lollipops and candycanes

[freckles_and_doubt]

Heigh, ho. Yet-another-unsuccessful-lectureship-application last week has induced the usual despair and angst, leading to a vale of tears and self-loathing, a retreat into Supernatural and sewing, and really boring blog posts, for which I apologise. In an effort both at distraction and actual interest, have some Monday morning linkery.

• Completely incredible Bioshock cosplay, photographed at an aquarium. Now I want to play Bioshock again. Memo to self, make Evil Landlord buy the sequel when it comes out, possibly by repeat application of creme caramel.
  
  
• We don't often get to hear about this side of the abortion/adoption debate. Reading this is making me slightly ashamed of even thinking casually about adoption as an issue; it's also engendering the usual feminist rage about patriarchal control of female reproduction and the incredible powerlessness of so many women in this situation. Also, now I like Juno a lot less.

In other, less depressing news, Hobbit has a new trick, viz. lurking under the giant leaves of the delicious monster on the edge of the patio, and ambushing your ankles as you walk past. Fortunately he still hasn't got the hang of this strange "skirt" concept, and tends to suddenly veer off and look embarrassed at the last minute instead of actually connecting with my ankles.

Also, halfway through Season 2 of Supernatural, and am I imagining it, or is the writing suddenly on an upswing? I'm a bit over-emotional at the moment anyway, but "Houses of the Holy", "Born Under a Bad Sign", "Roadkill" and "Heart" were a series of gut-punches which did wonderful things with the emotional arc of the season, and also didn't go quite where narrative cliché dictated they should. ("Tall Tales" was also bloody good fun, and the slow-dancing alien made me laugh a great deal). Also, this show works as a Necessary Perspective Vortex: no matter how annoying my life is, at least I don't have to deal with demon possession, a life based on credit card fraud and running from the police, and the ongoing possibility of having to kill someone I love.

Comments

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

From the descriptions both in that post and in a lot of the comments, the problem seems to be that the "practical assistance and emotional support" don't seem to be there for birth mothers in many cases - too often the focus seems to be on the needs of the child and the adoptive parents, to the almost exclusion of the needs of the birth mother.

I dunno, it's not really a knee-jerk to be deeply and thoughtfully worried about the possibility that the facilities for these kinds of decisions predominately respond to the birth mother's situation through a moral/religious rhetoric which at best diminishes her right to emotional distress, and at worst actively blames her. I'm thinking particularly of the Catholic ones, from anecdotes in the comments.

[tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com]

As you very aptly put it, the "moral/religious rhetoric which at best diminishes her right to emotional distress, and at worst actively blames her" is nothing short of religious abuse. Nothing can justify that.