[F4TFriday] Room 101
Orwell’s book is an oft mis-quoted book by people who have obviously never actually read it. I must have first read it when I was about 13, one of the most frightening books I have ever read.

I don’t recall the TV adaptation, nor the film with John Hurt, though I love Terry Gilliam’s Brazil which captures the horror with absolute craziness.
What would I put in Room 101 ?
“Sissy”
This label really held me back, though it didn’t do the damage that I’ve seen it do to others. I’m of an age where general society would look at a male exhibiting feminine aspects in horror, especially transgender people.
The only outlet for someone who knew they had cross dressing and beyond tendencies but had no desire to have it publicly known was the “sissy” space.
It became an incredibly broad label with rather narrow assumptions as to behaviour and inclinations. Anyone not actively trans was assumed to be a sissy with uniform motivations and desires.
- A “sissy” lusted after men with a hunger to suck cock
- A “sissy” wanted to look ridiculously feminine, a pantomime dame
- A “sissy” had to be in chastity
- A “sissy” was constantly horny to be fucked
- A “sissy” lives to be humiliated
Well, you get the picture, even if these only described about 5% of those in “sissy” forums. These forums were the only outlet for discovery. They led many down dangerous paths into breakdowns. The forums become mutually reinforcing until virtually everyone is playing a role that’s completely at odds with their real selves. Closet cross dressers, nervous subs looking for first FemDom, curious chastity subs – all forced to lump within the single label and conform to the label’s expectations.
My former mistress lifted me out of that cesspit and gave me the name you see me with now. Specifically she came up with melody because that’s who she knew I was – long before I ever did. However, from the place I came from, she also tacked on the “sissy”. It felt fine for the longest time, though from about 5 years ago it started to become a millstone.
Only ten or twelve years after she added the “sissy” part did she tell me that she almost immediately regretted it because she knew it was wrong.
I have learned to hate this label for the damage it does to people who are already nervous and anxious. I’m annoyed at how long it held back the true exploration of who melody is and needs to be.
Consign it to Room 101 and liberate thousands of subs to be themselves.
Platform “Stripper” Shoes
I love shoes and heels, you only have to see my shoes galleries of part of my collection to realise I could be melody Marcos !! 👠 There’s a thing with some shoe fetish subs whereby all that counts is the height of the heel. What, I ask is the point of an 8″ heel when the the platform is 5″ thick ?
This picture is just a representative example of a whole genre in female shoes that I find repulsively inelegant. I’ve never even associated platforms with sex, as they’re supposed to be in being described as “stripper” shoes.
I’ve only known a very few women that can wear them and not look ridiculous.
What a large platform triggers in my mind is Gary Glitter and that is not a good thing. If that’s not a reason to put them in Room 101, I don’t know what is.
World Health Organisation
This one will be contentious despite it being my personal perspective. The WHO recently issued the new ICD-11 manual. Within it there is an update to ‘gender incongruence’. In essence a transgender identity is now described as a sexual health issue whereas in ICD-10 it was aligned with DSM-V to be a mental disorder.
Personally I always liked the DSM-V definition that had me defined with a mental disorder for which there is no known cure. It’s a kind of brutal truth but it put a lot of things in perspective for me because the only way to deal with it was to accept it and own it.
The WHO has removed my excuse to call myself crazy. I’m not having that, they can go into Room 101.
June 8, 2019 @ 12:32 am
Fabulous post. Not that you need anyone’s opinion, but all three can be understandably thrown in to room 101 for me. I knew the last had changed, but I had not thought about it from the viewpoint you’ve presented. Like the term “sissy” hearing lived experience of the way names, terms and diagnoses have been used over time to trap and label -classify- people into a conformity for the benefit of more powerful groups. If it is not your experience, it is easy to not consider or take into account these histories or to reinvent them as being harmless. And shoes that give you that much extra height? Bin them. 🙂
June 8, 2019 @ 9:59 am
Thank you Alethea, one of those prompts where you can mix serious with flippant. There have been some great personal Room 101 takes.
Labels are good when they’re on a tin can and describe what’s in it. But it’s no good sticking a baked bean label on every kind of bean tin. And that’s what we tend to do with people, kinks, illnesses etc. I can go on an on about the “sissy” label since I know how toxic it is – but I won’t 😊
melody xx
June 5, 2019 @ 9:56 pm
I really enjoyed reading this post and your combination of humour with serious points. I am in agreement with your 101 suggestions for what that is worth. missy x
June 6, 2019 @ 12:45 am
Thank you, missy. I do sometimes have a tendency towards flippancy, but I hope it brings people along and entertains.
melody xx
June 6, 2019 @ 7:16 am
I like your style 😊
June 3, 2019 @ 1:48 pm
Oh my … Melody, you can’t put my favourite shoes in Room 101, lol. Whatever will I wear now? My outrage is in jest but my love of the shoes in real. You did make me chuckle though, so all is forgiven. However, even though you’d strip my feet of their beloved platform heels :p I am delighted that you are here for mine and May’s first week in charge of Food For Thought Friday. Thank you so much for sharing. Floss xxx
June 3, 2019 @ 1:53 pm
Aww, sorry about that Floss. It’s my personal Room 101, so I can be as curmudgeonly as I like 🤔😅
I’m sure you’re elegant in them.
Never looked at F4T, so hopefully will be here regularly xx
June 2, 2019 @ 10:56 pm
Thank you for joining in Melody. I always forget the Sissy bit.
In the world I grew up in Sissy was almost used as a derogatory phrase. Anyone was called a sissy if they were acting lame or ‘wimping’ out of something. Room 101 for sure.
The shoes. Well I have some with a smaller platform. I prefer my wellies though. G G can go to room 101 too .
WHO I am with u on that as well. Why the sudden change? I am not with labels much anyhow, but now they are just throwing another into the pot. How about the label of – individual. X
June 3, 2019 @ 7:06 am
Thanks, May. Yes, the “sissy” label is used universally to be derogatory. Even as role play it’s harmful in destroying self-worth. It conditions many to be abused mentally as well as physically because that’s what both parties have been led to understand that’s what it must mean.
The WHO thing is a personal peeve, it’s the hurty words thing again. So being transgendered is no longer a mental disorder with no known cure, instead it’s sexual health issue with no known cure. I’m sure that the millions in taxes spent on experts attending conferences to make that change are entirely justified – not.
melody xx
June 2, 2019 @ 12:54 pm
Great post to spawn many others!
You’ve created a monster thread!
Love this post and the machinations that inspired it
I think You’re allowed 3 things as per the TV show ?
Swirly 🌻
June 2, 2019 @ 12:57 pm
Well, I didn’t want to add the obvious one, it would be whining too much. If I think of one more I’ll update 😘
June 2, 2019 @ 1:05 pm
You have the makings of an inspired global notifications meltdown 😂