Every Passion needs a Blog

Link to original post with all the links

Some very helpful tools, ideas, and ways keep going or get involved

I will add the resource Big Beautiful Boycott as a way of checking businesses to avoid that is not an app

Two male relatives of mine, my father and uncle, work/have worked in construction, and a male friend of mine, I'll refer to him as "Alan", is a laborer/operator (Mostly commercial. Blacktop, pipes, manholes, building pads, retaining walls, bridges, basins, salt/plow snow routes in the winter, etc.). My father worked in residential development, and my uncle laid flooring/carpet, removed trees, and worked for the same company as Alan before sustaining an injury at work and leaving with a small payout.

99% of what they do can easily be done by women.

Aside from hand digging, raking for grade, concrete work, hay matting (for grass), some aspects of demolition, and other work done manually, a good portion of the "hard" labor is done by machines. The hardest thing (according to him) Alan has ever had to do was carry bags of sand through hip deep water all day in the middle of summer and hand dig a basement.

This is something I've discussed with him. Women, as another user pointed out, are kept out of male dominated fields by the threat of harassment, abuse, and workplace bullying. An inspector sued the company he's currently working for (before his time there) because she was being sexually harassed by the laborers while on the jobsite.

He's spoken to me about the mental toll of working there because of the behavior of other men. He's had his hardhat smacked off his head because his coworker, with whom he has always been on friendly terms, was having a bad day. He's dealt with ass grabbing, jokes about him sucking dick for rides or being under the boss' desk, being smacked in the dick "playfully", badgering by "friends" to change his voting habits and political views, seen altercations and grown men crashing out... Who in their right mind would want to work in that environment?

Women aren't underrepresented in infrastructure, the trades, tech, or any other occupation because they're biologically inadequate, it's because men make male dominated workplaces a nightmare for us.

The work is demanding, yes, but it is not especially difficult to do, and women are dissuaded by the constant assertion that manual labor is "too much" for them.

It's not, and if it were, then why aren't we seeing women filling other roles? Operating, transporting materials via haul truck, overseeing jobsites, repairing machinery and vehicles, working in trades that are less physically taxing, such as: electrical work, tile work, cement masonry, or HVAC? Because men's bullying, sexual aggression, and gatekeeping is a massive discouragement.

Also, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2024, women are approximately 11.2% of those in construction, 14% in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (19.8% in oil and gas extraction specifically), 38.3% in chemicals manufacturing, 21.4% in machinery manufacturing, 24.9% in transportation and warehousing, 22.1% in utilities, 8.4% in commercial and industrial machinery and equipment repair and maintenance, and 8.8% in logging, so 3% is a number you pulled out of your ass.

The major players in WW2 mobilized between 25-45% of their male populations during the war. Bearing in mind that a good portion of any male population is ineligible to be mobilized due to being too young, too old, exempt for other reasons (eg, clergy and college students are usually exempt from drafts), or otherwise unfit for service (poor health, being in prison, etc).

If you'd prefer, I can go back farther. Society wasn't quite as industrialized, but the numbers for mobilization are all in about the same ballpark. Most numbers for large-scale wars will be, as that's considered roughly the maximum that a society can mobilize for a war (10-20% of the total population - and only half the population is male).

Interestingly, both field were still hit hard enough by voluntary enlistments that they had to actively recruit women to fill the gaps left by men who were at war.

See, according to me, the dangers kids face on the internet are largely the same dangers adults face -- misinformation, scams, harassment, doxxing.

Anybody, of any age, can fall for misinformation or scams. Anybody, of any age, can be the victim of harassment or doxxing.

But to the extent that kids are generally more at risk of these things than adults are, it's because they have less of an experiential knowledge base to draw from to protect themselves.

An 8 year old may be more likely than an adult to think a "You've won $1000, click here to claim your prize!" banner ad is legit just because they've never seen one before. But as anyone who's ever met a septuagenarian with their first smartphone before -- or even anyone who's looked at the statistics around elder-targeted cybercrime -- knows, it's not like age is guaranteed to protect against these things.

And the best solution for keeping kids safe from these things is the same as the best solution for keeping adults safe -- providing lots of information and support for fact-checking and critical thinking about everything you encounter. What's the source for that information? What's the source's source? Is someone trying to convince you of something? Are they trying to sell you something? Are they trying to blame someone or make you hate someone? Why? Does it make sense that someone would just give money away to strangers? Why would they do that? Why does someone want to know where you live? Yes, they're your friend, but do they want something from you? Adults shouldn't extract things from kids. Are they trying to convince you there's a problem and sell you a solution to it? Are they warning you that something terrible is going to happen unless you do something specific right this second? Did you read the article or just the headline? Check Wikipedia. Check the Associated Press. Check Scarleteen. Check different sources!

Oh boy, do I have a valuable resource for you!

Here is a PDF of the best ways to carry people depending on the situation and how conscious the injured person needs to be for the carrying position.

Literally a life saver.

One man did with 3 bullets what decades of peaceful protesting failed to do. It sent a message. For the first time in decades, the ruling class was afraid.

And now, barely 3 months later, things are back as they were. Not because Luigi's act of violence wasn't effective, but because it was forgotten as a one-off thing and treated as a trend. People Idolized him for his actions but not for the reason they were done.

One man's act of violence was enough to shake the foundations on which this country is built, the rot that had eaten away the hearts and minds of the people had been pushed back, and for the first time, there was clarity in the minds of everyone. There was no Left or Right, there was simply the Working VS the Ruling.

• No school beyond grade 6 for girls.

• No university, no jobs, not even nursing or working for the UN.

• No public spaces :parks, gyms, beauty salons, even restaurants are forbidden.

• No freedom of movement without a male guardian.

• No voice in public, sometimes not even at home if men can hear.

• No bodily autonomy, contraceptives banned, justice system weaponized, women flogged and stoned.

This isn’t “culture.” It’s the deliberate destruction of female existence in public and private life.

And yet… the world shrugs.

Why? Because women’s rights are always treated as negotiable. It’s not complex. It’s patriarchy with guns.

We don’t need “awareness.” We need rage that doesn’t fade and solidarity that doesn’t stop when the headlines do. Afghan women are resisting every single day, often at the risk of prison, torture, or death. The least we can do is refuse to normalize their oppression.

Silence is complicity.

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

-Byzantium was a civilization that spanned a millenia and a huge geographical area. The treatment and experience of women was not constant at all times in all places.

-Women had different levels of autonomy at different periods of their lives. Many women gained great autonomy after their husband's death (and he usually died much before her), and could be registered as the head of household.

-There are basically two career options for Byzantine women: wife/mother or nun. Sometimes both, but never at the same time.

-Just as in the Latin West, class mattered a lot, and basically determined a person's entire life. Peasant women worked in agriculture and trades, while noble women had a much softer life.

-the idea that noble women were confined to the house is likely an exaggeration. (A byproduct of Byzantium's "distorting mirror") Furthermore, the women's quarters were nowhere near as closed off and restricted as the later Ottoman harems. In many places, women could move freely between their own quarters and the rest of the house. However, if a non-related male was visiting it was customary that the women would not be seen. This seems to be a mainly noble/middle class practice, and not an elite or peasant practice.

-Women played important ceremonial functions at the royal court. The Augusta (one of three titles for an empress) received the wives of visiting nobles, and was so important that, even if the emperor was unmarried, he might crown his daughter for the role. (See Leo the Wise) Additionally, there was an office reserved just for a woman, she was called "the lady with the sash" and she was placed very close to the emperor, and thus highly influential.

-Imperial women were highly influential, and could be incredibly masterful politicians.

-Women weren't forced to have endless babies until they died in childbirth. Byzantine women had access to both contraception and abortion, and there was some amount of recognition of a woman's right to choose. Furthermore, if a woman already had kids, but decided she didn't want to be a mom anymore, joining a convent was always an option. (For wealthy women)

"Smooth edges of screen fonts"

My computer was running hot before I turned everything off; the office I'm in is very warm, I could feel the heat of my CPU through the keyboard. The fans were going, not as loud as they usually get, but they were still blasting.

Y'all.

I can barely feel the warmth through the keyboard now. It's been like 2 minutes. The fan is nearly silent.

Click the Windows key and start typing "System settings", and "View Advanced system settings" will pop up. Then click "Settings" under Performance:

Then you'll see this:

TURN IT ALL OFF.

10AppsManager lets you uninstall bloatware. Winaero Tweaker lets you disable crap like Cortana/Copilot, ads, telemetry, internet search results when you search from the taskbar, and all kinds of other stuff, plus it gives you lots of other little options that are just nice to have (like, it can restore the old MS Paint program in place of Paint 3D). Both are totally free.

Oh, and check your startup programs in the Task Manager tab to make sure your computer isn't automatically starting eight million programs every time it boots. But I think people mostly know about that. (Unless this is me going "they only know one or two feldspars... and quartz of course.")

The complete ‘Women Who Changed Science - And The World" collection in honor of the 95th Women’s Equality Day.

“Love and Theft” 1997, Courtney Love