Hi,
How’s things? Here at Chez Jones, it’s been a quiet Halloween, as both Child 2.0 and the Every Lovely Mrs J have been away. In days of yore, I guess I would’ve booked time off, dressed suitably, and headed out into the world to stretch my legs.
But, time was not my friend and if I’m honest, my energy levels were more suited to curling up on the sofa with a warm mug of tea and catching up on some streaming. That and updating my game’s mod list with new tweaks and features.
Creature feature
Given the comments in the press, politics, and rent-a-gob Bigot of the Week, I thought it best to lean into the trans stereotypes for this Halloween.
I carefully prepped my costume as a balding, 50 year old man, in regular bloke clothes. Oh the theme? The enemy within, of course! 😉
After that, I purchased some sweets, a glow in the dark pumpkin (re-useable & rechargeable for woke reasons, of course), and I printed off some leaflets. Basically gateway material to seduce Trick or Treaters to the dark side of questioning their gender. I mean, they’re already partly on our side by dressing in a way that’s comfortable, having a good time, looking out of the ordinary, and their choices upset the intolerant. I mean, which of those four things do we not have in common? To finish things off, I cleaned and warmed the bigger of our cauldrons, ready to pop in any waifs and strays, to sacrfice to the eldrich forces.
Sadly, no one turned up, so I ended up playing a computer game, drinking oat milk decaff coffee, and doing my best not to eat the sweets. That part of my plan did pay off, as I diliberately bought treats I don’t like but Child 2.0 and Mrs J do.
Sarcasm and snide aside, there is an obvious pattern to ‘the fear of the other’. In my lifetime – and hopefully there’s a bit more yet! – I head the nonsense about gay & lesbian folk being both a risk to childen – both sexually and that they’d recruit them. (Recuit? What like some sharply dressed, well turned out Empire & Stormtroopers?). Oh, also the crap about if teens are educated about LGBT+ issues, they will be ‘on the turn’.
Given that nonsense has mostly gone away – although a number of frankly, sinister forces; are trying to turn the clock back – have turned their Eye of Sauron to the trans community. Exactly the same playbook as before around recruitment, kids, ‘husbands on the turn’. Regarding the latter, there was a Pythonesq news item about some loons reporting on the risks of ‘sissy porn’. A form of pornography so dangerous that just one watch would turn a cis man person trans. Really? 🙄 Ignoring the insanity of that statement, if it was true, then according to the recent reports of which Americans view certain types of -ahem- erotica online, the red states are about to turn a fabulous pink, given their watching habits.
So, other than this being my usual soapbox topic, why bring it up now? Well, in a word witches. A look back at the allegations talk about trying to steal kids, steal husbands, ‘turn’ a wife, etc. Yes, all threats to the cishet normality! 🙄 IMO, it’s been interesting – as a slightly kooky neurospicy trans person – to watch the historians and feminists pick through the blather, and look to what’s more likely. A group of people without power – often women – who lived outside of the norm and/or practiced healing…. which ticked off those in charge; like the Church or our usual Old Boy Power Network. Two networks that have a really good track record of not abusing people and covering it up, right? 🙂↔️Yeah, I’ll get my coat…. and broom.
Blogiversary
Missing my own blogiversary eh? Tsk tsk and tut tut. You’d think I’d put it in my diary so I could remember. But no, that would be far too simple! Crikey, ninteen years of a post per week – give or take midweek missives and holidays. I feel that I should be saving some great feedback or insight for the twenieth anniversary next year, but I guess I’ve got a while to work on that! 🙂
I think if I had to pick a theme for this time around, I would say it’s been a bit of a long journey. I wouldn’t say slog, but it’s not always been easy going. But then, isn’t that true of life in general? 🤔
To get the bad stuff ot of the way: the panic attack stuff, the wobbles, neurodiversity issues – and I’m still waiting on a diagnose for that – and my failing to be kind to myself. But I have surivived. Stumbled, slowed: yes, but I’m still here 🙏
I think I often focus on the ‘what could be better’ but if I can park that bias for a mo, and – if you pardon the return to metaphor – if you’re on a long journey, sometimes it’s a good thing to pause and look at the view. Yeah, there’s some way to go, but you can also see how far you’ve come.
With that in mind, this year I have brought the therapy sessions to an end and I’m no longer taking anti-depressant medication. Ooo, get her with her Big Girl Pants on! 😜I’ve not had my Post August Let’s Go Crackers episode – for which I am very grateful.
Body-wise – which helps with the mind – things are better than last year. For that I’m grateful as it takes away a lot of negativity and on most days, I’m just okay… and okay is good. I’m taking steps to change my diet (bread seems to be my nemesis) and I’ve remaining booze free (TBH, that was pretty easy given I’m not a drinker).
Chams seems to have picked up this year and got into its stride, which is very cool. The forum is more active, the forum update worry has been removed, and if anything, we’re often starting to run short of chairs for the meetings. I would say that’s a good thing.
So, yeah, good times 💖
L x
Happy blogiversary (or is it blogversary? meh, tomato tomAto). 19 is kinda grown up now, but not enough to be boring. Looking forward to more years of Lynn stuff to read about. Glad things are on an even keel.
Most of the Hate Brigade have realised that women’s rights have gone beyond the point of return – restriction, maybe, but return to the days of women being chattels, no. Gay rights now probably the same. So they now try a smaller group of people to clobber, i.e. us, in the hope that that might work. I come from a family of haters whose energy is given over to hating and harming anyone they have been told to suppress by their religious leaders (all of them men in a rigid hierarchy), all in the name of good order in society and control of reproductive rights. It’s a tragic waste of energy for the followers but somehow men driven to control others seem to achieve this dominance over hearts and minds quite easily and that puzzles me. You’d have thought that obvious brutes and crooks like Trump would be rejected by society but they thrive instead.
As for bread, I find that anything involving fermentation is the most fattening thing you can consume: bread, beer, alcohol, cheese… Those little yeasts like to sneak out of the products once you open them, hop into the wardrobe and tighten the seams on our clothes. They’re cheeky little imps.
Sue x
🎶 Potato potaRto! Let’s call the whole thing off! 🎶 😁
Thanks, Sue for the kind words. Funny you should say nineteen as an age. As I drove home with Child 2.0 last night, my eye caught the clock at around eight thirty. I was very much looking forward to getting home and putting my feet up. I then smiled to myself, thinking that at 19, I would have been getting ready to go to a metal club. I think that didn’t open until after 930, maybe even 10pm.
On the subject of Womens’ Rights, Mrs J was telling me about a history book aged been reading. She mentioned that it wasn’t until the late 60s (early 70s) that a woman could have her own bank account in the UK. That meant owning property as an unmarried woman – adding to the difficulties for lesbian, aromantic, and/or widowed people. There’s other weird sh** where you look back and go “but why?!”. The past is a funny place and I think more equality and equity would be a good thing ✊🩷
Thanks for the suggestion about yeast, I’d not considered that angle. Hmm 🤔 I’ve cut back on cheese – even though it’s soooo tasty! – because it’s high fat and the salt ain’t good for my blood pressure. I wonder what a week without bread and AF beer might do? I may give that a go and see how things play out.
If a single glance at an online brolita picture can turn an unsuspecting cis person trans, it’s surprising the doomsayers have not yet turned their guns on Ru Paul’s Drag Race as a method of enticing unwary viewers into a life of bouffant wigs, heels and sequins. Or have they?..(ominous music).
Or maybe it just doesn’t. Watching nature documentaries hasn’t so far turned me into a penguin (or Michaela Strachan, more’s the shame. Big teenage crush there.)
19 years. Wow. That’s some stint in the blogosphere.
Giving up everything you like might be good for your body, but it might not be good for your soul. Can you have moderate indulgence?
Just how many cauldrons do you have, by the way?
The cauldron quip made me laugh, thank you! 😁
The whole ‘fear of the other’ and then the objectification, just meh… or more accurately “really?!!” 🙄 We’ve been here before with certain folk damning certain minorities and then, well, related rudery behind the scenes. Hypocritical much? 🙄
But moving to in more positive things, thank you for the kind words about the blog. It’s been a while hasn’t it! 🙂 I think it’s the longest hobby – if you can call it that – I’ve stuck with.
Hmm. So I think I’ll be skipping bread and related things to find out if they’re affecting me. As much as I am partial to it, I find it’s not that filling, so maybe I’ll not miss it.
Congrats on the 19 years! That’s quite the milestone (note, not a millstone).
Also yay on the mental health front – that’s probably a bigger achievement, come to think of it, but harder to quantify and thus celebrate. Nevertheless, throws some glitter and blows a party horn(? is that really their name?) Celebration! Confetti
The ‘worry’ by the haters is, actually, not that new – it’s just the latest fringe bizarre-ness to hit the mainstream: there was an online niche panic about ‘sissy hypno’ in the late 2000s – about how it would turn straight men gay, I guess the latest minority is trans* now so… yeah. Point is, that cycle is speeding up – maybe the bigot wash cycle is drawing to a close soon and we can empty the machine…
Toot toot on the trumpet of, ummm, tremendousnessness? 😁
Sissy Hypno sounds like an awesome type of dance music! 🙂 Would it be wrong to put about the rumour that certain right wing video feeds have subliminal Sissy Hypno buried in the voice track? 😁
I would very much enjoy the end of the bigot wash cycle. Everything you put in it comes out ‘ultra white’. Well, except shirts, they come out brown.
See you in the survival bunker next week and thanks for the kind words.
I just knew you’d be able to run further and faster with the wash cycle metaphor! I was not disappointed. XD
Sorry! My brain just works that way and it was a very good setup by you 😁