool as. :)

'Though the reason she was mentioned was because apparently Michael Shermer did a talk in which she featured, and chose to illustrate that part of it with a picture of her as an adult in a bikini. Because her in a bikini is relevant to her childhood scientific endeavours. #head-desk# Sexism, what sexism, I see no sexism... I wonder if he illustrated any men in his talk with pictures of them in their swimmers.


Watching the furore

I have been watching the furore of the "atheist movement" cannibalising itself in the wake of various famous atheist authors revealing sexist attitudes and worse. Looking at them, as they spectacularly failed to stop for five minutes for introspection on whether they might just be getting it wrong sometimes and maybe a bit of listening to others might be in order, I read this comment at Butterflies & Wheels and it really struck home with me.

It makes me sick that the knee jerk reaction to a woman saying, “This happens. It isn’t OK. It needs to change” about rapists and harassers is too call her a liar and claim she’s just “doing it for the attention”. But when men in the movement say “This happens. It isn’t OK. It needs to change” of charlatans and religious leaders is seen as heroic.

It’s actually become an ongoing joke at my house for my husband and I to accuse each other of doing things “just for the attention”. It’s funny because I see it said of women complaining about misogyny so often it is absurd. The survivors of abuse and sexual violence are especially victim blamed and told they are “doing it for the attention”. It’s as if the people making this claim are saying that giving a woman attention and trust is a bad thing or that if she wasn’t milking this whole “victim” thing, nobody would pay her attention because she’s clearly too inconsequential to notice otherwise.

Women in this movement speaking up for themselves at all, from “Guys don’t do that” to “Micheal Shermer raped me” are reacted to as if they are launching vicious attacks as well as making excuses to draw attention away from men where it rightfully belongs.

After all, according to highly regarded, not at all sexist famous skeptics, women don’t like to speak up. That’s more of a guy thing. (If she does speak up, scream and stomp your feet until she shuts up.) Women, always using rape to get attention amirite? It probably wasn’t even legit rape. I mean, if a feeemale passes out too close to a Steubenville football player or Michael Shermer, what does she expect? She’s like a drunk driver, right? That’s just what men do when they drink, right? She shouldn’t have left her wallet in the unlocked car or something. She’s like a drunk driver. Conviction or it didn’t happen! She shouldn’t talk about harassment if she doesn’t want more harassment. What’s not civil about that?

According to several men in positions of considerable influence in this community we are not having a problem with sexism in this movement. We are having a problem with panicked, fuzzy ladybrained, radical, witch hunting viragos lying and making up offences to ruin men’s lives and steal their attention with victimhood powers, because logic.

Women should respond to that civilly?

Nugent can stick his civility where the sun don’t shine. This is not a civil conversation.


QFFT.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Rawr



I had to go to a live-ish performance of this for the video, 'though. There was something about Katy Perry painting an elephant's toenails and general cheesecake cheesiness of the official video that totally undercut the lyrics of the song, for me. :/

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Oink oink

I felt today like having a good old rant about this, so here are my responses to the Sam-Harris-yet-another-prominent-atheist-man-of-privilege putting his foot in it. Isn't it enough we have Dawkins continually making a twat of himself on Twatter?

 1. I started by claiming that my readership seems more male than female. And when I shifted to speaking about atheists as a group, I was referring to active atheists—that is, the sort of people who go to atheist conferences, read atheist books, watch atheists debate pastors on YouTube, or otherwise rally around atheism as a political identity. I was not talking about everyone on Earth who doesn’t believe in God. 

 2. Although I share the common perception that there is a gender imbalance among active atheists, I don’t actually know whether this is the case. I used to joke that my average “groupie” was a 75-year-old man. Happily, my audiences are now filled with young people, but I still encounter many more men than women. I wouldn’t be surprised if the split were 70/30. I would be very surprised if it were 50/50. Again, I am talking about active atheists. I have no idea whether there are more male unbelievers than female.
 


I don't go to atheist conferences, no, they tend to be in 'Merica and I am not rich in money or time. But I do buy and read atheist books. I used to be more active in online atheist communities and consider atheist a strong part of my identity, but y'know what, those online communities were hostile to me, full of dudebros who would throw me under the bus for a thought experiment, invalidate my experience and patronise or come on to me. Because I'm a woman.

I'd always identified as a feminist, but it was the atheist communities that drove me to identify more strongly with that and more or less lose interest in the "atheist movement". So you, Sam Harris, looking around seeing a predominance of men - it's not because women aren't interested, it's because the environment you've helped create is antagonistic to women (and minorities).

3. My work is often perceived (I believe unfairly) as unpleasantly critical, angry, divisive, etc. The work of other vocal atheists (male and female) has a similar reputation. I believe that  men are more attracted to this style of communication than women are. Which is not to say there aren’t millions of acerbic women out there, and many for whom Hitchens at his most cutting was a favorite source of entertainment. But just as we can say that men are taller than women, without denying that > women are taller than most men, there are psychological differences between men and women which, considered in the aggregate might explain why “angry atheism” attracts more of the former. Some of these differences are innate; some are surely the product of culture. Nothing in my remarks was meant to suggest that women can’t think as critically as men or that they are more likely to be taken in by bad ideas. Again, I was talking about a fondness for a perceived style of religion bashing with which I and other vocal atheists are often associated.

Ok, have you ever even read any female atheist bloggers? They're not angry? Why oh why, then, do perceived angry feminist atheists get pulled on their tone by tone-trolls all the fucking time? Why oh why, then, do feminists get called on their tone by tone-trolls all the fucking time?

It's good that you acknowledge there's a cultural aspect to women being expected to be 'lady-like', less abrasive and less confrontational, but y'know, the innate and psychological differences parts make me wonder which you're putting most weight on. I have a feeling you like the innate, but y'know, we never have a chance to see that. Let's do some cultural shifting, and see what happens.

4. I believe that a less “angry,” more “nurturing” style of discourse might attract more women to the cause of atheism.

And that's not sexist at all? Fuck you.

5. However, I haven’t spent even five minutes thinking about how or whether to modify my writing or speaking style so as to accomplish this.

You haven't spent 5 minutes actually thinking about sexism or this response either, have you?

I am well aware that sexism and misogyny are problems in our society. However, they are not the only factors that explain differences in social status between men and women. For instance, only 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies are run by women. How much of this is the result of sexism? How much is due to the disproportionate (and heroic) sacrifices women make in their 20’s or 30’s to have families? How much is explained by normally distributed psychological differences between the sexes? I have no idea, but I am confident that each of these factors plays a role. Anyone who thinks disparities of this kind must be entirely a product of sexism hasn’t thought about these issues very deeply.

 #head-desk# So women making disproportionate sacrifices for their families has absolutely nothing to do with sexism? Nothing at all to do with social pressure to be the 'good mother', nothing to do with sexist stereotyping and traditional gender roles? Nothing to do with the woman being the one expected to be at all the school meetings, to find childcare, the fact dads are often referred to as 'babysitting' when they're looking after their own kids, that women are considered to be trying to "have it all" if they want a career & kids when men's decisions in the same respects are never even scrutinised, that a man who works long hours is just trying to be a good provider, but a woman is neglecting her home and family? Again, fuck you.

Violence is different for women than it is for men. Unlike men, they don’t tend to get into fistfights with strangers after an escalating series of insults. It is far more common for a woman to be attacked, physically controlled, and sexually assaulted by a man. Outside the walls of a prison, adult males almost never have to think about getting raped. For most women, rape is a very real, lifelong concern. Women also suffer from domestic violence in ways that men rarely do. Most of these differences can be explained by general disparities in size, strength, and aggressiveness between the sexes.

And not at all by men being socialised to be aggressive, to feel entitled to sex, to be the head of household and considered to be less of a man if he's 'pussy-whipped'. Nothing to do with domestic violence being viewed as a source of amusement "why I oughta!", the norm (that it's just a domestic), or that in our 'civilised' society  Ray Rice can knock his partner cold and only when a video is released of the actual act does he face any sanctions, otherwise it's just brush it under the carpet because sport, that Mike Tyson can be convicted of rape yet be an acceptable choice for a cameo in film comedy, fucking Polanski, etc etc. Clue-by-four, those things are products of a sexist culture that doesn't take violence against women seriously.

Any time a woman comes away from an encounter with a man saying that he gave her the creeps, I trust her. This is not mere chivalry on my part: It is a judgment based on an understanding of human nature. One of the things we are naturally good at is detecting threatening people—indeed, millions of years of evolution have more or less guaranteed this. The silly word “vibe” enjoys its most felicitous application here—when a person must make a split-second judgment about the man at the door. I suspect (but do not know) that women are slightly better at this than men. I’m not denying that honest misunderstandings occasionally arise, or that some men have been falsely accused of sexual harassment and even of rape. But having been raised by a single mother since the age of two, I have always had a very visceral sense that men have a responsibility not to be evil jerks. And when they are, they should be sorted out—physically, if need be—by good men. Call me old-fashioned.

You were doing ok-ish,.. but chivalry? Chivalry to trust a woman when she says she feels creeped out by a man. Shit, it's chivalrous to trust a woman to identify her own feelings? ... We haven't even got to whether it's chivalrous to think a woman might be able to be trusted to judge whether a man's demeanour or behaviour was actually inappropriate or suspect towards her. And you know, you have to cover the bases by noting that there are misunderstandings & false accusations and you're not forgetting that, so are we really trusting women here? Really really? It's important you slip that bit in, isn't it? Really important.

... but women are more instinctive? Yuh-huh. And that's not a sexist stereotype at all either. Maybe it's thought of as a positive thing, therefore it's OK? No. Still sexist. Women can multitask, women are just better at childcare, at seeing dirt. Hurrah. So this is another Upside of being a woman, we get to be all instinctual and woo, while men are rational. Women don't come to conclusions by, I don't know, thinking about things, no no no, we respond to vibes. Creepy vibes. Nothing to do with picking up on voice & tone, actual content of comments, body language, actual infractions on our personal space etc, you know, like actual verifiable reasons for thinking someone is behaving creepily. Nope, VIBES! Creepy creepy vibes.

... and then there's the sorting out by good men. Really? I don't even.

And I'm not touching the part of your post about gun control and so forth. Just no. I'm stopping here.



I'm not saying you're the worst ever sexist pig, Harris, but you are a product of the sexist society you live in. If you're being called-out all over the interwebz, perhaps a bit more reflection and less reaction might be in order.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Spinning

Spinning my wheels
Uselessly
I am a child's toy on my side
Spinning spinning

What now, what next

Things in my head
Won't come out
I am stuck
But spinning spinning.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Inertia

Some days I wonder what the hell I'm doing and why am I doing it?

Inertia carries me through most of the time.

I entered into an arrangement with someone, and it continues, and I'm not sure why. On some levels, I'm getting something from it, and on another, it's a distraction.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

More song-age


Maroon 5 - 'How'


Ohhh

I have been searching for your touch
Unlike any touch I've ever known
And I never thought about you much
Til I'm broken down and all alone, ohhh

Though I don't understand the meaning of love
I do not mind if I die trying, ohhh
Took it for granted when you lifted me up

I'm asking for your help
I am going through hell
Afraid nothing can save me but the sound of your voice
You cut out all the noise
And now that I can see mistakes so clearly now
I'd kill if I could take you back

But how?
But how?

I can feel it in my guts
What's going on with him now
And don't patronise me with lies
I'm a man, be a woman now, ohhh

I have been bound by the shackles of love
And I don't mind if I die tied up, ohhh
Took it for granted when you lifted me up

I'm asking for your help
I am going through hell
Afraid nothing can save me but the sound of your voice
You cut out all the noise
And now that I can see mistakes so clearly now
I'd kill if I could take you back

But how?
But how?
But how?
But how?

Ohh yeh
Why must we be so ugly
And please do not think ill of me
Why does the one you love
Become the one who makes you want to cry
Why?
Why?
Why?

(And how?
How?)

But I don't understand the meaning of love
I do not mind if I die trying
I do not mind if I die trying
I do not mind if I die trying

Tomorrow's song



Radiohead - 'Just (Do it yourself)'

These are the days

Some times are so good. On the way home, M & I laughed and laughed about how "I tolerated you until death do us part" will be the epitaph I write on his tombstone. (Actually plaque on a Xmas tree planted on his ashes - we're planning ahead.)

And then we were joking around with the kids, and all laughing so hard. Daughter pwned dad in a pointless roundabout argument of snarkasm. Debating the sizes of our slices of cheesecake, and dad eventually admitting he got the smallest because he snoozed and losed.

Jumping out ninja attack when our son was in the bathroom, only he'd only opened the door and didn't actually come out, so we leapt out on nothingness.

And the ever popular:

therefore your argument is invalid.



These are the days worth remembering. Nothing else matters.

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Following predictive text on my phone

All the best things about this property considers appropriate and a half. The other hand is not the intended recipient, please notify me immediately by replying sooner rather than later. This month we have to pay for your help and advice on this occasion and the police told me that you have seemed like a whale watching .

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Today's song



Elbow - 'One day like this'

Sunday, August 03, 2014

This is why we still need feminism

From Channel4:

"In a speech on Monday to mark the end of Ramadan, Bulent Arinc railed against the "moral decline"in Turkey, later denouncing the excessive use of cars, the influence of Turkish soap operas and even the popular use of mobile phones, with women "spending hours on the phone to swap recipes". In his speech he said a man "should be moral, but women should be moral as well, they should know what is decent and what is not decent", adding: "She should not laugh loudly in front of all the world and should preserve her decency at all times." "


I don't need feminism because cat have real problems too. 
How about fixing them first? 
Like this door, why don't you open it already?

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Questions I can't answer, apparently

1. How Did You Become an Atheist?

As soon as I started to question the Christianity I was brought up in, it all seemed to fall apart and make no sense to me whatsoever. I was confirmed, but I knew at the time I didn't believe.

2. What happens when we die? 

Our bodies rot and there is nothing, just like before we were born. We live on in the memories of our loved ones, in our actions good & bad and how they affect others, and in our descendants.

3. What if you’re wrong? And there is a Heaven? And there is a HELL! 

Then won't I be sorry! Lol.

4. Without God, where do you get your morality from? 

God's morality seems all about testing people to breaking point and demanding worship of him over decency. Reciprocal altruism and not actually wanting to harm others works for me.

5. If there is no God, can we do what we want? Are we free to murder and rape? While good deeds are unrewarded? 

That's why we have laws. God only offers reward/punishment in the unknowable afterlife, human law attempts to rectify badness in the here and now where we can see. Good deeds tend to be rewarded by acknowledgment by the people around you. Plus it's nice to be nice and not expect medals for it, but just do it anyway.

6. If there is no god, how does your life have any meaning? 

It has meaning in the love of my family and friends, in the sunshine, in the laughter.

7. Where did the universe come from? 

Big Bang.

8. What about miracles? What all the people who claim to have a connection with Jesus? What about those who claim to have seen saints or angels?

Lots of people believe odd things. What about people who've seen aliens and been rectally probed?

9. What’s your view of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris?

They're all arses in some ways and interesting in other ways, like most people.

10. If there is no God, then why does every society have a religion?

If there's god, why aren't all the religions the same?


Hat/tip Pharyngula.

Rainbow


I saw this rainbow shortly after I got the news of my godmother's death. It was very unexpected. The death, not the rainbow.

It was a busy funeral, the church was filled, the over-flow room had to be used. Afterwards there was tea & cakes in the church hall, which was so full it was unbearable.

It was lovely to see my extended family, although in such shocking and sad circumstances.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

People

People.
People seem
to like me
And I don't understand it at all

I am bewildered and perplexed
and I do not know
How?
Why?
What is there to like?
What are they after?

I think,
Are you this fucked up that you don't believe that anyone could like you?
And the answer seems to be yes.

Yet I function and live
I'm happy
I have love and I live

But I guess as someone who's afraid

Waiting for the punchline
Waiting for the rug to be be pulled.


Crikey

I saw a man driving, top-down, arm nonchalantly thrown across the front seats, driving one-handed.
But wait, he's actually steadying something.
Oh, it's a window? Or metal screen?
It's laid across the back, and sat in the rear, steadying the other side, with so little room the edge of it is at her throat, with her head flung back, is a woman.
Yeah.
OK.
All it takes is an emergency stop, and her head's going to be rolling rolling rolling down the highway.

The stupid, it burns!

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Conveniences

Yesterday I noticed that workmen had moved all their extra stuff into the women's loos at work, while they're working on the disabled toilets. It really bugged me, because the men's toilets are directly opposite, about the same distance and same size, possibly bigger, and I was wondering why it was the women's ones they had chosen to use. I was thinking about feminist issues surrounding women's space being treated as less important and such. Then I realised that the door of the disabled opens against the men's, so actually it's likely a matter of convenience. This was actually a huge relief to me. Which is good, it means I'm not just looking for things to be angry about.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Songs today





Sunday, May 18, 2014

Good things 3

Lying in the sunshine today.

Discovering the little pond in the garden is a wealth of life, even though it was through a death I found this out: there was a dead toad floating, looking rather like the blown up animals Shrek & Fiona made. On fishing it out, I had a poke round and disturbed newts and other beasties. I had thought it but a fetid pool awaiting some tlc.


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Give yourself a gold star

I read this at Captain Awkward's blog and it seems really important to me, so I'm quoting it here, to remind me and for me to keep for others, potentially.

"So, this is big. When you feel lonely and needy and isolated, and you make the effort to go somewhere, and you don’t really find anyone you connect with, it’s very easy to weave it into the story of loneliness and failure that you’re experience, a.k.a. Well I TRIED and it DIDN’T WORK and now there’s PROOF. 

You have to actively fight against that mentality. It’s not fair. It’s exhausting. But every time you go to a thing and/or talk to a new person, make sure you congratulate and reward yourself for your efforts. Write it down in a journal somewhere. Give yourself a gold star. Tell yourself a different story, one that goes like this: You are doing good things to take care of yourself! You are learning the skill of meeting new people and building a social life as an adult, and that is something that a lot of people need if the volume of questions I get here is any indication. You are learning to find people you connect with; one part of that is figuring out where you don’t belong. Tell yourself that you put on clean clothes and showered and you tried. You saw a terrible band at the local anarchist collective and ate the worst food of your life at the vegan potluck and you listened to crabby Old Farmer Olsen talk about his hip pains for the 1700th time, and even if he didn’t really appreciate it, his wife had a good time not having to deal with him and getting to talk to some new people for a change. You helped give food to people who really need it. You marked trails for hikers who will appreciate not being lost. You petted kittens and puppies who need homes. You learned a new expansion pack of a board game. You gave your parents some alone time without having their roommate underfoot. You are doing the best you can. You are learning new skills. You are finding new interests and strengths. You are doing your best to take your place among your fellow humans. That’s all you can control, and the rest is up to luck."

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Good things 2

Listening to spoken word poetry all morning.

"Are you listening?! Can you hear me" - his voice really moved me on those words (Ken Arkind's God Box).

Fluffy clouds! It's been a beautiful day and the skies were dotted with the kind of clouds children make in pictures with cotton wool. Makes me smile.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Good things

OK, I want to write about a good thing a day, see how that works out.

Something I feel good about is turning back to open a shop door for an old lady in a motorised wheelchair = good deed for the day, I guess.

I feel good about the sunshine, about remembering to put the guinea pigs out for some grass, about doing some drawing yesterday, about my friend and my husband.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Ad-rage

I bloody hate this advert from Always for overnight sanitary towels. It pretty much uses the exact script of a nappy advert, which really flicks my switch: "I can wriggle" and lullaby music. Argh! Infantilise women much?

Fuckkkkkk offfff.

What would be a good ad for sanitary products? I don't know - stop being so prissy or 'empowering' (white trousers & roller skating, anyone?) - just the facts please and not this this this idiotic tip-toeing. Urgh.

Thursday, May 08, 2014

I love it when

evo-psych proves to be a lot of old hooey.

Pharyngula: "Years and years of studies by scientists trying to explain women’s behavior by their hormonal fluctuations are gradually falling apart. We’ve heard so many inconsistent, contradictory tales of how fertility/menstruation turns women into unconscious breeders or nurturing mothers, how women are driven to ‘hypogamy’ by their evolutionary instincts (that’s a big one with the MRAs), and how mate choices wobble from alpha to beta over the course of a month" - all rot.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Goodbye old boy


Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Smirk at work

I was putting together a piece of office equipment, and several of the blokes got interested and I could feel their desire to take over.

No, no, I hogged it, it was my pet project to keep me from doing my actual work - let them find their own diversion!

I did it really efficiently and well, and one of the disappointed audience road-tested it laughingly.

He told me I'd make someone a good husband one day. Hehehe.

The bottle of wine clause

Which exists only between friends and potential lovers. You drink enough to embolden you to make advances and negotiate rudeness, which, if not reciprocated in good order, you both just pretend were never said, to save face.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Warning signs

This is proper signage. We need more of this.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Meh

Bad day at work.
So I decide to eat allll the chocolate and get fat.
That'll show 'em.

Nothing much to say but



A bit of '5th Element' that I love.

Friday, March 14, 2014

A calm reasonable debate

"Yes. By all means. Let’s have a calm, reasonable debate about abortion. Let’s have a calm, reasonable discussion about my basic humanity, and my basic human right to physical autonomy. Let’s have a calm, reasonable discussion about whether I should be forced, by law, and at significant risk to my own health and safety and life, to donate my organs for nine months to an embryo/ fetus. Let’s have that discussion again. And again. And again and again and again and again and again. And again. 

"And then, perhaps, we can have another panel at another atheist conference about why there aren’t more women in the atheist movement.
" - Greta Christina on FB.

All the yeses.

I used to hang out at some atheist message-boards, and it was mostly filled with white middle class guys in the US bemoaning how oppressed they were by the word God on the dollar. They were winning at the oppression olympics and would throw me under the bus, no problem, if violence against women, consent or reproductive rights came up. That was something to play devil's advocate about, that was something to intellectually wank over. Yeah, fuck you guys.

This is why I no longer hang out in those places, because nothing mattered beyond masturbating over how smart they were to be able to pull apart the Bible or piss on homeopathy. I'll do that too, but I want more than that: I'm an idealist (and a cynic), I want a better world. For women, for LGBT people, for people of colour. I don't want the same shit, run by the same section of society, just sans religion.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Bloody amazing

I absolutely love this story about an Indian man who has battled through taboo and ignorance to create a machine to help poor women and girls make their own sanitary towels, which protects their health and enables girls to keep going to school: the drop-out rate at menarche is 23%. It's a shock to me how much I take for granted these necessities and my access to sanitation. These issues never fricking occurred to me #shame-faced#.

"There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. 

It took Muruganantham 18 months to build 250 machines, which he took out to the poorest and most underdeveloped states in Northern India - the so-called BIMARU or "sick" states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. 


Here, women often have to walk for miles to fetch water, something they can't do when they are menstruating - so families suffer. 


"My inner conscience said if I can crack it in Bihar, a very tough nut to crack, I can make it anywhere," says Muruganantham. 


It was hard even to broach the subject in such a conservative society. "To speak to rural women, we need permission from the husband or father," he says. "We can only talk to them through a blanket." 

There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married. But slowly, village by village, there was cautious acceptance and over time the machines spread to 1,300 villages in 23 states." 

And better yet, this man is not making his fortune out of his invention.

"He believes that big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas he prefers the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," he says." 

Isn't that beautiful?

Muruganantham now lives with his family in a modest apartment. He owns a jeep, "a rugged car that will take me to hillsides, jungles, forest", but has no desire to accumulate possessions. "I have accumulated no money but I accumulate a lot of happiness," he says. "If you get rich, you have an apartment with an extra bedroom - and then you die."

Oh man.


Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Give us a shout

"What are you doing with your life, you stupid whore?!" (courtesy of footballing youths).

Well quite, an excellent question, elegantly phrased... It certainly gives me something to think about, some existential angst. What indeed?

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Killing chivalry

I like this comment on Pharyngyla's blog post on Daubney and chivalry:

"I killed chivalry in my personal life in the 1960s by deciding that the first person to a door should hold it for their companions or people close behind them, the unburdened should help those laden down, and the person closest to a task should do it if physically feasible: in short, that we should act as if we were all passengers in the same leaky rowboat, travellers on the same journey, and, dammit, equals."

Yes, exactly. Feminism, or my kind of feminism, isn't about having everyone shove everyone else aside and slamming doors in their faces, it's about being considerate based on need and common-sense, not some ridiculous idea of capability by sex.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

4am

And my heart is bumping thumping
Banging in my chest
Like a fist
On a door
And my stomach's in a twist.

It's jumping pressing
Thrusting at my ribs

Like Nicholson
In 'the Shining'
He's going to burst through
Or Alien,
Motherfucking Alien!
I'm the damn Nostromo crew!

...

That.
Is. Not.
Helping.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Ass-backwards

Someone wrote (on a social networking site) that "I have broken leg dreams sometimes and wake up with cramp," as if the dream is the cause of the cramp.

What are you even talking about?! Isn't it much more bloody likely that you had cramp and it was incorporated into your dream?

Thursday, January 30, 2014

It must be me that's wrong, right?

Sat on the bus, thinking "Shit, am I on the right one?" as it takes a different route than usual.

But how could it be wrong when there is only one?

Then I realise it's a new driver. At least he got around to my stop, unlike the people in between mine and the final destination of the bus.

Txt

Predictive text is stupid. When is bedrock a more likely word than bedroom, srsly?

Open

I am open, so open
If you seem not to be looking
But catch my eye
And I snap together
Steel trap jaws
Teeth closed.

I am free, so free
And running and dancing
But catch my hand
Even to run with me
And I freeze
Motionless, I cease to be.

I am light, so light
I laugh and float
But catch my smile
And I drop like stone
Gather moss
And wait for you to go.


Friday, January 24, 2014

Mrow

Today I am feeling really high-energy intellectually and emotionally. Like I would devour the world.

I know it as a transient feeling, however, and wish I knew how to maintain or recreate it at will. On the other hand, I can sometimes manage other aspects/emotions, so perhaps it is in me to hold onto this.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Dog dark night

Every morning, there's a man walking a dog in the dark with a shovel on his shoulder. We couldn't help but speculate on what he's doing.

It might be he's hoping to kill the dog 'accidentally' by letting someone run over it in the dark, and then he intends to dig it a shallow grave at the roadside. He could also finish it off with a blow to the head with the shovel if it wasn't properly dead. I can relate to this one - our dog gets on my nerves.

Maybe he's out looking for road-kill. The dog is there to sniff it out in the darkness and the the shovel is for scooping up the bodies.

Or perhaps his dog has a digestive problem and does elephantine poops, and the man requires a shovel to be a responsible dog-owner.

Maybe he's on zombie alert - he has to go out to forage and walk his dog, but he's prepared for those zombies...

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The push-me-pull-you dance

The push-me-pull-you dance
I can't tell if it's you
I can't tell if it's me

Are we dancing?
Are you asking?
Are you interested?
Am I asking?

Who is pushing, who is pulling?
I don't know
Should I go?

Are we dancing?
Am I asking?
Am I interested?
Are you asking?

No-one's saying,
No-one takes the chance
So on and on goes the dance

I think we're dancing
I think I'm asking
But are you interested?
And are you asking?

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Today's song



 'Same love'- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert

Friday, January 03, 2014

Let the wind blow


We went for a walk on the beach and let the wind blow through us, like a sword. Awesome!

See all those rocks? They used to be covered in sand. It's amazing just how powerful the storms have been. It's good to be home for a few days, not working at all, so afterwards I could huddle indoors with an open fire and listen to the weather rage against the windows.


Thursday, January 02, 2014

Reading Record 2014

Previous annual reading records:  20132012201120102009200820072006

So, last year I read 36 books, some of which on audio. Not my biggest ever total, by any means.

---------------------------

January

How to be a woman / Caitlin Moran
Blue Monday / Nicci French
Magic Strikes / Ilona Andrews - audiobook
Army of One / BV Larson - audiobook
Bonkers / Jennifer Saunders - audiobook
The Olive Readers / Christine Aziz
Hyperbole & a Half / Allie Brosh (re-read)

February

The Beauty Myth / Naomi Wolf - audio-book
The Safe House / Nicci French

March

Never pick up Hitchhikers / Ellis Peters
On the Edge / Ilona Andrews - audiobook
A History of the World / Andrew Marr - audiobook (unfinished)

April

Oh Dear Sylvia / Dawn French
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty / James Thurber - audiobook

May

Ash / Mary Gentle
Eon / Greg Bear - audiobook (unfinished)

June 

Mistakes Were Made (But not by Me) / Tavris & Aronson - audiobook (re-read)

July

Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure / Dave Gorman - audiobook
Dawn of the Dumb / Charlie Brooker
The Reformed Vampire Support Group / Catherine Jinks

August

Chasing the Dime / Michael Connolly
Britty Britty Bang Bang / Hugh Dennis -audiobook
Packing for Mars / Mary Roach - audiobook (unfinished)

September

Too Much Information / Dave Gorman - audiobook
The Atrocity Archives / Charles Stross - audiobook

October

The Jennifer Morgue / Charles Stross - audiobook

November

Never Let Me Go / Kazuo Ishiguro - audiobook
Locked In / John Scalzi - audiobook

December

W is for Wasted / Sue Grafton