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timmy
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Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13777
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You may have to wait until the end!
[Updated on: Sat, 21 September 2019 21:27]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Mark
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Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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I have to agree with Luvtwinks - this is shaping up to be a very interesting story. I also wonder what the mysterious note has to say.
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luvtwinks
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Registered: August 2018
Messages: 176
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"timmy wrote on Sat, 21 September 2019 21:27"You may have to wait until the end!
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As a mix of Baby Boomer and GenX I demand immediate satisfaction! 😀
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13777
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"luvtwinks wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 01:53"As a mix of Baby Boomer and GenX I demand immediate satisfaction! 😀
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Immediate satisfaction is available from Mr Palm and his five sons
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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ivor slipper
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Registered: September 2013
Messages: 128
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"timmy wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 07:15"
"luvtwinks wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 01:53"As a mix of Baby Boomer and GenX I demand immediate satisfaction! 😀
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Immediate satisfaction is available from Mr Palm and his five sons
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Only on a Sunday...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13777
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"ivor slipper wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 19:03"
"timmy wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 07:15"
"luvtwinks wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 01:53"As a mix of Baby Boomer and GenX I demand immediate satisfaction! 😀
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Immediate satisfaction is available from Mr Palm and his five sons
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Only on a Sunday...
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Palm Sunday?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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luvtwinks
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Registered: August 2018
Messages: 176
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"timmy wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 07:15"
"luvtwinks wrote on Sun, 22 September 2019 01:53"As a mix of Baby Boomer and GenX I demand immediate satisfaction! 😀
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Immediate satisfaction is available from Mr Palm and his five sons
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Indeed! I know Mr Palm and sons quite well. They've been my best friends since I was nine years old. I look forward to seeing them quite frequently. 😂😂😂
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luvtwinks
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Registered: August 2018
Messages: 176
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My initial suspicion was correct, but not revealed/confirmed until the very end.
[Updated on: Fri, 27 September 2019 23:20] |
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Mark
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Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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I guess my one major nitpick here is the idea that Bonner would somehow be ineligible to play high school (American) football just because she's female. Girls have been known to play high school football in the U.S. (usually in positions like kicker, which is among the less likely positions to be tackled by an opposing player). This 2016 article by Business Insider indicates 1,964 girls playing football that year (a 2011 article by ESPN is also an interesting read on the subject). I'll admit that I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that Coach Winger would take any such "threat" of "Bonner is ineligible to play on the school team because he's really a she!" even remotely seriously.
(I am also kind of on the bench about how no one would have noticed Bonner's "lady parts" while changing and showering in the locker room or while she presumably would have received at least a cursory examination by team trainers after the hit she took at the end of ch. 5, though I could think of a couple of scenerios that, while unlikely, are not entirely out of the question.)
It would have been nice to have found out who sent the note in the first place, as well as find out who "they" were who were so determined to have Bonner playing on a high school football team in the first place.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13777
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If we assume that date is today, I'm sure you are correct, Mark. Have girls always been able to play?
In the UK the Football Association (soccer) seems to have long had a hatred of equality with female teams being an old thing, then a banned thing, now a curiosity. In UK schools and youth teams girls have had to fight for equality. I'm not sure whether they've achieved it even in 2019.
That means I took the circumstances at face value, without questioning them. Even if wrong they make a fine allegorical tale
There is always some suspension of disbelief in any story. Have you asked Rick Beck for his thoughts on how much you have needed to suspend?
[Updated on: Sat, 28 September 2019 07:11]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Mark
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Likes it here |
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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"timmy wrote on Sat, 28 September 2019 01:11"If we assume that date is today, I'm sure you are correct, Mark. Have girls always been able to play?
In the UK the Football Association (soccer) seems to have long had a hatred of equality with female teams being an old thing, then a banned thing, now a curiosity. In UK schools and youth teams girls have had to fight for equality. I'm not sure whether they've achieved it even in 2019.
That means I took the circumstances at face value, without questioning them. Even if wrong they make a fine allegorical tale
There is always some suspension of disbelief in any story. Have you asked Rick Beck for his thoughts on how much you have needed to suspend?
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Admittedly, girls haven't always been allowed to play American football. It started out as a sport played by strictly by men, with competing teams coming from various elite universities (what is considered to be the first game was played November 9th, 1869 between Rutgers University and Prinston University, though quite a few things have changed since then). Legally, one could say that a federal civi rights law known as "Title IX," which is part of the Education Amendmends of 1972 (and is used to ensure gender equality in school activities, particularly sports, in any school that receives federal financial assistance) is what could arguablly what allows girls to be able to participate in their school's American football team. So any school nowadays that tried to turn away a girl that really wanted to play could very easily find themselves on the receiving end of a civil rights lawsuit and/or investigation and possible penalties by the U.S. Department of Education (which is a Cabinet-level position), though, even now, a lot of girls who participate in athletics through their school tend to choose participation in other sports, just because of the rough-and-tumble nature of the game (as well as it still being perceived as a "men's" game).
So there is the possibility that the main setting for the story mught be from many, many years ago (though I haven't ever heard otherwise, there might bave been places in the U.S. where, pre-Title IX, it just might have been illegal to girls to be on a high school football team).
This isn't to say that the messages that Rick wished to pass on in the story (that we shouldn't be mean, hateful, or discriminatory towards male, female, or trans individuals, nor should we judge a book by its cover), but this is a situation like the discussion we had last year on the story "The Water Cooler" - the intended message isn't bad, but I'm finding the "threat" in the story to be so implausible as to overshadow that message. My brain keeps protesting that the story simply couldn't unfold the way it does; assuming it's set any time in the past 40 years or so, neither Coach Winger, Bonner, nor anyone else in the school district have any reason to take the alleged threat of Bonner's ineligibility based on gender seriously (it's like us taking those "Sexploitation" emails seriously, when there's absolutely no reason to).
I don't know if Rick comments much on these Forums (a quick check using the "Search" function didn't find anything form him). If nothing else, I can always check with him and see what he says (and either have him post it here directy or I would post it with his permission).
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Bisexual_Guy
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Location: USA Midwest
Registered: September 2015
Messages: 156
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I had a pretty good idea about Bonner's secret because of the clue given about 2 five-pound weights being sewn into the clothing. There were many other clues as well, including that Coach Winger felt that the courts might come down in favor of Bonner playing.
The way the story is written, it is implied that there were cell/mobile phones being used, which would allow any time from the 1980s on.
Rick Beck has written many good stories. This is one of them. If there was a flaw, it was that too many paragraphs may have been used in describing the stuck-in-a-circular-thinking-pattern of both the coach and of Bonner. But over all, the good things of the story far outweighed the possible negatives.
Well done, Rick.
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Re: Bonner 