Posted on Sat 19 November 2022 in misc
As someone who works on ancient comedy and satire, it's obviously exciting for me to see that the nature and effect of comedy on social and political topics has become a matter of public debate. From online TV specials by Ricky Gervais and other transphobic men, to Jerry Sadowitz waving …
Continue readingPosted on Wed 25 May 2022 in comedy • Tagged with tans, comedy, classics
Another week, another culture war/comedy crossover. This time it is the arrival of a hotly, er, anticipated return to the screen of one Ricky Gervais, in what has been billed in some quarters as Netflix's most transphobic show yet. Still, I'm not just interested in this phenomenon as a …
Continue readingPosted on Thu 14 April 2022 in trans • Tagged with trans, comedy, tragedy, history
Timing has never been my strong point, and so now that LGBT History Month has gone by, it is the obvious time to write a post about trans history. There are two main reasons for me doing so now. First, a couple of pieces of mine have recently emerged, one …
Continue readingPosted on Tue 21 December 2021 in comedy • Tagged with comedy
Once again the death of comedy has been announced. On this occasion, one-time national treasure Maureen Lipman, still most famous for a British Telecom advert, has asserted (apparently without any examples) that punishment for saying socially unacceptable things was in danger of ending careers and indeed comedy itself more generally …
Continue readingPosted on Sat 09 October 2021 in trans • Tagged with transphobia, terfs
No-one likes being labelled, especially when one feels it to be pejorative or unkindly meant, or demeans you as part of a category of people. As a trans woman, I understand this. Nor is name-calling much help if you are minded to have a reasoned debate, if there is a …
Continue readingPosted on Wed 30 June 2021 in trans • Tagged with trans Classics
An allegation of corrupting the young, particularly when it involves experts or educators, is an old favourite of the reactionary or the fearful. It can be exploited by unscrupulous politicians to create or inflate a moral panic, sometimes with devastating consequences. If I were spiritually minded, I might even suggest …
Continue readingPosted on Fri 30 April 2021 in trans • Tagged with trans, Classics
I've been on Twitter, technically, for about a decade, but hardly ever used it. I did the whole flamewar thing in the 1990s on mailing lists and newsgroups, and the appeal of doing that kind of thing again in a short form-factor just seemed too exhausting. And yet, I've lately …
Continue readingPosted on Fri 28 June 2019 in transition
As Warhol suggested, it happens to everyone, and it happened to me. And it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life, and it's stayed with me. Aside from the personal impact, it has left me intensely suspicious of all media, not just the tabloids, and also some …
Continue readingPosted on Fri 28 June 2019 in transition
To save time repeating tedious explanations to everyone, I thought I would try to offer an explanation of my ... erratic ... history of transitioning.
Those who've known me a long time or have heard dark whispering in corridors or were avid readers of the Mail, Sun or Telegraph back in the …
Continue readingPosted on Thu 27 June 2019 in misc
Why the title? Four aspects of Artemisia appealed to me. In relation to the blog element in particular, I was thinking of Lucretius' well-known image of honey and wormwood in the proem to Book Four of \emph{De Rerum Nature}. Poetry, he says, is the honey that disguises the bitter …
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