On 29th December, 2017, Naomi Musenga, aged 22, was alone at home, in the French town of Strasbourg. She found the strength to call Strasbourg’s ambulance service, despite suffering from severe stomach pain, and bleeding. “I’m going to die,” she said, to which the operator replied, “You’ll definitely die one day, like everyone else.” This […]
Society
- Psychology
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Left In The Cold – The Freeze Response And Rape Victims
You are probably aware of the so-called “fight-flight response”, also known as the “acute stress response”. It is a biological reaction to a stimulus perceived as an imminent threat to survival. The response is carried out by the autonomic nervous system – a control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual […]
“Transgender” As A Noun – A Step Towards Gender Equality?
I wasn’t planning on writing anything else on the subject, so quickly, until I received a few comments, pointing out that I had made a terrible mistake, making me (for some) unworthy to write anything on the subject of transgender people. On a “Feministing Community” website, I also came across the following devastating statement which […]
Would You Accept A Transgender Person As Your Secretary?
Erratum – I have been correctly told – “correctly”, because that’s the way it is (is it the way it should be?) – that the word “transgender” without the term “person”, should not be used. It is deemed to be insulting, in the eyes of transgender persons. If you think about it, my unintentional misuse of […]
Feminism Never Killed Anybody
I recently wrote a post on “The Neon Demon”, a 2016 horror film that I watched on my movie pay-channel. My main thought was that Nicolas Refn, who directed the film, had cast the female characters with such masculine bias, that they were literally transgendered into men. I got the following Facebook response that really intrigued […]
“Beauty Isn’t Everything, It’s The Only Thing.”
Horror films are really not my genre, but I do admit that if the storyline is good, and the special effects not too distasteful, they can make for compelling viewing. With aspiring model, Jesse, moving to Los Angeles, and getting gobbled up by predatory beauties, Nicolas Refn’s 2016 film, “The Neon Demon”, certainly underscores my […]
Sexism And The City – Nature Or Nurture?
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them. – Margaret Atwood The last time I said anything remotely qualified as sexist, was in 1980, in a Chinese restaurant in the West-End of London. The chopsticks were hygienically wrapped in a beautiful red paper sleeve, decorated with Chinese […]
Facebook Is No Longer Michel Foucault’s “Heterotopia”
The Missing Comma It started with the sharing of a tweet in a Facebook group. There followed a heated discussion between those, like myself, who thought that the tweet had more than an undertone of racial prejudice and white supremacy, and those who didn’t. I don’t recall that the person who posted […]
Pardon Me, Your Honour – I’m a Sexy Lady With Talent
In May this year, Lavinia Woodward, an Oxford medical student, was found guilty of stabbing, and seriously injuring, her boyfriend. An exceptional delay in the verdict was pronounced, the court having heard of her ‘extraordinary talent’, as sufficient reason for this strange decision. The judge had made it clear that he did not favour a […]
I Can See The Toilets, But Where’s The Bar?
Rightly or wrongly, I cannot relate to how members of LGBT communities feel about themselves and the situation they find themselves in. This does not mean that I’m not aware that, most of the time, these human beings are the victims of severe and unwarranted discrimination. The fact is, that due to my own sexual […]