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News item:
From:
News.com
February 7, 2025
‘Bonkers’: Lego blocks called anti-LGBT
A self-guided tour at a major museum has dubbed Lego blocks anti-LGBT, warning they reinforce “heteronormativity”.
The Seeing Thing Queerly tour assists visitors to view the Science Museum in London through the lens of “queer communities, experiences, and identities”. However, the tour has taken aim at Lego blocks because the children’s toy has “male or female parts which “mate” with each other. The tour claims that this props up the view that there are “only two genders”, according to a report by The Telegraph, meaning it is anti-LGBT, an umbrella term for groups that are not heteronormative.
A guide for the tour explains: “The top of the brick with sticking out pins is male, the bottom of the brick with holes to receive the pins is female, and the process of the two sides being put together is called mating”.
The view was blasted by the director of advocacy at Sex Matters, Fiona McAnena, who described it as “bonkers”. She told The Telegraph:
“The idea that Lego is ‘heteronormative’ because the blocks are described as “male” and ‘female’ is ridiculous. Children who play with Lego don’t need to be told that some people say fitting Lego blocks together is ‘mating’. People expect to be informed, educated and inspired when visiting the Science Museum, not to have dubious claims rooted [unfortunate word choice in this context, Fiona – Otto] in gender ideology forced on them.”
Broadcaster Piers Morgan reacted on social media by simply posting, “Oh f**k off.”
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It started me thinking about the word ‘bonkers’, especially since ‘bonk’ is also a word meaning to have sex (pioneered in Australia in the q980’s), and the origins of other words regarding mental health.
Some origins . . .
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Bonkers:
Of British-English origin, the word bonkers means mad, crazy.
The most common theory on origin is:
The word ‘bonce’ as slang for head is first recorded in 1889.
The word ‘bonk’, meaning a blow to the head, is first recorded in 1934.
The phrase ‘to go bonkers’ is fist recorded as army slang in 1945, in a letter from a soldier who had recently been posted to India, published in the Daily Mirror.
The theory is that people who go bonkers appear and act the same as someone who has been hit on the head or is drunk.
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Mad:
Within Commonwealth countries other than Canada, mad typically implies the insane or crazy sense more so than the angry sense. Within the United States and Canada, the word mad generally implies anger rather than insanity, but such usage is still considered informal. If someone is described as having "gone mad" or "went mad", this will usually be taken as meaning insanity, not anger.
It dates from the late 13th century - "disordered in intellect, demented, crazy, insane," from ther Old English gemædde, meaning "out of one's mind" (usually implying also violent excitement), also "foolish, extremely stupid".
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Nuts:
The nut was a slang term for the head, hence ‘to go nuts’ and ‘to be off one's nut’ is an expression for ‘to be insane’. It is first recorded in 1861. In British English, a crazy person is a nutter
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Lunacy:
The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word lunaticus, which originally referred mainly to epilepsy and madness, as diseases thought to be caused by the moon.
The King James Version of the Bible records "lunatick" in the Gospel of Matthew, which has been interpreted as a reference to epilepsy. By the fourth and fifth centuries astrologers were commonly using the term to refer to neurological and psychiatric diseases. Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced individuals to lunacy and epilepsy by effects on the brain analogous to the nocturnal dew. Until at least 1700, it was also a common belief that the moon influenced fevers, rheumatism, episodes of epilepsy and other diseases.
A suffragist postcard depicting a lunatic, symbolised by a moon, c 1909
A series of ten images depicting the roles that women can have without being able to vote and those which men can have and are still able to vote.
By the way:
When I was at uni studying law, the contracts subject had various topics: terms of a contract, remedies for breach, damages etc. One such part dealt with people who had special rules apply. It was called ‘Abnormal Legal Persons’ and covered ‘Minors, Lunatics and Married Women’.
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Crazy:
According to the online etymology dictionary, in the 1570s, crazy meant “diseased, sickly.” In the 1580s, it meant “broken, impaired, full of cracks or flaws.” In the 1610s, it took the form of what it means today: “deranged, demented, of unsound mind or behaving as so.” By 1927, it meant “cool, exciting” in a jazz slang sense.
Researchers wrote in 2014 that the belief in lunar impact might be left over from the time before artificial lighting. The full moon provided an increase in the amount of nighttime illumination and caused a significant sleep disturbance as a result, according to the study. Research has shown that sleep disruptions can induce mania and seizures in vulnerable people.
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Batshit:
Batshit shows up first in print about the 1950’s in military speak to mean rubbish and bullshit. By 1970, it meant crazy. Probably derived from bullshit. You can find people saying “batshit crazy” and “batshit insane” by the late 1980’s.
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I will finish on an illustrative story . . .
A motorist is driving past a mental hospital on a dark, moonless night when he gets a flat tyre.
As he begins to change the tyre, he notices that one of the patients is looking at him over the top of the fence whilst leaning his arms and chin on the fence.
Nervous, trying to work quickly, he jacks up the car, takes off the wheel, puts the wheel nuts into the hubcap on the ground and gets the spare tyre.
Whilst taking the spare tyre to the wheel, he steps on the hubcap, sending the wheel nuts clattering into a storm drain.
The mental patient is still watching him through the fence.
The motorist desperately looks into the storm drain but the wheel nuts are gone. He paces back and forth in the dark with the patient still watching him, trying to think of what to do.
Finally the patient says "Take one wheel nut off each of the other wheels and put them on this wheel and you’ll have three on each. That will get you home and tomorrow you can take it to your mechanic and get the missing wheel nuts replaced.”
"That's brilliant," says the motorist, "What's someone like you doing in an asylum?"
“I might be crazy,” replied the patient, “but I’m not stupid.”
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