Party and ramblings :o)
Diary: Week of 10/08: Hitchin Party with Kay
Had quite an empty week. Did make sure to get around to studying for my driving theory test, which I've done precious little off. By the look of the questions, there would have been a good chance of me passing without any preparation. Still, all seems good to know and be sure of so I'll do a little more and make sure of that 100% pass result for when I do book the theory test.
Weekend was very good though.
Me and Lacuna_Raze got up very early (for us) to go up to a party in Hitchin, with mostly the same people as the one we went to last year in Hastings. Most of the people there were trannies but I didn't cross-dress this time myself. I wear make-up as standard anyway, so it didn't seem to matter much; I still look pretty much the same regardless of whether I put a skirt on or trousers.
Cross-dressing meant more to me back when there was more of a difference between me 'dressing as a boy' and 'dressing as a girl'. The whole thing has pretty much collapsed together now though and thus I don't really distinguish between the two. I'm just me wearing whatever clothes happen to seem nice at the time :o)
Any case, was fun. Lots of nice people who are very easy to chat to. No bed to sleep in though so we all had to make the best of the floor, but everything seemed to work out well. Can't say my head felt brilliant after a night of drinking and waking up early and uncomfortably on the floor though :oP
When we got back we eat through ice cream whilst finishing watching our stash of Family Guy (up to Season 7 now) and then some of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. All in all it was an expensive weekend (given that I'm still unemployed!) but worth it :o)
Thoughts: 'Skin coloured' plasters
I was heading off to a party recently and had a small burn on my hand so I stuck a small circular beige 'skin-coloured' plaster on it.
I was talking to Lacuna_Raze about it on the train and somehow the thought occurred to us about whether there were 'skin-coloured' plasters for people of different skin tones. Seemed like an obvious niche so we suspected that someone most have thought of it and created the product.
Being of a somewhat curious nature, I googled it when I got home and was surprised to find a lot of people posting to ask why they didn't exist.
I even found an article on the Independent website (linky) about a woman who had raised a complaint against plasters being advertised as 'skin-coloured' when they're only available to match white skin.
I was quite surprised by the reported responses by the Counsel about something that seemed fairly obvious to me. Using 'skin-coloured' to mean 'matching white skin' is tactless and marginalising. An understandable mistake in a nation with mostly white people, but still a mistake.
I eventually found a website with an article (dated July this year) announcing a brand of plasters for non-white skin tones, which can be found here: linky. The website for the plasters themselves can be found here: linky
What I find really hard to understand was something I found on a forum: linky. The original post was simple enough, in a world where there are more people with non-white skin than with white skin, why is it that 'skin-coloured' plasters are all beige?
I shouldn't be surprised but, within one page, people started taking offence at at people being too 'PC', with one poster declaring the thread to be "utterly pointless" and another suggesting "maybe its nothing to do with race, they have always been doing them that colour for whatever reason, and it would be expensive to start doing PC To*ser user friendly colour friendly ones.", which of course makes sense, because taking 'skin-coloured' to mean beige has nothing to do with race...
Another comment being "Why make different colour plasters? Is anyone exactly the same shade skin as a beige plaster? No. They do a job, to protect wounds, they aren't designed to be discreet, nor aesthetically pleasing.", which is surely just obtuse. Of course people want plasters to match their skin, that's why they're advertised as 'skin-coloured' in the first place!
Next claim, "IMO, black people could be quite offended if they started making black plasters (in a white-majority country). It would be too PC. Perhaps in black-majority countries they make them darker, but IMO theres little or no demand here.", which seems just as bizarre. Why would anyone be offended by a choice of plasters of different colours/patterns? :o/
Worse, when someone linked to an advertisement of Ynot's variety of skin-coloured plasters, someone claimed that the plasters were racist. Apparently acknowledging that people are any other colour than white is racist. Proper non-racists are presumably colour-blind and pretend that the whole issue doesn't exist at all.
Just makes me that much sure that the sort of person that likes to scream that our culture is too 'PC' is just not as bright as s/he thinks s/he is. I tend to find that such complaints are usually about either a) something that isn't real ('oh no, they're banning Christmas!') or b) something that ought to be fine ('oh no, people don't like it when I use racial slurs!')
Link: Husband and Wife author team; what a pair... linky and linky. At least she just seems clueless rather than the active malice of her husband.
Link: Fasting for God; before: linky, on 40th day of 3rd fast: linky and one month afterward: linky
Link: On discussing feminism with men - linky and linky
Link: Letter to Mr Obama from the NHS - linky
Link: Black people love us - page by a white couple - linky
Had quite an empty week. Did make sure to get around to studying for my driving theory test, which I've done precious little off. By the look of the questions, there would have been a good chance of me passing without any preparation. Still, all seems good to know and be sure of so I'll do a little more and make sure of that 100% pass result for when I do book the theory test.
Weekend was very good though.
Me and Lacuna_Raze got up very early (for us) to go up to a party in Hitchin, with mostly the same people as the one we went to last year in Hastings. Most of the people there were trannies but I didn't cross-dress this time myself. I wear make-up as standard anyway, so it didn't seem to matter much; I still look pretty much the same regardless of whether I put a skirt on or trousers.
Cross-dressing meant more to me back when there was more of a difference between me 'dressing as a boy' and 'dressing as a girl'. The whole thing has pretty much collapsed together now though and thus I don't really distinguish between the two. I'm just me wearing whatever clothes happen to seem nice at the time :o)
Any case, was fun. Lots of nice people who are very easy to chat to. No bed to sleep in though so we all had to make the best of the floor, but everything seemed to work out well. Can't say my head felt brilliant after a night of drinking and waking up early and uncomfortably on the floor though :oP
When we got back we eat through ice cream whilst finishing watching our stash of Family Guy (up to Season 7 now) and then some of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. All in all it was an expensive weekend (given that I'm still unemployed!) but worth it :o)
Thoughts: 'Skin coloured' plasters
I was heading off to a party recently and had a small burn on my hand so I stuck a small circular beige 'skin-coloured' plaster on it.
I was talking to Lacuna_Raze about it on the train and somehow the thought occurred to us about whether there were 'skin-coloured' plasters for people of different skin tones. Seemed like an obvious niche so we suspected that someone most have thought of it and created the product.
Being of a somewhat curious nature, I googled it when I got home and was surprised to find a lot of people posting to ask why they didn't exist.
I even found an article on the Independent website (linky) about a woman who had raised a complaint against plasters being advertised as 'skin-coloured' when they're only available to match white skin.
I was quite surprised by the reported responses by the Counsel about something that seemed fairly obvious to me. Using 'skin-coloured' to mean 'matching white skin' is tactless and marginalising. An understandable mistake in a nation with mostly white people, but still a mistake.
I eventually found a website with an article (dated July this year) announcing a brand of plasters for non-white skin tones, which can be found here: linky. The website for the plasters themselves can be found here: linky
What I find really hard to understand was something I found on a forum: linky. The original post was simple enough, in a world where there are more people with non-white skin than with white skin, why is it that 'skin-coloured' plasters are all beige?
I shouldn't be surprised but, within one page, people started taking offence at at people being too 'PC', with one poster declaring the thread to be "utterly pointless" and another suggesting "maybe its nothing to do with race, they have always been doing them that colour for whatever reason, and it would be expensive to start doing PC To*ser user friendly colour friendly ones.", which of course makes sense, because taking 'skin-coloured' to mean beige has nothing to do with race...
Another comment being "Why make different colour plasters? Is anyone exactly the same shade skin as a beige plaster? No. They do a job, to protect wounds, they aren't designed to be discreet, nor aesthetically pleasing.", which is surely just obtuse. Of course people want plasters to match their skin, that's why they're advertised as 'skin-coloured' in the first place!
Next claim, "IMO, black people could be quite offended if they started making black plasters (in a white-majority country). It would be too PC. Perhaps in black-majority countries they make them darker, but IMO theres little or no demand here.", which seems just as bizarre. Why would anyone be offended by a choice of plasters of different colours/patterns? :o/
Worse, when someone linked to an advertisement of Ynot's variety of skin-coloured plasters, someone claimed that the plasters were racist. Apparently acknowledging that people are any other colour than white is racist. Proper non-racists are presumably colour-blind and pretend that the whole issue doesn't exist at all.
Just makes me that much sure that the sort of person that likes to scream that our culture is too 'PC' is just not as bright as s/he thinks s/he is. I tend to find that such complaints are usually about either a) something that isn't real ('oh no, they're banning Christmas!') or b) something that ought to be fine ('oh no, people don't like it when I use racial slurs!')
Link: Husband and Wife author team; what a pair... linky and linky. At least she just seems clueless rather than the active malice of her husband.
Link: Fasting for God; before: linky, on 40th day of 3rd fast: linky and one month afterward: linky
Link: On discussing feminism with men - linky and linky
Link: Letter to Mr Obama from the NHS - linky
Link: Black people love us - page by a white couple - linky