Biting Cold is out soon!
Also, Biting Cold by Chloe Neill is out soon. It’s the 6th book in the Chicagoland Vampires series. The series is really enjoyable. I’ll review one of the books soon.
On Monday
On Monday morning on 94.5fm (Yes, I listen to that station, I do so because I can sing along to almost all of the songs and I don’t hear them more than once a day), Freddy made a comment about “Now that the Gold Cost Suns have lost [to Greater Western Sydney] , maybe they should be called “The Gold Cost Daughters.”
…
Can I just say that this was so not okay. So utterly not okay. Why is daughter/girl/woman, considered to be an acceptable insult by a certain kind of man? Frankly, I am glad to be a woman, even allowing that people think this is a thing to be ashamed of (to which I say, what??)
If I had not been driving, I would have sent them a message saying this. It makes me so angry to hear such sexist remarks on a radio station I listen to.
We request the refunding for critical support services and counselling for criminalised women pre and post release prison in North Queensland by the LNP who cut the funding last week.
Why is this important? Criminalised women have the highest rate of sexual and physical abuse perpetrated against them in our community. Due to this horrendous abuse women turn to self medication with illiiegal drugs and / or alcohol. Nearly 60% of the women have a mental illness.
In Townsville women’s prison over 80% of women are Aboriginal and over 90% of the women cannot read and write. These issues have to be addressed, so that women when released into the community can move on with their lives and not return to drug and alcohol abuse and offending to feed their addiction.
Housing is also a fundamental part of their success on release. The support of our services assists women in healing their traumas and practical needs so when released they can reconnect with their children and families and move towards their goals and being a part of their communities.
(via Save Sisters Inside | CommunityRun)
Sister’s Inside is founded and run by primarily ex-inmate women and some lawyers. It’s been an internationally recognized success model of a service that helps;
- inmate mothers and their children re-establishing or maintain functional relationships during/after imprisonment.
- improved prospects of literacy, safe accommodation and finding work on release.
Allowing how many female inmates in Qld are ATSI women being punished for defending themselves in domestic violence situations, or arrested for petty ‘offences’ related to homelessness, this being top of the list for service shut down tells you exactly where real state priorities are.
Probably not coincidentally: they host the Is Prison Obsolete? Conferences, being one of the few regional public forums about changing the overall high imprisonment of marginalized people, not just services.
Oz folk - pls. signal boost on your other networks, not many politics Oz folk on tumblr. Non-Oz folk - ATSI = Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Native + Black.
Gas Bills Go up from Tomorrow.
So today it was announced that our gas bills will be going up by 8%. Almost every news report I heard today was like, 8%! *gasp!*.
Yes, 8%. $49 a year. 90c a week.
What exactly can you buy with 90c, these days any way?
Some time in a phone booth? (do we even have those any more?)
Less than half an hour (maybe 20mins?) in street parking in Northbridge.
A handfull of lollies at certain newsagents in Perth.
1/3 (1/4?) of a cup of coffee.
4/5 of a chocolate bar on special for $1.
i.e. NOT A LOT. If this is the cost of the carbon tax, no wonder $9.90 a week was considered by the government a generous amount to cover it for families (and you know, the rest of us taxpayers).
About Sex (in novels)
Okay, so earlier last year there was a bit of a thing about reading romance novels; being like porn for women. There are other articles, but darned if I can find them right now.
Obviously I can’t speak for any woman other than myself, I won’t even try. However when it comes to sex in the romance novels I read - and I do read a number of them, the sex is sometimes skipped. It’s not porn. I’m not reading it for gratification, and if it has nothing to do with the plot, I’m not interested in reading about it. I want to be connected to your characters. I want to care that they are doing whatever they are doing. If I do read your sex scenes, I really don’t want to have that jarring moment when suddenly the author uses a word that repulses me, and makes me utterly uninterested in finishing the scene. Especially food analogies or referring to the heroine, this woman I’m supposed to be identifying with in some fashion in infantalising terms.
Also, in the second link above, there is a link to something about women’s rape fantasies that are apparently central to the romance industry - Not the ones I read, frankly, when rape creeps into a novel I’m reading unless it was somehow absolutely vital - and this is pretty rare that it is needed, I don’t want to see it. I don’t even want coercion used in the novels I read. It might sound picky, but remember, what we read impacts how we feel about ourselves and society as a whole, does not need any more okays with regards to violence against women. Even if they want to add a line about how she “began to enjoy it after a while”. Seriously, it’s wrong.
I’m just making myself weep uncontrollably this week. Honestly.
Freaking loose it every time when they lift Frank up. Tears everywhere. Loosing Jim and being at Richard’s side so much, so often, near the end of his life, I’m seriously in awe of Frank’s strength. It’s really hard not to watch this video and look at anyone else while Frank is on screen.
Dave’s amazing performance of “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday”.
Steve’s angelic voice with “You Are My Sunshine.”
And Richard giving Scooter the ‘chin up’ at the beginning of “Just One Person”. Be more of a perfect human being, Richard. I dare you. Actually, no, because I can’t handle it. Steve and Kevin holding it together before Jerry sings. Frank and Dave’s hug at the very end.
My ultimate weakness is watching men cry. (Meaning that I will start sobbing at a drop of a hat if you put an emotional man infront of me.) I would not be able to type if any of these guys had actually broken down during this video.
My feels, you guys. Has them.
I always cry during “Just one Person”
Dear people who question why girls go to the bathroom together
Hermione went alone and got attacked by a troll
One of the few pictures of Eren Ozker out there. She died, a year and almost two months after Richard Hunt, from cancer.
Here is a lovely article written by her husband.
I don’t know if rape jokes encourage rape culture. I don’t care. You still shouldn’t tell them.
Statistically, if you have told a rape joke to a group of more than five people, one of the people you told it to was a rape survivor, possibly of multiple rapes. They will not necessarily disclose this to you; rape apologism is endemic in society and most rape survivors are cautious about whom they tell. Some may even be too ashamed of their rape to admit it to anyone, or because of rape-minimizing narratives like “men can’t be raped” and “I consented to oral, so I couldn’t have been raped” may not admit it even to themselves. The fact remains: if you’ve told dozens of rape jokes in your life, then you have almost certainly told a joke that minimizes or trivializes rape in front of a survivor.
And if you put as your Facebook status “I totally raped at Halo today” for your two hundred Facebook friends to see, statistically, you have just reminded thirty-three people of one of the worst experiences of their entire lives.
To describe how well you did at a video game.
Good job!
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| — | An Addendum, On Rape Jokes. (via transformfeminism) |
