Writing Off the Edge: WEP April Challenge-Freedom Morning

Writing Off the Edge: WEP April Challenge-Freedom Morning: Hello everyone! It's time for WEP's April Challenge! This month's challenge draws inspiration from the wonderful work of art FRE...

I always shake my head when people say that issues such as racism and sexism no longer exist. They clearly do.

Ornery Book Reviews: Opaque

Genre: 
Young Adult/Paranormal Romance/Sci-Fi

Rating: 
Three out of Four stars for Online Book Club, 
Three out of Five stars for Amazon

Disclosure:
If readers purchase a copy of this book through the above link, I will earn a small commission from Amazon.
This review is a duplicate of my Amazon review for this book.
I received an advance copy of this book for review purposes.

Read my exclusive Online Book Club review for this book here.

This story has a fascinating premise and compelling characters. Adam is a young man who is unaware that he has superhuman abilities until Carly comes to his school and teaches him the truth about himself. Adam initially presents as potentially being a sociopath and certain of his actions and their consequences (or lack thereof) are the reasons why I question whether this book should be categorized as a young adult novel although the protagonists are teenagers.

Adam experiences romantic attraction to his mother. Although the author avoids graphic detail, incestuous fantasies are a rather taboo subject, perhaps best left in adult fiction. At one point, Adam's disturbing behavior leads to the death of a young woman and he suffers no real consequences for his actions. I found this plot device unsettling.

The book suffers to a degree from The Twilight Problem. "You can redeem the bad boy" is a terrible message to be imparting to young girls. Carly, Adam's love interest, is so concerned with saving Adam that she ignores his abusive and violent actions. For a female character to be completely wrapped up in saving a significant other who presents a danger to her sends a dangerous and frankly sexist message. I am frustrated by stories which present female characters only as foils and helpmates to badly behaved males.

Further, I was appalled by the frequent references to Carly's apparently ample yet shapely buttocks and to the scene describing her stripping down to her underclothes. I found it unsettling to be reading a voyeuristic description of a teenage girl undressing.

I nearly stopped reading this book when the author made the unfortunate decision to use a psychological condition as an adjective to describe certain of Adam's behaviors that Carly found irritating.

"She sighs at his bipolar actions.”

The author is using the term "bipolar" to mean mercurial or changeable, and this is an utterly offensive thing to do. Individuals who live with bipolar disorder are as varied in their behaviors as those who do not have this condition. I am 55 years old and have type 2 bipolar disorder. I do not tend to present as mercurial or changeable and, in fact, I tend to present as staid and sedate. What people do not see below the surface is the fact that I am constantly fighting against low self-esteem and suicide ideation. The battles of me and others with this serious psychiatric condition should not be reduced to an adjective describing undesirable behavior on the part of a character in a novel. To do so is extremely dismissive and insulting. I would hope that no-one would ever say something like "she sighs at his cancer actions" to describe the behaviors of a person who is weak and tired. Why in the world would anyone think it's okay to do this sort of thing regarding psychiatric conditions?

Although I found the characters compelling, to a degree I also found them two-dimensional. Adam's father was the only character who wasn't Hollywood-pretty.

If the reader can overlook these faults, they will likely be drawn into the story. It is probably okay for older teens to read this book, but I would advise against giving it to anyone under sixteen.

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Rudeness vs. Encouraging Violence

Kate Scottow, the woman on the right, was threatened with jail time for insulting Stephanie Hayden, on the left, and referring to Hayden with "he" and "him" pronouns.

Granted, it's rude to call someone a pig in a wig. But women are called far worse by trans rights activists for being critical of procedures such as giving children puberty blockers. Women get called names like "TERF c**t," and nobody gets up in arms about it. The trans rights activists encourage people to "punch a TERF." Basically, a TERF is any woman who does not agree with 100% of their agenda. Further, women are constantly belittled for our physical appearances, whether for our size, our race, our age, or some other factor. We are called dehumanizing names such as "front hole havers." Nobody gets up in arms or tries to jail those hurling these insults at women. "Pig in a wig" is mild by comparison.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/14/mum-spared-jail-calling-trans-woman-pig-wig-twitter-12241097/?ito=cbshare

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Call a trans woman a "pig in a wig" and you will face jail time.

Meanwhile:

Click to enlarge. Screenshot of violent tweets encouraging people to engage in violence against women. Source: terfisaslur.com

We are supposed to condone and accept violent rhetoric encouraging violent acts against women for disagreeing with any of the TRA agenda.

This whole business reeks of misogyny.

Sly's WTF Wednesday + Ornery Reviews: Don't Be Like a Girl and Play Through the Pain

Disclosure: If readers purchase a copy of the book through the preview link, I will receive a small commission from Amazon.

Man Mission is actually a very enjoyable book, and I recommend it. The following comes from a discussion of the Pink Bracelet Rule: he who whines loudest wears the pink bracelet. 

This rule is amusing in the context of the book and is in keeping with the book's characters. However, I had a few thoughts.

I've always found the "don't be like a girl" thing to be both sexist and untrue. Girls have plenty of strength and ability. What are we telling boys about girls when being "like a girl" is an insult?

The pink bracelet bit was fitting for the dudebro camaraderie in the story. However, in real life, "playing through the pain" tends to lead to lasting problems, and it isn't only guys who do it. I ignored numbness and tingling in the fingers of my left hand and kept working a job with a lot of heavy lifting for months until one day I woke up with my left arm in excruciating pain. I didn't have insurance and had to quit my job and wait a month until I could get Medicaid and get physical therapy. The pain was so bad that I considered committing suicide. It took a long time for the arm to become anywhere close to normal again. It still isn't entirely normal, and I still have to be careful with it so I don't exacerbate the injury that I allowed to become as bad as it did by "trying not to whine" and "playing through the pain."

Last time I checked, I was a woman. This bad idea isn't reserved for men, although for some inane reason society pats them on the back for it.

What the fuck, you guys?

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Literary Services

Will work for links and tips

An Analysis of Gone With the Wind

Hattie McDaniel

10 June 1893 - 26 October 1952

I suggest reading Carrie-Anne Brown's thoughtful analysis of Gone With the Wind. 

A wonderful analysis indeed. I thought that Gone With the Wind was very well-written, and I thought that the movie version was very well-made. That being said, I can see the horrific levels of racism and sexism in both. 

Too many people these days refuse to take an objective view of anything, and anyone who has the least little favorable thing to say about a work that has been deemed problematic is automatically a horrible monster who approves of terrible things. It is very difficult to have a thoughtful discussion anymore.

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 16: Break Free of Tyranny

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

it seems to me

that for a nation of people

who love to talk about freedom

there were all too damn many of us

willing to trade our freedom

to be under the orange thumb

of a tangerine despot

now it's time

to put up or shut up

now it's time

to take our country back

now it's time

to realize that electing

a rude, loudmouthed reality tv star

with an ego the size of Jupiter

was a really stupid idea

and now it's time

to impeach the sonofabitch

who shouldn't have been in the White House

in the first damn place

now it's time

to fix our mistake

and really make America great

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Notes:

The November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt for today was to write a "free" poem. So I decided to move over, Rover, and let Sly take over and write a free verse about breaking free from the tRump tyranny. No putting a fine point on this one. Impeach the illegitimate bastard. 

Yes, Pence is his own brand of awful. We'll deal with him next.

Even more worrisome to me than the fact that Lord Dampnut and the Gentleman Serial Killer ran for office is the fact that there were enough people willing to vote for them that they got elected. Anyone who thinks that we live in a country where racism, sexism, classism, and all the other shitty little isms are a thing of the past is, as Flavor Flav once said, blind from the facts.

OctPoWriMo 2019: Day 3: Aunt Cie's Soapbox: Leave My Old Womb Alone (Choka)

Image by Solarus from Pixabay

lay off my old womb

I am not a candidate

for new motherhood

I can no longer achieve

reproduction, no

but it would not bring me joy

to endure the pain

of removing my old womb

it is my life choice

to keep my organs intact

despite a slightly

elevated chance that I

develop cancer

somewhere well on down the line

any womb is not

only worth saving when it

is available

to serve as incubator

~Cie~

Note:

The poem references the incidents of 2018 when my life continued revolving around my uterus despite the fact that the painful periods I had endured for 40 years had come to an end. In April of 2017, and again in April of 2018, I experienced post-menopausal bleeding, and in June of 2018, I underwent a D&C to determine the nature of the endometrial cells.

Had the cells been abnormal or the endometrial hyperplasia complex, this would have elevated my risk of future endometrial cancer by 36%, in which case I would have opted for a hysterectomy.

My cells were normal and it was simple hyperplasia. This only increases the risk of endometrial cancer by 1.6%. In the end, I felt that the risks posed by undergoing a hysterectomy, which is a major surgery no matter how casual a spin doctors try to put on it, were greater than opting for a wait and see approach. 

Post-menopausal endometrial hyperplasia can occur for a variety of reasons. It is more common in Caucasian women, in women over fifty, in women with a larger body type, and in diabetic women. I am a large Caucasian woman over fifty with a large body type who has diabetes. As it turned out, I also had a number of small fibroids in my uterus which were probably irritating the endometrium and causing it to overgrow.

My primary care physician wanted me to have a hysterectomy.

My OB/GYN wanted me to have a hysterectomy.

The gynecologic oncologist whom I consulted wanted me to have a hysterectomy.

This despite the fact that all of them quoted a very low increased likelihood of the type of hyperplasia I was experiencing ever developing into cancer.

I had one of those obnoxious trans-vaginal ultrasounds in February of this year which showed that the endometrial lining was still slightly thicker than normal but had greatly reduced in size and was within the perimeters of acceptable. I did not experience bleeding in April of this year. My OB/GYN wanted to do another D&C, but I said no. There was no presenting reason to undergo a procedure that leaves me feeling like someone has been up in my business with a cheese grater.

I consulted with a radiologist who specializes in a procedure called uterine artery embolization, which utilizes tiny radioactive grains to block the uterine arteries and cut off the blood supply to the fibroids so they shrink and cease to cause trouble. As opposed to a hysterectomy, which is a major surgery, this is a minimally invasive approach. The doctor told me I was not a candidate for the procedure because fibroids will shrink on their own after menopause, but she agreed with me that since I had not experienced post-menopausal bleeding this year, the endometrial thickness is within acceptable boundaries, and my hyperplasia is the low-risk variety for future development of cancer, a wait and see approach makes sense in my case. She discussed this with my OB/GYN and the gynecologic oncologist, and they agreed with her.

During The Year Of Focusing Way Too Much On My Uterus, I learned just how quick doctors are to recommend a hysterectomy to post-menopausal women. If a woman can no longer serve as a baby factory, let's just yank the old plumbing out, risks be damned. The fact is, major surgery is always risky although sometimes the risks of surgery are necessary. It is also a fact that the female reproductive system provides benefits to its owner even after menopause and unless it is malfunctioning in a way that makes life unacceptably uncomfortable or poses risks to a woman's health, it's best to leave it alone.

Uterus: it's not just for incubating infants. 

That's been Aunt Cie's Soapbox, Ladies! Hysterectomy is sometimes necessary, but it tends to be overprescribed, particularly in post-menopausal women.

Real Cie Reviews: From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

The following is a duplicate of my Amazon review for this book:

Dr. Ellis does not hold back when telling the story of growing up in the racist South during the years leading to the Civil Rights movement. As a black woman, she faced double the prejudice and was warned not to aim too high. Through hard work, she was able to be successful in many areas, but it did not come without cost, and she often saw less qualified white male colleagues being promoted for positions that she was suited for.

The issues that Dr. Ellis faced are issues that society still struggles with today. 

The author's style is very detailed and academic, and, occasionally, the flow of the narrative slows because she becomes a bit too detailed about subjects which will not hold the interest of the general public. Specifically, the chapter where she describes meeting her journalistic hero, Walter Lippmann, is not likely to hold the interest of a person who is not themselves deeply engrossed in political journalism. 

Overall, Dr. Ellis' story is deeply compelling and will be especially inspiring to women and minorities who continue to face prejudice in the post-Civil Rights era.

You can also read my exclusive review for the Online Book Club here.
Read my Goodreads review here.

Troiku Challenge 2019: Day 9: Pink Flowers Bloom

Image by Angela Yuriko Smith from Pixabay

pink flowers in bloom

for the pretty princesses

darling little girls

pink flowers in bloom

pruned and fed fertilizer

twisted and transformed

for the pretty princesses

gifts wrapped in shiny paper

empty box of lies

darling little girls

hide ugly little secrets

not pretty inside

~Cie~

Notes:

A Senryu in honor of little girls who are taught from a young age that our only real worth is in our ability to be pleasing to the eyes and desires of men.

Image Source

1950 Called. They Want Their Dress Codes and Their Labor Minister Back

High heels suck. Let's be real.

You know what sucks even more?

When a man with mothballs between his ears decrees that wearing high heels is "necessary" for women to do their jobs.

If labor minister Takumi Nemoto thinks that high heels are so "appropriate and necessary," let's see him wear them. For a week, even. Let's see what he thinks then.

High heels have been proven to be bad for the foot. They put the foot at an angle which pulls muscles and joints out of alignment. Wearing them for an extended period of time can cause permanent damage.

Both dresses and high heels make women more vulnerable.

Women being ordered to wear dresses and high heels in a business setting stems from an era when women in business were seen as decor with clerical skills. 

It's time to put men like Takumi Nemoto and their mothball-brained ideas about what is "necessary and appropriate" for women on the shelf.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

The Party: A Modern Tale of Prejudice and Revenge

Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau was my inspiration for Aunt Mila

Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie was my inspiration for Maria

The Party

Genre: Supernatural/Horror

Words: 1000

Content Warnings:

Body shaming, sexual assault, profanity, sexism

Rating: PG-13 

Note:

This story was originally published on my flash fiction blog for a Halloween  2018 short stories contest. Pretty much to a person, everyone who commented missed the point about the attitudes of sexism and sizeism and the intersection thereof, which led to the abuse of the protagonist. Readers instead fixated on my modernized take on the magical gender-swap revenge exacted on the protagonists. I was admonished that I should not refer to transgenderism in anything but the most glowing light.

I felt that my reference to gender reassignment was neutral and was only done to put the story in the twenty-first century rather than the nineteenth century. In modern times, gender reassignment surgery is a reality and people are more likely to believe that their relative who has been transformed into the opposite sex underwent gender reassignment surgery than that they were switched to being the opposite sex by magic.

Perhaps I could have done a better job of imparting this idea, but the story was not about gender reassignment. I was rather appalled that a neutral mention of gender reassignment surgery entirely overshadowed the actual point of the story, which was the way society objectifies women, despises and abuses larger women, and excuses the abuse and objectification of women.

There was absolutely no intention of belittling the struggles of transgender people when I wrote this story. I simply wished to modernize the setting rather than going with the old "it's magic, I don't need to explain shit" tactic.

The contentious tale follows below.

~Sly~

“Did they force you to their will, my girl?”

Ludmila Lum’s angular face bore a staid expression, but Maria could see the little vein in her aunt’s set jaw pulsing. Aunt Mila’s warm brown eyes had gone black as the sky over an angry sea, the kind of sky that produced storms which sent ships to their graves on the ocean floor.

Mila’s expression softened at the worry in her niece’s eyes. Her bony hand enfolded Maria’s soft, plump one and a gentle smile pulled at the corner of her mouth.

“It’s all right, Mee-Mee. I am not angry with you. Even if you were drunk or high, even if you were flirting with all the boys. Now, you tell your Auntie Mila, did those boys force you to their will?”

“It wasn’t…sex,” Maria said softly, looking down at her feet. “I suppose I am making too much of nothing, as the University President said.”

Maria’s soft, round face, usually so sweet and happy, reflected shame and self-loathing. Ludmila tried not to project anger, lest her sensitive niece believe the ire was directed at her. Maria was a big girl in a world that made no bones about its hatred of soft, pillowy bodies. Ludmila worked hard to teach Maria to love herself as she was, to give her shy, plump niece the confidence that reflected her loving spirit. Ludmila was enraged that awful people had exploited the innocent girl’s attempt at sociability in an unspeakable way.

“They did not put themselves inside me, Auntie,” Maria explained in a quavering voice. “When they first invited me into the party, they were nice enough. It was guys and girls together, just showing off their costumes, just everybody dancing and having fun. The boy who invited me in, I started to think that perhaps he was falling in love with me, as he seemed only to have eyes for me in those first two hours.”

“Does this boy have a name?” Ludmila inquired.

“Omer, Auntie,” Maria revealed quietly.

“Omer Raines? Doctor Raines’ boy? The one you’ve carried the torch for since you were ten years old?” Ludmila demanded.

Maria nodded, her body shuddering as she wept.

“All these years he was my friend,” she sobbed. “In school, he defended me whenever anyone made pig noises at me or called me names. I thought we were destined to be only friends, but at the party, he seemed to echo my feelings. I gave thanks to Erzulie for the gift. ‘His heart echoes my heart,’ I thought, and at that moment, I was so happy.”

“He brought me to the front of the stage where the band was playing, and he told me to dance,” Maria continued. “’Show the world how beautiful you are, Chere,’ he insisted. ‘Dance for us!’”

“So, I danced, and at first, it seemed that all the years of hate and shame for this big body were burned away. Here I was, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, but a kind queen, not one calling for heads to roll. Everyone was clapping and cheering, and I was dancing, Auntie! I was getting down, and everyone was getting down with me, and no-one was laughing at me. But then the fraternity president gave a signal with his hands, the band changed their tune, and so did everyone else.”

“Any special tune they played?” Ludmila inquired, and by the look in her eyes, Maria was sure her aunt knew the tune she meant.

“The stripper song, you know, the one they always play in cartoons and stuff. I thought it was a joke like maybe some of the fellows would drop their trousers and do a moon, all in fun like that. But then one of the boys called out ‘take it off, Fat Girl.’ I flipped him the bird, still laughing because I thought perhaps it was a joke. But then they started pulling at my clothes, boys and girls alike. There was a blonde girl wearing almost no clothes at all who slapped me and said: ‘you don’t belong at a party, you pig, you belong in a barnyard!’”

Maria shuddered as she dropped to the floor and rested her head against her aunt’s lap. Each of her niece’s violent sobs threatened to shatter Ludmila’s heart.

“They tore the front of my dress and exposed my breasts,” Maria revealed. “The boys were grabbing my breasts and slapping my backside. The skinny blonde girl kicked me in the backside and said ‘get your fat, ugly ass away from our party, Petunia Pig! This party is for people only!’”

“Omer followed me from the party,” Maria continued. “He asked where I was going. I said I was going to the police. He tried to stop me, said it was only a joke that got out of hand. I slapped him and told him to never talk to me again. The police just said I should have known better than to go to such a party. I went right to the home of the University president. He told me that he was sorry it happened and that he would talk to the fraternity President, but he asked me to keep things quiet because we would not want to bring shame upon the school. I have always believed in a just and fair world, Auntie, but I see now there is no justice for people like me.”

“There will be justice,” Ludmila reassured her niece. “You rest now, my love.”

While Maria slept, Ludmila worked her spell.

“Justice is served,” the Voodoo priestess declared, leaning back in her chair.

A day later, there were multiple articles about the sudden rash of gender reassignment surgeries among students and faculty at Bayou College. The wives of both the University president and the chief of the campus police publicly expressed their shock, and local doctor Henri Raines declared that he’d no inkling that so many students, including his own former son Omer, were seeking gender reassignment surgery.

~The Real Cie~

Insecure Writers Support Group + The Cheese Grates It: Banned on Tumblr

Image copyright prettysleepy2

Note: This post contains profanity. If that is a problem for you, please don't continue reading.

You may wonder what this post has to do with the Insecure Writer's Support Group. I argue that freedom of speech is something all writers should be concerned about, and that is why I think this post is appropriate.

Tumblr shadow-banned my slightly naughty Supernatural fan blog.

Not for filthy, filthy Wincest pictures, like you might think. You actually have to go to about the 13th page to find an even remotely NSFW image. 

Nope. I can’t publish or reblog anything to this blog because I was being snarky about Tumblr becoming a kid-friendly playground instead of a platform for adults.

I’m moving wincestshippingtrash to nibblebit, a platform that is similar to Tumblr in the way it functions, and which is a platform geared to adult bloggers. Which is what Tumblr used to pride itself on, but now that they've sold their souls to Yahoo and Verizon, they're trying to present themselves as family friendly. Heck, a lot of the stuff that Tumblr was proud to allow was too rich for my blood, and I'm the founder, editor, and co-writer of the very torrid tales at Naughty Netherworld Press. If I'm nope-ing out because it's too raunchy, you know that shit's raunchy.

Here’s what’s funny. I have blogs on Blogger which I’ve deemed NSFW, even though most of them only contain harsh language. I flag these blogs as “adult” and when people type in the URL, they come to a notice which says “material on this blog has been flagged as only appropriate for adults. Do you wish to continue?” 

Tumblr has something called "safe mode," which prevents adult-flagged blogs from appearing in searches. Wincestshippingtrash was flagged as “adult” by me. It shouldn’t appear in Safe Mode, like, ever.

But it wasn’t even adult content that got the blog banned. It was the fact that I was being cheeky to Tumblr Staff, and they couldn’t deal.

I may be a mess health-wise at this point in my life, but I would fight to the death to preserve freedom of speech. I think that what Tumblr is doing is some East Block level shit. I guess we’ll see how long my primary Tumblr blog remains active what with me speaking out against the Evil Empire this way.

Also, what is this “female presenting nipple” bullshit, Tumblr? To me, that’s sexist AF.

Tumblr looks the other way when it comes to cyberbullying, including telling people to kill themselves or death threats. It's okay to call someone a "fat, ugly cunt," apparently. It's okay to promote violence by encouraging people to "punch a TERF." But Heavens forbid someone shows a bit of butt crack or a "female presenting nipple."

Folks have been circulating this around Tumblr to see how long it takes for it to get flagged. This is how ridiculous things have become.

Tumblr will either do what Blogger did a few years back and backpedal on their decision to ban adult content when they saw that their longtime users were leaving in droves, or they will become a wasteland like Myspace.

Nobody (well, nobody who shouldn't be in jail) wants child porn. The way to deal with that problem is not to ban all adult content. It is to remove the blog presenting it from public view, and do not delete the content because the FBI and Interpol will need access to it, but report the content to the FBI and Interpol. 

Again, freedom of speech is an issue which every writer needs to be concerned about. There are a lot of things which I find offensive, and there are a lot of things that I'm just plain not interested in. However, I believe it is appropriate that even things I deem offensive (such as Stormfront) are allowed a platform. If they go underground, they become even more dangerous. If they are allowed to spout their rhetoric, it is easier to refute them, and also easier for agencies such as the FBI to keep an eye on them.

Tumblr really screwed the pooch with their blanket adult content ban. This pooch. It is not a happy camper and is coming back to bite them on the ass.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

Women are Half of Humanity

This is a comment I made on an article by Arthur Magida.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/might-5-ex-presidents-prevent-trump-making-us-unrecognizable-2020

A bit of nit-picking of an otherwise well-written piece. If the author were to state "these are times that try the human soul" rather than "these are times that try men's (and women's) souls," he would avoid putting women in parentheses as if we are an afterthought. I believe that the author does not think of women as an afterthought, given his biography."

Most of us learned the old, sexist literary rules of always referring to an unspecified person as "him" and using phrases such as "the spirit of man" to describe all people. 

Personally, I took hits to my grade because I refused to do that. These rules come from a time when women were seen as lesser and, in fact, thought not to have souls.

When making a direct quote, I don't change the wording as I am attributing the quote to the person who initially wrote it. However, when it comes to my own writing, I am human but I am not a man. I refer to the human spirit, to humanity (as opposed to mankind, unless I am speaking only of men.) 

It is past time to recognize that humanity encompasses more than "man". 

As I said, other than that, the author is spot on. 

Lord Dampnut and his cabinet of crooks present a terrible threat to everything the U.S. stands for, and to the safety of the entire world.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze +123RF.com 

Marines Nude Photo Scandal and Apologizing for Predatory Men

Image source and reference article at The Daily Beast

What is wrong with these assholes? Men and service people should both be furious with them. They make the Marines look bad, and they make men look like creepy, immature, misogynistic predators.

There are some who use this as a "reason" why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in the Military, because, apparently, men are predators who don't know how to behave themselves in the presence of women. If I were a man, I would be very angry about this attitude.

Oddly enough, when working in mixed company, I do not and never have felt the need to jump the bones of every man I work with, and posting nude photos of them without their permission would never have occurred to me. It would have been fairly easy for me to obtain nude photos of men I'd worked with about 20 years ago, as I was working as an artist's model for part of my income.

So, in that instance, I sometimes posed with male models. Who were naked, and so was I. We didn't touch each other. We chatted with each other to pass the time. There was no "ZOMG, we have to have sex NOW!" attitude. 

Mature people can behave respectfully around persons of the opposite sex (or the same sex, if they are homosexual) and not try to get everybody in the sack. 

Insisting on treating other people like sex objects is NOT normal behavior. We should stop excusing such behavior by saying things like "boys will be boys." Most boys (and men) are not predators by nature. Let's quit apologizing for and defending those who behave in a predatory fashion.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze +123RF.com 

Fat, Old, Ugly, But at Least Not a Sexist Piece of Crap

Kiss my fat ass

Mary says: Feeling really upset just now after seeing that two senators have made mean remarks about the women who were marching. I did march in DC and to see what's in the hearts of our government and the institutionalization of sexism, makes me sick.

Sly says: Fuck them. So what if they find us ugly? So what if they call us fat? I am fat. I'm also old. I'm also pretty sure most people don't find me to be in even the same zip code as pretty. Doesn't matter. My worth isn't tied to how desirable some cretin finds me. Took me a long time to get to this place, but now that I'm here I want to be in the face of so called men like this even more because it pisses them off, and that makes me happy.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright Juliahenze@123rf.com