h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Perfectly understandable if you ask me, Z.

*lizard hops down and runs over to nibble courtesy's fingers in a friendly manner*

Hello, Speckly, lizard

Z, I'm confused (again!) I can understand that gay men have extra health issues to keep an eye on, but what would a gay lass have to worry about, over and above a straight lass? Is is it too sensitive to go into here?

Re sarcasm, I used to be very good at it, and upset folks, I have improved a lot since being a teenager

Hello Carewynn, I've been meaning to come over and say hi to you. I think we're in broadly the same area and didn't one of your brood go to Uni of Glam? (might be remembering the wrong conversation though)

Anyway, nice have met you properly at last.

*accepts the finger nibbling in the way it was meant*

Speckly, I agree that money only has the sway that you give it. Like most things in life, if you believe it has power over you then it does.

Looking back on my childhood, we were definitely on the poor end, yet I never felt a lack of anything. It's all in how you approach life.

Courtesy

[GDZ]

To quote Courtesy - 'if you believe it has power over you, then it does' - that fits in with a lot of things besides money, I think...

...like superstition, religious beliefs, other people's opinion of you, ambition...

Odd - when I had pushed the 'post message' button I was returned to the conversation, but couldn't see my posting (128) thinking I must have hit the 'click here to return to the conversation without saying anything' by mistake. I decided to refresh my conversation list, and it looked as if there was one new posting in the Atelier that I hadn't read yet - and it was obviously my own!

I've been getting that alot, T. I think it's yet another of those little SSO quirks.

Toccata, I think sarcasm *is* the primary language of all children between the ages of oh, 12 and 20. It's the eye-rolling that gets me. Oh, I really hate eye-rolling!

Speckly, I think in some ways poverty is relative, at least in the states. I make more money now than I ever did living in Montana, but things in California cost so much that I'm considered poor. Am I better off than 99% of the world? Certainly. And the fact that I have a roof over my head, as well as food and clothing, make me pretty darned happy.

I was champion eye-roller, and the one time I rolled my eyes told my mom "Oh, don't have a cow!" she got really, really .

*waves to Speckly and Seth*

Whoops. I rolled my eyes *and* told my mom...

working theory:
Power cannot be taken, it can only be given away.

thoughts?

Hi Speckly, Lizard, nice to have both of you here.

There's a lovely quote and I can't remember who said it. "Poverty of circumstance does not imply a poverty of spirit."

When dealing with poverty I think the suffering comes from desire and expectation. In a community where no one is wealthy and everyone has a similar standard of living it should certainly be possible to live happily. Provided that basic needs of food and shelter are met. Documentaries of tribes in the Amazon, for example, show them living happily, totally unaware of their poverty in western terms.

It's when you have a society with definite class lines that acceptance of circumstance is replaced with dissatisfaction and resentment. And of course we are conditioned to think we 'need' things and are deprived when we don't have them.

Toc on Lesbian health issuess, (well firstly if addressing sexual health issues we should use the phrase women who have sex with women rather than lesbains, after all not all women who have sex with women are lesbians, some of them are bisexual, some of them have a threesome because it's their husbands birthday).

Yes WSW have less to worry about - as it's very difficult for them to get HIV through sex with women, though they can catch all other STDs. BUt they do find it more difficult to access sexual health services and many of them are through family planning clinics - also many doctors don't think that lesbians can catch STDs so are a bit nervous about dealing with it. They ahve to be a little more assertive to get services.

The talk is to people doing sex education, and many of the kids do ask about lesbain sex.

I think that poverty is about expectations and priorites rather than just income, - as long as you've got enough to live on. If you're struggling from bill to bill, constantly lurching into financial crisis then that's poverty. But many people on different income levels live like that, - it's just because they're over stretched.

Hi Hypatia, you've clarified much that I was thinking and not saying very well so thank you. People do judge us on our finances and make class assumptions on the same basis. It's stupid but really it's their problem not mine. And I do understand why, after all education and affluence are not unrelated.


As for Lesbians and health: I had a doctor not too long ago who told me that I didn't need to bother having a cervical smear test because of my sexuality.

Speckly - I had a lecture from the proff who runs the screening programme today.

Cervical cancer is caused by HPV (human papiloma virus) and it almost unknown amoung nuns, that's because you get HPV from having sex. But if you've had a male partner even just once then you do need to have smears.

There's a lack of evidence of whether penatrive lesbains sex could caust HPV to be caught, -- and I wouldn't take the risk of not having one if I had had that kind of sex.

My GP is completely the opposite I spent three hours in the library to persude him that I didn't need one.

I'd love to not have them since I find them very painful (my last one made me cry) but I'm not about to take chances!

I may be misremembering a snippet of fact but don't the chances of HPV increase with higher numbers of different male partners?

Indeed it does, the risk is increased by smoking and a higher number of male sexual partners.

Well I've just given up the first and I've never bothered with the second so perhaps I'll forego being tortured by the evil smear nurse in future.