Ash Ford-McAllister

  Nuance. It’s something we’ve really lost the art of in Britain, isn’t it? Whether you blame it on Americanisation of British culture, a growing individualism as a backlash against perceived ‘forced collectivism’ in the form of multi-culturalism, or social media giving everyone Main Character Syndrome , most of us can readily acknowledge that nuance is absent from dialogue, newspaper articles, news programming, and, most obviously, social media. But what does nuance actually add to discourse, and does a lack of nuance actually cause any real harm? Isn’t this demand to bring back nuance just more woke snowflakery and crying about feelings? Not really.  Nuance can be perceived as being most often demanded by socially marginalised and disadvantaged groups, which makes it easy for some people to dismiss as “more Snowflake Agenda nonsense”, but the reality is those groups are just the canary in the coalmine for demographics who have never had to consider that their own position...

Today is Thursday 13th June. 13 has always been one of my lucky numbers, so it seems like a good day to start - or re-start - the journey of myself. Who Am I? Call me Ash, Mr. Ford-McAllister, or sir. I've also been known as "the guy with the dogs" - but I have fewer dogs now than I did then (2, versus 4), so that's maybe less relevant. As a trans man, I once had another name - it was given to me by people who were replacing an older sister I never got to know (she passed away at 2 days old, owing to a ruptured diaphragm, on 8th June 1985. I was an accident, my mother was advised to have an abortion owing to her mental state during pregnancy...my life was never going to be straightforward!)   I therefore don't connect with that name at all, and do not share it.  There are people I care for very much who know that name, and I don't have an issue with them knowing it.  But I never really was that person. I started using the name Ash when I was 9yrs old. I'm ...