Scrumptious, Delectable, and Other Words I Can't Stand

I don't have strong feelings about the word 'moist'. The internet would lead you to believe that the majority of people are disgusted by it, yet I've personally never found it that bad. It's definitely not the nicest-sounding word in the world, but neither is it the worst. The thing I associate it with the most is cakes, and I certainly don't see it as having a sexual connotation, despite what Urban Dictionary may tell you.

I always thought people's responses to 'moist' (I'll stop using it now, for those of you who are bothered by it) were a little over-the-top. Who would get so disgusted by a simple word, without any context? That was what I thought until quite recently, when I realised that there are several words that cause me to have a similar reaction of total, irrational repulsion. All of these words seem to sit in the same vague, broad category, but these are two of the worst: scrumptious and delectable.

Of these two, scrumptious is very obviously the worst. I hate hearing either of them out loud, but saying 'scrumptious' makes me feel like my teeth are going to jump out of my mouth in protest. 'Delectable' feels like it has the potential to be pleasant to say, since it has lots of clear consonant sounds and doesn't all run into one mushy noise at the sides of your mouth like 'scrumptious' does - but still, the meaning ruins it for me. That's the biggest problem with these words: their associations. Like I said before, I think these two words fit into a broader category which is in itself a kind of niche within adjectives-associated-with-food. To give you some idea of what I mean, here are a few other words that I would also place in the same group (and which also cause me to experience varying degrees of revulsion):

• flavoursome
• scrummy
• toothsome
• delish
• delicious (in certain contexts)
• yummy
• succulent

Do you see the connection? All of these words are normally (but not always) used to describe food, and they all cause me to experience discomfort ranging from a mild cringe (succulent) to wanting to temporarily remove my ears and store them in a secure location where they can no longer be exposed to such horrors (scrummy). So they're all terrible, food-related words, but there's also some other aspect to them which I can't quite pinpoint.

I asked a few people if they felt the same disgust I did at these words, and although most people found my plight amusing rather than relatable, one of my sisters did provide some insight. She said that the words (specifically scrumptious and delectable) seemed 'pretentious' and 'try-hard posh'. Funnily enough, for me these words automatically conjure up an image of a comically upper-class person, perhaps the sort to be a grande dame or her effete son, saying something like "Oh, Jeeves, these canapés are simply delectable!" 

So there seems to be a common association of these words with pretentiousness, but I don't think that completely explains why they bother me so much. Another problem with them is that they seem, for lack of a better word, over-pronounced. I can barely imagine someone saying them without extra emphasis on the stressed syllable: delectable, yummy, succulent, delish, scrumptious, and so on. This has got to account for at least half of my disgust, because when I force myself to pronounce them with fairly neutral emphasis they don't bother me so much. Perhaps I'm unusually sensitive to this sort of thing, since I find it equally cringeworthy when people over-emphasise the last consonant in a word, as in tick (ticKK) or pot (poTT), with the extra exhalation of air at the end. That said, it oddly doesn't bother me at all when the consonant is turned into an entire syllable, as in tick-u or pot-u, which I've known some of my English students to do.

Still, there is one more element of these words that I can't stand. For some reason, they frequently have a sort of suggestive connotation, which makes them sound almost lascivious when said aloud. It doesn't help that some of them can explicitly apply to attractive people (usually women) as well as food. According to Lexico:

• 'Scrumptious' can mean '(of a person) very attractive'. It uses the example, 'He was the most scrumptious thing on two legs', which coincidentally makes me want to hurl myself off a cliff.
• 'Delectable' can be a humorous word for 'extremely attractive'
• 'Yummy' can mean 'highly attractive and desirable' - a definition familiar to anyone who's heard the nausea-inducing phrase 'yummy mummy'
• 'Scrummy' is only listed as meaning 'delicious', but it then lists the example sentence, 'If it isn't scrummy Sean Bean playing photography lecturer Paul'
• 'Delicious' has a secondary meaning in 'delightful', but then includes the example sentence, ‘But then Nicole arrives looking simply delicious, and her voice is tolerable enough.’

To be fair, some of the words I mentioned before, like flavoursome and succulent, don't seem to have any alternatively suggestive meanings besides referring to things like plants. Then again, I don't think it's a coincidence that the words with unambiguously food-related meanings are less repulsive to me. There's also the example of the word 'delicious', which I have absolutely no issue with when used in a food context but can't stand when used to refer to anything else. The latter immediately makes me think of a posh, creepy old man who enjoys the sound of his own voice far too much and has a habit of making inappropriate comments about young women in the vicinity  - but then perhaps I've just ended up with an unfortunate association, and my hatred of these words is a total overreaction. 

I'd be very interested to know if anybody else finds these words even half as bad as I do, or if there are any other words or phrases that bother you for unknown reasons. I think the psychology behind revulsion and abjection and all that is fascinating, and I'd love to discuss it further - just don't ask me to say any of these cursed words out loud. 

My Favourite Internet Things (This Week)

I'm going to keep this brief: I've seen quite a few things I liked or otherwise thought were interesting on the internet this week,* so I thought a fun thing to do would be to compile them in a blog post. This also means that I can refer my friends and family directly to this post when I want them to look at the things mentioned, rather than to all the links individually. They probably still won't look at them, but at least this way it's less labour-intensive on my end.

Taylor Swift analyses

After much internal debate, I did eventually decide not to write a bitter blog post about Taylor Swift and the "You Need to Calm Down" controversy, so instead what I'm going to do is share a couple of articles here that mirror my thoughts on the whole thing:

• This article at Slate really nails why Swift's positioning "You Need to Calm Down" as a gay anthem is so insulting and ineffective. It also (unfavourably) compares the song to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way", as a few other articles have done, but I appreciate that Cauterucci acknowledges that Lady Gaga is actually a member of the queer community, not just an ally like Swift.
• I already linked to this article at Esquire in my previous post, but here it is again if you haven't already read it.
• And Esquire did another article on the whole thing - I guess Esquire is gay now? Anyway, this article tackles the making-it-about-yourself issue that was kind of a problem with the song.
• Finally, this piece at the Onion pretty much says it all.

Miscellaneous interesting stuff

Not sure if there's a particular unifying theme among these, except that they are all things I found informative, enlightening, or just amusing.

• Diverse representation in children's literature is still not good enough, as this infographic demonstrates. I believe the data used was American, but I would imagine this is a trend in UK publishing as well (and that's without considering how many of the books kids read here are American anyway).
• An academic named Dr Marijuana Pepsi Jackson recently completed her PhD on "Black names in student classrooms: Teacher behaviors and student perceptions", which was apparently inspired by her own experiences of having an unusual name. This really made me think about the significance of names and how they influence our views of people, and how this is impacted by things like race and class.
• A publisher in Germany found a cool way to get around the country's VAT tax on menstrual hygiene products - by putting tampons in a book. Perhaps they will sell copies in the UK soon?
• I recently went on Spotify.me to see my music listening stats, which sent me down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out exactly what "escape room" as a genre meant, which eventually led me to discovering this website: Every Noise at Once. It's a bit hard to navigate, but it's full of music stats which cover everything from words associated with different genres to what people listen to in cities around the world. It's fascinating and I'm obsessed.
• At The New Yorker, Kathryn Schulz wrote this very moving piece about her father and his relationship with books. I think anyone who loves books or comes from a bookish family will appreciate it.
• The revolution against the ruling classes has begun, and that revolution is being led by rats.

YouTube Channels

• I recently watched the 2016 movie Split, about a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and it reminded me of one of my favourite YouTube channels: DissociaDID, which is all about DID and what it's like to live with the disorder. I found it incredibly interesting, and it's great to see people working for better understanding of mental disorders.
• At the moment I'm watching a lot of booktubers as part of a freelance job (yes, really), and one channel I came across recently that I really like is The Bookish Land. All of the videos I've seen have been good, but I especially enjoyed the ones on Chinese literature, which are very informative if (like me) it's not a branch of literature that you're very familiar with.

Fun stuff

Here are some of the things that have recently been consuming my time (and preventing me from actually applying for jobs, like I should be) far more than I'd like to acknowledge.

• I have watched this video of Jigglypuff singing Hedwig's Theme from the Harry Potter films every day since I discovered it over a week ago. It is the single greatest source of joy in my life now.
• This other video is the second greatest source of joy in my life, and I don't know why.
• You can now fulfil your childhood dreams of playing Dr Frankenstein with your favourite video game creatures by using this Pokémon hybrid creator. I've seen two "challenges" associated with this thing: with the first one, whatever hybrid appears when you load the page is your starter Pokémon; with the other challenge, you put the first letter of your first and last names in the first and second boxes respectively, and then the Pokémon that comes up is.... you, I guess? Anyway, all of mine were loveable yet horrifying, so I've left the tweet I posted about them below.

I tried that challenge where you put in the first letter of your first and last names and see what hybrid Pokémon you get, and all of my creations scare me pic.twitter.com/cNagi7wHS7

— Mary BP (@marytocracy) June 23, 2019

*Okay, they're not all from this week, because I was late to the party on some of the links and also have no concept of the passage of time, but I like to think that they have aged like fine wines rather than stale hot takes.

Feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts on the links I've mentioned or suggestions of other interesting internet things to look at. Also let me know, either by commenting or messaging me directly (since I know most of you readers anyway), if you've enjoyed this post and would like this link-sharing to be a weekly/monthly/regular thing. I'll probably do it anyway, because I've decided I don't need external validation anymore, but the support is always nice.

Five LGBT+ Anthems to Listen to This Pride Month (That Aren't by Taylor Swift)

A couple of days ago, a pop star named Taylor Swift released a new single called You Need to Calm Down. Although the song was ostensibly about gay rights and the accompanying music video featured numerous LGBT+ celebrities, not all of the community were particularly happy with it. I don't personally have the energy to get into all the very valid criticisms that have been made of the song right now, although inevitably my bitterness will get the better of me and I'll end up writing a grumpy blog post about it. If you want to read up on the discourse then I would recommend this article at Esquire as a good place to start. In the meantime, what I do have the energy to do is create a list of LGBT+ artists that you can support this Pride Month, none of whom are Taylor Swift. So if you would rather spend your time listening to people who are actually queer or trans and not simply trying to make money off the struggles of marginalised groups, then look no further: here, in no particular order, are five genuinely gay anthems.*

'Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels' - Todrick Hall

I actually hadn't heard of Todrick Hall before he appeared on an episode of Queer Eye, but this song is a tune and the video is iconic.

'Love Yourself' - Billy Porter

The king of the Met Gala! Anyone who thinks Billy Porter didn't have the best look at the Met can fight me, but I'm sure you'll agree that this song is great either way.

'I Don't Want it At All' - Kim Petras

Just to be clear, Kim Petras is not gay. However, she is a trans woman and so is an equally valid member of the LGBT+ community. She also makes absolute bops, like this "sugar baby anthem".

'Take Me as I Am' - Rina Sawayama

This isn't Rina Sawayama's most well-known song - that would be Cherry, which is also amazing - but I think the fuck-you theme in Take Me As I Am makes it especially appropriate for Pride. You should also listen to Cherry though.

'Bloom' - Troye Sivan

I was tempted to link to the lyric video version here, but honestly the CGI in that scares me too much. Google it at your own risk.


*I initially wanted to make this a list of ten songs, but BlogSpot wouldn't let me embed certain videos in this post, and obviously since skipping some would mess with the aesthetic I had to just leave them out. 

If you are looking to listen to more LGBT+ artists than I've listed here, I would recommend the 'Out Now' playlist on Spotify. Their other Pride playlists include a lot of straight, cisgender artists, but as far as I can tell the 'Out Now' one doesn't.

Please feel free to comment if you have any recommendations for other LGBT+ artists/songs to listen to this Pride Month. You can never have too many!

In Defence of Stop Trump: Why the Cardiff Protest Matters

When I set up this blog the other day, I wasn't really intending to write about political issues. That said, there's one particular subject that's been on my mind for the last few weeks, and I'd like to get my thoughts out here while they're still semi-relevant.

A few weeks ago, on Saturday, the 1st of June, a friend and I made the journey from our little town in West Wales to Cardiff. Our main goal was to attend the Stop Trump protest we'd heard was happening that day, but in true activist spirit we decided to book a hotel and make a weekend of it. Our Megabus didn't get into town until around midday, so by the time we had dropped off our luggage and made our way to City Hall Lawn, the march had already begun.

From what I can gather, the protest started with some talks on the lawn and then progressed into the march through central Cardiff, at which point my friend and I joined in. The march was accompanied by placards and megaphone chants, with a couple of police officers shepherding us along. The procession eventually looped back around to City Hall Lawn, where we stopped and listened to a few short speeches by members of various activist groups in Cardiff. Once those had ended, the crowd began to disperse and myself and my friend decided to head off.

I am giving this description here to illustrate that this was, all in all, a fairly standard protest. There was nothing particularly controversial or shocking about it, no milkshaking (sadly) and no significant police intervention. I had never expected the event to be huge or incredibly controversial, even before attending, which is why it came as a surprise to me to hear so many people respond negatively to it before I had even gone. When I mentioned to people that I was attending the protest, most of them were unexpectedly critical of it. This wouldn't come as a surprise if the people I spoke to were Trump supporters, but I knew for a fact that most of them ranged from being indifferent to outright despising him. So why would they be so disparaging of a protest that was against the very man they disliked? The explanations they gave were varied, but most were based in either a misunderstanding of the goals of the protest or a lack of belief in its effectiveness. In the list below, I am going to paraphrase some of the main reasons people had for objecting to the Stop Trump protest and why, in my opinion, the protest was still worthwhile.

Reason #1: "You do realise you won't actually stop him coming, right?"

You do realise that a great way to make a statement come across as painfully condescending is to start it with "you do realise", right? But seriously, I think that this comment stems from a misunderstanding of what "Stop Trump" means: it doesn't just mean "stop Trump coming to the UK on this particular visit", it also means "stop Trump's continued assault on the most vulnerable in society and the general far-right movement of which he is a part". Most of the people attending the protests were no doubt well aware that Trump would end up coming to the UK whether we protested or not (as evidenced by the fact that the London protest was scheduled for after his arrival). The aim of the protest wasn't to literally make Trump's plane turn around and go back to America mid-way across the Atlantic (although that would have been nice), but to create a show of solidarity that aims towards bringing a stop to the harm which Trump is causing overall.

Reason #2: "I don't want to give that man any of my time or energy."

On one hand, I respect the disdain for Trump evident in this comment. On the other hand, I feel like this once again comes back to a misunderstanding of the protest's aims. Stop Trump isn't purely about Trump, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. One of the things that struck me at the march was the diversity of the attendees, not just in terms of things like age and gender (although the march was very diverse in that respect as well), but also in terms of the causes they represented. There were people marching who were representing LGBT+ rights, anti-racism, Palestine, no borders, anti-austerity, women's rights, and so on. It was a great testament to the variety of people who have been brought together under the shared banner of opposing Trump  - an aspect of the protest which Stop Trump seem fully aware of. On the Facebook page for the event, the details section contains the following statement:

"When we say "Stop Trump" we are saying stop discrimination, stop war, stop austerity, stop climate chaos, justice for Palestine, respect LGBT+ communities, refugees welcome, celebrate diversity, and resist the suppression of democracy and dissent."

That's it, in a nutshell. The protest was fundamentally about showing solidarity with the people who Trump has hurt and has the potential to hurt the most, not about Trump himself.

Reason #3: "Trump just feeds off negative attention like this."

This comment makes me think of Trump as some kind of malevolent, blob-like entity that literally feeds off human emotions, growing stronger every time you so much as say his name - kind of like a reverse Tinkerbell. Mystical, emotion-eating ideas aside, I do think that this "don't feed the trolls" principle of not giving attention to deliberately controversial people does have some validity, but only in certain contexts. If, for example, you get some internet person making vaguely inflammatory statements in the comments section of a YouTube video, you might be perfectly justified in simply ignoring them. Their comments could be irritating and clearly an attempt at starting a fight, so not responding could in fact be the best response you could make. The same thing goes for creators (such as YouTubers - starting to see a theme here) who make unpleasant, potentially-harmful content that doesn't yet have a huge following. In that case, bringing attention to such a creator could very well help to build their audience and eventually end up spreading the ideas you initially wanted to critique. However, this approach does not work for Trump. For one thing, unless you have been living in an underground bunker with no Wi-Fi for the last ten years - and if you have, I envy you - then you will almost definitely know who Trump is. He is also already in a position of power, meaning that he can and will continue to cause harm, whether or not we "feed" him with negative attention. More than negativity, Trump feeds off silence. Ignoring Trump won't make him or his impact go away, so it is important that we speak up and express solidarity with the people he is hurting as often as we can. To be silent is to be complicit, and protesting is one way to break that silence.

Reason #4: "It's not going to make any difference anyway."

Ah, the big one. It's this lack of belief that I think keeps so many people out of activism, or in fact trying to make any change to the society we live in, and that is not a criticism of these people so much as it is of the system which makes them feel that way. I think people perhaps felt this especially strongly about the Cardiff protest, because it wasn't as large as the later protest in London and didn't receive as much media coverage (although it did get mentioned on Wales Online). I've already mentioned why the protest mattered in principle, so let me go over some of the more tangible effects I think this protest has had. For one, it showed solidarity with the marginalised groups Trump and his ilk repeatedly attack. I know I have mentioned this point before, but it's worth stressing. As a queer woman, whether or not someone supports Trump is an indirect litmus test for whether or not they support LGBT+ rights and, by extension, my rights. It's hard to articulate what a nice feeling it was to be at the protest and to be surrounded by people that were willing to stand up in defence of people like me, people who were not staying silent in the face of violence against LGBT+ people, among other marginalised groups. Of course solidarity is just a start, but seeing it displayed so obviously at this protest made me feel very hopeful, which is not something I feel often these days. Another point that some argue is that protests in the UK won't make a difference to events in America, but these protests are also a statement for our government that we are against their support of Trump, and their willingness not only to keep quiet while he enables outrageous human rights abuses but also to then roll out the red carpet for him when he visits the UK. It is my hope that protests like this will make politicians think more carefully about how they approach Trump in the future, even if it is now too late for Theresa May to do so. Finally, even if you think that none of this matters when it happens on the scale of the Cardiff protest, you should know that the event also raised money to transport people to the bigger protest which happened in London shortly afterwards. Most of these points that I've made apply to the London protest as well, if not more so.

If, before reading this post, you were unconvinced by the value of the Stop Trump protest in Cardiff, I hope that you are now at least a little bit more receptive to my reasons for attending, even if you haven't entirely come around to it. At the end of the day, most of us have so little political power in our society that we are left with only two main ways to create change: voting and protesting. Sometimes, voting just isn't enough. I felt that this was one of those times.

Hello There!

Welcome to this new blog, which I have just set up. I am going to try to keep this post relatively simple so as to set the bar quite low for any future posts, but if any aspect of this so-far very minimalist blog seems at all interesting to you, please feel free to check back in the future. There may (and this is a big "may") even be new posts here. Otherwise I may have just messed around with the theme, but either way, there will have been some kind of minor change for you to enjoy.

Until then,

Mary

PS: The title of this post is indeed a Star Wars reference. Congratulations if you, like me, are enough of nerd to have interpreted this common phrase in that way.