Posts by Megan Wegan
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Up Front: The Up-Front Guides: The…, in reply to Emma Hart,
So, a Catholic priest or an Anglican minister can say, “No, we’re not going to bless your union with our sacrament, in our church.” But currently that person is also, automatically, a civil celebrant. And in that capacity, they can’t refuse to perform the state function (witnessing the marriage certificate) on the basis of sexual orientation.
They can't, but saying "we're not going to do it in our church" - for whatever reason - effectively does that. That's where people like me come in.
The marriage rites are very different to the requirements for a civil ceremony - which requires very little in the way of actual official stuff.
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Field Theory: Every four years, in reply to Russell Brown,
And yet, a master of poetry....
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The actual opening ceremony wouldn’t start for a few hours but we had everything we needed to predict what would happen: two bottles of rum, beers and assorted wine.
So, this year we’re doing it right. The aforementioned ingredients, but actually on time. At 8am. This Olympics may kill me.
I adore the olympics. I forget every four years, but I get so excited every time. There’s just something about the prospect of staying up til the middle of the night watching handball, or rhythmic gymnastics, or fencing. Next thing you know, I am an expert in said obscure sport, and have begun yelling “He’s been doing it all day, ref!”.
Which is to say, I take all the grumbling with a grain of salt, and an attitude of ‘fuck off and let me have my fun’.
This year’s crop *is* entertaining, though.
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That's three times in two days I've cried at work. So beautiful.
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Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead. Seriously.
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The thing I really don’t understand – even were her claims true, which they’re not – is that we don’t keep kids safe by giving them less information.
I know that mixing toilet cleaner and bleach is a really bad idea, because I went to science class in high school. Since when is the answer ever less information?
I still can’t get over the column in which she says all girls want an Edward. Whatevs.
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Sacha,
What would a 'socialist' one look like? How would 'each according to their needs' work?
Did you just call me libertarian? Dude.
But, yeah, I dunno. I tend to think that there's as many kinks and desires as there are people. It's in the finding people that share them that the cooperation comes in.
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Russell Brown,
But she's a mum -- and she doesn't want her daughter thinking that there's something wrong with the way she looks, or that waxing is the only choice.
Which is where, and I am not a parent, but education and communication come in, right. And teaching that "what you want to do with your body, within reason, is fine". Having said that, I freaked out about showing my parents my tattoos, so what would I know?
Also, this seems like a good time to link to this, in case anyone hasn't seen it, and thinks brazilians are the height of pubic politics.
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Russell Brown,
It tends to extend to not just telling women what they’re allowed to do with their pubes, but guilt-tripping those who don’t obey.
Yeah. And how is that different to telling women not to wear short skirts (which she does, anyway)?
As far as I can tell, if you're willing to go through that kind of pain (because OH MY GOD), then more power to you.
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Up Front: Towards a Sex-Positive Utopia, in reply to Tom Beard,
But more seriously, it can become problematic if it becomes the default setting, and young men whose only experience of women’s bodies is through contemporary porn recoil in Ruskinesque horror at the sight of a fluffy quim.
And that is her exact argument, and she's not wrong, that the thought of young men not understanding that wound women have hair is wildly problematic.
But, two things. Firstly, that doesn't mean any individual woman has a personal responsibility to dismantle the patriarchy using her own pubic hair grooming regimen. And second, that makes Bart's point about teaching teenagers about their bodies all the more important.
So it seems to me that sexual liberation (for everyone), whilst being something that is happening, should be happening, and will continue to happen, could easily still be a world full of unhappy people. Utopias are weird like that. Or should I say humans are weird like that.
Well, yeah, OK, we don't know how this would look, that's part of it. But surely, sexual jealousy, and Not Getting Enough would be lessened in the kind of world Emma is describing. Jealousy isn't always a product of sex, it's a product of our relationship with sex. Take the shame and prurience out of the equation, and surely jealousy will be lessened. And yeah, you're still going to have problems of mis-matched sex drives, but again, not necessarily about sex.
Thanks, Megan. I had genuinely never heard of her. You know that my thinking has changed because of you, don’t you?
I do, and that makes me very proud.