Stupid speech marks (because I couldn't think of an alliteration for quotation marks)

Well, six days between posts isn't as bad as it could be is it? It's not been a week just yet. Although I'm not sure that this counts as 'regularly' updating.

On the one hand, this is bad, because over the last few days I've done the following:

1) Finished this:

2) Started this:

3) Watched this:

4) Travelled to London, back to Liverpool and then back to London (last two by six-hour coach journeys), with the back to Liverpool being yesterday and the back to London being today.

5) Slept a lot whilst travelling.

And I'm having trouble with thinking what else I've done. Well, that's not entirely true - I have got several errands ran and started learning to drive, but generally I've not done a great deal. I have been extremely tired though, probably due to all of the travelling. Anyway, I've had the unfortunate problem of being completely blocked when thinking about what to post here, even though I have five or six draft posts with topics all ready and waiting for me to complete. I just couldn't think of anything whenever I tried to sit down and write. Not that I did that too many times - I've just been so tired! Which is probably the main problem.

It is a problem which has been solved however, when I came across this article today.

I now know what to talk about! Although this is definitely going to be a short one, it again may not be a very eloquent one.

I don't like that the author put quotation marks around the word asexual. At first, I didn't like that they mentioned it at all - why point out that an asexual did this strange, slightly gross thing? It's made clear later on why they mentioned his orientation when it states that the event was held to raise awareness of "sexual minorities, x-gender, asexual people".

Mate, I have every sympathy with you wanting to raise awareness, but I definitely do not agree with the way you went about it. Some people might have enjoyed eating your flesh, but most of the world just thinks it's very strange, disgusting, and disturbing.

And that's the problem I have. The article, in my opinion, focusses on the fact that the man in question is asexual, and links that to what he did. No, it doesn't say "if you are asexual you do weird things". It says "this man did weird things, he identifies as asexual, he's facing criminal charges" and then goes into detail about the case. Why did they feel the need to mention the asexuality right at the start? They could have just mentioned at the end that the event was hosted for the purpose of raising awareness of sexual minorities. It might even make a bit more sense.

But I think the quotation marks are the most irritating thing about the article. We wouldn't say, person x, who identifies as "straight" or person y, who identifies as "gay", so why are we doing that for asexual? It's a very valid sexuality, albeit one that doesn't receive much public attention. For that reason, I imagine there's already enough misinformation and ignorance about the orientation flowing around as is, such as Steven Moffat's remarks on asexuality (that it is essentially boring) when discussing the BBC's Sherlock.

We put quotation marks around random words like that when we're being derisive, think they're silly, or it's not the term we'd use but it's the one the other person is using. It's not a positive thing to do. So by saying "The 23-year-old self-described "asexual"" you're either implying he's not asexual but is just saying he is, or suggesting asexuality isn't a valid sexuality, or suggesting that it's a weird thing for a person to be.

And no, most people won't pick up on that. But that's the beauty of language and the written word. People won't notice the connotations of putting speech marks around the word, but they'll still feel its influence. They'll still pick up on the tone of the piece. It's why people should think carefully about the connotations behind what they say before they say it.

Also, I was very impressed at how he made sure to follow all laws, and if showing genitalia to consenting people constitutes indecent exposure, then how do people go to the doctor or have sexual relations with other people? I'm not sure if the guests did have any warning about what body parts were being served, but considering they were all up for cannibalism and it was a sexual awareness dinner, I'm pretty sure they could guess.

So that's that. I'm cold and I'm tired and I need to go and make a cup of tea. I'm also probably meant to go the gym, but that might have to happen a bit later.

This just entered my life. I feel the need to share: