Rosie Wench's Cottage

You have never known the joy of food until you are lunging at your friend to rip the best part of the chicken out of their hand, rolling around on the tarp, stuffing it in your face before they can retaliate, and you realize “holy shit did I just growl?” And then you realize they are doing it too.

💗 Men are not predators by nature.

💗 Half the human race is not evil by birth.

💗 Manhood itself is not something to be rejected outright.

💗 Not all masculinity is toxic.

💗 There is beauty and joy in masculinity.

I adore being a woman, and I love my fellow women and girls dearly.

But I equally love men and boys.

I revel in femininity, but it's not immune to being used badly instead of well.

Masculinity is the same. It can be used badly, certainly. But it can be used well too.

“white men can’t be oppressed” -> gay men

“heterosexual men can’t be oppressed” -> trans men

“cis-het men can’t be oppressed” -> intersex men

“perisex men can’t be oppressed” -> disabled men

“able-bodied men can’t be oppressed” -> neurodivergent men

“cis-het perisex white able-bodied neurotypical men can’t be oppressed” -> buddy let me tell you about wealth and class and homelessness and immigrants and minority languages and cultures and being a child and being an elderly person and and and

Privilege is also fluid and dependent on context. Most if not all people have ways in which they are privileged and ways in which they are not. Hold privilege over others in some contexts and not in others.

For fuck's sake, even Joe Biden, arguably the most powerful person on Earth, was run out of the Presidency mid-election by his own party because he was old and had a stutter.

His whiteness, maleness, cisness, heterosexuality, Christianity, Americanness, and relative wealthiness did not protect him from ageism and ableism (there was also a lot of indirect racism and misogyny in there, as a lot of the "OMG Biden's OLD!" stuff was actually just blatant code for "What if he dies in office and a woman of colour replaces him?")

Some people have more privilege. Some have less. Nobody is immune to having privilege. Nobody is immune to being discriminated against. It is context-dependent.

This, exactly this, is why I have absolutely no time for the Oppressor v Oppressed world view.

No. It doesn't mean that I ignore the terrible things that people do to each other. Those things are real and to be fought against.

But they're not simple black and white to fit into neat boxes for judging purposes.

It's a landscape of infinite shades of grey, stemming from the fact that whatever differences are between us, common humanity will always unite us, for good and for bad.

when you say "Zionist"

it's either "Jewish person who has LESS THAN NO say in the war/terrorism policy of govt of the political entity-nation of Israel but who I get to hate and attack because they are Jewish" or "Jewish person who wants to go to/worpship in/die in their Homeland" OR "Person who happens to be Jewish, who wants Palestinians dead and therefore is an evil shit, not for being Jewish but for this attitude"

And you have never differentiated between these people! You seem weirdly Super Excited that using the term Zionist means you to get to defame and attack Jews. No matter what Zionist even means. And it actually seems to have a lot of meanings, some good some bad.

Almost like the word, or the longing for Home, isn't the problem, it is The Humans who want to kill other humans who are the problem.

So frankly? "Did you know X is a ZIONIST???" is just a dogwhistle to me at this point. In the bickering I've been seeing, "Zionist" could just mean "on their blog they expressed a deeply held desire to visit the Wall in Jerusalem someday" and not "Wants genocide" but YOU GUYS treat them like they're the SAME THING.

and I'm a freakin' GOY. I have no dog in this fight but the Native American solidarity with Jewish people for being systematically eradicated over centuries, and the Human need to see neither Palestinians OR Jews suffer or die.

Palestinians should have somewhere safe and secure to call Home (away from Hamas who are doing them no favours.)

I just don't know where that home actually is. And if you think about it, that really sucks. 😕

(I'm English. I know that The Nation of England was born from the union of Anglo Saxon Kingdoms in 927 AD. I get to put my finger on where my People can call home. That's not something trivial. I don't want other Peoples being denied the same chance.)

But The Jewish People should have exactly the same, and in their case, history has the answer. Israel is full to bursting with archaeological evidence of the Jewish people living there over millenia.

What Hamas did on Oct 7th 2023 was brutally evil. Israel had every right to fight back.

Of course the major downside was that this meant war and war invariably gets incredibly nasty. Innocent people get hurt. And regardless of the reasons for the war, this is never going to be OK.

Yes. I'm sure that there absolutely are Israelis who are gleefully revel in the deaths of Palestinians.

Human beings have the ability to be foul pieces of shit and none of us is immune to it.

But said people are doing this, because they're indulging in the dirtiest corners of being human, not because they're either Israeli or Jewish.

If you think "children should not be allowed in this space," you HAVE TO reckon with the fact that you are now excluding parents (and very often women specifically) who don't have access to childcare. You are isolating people who are poor, or rural, or single parents, or any number of other factors that might prevent someone from having on-demand childcare. You are cutting them off from being able to exist in public. You are denying parents and children the ability to fully participate in society.

My mom spent several years only leaving the house to buy groceries or take me to school, and even then, people would still come up to her to complain TO HER FACE about how she shouldn't bring a crying toddler to Walmart. Entitled strangers would literally try and demand that my mom leave and come back without the kids.

"Why can't your husband watch them?" Because he was at work, usually working extreme amounts of overtime so we didn't get evicted, because landlords don't like it when you stop paying rent.

"Why can't you send them to daycare?" Because that costs money.

"Why can't your teenager stay home with them and babysit?" Because I also deserved to be able to leave the house for something other than school, and taking me to the grocery store was how my mom taught me to manage a household budget, shop sales, and meal plan.

"Don't bring your kid in public if you can't CONTROL them and make them stop crying!" Kids cry when they're upset, and being dragged around a store is upsetting! Don't be an asshole! Children are human beings who are still learning how the world works, and they don't have a lot of agency. You'd cry, too.

"Spank them until they learn to stop crying!" That's just straight-up child abuse, Jesus Christ.

I have blocked multiple people who went on tirades about how I'm a "horrible breeder" who is "contributing to overpopulation" and how I and my "spawn" deserve to be trapped at home. (I am infertile and my foster kid is an adult now, so I don't know what breeding and spawn they think they're talking about.)

One person asked if I was posting ragebait for fun because "this isn't a real issue." Several have asked if this "really happens" and told me that my "experience isn't universal." (There are multiple parents in the comments who have agreed with me and talked about how hard it is to navigate the world with their kids.)

Children are an oppressed class who are treated like absolute vermin. Parents are given absolutely no support in caring for them. Good parents are set at a disadvantage even when they have all the best intentions, struggling parents aren't given resources to improve their situation or get community assistance, and blatantly abusive parents don't get caught because hitting and screaming and controlling are considered perfectly normal ways to treat a child. Communities would rather shut kids away where they can be ignored and forgotten and mistreated, all for the sin of "being annoying in public."

Youth liberation is vital, regardless of whether you, personally, like kids. You cannot ban children from public. You cannot shut children away in isolation and expect them to grow into happy, healthy, well-adjusted adults who can function in our society. You do not get to demand children be removed from every corner of public life all for your personal comfort.

For children to learn the right way to behave in public places, then shock horror, parents need to bring children to public places.

Babies are going to cry. It's their only way to communicate. And speaking from experience. If mum could have left baby with someone, then she would have.

Toddlers are in the process of that very long and tough lesson, learning how to manage emotions. Tantrums are going to happen. They're par for the course.

And experience here again. Sometimes the best thing to do, is to take a step away, and let it blow itself out. Tantrums are exhausting.

If we try to fight it, it just adds fuel. Better to remain close but unengaged and the child tires soon enough, now ready for that reassuring hug from loving arms.

I've seen follow mums and dads doing this. And they have nothing but my support. To my mind they're giving their little ones what they need.

Now, I know feminine men who are genuinely gentle, calm and peaceful. No problem at all.

But there are feminine men who are frankly vicious. The worst of femininity backed up by male strength and aggression.

Masculine men's capacity for real danger is good or bad depending on self discipline and control.

A masculine man who will let his danger fly at anyone who angers him. Absolutely that is a man to be avoided whenever possible.

But a masculine man with self discipline can be one of the best men around. He's certainly the safest as far as women are concerned.

Big Oil poisons our politicians. Our planet is on the brink. It's time to rescind the subsidies and push out all opponents of green and renewable energy.

How come the solutions to climate change involves so much taxing?

Will the green energy provide enough electricity? Especially if we're adding tons of electric cars to the grid.

Will you approve of the nuclear energy yet to accommodate the energy needs?

It beats

"If you're not on the list, you're not coming in."