nettle-syrup

Posts Written by

By nettle-syrup • 14 years ago

Cystitis

Since I was 11, I have been bugged with UTIs. I’ve been the child who dreads being on a coach during any kind of trip without a bathroom or water in sight. When I was 13, I was on a tram in Amsterdam in the blazing heat, wanting to die because my insides were on fire. I’m lucky in that I’ve never had the symptoms others have had: stomach pains, bleeding, etc., I didn’t experience them. But still, if there were a degree in how to manage cystitis, I ought to have it.
Things are not nearly as bad as they once were, but still I get the odd bout of it. And when I got older I was shocked to find that many of my close female friends were also suffering from time to time with cystitis and other UTIs. I had thought I was on my own. Nobody ever talked about it. I heard something vague about it when I was around 10 or so, but nobody ever told me how common it was. I felt totally alone, which is why I didn’t talk about it and suffered in silence. Not even my family knew why I was so miserable on long car journeys as a child.
I never thought of this as a feminist issue until relatively recently, when I read a post about thrush, another thing we Don’t Talk About. I am lucky enough to have never suffered from ...

By nettle-syrup • 14 years ago

British ex-pat recognised as “world’s first officially genderless person”

This is interesting.

From the article:

“Norrie May-Welby, 48, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990, at the age of 28.

After becoming unhappy as a woman, May-Welby decided to become a “neuter”. The 48-year-old is now officially recognised as a person of no specific gender.”

Of course, as the article says, this is not the world’s first genderless person, just the first to be officially recognised as such. What interests me is how in the article they use words like “the Briton” and “May-Welby” to avoid using a pronoun. Someone should tell them about “ze” and “hir”… I would like to see those words enter public use a bit more, but for them to acknowledge that ...

This is interesting.

From the article:

“Norrie May-Welby, 48, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990, at the age of 28.

After becoming unhappy as a woman, May-Welby decided to become a “neuter”. ...

By nettle-syrup • 14 years ago

The Monstrous Regiment of Women

I dunno if this has been posted before, I did search but couldn’t find it. Remember the preview that was posted for this “documentary” created by the Gunn Brothers last year? As of January 22nd you can now watch the whole thing on youtube… I just did and laughed a lot at the ridiculous comical portrayal of feminists, but wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the sheer idiocy of this movie. One thing, though: I wasn’t offended. The makers of this film talk about how offensive they’re going to be to feminists, but it’s too ridiculous to offend.
My favourite parts have to be the cartoon feminists with the speech bubbles saying “nag, whinge, accuse” over their heads ...

By nettle-syrup • 14 years ago

“2 Steps to a flat stomach!”

There’s been a massive increase in the past year in the amount of “flat stomach” obsession, particularly online. We see these ads everywhere now, every single day. The opposite is obviously the “I got ripped in 3 weeks” ads for the men, which further reinforce the gender binary and are probably just as bad. I’m convinced that this “flat stomach” business is damaging in a whole other way than general weight-loss ads. Yes, if you’re thin you’re more likely to have a flat stomach, but that’s not my point. The reason it worries me so much is that it’s a total lie that the one necessarily leads to the other. One article I read says “If you lose enough weight ...

By nettle-syrup • 15 years ago

Pregnant 17 year-old with mild learning disabilities goes on run from social workers

This has made me pretty damn angry. A 17 year-old british girl with ‘mild learning difficulties’ has been told that she and her fiance will only be allowed a few hours with her newborn before it is taken into care because she is ‘unfit to be a mother’ due to her disability. Nobody seems to have considered the father in this case, who seems to be loyal to his fiancee and would help bring up the child. Can you imagine this would be happening if it were the male partner who had the learning disability? Anyway, the couple have been forced to go on the run from social workers who would charge them with kidnapping their OWN newborn if ...

By nettle-syrup • 15 years ago

Woman vilified for tweeting her relief at miscarriage

This is certainly interesting. A woman who planned an abortion but had a miscarriage instead tweeted the following:
“I’m in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there’s a f*****-up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin.”
She is being widely criticised for it, being called “a poor excuse for a human being” by some commenters because “other women are devastated by miscarriage” and she’s apparently being selfish by being relieved and using twitter to announce it.
However, the woman, Penelope Trunk, says she has no regrets. She has suffered two miscarriages before and describes them as “inconsolable. The difference was I desperately wanted that baby… it seems like everyone in the world would prefer miscarriage ...

By nettle-syrup • 15 years ago

Man who helped convict rapist gives his £10,000 reward money to survivor

From the article:

Mr Gardner, of Ottery St Mary, Devon, was given the £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction, but he has since given it to the victim – who can not be identified for legal reasons – to help her rebuild her life.
Police hailed him as an ‘ outstanding member of the community’ who showed ‘ unbelievable kindness’.
But he said: ‘I didn’t feel like I’d earned it. The fact that such a horrific thing happened to that lady, I thought it would benefit her life more than it would mine.
‘I thought the money would go a lot further to improve her situation.
‘I just wanted to help in any way ...

From the article:

Mr Gardner, of Ottery St Mary, Devon, was given the £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction, but he has since given it to the victim – who can not be ...

By nettle-syrup • 15 years ago

WTF?

This absurd image is the work of Ralph Lauren’s retouchers, who have had to apologise for making an already thin model’s head bigger than her waist.
I don’t think any further commentary is required for this image, except to say again, WTF were they thinking?