mudsticks
Squire
And I didn't at the time.
For a start who would hear?
And it was just yet more patronising sop, instead of properly funding the service, and valuing the people in it..
Poppy Day
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And I didn't at the time.
For a start who would hear?
And it was just yet more patronising sop, instead of properly funding the service, and valuing the people in it..
FishFright
Well-Known Member
Aww is someone feeling lonely in the playground and needs some attention ?
Pale Rider
Veteran
Not any more he doesn't.
OP
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matticus
Guru
Love it! (I think we're ALL glad you read the Mirror, Jim)
Probably useful to include the context, makes an even better story IMO:
"World War 2 soldiers manned anti-aircraft guns in full DRAG after they were scrambled during panto photo shoot"
Lilliburlero
New Member
Nice one Fishface.
I just take exception to someone who doesn`t know what gender they are going to feel like being on any given day calling poppy wearing "a fetish". I`ve lost friends in conflict and my son serves in the Royal Navy. I also work with a few ex squaddies and they are salt of the earth real people, unlike 90% of NACA....
I wear one for them and all who have served, it`s nothing to do with fetishes it about respect and sacrifice.
Fab Foodie
Legendary Member
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matticus
Guru
I feel that the ceremonies - with or without the religious elements - send the right message. They commerorate recent conflicts as well as the ancient ones: WWI is almost an exemplar of how terrible war can be. It's a conflict everyone knows the reality of, whilst we don't all know as much about Syria, the Falklands, Yugoslavia, Vietnam etc etc ...
What I'm uncomfortable with is some of the ... "stuff" that many Brits attach to Nov 11th. Such as the competitive poppy-wearing. And a weird nostalgia for certain elements.
It's a mixed-up situation. 😕
mudsticks
Squire
Who are you to say who is, or isn't a 'real person'
That sounds a lot like arrogance from someone who apparently values being 'down to earth'.
Farming (my profession) is now the industry with the highest rate of fatalities, since the construction industry cleaned up it's act.
Can't get much more 'salt of the earth' than that.
Do we get a whole day to commemorate our work, in recognition of the fact that were are putting our bodies on the line to feed the nation??
By all means commemorate the war dead, and the many victims of war.
And remind ourselves what a terrible thing it is, and how we need to prevent conflict, build peace.
And to prevent suppression of minorities, celebrate tolerance of 'difference' .
Remember how the Nazis in addition to trying to do what they saw as ethnic cleansing also persecuted gay people, and doubtless other perfectly harmless , yet 'non conforming' sections of society.
Respect for everyone, even if their way of being is outside your sphere of experience.
Bromptonaut
Rohan Man
- Location
- Bugbrooke, Northants
What possible relevance does Andy's non binary gender have?
It's perfectly possible to respect and honour those who died in service and those who serve now while also believing we fetishise the poppy appeal. By that I mean the way the appeal is conflated with the military and the way in which the media and mainstream politics treat those, like the odd TV newsreader or politician, who decline to wear a Poppy.
In fact, I'd go one step further and say your post provides a QED for the concept.
winjim
Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
I would suggest you go back and read what Andy actually wrote. They didn't call poppy wearing a fetish, what they did is call out the fetishisation of poppy wearing. If you glance through the timeline of the twitter account which theclaud posted upthread you'll see example after example. Ostentatious displays of remembrance, recreations of battlefield scenes, garish poppy displays, gatekeeping of people who choose not to wear the poppy or even those who wear it in what is deemed to be the 'wrong' way, use of the poppy to glorify war or as a jingoistic or nationalistic symbol. I personally find a lot of it vulgar, disrespectful and indeed fetishistic and it has contributed towards me feeling increasingly uncomfortable wearing the poppy in recent years.
To be brutally honest, I found your post disrespectful, not only to Andy, but in this thread and on such a day, disrespectful to those who have fought and died in war and to whose honour and in whose remembrance we wear the poppy.
I am a heterosexual cisgender man. I grew up in a military town, my grandparents fought in the second world war, at least one of my (great?) great grandparents in the first, more recently my brother served in the military. None of which should matter but it seems to to you which is why I mention it.
winjim
Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
Is it not more fun to think they were mincing around in drag all the time just for the hell of it?
mudsticks
Squire
It might have brightened to job up considerably whilst making things also a bit more trippy uppy.
I've got a couple of shortish dresses I wear for farming in the summer cos it just feels cooler, but it almost feels transgressive to drive a tractor in a frock.
No idea why really.
Must have made life very awkward for women expected to do all their manual labour in full length skirts everyday, some still do, in other cultures ..
A real entanglement hazard
FishFright
Well-Known Member
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matticus
Guru
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