Ramble on feminism and taking cancer seriously

JB sent me this link of Emma Watson at the UN.

https://youtu.be/v6XTx2Rg04g

I am quite passionate about the need for more women in positions of power. Men are arseholes particularly between the ages of 16 and 24, unfortunately a mental age many men seem to occupy for life. They really do believe that they need to constantly prove how ‘big’ they are – cars, guns, TV sets, jobs, gold, muscles, willies, power tools, membership of extremist organisations, vestments, power, fans, affairs, adventures, operas, PhD’s – pathetic! I am an advocate of positive discrimination but I realise this troublesome to many women. The issue seems to centre on the notion that only genuine merit should be rewarded. But surely the qualifiers for merit are largely set by those same permanently 16 to 24 men. Meanwhile women miss out on the positions of influence because they ‘ain’t big enough’. Let’s just start again. Women only short lists, positive discrimination and an obligation for a progressive move toward the compulsory even distribution of women in positions of significant influence. Hopefully this would lead to a more even distribution and true equality across the board.

The end of my first week back at work and I feel great. I have not had to venture onto campus yet, there is so much I can do electronically. I suppose the cliché is true that on re entering normal life my perspective has changed. I certainly feel much less inclined to get hurt or frustrated by the inevitable fussiness of working within a large organisation. Actually I am lucky to have been cocooned by the luxuries of the public sector – so different from our previous experience when we were both freelance and tumbled into debt within weeks of M’s diagnosis. Happily all that is in the past and that pastness is an important additional perspective on the current nowness of my particular circumstances. The fact is you get used to it. I read an account of a teenage cancer ‘sufferer’ (can’t think of another word) – patient, victim….ugh – anyway she said that she had not taken her condition that seriously. I know what she means – I don’t really take mine that seriously, it doesn’t seem necessary because everybody else does. Sometimes I am surprised that the people I love are worried about me, because I am not – but I suppose it’s rather insensitive not to realise that cancer is not to be laughed at. M pointed out that I am prone to believing only I know how I feel. I present a narrative based on a mix of what happening and what I would like to have happened. It’s not that I make stuff up but I have a strong and tiresome sense that only I know how it really is and everyone else is just wrong. Must stop doing that.

On Tuesday I will find out what the next step in my treatment is going to be. I am rather hoping for more of the same as it seems to be very beneficial but I gather there is a limit to it’s effect and at that point it’s not worth continuing. It’s all about light chains, whatever they are. Don’t fancy the bone-marrow autograft at all but that’s more because I am feeling good at the moment and it will definitely make me pretty frail for quite a while – still we will see.

Meanwhile I am very happy with my lot. Plenty to do, plenty to think about.

After an initial burst of creativity I have been very preoccupied with technical issues which I find rewarding and fun to take on and try to solve for example – I am very annoyed by the company that hosts my research website who have chosen to suddenly withdraw all support for WordPress sites – so now I am trying to figure out how to clone my WP site to another host – not a trivial operation. When it’s all configured I will send a link and you can all check it out – bet you cannot wait!

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