uniquely maladjusted but fun: Caged Bird #WEPFF Flash Fiction My Terms

uniquely maladjusted but fun: Caged Bird #WEPFF Flash Fiction My Terms: http://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2019/06/june-wepiwsg-challenge-sign-up-caged.html My story is controversial and may contain...

Here is the comment I left for the author of this thought-provoking piece:

Thank you for writing this. With the rulings being made to take away women's reproductive rights in states like Alabama (and with more states trying to follow suit), thought-provoking pieces like this are necessary.

I am one of those people who wouldn't have gotten an abortion under most circumstances (the exception being a severe defect to the fetus) but who would fight to the death for reproductive rights to be upheld.

Several of my more conservative companions were spreading rhetoric on Facebook claiming that the law passed in New York to protect the right to late-term abortions meant that a woman could waltz into a Planned Parenthood clinic a day before she was due to give birth and demand an abortion. I usually stay out of abortion debates but had to chime in on that one and inform them that the law protects women for whom a late-term abortion is a medical necessity. It doesn't mean that someone can have a full-term infant aborted because they decided at the last minute that they don't want the baby.

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

Sly's WTF Wednesday: Queering the Primary Classroom

A response to this post at Transgender Trend.

Fantastic and terrifying information.

I've always believed in trying the least drastic intervention or treatment for any condition first rather than having a "slash and burn" approach. For instance, what if Bailey, the child making the dresses, is simply a boy who wants to wear dresses? What if Bailey is gay? Why not simply tell Bailey that it's okay to be a boy who wants to make and wear dresses? Why does wanting to make and wear dresses make you a girl?

I am an XX-chromosome heterosexual woman who despises wearing dresses. According to the twisted TRA logic, I must actually be a man because I don't like to wear dresses. After all, wearing dresses is a girly thing, amirite? I don't wear makeup either, never mind that one of the reasons I don't wear makeup is because it causes my eczema to flare up like nobody's business. Yep, totally a dude!

So much of this stuff echoes conversion therapy, except instead of trying to zap the gay out of someone's brain with shock treatments or trying to "pray away the gay," they are telling people that "you aren't gay, you were born into the wrong body. Instead of being a gay guy, you're actually a heterosexual woman who was born into a man's body. Now, all you have to do is sign up for surgery and a lifetime of hormone treatments."

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Troiku Challenge 2019: Day 7: Unlocked Fence

Image Source

unlocked fence

walking towards the countryside

finally free

unlocked fence

will I find freedom outside

or more enslavement

walking towards the countryside

the world outside is alien

imprisoned so long

finally free

no more fences, no more guards

but such a high cost

~Chèvrefeuille & Cie~

Notes:

I could not help but think of the prison camps of World War II when I saw this image. We must never be allowed to sweep those horrors under the rug because they make us uncomfortable. 

I watched a program about the descendants of some of the leaders involved with the Holocaust. These are good people who want to prevent such a thing from ever happening again. They are not proud of being related to such terrible individuals as their ancestors. 

Rudolf Hess' grandson Rainer said, "if my grandfather were alive, I would kill him myself." 

Hermann Goring's grandniece Bettina and her brother both had themselves voluntarily sterilized.

Amon Goeth's daughter wasn't aware of her father's exact role in the Holocaust until she saw Schindler's List. The realization was so upsetting to her that it caused her to go into shock.

We must remember the Holocaust, and we must not allow other atrocities and mistreatments of our fellow humans to be swept under the rug.

Many people are not aware of the Armenian genocide.

The United States isn't too keen for people to remember that during World War II, people of Japanese ancestry, including those born in the United States, were locked in internment camps.

Think what is happening right now in the United States with migrant children being taken from their parents and locked in detention centers or placed with foster families, some of whom are abusive. Cheeto Hitler denies that any of the blame rests with him when it sits squarely on his lap. And no, I will not apologize for referring to him as Cheeto Hitler.

Just Sayin'...

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

Sly's WTF Wednesday: Tra Targeting of Teens and Children in U.K. Schools

A response to this post on Transgender Trend.

I am quite sure if I were growing up now rather than in the 70's, I would have ended up transitioning and regretted it.

I realized early on that girls were treated as inferior, and it enraged me.

I didn't want to be treated like a girl. I wanted the same opportunities and respect that was given to the boys.

I was always fine with being female. I just didn't like the way girls were talked down to and not allowed to take the cool classes like metal shop. We had to take freaking home ec. I knew how to cook! Learning to weld would have been interesting to me, but I was not allowed on the basis of having ovaries.

So, of course, rather than eradicating crap gender roles which pigeonhole people into certain behaviors, I must have actually been a boy and should have been given puberty blockers.

Which would not have messed me up even more than I already was. (sarcasm)

SMDH.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com