Having recently gotten into a discussion about the misnamed “Gender Affirming Care” with some of my acquaintances we broached many contentious topics but one point that stuck out was when we got into pronoun territory. My interlocutor was brought up the idea that the shortening of names – like Stan
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Dead Wild Roses: Looking For New Maxims – Freedom, Exchange of Ideas, and Rights
I’m tired of being lied to by the Left and the Right. It’s been a rough couple of years for me as I’ve been riding a bit of a roller-coaster when it comes to demarcating my political position and adopting a cognitive frame in which to reasonably process the world.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Forged In Fire – A Mother’s Daughter and their Struggle with Transgender Ideology
My Daughter, These are the things I want to say to you. The things I want you to truly hear. When I decided to conceive you, I changed my life. I studied. I gave up alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, sugar, processed foods, etc. I exercised, drank lots of water, attended to
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A Year Update – Older, Different, and Generally Okay
Hey folks, Reaching the mighty 45 today, and still mostly enjoying life. There is life after separation from one’s partner. It is different, the weird pangs one experiences with the absence of a well worn rituals remind me of what once was. Not really painful anymore, but now mostly. the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: When Did You Start Thinking Critically?
The answer for many people, including myself would be: Not Soon Enough! The usual regrets aside, my descent into critical thinking, strangely enough, started after University as it was only then that I had enough time to really start powering through the books that I had been accumulating while working
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Friday Musical Interlude – What I’m Singing This Weekend.
Dress rehearsal tonight, been practising like a mad fool. We have a full line up. Starting with Rheinberger’s lovely Stabat Mater: Then a Schubert Mass : Some Mendelssohn: And some Mozart : It is going to be a great concert. 🙂
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Sartorial Concerns – The Need for a Third Option in Men’s Bottom Wear
So no history, political analysis, or radical feminism today. Today is for highlighting my semi-annual consternation with the limitations of ‘acceptable’ men’s bottom wear. Spring is tentatively arriving in Canada’s northern-most provincial capital. We are slowly emerging from the long dark of winter (no thanks to daylight savings time, as
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Focus Group – What I learned about my fellow Canadians
The first rule of focus groups or research groups is quite simply this. If you say yes to one, then you shall forever be on the call list of every research company that has ever existed. And they do call quite often. Extrapolating from the frequency that I
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Arbourist’s Anecdata – When Do Standards Get in the Way?
I’m not buying into the idea that there is some sort of perfect way of living one’s life – some ways are better than others, and those various ways appeal to different people…and so on and so forth. We’re not here talking about *your* choices and and preferences, but
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: How Men Can Also Fight Patriarchy – One Anecdote
Men not tolerating creepy behaviour on the behalf of other men is the least that can be done in the public sphere to combat the gauntlet of patriarchal foolishness women face every day of their lives. Dudes, are you up to it? “Let me tell you what happened
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Bathroom Conundrum in Public School
“I don’t want to see penis when I go to the washroom; he just stands there with the stall open and it makes me uncomfortable.“. That was the quotable bit from a conversation I had with a female student I happened to be teaching at an elementary school this week. We were walking in […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Writing & Reflection Post – Adolescence and Socialization
Greetings fair readership, it is time for a new foray here at DWR. A recent comment by JZ and gentle prod by RoughSeas are the inspirations for this post. The idea that JZ had was that a comparative essay looking at the differences and similarities between adolescent experiences would be an interesting read. I […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Snow Seasonal Things Considered: Clean Sidewalks
I know what you’re thinking. “Fascinating subject Arb, do tell us more!” Okay, perhaps not as gripping the other newsy bits we we have around here but none the less a subject that shouldn’t be casually swept aside. Living in Alberta means that for three to five months of the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Canada Versus ISIS – Don’t Buy The Imitation Soundwave Steven Harper!
Canada has sent CF-18’s to participate in the bombing of ISIS. I think this is a very bad idea and I need to tell you a story from my childhood to illustrate why. This whole sending planes overseas to bomb people reminds me of one Christmas I had the pleasure
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Back in (and out of) the saddle again!
Hi everybody, just a random update from your friendly Intransigent blogger, to lighten the mood around here. I have a tale of a happy convergence of circumstances. One day, I’m at the horse rescue and another volunteer invites me to come to a different horse-establishment to meet her horse. Of
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Telling Stories – Turtle Style
I’m not sure how much longer I can hold on to my introverts card as the membership committee takes a dim view of many of the activities I quite deeply enjoy doing. One of the renegade activities I partake in is running a role playing campaign in a fantasy world
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: On Education – how it ‘werks’.
Go read The Bowl, the Ram and the Folded Map:Navigating the Complicated world by Elodie Under Glass. It is fine narrative post with plenty of interesting bits and sheep! It is wool worth your while. However, these paragraphs in particular, caught my educational eye as they articulate not only what
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Arbourist Furrows Brow at Bathroom Behaviour
One of my responsibilities in my part time job is to ensure that the bathrooms are reasonably clean and stocked, this equates roughly to once a shift boogieing around the building with a cart full of TP and paper towel (or many times during the most dreaded of all times
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Calm Morning – Newspaper and Coffee
Apologies folks, as today is a bit different. There happened to be a paper on the table today, so rather than plunging into blogging, my usual practice, I read newspaper from cover to cover. It was such a nice departure from my usual more directed, news gathering routine. It
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Rape Culture – We Live it – Part II
If you missed out of what Rape Culture is, I suggest you go back and look at yesterdays post. Today, lets enumerate a small sample of what is going on in our society. Specifically, lets look at some of posts from the tumblr “I Once Had A Guy Tell Me…”
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