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[personal profile] freckles_and_doubt
Last week Worthless Word for the Day presented me with "bundling": a sort of nineteenth-century country custom entailing an unmarried couple sharing the same bed without undressing. Call me paranoid, but that seems to me to be an elaborate exercise in self-deceptive wishful thinking. Only cats, family and heterosexual girlfriends are exempt from #7 on my List Of Rules For Life, which is "never share a bed with anyone you're not planning to have passionate sex with practically immediately."

And, while we're on the subject of feminist ranting, the Religious Right strikes again: a vaccine has been developed for the human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer, the second most dangerous cancer for women. Religious groups are opposing widespread use of the vaccine on the grounds that it will encourage promiscuity. I spit.

On a happier note, [livejournal.com profile] strawberryfrog and [livejournal.com profile] short_mort had a dashed good wedding on Saturday: small, unconventional, genuine and in a very beautiful setting. I caught up with bunches of the Old CLAW Guard on whom I have not set eyes in years, in some cases ten or more. I have to add, the bride's bright red dress, with corset, was wonderful, and [livejournal.com profile] strawberryfrog looks very dashing in a top hat and tails. A pity he and the best man had removed their sideburns, aka face hamsters, they would have completed the Edwardian look no end.

In an abrupt about-face, I have to go to a funeral now. I am very sad to report that my Evil Landlord's father died last week, after a long illness and a major operation. While the EL is being German and stiff-upper-lip about it, There Shall Be Moral Support.

Pah!

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 08:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] first-fallen.livejournal.com
I have shared many a bed with male friends, and nothing happened. I put this down to the fact that in high school I had one (1) female friend, and many late nights partying. Obviously, you are more of a horndog than I am, unable to keep yourself from jumping any male you share a bed with :P.

Please give Eckie a (stiff, upperlip, German) hug from me. I have been uncertain as to whether to offer condolences or not.

Re: Pah!

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 12:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolverine-nun.livejournal.com
horndog? horndog??

:D :D :D Can't wait till extemp reads that comment!

Re: Pah!

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 02:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
A brief "Tchah!" suffices. Since I am the one who, in sharp contradistinction to [livejournal.com profile] first_fallen's pseudo-wedded bliss, have been single and celibate for four years now, I would say that generally I have any, and I use the inverted commas with particularly heavy stress here, "horndog" behaviour completely under control, thank you very much.

Tchah!

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 12:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] herne-kzn.livejournal.com
There is a Pratchett (IIRC) quote on the subject.
something along the lines of...since love is said to laugh at locksmiths, it probably smiles broadly at a sack filled with feathers. (talking about the version where a bolster upholds virtue)
If Eckhard isn't getting mail at the moment, please pass on my condolences to him.
BTW, has your cell number changed? I tried to call you but got someone extremely baritone and non english speaking.

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 02:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
Yup. Bolsters, damned phallic, anyway...

My cell has not changed in over a year. Check my webpage, the correct number is on my academic page. Last I looked, I was neither baritone nor anything other than ridiculously English-speaking.

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 02:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bumpycat.livejournal.com
Except when you have flu, when you tend to drop an octave and grumble a lot :D

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 07:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
But, mark you, they're ridiculously English grumbles! It also happens on lack of sleep, or occasionally on any sleep at all, i.e. when I've just woken up.

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 08:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bumpycat.livejournal.com
They are, tis true. Perfect grammar and all :)

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 01:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com
Some versions of bundling, if Mel Gibson movies are to be believed, involved sewing the boy into a sack. The girl's mother then says, once the door is closed, that she hopes her daughter isn't as good a seamstress as she once was!

Perhaps it salved parental conscience rather than preventing sex per se?

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bumpycat.livejournal.com
With that level of effort, surely it's just easier to give the boy a blanket and some floor space?

Date: Monday, 19 June 2006 02:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
Exactly! Bundling is so silly it clearly all has to be all about Teh Symbolism, although symbolic of what precisely is difficult to say. Frustration and self-restraint? Futility? I dunno. Human culture has some deeply weird side-pockets.

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 07:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wolverine-nun.livejournal.com
You're saying "teh" now?

crumble, crumble...

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 08:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
Hey! I only say it with maximum self-conscious irony (See Capital Letters), so therefore it's OK ;>.

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 07:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] herne-kzn.livejournal.com
Well symbolic of willful self delusion I think. One of our most...distinctive traits.

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 08:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] herne-kzn.livejournal.com
And as for the HPV vaccine, yerrs. I spent some days swearing loudly and kicking things when I heard about it.

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 08:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] extemporanea.livejournal.com
Yes, me too. Slow burn. The real rage-causer, though, is the thought of how the Religious Right would react if someone invented a vaccine that prevented the most dangerous sexual-activity-linked cancer in men. It's not about the religion. It's about the total domination of women, particularly women who show any signs of threatening behaviour such as sexuality, independence or, heaven help us, intelligence. Aaargh.

Date: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 10:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] herne-kzn.livejournal.com
3700 dead a year, 10 000 affected. Can't remember where I got the mubers for my rant on the subject but with those numbers it sounds an awful lot like gendered violence to me too. "Honor killing on in installment plan" was the best comment I read.

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