Blog of a veggie lady who can't stay in one place for too long, loves to dumpster dive, loves to craft and can rant about feminism for hours! Just little notes and photos from my travels and the qwirky, fun, arty and ridiculous things I've seen! (and things I've found in bins.)
Day 45: Vicky singing, Jessie painting nails and Rob reading things at Huddersfields One Billion Rising at the Irish Centre.
Day 44: Babes and pizza at Street Spirit, Bar 1:22 (Huddersfield)! Also it was Galentines day! HAPPY GALENTINES DAY!
Being offensive without offending
So recently I’ve been thinking about insults, and while all insulting, some are obviously more offensive than others because they pick on specific minority groups and use them as cannon fodder.
Last week I was in a group of women and we were discussing the use of the word slut and gay and whether they’re ok to use or not. I say not. One is mostly use for women, and one I’d say is too obvious to go into. (This was being defended by a gay woman as irony, however I think words have power and some may not see the irony and may run with it). I said I think it’s easy enough to use non-offensive language and a few didn’t agree. I’m not being the word police. It just honestly confuses me that people use certain words. It’s not being politically correct, it’s being fucking polite!!! And my Dad just used the word spaz, which I think is horrible, and which at about 8 I was profusely told off for using by him!
So with this in mind, here’s my list of non-offensive insults to offend with! I will keep adding to this, so if you have any please let me know! And if any offend you, let me know also.
1. Ass/arse. Everybody has a bum. It’s not insulting or demonising anyone, just a nice broad word! Here are some great ways to use it:
Asshole/arsehole, ass hat, ass face, assmonger, assburger, assbrain, asscheese, assball, asswipe, jackass.
2. Scumbag. This is an insult that doesn’t come from the name of any one group or minority. And it’s fun to say.
3. Douche/Douchebag. My favourite insult. Again, a thing, not a person!
4. Moron/Idiot/Bonehead. This is debatable, but I feel it’s alright, as it has never referred to any actual minority, it’s just a long used description!
5. Bastard. Again, I’m not sure on this. Although I think society has progressed from using it as an actual insult about a child with unmarried parents. It doesn’t hold any power as that. But if I’m wrong, LET ME KNOW.
6.Shit-For-Brains.
7. Jerk. My favourite insult at the moment. Non-offensive, old school, fun to say.
8. Git / Smug git.
9. Nerd / geek. This has always been a bit of a silly insult, like boffin I guess, which has been used to insult people for their intelligence. That’s not really offensive right? And it’s been embraced now. So lets continue to shout NERDS! To the world!
I could write a list of offensive words to avoid, but I think that’s pointless. Simply think of the words you use. Where do they come from? Are they derived from a non-universal group of people or a description of a minority group? If so, don’t use them. It’s really simple. Are your commonly used insults misogynistic? Are the homophobic? Are they racist? Are they ableist? Don’t be an asshat and replace them with something else.
feminist pizza
This is what I did this evening! Ate pizza and had a Project:BABE stall at a local band night. So much glitter, so much feminism, so much pizza, so tumblr.
Yesterday me and some of the babes went to the Manchester Art Gallery for a zine fair. We also used this to launch our 3rd zine, Becoming Part I! I have to say, it’s looking pretty slick! There’s been so many great submissions! There’s so many exciting things on the horizon for Project:BABE and I’m looking forward to it!
I also got some other amazing other zines, such as Sugar Paper, a stunning teen magazine themed issue!
Today to avoid being bored at work I stitched some Destiny’s Child lyrics! It’s the first bit of hand embroidery I’ve done in ages, so it ain’t great! I’m gonna do a load more of these, DC were pretty empowering to me as a young teen, and listening back to them now there’s a lot of good messages, but also some just dreadful ones (ie Nasty Girl, which is basically a song FULL of slut shaming.) so I want to do a kind of “SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!” embroider lot of art pieces. It now sits nestled between my zines!
I need feminism because I was told that I’m too pretty to be “a real lesbian”.
You don’t even know how many times this is told me
Some people really don’t get why someone would want to be with a woman when you have the possibility of being with a man, bc men are obviously better!~
Meanwhile, when we encounter a gorgeous and kind man, we wonder if he’s gay.
I need feminism because the first few times I heard this, as a much younger person, I laughed and said “thanks!” while feeling deeply uncomfortable rather than telling them to sod right off and reassess their thinking, and so many young women are probably doing the same thing.
The body politics of life modelling: Modelling to effect social change: Or why I do life modelling (other than because I can and because the money!)
So I’ve been life modelling for about a year now, and lately I’ve been thinking about why I started. I’m a very body confident person, despite not having what would conventionally be called attractive. I don’t wax. I am dead against waxing. I am either very lazy to shave or I don’t at all. My boobs are pretty small. Proportionally my arse is HUGE. I’m thin without being worringly thin looking. The main thing is, I don’t put any effort into my figure. I don’t work out, I don’t starve myself, I’m just natural.
The thing is, when I first started I thought “oh, maybe I should wax my lady bits. That would be expected” and a few minutes later came to my senses and thought WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME. Life drawing is about drawing from life, not drawing an airbrushed porn industry standard hairless doll. Earlier in the shower I thought I should shave my legs for modelling tonight and then thought, no, on a daily basis I wouldn’t shave, so I won’t for anyone else.
Normally I model for people who are mostly 40+, today was the first time I’ve modelled for people my age and younger, about 35-40 of them, and mostly women. I actually felted scared at first, I thought they’d judge me. And then I remembered why I did this. I am confident about my body, and the personal is political. Sometimes the best way to effect social change is to lead by example.
When I first went to uni, I assumed every woman waxed her bikini line and that I should, and that there was something wrong with me that I found it unbelievably painful and traumatising to do.
But waxing yourself bare is ridiculous. It is a porn industry standard. And it is painful, and it’s shocking that it’s so normalised.
I would like to create a normalisation against not feeling you have to wax. If you want to, do. I am not questioning your choice. Most of my friends do. But if you find it as painful and irritating as I did, then don’t!
I hope that even one woman at life drawing today realised that not everyone waxes.
I don’t know. That just what I was thinking during a 20 minute pose earlier!
