Secret Blackbird

 

Some more pics for Secret Blackbird, my new collaboration with Geraldine Taylor. I was quite pleased with the pics I have already done, such as the titular blackbird

-but they were lacking a bit in narrative content, as it were. So, here's a few cartoony ones.

becoming invisible

Every now and then, a blog post becomes practically invisible to Google searches. By which I mean that, unless you enter very specific search terms, it simply does not show up. It happened back in 2010 when I wrote about the opening of a new restaurant in Bristol; and it happened again when I wrote about the recent closure of that same restaurant, and the unpleasantness that was associated with it, by former employees and their 'supporters' attacking the local feminist group online, .

As you see, with search terms  and the URL of the specific blogpost, it appears, like this

....otherwise, nowhere to be seen.

So I wrote a second post linking to the first, and it appeared in search results, thus (note that the original post is still invisible, though)

...and that was fine too. Until this morning. Now that's disappeared from search results as well.

panda

 

 It was the sort of evening for standing on the bank of the Severn watching the sunset and seeing the starlings flock. So we went to New Passage again. The starlings have decided to relocate, though, so we saw a great cloud of them far away towards Aust, wheeling and curling in the air like a spotty lava lamp. A little detachment circled above us a few times before diving into the Leylandii. Starlings of more mature years, tired of all the gallivanting, maybe.

Later on, I was taking House Teenager to the shops. We stopped to get petrol. The chap at the counter was looking quizzically at the car. "That is a large dog in the front of your car?"

I looked across. "Oh.... no, that's a panda."

Hooters closure in Bristol

After it was announced that the Hooters 'breastaurant' in Bristol had closed, there was a storm of hostile comments on the BFN Facebook site, some discussing assault upon a BFN member. Screengrabs here (the post in question is invisible to Google search at the time of writing)

META - a new magazine covering trans* stuff

 

META is a magazine written by trans* people. All sorts of good stuff; writing by Paris Lees, Natasha Kennedy, Roz Kaveney, and loads more; and I contribute my thoughts on use of the word 'tranny'. 

It's only available online or as an app (is that the same thing?) 

The PC-friendly version can be found here 

or for 69p, you can get the app here

trolls

The Bristol  'breastaurant', Hooters, closed this week. It was part of an American chain, whose USP is its scantily-clad waitresses. Prior to its opening in 2010, objections had been raised to the licence application. During the Council meeting which discussed it, an objector invited the councillors to imagine a similar restaurant in which men were employed on the basis of their physical characteristics; the Lord Mayor reprimanded him, saying "I think you are stepping over the bounds of decency." Interesting notion, and one which I developed a little  here.

It was not the campaign which ultimately closed the place, so much as market forces; though perhaps there is a cultural swing away from the notion that such a restaurant would be a place that you'd want to go, let alone take your children; a cultural swing which feminist activism might be helping to influence; it would be nice to think so. This did not stop a claque of pro-Hooters people descending upon the Bristol Feminist Network's Facebook page, saying unpleasant things- you know, the usual "you're humourless feminists, and you're only jealous because you couldn't get a job there and you're all lezzers anyway...".

In a couple of cases, the hostility spilled over into actual threats, focused on Sian Norris, a BFN spokeswoman.The threats have been recorded, and action is being taken. Sian wrote about this in the Guardian yesterday.

My small contribution was helping monitor the hostile comments; the second capture contains this exchange:

RM: I hope someone kicks her in the vagina
BDA: Shall we?

..and the third capture discusses this exchange

BDA: Sorry, what 'assault' am I discussing?
DM: (quotes previous exchange)
DM: That one
BDA: Ahh, okay, well I hope you take that as it was meant, in jest. A private joke between friends. However, to avoid any further offence, I will remove it.

There was then some backtracking, and claims by his friends that he was referring to going to eat chicken wings, and demands that I apologise for putting the wrong meaning on things. It was not nice.

I do know that some people don't quite realise that the objects of their online hatred are real people too, and that hate speech is damaging. In my small way, I've been on the receiving end of that sort of thing in the past, and I know how it feels; I also recall the furious backtracking that took place when I challenged people who suddenly realised that they were not joking about some mythical creature, but someone as real as them.

I also know that there are perfectly decent men who just don't realise the amount of misogyny and hate speech that goes on on the internet. I know this because of comment made to me by a friend; it came as rather a surprise to me to hear what he'd said. I can strongly recommend a quick read through Helen Lewis Hastely's article in the New Statesman, if you need a primer.  Because if you're not part of the solution, you may well be part of the problem. And sometimes, if you do not actively challenge something that is wrong, then you definitely become part of the problem.

Just don't say anything online that you wouldn't say to someone's face, with your parents and/or children present, and your boss and a police officer in attendance. Then hopefully you won't hurt anyone, and you won't end up damaging your own reputation. This really shouldn't need saying. Be nice!

mapping

Dart map, originally uploaded by Dru Marland.

Here's a map of Dartmoor in the 14th century, at the time of the Black Death. It's for Deborah Harvey's novel Dart, due to be published this year. It was fun to draw, once I'd worked out how to go about it- something vaguely in the style of a mediaeval map, and those brightly coloured postcard maps that you used to get in the 60s.

A useful tool for getting the perspective right was Google Earth, and a fun by-product of using Google Earth is goofing around on the flight simulator that's available in the tools options. Flying under the Saltash Bridge in an F16 is great fun, and one unattended by the risk of a knock at the door from the CAA. Very unmediaeval!