“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive.
Both men and women should feel free to be strong.
It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum
not as two opposing sets of ideas."
Emma Watson
watch the gender gap video clip
(bottom of page)
sound up - 1080p
Right. There are 'gay' animals ... know something? Your little Muffy-wuffy lying on the floor licking himself and affectionately looking up at you could be as queer as a 3 dollar bill.
Who knew? Turns out there is roughly the same percentage of animals that are LGBTQ as we are. I'm guessing humans were just supposed to skip that part? A biblical implication?
"If a man lies with a man as one lies with woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads"
(Leviticus 20:13).
You see, the whole movement is just a reaction - to oppression. Can't force nature. Be it race, religion, climate or gender. It's all overplayed because it feels like it has to be. Woke is a pushback, that's all; and a costly one. Now, there are millions of parents out there who are actively ‘encouraging’ their kids to be gay or trans because it’s trendy (and because it pisses the mother in-law off). Weird wokey pokey gone wrong.
That, in itself is just as dangerous as ‘conversion’ therapy (forcing the gay out of them). Your child’s gender should never be your idea (or anyone else's) but solely theirs and gender oppression works both ways ... (and it was never meant to go this far).
Oh, and as for 'conversion therapy'? Let's keep exorcisms where they really belong ... in the movies. My gender, is none of your business.
Animal Magnetism
Just a tad curious ...
So what is this obsession we have with gender? It's practically bi-polar. You are either one or the other. Male? Female? Black? or white? No greyscale and no colours permitted here. Sure, there's the biology but then there's the psyche. Our true gender lives in the latter (and many would say that's a load of crap). For some, it’s a fascination and a preoccupation with expectation and tradition.
For others? It's finding comfort - in the familiar.
Lingering Lust
Somewhere in there is the idea that if we're going to realize our full potential, we need to become who we really are and that is ultimately defined by what's between our legs. Of course that being if you’re a girl, growing up to be a woman, preferably pretty in her childbearing years then compliant and soft spoken, kind and maternal just like Mom was and if you’re a boy? Becoming a real man! That being strong, proud and masculine like Dad.
Now that said, there is an inconvenient truth that has peeked through in the last several decades. That being that some ‘women’ are (by nature) more masculine than others AND some ‘men’ are more feminine. We are born one gender by two parents, one male and one female. We grow up loving them both so it kind of makes sense that we would adopt some of each in our evolving development and perhaps even embracing the opposite gender over our own (by nature); puberty being the wild card (where everything can go sideways).
Most university educated psychologists will tell us that we’re all masculine and feminine and that it is in fact the combination of the two that makes us who we are and - it's healthy.
Live and learn OR ... live and don't learn.
Where it all becomes unmanageable, provocative, controversial and well - a total can of worms is when sexuality is thrown into the mix. It is then that we (consciously or unconsciously) discover homophobia in adulthood. You see for millions of Canadians, when our 12 year old son expresses his more feminine nature or our daughter her more masculine side, it becomes a threat to our own gender identity and proof of our own inability to control the situation. I mean, what are people going to think? How does it look when I can’t even raise my own child properly? It’s an embarrassment of epic proportions - an existential failure.
Calling in the Cavalry
That’s when we need our doctors, lawyers, politicians, schools and churches to step up and fix this mess (or so we might conclude). So let’s talk options. If you’re religious there’s always ‘conversion therapy’; that costly camp ever so conveniently tucked away out of sight where you can send your confused adolescent for 'treatment' (to make him/her become clear again/unconfused), kind of like we did with the natives in residential schools earlier on.
Forcing them to become denizens in our own image. That worked out ok, right?
Out of Sight - Out of Mind
Nothing to lose and everything to gain by loving them for who they are, not what you want them to be.
Many parents disown their children after they grow up in fear and finally come out, shaking like a leaf in absolute terror of the outcome but having no choice because the pressure is deafening. Wow. That wasn't so bad. Yes, Mom & Dad admit that they always suspected but it was never discussed in the marital home. Why? Because such things are forbidden. Wrong. Disapproval followed by a distancing followed by a slow, cruel dissension.
I'm sorry dear but it’s not how we do things. We're just looking out for what's best for you. Relocating a thousand miles away and the yearly 10 minute phone call on Christmas day with Mom who is sad you're not there. "Dad says hi" (sitting 10 feet away watching television).
Adam & Eve
The Immaculate Conception
I have a loose theory on where this all started going way back to biblical times. To a place where men and women co-existed on the planet but were never intended to be equal. In the church, state and even in their homes it was just assumed that men were the superior gender, making the hard choices and taking charge of the elements in a way that women were never really able or capable of (allowed).
So, when our little Tommy wants to become Tammy, it seriously compromises the balance, throwing everything to the wind ... to chance - chaos. Unacceptable. What solidified the arrangement going back centuries was our belief in God coupled with women's compliance. The unspoken rule that was rarely challenged and when it was there were grave consequences.
Preferential Freedom
Quite the conundrum and we wouldn't be in this mess if they followed the rules and didn't mess with tradition. Maybe it's time to take it back; what they stole from us. Making it right means taking a stand. Preferential freedom is obedient, loyal and unforgiving.
I mean Jesus!
Now we have boys that want to be girls and girls who want to be boys?? That upsets everything - can't have it. I'm thinking that women by nature have less of a problem with the transgendered and that it's intrinsically a male phobia. Those women who continue supporting the church and state's (government/schools) intervention are those still following the directive presented to them as kids themselves. The words sacred & scared come to mind.
Empathy & Humility
a closing message to parents who think their rights are more important than their children's ...
The highest rate of suicide in the U.S. is amongst transgendered/non binary teens, so if your 12 year old son comes to you and and tells you he thinks he is a girl? Go with it! By allowing 'her' to be one, it may pass in a month or year. By fighting it you may harm them in the long term and alienate them from even wanting to live in his/her later teens. Why? What's your point? How does making them wrong benefit you?
Nothing to lose and everything to gain by loving them for who they are, not what you want them to be.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190987/scientists-explore-evolution-animal-homosexuality/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/16/us-trans-non-binary-youth-suicide-mental-health
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32345113/
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
you fly to the moon
always there
When I think of ‘home’
the first place I think of is 519 Edward Street in Woodstock
joining Riddell & Wellington Streets
one block south of Ingersoll Ave.
I lived there in 1961/62
1966/67, 1973/74 & 1979
EDWARD STREET
w/Pansy & Me
november '23 edition
My deaf mute Grandma Mona Batho lived there
(her house) and I/we lived there off and on
all throughout my childhood
Mom & Dad moved around a lot (separating when I was 10)
and Edward Street was where I felt the most grounded
and at peace as a kid (Princess Public School)
then later as a teenager attending Woodstock Collegiate Institute in 73/74
then finally in 1979 for 5 months just before Mom sold it
and I moved to Toronto
Dad was the wild-card - damaged
Gramma always there in the storm - always dependable
Edward Street was always solid land
Mona was a frugal, simple & kind soul, teaching me sign language
as a kid as a project (taking me on) and as a means
to communicate as so few could be bothered to learn
I later enjoyed talking to her on our hands
over the next 10 years until she passed
in 1977
The giant maples in front; fir and cherry trees in the back yard
lined with lily of the valley, grape vines and rhubarb that she made pies with
that were always sour because she never put enough sugar in them
An acquired taste, a snapshot
It was an appreciation of austerity
in a silence that could only come from talking to her
Quiet & dark inside. That subtle musky smell,
glass bottled milk delivered daily by horse and buggy
After dark, crickets and the CPR train horn at a distance
falling asleep there was blissful & serene
I composed the music and put this video together
a few years ago in remembrance
of my favourite place on Earth
my home on Edward Street
720p - volume up
optimized for night vision
