Teaching Students a Lesson (if they pay attention)

Tell me this. Why is it that Teachers get such a hard time?

Don’t get me wrong, I have a big problem with some teachers I had BUT that is a specific problem with specific people. In general I think they do a good job. Others, however, seem to disagree and broadcast highly inaccurate opinions followed by “I blame the teachers” or preceded by “Teachers don’t...” It’s ridiculous!

I was in a tutorial at University today and the tutor was saying that some students have an issue with the critical thinking aspect of Sociology. One of the mature students responded to her by saying “that’s because teachers don’t tell pupils how to do it. Kids are just sat down and told stuff and not allowed to ask questions”.  Now, this might just be my experience of school but I wasn’t only “allowed to ask questions” I was actively encouraged to do so. In fact a lot of the teachers I had, were annoyed that I didn’t talk more (actually really funny how most people in my class were told to stop talking and then at parent’s evening my Mum or Dad would be told “she needs to talk more”). We were asked for our opinions on issues. English lessons, in my experience, were about looking at a poem or piece of prose and taking it apart and studying it. It was about our interpretations and opinions of things. There was a whole term dedicated to debating and persuasive writing. History essays were about taking the question, covering the topic and stating whether the question was accurate or not. Example:

“The power of the Tsarist state was relatively unchanged after the 1905 Revolution.”

How accurate is this view?

The essay that you were to write for this question was structured along these lines:

1)        Introduction

2)      Reasons why the view COULD BE accurate

3)      More reasons supporting the statement

4)      Reasons against the statement

5)      More reasons against the statement

6)      Conclusion which summarises the essay

Where in this is the lack of critical thinking? Where is the lack of education towards critical thinking? English; Modern Studies; Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies are the same. So no, as far as I’m concerned kids are not “just sat down and told stuff”. And they ARE allowed to ask questions and they ARE taught how to think critically. I mean in English the essays were called “Critical Evaluations”!

This kind of thing has happened before. A couple of weeks ago we were talking about essay structure and how some students can’t structure a sentence properly and how the standards of grammar and spelling are poor among a lot of students (without any disability causing it) and yet again one of the older students in the class (who repeatedly says things like “I done it” which severely annoys me) said “that’s because teachers don’t correct them or spend enough time on it while they’re in school” (local dialect and spoken errors have been changed because it pains me to type them). My first point in this is, “you’re over 30 what’s your excuse? And no, being from Dundee is not a good excuse”. Moving away from the slightly childish personal attacks and onto the facts (yes that almost rhymes!) Teachers do focus on spelling throughout primary and then in Secondary school they focus on it more. And it’s not just English teachers who focus on it, any class which involves writing essays (or writing anything for that matter) have some focus on spelling and grammar. I think the only class with no focus on it is Maths.

Regardless of this, Teachers should not be held responsible for every aspect of a child’s education. Parents/guardians (should) play a key role in their child’s education – primary school kids get spelling homework and regular spelling tests (at least we did in the 3 primary schools I went to) parents can help with that. If they don’t get this homework then parents can help them learn how to spell things properly. As for the essay structure comment I think I made my point in the last paragraph that essay structure does get taught.

For this next bit to make sense I should point out that the people making these comments are Scottish, born, raised and (somewhat) educated. During a discussion about Sociology in general the tutor pointed out that if you want to do Sociology you need to keep up with current events; read newspapers and have an interest in it. She also said that she is appalled by the lack of knowledge students, doing Sociology (and related courses) have of current events. Cue a one of the students chiming in with “that’s because they aren’t taught current events at school”. This was said a couple of weeks ago and it still annoys me. There is a class taught in Secondary schools in Scotland (I’d never heard of it until I moved back here so I assume it’s just here) called “Modern Studies”. Now, if the name doesn’t give it away this subject consists of: politics; current events; social issues and things like that. Every secondary school student (at my school at least) is taught this for two years and then they can choose to continue with it in 3^rd year. This subject IS Sociology minus all the theories. It’s about thinking critically, learning about the society you live in and – wait for it – CURRENT EVENTS! There is no way that kids do not get the opportunity to learn about this. And if, by chance, some kids don’t have this option then how about the parents/guardians get them to watch the news or parents/guardians sit and read the newspaper with their kids. It’s not rocket science!

This student also tagged on a comment about how kids know nothing about Scottish history and that they don’t know the trouble people went through to enable the rights and freedom we have today and that’s why they won’t fight for it. Well excuse you! Key subject taught in schools is History. The topics I remember studying in Secondary school include (but are not limited to): Migration in Scotland; Development of Trade Unions and the Suffragists & Suffragettes; Political activity in the years leading up to the Second World War and World War Two. So now tell me that kids don’t get taught this stuff.

My final little rant will be that you cannot blame Teachers for everything. You also can’t blame the lack of parental involvement for everything. They (Teachers, parents and guardians) can only do so much. I know it sounds like a cop-out used by the education system to avoid blame but there are some kids who just do not want to learn. And this is coming from someone who went to school with them. Parents who blame teachers for their kid doing badly (without putting any blame on the kid or themselves) have obviously forgotten those kids in school who mess around, shout abuse at the teacher and other pupils and spend more time in the Head Teacher’s office than in a classroom. Some parents were those kids. If kids were interested in current events they’d ask for a newspaper or go online; if they were interested in history they could go to a library or go online; if they were interested in proper spelling and grammar then they’d practise until they got it right (and don’t tell me that no kid wants to spend time learning how to spell properly because I did). Fact of the matter is if kids are interested, they will learn or at least try to.

I’m not saying schools and teachers are perfect, I’m also not saying that they shouldn’t be blamed for anything. I’m just saying that if people (not just kids) aren’t interested then they won’t learn. It infuriates me when these comments are made and if it happens next week I will say something because I’ve had enough of it. It is totally ignorant and, to put it bluntly, stupid to blame teachers for all of this. Just like rap music isn’t to blame for youth crime – teachers are not to blame for every educational problem.

My First Love

Can’t bring myself to hate you,

No matter how I’ve tried.

Regardless of all the pain,

And all the times I’ve cried.

I’d say you were the one,

If I believed it to be true.

But that’s exactly what you are,

Depending on your point of view.

The one who really knew me,

The one who stole my heart.

The one to build my confidence,

And then tear it all apart.

Left my self-esteem lower,

Than it was before.

Cheated and you lied,

Then you walked right out the door.

My heart was taken and shattered,

You put it to the test.

Forged the pieces into a dagger,

Then stabbed me in the chest.

Mind-games are your specialty,

Breaking hearts is just for fun.

And yet I don’t dislike you,

Even with all you’ve done.

I took some time away from you,

To recover from what took place.

And just as I began to heal,

You chose to show your face.

Some time later and here I am,

Exactly where I started.

Not a step forward has been made,

Since the day we parted.

I’ll move on and I’ll progress,

That’s what people say.

And every night I go to sleep,

I hope to see that day.

Though some feelings will remain,

That we can be sure of.

As that always happens.

With someone and their first love.

"How often do I tell you I love you?" "Every day, it's implied"

I was watching an amazing show last night. One of my favourites actually. “Criminal Minds”. If you haven’t heard of it go look it up; if you haven’t watched it well, I highly recommend it. It’s an amazing programme about a department of the FBI called the “Behavioural Analysis Unit” (BAU) – which is a real thing and the stories are based on real cases or at least inspired by them. The BAU are a team of people who look at the psychology behind crime and use previous research and their knowledge to build a profile of what a criminal would be like and this profile is then used to catch the criminal. It’s not always a happy ending but that’s part of the reason I like it, it also helps that Psychology is an astounding subject and I have a strange fascination with crime. Anyway, I cannot do this programme justice, just go watch it and this is not the point of this post.

During the episode “Exit Wounds” (S5E21), my ultimate favourite character in the history of characters, Penelope Garcia the Technical Analyst (played by the earth-shatteringly perfect Kirsten Vangsness) had a little heart-to-heart with her best friend (and co-worker) Derek Morgan. Now, usually I watch these two and I think “I would love a friendship like that”. In fact, I think I’ve spent most of my life looking for one person who would give me the kind of support that those two give each other. They have incredible banter but are more than capable of having serious conversations; they trust each other and love each other unconditionally. This time I watched it and thought “wait...I have that”.

I don’t know why but I relate to Garcia pretty well so naturally when thinking about having this kind of friendship I always looked for my “Morgan”. I was looking at it wrong. When I think about it I have more in common with Morgan than I do Garcia, and the more I think about it, the more I see it – his skills, his passion, his flirtatious nature and his past. Which is sad really – and anyone who knows the show will know why that’s sad – but if you’re going to be like anyone then why not a fiercely loyal crime fighter?

More to the point, here’s what struck me. Garcia is extremely funny; very intelligent; highly skilled at what she does; independent and creative. She wears bright colours and rarely wears weather appropriate clothing – she wears what she likes and likes what she wears. She’s an actress as well as a keyboard tapping genius. She’s got a troubled past but looks for the bright side in every situation because she knows how dark things can get. If you upset her you know about it. More to the point Garcia brings light into a room and a smile to everyone’s face and she’s a Whovian.

Morgan, on the other hand, is very flirtatious; witty; loyal; distrustful; passionate about what he does and he’s a martial artist. He protects the people he cares about without a thought to his own safety; he would do anything for his friends and is very secretive about his past and will only talk about it when he has to.

If you watch their relationship you’ll see that they flirt with each other frequently; while some see their relationship as inappropriate it’s just the way they communicate and they have fun. It doesn’t mean anything other than “I’m comfortable around you ergo banter time”

Examples of their flirting:

“Derek Morgan: You know that's not my thing. I'm more for in room entertainment. 
Penelope Garcia: Well, I can't help you there. But I do give good phone.”

“Derek Morgan: Every day I say 'Good morning' and every morning you say 'I'll show you a good morning, hotstuff.'”

“Derek Morgan: Garcia, baby girl, please tell me something I wanna hear. 
Penelope Garcia: You're a statuesque god of sculpted chocolate thunder. 
Derek Morgan: How about something I don't already know. 
Penelope Garcia: I have a sweet tooth?”

Sexual harassment is not a thing as far as they are concerned. They can talk about work but you’re damn sure they’ll be laughing and joking no matter how bad the situation, it’s just what they do. In my opinion, there is no chance of them being anything more than friends which is good because that’s how they work best. They confide in and comfort each other. She finds out things about his past and it doesn’t change the way she sees him (which gives me hope for if I’m in that situation with my “Garcia”). He knows about her life and just appreciates the beauty she sees and the quirks she has.

People who know me will have probably worked out who my Garcia is and if that person is reading this, I hope they know too. To sum up this relationship: Garcia always brings a smile to Morgan’s face and constantly (if unintentionally) finds new ways to cheer him up and she is completely ignorant to just how fantastic she is (even though she makes jokes about her brilliance). And Morgan...well, he would do literally anything to protect her. Legal or otherwise. And you really don’t want to test the validity of that unless you have a very good Doctor.

Anon hate: Cut it out!

Recently, whilst browsing around, I came across this post:

                                      Since this message was aimed at a teenager this post will be about teenagers

Now, I’ve seen this kind of thing before. Some shameful coward trolling through social networking sites looking for the next target for his/her spiteful venom. The things that get said are rarely accurate and are often laughed off because of their pathetic tone. Others, like this, actually hurt people. And usually when I see these things I am silently disgusted but this time something was different. I am sick of seeing this kind of attitude online; I’m tired of hearing it outside and I am fed up of it existing.

If someone has scars from self-harming, it should be clear that their self-esteem isn’t great so anything, like that message, said to them is going to have some kind of negative impact. But what really gets to me about this message is the claim that no one with scars will be loved. No decent, right-minded person is going to leave someone or reject them just because they have scars.

Self-harm scars are not a factor in whether I love someone or not. It’s whether they send messages like this. If you send a message like this then I do not want you in my life, in any way. People with this kind of attitude are twisted.

NEWSFLASH! Self-harming does not make you a bad person; it does not define you as a person and it definitely isn’t disgusting - the reasons behind you feeling that way are, your way of dealing with it whilst staying alive is not. That’s not to say that someone’s scars aren’t important - the scars show you there’s a story to be told. The scars tell you that this person has been pushed to their limit and they show that this person is not perfect and things haven’t been easy but they are strong and they are a fighter and they are worth every second of your time. That doesn’t mean I recommend it as a coping method, I definitely do not – each individual injury helps you cope but only for two seconds (if that), in the long run it just makes you feel worse.

“Scars remind us of where we’ve been they don’t have to dictate where we’re going”. Those words sum up my feelings on this exactly. A person’s scars, be they physical or otherwise, do not determine their life and they should not be the reason you reject someone. I know for a fact that someone’s scars can be one of the reasons you love them.

Messages like the one I showed you are often sent by people anonymously which says a lot about them. Because while they have these thoughts and they’re happy to share them, they’re too scared to admit that they are this vile because they know that for every person they send this to there are thousands of people who will see it and send them messages back and they aren’t big enough to take it.

This blog may not be my best, it may not have funny moments like I put in others, it may not even be good at all but I really don’t care. I couldn’t make it funny – I could put a long ranting list of insults up about that anon. who posted the message that inspired this but I won’t. I could say that I’m surprised he/she managed to stop dragging their knuckles long enough to learn how to use a computer, but I won’t. Messages like that one make me angry, they show the ignorance some people have about self-harm and the shallow attitude towards love. If you reject someone just because they have self-harm scars then you are not worthy of that person anyway. To the anon. who wrote that message, I hope you put all of your money on that bet because you’re going to lose.

We're swinging this way, that way, forwards and backwards over the bigoted sea!

The spotlight is always on gay people and the hard times they go through – the homophobic attacks; discriminatory laws and so on. And, while these things are problems, they often overshadow another common prejudice known as Biphobia. This prejudice presents itself in many different ways and while it can come out in the same ways as homophobia, there is a whole other culture of discrimination faced by bisexual people.

When gay people come out they are often faced with straight people stating “it’s just a phase” and while that can be hard for them to deal with, it could be argued that these statements are worse for bisexuals. Statements like “it’s just a phase” or “you’re just confused” are said to bisexuals, not only by straight friends and family, but also by members of the gay community. Being openly bisexual is difficult. If you’re male and say you’re bisexual you are immediately presumed gay and cowardly by some of the gay community and some of the straight community – this can mean that (while some argue it’s easier to find a partner if you’re bi because there are more options) it is arguably more difficult as gay guys don’t want to go out with “closet cases” and straight girls don’t want to either. For bisexual girls it’s even more complicated. More feminine girls who say they are bisexual can be seen by lesbians as “fakers” – meaning they’re only into girls when there’s a guy there to entertain. For the less feminine girls who come out as bisexual, it’s not much easier. They are instantly tagged as being a lesbian who is too afraid to come out fully and that leads to harsh treatment from many different angles.  Whilst doing a little research for this post I came across a few tweets that various people had posted and below you will see those tweets and my responses.

Response: no more or less cool than you would be if your friend weren’t all bisexual girls.

Yes, you could say it’s great he wants all his friends to be bisexual girls – it shows he doesn’t have a problem with bisexuality, that he’s not prejudiced. WRONG! This attitude can only be rooted in the belief that bisexual girls will perform sexual acts on each other for no reason other than to entertain a man. These men just see bisexual girls as live porn. There is no regard as to whether the girls will be attracted to each other; it is purely thought that they will do it because the man wants them to. This could lead into a big rant about sexism and how he only sees women as objects created with the sole purpose of pleasing him but let’s ignore that for now. This guy is as prejudiced as the one I will show you next. He may not be blatantly stating his prejudice but it is there. If he wasn’t prejudiced then why would he care about the sexuality of his friends? Why would he specifically want bisexual girls, not guys?

Response: while you’re on the internet why don’t you use it to educate yourself about Pansexuality – it will blow your teeny-tiny bigoted excuse for a mind.
Bisexual people are not “greedy” – they do not necessarily date more than one person at a time and they do not necessarily get more sex than anyone else does. They are not necessarily attracted to more people than anyone else – they merely have more variety in the aesthetic of the people they are attracted to. I’m not saying bisexuals like males and females equally, but they do like both and as such get a wider variety. The idea that bisexuals are greedy, indecisive and confused is so outdated. I honestly didn’t think people said this anymore. Surprising what Twitter can teach you. People who have this attitude – you are wrong. No discussion, no debate. Case closed, court adjourned.

Response: Incorrect! Your tweet makes no sense at all. As in if we measured how much sense that tweet makes it would register a big ol’ ZERO. What you mean is, “I would like to try having an intimate and/or sexual interaction with a female”. Your tweet does not make sense. You cannot try to be bisexual – you either are or you are not. You can experiment; try new things; see what it’s like to be with a member of the same sex; explore your sexuality and as long as you don’t hurt anyone in a bad way that’s all fine and dandy. You cannot try to be bisexual. You just can’t.

This kind of statement just fuels the attitudes of people like the guy who posted the first tweet. Due to the common occurrence of straight girls getting intimate with each other just to please men, bisexuality in feminine women is belittled and demeaned and seen as just one more way for men to be happy. Feminine lesbians get this too. This manipulation of Sapphic intimacy leads to many problems. Two girlfriends (as in, two females who are in a relationship) go out together they often get harassed by men asking for a “free show” or they ask for details of the girls’ sex life. These men think that these girls are only together for the benefit of men and that the private, intimate details of their relationship are up for public consumption just because they are two girls. Or, one thing that also happens, the guy asks the two girls for a threesome because what sexual experience is complete without a penis and his genitals?! I will say, girls, if you are curious about being with other girls – that’s cool. Just don’t call yourself bisexual. Be honest and say you want to try but you’re not sure how it’ll go. There are enough bisexual girls/lesbians who will be more than happy to help you out – trust me, I know a couple of them. But be honest about what you’re doing. Tell the girl that you’re curious do not say that you are bi because in a lot of these situations the “bi” girl turns out to be straight and this leads to a whole heap of drama. So straight girls STOP IT! And gay girls – learn the difference between a straight faker/bicurious girl and a genuine bisexual, it’s really not that difficult.

 

Response: Grow up! Seriously?! More men who view bisexual girls as sex crazed objects who will put on a show with their female friends. I do not understand why the quality of a person is based purely on their sexuality, by these guys. Honestly, I don’t get it. Please see response to first tweet. I just feel like I am losing IQ points just by trying to understand what is going on in your head.

Response: Well, it’s a different opinion from the other guys but still, wow are you stupid. A major turn off is using “your” instead of “you’re” or calling The Doctor “Doctor Who” or not liking Marvel even a tiny bit. Those kind of things are turn offs (for me) not whether she likes to bang dudes as well. Again, brain power decreases as more time is spent trying to process this.

Response: just because someone is bisexual does not mean they are attracted equally to men and women. It just means they are attracted to both. This person you’re tweeting about might be more attracted to men than women. OR, now careful this might be a bit complicated for you, maybe this person just didn’t find those girls attractive! Gasp! I know! It’s shocking isn’t it?! Oh am I being too patronising?! What a pity. I really don’t care.

This whole idea that being bisexual means you’re attracted to men the same amount as you’re attracted to women is ridiculous. Also, the idea that being bisexual means you’re more interested in guys than girls – so bisexual girls prefer guys and so do bisexual guys – is mind-blowingly stupid. But a whole big ranty paragraph can be summarised with the use of a tweet.

I believe this is my last dickfaced tweet.

Response: I honestly don’t believe that a punch in the face will make you any smarter. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Why can a guy not be bisexual but a girl can? It’s ridiculous. You sir are a small-minded idiot. It is as possible (though less common) for a guy to be bisexual as it is for him to be straight. Okay.

The above attitude could be down to the belief that bisexuals are cowardly gay people who can’t fully come out yet. This idea is blind prejudice. Someone’s not straight and therefore must be gay? No, that’s not how the world works. Bisexuality is a genuine thing, it is real, it exists so deal with it. To be fair though, prejudice isn’t totally to blame for this. This idea that bisexuals are just cowardly gay people is due to ignorance, yes, but it’s also the fault of many gay people who used bisexuality as a stepping-stone in their coming out process. Many gay people initially come out as bisexual and then later on redefine themselves as gay. This could be for many reasons. A person might do this if he/she genuinely thinks they’re bi but later realises they’re actually gay; a gay person could initially come out as bisexual in order to maintain the hope for their parents that they could still end up with a partner of the opposite sex and have the big ol’ white wedding; it could just be to soften the blow of the whole coming out process or maybe it’s a precaution – many people (myself included) believe sexuality to be fluid so some gay people could come out as bi in order to cover the bases in case they do get with someone of the opposite sex. What ever the reason is, it belittles this genuine identity to being nothing more than a service station on the road to homo-town. And I am not attacking the gay people who do this – I mean, I am guilty of doing this – I am just saying that it does some damage that needs to be fixed.  

In conclusion, bisexuality is a real thing. It is possible for people to be attracted to males and females. If someone identifies as bisexual then this does not detract from their personality or make them any less of a person than I am for being gay or my parents are for being straight. The only thing to do with bisexuality that makes you less of a decent person is biphobia. Final notes: if you are a girl (or guy) who is confused about your sexuality don’t choose bisexual as your label, don’t choose anything until you know for sure what you are because while your discovery of who you are is a great journey by using a false label you are causing problems for others. If you are a person who thinks that because a bisexual doesn’t like males and females equally, they are not bisexual – sit down and shut up. They are less bisexual for having a preference than you are less straight/gay for turning down that guy/girl who asked you out. And finally, big final statemtent – if you are a guy who thinks that bisexual girls are nothing more than your play things and that having them in your life will make you so much happier because you won’t have to pay for porn then do us all a favour: delete your Twitter account, get off Facebook, wave bye bye to the internet and crawl into a deep dark cave until you evolve into a properly functioning human.

This blog post was inspired by Lyndsey Higgins. You can find her on Twitter: @LyndseyJHiggins she’s a good laugh and follows back so go for it.

Please leave your thoughts on this topic in the comments section – I would LOVE to read them, only fair since you’ve just read mine.

Jimmy Carr: A Comedian, Being Funny and Making People Laugh by Telling Jokes!

It never fails to astonish me how some well mannered, educated and polite people can be so painfully stupid! I was scrolling through some Jimmy Carr stuff and I came across a post where one person had asked someone.

“So you’re a feminist who think what jimmy carr said about women exercising is funny?”

My question: why wouldn’t someone who believes in equality for women, find Jimmy Carr funny?

The response to the question was:

“No. If you take a look, I actually posted a caption in response saying “One of many reasons to hate Jimmy Carr.” I hate his comedy and I don’t think he’s a very nice person. His jokes are stemmed from the dehumanisation and oppression of those who don’t fit the socially privileged characteristics he possesses of being white, heterosexual, middle class, middle aged and male. It is pretty common knowledge that he makes jokes about sexual harassment, rape and humours anybody over 10 stone” There is then a link provided to this video and she says, “Watch this video of him epitomising the double standard by congratulating a male audience member for his sex life and calling the female audience member “a dirty little hussy” for embarking on the same sexual activity. I could literally make a playlist of 1000s of videos where Jimmy Carr has used his privilege to degrade minority groups and even his own audience members. “I guess in this society being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time,” to quote Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You.”

Now, where do I begin? How about at the very beginning, “a very good place to start” to quote Maria from The Sound of Music. Okay, you don’t like Jimmy Carr’s comedy fair enough. But you don’t know the man so how can you say you hate him? You can hate his comedy, by all means, but let’s be realistic. I’m going to assume that, since you’re not a fan, you’ve never met him. Therefore you are in no position to comment on whether he is a “nice person” or not. I, on the other hand, have met him and he is a very polite, charming, funny and grateful man. He is thankful to everyone who goes to his shows and tries to make the experience as great as he can for them – which is why (even though he must be exhausted) he stays behind after the shows and does a signing and has a chat with people who want to talk to him. I’m sorry, I fail to see how he is not a “very nice person”.

“His jokes are stemmed from the dehumanisation and oppression of those who don’t fit the socially privileged characteristics he possesses of being white, heterosexual, middle class, middle aged and male.” BULLSHIT! They mention these topics yes, and do you know why – because what he says is funny. It’s called “dark humour”, and guess what, he’s on stage talking to people who have paid money to see him. They chose to be there or to buy the DVD, you also chose to watch these videos. You’re creating your own misery – if you don’t like him don’t watch him. His jokes are not about rape being funny, his jokes are all about word play and taking serious issues and making light of them because that’s how people cope with horrible things. This is one of his jokes:

“They say there’s safety in numbers.

Try telling that to six million Jews.”

Now, at first glance, that’s about the Holocaust – the worst thing that’s happened in Modern History. But when you actually process the joke, it’s not about the Holocaust. It’s a play on words. He’s not saying “hahaha six million  Jews died. LOL that’s so funny!” he’s saying “here’s an innocent lead up, and here’s the punch line, that’s not what you were expecting, ha it’s funny because it’s a surprise and it’s word play”. Not everyone gets it, and that’s good – if everyone had the same sense of humour the world would be a very boring place.

His jokes are not about “dehumanisation and oppression” they are jokes about life. He doesn’t make jokes that say being gay is wrong because he believes that, he says it because it’s funny to make fun of homophobes.

“I think Civil Partnerships...are gay”

Where’s the harm in that? It’s true and funny. It’s also another example of word play. Because he says “gay” in the way a lot of people use it, as a derogatory term, but he literally means homosexual. No one got hurt, no one was dehumanised or oppressed by him.

As for him making jokes about “sexual harassment, rape and humours anybody over 10 stone” that is because he can make it funny. His jokes do not say that sexual harassment is a good thing, they don’t say that rape should be promoted, and he doesn’t make fun of anyone over 10 stone in weight, he mentions the topical issue of obesity and makes jokes referring to society’s attitude towards overweight people.

Not a direct quote but Jimmy Carr has made a joke saying that “rape” is not a nice word

and that it should be called “a struggle snuggle” because

“you couldn’t stay angry and a struggle snuggler”.

Again, his joke is coming from the use of words. It’s all word play. None of his jokes are “rape is good, haha she got raped, sucks to be her”. None of it!

Onto the issue of “Watch this video of him epitomising the double standard by congratulating a male audience member for his sex life and calling the female audience member “a dirty little hussy” for embarking on the same sexual activity.” You are a complete moron if you can’t see the joke behind this. The complaint you’re making about the double standard is the reason he made the comment. He is laughing at the whole double standard. HE DOESN’T MEAN IT! It’s called IRONY! Look it up! In the name of all things funny, it is one of the most common forms of comedy. He has taken something he doesn’t mean and said it to make a point through comedy.

“I could literally make a playlist of 1000s of videos where Jimmy Carr has used his privilege to degrade minority groups and even his own audience members.” Well as I’ve stated previously, you obviously don’t understand his comedy. Jimmy Carr does not do discriminatory jokes, he does not hate minority groups. He ridicules double standards.

“I’ve got a friend who can read the Qur’an backwards.

And that’s good because, that’s how you read it.

He then goes onto say that he made a joke like that because

he’s “not a fucking idiot” and follows that up with,

“What are Christians going to do? Forgive me? Good luck with that.”

Now, this is funny because he basically makes a joke about how it is socially acceptable to make fun of Christians because they’re not going to blow him up, which is the ignorant fear held by many people. His jokes are clever, they have deep meaning in them and if you actually looked you’d understand that jokes like this are not about what they appear to be about. It’s a lot of irony and word play.

He doesn’t use his privilege for anything. He routinely makes fun of his own accent and his background.

This may not be exactly right but I’m working from memory.

“Some of you may be having trouble with the accent.

I do not actually have an accent; this is just what it sounds

like when things are said properly”.

A further exhibition of your ignorance is that you seem to think it’s a terrible thing that Jimmy Carr makes fun of his audience members. You obviously don’t know his fanbase very well. We all go to his gigs and buy the DVDs because we have a dark sense of humour, we can take a joke and we know he doesn’t mean it. Some people go to his gigs in the hope that he will pick on them. To a lot of his fans, having him “shout abuse” at them is an honour because that’s his skill and it’s brilliant. I’ve got a front row seat at a gig on his next tour and I don’t care if he talks to me or not but if he did I’d enjoy every minute of it. I’ve met him twice and he is a very kind and polite man. You can tell when people are fake and I’ll tell you, that is one thing he is not. He appreciates his position and is respectful to all of his fans because he knows that without us, he’d have to go and work in Starbucks. He is one of my favourite comedians and it really pisses me off when people are so ignorant about these things. I mean, I’d understand if you didn’t get it, but his tone and delivery are dripping in irony. It is painfully obvious that he isn’t being genuine in most of the things he says until he says thank you.

I probably rambled and repeated myself a lot in this but I ramble in all of my posts and the repetition was purposeful. I was trying to get the point across that this girl is an idiot who does not understand: irony, satire, word play or the function of the “stop button”.

Hate Speech and Free Speech. Know the difference.

Browsing through pinknews.co.uk and I came across this story. The Daily Mail being accused of homophobia – SHOCKER! I’m so used to seeing/hearing that, it didn’t even faze me. It wasn’t until I read a bit of the story that I started to get angry. Back story: The LGBT... group Stonewall paid for adverts to go on buses. The adverts had one of their slogans on it, “Some people are gay, get over it!” Now, people were smiling at these adverts and other people were just like “wha...oh, what ever. On with life.” Other people decided that they needed to balance out the discussion with “the other side” and tried to put adverts up which said something like “Post gay and proud. Get over it!” Boris Johnson said no and didn’t allow these adverts to go up, which then caused people to kick up a fuss that it was violating their human right of “free speech”. And THIS is when I started to get angry.

Yes, putting up these adverts is part of their free speech and yes if they went into the centre of town and started proclaiming their post-homosexuality status, they’d be within their rights to do so. It is also, within Mayor Boris Johnson’s right to tell you you’re not allowed to do this.

You can complain it’s not fair and that it’s preferential treatment and how your basic human rights are being ignored whereas other groups are getting their opinions out. But here is why Stonewall can have their adverts. Stonewall’s adverts are showing support and sending out a positive message to LGBT kids everywhere. Whilst the wording may appear to be directed at homophobes, it’s not for homophobes. These adverts are up to show kids that they can be who they are without having to worry about prejudice. Your sexuality or gender identity feels like a big deal to you, before you come out, it’s not until afterwards you realise NO ONE CARES! These adverts are showing kids that people don’t care. They don’t have to hide and they don’t have to be scared. There are kids all over the world, wishing they were dead just because they’re attracted to the same-sex or because their gender and sex don’t match up. These adverts could, theoretically, save someone’s life.

Cut to the opposing adverts claiming that you can stop being gay. That’s a dangerous message.

Firstly: it tells people that being gay is something you should change.

Secondly: it encourages people into a system of mentally damaging and harmful therapy

   which opens them up to ridicule and abuse.

Thirdly: It tells people that being gay is bad and does nothing but perpetuate the idea that    

          you’re different and therefore wrong.

My response to the first point. I’ve written about this before but no harm in saying it again. I’ve received a lot of hassle due to my sexuality – I’ve been verbally, emotionally and physically abused for no reason other than being honest about myself. I was told I deserved the abuse because I “advertised my sexuality” even though I didn’t. I was outed – that’s hardly my fault. It’s had long-term effects on me and I still suffer with it. But you know what, I wouldn’t change it. It’s made me who I am. I’m stronger, smarter and a better judge of people for it. I’m more quick-witted because I’ve had practise at comebacks. I first discovered that I’m funny through this abuse. So no, it’s not something that should change. LGBT... people don’t need to stop being LGBT...other people need to change how they treat LGBT...people.

Second point. “Conversion therapy” is very harmful process that DOESN’T WORK! It doesn’t stop people being gay it just teaches them how to ignore and repress their feelings. And most of the time it doesn’t even do that. The most common result of conversion therapy is them leaving with more problems than they went in with. It’s an abusive, humiliating and emotionally destroying system based upon idiotic ideas.

Third point. If everyone who was different was wrong then we’d have no one. Just because there’s not as many of us as there are heteronormative people – doesn’t mean they’re better. Everyone has their own little quirks and traits which makes them special. Your sexuality/gender identity could lead to you having experiences which highlight various skills and abilities you have, which you may not have known about otherwise. This girl only started talking to me because she thought she was bi and needed someone to talk to and I suppose I was the only approachable lesbian she knew. Cut to now, she is one of my closest friends – I wouldn’t have her if I wasn’t gay, because we’d have no reason to talk. My “gay husband” probably wouldn’t be this close to me if I wasn’t gay and my current girlfriend, we probably wouldn’t even be friends if I was straight. I know that’s a big assumption but if I didn’t have my “gay husband” I wouldn’t be working for his production company, I wouldn’t have started working with a certain gorgeous girl, I wouldn’t have had a reason to talk to her and we wouldn’t have any kind of relationship. I didn’t know I was reasonably good at promotions until I joined this company (I’m not brilliant but I know my way around advertising now). I wouldn’t have a show – that I wrote – being performed next year, because I wouldn’t have had the experiences which inspired it. A lot of bad things happened to me. But that wasn’t because I’m gay. They happened because of the attitudes other people had about me being gay.

So yeah, you can buy your adverts and have them say what ever you want them to – that’s your right as a citizen in a democratic country. But it’s our right to disagree. It’s out right to say no. And it’s Boris Johnson’s right to stand up and not allow your hate speech to influence more, already vulnerable, people. If you’re going to use your right to free speech use it with a rational brain. You might be targeting the weak kid in the playground, but that kid has friends and those friends will do anything they can to protect him.

University Students is Clever

DISCLAIMER – THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH SOME KIND OF LEARNING DIFFICULTY. YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE REASON.

Yes, those with keen eyes will have noticed the grammatical inaccuracy of the title. And yes, it is intentional. I know this may seem nerdy but one thing I was looking forward to about University was getting away from people who speak in a way that would cause Microsoft Word to put a line under almost everything they say. People who say things like “I seen this” or “I done this”, drive me INSANE! And I do correct them, to the point where people are very irritated by me, but I don’t care. Everyone has their “pet peeves”, this is mine, it may seem unimportant to some – and it is in comparison to other things – but it’s a big deal to me. So yes, I was looking forward to getting away from these people.

Cut to a couple of weeks into Semester 1, doing some group work and we decide to take it in turns to type – seemed only fair. So, one of the members of my group sat down to type up the work, we all brainstorm the report and get it done fairly quickly. It gets posted and when I get my copy of it I can’t believe it. The amount of spelling mistakes, the incorrect grammar, the pathetic excuse for sentence structure – it was ridiculous! It barely made any sense. But I kept my mouth shut because I barely knew these people. Every time we did this work (and I didn’t type) it was horrific. These people had no learning difficulties and they were clever enough (obviously, they got into University) but this was appalling. And I know I sound like a snob but seriously, it’s spelling and grammar we get taught this in school for years! These people also made statements like “I’m horrible at spelling”. SO WHAT?! I was horrible at it for years but I practised and now I’m not as bad. If you know you are bad at something THAT YOU NEED why wouldn’t you work at it?! I wouldn’t be as bothered but these reports were going to be graded! A percentage of our module grade was resting on these reports and I was ashamed to have my student number associated with them.

First semester was over and I was happy to find out that I wouldn’t be doing any group work in the second semester. Second semester, going pretty well all the way through, no group work, happy, happy. Psychology Research Methods report lecture. Going through it, all fine, same as last semester until near the end when one of the slides said this:

“Spelling and Grammar

l  “Whether” (as in “whether or not”), NOT “weather”

l  “Their” means belonging to

l  “They’re” means “They are”

l  “There” as in “over there”

l  “Where” is a place, “were” as in “they were” “

That is word-for-word what the slide said. I think it is a joke that a University lecturer has to make these things clear. I understand maybe 3^rd year pupils at Secondary School making these mistakes but First Year at University – come on!

Maybe I’m just being a bitchy snob, maybe I’m just arrogant but I, personally, think that this stuff should be common knowledge. And I am in no way claiming to be perfect, I make mistakes – of course I do – but I try to not repeat them. In fact, it is very likely that there is a mistake or two in this post but I know the difference between “your” and “you’re”, I know that “their” states possession, “there” states location” and “they’re” is a contraction of “they” and “are” – I know it because I was taught it and I paid attention. I’m not blaming teachers, which I know a lot of people do, I’m blaming students who don’t pay attention. 

Thoughts?

Marriage equality and religious interference.

Watching a debate about “gay marriage” on “10 O’Clock Live” really gave me something to write about. Now, I am happy that this was getting some TV time but I was not happy to see that the host (David Mitchell) and the two debaters (musician and singer Boy George and writer for the Catholic Herald Milo Yiannopoulos) were not fully informed on the issue.

It was stated by David Mitchell that Civil Partnerships allow gay couples the same rights and legal and social benefits that marriage provides straight couples. This is not true. A Civil Partnership cannot be dissolved due to adultery. This means that if one of the partners cheats on the other then they’d better have another reason to separate because Adultery just isn’t good enough as far as the law is concerned. I mean sure, they could lie but why should they have to?!

The usual argument of “marriage is commonly recognised as being between a man and a woman, why should we redefine it?” made an appearance and all I could think, whilst watching this was “that, in itself, is a redefinition of marriage” if you want to keep marriage in the original form then you should be saying “marriage is the handing over of control of a woman to a man where he maintains all power and money whilst she spends her life serving his every wish”. Marriage was designed for this purpose. Women had to do as they were told and were controlled by men, whilst men could go out and do what ever they wanted. It was an economic institution it had nothing to do with religion – which defeats your “marriage is a sacred union infront of God” argument because it’s not. In its original state it had nothing to do with religion, it has been redefined over time, by the Church when seeking more power, to mean that. So hail hypocrisy! It’s only okay to redefine things when it benefits the Church.

I cannot understand their prejudice on this issue – in fact I don’t understand their prejudice towards any minority group. Christians used to be the minority, they were the ones being beaten and tortured because of their heretical beliefs. Jews and Pagans used to attack any Christian people they found. Any Christian churches that were found would be burned down and the people would be tortured and/or killed. If they looked back and saw that their Church – which they love and protect – came from a minority of tortured and beaten victims of prejudice then you would think they would treat the LGBT...people with a bit more kindness and acceptance.

It’s no secret that I do not follow any religion, I do not believe in any divine creator but I find religion fascinating and interesting. I like learning about it and most religious people are kind and respectful with their beliefs. You can talk to them about their beliefs and they will be equally interested in yours. It’s others who sit there and tell you that because you are different you cannot be equal. Your differences make you inferior. Well if your God is real, I think he’s going to have a lot of questions for you. I’ll save you a seat in hell – because if it exists, you know I’m going too.