Birthday Bits

Anyway the footieball global cup has started, you may have heard something about it or the many ads which portray fans as "passionate" consumers of gassy larger, pizza and metre wide TV's.


So my birthday passed off uneventfully,  I've found a few more grey hairs though unlike many nearing their 40's my knees seem to still be working and I'm not sure how. I recently saw a marvellous range of medical technologies aimed at supporting the joints and extremities without the need for major invasive replacement surgery.


A headline claiming a trans prisoner was to receive a £20000 operation, I could have sworn those things were only costing the "taxpayer" £13000 a year ago, a more expensive surgeon? Or are they plucking these figures out of the air and adding a few thousand to keep the sensational headline.


I visited my niece who chose to watch Look Whose Talking Now over the 100's of other better films available on demand. For those who stopped after the sequel, they made one several years later where the children were old enough to talk for themselves so it's their pet dogs who were given voice overs, shenanigans ensue and John Travolta's English boss sexually harassing him seems to be the main plot. There's then a weird so-bad-its-good video over credits, with the main cast and the 90's brief phenomena toys come to life in which toys come to life.

Polluting The Well

I wasn't intending to discuss any more trans news/ media stories but just when I thought I was out something happens to drag me back in. I got sent some synopsis for Channel 4's Gender Quake programmes a few weeks back, after sighing about C4 going into this well again and polluting it with several tones of elephant dung. I politely replied I thought the whole thing sounded ghastly and I had no interest in it. Besides I've got the mountain of GDPR emails to delete read from sites I last visited years ago.

Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin

"..a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

It's the 30th anniversary of The Local Government Act 1988 and it's infamous Section 28. It's worth reminding how things were at the time, a quick peck between two men on Eastenders generated massive controversy and to The Sun newspaper being gay was probably the worst thing you could be, god help you if you had a left wing standpoint as well. Despite two women running into the Six O'clock News studio and other efforts to stop the bill it was passed and remained on the statute books until it's repeal 2003.


The result was to stop any queer literature appearing in public or school library's whether it was overtly pro LGBT or just featured a LGBT character and local authorities weren't buying it, then it probably wasn't going to get published. But it wasn't authors that were the target of this law its was a sop to homophobia and an imagined morel panic where leftie teachers were planning to make children gay.


Over thirty years later its impossible not to make parallels between then and the anti-trans media coverage with those won't somebody think of the children headlines and conspiracies thoeries almost being cut and pasted from those times.


Today Eric and Martin are wondering when Jenny is going to put down her avocado toast and move out.

Gold Star Transexuals and Changing Labels

People change and you can change how you describe yourself if you want to.




Much like gold star lesbians, nobody cares if your a gold star transsexual and it doesn't make you the traniest tranny in the trannyverse .


Some people know they're trans as soon as the umbilical cord is cut, its not worth acting superior because of it. Many don't and that's ok, its fine to transition in your teens its fine to do it in your forties and so on, its fine if you don't do it at all.




Many people online couldn't fathom how Eddie Izzard has gone from using transvestite to using transgender. It's not as if there's a form you had to tick which means you're sexuality and gender expression is stuck much like the foreboding speech that when choosing my degree course that I would be stuck with it, thankfully that's not true and the same is true with how you wish to describe yourself. There's been an explosion in the tags you can use and one may better show how you are.


When I was young in the pre online days, the only two tags I was aware of was transvestite and transsexual and I didn't explicitly feel either though I identified with parts of both. Today there's not just A or B there's A,B,C,...X and beyond.

TDOR 2018

A day late (and definitely a dollar short) with the transgender day of visibility, well, smearing half a jar of Vaseline on the camera lens takes time you know. It was pleasing to see so many photos, not just girls but guy's, nb/enby, poc's and many more abound. Of course there's no rules that say you have to be visible, other things take priority, especially safety, just know we're visible for you too.

Being Edgy

Its been another of those months where a millionaire comedian confuses edginess with mocking a marginalised group while a internet streaming service chucks hefty wedges of cash to film it all. And isn't it a pity that they can't do those jokes they could tell years ago, unless it was Little Britain and you pretended it was post modern and successfully flogged that dead horse for many years past its sell by date.


But hey, gay panic jokes are still a thing.

Trans Fetishes

When it comes to transvestic fetishism there is a degree of kink shaming not just in wider society but also within the trans community. Whether it ranges from underdressing to engaging in sexual activity as/with someone dressed there still is a tut and a no way. And to those anti-trans fantasists out there, they are not planning to jump into the ladies toilet the first chance they get, we're more worried about you coming in and trying to make some point because its where scaremongering really doesn't meet any evidence.




Yours truly is not innocent of this either, some of this was to do with feeling the need to deobjectify / desexualise your identity, but in a society where trans visibility is greater then ever and not limited to seedy transformation services and the adult video shelf there is no need there days.  I do not want to see your willy in or out of knickers but there are many who do and as long as the content is marked as sensitive and shared with other consenting adults offline or online then it's only a problem if it causes a problem.

Smarch

Hope you're well. It's was a little cold, going beyond my usual winter outfits which have served me well during the comparatively mild winters of recent years but not an artic blast and then changing back to spring like in a very short period.


Another month another trans film, time was I would have watched it all in the same way I would have any Superhero/ comic book movie but these days a glut of both means I tend to pick and choose with the latter and avoid with the former. This time its the turn of ITV News (Tonight: 'Trans Kids - the Right Response?) focusing on the rise in referrals to the Tavistock GIC and those youth of today and their refusal to accept ridged gender constructs all of which would annoy the baffling number of terf's following me on Twitter.


Drag Queens is also a current topic, thanks to, what can be best described as Ru Paul's unhelpful/ outdated comments. Language, both queerness and labels has evolved, the "drag queens" mentioned in reports of the Stonewall riots would be more accurately described along the trans spectrum and even that may change in another few years. When you search media around the time this blog started "transgendered" was still a commonly used work

January

A little late finishing this, busy etc etc.

I started January on my sick bed having finally succumbed and drifting in and out of feverish states. There's still a Christmas pudding in the cupboard which body could face at the time and now nobody feels quite seasonal enough to eat. Although we have got through the chocolates and wine. It's about the time the media is full of healthy recipes and abstaining (apparently 3 million are participating in dry January). It also led me to add quinoa to the long list of things I've pronounced wrongly in my head having previously picked it it up and not having had to verbally order it.

Drifted away from my generally androgynous bits and tried on some more dressy type outfits not having been anywhere for a while my social anxiety kicked in. Also tried to find out what the fuss about contorting was, and concluded it was a good idea but still a work in progress. Found my scrap book, which reminded me is been a while since I've added anything new, so that's one excuse to be looking for some day out /event to go to.

Take care and have a good kissmas and pancake day.

MMXVIII

Light the fuse, pop those poppers, lets go for another year.


Hope you have a good one. x

End of Year

I was planning to write more (or at least a bit) between Christmas and new year but illness kicked in.

Elsewhere publications are compiling their best of list, usually a top ten or top 8 if you are trying far hard to be too hipsterish/ cool for school by reviewing comic books for Vice. I haven't read/ seen an extensive range of new releases to give a authoritative list though like always there's good, there's bad and one by one every shoegaze band from the 80's/90's will reform.

No More Sleeps

Have a great time, to those feeling lonely or isolated remember you never are, people are here to see you through.

Last Friday

The last Friday before Christmas apparently has been dubbed black / frantic/ mad/ black eye Friday (depending on which publications you look at) when the bars are packed with parties / post work meet ups and is more than a little busy for the emergency services. A quick news search reveals some sites declared last Friday black/ mad/ black eye Friday as well meaning they get to run the same piece twice so festive trebles all round!  Most years I tend to avoid such parties, being slightly introverted and sharing nothing with my colleagues other than a confined space for part of the week.

I also enjoy having to order without having to deploy my sharp elbows and having chairs and tables available surrounded by people I enjoy being round and can hear talking. In other words I'm going out during January-land.

Face Masks

Sales of facial beauty masks have been booming in recent years. Whether peel off or the more recent Asian inspired sheet masks, they can come with eye-watering prices but there are cheap alternatives or incredibly simple to make your own. The good thing about the latter is that its easy to adjust to your own needs and cut out what you're allergic to. Most of the recipes mention avocado, other fruits and cupboard staples so you've also got a delicious snack after you've ripped it off you're face.

Biscuits

In a sign that Partridge wannabes have taken over television commissioning, Channel 5 screened a show entitled Britain's Favourite Biscuit and in a further sign that democracy doesn't work the winner was the chocolate digestive and people voted for Jaffa Cakes despite the name giving a clue as to why it should be disqualified. As any right thinking person knows (ie me) the correct top three is chocolate hobnobs, plain hobnobs and jammy dodgers, with honourable mentions for the chocolate finger, Club biscuit and party rings.