Posts by Emma Hart
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Up Front: Lighting the Dark, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Question: are gendered terms more helpful when they are positive, like girl power?
Is "girl power" a positive when it's used about grown women?
Gender stereotyping is always a mix of positive and negative traits. Women are caring. Men are strong. Those are positive things.
I think it pays to sometimes stop and think about why you're using a particular phrase. When you say something like "girl power", what is it you're actually describing? Is it specific to one gender? Is it something shared by all or most members of that gender? If the answer to either question is no, is there a reason to use a gender-specific term to describe it? If not, maybe don't.
-
Up Front: Lighting the Dark, in reply to Grant McDougall,
Fair call, but I think you’re getting the wrong end of the stick. But let’s be realistic about this: would he have murdered all those people if guns weren’t so easily available ? I doubt it.
No. Not the conversation we're having, okay? I'm not saying it's not a valid discussion, but it's not the one we're having here. Please respect that.
-
Up Front: Lighting the Dark, in reply to Russell Brown,
If you read Rodger’s “manifesto” (and I actually don’t recommend it),
Yeah, I consciously haven’t included any of his words or even mentioned his name, because
a) I don’t want this discussion to be too difficult for, y’know, people like me, and I know it sounds ridiculous but quite literally the mere sight of his face makes me feel physically sick, and
b) I think there’s been enough talking about him. He’d love it, everybody sitting around talking about him all the time.Our society currently states that it’s the others fault I feel bad. They are to blame and deserve punishment because they made me feel this way. Revenge is justified. That’s BS!
The cultural narrative for women is that if they can’t get a boyfriend, it’s their own failing for not being pretty enough. We never invite women to blame men for not finding them attractive. The temptation for any individual to blame other people for their failures is very strong. When you’re basically handed the script?
Rodger never did and it worries me how many men there are like him.
I was late to realising that people thought like this – men and women, who see the entire opposite sex as one undifferentiated mass. I wonder if it’s partly a function of being Bi that I find it like trying to talk to someone from a different planet.
-
Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Dianne Mitchell,
cremated at Bromley Crematorium,ashes scattered in the rose gardens according to their card index
Did the index give a location for her plaque? Those rose gardens are just around the corner from me...
-
Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Dianne Mitchell,
but I would hazard a guess to say that Caledonian and Webb Streets in St Albans weren’t too far away.
They're about three blocks apart.
-
Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Alan Perrott,
can I just say this is top telly…now, as you were.
Innit? I would watch the hell out of this show.
-
Feed: Meals for Me, in reply to Brent Jackson,
No one else in your family cooks ? That’s a bit sad…
My partner really can't cook, and he pulls his weight around the house in other ways, so that's okay. For a while last year we'd got into a really good routine where once a week one of our teenagers would cook. It's harder this year with our son at uni and sports and stuff that means they don't get home til quite late sometimes, but we really should get back on to it.
I complain about it, but man, when the kids leave home I will bloody miss it.
-
On the rare occasions I get to be by myself for a while, I tend to forget to do things like eat, and go to bed. So I make a point of cooking myself something really nice so I’ll bother. I’m a ‘cooking is love’ person, and I’ve learned to be okay with some serious self-love. Steak is a favourite: taking the time to perfectly cook a single piece of steak is a fantastic sort of zen-like change from the normal family cooking I do six days a week every week all the time.
Either, with a little side of potatoes and greens, is a delight.
To be honest, I often ‘forget’ the sides, and it’s just steak au steak. But I’ve recently found the perfect way to cook green beans. Blanch them, and while they’re cooling fry a couple of chopped-up rashers of bacon til crispy. Lower the heat and add a T of balsamic vinegar. When the bacon has soaked up almost all of that, throw in the beans, and grind a bit of pepper over. Bloody lovely.
The other approach I take ‘just for me’ is the ‘omelette that’s bordering on frittata’. Potatoes, eggs, whatever veggies are around, lots of parmesan. Quick and yummy. Maybe some bacon. Bacon is awesome.
-
A/ I am, from time to time, disabled by my illness, much as you would disable a rifle or a USB device. Fatigue and pain give me enormous problems with mobility, and my flare-ups of ‘not being able to walk across the room’ mean I can’t work a conventional job. Coping strategies over the last nearly two decades have been about changing my life and my world so that my illness disables me as little as possible.
B/ My daughter is hearing-impaired from birth. Her hearing loss is at a level where she can cope – in a disabled fashion – in the hearing world, and so I often feel she stands separated from both that, and the Deaf world.
C & D/ I have friends and co-workers who are disabled in the same way I am – by chronic illness. The internet is stuffed full of people dealing with issues like mine.
F/ It’s not really possible to have a disabled child and not become saturated with information – good or not – about disability.
-
Up Front: Just Like Unicorns, in reply to Anne R,
I’ve attempted to define sex as a conversation held between bodies
Does this, to you, necessarily involve physical contact, or the participants being in the same space? Also, "between" seems to require at least two bodies.