This is the current face of hateful bigotry in Canada, Canada Family Action. They’re using all manner of lies and intimidation to fight Bill C-279, the transgendered rights bill.
This made me think of The Cure.
Bill C-279 passed another hurdle today, as the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that amendments that should make it more palatable to Conservative MPs could be substituted into the bill. Hopefully, this is just another step on the way being passed.
Jonathan McLeod
Jonathan McLeod is a writer living in Ottawa, Ontario. (That means Canada.) He spends too much time following local politics and writing about zoning issues. Follow him on Twitter.
We have been experiencing some system resource issues. We believe the problem may be resolved, but if it is not please bear with us.
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024I am not inclined to be very sympathetic to people like her. These are people who talk about the gre… on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024The fear was that she was going to give a speech that would be 15 minutes of "From the River to the…
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024What should the school do when they think the Valedictorian is going to give a speech that amounts t… on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024Her current Instagram links to a website that states “Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology… on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024White hats are totally good and Black hats are totally evil. on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024Poor Refugees who have no where else to go and know it. on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024Where we should be trying to go to is color blind. If there are problems focusing on qualifications… on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024Some of the more darkly comedic comments is when you get a Western Pro-Palestinian activist saying s…
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024You know, I was going to have some wine tomorrow but maybe I'll have it tonight: Iranian Foreign Min… on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024You've already admitted to being a Reagan voter, Chip.
April 18, 2024
April 17, 2024
April 16, 2024
April 15, 2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024
on Open Mic for the week of 4/15/2024
Maybe slightly related to the OP’s subject: Robert Smith’s songs are often pretty slippery with regard to gender – one of the things that I noticed early on with The Cure was the way that the he/she/you/I pronouns in his songs often seemed “off”, or unclear, or different than I would have expected (“Icing Sugar” is a good example – “I’ll empty you, as empty as a boy can be”). I found this both disconcerting, and really intriguing.
When I bought the reissues (I got them for super-cheap at a store that was going out of business – I swear I had no intent to re-buy these albums again), the bonus discs have demo versions of a lot of the songs, just Smith and a drum machine on 4-track.
What I found interesting was that the initial demo versions of the songs were often more traditionally-gendered pop songs – a male narrator, presumably proxy for Smith, singing to a female subject.
Sometime between demo and final recording, Smith would mess with the pronouns, switching things around and creating various scenarios that were not as straightforward (pun partially intended) or typical for pop songs.
Comments on the video/band: Great video – simple concept, well-executed, the shadows of the actual band members behind the boys.
(Yes, I had this poster on my bedroom door for many years. )
I really liked this part of the Pitchfork review of the Three Imaginary Boys reissue :
I read an interview with Britt Daniel of Spoon and he mentioned how much he’d listened to 3 IB; that made total sense to me, that skeletal economy & use of negative space in the songs, with just a touch of trippy in the production.Report
I have, at times, been struck by the seemingly odd gender pronouns in Cure songs. It’s interesting to hear that that might be intentional.
It also reminds me of something my wise and beautiful wife once did. She was giving a sermon and purposefully switched between the male and female pronouns throughout just to try to jar people out of the default ‘he’-ness of which we tend to speak of God.
Yes, I’m equating Robert Smith to my wife, and I’m okay with that.Report
I don’t think I knew your wife was a pastor.
Man, talk about a double-whammy when you guys get in a marital argument; she’s got the Big G on *her* side. 😉
Morrissey was also very purposeful (and IIRC has said so in interviews, this isn’t just an observation I made) about writing Smiths songs with indeterminate gender. He almost always left genders ambiguous; even if the narrator is addressing a “boy” or “girl”, the gender of the narrator is never clarified. He wanted those songs to be potentially for everybody.Report
I’ve not actually heard of this bill, which is a bit odd since I’ve a close friend who’s transgendered and I’m pretty sure she’s not heard of the bill either. Well, okay, actually she’s not exactly someone who follows the news. Anyway, what does it do?Report
It’s a little under the radar, except of course for those who oppose it.
It intends to extend all protections against discrimination to the transgendered. It would ensure that the transgendered aren’t merely judged based on their genitalia. Recently (a few months ago, I think) there was a story about a transgendered woman who was a prison guard who had to fight to be able to show up for work as a female. So this bill is rather timely.
Interestingly, after the prison administrators fought hard against it, the rest of the prison guards and the inmates were quite supportive of the transition.
(See, even Canadian criminals are polite!)Report