Testosterone Democracy? aka Patriarchy.
Author Archives: GlasgowAnni
On the closure of Glasgow Samaritan Hospital for Women 1890-1991
Miracles and Daffodils – 1991 I viewed the ministrations of the professional carers of the ‘gyn’ ward a shade truculently at first. The world expert on her own body did not take kindly to others’ interference. They related to me as a physical body, a condition which had an associated set of procedures for its …
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Scotland’s Testosterone Democracy – aka Patriarchy
This may be a good time to reflect on some of our ‘cherished myths’ and draw attention to Scotland’s national tendency to construct misleading narratives about the kind of society we have. Kate Clanchy has argued that it is not true that ‘we’re all socialist in Scotland and we’re all terribly equal’. Mike Small’s democratic …
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Domestic Affairs
Domestic Affairs.
Summer Endings – Kintyre Poems 2013
Waves Wind whipped waves’Voices racing to shore,Curling white crescendosCrashing to a quietening death. Single Tracking Clover pink and campion flowering,Hedgerows bordering learside roads.Spring hay, captured, sweetly fermenting,Black drums mollassing in summer heat.Swooping larkwings celebrating,Nested, each in joyful pairing. This season soon will cycle onAs roadside floral darkens.Needed fodder bound no more,Grown chicks too swiftly flown.
Afghanistan – Land of Sand and Contradiction
On learning of the destruction of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan in March 2001 Afghanistan is a land of continuity and contradiction: stark yet beautiful, hospitable yet treacherous. It is the essence and colour of the barest earth. Its people, even in extremis adorn their surroundings and themselves with colour and jewels. Its most precious …
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Profiting from shame – the tragic case of Daniel Perry
Daniel Perry, befriended online by someone he thought was a young woman in the US, shared sexual images of himself with her. Threatened by the prospect of exposure to his family and friends Daniel, aged 17 years from Fife, jumped to his death from the Forth Bridge. Daniel’s mother said, “Knowing him [Daniel] as I …
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Book Review: Sheila Stewart – A Traveller’s Life
If we were a’ sensible, there would be nae fools Traveller’s Life – The Autobiography of Sheila Stewart Published April 2011 Birlinn £9.99 Maybe this book is not like other people’s biographies. But it has to be different…because a travellers’ life is different from anyone else’s.’ And so it is. A Traveller’s Life by Sheila …
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A perfect summer racket! Summer on Tiree
If it’s a summer’s day of peace and quiet you’re after, you won’t find the latter on the outermost of the innermost of the Hebrides. You can’t escape the racket. Best heard from your bicycle on a summer day bowling along the low-rise contours of Tiree, this innermost of the Atlantic’s easternmost islands. Tubby, almost-grown …
The Return of the Crone?
“They say you walk about in that caravan naked.” So says smiling Willie from the palatial static in the row along from mine, the one known as ‘Millionaire’s Row’. I am incredulous. Some facts: my 1970s towing caravan, newly pitched on the site in Argyll this summer, is 12ft long from its back lights to its …
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