Sexism is a form of hate speech

A recent blog post by director Kevin Smith has dredged up old arguments about his actions, and inactions, when it comes to sexism/misogyny.
While I have no doubt that Kevin believes he isn't a sexist person, his behaviour doesn't really reflect that feeling.
I was a member of his View Askew message board for many years. The board was shut down a couple of times due to "bad behaviour" by some members. The final shutdown came after Kevin's friend Bryan Johnson banned a couple of people for, well, I'm not sure what his reason was, other than they were "teh meaniez". As far as I could see, their only "crime" had been to call out Bryan on his sexist and misogynistic behaviour on social media and his podcast. As well as the unwarranted banning, Bryan went on a rampage, using vulgar, misogynistic language towards, and about, women.
Following the podcast debacle, I actually stopped listening to his show. It just stopped being entertaining and funny, and began to border on hate speech.
Jen, Kevin's husband, posted tweets of agreement with a lot of the voices against Bryan Johnson. But Kevin remained silent. The man who claimed to "love women", who said that he was on their side, had nothing to say about the blatant hatred being spewed by his friend.
And of course, any defence made by Bryan and his compadres was "lighten up, woman", or "it's just jokes" and things along that line.
People I consider friends were personally attacked, not just by Bryan, but by "fans" of his. I won't go into what was said specifically, but anyone who wishes rape upon another person is less than human in my eyes.
The saddest thing was that women were joining in, but not on the side of women. They were agreeing with Bryan's point of view, desperately seeking attention from the sexist slob by tweeting their support. This, along with Kevin's silence and continued support of Bryan via the podcast and TV series, showed that Kevin Smith supported sexist behaviour and speech, and that he did not dissuade his fans from the same.
This makes him the same as Bryan Johnson. This new post where he asks people not to personally attack a critic along gender lines does not change this. Kevin drew his line in the sand when he stayed quiet about what Bryan did/said.
I do not claim to be the most well-versed feminist, and I regularly have my eyes opened about the everyday sexism that women across the world face.
But the fact of the matter is that these people have no respect for women, and that is something I cannot support, and I do not need a degree in feminist theory to know that.

Fa la la la la, la la la la

So it is Christmas Eve and I am holed up in my living room, trying to ignore the gale-force winds and driving rain on the other side of the window. Apparently it's only going to get stronger as the day goes on, but thankfully I have everything I need, so will not be venturing out.

The kittens got their present last week - a massive cat tree, climbing thing - which they have been making the most of. Molee doesn't really play or anything, so can't get her much, but she will get a tin of tuna instead of her normal cat food.

The family got homemade hampers from me this year. By that I mean, I bought the stuff individually and packed it all, not that the contents were homemade (bugger that for a laugh). And the ones already distributed seem to have been well received. Dad will get his tomorrow, when he comes round for Christmas dinner (steak, chips, onion rings, peppercorn sauce, and chocolate fondants for pud).

Then it's back to work on Boxing Day, although am hoping to get away early, as it will be dead. That night I will see brother and his gf to hear how their festivities went.

Got a big Amazon voucher for Christmas from Dad, which will be spent on lots of books. But how to choose?! There are too many. And I really need to read the many (and listen to the Audible audiobooks) that I already have. So this laptop is going away and I'm off to read!!

Merry Christmas!!

A well-deserved rest

Today is the first day of my long weekend off work. Aside from about 20 minutes of work I have to do on Saturday morning (site update) I am free until Tuesday. And even then, I have a training day on Tuesday, so it's not even back to "proper work" until Wednesday.

So, last night, to celebrate the start of my final stint of annual leave of this year, I bought a bottle of Freixenet, my favourite Cava and settled in. I'm going to spend today and tomorrow doing very little, except some washing. And Sunday I'm meeting a friend for a pre-Christmas catch-up, with a similar event on Monday.

And, at some point I need to try and get a photo of one of the cats in the 69p Santa hat I bought the other day.

(Interesting what missions I can come up with if given just a tiny bit of free time!!)

The hardest part of a long weekend off is trying to not think about/do any work. It's too short to completely switch off, but time like this should be treasured. For example, right now I'm thinking of all the things I am going to need to do on Wednesday and figuring out how to fit them all in.

Why do we do this to ourselves? This time off is needed in order to be more productive when we go back to work. But if we never switch off, how can we be truly switched on?

Attempt three...

I have tried to get blogs up and running before, with limited success.

I think this is because I have been too narrow in my posting (I have usually had a set subject, which vastly reduces what I can post about).

Although this new attempt is call the Crazy Cat Lady Diaries, it will not just be about my cats (I have three - Molee, Atticus and Boo). It will be about me and my life in whatever form that takes. There may be some stuff about my career, the industry I'm in, books I'm reading, stuff I've done, things I've seen, roller derby. And yes, lots about my cats, because they are awesome.

 This is Boo, with me when I was ill in bed.

 Atticus sparked out on a lazy Sunday.

 Molee, the boss of the house, and my companion for over 14 years now.

See how awesome they are?!