Well, look what we have here.

Okay, I’m back.

Without going into what I’ve been going through these past months, it has been a draining and debilitating experience and my life has changed shape. I’m presently coming to grips with going about my routines again, seeing what needs to change (hopefully temporarily) and dealing with the associated emotions.

Thank everyone who has supported me. I have some very lovely commenters – I’ll try and write a blog post around your amazing comments on my previous post – and your notes on the blog, in email and on Twitter have meant a lot to me.

I’m still not quite sure of myself as a blogger – much as when I started this blog – but I think this is something worth following through with.

So welcome back to you, readers.

Chally’s brain is going on holidays

I’m not doing too well at the moment disability-wise. (It’s been this way since April but particularly bad this week. You may have noticed from the blogging lite.) I won’t be online much over the next few days, because I’m going to be putting as much energy as possible into getting better. Also, I’m concerned that I’ve been leaving important things out of posts/conversations because I just can’t think properly. I’ll be checking my email hopefully at least once a day if you want to contact me (it’s chally dot zeroatthebone at gmail dot com).

In the interim, please check my blogroll for some good reading or look through my archives if you’re new here.

Even when I get back to blogging as I’d like, it could take a while to get back to where I was. I’m disappointed I haven’t been able to do all the blogging I’d like. But there’s more to look forward to in the future, I guess!

The Twelfth Down Under Feminists Carnival

Welcome to the twelfth edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival. This is a special one as it marks a full year of DUFC goodness, served up to you from around New Zealand and Australia. We’ve had a fabulous lot of blogging over the last year – have you seen QoT’s list of contributors? Wow – as continued with this edition. The carnival has become something of an institution for all of us. I’m honoured to be hosting this first anniversary celebration.

Before we begin, congratulations are in order! Blue Milk just had her baby! On behalf of the Down Under feminist blogging community, Blue Milk, warmest wishes to you and your whole family. We are absolutely delighted for you. All the best for the years ahead.

Perhaps now would be a good time to serve the cake, eh?

(A pink feminist cake! Confusing, isn’t it?)

General Feminism

From Hellonhairylegs we have One Day, a post on what we’re told as children will make us happy as adults.
Andra of Andragy says a lot in a little space with CyberBullying, Feminism, Mean Girls, Queen Bees and Boys. ‘Just for today, I believe that feminism cannot succeed without unpacking the violence of group dynamics and stereotypes both masculine and feminine.’ She shares her experiences as a parent and some reading she’s been doing.
Schroedinger’s Tabby shares some false comparisons between women and men: ‘it’s always about using emotive language to put someone down’.
Caitlin writes about trying to find a label for herself and a place in feminism. You’re not alone in that, Caitlin.
Audrey of Audrey and the Bad Apples blogs a speech she gave on the value of contemporary feminism the world over. A quote: ‘One of the best tools you can give anyone is a sense of belonging and purpose. It’s the hope for a better future – not one which has been handed to you and to which you must resign yourself, but one in which you have had a hand forging.’

Violence Against Women

Ludditejourno posts a list of women and children dead as a result of domestic violence. It’ll stop you in your tracks.
Over at Ideologically Impure, Queen of Thorns tells us why there are no second chances for Tony Veitch.
At I Am Not Cake, Jet writes the powerful Rape Culture: Still Not Funny. You’ll be wanting to bookmark this one.
More from Caitlin, this time at The Dawn Chorus, in Misogyny in Football? Never! At least not according to North Melbourne….
Let’s all say it together, everyone… it’s not sex, it’s rape! Hoyden About Town’s Lauredhel has something to say about strategic remorse.
No doesn’t mean no?! Anna of The Hand Mirror reports on an outrageous defence by the lawyer of a taxi driver convicted in a case of abduction and indecent assault of a passenger.

Class and Economics

AnneE at Elsewoman writes a brief and pointed post about race, gender and unemployment in New Zealand.
Here’s a thoughtful post from Helen from Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony. It’s called The Home ATM is out of order #2: Thinking about schools and is on home equity, education and the economy in Australia.
At The Radical Radish, rayedish talks about Australia’s wage gap and an opportunity for discussion that just shouldn’t have been missed. Presenting Can we talk about this (wage gap) civilly, please?.

Race

More from QoT, writing about the Eskimo lollies issue and New Zealand pride in ”Iconic” might not be the word you’re looking for.
Then there’s the excellent Andrew Bolt, Wajin-looking Koori, Aboriginality, and comments full of lies over at Hexpletive (now cross-posted at HAT). Jo Tamar from Wallaby adds her thoughts on identity and the majority narrative in There’s a reason I don’t read Andrew Bolt. Give them both a read.

Writing and Literature

Mel Campbell at The Dawn Chorus shares some thoughts on the late JG Ballard’s partner and invisible muse, Claire Walsh. It’s an unusual piece for feminist blogging and a good read.
In a thought-provoking reminder of universal sisterhood, Allecto of Gorgon Poisons shares two similar pieces of writing on women’s experience.

Subversion!

Blogging at Musings of an inappropriate woman, Rachel Hills documents an intriguing look into wedding culture by artist Lee Gainer in Why would anyone spend two months’ salary on a ring, anyway?
In an action of momumental win, sajbrfem of Fifty Two Acts made actual feminist cookies. I can’t even pick my favourite.

Parenthood…

Thinking about pre- and post-pregnancy bodies and lives, Spilt Milk writes The new me is the old me is the new me. ‘I’ve been trying so hard to forge my identity as a mother that I’ve let many other parts of my identity slip into obscurity.’ She adds Body and soul, a beautiful piece on reconnecting with her body during and following pregnancy.
aztec-rose of WoLFi TaLEs reminds us of a very important issue that may be pushed aside given the economy. The post’s called Paid maternity leave at risk… of being dumped.

… and Reproductive Justice

Emma at Emervents writes a letter to her MP and Nicola Roxon regarding the Maternity Services Review and improving healthcare in Australia. Over at narrating kayoz, Kirsten also writes to Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon. It’s an open letter and includes Kirsten’s personal story. Meanwhile, Lauredhel is trying to move the conversation from stat-wrangling towards a reproductive choice perspective.
Western Australian breastfeeding mothers are having a time of it. For Colin Barnett’s assertions regarding breastfeeding, I for one have no words. Lauredhel found some in Mothers Not Human: In The Words Of Our Premier. Emma in Oz has some lovely snark on the same subject. To finish, Georgie of Surprisingly Domestic centres babies in the discussion with the wonderful Why I breastfeed in public.

Trans

At A.E.Brain, Zoe writes a lovely piece called Appearance on valuing appearance and the experiences of late-transitioning trans women. In Another Piece of the Puzzle, she takes a look at a study called “Regional gray matter variation in male-to-female transsexualism”.
Chally (hey, that’s me!) writes Say, we haven’t filled our daily quota of dehumanisation! Let’s go do that then. It’s on a Ninemsn article about Aussie Ladette to Lady, so you know how that’s gonna end.

Media

Could it be feminism in the MSM? Jo Tamar reports.
Oh, Sam de Brito. This time, he’s kindly telling us how to do feminism. Fuck Politeness informs us as to Sargeant Major de Brito’s Great Feminist Battle Plan. In a continution of the ‘guerilla style Media Watch’ we’ve all come to expect from FP, she writes a response to a Miranda Devine piece on Bettina Arndt in What’s good for the gander….
At Larvatus Prodeo, Kim writes “the conclusions are only as good as the original assumptions”. I can’t think of anything to say that won’t spoil your reading!

The Stupid. It Burns.

Mimbles, blogging at Mim’s Muddle, was not alone in being astounded at one Clementine Ford. She writes about it in Quick Hit: Pot, meet kettle.
Meanwhile, Anne serves up some snark to a misguided scientist in Oh, those wonderful males.
In a Strange Land blogger Deborah has been blogging on atheist parenthood. What really raised my blood pressure was when her daughters, having opted out of participating in a school Easter activity, were sent to pick up rubbish. ‘I’m finding it hard not to see that as a punishment for not being Christian,’ says Deborah. The Strange Lands had words with the school. Post here, background here, update here.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, formula feeding, April Fools, and a lesson to be learned in public relations. Here’s Tigtog at Larvatus Prodeo and Lauredhel at Hoyden.

Relationships

Regarding Mel Gibson’s divorce, Deborah says Enough already with calling it “his” fortune. Because nothing Robyn Gibson contributed matters, according to the media.
Richie has a post for us on a webcomic called, wait for it, The Nice Guy. The title pretty much says it all: Do you have that female friend that you’re hopelessly in love with that unloads all her problems on you, only to end up back in the sack with that loser ex that cheated on her with her own sister, leaving you high and dry?

Disability

As usual, Lauredhel has some excellent writing on the subject. Firstly, a quiz on representations of disabled bodies in logos. Hmm, can you tell what’s missing there? She also offers us 101: A note to able-bodied readers, which had me thinking how glad I was that somebody finally said it! It’s about inappropriate centring of abled people in PWD spaces. Lastly, we have Psychiatrists see reasonable adaptations to CFS, label it “cause” and “maladaptation” – as amandaw says in comments, ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’
Jo Tamar blogs about Dan Savage’s willingness to miss the point regarding the use of the word “retard”. Jo takes this disingenuous behaviour down very well.
I, Chally, opened up about being chronically ill in a series called Not Staying Silent. It consists of Introduction, I hope you know what you’ve done, Claiming the Label, or, conceptualising myself as disabled, Real Problems, Deference, Response and Recovery.
And if you’re looking for more resources on disability activism, the good people at Hoyden About Town did your homework for you.

That concludes the Twelfth Down Under Feminists Carnival.

I had a fabulous time putting it together. Thanks for reading and take care of your lovely selves. See you next time at Demelza’s place (submissions to demelzagf at yahoo dot com where the submissions page is inaccessible), and do consider volunteering to host a future carnival.

For more information, have a look at the carnival homepage.

Enjoy your cake!

A meta salad with meta dressing

Had a weird few days for blogging. I scheduled some blog posts in advance because I was offline for a few days, a holiday extended by a rather lovely lot of Internet connection troubles (solved this afternoon with the help of three computer techie people, all of whom were women, I am proud to note). So please excuse the lack of engagement in comments, I will get to you as soon as may be. Although I’ve got a bit on over the next two days. Not to worry, though, because I’ve got some lovely long posts coming up.

In any case, I figured I might give you a bit of a spoiler post! Aren’t you lucky? Here are some topics I’ll be blogging on in coming weeks.

A book review of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon.
Thoughts on some fabulous webcomics I’ve been reading.
A post on food (shopping, the experience thereof, and related privilege).
Many many introspective and philosophical posts.
Round-ups a-plenty.
There are more blogs to add to the blogroll. Let’s hope I remember them all.
A series on Aus/UK children’s TV series Noah & Saskia, of which I am a huge fan. I watched the entire run and took notes at the end of last year, so this has been a long time in coming!
A series on my experiences in changing my name, a process I’m part of the way through. An exhausting process in a number of respects but utterly gloriously WORTH IT.
A series on another rather personal topic. I’m halfway through writing. I will feel so good when it’s done.

A “this is what’s going on in my life” post

I had a couple of deadlines last week, so I didn’t have a heap of time to blog, I’m afraid. Also, I find it’s good to rest my blogging muscles once in a while, so my posting schedule might be erratic for a bit (although I did go about a month posting on a 24 hour cycle, which was interesting). I find that posts tend to take on a theme for a few days – television, language – so with this changing dynamic it’ll be interesting to see what comes forth. I’ve got a huuuuge backlog of posts to write. It’s kind of frustrating writing after the initial spark of inspiration has gone, but I find writing cold can turn a piece of writing in new directions. Tomorrow I’ll try and put up a March blogging round-up, which custom I may continue. So, in short, I’ll be as surprised as you are at any changes in Zero at the Bone!

On Sunday I attended a Hoyden About Town meet-up. We had a lovely time discussing ironing Very Loudly. I had a bit of fun comparing people’s online voices with their offline ones. It’s rather pleasing to sit back and chat with a lovely group of people quite out of context, something I always enjoy. It’s nice to know that there are some real hoydenish types about… um… this town. (Honestly, I did not intend the corniness when I started that sentence.) I look forward to the next one.

I’ve been knitting a lot, having found my lost needle on Saturday night (it was stuck at the back of the couch). I finished the bulk of ScarfFriend’s scarf. It’s various shades of blue and purple; I saved bits from all the balls of wool which I’ll sew in and make tassels from. It’s wide and short, so it’ll be one of those scarfs you just tuck in around your neck (I’ll make a fastening) with a jacket. Hopefully it’ll keep her warm on the colder days of our mild Sydney winters. I started another piece on Sunday morning, also a scarf. I’m not sure who it’s for yet. It’s pink baby wool so far, although I’m thinking of adding in thin cerise stripes in a thicker wool I have on hand.

Now I have an appointment, so I must be off!

The interview meme

Mimbles did this interview meme a few days ago. The rules, if you want to play as I did, are leave a comment saying so and I’ll email you five questions for you to tackle. Bonus: you can ask me questions of your own in comments and I’ll answer those, too.

My thanks to Mimbles. I hope you all find it interesting. So here’s my interview:

1. On the “About” page of your blog you write “The story of my realisation is an odd one involving children’s television, short fiction, my theatrical background, LGBTQI rights and a dance competition.” I’d love to hear the story, care to tell it? At very least you must tell us which children’s television!

I started an answer to that one and I was at 841 words when I stopped. The story of how I realised I was a feminist will have to wait. However, mysterious being as I am, I’ll give you five things from the story, but won’t tell you how they intersect:

• The children’s TV show was The Fairies. I still can’t believe it started there.
• The short fiction was that of James Tiptree, Jr., who is mentioned on my About page too, as it happens.
• The theatrical bit was research into twentieth century British drama for a drama performance course (not even a fancy name for acting, it’s complicated) I did in 2007.
• I was researching lesbian and gay rights, which went off on a couple of tangents.
• The dance competition was So You Think You Can Dance Australia…um.

2. I gather Christopher Eccleston was your first Doctor? Mine was Tom Baker but I was very fond of Peter Davidson as well. Have you watched much old Who and how does it hold up for someone who did not watch it prior to the new version?

Chris Eccleston was indeed my first Doctor. I thought that he could never ever be replaced by this David Tennant bloke, but I was willing to give David a go. By the sword fight in “The Christmas Invasion”, I was head over heels, standing in front on my television and cheering (okay, the first bit is just an expression). I tried watching a bit of old Who in 2005, when they were doing reruns on ABC, but I didn’t get into it until a little later when I spent a summer hiring out videos from a wonderful video store in Bondi (that’s right, folks, near the beach) called Doctor What. (‘Do you stock Doctor Who?’ ‘Are you joking?’) I watched one in ten of the stories. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, classic Who storylines ran over a number of episodes with two exceptions. I managed to find the very first story, “An Unearthly Child”, from 1963. I could not stand Jo Grant (a companion) and “The Claws of Axos” was painful. It was, however, not quite as painful as the 1996 TV movie, which almost made me cry with the sheer badness of it. I still have never seen a Romana episode, but I’d like to as I hear she’s great. I’m fond of the Fifth Doctor, too, especially that odd piece of celery on his lapel. My favourite classic story is one of his, “Enlightenment” (although I also really like “Survival”). (My favourite episode ever is “The End of the World”, the first I ever saw.) I sat through the entire “The Trial of a Time Lord”, which should indicate how much I was growing to like old Who. My favourite classic Doctor is Seven, played by Sylvester McCoy. He was so different. My favourite companion is Ace, but I won’t go into that now as I have a whole post on her soon. To answer your question, once you get over the shaky BBC production values, you get a gorgeous, lovable story that has stood the test of time. Sometimes you’re a bit over contemporary special effects, so the quarry-substitute-for-alien-landscape thing they did is quite charming. Overall, I love it and it holds up very well.

3. Your twitter bio describes you as a cake enthusiast. Any particular kind of cake? What was the best cake you’ve ever encountered and do you have pictures?

Yes, famously cheesecake. I’m growing quite fond of coffee cake. For my most recent birthday party, I had a tea party which was basically a cakefest (my family and I made a plain cheesecake, a chocolate cake, coffee cake… my friends are used to it by now). A few generations and continents back, my family ran a bakery, so I guess it’s in the blood. The best cake I’ve ever encountered… well, I guess memory may have sweetened it, but it was a cheesecake in a little shop in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney city about ten years back. I’m afraid I don’t have pictures. I went back there a couple of years ago, but that particular place must have shut down and the New York cheesecake I tried at another café there didn’t quite cut it. I’m collecting recipes and perhaps I’ll find something as good one day.

4. What made you start blogging?

This isn’t my first time blogging, but the first time as Chally (which is a relatively recent name) and on feminism. I used to run a fan fiction blog (can you guess my fandom?) and I’ve run a couple of tiny personal ones. One of the first feminist sites I found (in May) was Feministing and it was a huge, happy thing for me to have found feminist-oriented news! I followed the links to Feministe and then all sorts of different blogs. I’d promised myself that at the end of the year I’d start blogging because I wanted to join in and I had things of my own to share. And then I lost a bit of direction but found it on 31 December. And I haven’t looked back since! I hope to be around for a while.

5. What 5 books have had the greatest impact on your life?

I’ll stick to fiction for this one and stick in short stories. Hmm, that’s a pretty difficult thing to trace. You’ll have to ask me in a few decades so I can gain more perspective. But for now, in the order I thought of them:

• “The Women Men Don’t See” by James Tiptree, Jr. See question one.
• “Bloodchild” by Octavia E. Butler had a profound effect on my politics and how I thought of autonomy and relationships in which one party has all the control. I will never think about abortion the same way. No matter your perspective on reproductive justice, I don’t think you can read that story and not have your mind changed in some way. And slavery and gender and… Ms Butler’s loss was a great one.
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is a classic. I first encountered it when I was eight and it had a hand in moulding my childhood fantasies. I had forgotten the name of the book by the time I was thirteen, so when my English teacher at the time reintroduced me, I felt a rush of joy I’ve never forgotten.
• The Neverending Story by Michael Ende is my standard for what makes a good story.
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is my favourite novel. It’d be on this list if only for the amount of time I’ve spent reading it over and over! It’s an intricate, gruelling, wonderful love story.

In which improper capitalisation is employed

I am very excited and I have to do something Very Important today. I can’t tell you what, otherwise it will interfere with one of the rules of my Great Blogging Experiment.* But it’s a new step in my life, so wish me well. Off I pop to have breakfast!

—

* Yeah, that asterix is kind of misleading. I was going to here tell you the broad outlines of said Experiment, but that would be counterproductive. So, suffice it to say, I’ll get up the courage and the blogging longevity for me to speak about it in The Future.

ETA: It was great.