You know what this post is about. I have a hangover.
Finite Human Resources (The Year of Living Precariously)- On that bollocks about having to smile at work, except actually much more than that.
The fruits of our Labour? Resisting health and education privatisation in the UK (Peter Pannier and Brixtonite)- Articulate explanation of why the Labour Party are shit and it’s a waste of time to try to reclaim it. Send it to your Labour friends, if you’re still friends with any of them.
Keir Starmer’s Obscene Solution (ObscenityLawyer)- Really important read on some new guidelines which could ultimately make sending a direct message about bondage illegal.
It’s not about me (Sam Ambreen)- Another fab one from our Sam.
Are straight actors in gay roles the new blackface? (Christopher Kelly)- Ignore the title, it doesn’t actually argue that, although blackface comparisons are always problematic as hell. Thought-provoking piece on the hollowness of casting straight actors in gay roles.
Schizophrenia, forced treatment, and gender (The Fementalists)- A discussion of why gender needs to be factored in to mental health care.
And finally, what the inside of my head looks like.
Another angry woman 
Allies Are Still Privileged; Don’t Forget It http://www.gradientlair.com/post/53215248836/allies-are-still-privileged-dont-forget-it
Trans Elders and Elder Abuse http://meloukhia.net/2013/06/trans_elders_and_elder_abuse.html
I dunno, I have significant problems with that Salon article on straight actors in gay parts. It’s not just the comparison with white actors in blackface (and really, the fact that the author went there is beyond “problematic”), it’s this sentence: “These actors capture the looks, sounds and movements of their gay characters, but barely seem to scratch the surface of the depths of anguish, self-hatred and fear these men must have known in their lifetimes.” Great, that’s just what we need, more promotion of the idea that being gay has always meant non-stop misery with no chance at happiness ever. It’s maybe a side-issue, but it just underscores the idea that being gay is a bad thing and should be discouraged, because who would want anyone to suffer “anguish, self-hatred, and fear”? Also that whole idea that you have to have actually suffered through something to act it in a movie is one of those ideas that people regurgitate without really thinking about it (do I have to have cancer to play a cancer patient? Or have a penis to play a male part?) He makes a good point on the continuing use of gay stereotypes, though. But I hardly think casting gay actors in those roles will change that — they have to follow the scripts they are given.
Thanks for including my blog with Brixtonite! Important to say it is also about “what we should do instead” (and that I intend to write something longer about this in terms of both NHS specifically and UK political economy generally ASAP)