An Ode to Dishwashers, the Unsung Heroes of the Restaurant Kitchen

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Yes!

The Half Hour S05E09 – Emily Heller

In fact, it seems unlikely that “gender identity disorder” - the current diagnostic term - describes one coherent phenomenon at all. In the absence of compelling evidence for brainsex, what we appear to be looking at is a variety of conditions: some might be trauma-related, some might be associated with autism, some might be a response to homophobia, and others might be paraphiliac in nature. But at the moment, all are being treated as though they originated from a mismatch between brain and body which prevents a person from being recognised in their correct social role. The implication of that being that anyone who isn’t transgender has the converse experience - of a match between brain and body and a natural affinity with their social role of man or women. In a society where women’s work is less valued, where women are prevented from holding positions of power, where women are subject to particular kinds of harassment and violence because they are women, and where children are indoctrinated from infancy in the idea that girls are “pretty” and boys are “awesome”, the idea women “identify” with all this should give us pause.

Sit down.  Get some tea.  Shut the door.  READ. THIS. ENTIRE. THING.

The Rise of Trans Normative Culture

Let me start by saying I fully support trans rights and any discrimination against trans people is wrong. As a trans woman myself, I have experienced this first hand and know how distressing, depressing and hurtful it can be.

There are many good trans people out there, going about their normal life and who knows, you may interact with me daily and not know my background, my history and the pain I went through to get where I am today.

The rise of Gender Identity politics has seen a new language come into common use along with the rise of a hateful and at times potent new breed of transgender activists, mainly trans women.

The use of the word Cis, is now very common as trans activists prefix this to encompass anyone not under the transgender umbrella, which in itself is now so wide it would cover a small country.

Terms such as cis normative, cis gaze, cissexist are used daily, by activists to describe people who have opinions different to their own. The more hateful trans activists also came up with the disgusting hashtags #diecisscum #fuckcispeople and #killallmen.

This got me thinking deeply, as cis is the opposite of trans, then the terms equally apply to trans people, although I have yet to see the hashtags, #dietransscum and #fucktranspeople in everyday common use. So what does trans normative look like when applied to trans women, especially transgender activists.

Well trans normative, also contains the terms; trans gaze, trans envy, trans jealousy even trans arrogance, as subsets when they talk about cis women. Many trans activists bemoan they do not pass and wear there visible transness, as a badge of honour.

But dig through their tweets and postings and they really would like to pass as cis, have voices that allow them not to get misgendered on the phone, height and size that meets cisnormative beauty standards. This is truly trans normative beauty as opposed to cis normative beauty.

Trans normative is about NOT liking everyone under the transgender umbrella; stealth, cis passing, successful trans women (such as myself) draw a particular trans hate from visible trans women, as we are seen as traitors to the cause. Caitlyn Jenner is hated amongst the majority of trans activists, but she has gone through the same pain, depression and anguish as they have, albeit by a different route. Yes, its trans normative to hate these people as they draw attention to trans normative beauty standards.

It is trans normative to dismiss biology, science, medical understanding or any kind of research that does not support trans activist’s opinion. Society in general understands the concepts of Male & Female, Intersex, Men & Women, and even that gender can be a spectrum. It is now trans normative however for trans activists to believe they are Female, born Female and have always been Female, which not only erases the lives of Females growing up, but the experiences they go through, in socialization & puberty. Being born Male, there is no shared girlhood with girls growing up.

Only this week a well-known trans activist posted a tweet, proclaiming “If a cis woman & trans woman have a baby, it has two mothers as they are both Female. It is trans normative and transsexism to force “girldick” as a concept on people born Female.

Trans normative appears to be that you have to be queer (yes straight trans people – or cishets as trans normative language defines them) are again a hated element of the transgender umbrella. It also is more trans normative to be queer, poly and obviously declare yourself lesbian (although your 2 or 3 girlfriends are actually trans women).

Trans normative also encompasses all young children, who must be trans if they like to play the opposite gender roles, opposite gender toys or express any kind of non cis gender attributes. Trans kids, trans youth are again trans normative children, some of whom may wish to eventually define a different gender to their birth sex and some of whom may keep with that birth sex, that their cis normative parents have nurtured them into. 

It is now trans normative and indeed bigoted to have any opinion other than what trans women activists believe. In fact, most of these other opinions are labelled, transphobia, transphobic and people who hold these transphobes. I myself believe I am transsexual, being born Male and longing to be Female. I transitioned to live as a woman, but that is seen as transphobic as it harms the trans normative views and opinions of many activists, who insist they were born Female (and assigned Male at birth – AMAB) obviously by a cissexist doctor.

It is trans normative to label any Female who talks about her vagina, periods as transphobic and cissexist and obviously trans activists would love it to be trans normal to centre trans women in all discussions about feminism. It of course should be trans normal that feminists fight to allow trans women rapists, murderers and cis women beaters to be held in women’s jails, no matter how much this potentially threatens the safety of cis women.

I don’t want to get drawn into the bathroom issue, but it is trans normative that anyone, under the transgender umbrella should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, even the non-transitioning, non-hormone taking, bearded person who dresses in Male clothing, but who identifies as a trans woman. Gender neutral toilets surely must be the answer to this complex issue.

As I started off by saying, I fully support the rights of trans people and legislation, society must change in order to do so. However, trans normative views are becoming a barrier to this and there is a level of every day trans normative hate and misogyny amongst trans activists that needs to change.

Art pop A.D.

More by accident than design: now there’s a cliché; in music as in life. A happy accident occurred mere weeks ago, when noted British singer-songwriter, Steven Wilson lost his voice at a New York gig and back-up singer Ninet Tayeb stepped up to the plate to perform all his parts on a one-off rendition of his last, flawed album Hand. Cannot. Erase. Happy because said album was written in Wilson‘s…

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Nightmare pop

‘…The four biggest British bands of the mid-nineties – Radiohead, Oasis, Blur and the Verve – had yet to release their iconic albums which would shape the course of the UK scene for the rest of the decade … Had this album been released as planned, it would have had a major impact on UK guitar music, standing shoulder to shoulder with the breakthrough albums by the bands mentioned above…’ …So…

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Rocking gently in orbit (or, isn't this where we left off?

Rocking gently in orbit (or, isn’t this where we left off?

You can do anything you want, as long as it makes sense… so sang Blaine Harrison on Making Dens, Mystery Jets 2006 debut. The arc of MJ‘s career probably only made sense to them at the time – lurching from playful prog on the aforementioned, thru breezy dancefloor pop to Stateside-friendly AOR over the intervening years. CotE leans towards the latter – and whilst it’s perhaps their most…

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Space Rock

Way back in 2013 I posted a couple short missives/teasers regarding Simon (son of Phil) Collins’ Sound Of Contact project with multi-instrumentalist/producer Dave Kerzner, and mysteriously failed to follow it up with an album review. Shame on me, then, for whilst Dimensionaut was initially a slow grower, it’s proved to be record deserving of repeated spins over the last year and a half. ‘Nu Prog’…

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Re-re-'Sized

Re-re-‘Sized

If you loved Oceansize you’ll love The Demon Joke, the new album from former frontman Mike Vennart. The swathe of Unfamiliar material was a bit much for me to take in at the Brighton gig a couple weeks back – the potential was clear, but this isn’t music that gives of its best up front; it requires patience, the better to tease out the intricacies. If you’re not familiar with Oceansize I’d fall…

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Re-sized

Pre-ordered my copy of Vennart‘s debut album week before last. Pretty excited. For those unfamiliar (no pun…) Mike Vennart achieved artistic, if not financial longevity as singer/songwriter/guitarist with indie-rockers, Oceansize.Negotiating a scarcely-categorizable line between Post Rock, Nu Prog and Art Metal, this sadly-short-lived, Manchester-based crew infiltrated the hitherto-unimagined…

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Cremin of the crop

Mere months after his return to album action, Musician and producer, Paul Mex is back again with a new release, Guilty Fist, that he describes as ‘the first record … since 1989 that (he’s) reasonably happy with‘. Personally, I was more than happy with Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde; and whilst much of what appealed to me about that record is present and correct here, this is a release with more layers…

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Colin Edwin Interview Interview with sesssion basssist Colin Edwin, discussing his ongoing relationships with singer/songwriter Steven Wilson…

Liberal = incontinent

(access to) pornography has changed the landscape of adolescence beyond all recognition

I don’t quite buy that. The (intellectual) stumbling block I’ve always found with critics – mainstream critics, that is – of porn is the notion that it depraves and corrupts. I’ve read/viewed enough porn over my (near) 42 years to realise that it fairly represents my sexuality. Nonetheless, I’ve never felt…

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Anthropomorphukupzthanyoucanshakealadystickat

What my cat taught me about gender… (from medium.com)

Little if anything, it seems… Hee hee.

‘Lolita, my 16 year-old female cat, emerged from her kitty litter box with a penis.’ On the basis of which you assign her male?

Your cat has a penis ∴ your cat is male. ARRGH! Fucking bigot! How do you know this? Have you not stopped to entertain the possibility that this is the fabled lady-penis? Later…

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Close, but no (Have A) Cigar

Close, but no (Have A) Cigar

This is my first encounter with Andy Jackson as a musical artist in his own right, though I’m previously familiar with his work as sound engineer with latterday Pink Floyd and on one of my favourite albums of all time, Fields of the Nephilim’s Elizium.As recordist and de-facto sound designer on the latter, he realised the – progressive – potential of a band whose originality and seriousness of…

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