Watch this space, you poor doomed motherfuckers

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Jane Campbell

7 Comments

  1. Camestros Felapton
    January 5, 2016 @ 11:48 am

    The pagan v non-pagan account of April Fools day doesn’t make sense given the close relationship of Easter as a Catholic holiday to the same period. Easter as Catholic festival (with pre-Christian roots) is tied to both the spring equinox and the lunar cycle.

    the Roman festival of Hilaria (March 25) was not particulalry for mocking when people celebrated New Year but a festival for the Cybele and was syncretically adopted as the Feast of the Annunciation in Christian times (and in the UK at least as Mother’s Day – or there abouts)

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  2. Iain Coleman
    January 5, 2016 @ 12:59 pm

    It’s quite startling to see an account of the dating of Easter than moves directly from the Christian ritual calendar to pagan ritual calendars without even mentioning the Jewish calendar.

    The method by which the date of Easter is determined is a bit fussy, but the basis of it was to set Easter as the first Sunday after Passover. The point that adding the “Sunday” stipulation can be seen as a kind of competition would be even stronger in the correct context of Christians establishing their rituals from a Jewish foundation. (Indeed, in the early church Easter was simply determined by asking the local Jews when passover was going to happen, then having Easter on the following Sunday – until this practice was deemed unsatisfactory and the church established its own standard for the calculation.)

    In general, the early church was much more concerned about heretics than pagans.

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  3. UrsulaL
    January 5, 2016 @ 4:38 pm

    incidentally, I wonder about the trans ritual of coming out. It’s like coming out as some kind of queer – there’s a new social reality being created, especially if one is going to transition. But what about after transition, when one is presumably now easily identified as one’s true gender? Does coming out after that change the widespread social reality of being gendered, and possibly endanger being correctly gendered? But then how else does one continue to create the social reality that there are trans people in the world? I find this a bit of a conundrum. Have to think more on this.

    I expect it varies depending on the trans* person in question.

    Is the goal to “pass” as cis? Or to be out as trans? And if the goal is to pass as cis, at what cost?

    To one’s friends and families who know you from before transition, you’ll always be out as trans. To the larger world, it depends both on what one chooses to say and also on how well one performs masculinity/femininity in a conventional manner that lets one “pass.” Not every trans* person wants to present in an identical, conventional way, any more than cis people present their gender in a single way.

    I remember, in the 1980s, stories of some trans* people moving to new cities and starting their lives over, cutting off contact with their past, in hopes of passing as cis. That seems extreme, and lonely, and also more difficult in a world with the internet.

    Certainly choosing to be out as trans seems likely to make for a more comfortable life, as one could tell people what was appropriate in the circumstances, and not have to constantly monitor every word and action to avoid giving away a secret. To be able to talk freely about one’s past and experiences is not something to give up lightly.

    Also to not have to worry about friends and family who know you from before transition being in contact with newer friends who might not know you from before – how many people have to keep secrets about you, and what happens when they slip up?

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  4. Prandeamus
    January 5, 2016 @ 8:11 pm

    New Orleans: Mardi Gras
    England: Shove Tuesday

    I’d love to make something meaningful of this, but I’ll leave the detail to others.

    Reply

    • Simon Blake
      January 6, 2016 @ 4:33 pm

      It’s “Shrove Tuesday”, which while I’ll admit doesn’t have the comedy possibilities of “Shove Tuesday”, has at least accuracy to recommend it.

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      • Prandeamus
        January 6, 2016 @ 9:39 pm

        I hate swipe keyboards.

        Reply

  5. UrsulaL
    January 7, 2016 @ 5:52 am

    Thinking more about ritual.

    Coming out as Trans* is a different process than passing as cis* in your identified gender.

    Passing as cis* is as much a lie as passing as straight. Trans* individuals have experiences and perspectives that are not shared by cis* individuals of the same gender. And being “out” means not having to hide that part of yourself.

    So I don’t think that the process of “coming out” will be changed that much by the trans* experience.

    Reply

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