Bare-faced idiocy

I knew it was a mistake to start with the Guardian. On the other hand, at least it offers a target rich environment. Here’s Bidisha, who forms part of a worrying trend within the Guardian – that the columnists with the most tenuous grip on reality tend to have been either at my school (I’m looking at you Mr Milne) or my college. As an Aularian, Bidisha really ought to know better (this is, after all, an institution whose JCR President was once His Holiness Maharaj Akaash) but there we are.

Bidisha’s off on one about the fashion for female deforestation. Porn aesthetic is an odd thing and (as a man with two daughters…) the mainstreaming of pornography does have some worrying implications. This, however, is offensive, simplistic claptrap.

A man who likes a woman without pubic hair despises adult women so much that he wants us to resemble children.

This is an argument that you see again and again – that men who find shaven ladygardens attractive are really paedophiles who fancy little girls. And there’s a very simple rejoinder to it – if finding the removal of body hair attractive is a mark of a paedophile, where does that leave women who don’t like beards? If the female heart beats faster at the sight of, say, Jude Law than it does at Sebastian Chabal does that mean that said female despises adult men and wants them to resemble children?

It’s a junk argument. Some people like body hair, some don’t. Ain’t life a rich tapestry?

The Guardian distilled into 42 words

And where better to start than with a new iteration of the Guardian distilled… series?

I have been visiting the square on and off for 13 years to see my friends Ralf and Jessamy and their children, one of whom, Alabama, is now a 15-year-old vegetarian (seven years without meat) and the other, Jonah, a 10-year-old gourmand.

Worth pointing out too that, in an article looking at the impact of class on eating habits Ralf  and Jessamy (who spend nearly £200 a week on organic food) are described as working class. Someone’s working to different definitions.

Return of the Reptile

Well, I’m back. Did you miss me?

Thought not. For those that didn’t know, at least part of this absence was caused by an extremely welcome addition to the Reptile establishment. Being outnumbered three to one by girls in my household is something I will just have to get used to, and I’m sure that they’ll enjoy Scalextric and Lego just as much anyway…

But anyway I have returned refreshed (or sleep-deprived, strung-out and emotional depending on your point of view) and ready to blog. I’ve missed an awful lot while I’ve been away…