meridian_rose

I have logged a request with Dreamwidth for someone to contact me regarding walking me through the posting process. I had help with posting works in AO3, and it was most empowering. I do better by being shown how to do something. I appreciate the lesson in American vs UK pronunciation. I'm afraid most of my education comes from watching UK television, which is no doubt fraught with misinformation. Oddly, I pronounce "herbs" without the leading H. I am from the city of Pittsburgh, which is notorious for its distinctive accent. A true Pittsburgher uses the term "Yinz", which is the plural form of "you", as in "Where yinz going?" It is variously spelled "youns", but "yinz" is the phonetically accurate spelling. In fact, Pittsburghers are also known as "Yinzers." I myself don't use "yinz", but my speech is an amalgam of various accents which I have picked up. Another distinct Pittsburghese is the pronunciation of the "ou" sound. It's very harsh. For instance, the word "shower" would be pronounced like "shire." (one syllable, not "shi er".) "Flower" would sound like "flire." Dead giveaway of a Pittsburgh origin. Again, I don't typically use this pronounciation, but I plead guilty to being from the area of Pittsburgh known as "Sah Side." (South Side) Like other eccentric people, we are fiercely proud of our city, our accent, our values and our sports teams. Pittsburghers are the kind of people who, if it were 5:30 AM on a freezing morning in January and your car won't start, someone would come out and jump your battery. Many immigrants settled in Pittsburgh during the late 19th century to work in the steel mills and other manufacturing plants which cropped up here. Outside the factories, there were many ethnic churches (Eastern European, predominantly) and as many bars and taverns as churches. Real dichotomy! My father spoke Ukranian at home and learned English on the street from his friends. Sadly, he forgot his bilinguality and I never learned it. Looking forward to your blogs on Asexual Awareness, and salute you during this week.
"Corrective Rape"? What a hideous concept! The world, full of trolls, can be a scary place, no? There is an American singer named Paula Cole, who in addition to being a talented chanteuse and songwriter and beautiful woman, chose not to shave her underarms. She got an ungodly amount of hate mail about this, with "corrective rape" being among the sentiments expressed. Just because she doesn't shave her armpits? In all honestly, she really did seem to make an unnecessary show of her underarms by wearing sleeveless clothes and taking great care to lift her arms and expose her pits more than one would have thought necessary during performances, but still... It's just armpit hair! What is it about someone being different that makes some people so affronted and enraged?
I am so grateful for your continuing correspondence with me. <3

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 15:11:03 +0000 From: dw_null@dreamwidth.org To: marymehl@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Dragons! [ meridian_rose - 383771 ]

meridian_rose replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "Fiction vs Social Attitudes to Relationships And Sex". The comment they replied to was: I was hard at work on a note to you regarding your post that you were working on more Dragons stories when I apparently hit a wrong key and my note vanished. Lord help me, I am just not meant for 21st century technology. Maybe the Luddites were right. I get the impression that you have been treated very unkindly by certain others because of your asexuality. How dare they? How dare anyone question your choices? How are you harming anyone? Why would anyone react so cruelly to another human being? The worst thing that every happened to me in cyberspace was being called an asshole by an hysterical (affection for your UK sensibilities. As an American, I would have typed "a hysterical") Michael Bolton fan when I expressed surprise at his attempt to sing "Nessun Dorma".(Yes, the Pavarotti signature aria!) To so harshly challenge anyone over what is a very intimate and personal choice is unthinkable. Diversity is so precious and exciting.
I hope to soon post some of my poems to my journal, for your eyes only. These are works of my deepest soul and I would only entrust them to your tender care.

The reply was:

Subject: Re: Dragons! Thankfully I haven't had too many personal attacks but general social attitudes impact on me, and bloggers who speak out more publicly have received "corective rape" threats - what a world we live in that there's a need for a phrase like that :( In fact it's Asexual Awareness week so I'm going to blogging on the topic for 3-4 posts this week depending on how much material I write for it!

Actually I'd say "a hysterical" because we pronounce the 'h' as we do in "herbs" and "hotel" - but not "hour" :) At least your experience wasn't too bad :D Diversity is indeed precious :D

I'll look forward to seeing your posts - you can post just to your "circle" ie people subscribing to you, which is only me right now :) If you get more followers later you can learn about filters which display only to certain of your followers/subscribers :) From here you can:

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