Fairyland

Fairyland

(this post mentions the Downs in Bristol. I've put in a bit of context stuff in the post before this one, if you don't know the area and want to know)

I popped in to Bristol Central Library the other day to pick up the latest issue of the Bristol Review of Books. I also picked up a copy of a large pamphlet, issued by the Council, called Lesbian Gay and Bisexual People: FAQs, Myths, ...and the Facts.

I like to keep up with what the Council is up to regarding equalities, or possibly Equalities. I've watched the T fade away from LGBT in Bristol over the last couple of years. It's popped up in the gender section now, where they are apparently working on it. Good show. It's nice to know that someone's thinking about us, even though trans people are excluded from the legislation regarding the provision of goods and services, which means that it's still OK to discriminate on the grounds of being transgendered. Apparently.

Anyway, in the new pamphlet there is a section on media representation and sensationalism. It cites a headline from the Bristol Evening Post- "Scrubland cleared... at an area known as 'Fairyland'"

I wonder if it is the Evening Post or the Council Equalities folk who missed the point (actually, I think it's the Evening Post). Fairyland has been called that since the 19th century, and, while there has been sexual activity on the Downs for as long as there have been people in Bristol, and presumably some of it gay sex, the name of this particular area owes more to a fanciful connection with the Little People than to gay men. Does anyone call them 'fairies' any more?

I mention it because I've been over that way a few times recently, getting pictures for a design I'm working on. Very nice it is too. And the rustlings in the bushes? -they were blackbirds, actually.