All entries by this author
Continually having to explain yourself
Jul 5th, 2019 3:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonYou’ve always wondered what it’s like to be transgender and non-binary in paleontology, right? Right? Well now you get to find out.
Riley Black, who came out as transgender and non-binary this year, describes the challenges of cultivating diversity in a discipline with an ‘Indiana Jones’ image.
I’m all agog. Here I thought paleontology had to do with studying fossils, but that must have been completely wrong.
… Read the restI’ve found a ubiquitous part of the trans experience is continually having to explain yourself to the world at large. Why change? Why now? What’s going to happen? At times it feels like the best solution would be to write a frequently-asked-questions pamphlet, kept readily at hand for the next Society of
The teleprompter did it
Jul 5th, 2019 11:16 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump says the teleprompter fell over right at that place and that’s why he said the sojers took over the airports in 1775. Totally the teleprompter’s fault.
President Donald Trump — who used to mock predecessor Barack Obama for using the devices during speeches — said Friday that technical problems with the teleprompter during his “Salute to America” led to his head-scratching remarks about the Continental Army securing not-yet existent “airports” during the Revolutionary War.
How does that work exactly?
… Read the restTrump, speaking to reporters on the White House lawn en route to his property in Bedminster, New Jersey, acknowledged Friday he had some technical problems because of the soggy conditions during his speech.
“We had a lot of rain. I
Damage control
Jul 5th, 2019 10:26 am | By Ophelia BensonThe mother of a “Drag Kid” is shocked, shocked, that anyone would sexualize her son.
If you really think this mother is surprised, then you have been fooled. No, this mother who has overseen the extreme sexualization & grooming of her son is likely now doing damage control. https://t.co/juh0rcQgDU via @gaystarnews
— Jon K. Uhler, MS, LPC, CCTP (@JonKUhlerLPC) June 27, 2019
What could possibly cause anyone to sexualize a Drag Kid? How is sex even relevant?
https://twitter.com/JonKUhlerLPC/status/1144302466323951616
https://twitter.com/JonKUhlerLPC/status/1144305459026898945
CBC? Any thoughts?… Read the rest
Japes and jests aplenty
Jul 5th, 2019 10:04 am | By Ophelia BensonNaturally there are jokes.
One if by Land.
Two if by Sea.
Three if by the Delta Shuttle from LaGuardia.~Paul Revere#RevolutionaryWarAirports #facts
— M ❄️ (@ElnorFudd) July 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1147151495508451328
Dearest Abigail,
The situation at ye Olde Laguardia Airporte is untenable. Amparts and ramparts clogging metal detectors, and a scrum has begun betwixt Kanye of Cornwallis and Frederick Douglass.
I may not make it to Bowling Green.
Yours,
Philippe#RevolutionaryWarAirports— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) July 5, 2019
… Read the restThe tide turned against the British when their gunpowder was re-routed through Newark and arrived at the wrong carousel at LaGuardia. They only received a voucher for 5 shillings for the inconvenience, sealing their fate against the Continental Army. #RevolutionaryWarAirports pic.twitter.com/NW6hSDD8Z8
—
After our army took over the airports, it shelled CNN and MSNBC
Jul 5th, 2019 9:25 am | By Ophelia BensonAmee Vanderpool breaks down all of Trump’s failures yesterday:
What was also interesting was the arrangement of the bleachers at the very front and the placement of the tanks Trump had been going on and on about. In a grand stroke of irony, fences were placed around the Lincoln Memorial and across the Reflecting Pool to kept non-ticket-holders away from the memorial and given the potential for lightning in the forecast, the excessive use of more metal in the pool was a questionable move.
In other words millions in public money were spent to enable Trump to throw a private party at the Lincoln Memorial. People outside the fence couldn’t see anything, including the much-vaunted tanks.
… Read the restIt started to pour
The pilots wore powdered wigs
Jul 5th, 2019 8:38 am | By Ophelia BensonHe said it. He said it. He actually said it.
He seriously can only just barely read. He reads like a 5-year-old who is still learning how. He barfs out each word like a hammer blow, wagging his head back and forth to keep time. He tries to make himself sound smooth and natural by having his voice go Up and Down word by word, which succeeds only in making him sound like a lunatic. And he sees airports where there are none.… Read the rest
The reframing of child sexual abuse is a dominant idea within queer theory
Jul 4th, 2019 5:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonDr EM on Queer Theory as destroyer of boundaries:
Unnervingly, the reframing of child sexual abuse and liberating of paedophilia from the margins of society is a dominant idea within queer theory. Although it has attempted to cloak itself under the rainbow and harness the energy, good will and gains gay, lesbian and bisexual people have fought for over decades Queer theory is anything but progressive. Indeed, it is totally opposed to same sex attraction. As Professor Alassandra Tanesini outlines, a ‘characteristic trait of queer theory is its opposition to any view that treats sexual orientation as anything other than socially constructed’.[4]
It goes back to Foucault.
… Read the restFoucault’s re-conceptualisation of the triad of discourse, power and knowledge entailed
Let them eat chain link fencing
Jul 4th, 2019 4:14 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Lincoln Memorial in DC – normally a wide-open public space – has been fenced off for a very large distance.
It appears most of the folks down on the National Mall won’t be able to get very close to the tanks and military vehicles down by the Lincoln Memorial. That area is behind a lot of fencing and security (accessible to VIP’s and other ticketed guests). pic.twitter.com/2iWoyxqnip
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 4, 2019
The people are paying for it, but they’re not allowed to get close enough to see it.
Seems fair.… Read the rest
Exploring new territory
Jul 4th, 2019 3:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonI beg your pardon?
https://twitter.com/cbckidsnews/status/1146820535931822090
What’s it like to be a kid drag queen? I don’t know, what’s it like to be a kid prostitute? What’s it like to be a kid wife? What’s it like to be a kid factory worker? What’s it like to be a kid in prison?
All pretty bad, I should think. Children are children, and there are a lot of activities that just aren’t right for children – because they’re of no interest, or because they’re too difficult, or because they’re abusive, or all those. I would put being a drag queen firmly on that list, myself.
But the CBC doesn’t look at it that way.
… Read the restAs an art form, drag has always
Blam
Jul 4th, 2019 2:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonFunny kind of “birthday”…
Happy Independence Day, Marines.#HappyBirthdayAmerica pic.twitter.com/6DNndxHazV
— U.S. Marines (@USMC) July 4, 2019
Living the dream
Jul 4th, 2019 11:43 am | By Ophelia Benson(Spoiler: not admiringly.)
The US president will deliver an Independence Day speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which honours the president who won the civil war and helped end slavery and was the site of civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech a century later.
Yes, and the result is that that is how we see it and think of it now. It’s a place where we gather to petition the government for redress of grievances. It has a certain resonance. It’s not a place for triumphalist displays of military power. Right after WW II it might have been, but now, no. It stands for everything Trump hates, and … Read the rest
A very real abandonment of the ideals of liberal democracy
Jul 4th, 2019 10:34 am | By Ophelia BensonGreg Sargent on Trump’s putsch:
The authoritarian nationalist leader typically rewrites the story of the nation in his own image. Our own homegrown authoritarian nationalist has proved particularly devoted to this fusion of national mythmaking and self-hagiography, often delivered in his own unique language of crass, gaudy spectacle.
The historians tell us that this is what authoritarian nationalists do. As Harvard’s Jill Lepore puts it, they replace history with tried-and-true fictions – false tales of national decline at the hands of invented threats, melded to fictitious stories of renewed national greatness, engineered by the leader himself, who is both author of the fiction and its mythic hero.
The authoritarian nationalists of the past didn’t have Twitter though. How Hitler … Read the rest
The border patrol are not hospital workers
Jul 3rd, 2019 5:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother eruption of filth from the White House.
Our Border Patrol people are not hospital workers, doctors or nurses. The Democrats bad Immigration Laws, which could be easily fixed, are the problem. Great job by Border Patrol, above and beyond. Many of these illegals aliens are living far better now than where they…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
…..Now, if you really want to fix the Crisis at the Southern Border, both humanitarian and otherwise, tell migrants not to come into our country unless they are willing to do so legally, and hopefully through a system based on Merit. This way we have no problems at all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
I hope … Read the rest
The claim was untrue
Jul 3rd, 2019 12:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonPink News issues a correction and apology:
… Read the restLast week we published and tweeted a story claiming Joanna Cherry QC the MP For Edinburgh South West and the SNP Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson was being investigated for homophobia. The claim was untrue and we would like to apologise unreservedly to Ms Cherry.
It is well known that Ms Cherry is a human rights lawyer. She came out as a lesbian over 30 years ago and campaigned against section 28. She has spent a lifetime marching and campaigning for the rights of the LGBT+ community and as a politician regularly speaks up for their rights in parliament and beyond.
It was not our intention nor is it in our interest
What’s ours is his
Jul 3rd, 2019 11:43 am | By Ophelia BensonIt gets worse. (It always does, doesn’t it.)
SCOOP: Park Service has diverted $2.5 million in fees –normally used to improve parks around the country — for Trump's July Fourth extravaganza as White House hands out VIP tickets to donors and Trump's campaign staff, W/@jdawsey1 and @DanLamothe https://t.co/zRsCtifxrW
— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) July 2, 2019
$2.5 million stolen from the National Parks so that Trump can say LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME. And reward donors on our dime instead of his.
… Read the restThis is an absolutely abhorrent waste of taxpayer money. Our nation’s troops should not be used as political props and our national parks should not be co-opted to please @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/bF6gRdM9o9
— Rep.
Tanks on the streets
Jul 3rd, 2019 11:14 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Washington Post editorial board is not a fan of Trump’s plans for July 4.
… Read the restIt was bad enough that Mr. Trump sought to make the holiday about himself with plans to deliver a nationally televised address from the Lincoln Memorial, thus eliminating what many consider the hands-down best spot in Washington for fellowship and fireworks on the Fourth of July. But Mr. Trump now plans to cordon off an area in front of the memorial reserved just for dignitaries, family and friends. Nothing about reserved seating says “We the people.”
Equally, if not more troubling, is his insistence on a display of military might that will include a flyover of warplanes and the stationing of tanks or other
Sheep may safely graze
Jul 3rd, 2019 10:39 am | By Ophelia BensonTo get rid of the bad taste that left behind…
Watch all 23 seconds, there’s a big surprise at the end.
Some offices are better than others… https://t.co/H0QMFQtDv3
— Tom Sutcliffe (@tds153) July 3, 2019
His SAT scores are high
Jul 3rd, 2019 10:36 am | By Ophelia BensonWon’t somebody please think of the rapist?
Again.
… Read the restA judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because he came from “a good family”, and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all.
Judge James Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as “GMC”, should not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.
“This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,” Troiano said. “He is clearly a candidate for not just
Absolutely moving forward
Jul 3rd, 2019 9:45 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump announces on Twitter that the Supreme Court can’t tell him what to do.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday branded as “fake” news reports that his administration was dropping plans to ask people if they are U.S. citizens on the 2020 census — despite officials in his own administration having said Monday that the question will not be asked.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and a Justice Department lawyer had both said Tuesday that the Census Bureau is in the process of printing the census questionnaire without the citizenship question.
Their statements came five days after a Supreme Court decision that effectively blocked the question being added to the 2020 census questionnaire.
… Read the restThe News Reports about the Department of
