Helen #BLM #FreePalestine
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helkatuk.bsky.social
Helen #BLM #FreePalestine
@helkatuk.bsky.social
83 followers 360 following 9 posts
Veggie, Londoner, theatre/film/sci-fi geek, bookworm, and animal lover. 'A tiny bit disabled'/limpy. Pansexual + LGBTQIA ally. She/her. Servant to cats. Hi! :)
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Reposted by Helen #BLM #FreePalestine
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The BBC and The Times have decided to resurrect the victimhood of Clanchy. But the facts are the facts: Clanchy wrote her racist, Islamophobic, ableist, and Anti-LGBT thoughts for all to see, and when challenged attempted to deny it. (See full 🧵).
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snig.bsky.social Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · Nov 4
I see the 2021 scandal around Kate Clanchy's book "Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me" is back in the news as Clanchy receives an apology from the publisher of that book. Here's a reminder of the racism, Islamophobia, anti-LGBT comments, and fat shaming from the book.
"Like all the Syrian kids, she is very pretty: pale skinned & dark eyed with a sensitive mouth & a tiny, high-pitched voice." p263 "Izzat so small & square & Afghan with his big nose & premature moustache." p139 "Aadil always seems so grand: a tall Somali boy with a deep, African voice, & the almost aristocratically calm manner that sometimes goes with being extremely good-looking." p85 "Cumar is long & slender as many of the Somali kids are, with a thin nose, narrow skull, & very dark, almost black skin. Aadil is more muscular & square-set, with chocolate-coloured skin, a broad-based nose, & rounded head." p85 "Jonathon, six-foot five inches tall with a slow, resonant African accent." p78 & "Tall, strong, African Jonathon." p243 "The small round Priti & her taller, silent cousin, Priya." p93 "She would call out to me for words, urgently, her black, almond-shaped eyes snapping, slim fingers blossoming." p108 All so different from "my Nordic height & Celtic colouring". Hijabs Clanchy thinks about hijabs - a lot. "I wonder again what Shakila does to her hijab, & why it seems to sit fuller & higher than the other girls' - a Mother Superior hijab, or one from Vermeer. It can't be starched. Maybe it's draped over twisted horns of hair like Carrie Fisher's in Star Wars. That would go with her furry eyebrows, her slanting, sparkling black eyes, her general, Mongolian ferocity." p78 "Her high-set, starched hijab - did she have extra ears under there?" p109 "It is possible to wear a flirty hijab, like Samira's leopard-patterned one. & that Farida's dress may be loose & floor-length, but it still manages to show the beautiful lines of her figure when she hitches it tight around her as she sits by the basketball courts." p117 "If I could put a burqa on Susie & Kristell tomorrow, I would. A year or two of being invisible to the male gaze, of going home quietly to study, could only be liberating, & enabling too, of the rest of their lives... It's important to say that nothing that Susie or Kristell ever wear, however brief, entitles them to any abuse, ever." p165 LGBTQI+ Clanchy is supportive of gay pupils, although she's hampered by stereotypes & sees camp as a "statement of otherness". Nevertheless, she takes an 18-year old to his first gay club, which she admits wouldn't be acceptable now. She sends him in with the words: ""Liam,' I said, 'I love you. You have to promise me to always use a condom & never get AIDS." p33 But she's more dismissive of trans pupils. Like much of what she writes, I understand the concern she's raising, but the tone is trivialising: "Are we all 'fluid' now? Perhaps. It is commonplace to proclaim oneself transsexual. & to actually be gay, especially if you are as pretty as Kristen Stewart is positively fashionable. A couple of kids have even changed gender, a decision so deliciously of the moment, so furiously defended by righteous students against non-existent opposition from staff that I worry only that they won't feel the freedom to change back if they feel the need." p34 Weight All the critical comments about weight are applied to girls, & most are in a section about health. Clanchy tries to include a compensatory compliment, but there are weird sexualising & classist undercurrents: "When Kristell arrived in Year 9, she had a bosomy, curvy figure, with a tiny waist & pretty ankles... She had a soft, breathy voice to match the Bambi lashes & fresh mouth." p237 Later "She has put on a great deal of weight, so that the pretty figure is blurred... The dark eyes gazing out of the fat pink cheeks are still so very lovely." p238-9 "Danielle really was special: she was exquisitely pretty in the dark & elfin, Audrey Hepburn mode. She knew it too; she was always finding occasion to take off her clothes & expose her pale, beautifully turned limbs." p233 Later "As if refusing middle-class food along with middle-class ambition, Danielle put on weight... her new bosom protruding ever more bulbously... I was surprised how hurt I was to see it. It wasn't the flesh so much as the loss of grace." p234 I know what she means with this next one, & there is a valid point. It's probably intended to be self-deprecating & tongue-in-cheek, but... "Lianne is stuffing fig rolls, my favourite, into her pretty fat face, & it is very hard indeed not to have one. I can manage it, I think, in the same way that I can manage to finish a poem, because I am middle class. Because, since I was a tiny child, I have been taught to wait for long-term goals." p235
November 5, 2025 at 9:18 AM
helkatuk.bsky.social
I cackled at the alt text on the colour photo. Love how so many of Chris's fans are just as good at wordplay as he is! 🤣
March 5, 2025 at 4:40 PM
helkatuk.bsky.social
1. Kudos for the fundraiser, you're good people
2. OMD that line-up! 🤩😍🤩
3. PLEASE, please, PLEASE record &/or stream it for those of us who can't get there - disabled and on a different continent but will happily throw money at you for this! Please?! 🥺
March 5, 2025 at 4:32 PM
helkatuk.bsky.social
Omg, I'm so gutted I'm in the UK and I can't just jump on a plane to come witness this incredible line up. I want an album!
At least 2 FlemingxAl numbers, please!!
March 5, 2025 at 4:28 PM
helkatuk.bsky.social
Ahhh, the comforting reassurance that is not just me! 😅
Chris should be prescribed viewing for the anxious among us, he always brings a smile
March 5, 2025 at 4:25 PM