A Bladder of Piscean Eructations
Feb. 22nd, 2012 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmI've been an LJ truant for the last week. Plus, I didn't have anything very urgent to say - just thoughts that rose and fell like burping carp.
I went to London on Friday afternoon, and as the train entered Box Tunnel my carriage was filled with the powerful scent of marijuana, coming in through the little slitty windows above the table. It lasted as long as we were in the tunnel (a couple of miles). Could it be that Box Tunnel's famous network of bunkers and control centres includes Churchill's personal dope farm? You heard it here first.
On Saturday night, I had dinner in the restaurant at the top of Tate Modern - my first visit to either the gallery or the restaurant. It was a delicious meal, if somewhat over-fancy in its presentation for my rustic taste (a teaspoonful of trout pate in its own gill-sized kilner jar? Really?), but St Pauls was very beautiful over the way, with its illuminated dome. Also, I wasn't paying.
Meanwhile, I see that as Greece becomes a satrapy of Brussels, in the UK a bunch of Tory peers are threatening to bring the business of the Government to a halt rather than allow elections to the upper house. Democracy seems to be thoroughly out of fashion, in fact - but let me say for the record that I still rather like it.
This seems to have been dubbed Trans Outing Week. First, as widely noted elsewhere (and nothing in this paragraph is exactly a scoop) there's the Paddy Power advert encouraging punters at the Cheltenham Festival to "spot the stallions" on Ladies' Day. [ETA, 23/2/12: The advert has now had its licence for broadcast on British television revoked! Thanks to the sterling work of Helen Belcher at Trans Media Watch - but not before at least one trans woman was publicly humiliated as a direct result of it.] I wouldn't want to be a tallish woman at Cheltenham this year, trans or cis. There's The Sun's reader hotline, inviting readers to let them know the identity of the British trans man who has recently given birth. (It was The Sun, you may remember, that was complaining last week about being the victim of a witch hunt.) And let's not forget the "smart" charity advert being installed in London bus stops, that uses a hi-res camera to determine the sex of people looking at it and shows the advert only to females. Apparently the idea is to make men experience the reality of sex discrimination, but it will also serve as a very effective "outing" device for trans women and men, as well of course as drawing unwelcome attention to cis people whose features aren't judged sufficiently masculine or feminine by the technology. Bus-stops, as the makers ought to know, are not renowned as places of safety at the best of times, but this is going to give the bigots a very convenient casus bully.
Finally, I've been attacked by the Ouroboros of ear-worms. I fell victim to it when foolishly watching an episode of Family Guy that referenced the closing credits to The Little House on the Prairie, in which Laura Ingalls Wilder runs gaily through a daisy meadow. The worst of it is, the tune's only about 25 seconds from beginning to end, but round and round it goes and WILL NOT STOP.
I went to London on Friday afternoon, and as the train entered Box Tunnel my carriage was filled with the powerful scent of marijuana, coming in through the little slitty windows above the table. It lasted as long as we were in the tunnel (a couple of miles). Could it be that Box Tunnel's famous network of bunkers and control centres includes Churchill's personal dope farm? You heard it here first.
On Saturday night, I had dinner in the restaurant at the top of Tate Modern - my first visit to either the gallery or the restaurant. It was a delicious meal, if somewhat over-fancy in its presentation for my rustic taste (a teaspoonful of trout pate in its own gill-sized kilner jar? Really?), but St Pauls was very beautiful over the way, with its illuminated dome. Also, I wasn't paying.
Meanwhile, I see that as Greece becomes a satrapy of Brussels, in the UK a bunch of Tory peers are threatening to bring the business of the Government to a halt rather than allow elections to the upper house. Democracy seems to be thoroughly out of fashion, in fact - but let me say for the record that I still rather like it.
This seems to have been dubbed Trans Outing Week. First, as widely noted elsewhere (and nothing in this paragraph is exactly a scoop) there's the Paddy Power advert encouraging punters at the Cheltenham Festival to "spot the stallions" on Ladies' Day. [ETA, 23/2/12: The advert has now had its licence for broadcast on British television revoked! Thanks to the sterling work of Helen Belcher at Trans Media Watch - but not before at least one trans woman was publicly humiliated as a direct result of it.] I wouldn't want to be a tallish woman at Cheltenham this year, trans or cis. There's The Sun's reader hotline, inviting readers to let them know the identity of the British trans man who has recently given birth. (It was The Sun, you may remember, that was complaining last week about being the victim of a witch hunt.) And let's not forget the "smart" charity advert being installed in London bus stops, that uses a hi-res camera to determine the sex of people looking at it and shows the advert only to females. Apparently the idea is to make men experience the reality of sex discrimination, but it will also serve as a very effective "outing" device for trans women and men, as well of course as drawing unwelcome attention to cis people whose features aren't judged sufficiently masculine or feminine by the technology. Bus-stops, as the makers ought to know, are not renowned as places of safety at the best of times, but this is going to give the bigots a very convenient casus bully.
Finally, I've been attacked by the Ouroboros of ear-worms. I fell victim to it when foolishly watching an episode of Family Guy that referenced the closing credits to The Little House on the Prairie, in which Laura Ingalls Wilder runs gaily through a daisy meadow. The worst of it is, the tune's only about 25 seconds from beginning to end, but round and round it goes and WILL NOT STOP.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 01:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 01:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 01:37 pm (UTC)It's curious what they think the reast of us are.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 12:03 pm (UTC)I think I was still one last time I looked (but I have Jewish and Roma blood as well as being trans, so that'd put 'em off :o)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 04:36 pm (UTC)/jewish/fat/disabled, so yeah :D
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 10:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 04:45 pm (UTC)How is that even supposed to work? Doesn't everyone want not to have to be shown advertising?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 08:54 am (UTC)Guess I should be used to it after dealing with is for alsmot forty years.
I await answers with bated something or other............
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:10 pm (UTC)Response follows:
Thank you for contacting us about our facial recognition advert on Oxford Street. I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the way that this advert has made you feel and also to thank you for feeding back your comments.
Whilst we want to capture people’s attention on the issue of gender, it was certainly never our intention to offend anyone or place them at risk. I am therefore very sorry to hear that reading about this advert has caused this reaction, and I would like to explain the reasons for our approach.
We know that stereotyping people and limiting their choices by gender is extremely damaging. This is why we want to use this technology to raise awareness of the challenges that girls face everyday, solely because of their gender. Throughout the world, girls are denied access to an education, forced to marry early and are more likely to die as a result of HIV and violence. We know that this isn’t fair or right. The challenge is to make their voices heard.
In your email you express concern that the advert will risk placing transsexual individuals at risk. I would like to assure you that participation in the advert is entirely voluntary and we would in no way want to cause any harm at all to any individual. Some of the stories in the media have suggested that the advert will “scan” passers by, and I can reassure you that this is not the case. Each individual needs to deliberately choose to view the advert. And for many reasons, including those you highlight, the technology itself is not perfect. We do make people aware that it will make an inaccurate selection in around 10 percent of cases. This is to say 1 in every 10 people will receive the wrong response.
It is very important to us that we do not perpetuate the discriminatory gender stereotypes that we are trying to end. This is why before making the advert, we consulted the charity Stonewall, and the transgender community group, GIRES. Both organisations were supportive of the advert and positive about the campaign as a way to highlight gender discrimination.
Recently, the sexual and reproductive health charity Interact Worldwide (IW) also joined the Plan family. Interact Worldwide seek to address harmful attitudes toward gender roles in their programme and advocacy work. They work with girls, women and sexual minorities – including transgendered people – to help challenge perceptions and help communities to claim their rights.
Once again, I am very sorry for any concern that our advert has caused. We do not wish to alienate any supporters – anyone can go to our website to watch the film in full and pledge their support. We welcome everyone.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. It is really helpful for us to hear your views, so if you do have any further concerns or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:56 pm (UTC)I suspect Plan UK are in trouble- they claim to have asked GIRES for advice and GIRES deny having been contacted.
Watch this space as they say.
I'd love to know who designed that damnfool phone app- I'd have a pop at them too if I could find out!
That said, after almost forty years of campaigning against this sort of idiocy, I'm getting very tired of it indeed.........:o(