All posts by Rebecca

politics, racism

Boat People

Shaun Tan's art from John Marsden's The Rabbits

(Stylised art work with rabbits dressed in English military style leaving a tall masted ship and walking onto a beach)

The first boat people arrived in January 1788.  They ignored local culture, forced their religion, language and mores down the true blue Aussie’s throats.  They forced the Aussies to dress like them and eat their food.  They killed the Aussies, raped their women, committed genocide on entire tribes, infected them with a host of diseases they’d never had contact with, stole their land, and continued arriving in increasing numbers until 1868 when transportation ended.

The next big arrival of boat people to Australia happened in the late 1940s after World War 2.  These arrivals were pre-arranged and so were housed in Migrant Reception Centres which were to “provide for general medical examination and x-ray of migrants, issue of necessary clothing, payment of social service benefits, interview to determine employment potential, instruction in English and the Australian way of life generally” (Wikipedia).  These boat people did not force their religion, language and mores onto Australia.  They were expected to assimilate and become good “New Australians”.

The next wave of boat people happened in the late 1970s when just over 2000 Vietnamese arrived by boat over the space of 5 years.  “The vast majority of the 90,000 Vietnamese refugees who came here by the mid-1980s were processed offshore in camps in South-East Asia.” (The Age).  Again these boat people did not force their religion, language and mores onto Australia.

Since 1999 (11 years), a bit over 18,000 boat people have entered Australia (Australian Parliamentary Library).  Australia typically accepts between 13,000 and 14,000 refugees a year (DIAC), so this number does not even put a dent in the number of refugees Australia accepted during these period.  These boat people also did not force their religion, language and mores onto Australia.

So the worst boat arrivals, in the way that they have treated Australian people, committed crimes against humanity, acted as terrorists, stole land, crushed culture and committed genocide would be the English back in 1788.  Nothing else comes close.

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A new meme

Today we wrote poetry on our daily group email between friends at work.  It is a simple formula and you’re welcome to borrow it.

Rebecca:
why is it still raining?
I want some dry now
Thanks

James:
Why am I still awake?
I want some sleep now.
Thanks.

Michelle:
why am I still hungry?
I want some noms now.
Thanks

Rebecca:
Why am I not rich?
I’d like some money now.
Thanks

James:
Why is it not the future?
I’d like some spaceships now.
Thanks.

Michelle:
Why are people so stupid?
I want to be left alone.
Thanks

Rebecca:
Why do I have to brain?
I have the dumb
Thanks

Scott:
Why do I have to cheese?
My goat is tired.
Thanks.

Michelle:
Why do I have to write?
My brain is tired.
Thanks

James:
why is it still verbing?
I want some adjective now
Thanks

James:
*sleep sleep sleep sleep*?
*sleep sleep sleep*
Thanks.

Michelle:
Why am I still stressed?
I need some chocolate.
Thanks

James:
Why am I still achey?
I need a massage.
Thanks.

James: (warning puns)
Why is that army attacking?
I need artillery.
Tanks.

Michelle:
Where is my mobile?
I need to text.
Thnx

Rebecca:
Where is my lolcat?
It is hugs tiem now
Kthxbai

Why are people so annoying?
I want my giant robots
Thanks

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Alice Springs

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I’ve just come back (as in Saturday – it’s now Tuesday) from a week in Alice Springs, a town that is very dear to my heart, given I grew up there.  I learned some new things while I was there and was quite happy to see some positive changes to the place.

A little bit of context for those who are interested.  I was travelling with my two husbands, my girlfriend, her husband, my husband’s boyfriend and his two kids.  Nothing bad happened apart from minor frustration occasionally when I wanted space and was surrounded by people who wanted to know things about things.

So, lets start with my favourite things about Alice Springs.

  1. The weather (usually).  Generally Alice Springs, especially around the end of August and the beginning of September is fantastic weather wise.  Spring lasts for about 2 weeks before temperatures climb into what us southerners would think of as “summer weather”.  People who live in Alice Springs think southerners are wusses (and they’re probably right – though they complain about cold and damp – I remember).  This time the weather sucked somewhat.  It was wet on two days, one of which might have reached 14C, which didn’t help my plans to go and see and do and show off where I grew up.
  2. The geology.  Alice Springs is gifted with some of the most amazing gorges, gaps, chasms and “pounds” (no, I don’t know why that was used or what it means geographically and I’m not looking it up right now either).  As a child I spent a lot of time travelling to and from these places with family friends, guests, for school (we swum a lot) and to have picnics.  These places are not only beautiful but are also very special to me.  Here are some photos (more here):
    End of Standley Chasm
    Landscape from a lookout
    Rope Swing at Ellery Creek Big Hole

    Finke River through Orminston Pound/Gorge
  3. The residents are fairly relaxed about things.  Hence my extended polyamorous tribe not being a problem and the only negative reaction to two boys kissing was from someone out of state (we believe this because she flew back to Melbourne with us).

I also learnt some things/discovered some things that I was not aware of before.  I learnt that the Finke River ran through Orminston Pound and Glen Helen Gorge.  I learnt that flocks of wild budgies fly in brilliant clouds of emerald.  I discovered that cooking for 8 really wasn’t that hard.  I discovered that my old home had most of the trees I knew removed (though it’s been 22 years since we left, so they could have died).  I learnt that Alice Springs is one of the lesbian capitals of Australia.

I discovered that the indigenous population of Alice Springs appears to be much better off than when I lived in Alice Springs.  This may be, in part, that as a 13 year old (when we left) that I didn’t pay as much attention as I did this visit, or things have improved – which would be awesome.  I wouldn’t say that there are no racial problems in the town, I was shocked by the sentence of manslaughter for Kwementyaye Ryder’s killers and their alleged “good character“.  However, my memories of the indigenous population as a 13 year old (and my mother was a teacher at the Aboriginal Unit at my school – and was working to get those children into mainstream education – so I was not completely oblivious) and what I witnessed in Alice Springs were at odds with each other.  This I see as a positive step.

I will return to Alice Springs in a couple of years, in what is quickly becoming an every other year trip.  I consider staying after every trip, and sometime in the future I might make a year of it and see how I survive.

Oh and Pounds “are deep valleys that are enclosed by cliffs. They form when the soft rocks in the valley floor erode more easily than the harder rocks which form the cliffs.”  Thanks Geoscience Australia.

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Movie Review

Movie Reviews

Ok, two movie reviews for the price of one… or something.  Spoilers everywhere (where I think relevant) and these are just my thoughts… so if you don’t want to be spoilt on either Inception or Scott Pilgrim vs The World, go and enjoy my Flickr photos (shameless plug).

Inception

I think I’ll just divide this review into the good things and the negative things about this movie, then I might remember my thoughts for wrapping it all up.  I meant to write this review some time ago, but got distracted with a holiday to Alice Springs, so here goes:

Positive

  • The first movie with some original concepts that I have seen in AGES.  It was quite refreshing to think my way around a new universe.
  • The special effects were STUNNING.  This movie could sell itself on those alone, and I do know that quite a few people went and saw it at the cinema for that alone.
  • The story twisted and turned and the ending was unclear.  A lack of guaranteed happy ending with a big “BUT?!?!?!” added to an already great experience.
  • Not all the characters were white.  This was fantastic.  The “good guys” were from all over the world and the “bad guys” were generally all white.  Two white American males, one Subcontinental male, one East Asian male, one British male, and one white American female made up the “good guys”.

Negative

  • There was only one female in the team.  There was no reason why there could not have been more.
  • The movie failed the Bechdel Test
  • The female characters were reflections of the hero’s story, with Leonardo’s character’s wife being a subconscious projection (she no longer existed as an individual) and Ellen Page’s character being the helpful assistant to Leonardo’s character to help him get on with life.

Coherent wrapping up type thoughts have failed to materialise, so I will move onto the next movie.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

I’ll go with a narrative style here.  Be warned, there are spoilers.

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So, I know quite a few women who are not interested in seeing yet another movie about a boy having to fight something/someone to win the girl as a prize/rescue the girl.  Oddly enough, although the boy does fight the evil exes, this is not a movie about a boy having to fight to win the girl as a prize/rescue the girl.  The actual ending (hence the spoiler warning) is about fighting, not for the girl, but for yourself and gaining self respect.  It also focused on Scott learning to like himself and realise that he is a great guy without having others tell him that – which at the beginning of the movie was really annoying.

The movie does pass the Bechdel Test, though narrowly.  There are named female characters who have (albeit brief) conversations about topics other than a man.  Given the movie was about a man, this pass is actually unexpected – though apparently the comic, which I haven’t read, passes the Bechdel test beautifully.

The pop-culture references are fun and overall the movie is very silly.  The sound-track is awesome and the filming beautiful.

The gay house-mate/bed-mate of Scott is sweet and funny, and the less creepy Culkin (Keiran) played the role perfectly.  As a character his queerness was not an issue, he was gay and that was perfectly normal, as was the main (and presumably straight) character sleeping in the same bed as him.  The fact that he had multiple partners during the movie could be viewed as problematic (all gay men are sluts!) but it wasn’t played in a negative way.  After all there are plenty of straight men portrayed in movies with multiple partners and that is rarely negative (women doing the same thing is a completely different story).

Although Scott fought a female evil ex, and that ex referred to Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character as a “hasbian”, the ex being a lesbian was again just a thing.  She was no more evil or anything than the other exes.

So yes, I enjoyed the movie more than I expected to.  And now it is time for bed.

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Movement in public

I have a million blog posts in my head to write, some of them even sketched out so I have my arguments all set out so things look organised for me… but I’ve been so busy and/or tired that I haven’t found the time to blog.  Or I’ve been distracted reading other people’s blogs or feeling guilty for not reading other people’s blogs.  It’s been a bit of a mess.  But I’m going to Alice Springs next week, so hopefully that will help.

Anyway, back to the title of this blog… movement in public…  I’ve been reading quite a lot of Wheel Chair Dancer’s blog which discusses movement and it got me thinking about how I move through the world.

Crowds fascinate me.  The way they move through and with and past each other.  Every morning as I arrive at Flinders Street, I get to play the “Do not collide with anyone” game, which can be tricky with groups of school children occupying open space – socialising before they continue onto school, people running for connecting trains/trams/buses and everyone else moving through the state.  I am acutely aware of where people are, performing head-checks before effectively changing lanes and doing my best to move smoothly through the crowd in the straightest line possible.

I generally find it easy to move through crowds of people, finding the spaces and slipping through them, skipping ahead of my companions and then waiting for them to catch up.  There are times, when I’m wrapped up in a conversation or my own little world and I don’t move through crowds well.  I’ll make grand gestures with my hands and they’ll collide with someone who is about to overtake me on the footpath (that’s when my companion laughs at me).  I’ll not pay attention to where I’m going and almost collide with people or objects.

When this happens I tend to snap to attention and start paying attention again, moving carefully through crowds and the world.  I like to move silently and not leave a wake through the people I move through.  I typically want my movement to be controlled, quiet and smooth.

It often surprises me that there are people who regularly fail to pay attention to their surroundings, that have near misses with people who have trouble changing course quickly (such as those with prams, trolleys, crutches, wheelchairs) to avoid a collision.  But I suppose that everyone else isn’t like me, although some people may be.

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relationships

A culture of silence

I’ve found yet another culture of silence I just don’t understand.  This one has nothing to do with physical violence against others, nothing to do with racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic behaviour, and nothing to do with rape apology.  This is all to do with gossip and rumours… which really thrive in a culture of silence.

Some context would probably be useful here.  I’m a member of a community that is relatively close-knit and some would say incestuous… but it is full of people who are polyamorous, so that second label is understandable.  Given the interlinked relationships, friendships and the like there is a certain amount of disclosure about people, but it is usually safe, sane and truthful.  It is useful, after all, to know your partner’s partner’s STI status, who else they are involved with, etc.  Honesty is valued in poly relationships because it is just impossible to trust a group of people (tribes is the terminology I tend to use) without being very honest with them and having them be very honest with you.

So when someone joined this community, and spent some time in it, started talking about negative experiences with others, given the constant reinforcement of honesty as a necessary part of polyamory, we trusted that she was at least telling as close as she could to her version of the truth – so it may have been hurt or anger with someone, but she was being honest at the core.

And we did not talk to those she said bad things about.  I think this is a common thing regardless of the community you are in.  Typically gossip is passed on to others and not the victim, which sadly means that the victim can be ostracised, isolated or subject to other forms negative of behaviour because something which may be untrue or taken out of context is believed by others and the victim is not given a chance to defend themselves, or if they are, it is usually far too late.

So why don’t we talk to the person the gossip or bad-mouthing is about?  Sometimes I think it’s because you want to believe what the other person who is gossiping to you to be true.  There were some things that were told to me by the aforementioned person which I could have believed to be true, whether that was because there was a grain of truth in them or because I was already biased against the person being gossiped about.  Sometimes I think it is because you instantly dismiss what the gossiper is saying because you don’t think it is true or you don’t care one way or the other.  The aforementioned person told me some things about people I was friends with which either did not fit my knowledge of that individual or were completely irrelevant to me.

It was only as we began as a wider group to start unravelling the lies that were told to us and found out the lies that were told about us that we realised the harm that this one individual had caused to our wider circle and community.  We have since cut all ties with her and I am of the understanding that she has now left the community, but that still does not solve the main problem… that of the culture of silence.

Maybe it’s an Australian thing to not disclose negative and hurtful information that you overhear to the person/s that it is allegedly about.  Maybe there are other places in the world that handle this openly and far better.  I’m going to try and find some way to deal with gossip I overhear by approaching the victim and effectively tattling on the gossiper.  Though it can be hard when you don’t know whether something is true or not to start with…  If my partner’s partner tells me that their new partner does/has/wants X, do I go and talk to them and tell them what I was told?  Where can I draw the line?

It is a very tricky thing to deal with, which is why I suspect I don’t ever deal with it well until it is too late, or when things are bad.  I don’t know what would have happened if I had confronted the gossiper (and outright liar) that has most recently harmed my tribe, earlier in the piece.  I suspect I would have been turned upon and maliciously attacked to others.

Some of the people who thought that they were going to be able to stay out of this have discovered that things were even said about them, things that were untrue that I dismissed as either irrelevant or unlikely to be true, and it wasn’t until we were debriefing about the situation that I passed those things on.  One friend was deeply shocked to have had lies told about her – even though in my estimation those lies were so irrelevant and meaningless.  Another friend who had had lies told about him did not seem to be bothered, even though the lies told about him seemed to be more serious than the other friend’s.

Debriefing has been incredibly useful but there is still serious damage that has been done.  Several members of my tribe are afraid that their ability to judge people is skewed, and their ability to trust has temporarily taken a beating.  There is a lot of anger and feelings of betrayal.  And of course the big question, “Why would someone do this?”

This post has been cross posted to my poly blog: Only More So

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LGBTIQ, politics

Letter writing time

After reading a few articles in the Age about Wendy Francis I wrote her a letter.  For my international readers (if I have any), the Australian Federal Election is around the corner (less than 2 weeks away) and Wendy Francis is a candidate for the Senate with Family First, a Christian right-win political party who accidentally gained a Federal Senator at 6 years ago or so and who have a few seats in various State Parliaments.

Dear Ms Francis,

I am horrified to have read your comments today regarding equal marriage and LGBTIQ parentage.  You seem to believe that such would be a “social experiment with unproven results”.  It is not a social experiment Ms Francis, no more than any other individual who wants children is a social experiment.  A recent US longitudinal study showed that children of lesbian parents were, “rated significantly higher in social, school/academic, and total competence and significantly lower in social problems, rule-breaking, aggressive, and externalizing problem behavior than their age-matched counterparts in Achenbach’s normative sample of American youth”.

To suggest that LGBTIQ parents are lesser parents that heterosexuals parents really fails to understand parentage and how it has worked for so may people.  How many single-parent households are there in Australia?  Are those children growing up “parentless” because their parent’s relationship ended?  What solution do you have for those children in such cases?

Are the children whose parents either abandon them into care of have the children removed “parentless” if they are fostered or cared for by queer or straight people?

Are there really any studies that genuinely demonstrate the beliefs you hold outside the bible – a book that a large number of Australians do not subscribe to?

To compare the stolen generations to the issue of LBGTIQ parentage is incredibly offensive, as it is to suggest that legalising equal marriage is equivalent to legalising child abuse.

You are, as you have said, or been suggested to have said, allowed to have an opinion and to hold forth on it, provided it does not vilify or encourage violence against any particular group.  But before you hold forth on what you believe to be true, think about what harm you may be doing to others.  You may think that you are right on the basis of your religion, but for those of us who do not follow your religion, why should your religion impact on us?  Why should your words which I would suggest come from a deep seated fear and hate, be allowed to harm us?

You have said that homosexual community only represents a tiny percentage of Australia.  I’d personally argue that 10% is not a tiny percentage, but regardless of how small a percentage of the population is queer, why should they not have full equal rights with every heterosexual Australian?  Why cannot queer Australians participate fully in society as everyone else does?  Why can’t we ask for the same rights that you have?

Next time you think about discussing the rights of the LGBTIQ community, regardless of your religious blinkers, please sit down with a few of us and find out WHY we want equal rights, and think about how what you say may harm others, and try not to push your religion onto those who do not follow it.

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I am still alive

Yes I’m still here, this month (despite not studying) has been stupidly hectic.  There have been relationship dramas (not mine thankfully, but they’ve impacted on me), there has been the finalisation of my house-repairs and arrival of new furniture to replace that which was damaged by the Great Flood of 2010.  I’ve destroyed and rebuilt this blog 3 or 4 times this month which has been incredibly stressful as I’ve had to learn a whole lot more about WordPress than I ever thought I’d need to, to put it back together.  I’ve received my results from last semester and have submitted an application for Recognition for Prior Learning in order to get credit for the remaining two subjects of my course so that I can finally finish my degree.

I hope, now that most of the drama llamas have been sorted out that I can continue posting all the blog posts that I have blocked out or are sitting in my head.  Some, which were topical to the news at the time, are no longer, but I may or may not comment on them anyway.  I have big plans, I just need the time.

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Identity

A background story

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There is a town I grew up in, well spent some of my formative years in, that I never ever want to return to.  I am envious of those people who have school friends who they spend time with, share history with and have connections that span the years.  I just don’t have that and some of the reasons are valid, and some relate to me being a slack teenager.  Let me explain.

I spent a bit over half of my formative years (traditionally from birth to 18), in Alice Springs… this is not the town I never want to return to.  Alice Springs, to this day, remains my spiritual home for want of a better phrase.  Alice Springs was a fantastic place to grow up in the 1980s.  I made friends with indigenous school children, local school children, blow-in school children (those whose parents had taken a 12 month contract and then were going to move onto the next place) and children whose parents had migrated from other countries.  I had the privilege of going to kindergarten with a group of people who I then went to school with.  I went to ballet school and did well, I was allowed to take what was then known as an “extension” program for gifted children at school and I fit in.

The fitting in part was the biggest and most important part for me, because of what happened when we left Alice Springs.  The people I went to school with in Alice Springs and those I was friends with accepted me, my quirks, my interests and the fact that I enjoyed school.  It wasn’t an ideal paradise, I did fight with girls and boys about stuff, but that wasn’t about who I was deep in my core that was just school yard politics in a very mild form.

We moved to a large country town in Victoria because my parents were concerned about their parents and wanted to be halfway between them (Melbourne and Corowa respectively).  It was a former gold mining town full of history, beautiful buildings and things to do.  On a purely aesthetic level it was a lovely place to be.  On a personal level, for me, it was hell.

My parents thought, at the time, that the best school to send me to was the Catholic High School because a) they were Catholic and b) Catholic Schools provide good education (apparently).  This school, compared to my Catholic High School in Alice Springs was MASSIVE.  I went from a school of 250 students in total to a school where there were 300 people in my year level, and as the school was divided over two campuses, years 7 to 9 and years 10 to 12, my campus had 900 students.

Despite charging fees (I ended up on a music scholarship, which is good because my parents would not have been able to afford the fees for long), the facilities at this school were quite poor compared to new shiny Catholic High School I attended in Alice Springs.  The campus coordinator thought that education in the Northern Territory was at a lower standard that Victoria (HA!) and wanted to put me back a year, but my mother put her foot down (thank god) and I remained in year 8.

As a smart and inquisitive student, I was suddenly bored.  I was a long way ahead of my fellow students, in all the core subjects and due to the move and my mother’s inability to find work, there were no extra curricular activities for me except choir – which I took up the year after we moved.  No home work, or at least no homework at the level I was used to in Alice Springs (combined with all the extra stuff I used to do) and suddenly my knowledge was a liability instead of an asset.

For the first time in my life I was picked on by others for knowing things.  My good vocabulary was laughed at.  When I told someone I was sceptical that X liked me, the boys went around for the next couple of days going, “ooh, I feel very sceptical today”, because they had no idea what it really meant.  In Alice Springs, I was one of the ones my fellow students went to when they wanted help with something.  In this town, I was shunned.

And not just shunned, I was bullied.  I was kicked, had my hair pulled and my school uniform skirt lifted.  I was picked on by girls for being different and determined to remain different.  I liked books and science and learning and enjoyed school – with the exception of the bullying.  I argued with mum about returning to school, spent time flatly refusing to go to school due to the way I was treated and eventually just got on with it as much as I could.

In my first year in this town I had one friend, who was someone very few people liked (including some of the teachers), but I thought was sweet.  Her family moved away from the town a bit over half-way through the year and I was then friendless until the following year.  Then I started making friends – who were mostly all outcasts like me and oddly were all people who had moved to the town later, they weren’t born there.

The bullying by the other girls continued throughout my entire school years.  This has resulted in me having a lot of trouble trusting women who I suspect are likely to play any sort of “game” beyond certain limits.  As a bisexual woman, this has added an extra layer of complexity that it’d be nice to do without.

Later in my school life in this town I was sexually assaulted by a boy who lived down the road, and nothing was done by anyone I told.  My mother has since apologised, explaining that her own sexual abuse as a child (though not the details) taught her that children lie – because that is what she was regularly told during her childhood.

Later again I was raped by my boyfriend, and since no one was going to act as they didn’t the first time, I didn’t bother telling anyone – having learnt that I had to deal with stuff on my own.

The relationship with my then boyfriend was incredibly toxic.  I endured emotional abuse and it took me a long time to find a way out of the relationship.  Only when I was at uni, in the same town, did I discover that I was appreciated for who I was, that my curiosity, thirst to know things and difference were ok things to have and that suddenly there were multiple people interested in me, versus the incredibly tiny number at school – well one.

When I dropped out of uni because engineering was not for me and moved to Melbourne I lost all the friends that I had gained in the town.  My ex-boyfriend still lived there and our circle of friends found it easier to be friendly to him as he was there than to remain in contact and/or friendship with me.

Moving to Melbourne was a good thing for me.  I’ve made friends again and lost friends and made new friends.  I have built up a family of choice of wonderful people I am happy to have in my life.  I have left behind the mess that was that country town and avoid going there as much as possible, even though there are a still one or two people I would not mind getting in touch with again.  I have a home now (and I’m even paying it off) and have filled it with people I love dearly.  I have a great circle of friends and have sorted out most of my genetic family stuff.  I have learnt that I’m me, and that those who cannot deal with that have a problem, not me.

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Feminism, LGBTIQ

Who gets to decide these things anyway?

Most of the internet will be rightly outraged at Dr New of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University and her “treatment” of pregnant women using “safe” (read dangerous with terrible side-effects) hormones in order to cure teh gay…  PZ Myers and Dan Savage have blogged about the pure evil that this whole thing is in relation to lying about the drug’s safety, ethics approval, experimenting on humans, etc.  I don’t want to go over that other than to say that if my mother had been convinced to take this drug when she was pregnant with me, I wouldn’t exist as I do now.  No more bisexual woman out to herd geek cats with the best of them.

What I want to consider here is the fact that someone came up with the idea that to be a “proper female” you shouldn’t “display an “abnormal” disinterest in babies, [not] want to play with girls’ toys or become mothers, and [not choose a] “career preferences” [which is] deemed too “masculine.”” (Quote taken from Dan’s blog and then amended)

Who gets to say which career paths are too “masculine”?  I thought, now that we’re in 2010 and have attempted as much as possible to win the whole equal pay in relation to employment that all career choices were open to women and none could really be defined as “too masculine”.  I know that there are career paths which are dominated by one gender with rare incursions (for want of a better word) by the opposite gender, such as childcare and nursing for women and truck driving and construction work for men.  Though I wouldn’t say that those career paths are actually gendered other than by history and the current status quo.

I do wonder what Dr New and her researchers deemed to be a masculine career preferences and why, in the age of enlightenment that we’re supposed to be in (as far as women’s alleged ability to access any job she’s qualified for) choosing a non-traditional job for women is a bad thing.  My biggest concern is that Dr New and her team are attempting to impose patriarchal ideals of womanhood and what is means to be a proper/successful woman without looking at the benefits that women have gained over the past century.  Without sitting down and asking themselves if the meaning of “man” and “woman” have changed in a positive way that benefits everyone, including any children they may choose to have. How much do they want women to regress?

Erasing diversity and introducing conformity in our population to fit some weird hetero-normative ideal of what it is to be a proper woman or a proper man lessens us all.  As a diverse population of straight, gay, lesbian, trans*, bisexual, intersex, queer and questioning individuals we all have strengths that compliment each other’s weaknesses.  As a diverse population with interests in different career paths, we keep the economy moving and bring different strengths to the workplace.

I want to see Dr New, and anyone else who thinks that using this drug to treat non-CAH female fetuses, disbarred from practising medicine and forced to attend diversity education before they can re-register.   Oh and the ethics departments who have allowed this human experimentation… same deal.

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