penthewriter.bsky.social
Novelist (Bella Books & Nine Star Press) and writer.
This is my happy place.
Find photos of cats & Cornwall, good news, funny things, snippets & updates of writing, and always ALT TEXT! #writersky
No alt text, no follow.
http://penelopefriday.com
388 posts
1,032 followers
1,641 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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And yet if they were a woman athlete, born a woman, brought up a woman, female all their life, who did a DNA test which came back with XY chromosomes, you’d suddenly pivot to deciding she was a man, always had been, always would be.
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Doctors especially, in my experience from when I was both pregnant and a new parent, tend to refer to the pregnant/previously pregnant parent as “mum” to their face.
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Whaaaat?
When people get sued for harassment can she be sued for incitement?
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“No, I wasn’t taking a photo of your child, I was taking one of that woman who I think is a man in disguise, honest…”
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They aren’t, though, because if you read the EHRC guidelines it says that if trans men look masculine enough they can be banned from both the men’s and women’s loos. Which is just fab.
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Thank you! All of the text has been considered good enough to be published once, so it’s at least written to a reasonable standard so I don’t feel like I’m coming from nowhere, even if nonfiction books aren’t exactly often best sellers….
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(Sorry, can you tell I’m really excited to be finally putting it together? I’ve had it in mind for ages, but it’s a case of pulling all the articles together, working out what needs editing to bring it up to date, and of course finding people to publish it or be an agent for it…)
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But even the random stuff is things that you wouldn’t talk about at the dinner table - that’s where the underwear and toilets articles come in! E&D has articles on women, disability, and Black Georgians. Morality has stuff like illegitimacy, alcohol use, and bodysnatching!
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Well, I haven’t got a publisher or agent at the moment, so who knows, but I’ve got a structure for it: it’s got a first part of uninvited guests, which is people I’ve written about who Jane Austen would *never* invite to her table, then religion, equality & diversity, morality, random shit…
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❤️
I think I made a high soft chuffing noise interspersed with a tiny mewling, just reading this ;)
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Oh my goodness, their sensibilities would be shocked right out of them by the contents of this book! It’s a collection of the articles I’ve written for ‘Jane Austen’s Regency World’ and they tend to be on things like Mistresses, Illegitimacy, Disability, Toilets, Underwear…. Etc.
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When I started thinking of it comparatively, I recognised that I’m actually pretty brave because I do a lot of things that I find terrifying, & always have (partly because NT people don’t understand what autistic folk find terrifying & think it’s ridiculous, but…). Before, I thought I was a wuss.
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Yes, and I actually agree. I’m not bothered by physical things - when I was fit enough, I would jump down drop slides, or off cliffs on zip wires, or whatever, and I wasn’t being brave because it wasn’t frightening to start with. It’s much braver to do something if you’re scared but still go ahead.
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As someone who was always scared of everything, I identified very much with Piglet growing up (someone bought me ‘The Te of Piglet’ when I was about 12 because it was such a thing that I was a Very Small Animal) and the reminder that I could be Brave While Scared was brilliant for me.
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It’s not cost effective. Means testing costs more to administer than it saves, so the only reason for doing it is to punish people they feel are “undeserving”. And they set the bar low, so what it effectively means is that disabled people are not allowed to save for emergencies/a new car etc.
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Trans Unite seems to be well out of date, with no groups posted in the last six years as far as I can see? Or is that just when I put “South West” in?
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I’m not very knowledgeable about art but usually one knows the famous people who came from your city, and I’m originally from Canterbury and the name is drawing a blank with me. Which could be my terrible memory, but…
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Well done! Omg, that is such an achievement. I hope you have something cheerful planned because it’s such a depressing thing to fill in.
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Inside of the Oberon, I mean.
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Someone did a version Of the vertical stripes one with the inside colours reversed - better or worse? If you click on divine jasper’s post, it’s in the comments…
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I am not at all thinking of current news events in the US and thinking that they designed this just in time, either, obviously.
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If posting to different sites,do you reckon it would be better just to stick to one image, for simplicity? So, say, just the one we both agreed we preferred, with the 2/3 black 1/3 white background?
Thinking of trying tumblr. (I know, so very 2012)
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That was my thinking indeed :)
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Sadly, no point thanking me too much, I’m the same person as @pennicat.bsky.social - it’s just that’s my political and rant TL, and this is my pretty pictures and happy things one :)
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This could have all the likes in the world and still be underrated.
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Thanks, yeah, it was short lived, just incredibly frustratingly badly timed.
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Hey, I don’t know you well but I am pretty sure you are rather excellent. And so is your cat.
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Thanks, lovely. I had rather a quiet day yesterday and am struggling a little with sleep tonight (it being 4am now!) but thankfully the really dire part only lasted a few hours. It just left me incredibly washed out on top of all my other illnesses.
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We-ell, you could argue that using “crazy” in that way denigrates people with mental health problems, yeah.
(I do actually try not to use it personally but I’ve got to admit, it’s used so commonly it’s not a battle I normally bother to bring up with other people, but the opening was too tempting!)
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She is my beautiful girlie. She is, after all, the Lady of the house, living with two male humans and one male cat, and a nonbinary human.
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Ugh, as a disabled enby, I empathise with the “brave” monicker and how tedious it can be. Went clubbing in my wheelchair many years ago, and got two “how brave”s (as well as having to yell across the bar asking to go to the loo, like a kid, because they’d locked the accessible toilet).
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And also, apart from it being tactless mentioning it out loud and making people worry about *you*… even if you’re chill about it and think you’re being nice, someone who is not so positive towards trans people could easily overhear, which in this climate is not safe.
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Ooh, did you know you can put a thing on so that you can be reminded? That’s how I manage.
Settings>accessibility>Require alt text before posting
Sometimes people know and don’t want to use it but sometimes they just don’t know so I always try and mention it just in case.
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The unsinkable @mommunism.bsky.social also have a letter for good hearted folks to sign. Please do!
bsky.app/profile/momm...
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Random comment but thank you for being the first person I’ve seen to put Alt text on this.
(It’s technically not the “women/venus”symbol, it’s “Pallas” which in astrology is described as “how you fight for your desires, bring justice to matters, utilize your artistic talents and find wisdom” - ugh!)