Flint & Print

 This post is going to be all about dumb things I've either been called or told to do lately.

1. Aunt Lydia. If you're not au fait with this name, Aunt Lydia is one of the villains in The Handmaid's Tale. Her backstory is that she was a former lawyer and school teacher pre-Gilead, but now trains and supervises (and tortures) the women at the Red Centre, referring to the times when women were allowed to make their own choices as 'anarchy'. She is not at all a nice character. In fact, she is something of a total fucking bitch, for want of a better phrase. I know there are times when I am not the sunniest person in the world, but I have never called for the silencing and oppression of women. Quite the opposite, in fact. Anybody who knows me will attest to this. So, how did I earn a comparison to an odious shitbag of a woman who is a traitor to women everywhere? Why, by disagreeing with the Liberal member for Boothby, Nicholle Flint, that's how! Before I proceed, I will point out the name wasn't bestowed upon me by Ms Flint, but by some other tweep. Flint posted a link of a YouTube video by Friendly Jordies  (hereafter referred to as 'FJ') on Twitter, and in her accompanying comment decried FJ as an enemy to women and demanded Anthony Albanese weigh in and denounce FJ to the other side of the globe and back, basically (seriously, what does bloody Albo have to do with any of it?).

Anyway, I watched the video, and whilst it can by no stretch of the imagination be described as flattering of Flint, I am hard-pressed to find any comments that are sexist, per se. I therefore replied to Flint and stated FJ was criticising her because he disliked  her views and her policies, but that is because he clearly thinks her views and policies stink, and has nothing to do with her being a bearer of the XX-chromosome. I went on to state that disliking her doesn't make a person an enemy of women, but her government were quite happy to sweep under the carpet the alleged sexual assault of a former staffer, which is more threatening to women than some YouTuber's jokes. 

So yeah, shortly after this, someone replied and called me 'Aunt Lydia' and accused me of thinking I am entitled to tell women what they are allowed and not allowed to consider sexist. When the dizziness subsided from rolling my eyes with powerful ferocity at this nonsense, I just replied, 'Okay, dear.' 

I am at a loss to see how what I said is being an Aunt Lydia. I stand by what I said. I did not see anything actually sexist in the video, nor did I tell Flint she wasn't allowed to see anything sexist in it. If she does see sexism in it, then that's her problem and I think she should rub some Tiger Balm into her shoulders because that was one hell of a stretch. 

2. So, the dumb thing I've been told to do is get an age-appropriate haircut. Again, this occurred on Twitter. I am not inclined to take fashion advice from some anodyne-looking gronk who looks like he spends all day gaming in his parents' basement and eating Fruit Loops, but what is an age-appropriate haircut? I'm over fifty, so does that mean I must have the auburn cascade I've sported most of my life shorn off and shaped into the Lady Di hairdo (pre-engagement to Prince Charles)? That's not going to happen. I know we change over time, but when I was in my twenties, I favoured leopard print, skulls, heavy metal and hard rock, and preferred my hair long. Take a quantum leap to nowadays, and I still wear leopard print, have a glass skull paperweight on my writing desk, and won a drink voucher at trivia the other night when I answered the birthplace of Black Sabbath was Birmingham. Oh, and my hair is still long. Women my age are classed as invisible and I refuse to age gracefully, swathed in beige polycotton blend and with short hair. No, I'm going to put on my leopard print jacket and make some noise!

But right now, I'm going to make some dinner.