rad-birch

[rad-birch]

liberals be like he bombed a country…. without congress approval

[rad-birch]

I’m not saying anyone should or deserves to get hurt, I’m just saying there’d be a lot fewer women pretending there’s no difference between getting hit/tackled by a male vs a female in contact sports if they’d actually experienced it

signed: me, who has boxed, sparred (taekwondo) and fenced against males, both “cis” and trans-identified

[rad-birch]

@ parismwendwa on tiktok <333

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me (circa. 2018) v.s. me (circa. 2025)

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Trump’s trying to make asbestos legal.

Make America have mesothelioma again!

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By the way while I'm reading about women's superhuman accomplishments in Oceania, here's a vlog from a modern team of women who rowed on a similarly lightweight craft 3,000 miles without stopping.

[rad-birch]

The child is not even two pounds, he is in the intensive neonatal care unit. He is blind, may be unable to walk and he may not survive at all. Adriana Smith's mother, April Newkirk has affirmed that the decision to stop life support should have been the family's. The baby's name is Chance. Fuck Brian Kemp, I hope he gets sepsis.

[rad-birch]

i would ABSOLUTELY read your tell-all memoir. i love music and feminism but GOD. the industry. i’d kind of pieced together most of that information about male dominance, but it really really seems inescapable nowadays in the bigger leagues. anyway as an aspiring (hobbyist?) singer-songwriter i would luv to hear any other stories or lessons you have from your time in the industry. have a sweet day!

xoxox thank you! maybe I will write one lol. I know lots of dirt ;)

It does feel inescapable. Yeah. I think anyone who follows me will tell you I'm really not a doomer, but I climbed the music ladder for like 15 years, got to the top, and looked around only to realize that my dream of changing things from the inside was futile and maybe childish, and I was destroying myself in the process.

I actually just left my prestige gig supporting big festivals and international tours. It's peak tour season right now and I had to tap out. I just might be the first dumbass in history to climb back down the ladder lmao.

My "fuck, I have to get out of here" moment was when OnlyFans appeared in my inbox offering money. AKA 'we'll fund your tour if you make an account and start posting sexy pics'. I had already stopped fronting bands a long time ago because I didn't like the attention it brought. Sigh.

It wasn't all bad. I got to live and travel all over, LA to NYC to Europe and more, on the dime of huge corporations. I have an award for a hit song on my wall, a vacation home and years of fun memories with awesome people- but you know what...

I'm not... sure it was worth it?

I'm straight up addicted to weed and trying to quit. Most of my friends are addicted to worse. My fingers feel arthritic and my eyes are fucked. I was careful not to blow out my ears, but the lifestyle wreaked havoc on my body anyway. I've lived an unstable life, on the road or moving to chase the dream since I was a teen. I've mentioned my partner of 10 years on here before - he's a tour manager (we aren't 'committed' in part because of the lifestyle, we're literally never home!) - and he's still working the circuit. He's only 40 and the bands call him 'tour grandpa' 😭 lol. no one can do it forever. You gotta get in, make your cash, and get out. A hit song or an album that pulls a fanbase will set you up for life, but the question is how the fuck you get one. That's why people play The Game.

So... I want to tell aspiring ears to game the system, but I don't know if it's possible. I said in my post that none of us escape The Game and we don't. The only artists I know who are healthy and happy, with stability and/or some kind of family or support system... are not financially solvent from the music. They're great musicians, but they're local performers only, or indie artists. A lot of them work as label reps or audio engineers, luthiers, music teachers, stuff like that... or even keep totally different jobs. 9-5 stuff. One writes books. Another manages a grocery store but tours with his metal band in the summer. So maybe my best advice is to just... stay a hobbyist. Do it because you love it, not for a career.

Fuck pop. There's amazing shit happening in every other genre. Fuck the charts. Put out music you love and feel deeply about. Put music out without a label, collect your own royalties. It won't be as much as pop, but you can live on it.

We've never needed the music companies less.

[rad-birch]

[rad-birch]

I am aware of Victorian donor-conceived people that have attempted to or taken their own lives,” Ms Dawson said. “These feelings are complex and often completely caused or worsened by the practices, mistakes, treatment by clinics and traumatic encounters donor-conceived people experience with clinics,” she continued.

In a powerful plea to the federal government, two Australian mothers are calling for urgent legislative reform of the nation’s fertility industry after claims that an 11 year old boy attempted to take his own life following the discovery of a IVF error.

Demands for national IVF laws and donor database

Anastasia Gunn, a Queensland mother, and Katherine Dawson, a national advocate for donor-conceived rights, have penned an emotional letter to federal Health Minister Mark Butler demanding the establishment of national laws and a donor database to regulate IVF procedures and prevent further heartache.

Ms Gunn, whose family has been at the centre of an IVF baby swap scandal, claimed her son’s suicide attempt was directly tied to the discovery that he and his siblings were not fully related by blood, a revelation that emerged through DNA testing after the children developed serious health conditions.

“We want the minister to realise that laboratory mistakes have real human impact throughout generations,” Ms Gunn told The Saturday Courier Mail. “We want everyone to know that.”

Her son, who suffers from a host of chronic medical issues including hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, severe chronic fatigue, and autism spectrum disorder, now battles long-term chronic pain.

Ms Gunn and her partner, Lexie, are currently suing Queensland Fertility Group over claims that the wrong sperm donor was used in the conception of two of their three sons.

The emotional and physical toll has been immense for their child, who has struggled not only with chronic pain but with the emotional impact of his disrupted genetic identity, so much so that they claim he attempted to take his own life.

“Imagine a boy that young being so sad, not only about his physical pain but the fact that through DNA testing he found out that all three brothers were not fully connected with the same blood,” Ms Gunn said.

“That has been so hard on him, he feels a deep sense of lost familial connection.”

Ms Dawson, who co-authored the letter to Minister Butler, has echoed these concerns and cited multiple tragic cases in which donor-conceived individuals took their own lives due to emotional trauma caused by secrecy, mismanagement, and lack of access to genetic information.

“I am aware of Victorian donor-conceived people that have attempted to or taken their own lives,” Ms Dawson said.

“These feelings are complex and often completely caused or worsened by the practices, mistakes, treatment by clinics and traumatic encounters donor-conceived people experience with clinics,” she continued.

“We are asking our health minister to step in to protect current and future Australian families from this irreparable and profound damage.”

The call for reform comes in the wake of the resignation of Monash IVF CEO Michael Knaap, after two separate cases involving devastating embryo mix-ups, one in Queensland and another in Victoria.

Ms Gunn further revealed that her eldest son, now 18, has been denied access to the identity of his sperm donor, a breach of national health guidelines. Advocates argue this lack of transparency is unacceptable in modern healthcare.

For Australia’s LGBTQIA+ families, who often rely on assisted reproduction to create their families, these errors are not just technical glitches they are deeply personal, life-altering breaches of trust. The emotional impact is compounded by the community’s historic struggle for recognition, equality, and access to healthcare that respects their unique family structures.

[rad-birch]

i hate hate the kind of men obsessed w raves and psychedelics their brain is fucking mush and they think drugs are only positive and preach peace and love and discard any bad drug related experiences. Especially the kind of situations women who use find themselves in, like being taken advantage of when High, which is something no one ever talks abt. These men do lsd once and become completely egocentric annoying fucks who literally dont know how to live in society anymore. I like stoners much better. I even like cokeheads more. generally speaking drugs should be for women only, men really dont need to open their third eye and shit

[rad-birch]

Emailing venues WORKS. Tell them they are platforming a known and admitted rapist. Email them. Call them. Show up in person.

Also, it goes without saying but I’ll just say for good measure that absolutely none of the complaints sent in (that I’m aware of) have had anything to do with the subject matter of the book, or with Eli’s gender identity. This was not an anti-trans effort but instead an anti-RAPIST effort to prevent a known predator from cruising for new victims.

Proud of everyone who has shown up for this.

De-platform rapists :)

[rad-birch]

[rad-birch]

church people do have 1 thing that makes it hard to break them and it's community. like it's nice to have a scheduled thing to do each week and lots of people to be friends with who support you through tough times. so we need to make secular church somehow.

[rad-birch]

The Sacred Flow: Menstruation as a Spiritual Connection Across Cultures

Menstruation has long been a powerful force in human history, deeply interwoven with spiritual traditions, cultural taboos, and sacred rituals. Across the ages, different societies have held varying perspectives on this natural cycle, ranging from reverence to restriction. As we explore these cultural interpretations, we see how menstruation is not merely a biological function but a profound spiritual rhythm connecting women to the cosmos, the earth, and the divine.

The Divine Cycle and Ancient Wisdom

The link between menstruation and the cycles of nature has been a recurring theme in spiritual traditions. Many early cultures viewed menstruation as a “moon-gift from the Goddess,” recognizing the synchronicity between a woman’s cycle and the lunar phases. This deep connection between celestial rhythms and female bodies fostered a sense of sacred femininity, where menstrual blood was seen as a life-giving force rather than a source of impurity.

In Ancient Greece, this sacred essence was embraced in agricultural practices, where menstrual blood was mixed with corn seed before annual sowing, believed to enhance crop growth. This ritual reflects an understanding of menstruation as a source of fertility and renewal, aligning with the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth seen in nature.

Rituals of Power and Purification

While some traditions celebrated menstruation, others imposed strict taboos. In Jewish tradition, a woman was considered impure for twelve days during and surrounding her period. She was required to abstain from physical contact with her husband and religious activities, and sometimes even wore special clothing to signal her state. Similar restrictions were found among the Kafe people of Papua New Guinea, where a menstruating girl was confined to a darkened hut for a week, taught that she posed a danger to herself and others if she did not follow ritual restrictions. These practices, while seemingly oppressive, may have also reflected an acknowledgment of the potent energy that menstruation was believed to carry.

In contrast, Native Americans of the Dakota territories revered menstrual power as something that could weaken masculine objects of war and peace. This belief suggests an understanding of menstruation as a force capable of disrupting traditional male power structures, perhaps contributing to patriarchal anxieties about women’s natural cycles.

Menstruation as a Symbol of Creation and Destruction

Menstruation’s dual nature as both a creative and destructive force is exemplified in Indian spirituality, particularly in the worship of Goddess Kali. Known for her ferocity and transformative power, Kali was depicted covered in bloodstained clothes during her periods, and these garments were believed to possess immense medicinal and spiritual power. Similarly, African and Australian Aboriginal people embraced menstrual symbolism by painting themselves red and pouring blood on sacred stones in honor of the Moon Mother.

These practices reveal a deeper, spiritual recognition of menstruation not as something shameful but as a sacred event tied to the mysteries of creation, destruction, and renewal. This aligns with ancient human understandings of life’s cyclical nature, from birth to death to rebirth, and from the changing seasons to the moon’s eternal dance with the night sky.

Patriarchy and the Shift in Perceptions

Despite these early spiritual acknowledgments of menstrual power, the rise of patriarchal structures led to a shift in how menstruation was perceived. Many cultures began to view menstruating women as impure, their bodies something to be controlled, hidden, or purified. This shift may have been driven by a fear of the power menstruation symbolized—a power that once disrupted male-dominated structures and emphasized the strength of the feminine divine.

Some societies took extreme measures to distance themselves from menstrual blood. Certain cultures required a virgin’s hymen to be broken before marriage by an object, a ritual phallus, or even a slave to prevent the husband from encountering hymenal blood, which was considered unholy. This aversion to menstrual blood further emphasized a growing narrative that sought to control and diminish the spiritual significance of women’s cycles.

Reclaiming the Sacred Flow

Today, as we strive toward a deeper understanding of our spiritual and bodily connections, it is time to reclaim menstruation’s sacred power. The menstrual cycle is not a curse but a gift—a reminder of our connection to the cosmos, the rhythms of the earth, and the divine feminine energy that flows through all of creation.

By revisiting the ancient wisdom that once honored menstruation, we can transform our perspectives and reclaim the spiritual strength it represents. Whether through modern rituals, embracing natural cycles, or simply recognizing the beauty in our bodies’ rhythms, we can restore the sacredness of menstruation and honor the divine power within each woman.

Let us celebrate the sacred flow—not as a source of shame, but as a profound spiritual connection to the universe, an ever-present reminder of the life-giving force that pulses within us all.

[rad-birch]

Served in the French resistance AND invented mifepristone

May his memory be a blessing

[rad-birch]