I lived in Brisbane for a few months in 1994. My Aussie boyfriend and I drove up the coast to the Daintree River to see the jungle crocs and a little way into the outback to see the Aborigine art on the mouths of caves (by then protected, as the white men's cattle had been rubbing off the thousands-years-old drawings). We saw a small abandoned mining and smelting camp, blistering hot even in the midst of winter, and the sad graveyard where the men who'd died in the camp were buried, with old bedframes over their graves to try to keep the dingoes from digging up their bodies. We saw the miles and miles and miles of spectacular, empty white-sand beaches under nodding palm trees, with their exquisite turquoise waves.
It is an utterly beautiful and fascinating land. I never wanted to leave.
But I will tell you, I found the Australian men to be misogynist Neanderthals. Maybe further south, closer to Sydney and Melbourne, they're more normal. But where I was, they were stuck in the worst of the 1950s. It was appalling. They called us misogynist insults to our faces and told us we were evil, cackling wildly. They made American men look like feminist angels. And the smart, strong, no-nonsense Australian women I met just had to put up with it.
Now whenever I hear these stories about Sall and the lesbians of Tasmania and the other women of that beautiful land, I wonder about my women friends long ago in Brisbane. I hope they're fighting back.
I'm Australian and find your claim about mining men in the 1990s being buried in shallow graves near their work encampment after death quite fantastical. Perhaps some sort of scenario like that happened last century but not in 1994. Outside of your weird apocalyptic vision by 1994 Australian deceased people only got buried in coffins at least 6 feet below the ground and inside of legally designated cemetary boundaries, negating the need for old iron bed frames to be placed over them to prevent dingoes from digging carcasses. Dingoes don't do that, other carrion is much more easily available. Perhaps some larrikin Aussie guys spotted you as leftists and had some fun spinning a yarn? Having read that bizarreness I feel very comfortable challenging other parts of your narrative, such as the genetic heritage of Australian men being Neanderthal. As a resident of the bush for at least 20 years I can attest rural males do have a different character to urbanites. But quite frankly I feel much more safe and respected here in my little bush town than on my occasional forays to Sydney and Melbourne. The only part of your story I do agree with, having visited the USA 5x, is that American men are very nice.
I didn't say they were shallow graves. Only that there were old bedframes over them. Also giant clamshells. You're the one who decided they were shallow graves. I didn't dig to find out.
And I didn't claim the men were buried in the 1990s. It was an an abandoned mining camp, as I mentioned.
Nobody could have spotted us as leftists because we weren't. My Aussie boyfriend would have punched you if you'd called him that. We didn't talk to anyone about the graveyard--no one was there--except the elderly woman behind the counter of a store, who told us those were the men who died at the mining camp.
And I didn't say anything about the genetic heritage of Australian men. That would be, of course, identical to the genetic heritage of Australian women. Unless you know something about Australian reproduction that I don't know.
The graveyard was what it was. You don't have to believe it existed if you don't like, but refusing to believe in reality just because you don't like it *is* pretty fantastical. If you want to argue about what went on there, feel free to go argue with the locals. It was outside Chillagoe. Tell them I sent you.
You have quite a weird apocalyptic imagination (not to mention the weird apocalyptic imagination you attribute to your invented "Aussie guys") for someone trying to correct someone else's facts.
Yup, you didn't say they were shallow graves but you did say dingoes would have dug the corpses up if not prevented by iron bed frames laid over them. Dingoes do not behave like that, they don't dig up bodies 6 foot underground, whether they are recent or old. If you believed that yarn its because you're an American without knowledge of the behaviour of our indigenous species of dog.
The point I should have made is that Australian women are in less danger from rude, sexist rural men behaving like Neanderthals than the brain virus infecting the contemporary progressive left. The real and present endangerment to the rights, dignity and safety of Australian women is coming from the academically educated elitest left....many of them women.
Would you consider awarding Enes Freedom (maybe also Royce White) the honor of a FFS post? I know it sounds crazy, but consider: they got your back, though they have potentially little to gain from it; this way you return the favor with a thanks; and you’ll drive the troons even more crazy, because now you‘re affirming their womanhood!! Plus, there could be a feedback loop which would give you, and TERFs in general, more visibility. (Presumably Enes might thank you publicly). Remember: if we can be heard…
Intriguing idea. I'll wrestle with it. Any other paid subscribers want to weigh in? To be clear, FFS Friday is for women and girls. But this comment is suggesting an interesting idea. Enes and Royce are pretending to be women in order to showcase the entire frivolity of men pretending to be women. Should I honor them in an FFS Friday? Or would that be going too far? All thoughts from paid subscribers welcome. Thank you for the suggestion!
Keep the focus on women. I like what you've written on the men IDing as women to play in the WNBA -- a hilarious and biting commentary on gender idiocy -- but keep the awards and long-form recognition for women.
Yes - I would think thanking these men - for supporting women by showing the absurdity of self-ID by claiming (in an obvious parody) to be women - makes perfect sense! I know that in one sense it is doing what we don't want, by giving males an honor reserved for females, but I think the exception here is for men who are willing to put themselves on the line to protect women's rights, rather than for men who actually pretend to be women.
I almost want to up the ante and invite them to appear in this month's episode of Woman's Hour (free and shareable). But I also hate the idea because we all know they're men and I want to honor WOMEN'S voices (dub in Bridget Phetasty, "WOMEN!!!"). But is the beauty of the irony worth it? I DON'T KNOW!
I think it would be better to write a post about them or invite them onto Woman's Hour to talk about what they're doing and why than to honor them with a FFS.
I don't think it's worth breaking your dedication to honoring women just to poke the troons with a sharp stick. They're not paying close enough attention. But the women who need to be honored are.
Might also inject a note of comic relief into an otherwise dreary campaign so far. Show them we have a sense of humor! (If only April first were coming up, alas)
I lived in Brisbane for a few months in 1994. My Aussie boyfriend and I drove up the coast to the Daintree River to see the jungle crocs and a little way into the outback to see the Aborigine art on the mouths of caves (by then protected, as the white men's cattle had been rubbing off the thousands-years-old drawings). We saw a small abandoned mining and smelting camp, blistering hot even in the midst of winter, and the sad graveyard where the men who'd died in the camp were buried, with old bedframes over their graves to try to keep the dingoes from digging up their bodies. We saw the miles and miles and miles of spectacular, empty white-sand beaches under nodding palm trees, with their exquisite turquoise waves.
It is an utterly beautiful and fascinating land. I never wanted to leave.
But I will tell you, I found the Australian men to be misogynist Neanderthals. Maybe further south, closer to Sydney and Melbourne, they're more normal. But where I was, they were stuck in the worst of the 1950s. It was appalling. They called us misogynist insults to our faces and told us we were evil, cackling wildly. They made American men look like feminist angels. And the smart, strong, no-nonsense Australian women I met just had to put up with it.
Now whenever I hear these stories about Sall and the lesbians of Tasmania and the other women of that beautiful land, I wonder about my women friends long ago in Brisbane. I hope they're fighting back.
I'm Australian and find your claim about mining men in the 1990s being buried in shallow graves near their work encampment after death quite fantastical. Perhaps some sort of scenario like that happened last century but not in 1994. Outside of your weird apocalyptic vision by 1994 Australian deceased people only got buried in coffins at least 6 feet below the ground and inside of legally designated cemetary boundaries, negating the need for old iron bed frames to be placed over them to prevent dingoes from digging carcasses. Dingoes don't do that, other carrion is much more easily available. Perhaps some larrikin Aussie guys spotted you as leftists and had some fun spinning a yarn? Having read that bizarreness I feel very comfortable challenging other parts of your narrative, such as the genetic heritage of Australian men being Neanderthal. As a resident of the bush for at least 20 years I can attest rural males do have a different character to urbanites. But quite frankly I feel much more safe and respected here in my little bush town than on my occasional forays to Sydney and Melbourne. The only part of your story I do agree with, having visited the USA 5x, is that American men are very nice.
I didn't say they were shallow graves. Only that there were old bedframes over them. Also giant clamshells. You're the one who decided they were shallow graves. I didn't dig to find out.
And I didn't claim the men were buried in the 1990s. It was an an abandoned mining camp, as I mentioned.
Nobody could have spotted us as leftists because we weren't. My Aussie boyfriend would have punched you if you'd called him that. We didn't talk to anyone about the graveyard--no one was there--except the elderly woman behind the counter of a store, who told us those were the men who died at the mining camp.
And I didn't say anything about the genetic heritage of Australian men. That would be, of course, identical to the genetic heritage of Australian women. Unless you know something about Australian reproduction that I don't know.
The graveyard was what it was. You don't have to believe it existed if you don't like, but refusing to believe in reality just because you don't like it *is* pretty fantastical. If you want to argue about what went on there, feel free to go argue with the locals. It was outside Chillagoe. Tell them I sent you.
You have quite a weird apocalyptic imagination (not to mention the weird apocalyptic imagination you attribute to your invented "Aussie guys") for someone trying to correct someone else's facts.
Yup, you didn't say they were shallow graves but you did say dingoes would have dug the corpses up if not prevented by iron bed frames laid over them. Dingoes do not behave like that, they don't dig up bodies 6 foot underground, whether they are recent or old. If you believed that yarn its because you're an American without knowledge of the behaviour of our indigenous species of dog.
The point I should have made is that Australian women are in less danger from rude, sexist rural men behaving like Neanderthals than the brain virus infecting the contemporary progressive left. The real and present endangerment to the rights, dignity and safety of Australian women is coming from the academically educated elitest left....many of them women.
Lovely piece, Kara
have cross posted
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/fetchez-la-vache
Dusty
Would you consider awarding Enes Freedom (maybe also Royce White) the honor of a FFS post? I know it sounds crazy, but consider: they got your back, though they have potentially little to gain from it; this way you return the favor with a thanks; and you’ll drive the troons even more crazy, because now you‘re affirming their womanhood!! Plus, there could be a feedback loop which would give you, and TERFs in general, more visibility. (Presumably Enes might thank you publicly). Remember: if we can be heard…
Intriguing idea. I'll wrestle with it. Any other paid subscribers want to weigh in? To be clear, FFS Friday is for women and girls. But this comment is suggesting an interesting idea. Enes and Royce are pretending to be women in order to showcase the entire frivolity of men pretending to be women. Should I honor them in an FFS Friday? Or would that be going too far? All thoughts from paid subscribers welcome. Thank you for the suggestion!
Keep the focus on women. I like what you've written on the men IDing as women to play in the WNBA -- a hilarious and biting commentary on gender idiocy -- but keep the awards and long-form recognition for women.
Hear hear
Dusty
I agree, Luna.
We're not just here to piss off the troons. We're here to unite women.
Yes - I would think thanking these men - for supporting women by showing the absurdity of self-ID by claiming (in an obvious parody) to be women - makes perfect sense! I know that in one sense it is doing what we don't want, by giving males an honor reserved for females, but I think the exception here is for men who are willing to put themselves on the line to protect women's rights, rather than for men who actually pretend to be women.
I almost want to up the ante and invite them to appear in this month's episode of Woman's Hour (free and shareable). But I also hate the idea because we all know they're men and I want to honor WOMEN'S voices (dub in Bridget Phetasty, "WOMEN!!!"). But is the beauty of the irony worth it? I DON'T KNOW!
I think it would be better to write a post about them or invite them onto Woman's Hour to talk about what they're doing and why than to honor them with a FFS.
I don't think it's worth breaking your dedication to honoring women just to poke the troons with a sharp stick. They're not paying close enough attention. But the women who need to be honored are.
Might also inject a note of comic relief into an otherwise dreary campaign so far. Show them we have a sense of humor! (If only April first were coming up, alas)
Yes, an intriguing idea ! Perhaps make it a “special edition” of FFS Friday !