Balcony related matters

Hiya,

If you’re reading (or raging 😜) this through the new AI system, Bigotovision, the above greeting should be welcome, cis-y botherers 😁

I think I’ll forgo any reporting of Biogot(s) of the Week*, given A) we’ll be here a while, B) I’ll save it for satire later, and C) shall we have a post just about good things? 🩷

[ Hmmm…. Bigot(s) of the Weak? 🙃 My old school cynicism always plays the line “What’s this guy selling?” ]

Research

Earlier this week I had an interview – no, not employment related – about LGBTQIA+ people who worked in education. Specifically around the lived experiences, impacts of policies, and the good/could be better off it.

I won’t reiterate it all – brevity, yo 🙂 – but I will say that my experiences were quite the mixed bag with different organisations. The good news, IMO, is that the organisations were progressive, did their best to support queer folk, but sometimes, they missed the mark. I think on the latter, part of it was just not knowing, some of it was forgetting to ask, and some of it was forced upon them.

There’s an old and much repeated line from Donald Rumsfeld: “But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know…” The latter being, IMO, that we are so far away from understanding, we don’t know where to look or who to ask. However, I would add, that if you’re going to do equality checks or implement -ahem- gender categories in HR/finance, you might want to talk with the people you are looking to obtain data about. That, and if said folk are nervous about sharing who they truly are, you may want to take steps to explain why you’d like to know, where the data may go, and how you can ensure it’s anonymous.

I’ve said before that there’s a high level of ‘mental heavy lifting’ that comes with being in the closet at work. Watching what I talk about – or more accurately, what I don’t talk about – is hard. I haven’t said anything about the work I do at Chams or the outreach stuff, because that’s an open door to a conversation I feel fully safe in having. Twenty five years ago, that would be have been through shame. Now, it’s more fear of social persecution or the whiff of blood in the water for the office’s resident gobs**te.

Yet I’m reminded of a quote I heard this week on the radio: Your Silence Will Not Protect You which, I think, is the title and/or a set of works by Audre Lorde (renown feminist). I feel this intersects – see what I did there? 😉 – with the old IT adage of security through obscurity. That programming code should be hidden, and security risks shouldn’t be spoken about. Thankfully, we have mostly moved on from that in today’s always online, always updating culture. But it’s still a think: that hiding to remain secure, well, it’s not really security if you’ve not protection. Difficult though, when you feel you don’t have the power to protect you and yours.

So, the aim of the research is – as far as I understand it – what the effects to teaching and organisations on not supporting queer staff. Certainly a loss of productivity and greater risk of burnout/mental health issues, spring to mind. I did – being a cheeky mare – suggest to the researcher than as well as focusing on the ethics of the situation, helping senior managers understand that their actions can improve staff performance might win some of the more unemphatic decision makers.

Chams – oh what a night!

Feel free to sing that last bit. I dare say you’ll have a better voice than I. Still, I’d probably be quids in for that job in keeping birds off the fields eh? 😁

Despite the ring road being at a standstill and application of some local knowledge, I managed to get to Chams HQ on time. I’d packed two long sleeved dresses, boots and opaques thinking it was going to be a cool evening. However, a mid afternoon dog walk soon nudged my Spider Sense that maybe something more summery may be a good idea. So, I packed the dress the Ever Lovely Mrs J bought for me many birthdays ago.

I have, perhaps from being up & about more, somehow lost a bit of weight. Now, I don’t weigh myself, but I do go on how well my clothes fit (or don’t). I guess I’m still 16/18, but rather than heading to the 18 end of the numbers, I’m leaning slightly more towards the 16.

[ If I was a skilled satirist, I’d make a joke about a disgraced business mogul, and ages; but that may darken the mood 😉 I would also not want to make light of the what the victims of the crimes have had to put up with 😒 No names, please; just nod and move along. I am hoping justice will follow the trail; slow, yes, but inevitable and unescapable ]

Back to better news – said dress requires a bit of shapewear as – like most folk – I’ve a wee tum, and the dress is very fitted. Indeed I had forgotten that it does – to use a French term – have a lot of people on the balcony 🫢 No, I don’t know what the exact French is – I’m not that educated! 😁

I’d also forgotten that and it also ends above the knee…. but in an effort to not give in to floor length tweeds, I carried on. You may judge for yourselves here 😉

Despite a touch of nerves – and thank you Anne for the supportive words ❤️ – I decided to not change. Well, I did have my Magical Big Girls Pants on 😉

Knickers!

Talking of Magical Big Girl Pants, I can reveal – “oo-er, missues!” 🙂 – that the mystery product the Chams massive have been testing, is a new range of tucking underwear from Snag Tights.

The feedback is in and both Snag and Chams folk are pleased with the results. The items are not yet on sale, and when they are, I’ll be sure to mention them to you.

Oh, and in the spirit of disclaimers and honesty; I am not getting any money, vouchers, kickback, from the vendor. What we did get, was about a dozen-ish pairs of knickers to try and feedback on.

Wigeroo & keep your hair on

This Chams night was quite busy as we had Wigeroo visit us. Nicola and Donna came along with various wigs and accessories, providing their high levels of excellent customer care and all round awesomeness. ❤️ If you’re based in the midlands, do check Wigeroo out; Nicola is 100% accepting of trans folk, and she’ll set you right with the hair that works for you (and your budget).

Do I need to do a disclaimer here saying I’m not getting owt in payment for this? Sheesh 😁

As it was my birthday earlier in the month, I decided to bring along some cake to celebrate with the group. Now I can definitely say I am not on the payroll for the Co-op 😁 We had a coffee & walnut cake and also a lemon drizzle one. Both were surprisingly popular and luckily the stash of paper plates came in. There was enough for a few folk to have seconds…. but only because my slicing skills required both Maths skills and planning. I’ll let you be the judge of the outcome of both of those shortcomings 😉

In terms of the evening itself, a number of folk got to try different ‘dos and a few folk had a trim to smarten their existing hair up. I saw a lot of happy faces that night, and I think that makes all the organisation worth it. That you know folk have gotten something from the evening.

Oh, and yes, I did get an older wig of mine restyled. Thankfully, Nic was able to straighten it out after my use of rollers and beach wave attempts. I think it’ll need a condition to help relax it a little and bring a bit more sleekness to it. Mind you, that’s more me being a fussy mare, than any comment on Nicola’s amazing hairstyling skills ❤️

It’s all over bar the Hoovering

With such a busy night, it was all hands to the pumps when it came to tidying up. Val, Joanna, and others sorted the washing up, while Anne whipped round the changing room with Henry the Hoover. Muggings here did fetch and carry said appliance, which was a bit touch & go for an asthmatic in heels on the stairs. 😁

Gah, imagine coming round in A&E, laid on a stretcher in your fave party frock, one heel on, and the other foot in a safety boot. Thankfully, that did not happen!

So it all went rather well. Indeed, I should give a shout of thanks to Val for her professionalism in keeping the camera steady. This was during some good natured ribbing from Stevie, Diane, and Rosalyn at my expense. It’s fine, I’ll just put their attendance fees up next time 😁 Silly comments aside, I did corpse a few times and I was glad of the shared laughter.

All in all, a fab way to end the evening.

L x