Last night, two white middle-class women – Conservative MP Louise Mensch, and left-wing activist Laurie Penny – sat on BBC Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, discussing Louise Mensch’s article in the Guardian, about whether you could be a feminist and also a Tory. Exciting stuff, I think you’ll agree. Roughly 765.94 watched these two feminists fighting over who represents women the best, which, by the standards of programs-about-feminism, is not bad going.Jodie Marsh was not on Newsnight, of course. She was …
This, right here, is the type of feminism I feel comfortable putting my name to. It’s about ALL of us.
Well, that was a crash course in frustration. On Tuesday I rang Motability to try and get a referral to my nearest driver assessment centre so I could be absolutely sure what I want and need from new Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV).
I was asked a few questions by the person on the other end of the phone….and promptly refused a grant for a WAV I can drive myself. I don’t meet any of the criteria (mainly not having a job) but I can apply for one that would make me the passenger only. What the tartan fuck is the point of that!? I’d be no better off than I am with the car I’ve got now. The whole point of me getting the WAV is that I will have total freedom to lead my own life, and it also increases my chances of getting a job tenfold.
And really, is it too much to ask to be able to get in my car and take myself off for the day without needing to make sure there’s someone at the other end of my journey to sort out my wheelchair? Am I not allowed ONE freakin day in my own company?
Right now I am feeling utterly deflated. All my plans for this year centred around that car and if I can’t get it… I can’t give up. I won’t give up. But I may just need to go away and have a little cry first.
Dad and I have been batting around alternative ideas for finance. One option is a ready-converted WAV but that would involve a Hire-Purchase agreement and wouldn’t cover things like insurance and roadside assistance which make Motability the only affordable way for me to have a car in the first place.
I’m going to name-drop here because Kerry at Holden Mobility has been awesome so far. I’ve been emailing her today about this new curve-ball and she’s given me plenty of ideas about appealing decisions etc.
I was not offered the opportunity to be referred to the driver assessment centre, though I was offered a grant application form which I accepted. When I received the application form, I noted that section 4 is specifically for applicants who wish to drive their WAV, which confused me somewhat as I was lead by the guy at the grants department to believe that grants are currently only available to those customers who wish to use the car as a passenger, not the driver.
**Sigh** I’m going to bang my head on the nearest wall now. I may be some time….
This whole article is a parody of this. If you haven’t read the horrible Rod Liddle piece, you probably won’t get this. My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become a bigot. Nothing too bigotty: a light moment of racism posing as ‘political incorrectness’ on national TV; working myself into a really frothing high dudgeon at the idea of the poor once a week; or that newly-invented bigotry: hatred of the disabled. There’s lots of money to be made from being a bigot. If you can reliably work the readers of …
This is what a massive pile of humorous bloggy WIN looks like. Bless Nathaniel Tapley
VALENTINES DAY PRICE MASSACARE!!! 20% of your jewellery order until March 1st. Coupon code: ALCAPONE
I’ve got lots of lovely jewellery, just perfect for your girlfriend, mum, sister or aunty (because Valentines Day is about all forms of love!). Just hop on over to my shop for a peek!
McDonald Granted Furlough to Work, Denied Request to Return to College December 20, 2011 Contact: Katie Burgess, Executive Director, Trans Youth Support Network (TYSN) transyouthsupportnetwork@gmail.com, (612) 363-7574; and Billy Navarro, Jr., MN Transgender Health Coalition, mntranspr@gmail.com, (612) 823-1152 Minneapolis – This afternoon, Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald appeared in court for a hearing where it was decided that her trial will begin on April 30, 2012, instead of the original start date of …
On December 16, continue to call, email, and fax Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and demand he drop the charges against CeCe. This time, we are extending the call-in to include Assistant Attorney Marlene Senechal, head of adult prosecution. LET’S LET FREEMAN AND SENECHAL KNOW THAT WE WONT STAND FOR THE RACIST, TRANSPHOBIC PROSECUTION OF CECE! While Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is being prosecuted for murder after being violently attacked for her race and gender, Freeman’s office recently declined …
Last year, around this time actually, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, came to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego where I was working as a Series Commander for recruit training. I was in the middle of my second cycle in that position, and I was eager to hear what our Commandant had to say about the status of our Corps, from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to personnel issues, particularly the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” I had been following the news on DADT …
This is the most touching, inspiring thing I’ve read for quite some time. I’m just sorry we had to wait until 2011 to see this day come.
If you’re ever stuck for a blog topic, head over to plinky.com and have a look at their prompts. I’ve copied a few to my computer for those times when I feel the need to communicate but can’t get started. Today is such a time so I thought I’d start with this question:
What does home mean to you?
For some it’s a geographic location. For some it’s where blood relatives are, but for me it’s wherever I feel in my proper headspace. Any place or person that gives me the time and space to feel relaxed enough express the most positive aspects of my personality is home for me.
At this particular point in my life, I feel like I’ve been away from home for a long, long time and I’m finally returning to what Clarissa Pinkola Estés would call my ‘pack’ (the premise of her book being that ‘a healthy woman is much like a healthy wolf’). It’s been a long and bumpy ride to find my soul-mates but finally I feel like I’m getting there.
The first and most crucial step in finding out where you belong and with whom you belong, involves taking space to be on your own for a while and find out who you are. Well, I spent that time alone, did a lot of thinking, questioning and discovering. After this period was over I felt it was time to find out who I was in the context of my relationships with other people.
When I joined a group of artists for my degree nearly four years ago, I was happy and excited because I thought I was on my way to finding my place in the world. However, it soon became obvious that I had nothing in common with them. The ways in which I used art to express my truth were deeply misunderstood, and criticized for not being of a very specific nature. As a consequence I began to mistrust my deepest instincts and fear that I was ‘doing it wrong’ – that I was wrong for the pack, when truth be told that pack was wrong for me. At the time I couldn’t see it and instead I scuttled back into my shell sure in the knowledge that I had failed as a ‘proper artist’ and didn’t have anything of worth to give to anyone. This episode also re-affirmed my conviction that I didn’t need or want a pack – that I truly was a solitary animal. Now, however that I’m starting to feel a sense of belonging I realize that I’m most definitely not a solitary animal, I just function best in the company of a particular kind of person who understands my nature and gives me plenty of breathing space.
Recently, something really interesting started happening, and it’s all thanks to Twitter. I started being ‘followed’ by people whose interest in me was completely mystifying (I’m often genuinely baffled to find that people like me). People who awakened a part of me I’d buried away a long time ago and buried it so deep I didn’t even recognize it as an aspect of who I used to be. However, the more willing I was to let go of these false impressions I had of myself and fully engage with these people the happier, the lighter, and the more ‘right-minded’ I’ve become. After years of anxious searching my pack is finding me.
The hardest part of all this for me right now is learning to find my confidence with people again, to connect and trust that these new people in my life really can become friends who will to protect, nurture and teach me, instead of playing nice when there’s something in it for them then clearing off when I’ve outlived my usefulness or the novelty factor has worn off. I also need to learn to trust my skills and my ability to be a useful and competent member of the pack.
Then there’s the softening – oh boy, that’s a tough one. I’ve been on ‘lock down’ for so long to protect myself against ‘fair weather friends’ that to find yourself amongst genuine, decent people is at the same time a heart-warming and incredibly uncomfortable experience, but it’s a discomfort I’m more than ready to feel – that I MUST feel – if I am to move forward.
It’s all very exciting and absolutely terrifying but like I said in my last blog, this kind of fear is far healthier than the type that’s kept me separated from true self for too long.
Now, can we just get into 2012 so I can get cracking, please!?
* Blog title taken from a chapter of ‘Women Who Run with The Wolves’ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
We are currently desperately trying to find homes for literally thousands of battery hens in Cornwall that are coming out just before Christmas. It is heartbreaking to think we are going to have to go into the farm, rescue the lucky few and leave those other poor tragic girls in there, when we know what their fate will be. They have had no chance of a decent life and now they will be heading to their deaths. So every home we can find will be a life saved. If you or anyone you know can offer a home to some …
