Lydia Schoch

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, short stories and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Why I am a Male Feminist:

The following day, I attended a workshop about preventing gender violence, facilitated by Katz. There, he posed a question to all of the men in the room: “Men, what things do you do to protect yourself from being raped or sexually assaulted?”

Not one man, including myself, could quickly answer the question. Finally, one man raised his hand and said, “Nothing.”

Taking Care of the Basics. This is marketed to people living with serious mental illnesses but the message is universal.

From The Big Event:

From a personnel standpoint, it’s like herding cats. Delicate, finicky cats that only eat quail meat and that need silt from the Nile to fill their litter boxes.

Existential Parenting. When my youngest brother was a preschooler he used to tell us stories about what he did and thought in the womb. Specifically, he talked about “seeing red blood cells float by.” I don’t remember him ever talking about his pre-existence but this link reminded me of that story.

Some science fiction stories make you wish our world actually had their technological advancements. As comforting as it would be to (sort of) survive even the most horrific accident Her Husband’s Hands is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the technology we’d need to make that world possible.

What have you been reading?

If there comes a little thaw,
Still the air is chill and raw,
Here and there a patch of snow,
Dirtier than the ground below,
Dribbles down a marshy flood;
Ankle-deep you stick in mud
In the meadows while you sing,
“This is Spring.”

• C. P. Cranch, A Spring Growl.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, short stories and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Notes from the Field:

You hear a lot of talk about relocalization and deindustrialization. The pastoral life, the good old days. How romantic! Reality pays you a visit when your pick-axe hits a rock, a chunk hits your face, and you taste your own blood.

Right Versus Pragmatic. This is so true.

From Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill:

Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society.

Interesting premise!

Combing the Fringe: Death of the Mayans. A year from now will anyone actually admit to believing they thought the world would end in 2012? This whole thing reminds me of the Y2K hype. I spent that world-ending night  earning easy cash by babysitting for family friends – their kids went to bed early and I stayed up to see if all of the computers actually were going to crash 😉

Let’s Look at Amazing Photos. The link title says it all.

I’m still trying to figure out what I think about Nancy Fulda’s Movement. What have you been reading?

Let’s talk.

I love working on this blog but I have a time problem.

Between working full-time, blogging, doing book reviews for another site and the normal interruptions of everyday life I don’t have enough energy or time to work on the short stories and novel developing in my mind.

I do not want to give up on On the Other Hand but something needs to change.

Option One: Guest posts. If there is enough interest I could begin featuring occasional guest posts.

Option Two: Post less. It’s easy to whip up Suggestion Saturday posts so I won’t be getting rid of that series. The topical posts take longer, though, and I’m thinking about cutting them back to once a week.

Options Three, Four, Five: Any other ideas?

Leave a comment or send me a message through the contact form.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Scars:

But the more we learn about our own perspective and the more we see that it is just that, our perspective based on all that has happened to us and probably most influenced by whatever scarring we have undergone, the more we can relate to others and understand that they are doing the same thing, working from their perspective which, like ours, has been molded by whatever they have undergone.

The Tale of My Broken Neck. Why you should always wear a helmet when riding a bike, skateboarding, skating, etc.  This story includes graphic descriptions of the aftermath of a bike accident. The rest of the site may not be work-safe. Consider yourself warned. 😉

20 Reasons Why People Have Sex. I’m feebly trying to resist the urge to quote all 20 reasons and explain the difference between marked and hidden estrus the next time someone insists the purpose of sex is reproduction. Possibly not a work-safe link.

From Spotlight or Fame:

We loved her voice. We rooted for her comeback. But perhaps she moved into the spotlight too suddenly. Perhaps the flame from the light burned her in places no one could see.

The Paper Menagerie sent a chill down my spine. What have you been reading this week?

” ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where –‘ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘–so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.”

-Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Forgotten Heroes is a series of posts about extraordinary men and women who are (probably) not remembered by the average person.  Previous heroes include Elijah McCoy,  Nellie Bly and Charles Loring Brace. 

If you know of a forgotten hero who should be included in this series let me know about him or her in the comment section or via the contact form. My list of future Forgotten Heroes is growing short!

Time: 1917

Place: Alberta

Photo by Jkelly

Are women people? You might have smiled wryly or rolled your eyes as you read that question. Emily Murphy wasn’t smiling.

In Alberta in 1917 women weren’t legally included in the term persons according to how the British North American Act was interpreted at the time. Among other repercussions, this mean that women weren’t allowed to serve in the Senate. Emily wanted to change this.

The first step was to have women legally declared as persons. Her campaign became known as the Persons Case.

1 year passed.

Then 2.

5.

10.

Finally the case reached the Supreme Court in March of 1928. The question at hand:

Does the word ‘person’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act include female persons?

Five weeks later their unanimous answer was a resounding no.

Emily appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Great Britian and a year later the Supreme Court’s decision was overturned. (Remember, Canada didn’t officially become independent until 1982.)

I rarely venture into politics on this blog, but Emily’s decade-long struggle for women’s rights reminds me of something that recently happened in the country of my birth.

Last week a bill was passed in Virginia requiring women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before they are allowed to have an abortion.

Sometimes doctors do need to do these types of ultrasounds during a pregnancy to diagnose potential problems. But politicians are not obstetricians. They do not have the appropriate background or training to determine if any – much less all – women need this procedure.

This is not a medical issue.

Once you peel back a few layers it’s not even really about abortion.

It’s about the same damn question we’ve been wrestling with in western society for generations:

Are women people?

Can they be trusted to own property, have a bank account, vote, run for office, work, fall in love (or stay single),  decide when or whether to become a mother?

Or are men the only ones qualified to decide what women are and are not “allowed” to do?

I think we need another Emily Murphy in this world.