Feminasty

Why are there so few women speakers at conferences

2009-10-27T15:56:00.002Z

Carrie Bishop asks why we see the same people - men - speaking at conferences:...it’s not about women being better qualified to speak on the basis of their gender – no one wants the idiot quota to go up at events. Rather, we want good quality speakers that reflect a diversity of opinion and it’s impossible to get that with only one demographic slice. Women often have a different take on things

A big hand for the Miss University London competition hijackers

2009-09-09T21:21:00.006+01:00

I love these guys!So, the usual female-led protests against the Miss University London competition were given additional support from a guerilla group of male protesters setting up a booth outside the competition, "encouraging attendees to "vote" over pictures of the contestants", (they provided kleenex), and "keeping a tally of the girls who brought the guys over the edge."Possibly the best bit

Etsy.com peddles a false feminist fantasy

2009-07-11T08:25:00.002+01:00

This article argues that Etsy.com - the ebay-style site for people to buy and sell handmade crafts - has become a women's ghetto, full of hobbyists making little or no money from the site.The proportion of male sellers on Etsy is less than 4% - smaller than in nursing."I think for many women the site holds out the hope of successfully combining meaningful work with motherhood in a way that more

Gender/ Race/ Class: An Anti-Capitalist Feminist Event

2009-03-13T18:46:00.002Z

Jo and I went to this event on 14 Feb and it was great, really informative. I felt it provided a really good space for discussion and gave a sense of hope for the future. We came up with loads of ideas as a result, simple initiatives that we could get involved with as a group. We're going to write a little piece on each workshop. Mine will follow shortly.

Group follow-up...

2009-02-11T17:46:00.006Z

As promised, here are few links to the stuff we talked about on Saturday to keep the momentum going.First of all, the link to the body positive website that Jo introduced us to a while back. I really love this site, it's so funny and informative. I note that they have a cafepress store, but will be closing it soon, so if you're interested, buy some t-shirts now. I think I'm getting the Aunt

Women 'censor their language at work', says study

2009-01-30T17:09:00.002Z

Research at Reading University has shown women leaders are more likely to censor the language they use at work to avoid being judged. Students interviewed 10 senior female and 10 senior male leaders from FTSE 500 companies about how they speak to colleagues. They found that women consciously police what they say so they neither sound too feminine, and therefore weak, nor too masculine, and

Laughing all the way to the bank

2009-01-19T09:13:00.005Z

The Institute of Spurious Science strikes again, mes amies.Check the link above to find the usual frenzy of evolutionary pseudo-theorising, with a scrumdown to provide the most ludicrous explanation as to why women apparently have better orgasms with wealthier men. Such mundane considerations as socio-economic factors are not so much swept aside as ignored entirely beside the compelling weight of

"Why women really do love self-obsessed psychopaths"

2008-06-19T11:31:00.003+01:00

I expected better from the Independent, and particularly from its "science editor"! (for full article click on the headline above)"Women might claim they want caring, thoughtful types but scientists have discovered what they really want – self-obsessed, lying psychopaths. A study has found that men with the "

The most fun I ever had without laughing

2008-05-01T12:17:00.004+01:00

An interesting furore has apparently arisen from Johnny Vegas' incorporation of lighthearted sexual molestation into his stand-up.(See the link in the header for the Guardian Blogger article).However, by far the most revealing comment on this matter must be the one which appears on the "Chortle" comedy website:http://snipurl.com/26m6h (snipped for ease of posting)" This was the most enjoyable

Porn and feminism

2008-04-12T19:14:00.002+01:00

A really refreshing look at porn and feminism (link in title) where the writer talks to various non-exploitative film-makers and discusses with them what they think is important about making porn films, and how porn can be reconciled with feminism. Kudos for the expression ' po-mo homo porno'.

Feminist book club - part 1

2008-04-12T16:22:00.000+01:00

So, it's my unilateral decision this time - democracy can come later - and I'm suggesting two books, to read over two months, as that gives us all a bit more flexibility, especially those of us with finals in May...Books one and two are The female eunuch by Germaine Greer and The dialectic of sex by Shulamith Firestone. Anyone interested in reading along is very welcome to, and eventually we'll

Feminist book club

2008-03-19T14:59:00.002Z

I wrote about this on my books blog: I'm planning on reading a few feminist classics over the next year. I mentioned this at the meeting last Saturday and a few people were keen to join in (in addition to the meetings every three months, we might get together in between and discuss what we're reading). Books that I've thought of/others have suggested so far (some classics, some more recent) are:

Sylvia Plath, by Margaret Drabble

2008-03-13T12:36:00.003Z

I love this article by Margaret Drabble on Sylvia Plath: I think this is what's so important about Palth, not her suicide: the fact that she started writing about the difficulties of the female experience before the feminist second wave, the frustrations of being a wife as well as childbirth and breatfeeding.

Feministing Meetup Alliance

2008-03-11T10:57:00.000Z

Feministing have started a meet-up alliance for local feminist groups (link in title), so I have added our group to it.

Clinton v Obama

2008-03-11T10:31:00.002Z

A couple of interesting articles, via Feministing, reponding to the media's attempts to portray supporting Clinton as a feminist act, or the 'only' feminist choice, or whether it's unfeminist to support Obama: Deborah Siegel and Courtney E Martin in the Washington Post, and Jessica Valenti writing in the Nation about a split in feminism between older, more establishment feminists, and younger

Some thoughts for the next meeting - women and sex

2008-02-27T11:23:00.004Z

I've been thinking about sexuality in preparation for the next meeting so here are a few links and articles I've come across.The wikipedia article on sex-positive feminism is interesting - not perfect, but it raises some of the issues at hand.Annie Sprinkle has a website in which you can find some of her writings and articles - possibly a little bit NSFW but some interesting stuff on

Pankhurst turns in her grave

2008-01-21T23:04:00.000Z

Link in title. Really, I just don't know where to start with this. Wannabe WAG Nicola McClean - star of 'Help, My Wife's High-Maintanence', to be shown soon on Channel 5 - says that she never lets her husband see her without make-up, even getting out of bed early in the morning to apply a fresh layer before he wakes up."Even when I was in labour I had my full face on, hair straightened and

Random acts of feminism

2008-01-18T11:59:00.000Z

Link in title. I love Wendy Roby's suggestion of random acts of feminism: sticking post-it notes on Nuts magazine that read 'I am someone's sister' or 'Real men read BOOKS'...

Man takes woman's surname, shock, horror

2008-01-07T11:53:00.000Z

I suppose it is some sort of step forward. How depressing that one man taking one woman's name warrants a column, though...

Talk to your daughter

2007-12-15T15:28:00.000Z

Here's an interesting thing - an advert from Dove (part of their 'campaign for real beauty') with the message 'talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does' and some strong images of how damaging the quest for 'beauty' can be: plastic surgery, extreme weight fluctuations, eating disorders. Of course, Dove are part of the beauty industry, and this is an advert, designed to sell a range of

HULK SMASH - no 1 in a continuing series

2007-12-12T15:16:00.000Z

Link in title. Serious or not? You decide. Highlights include:I sat there watching [my date] tuck into a second huge plate of shepherd’s pie and realised why no self-respecting American girl consumes carbohydrates after 2pm.I’ve been in a room with two English girls when one is preparing for a black-tie ball. She came out in her outfit and asked: “How do I look?” The other girl cocked her head

Feministing go all web 2.0

2007-12-06T10:27:00.000Z

This sounds great, I think - the excellent American feminist blog Feministing are enlarging to become a community where you can join, create a profile, make your own blog and so on. Sounds like a brilliant idea.

Women held back in the workplace

2007-12-06T09:38:00.000Z

Link in title. Another report tells us that women are held back in the workplace as they get locked into a vicious circle: they take a greater share of the domestic work, so they have to take part-time or flexible jobs, earn less, and then carry on doing more domestic work because they earn less. The report's author suggests thatChanging the divide could come through labour market changes

Reclaim the Night

2007-11-22T16:26:00.000Z

The London Feminist Network's Reclaim the Night march and rally is on this weekend.Anyone fancy going?

On a lighter note...

2007-11-15T16:25:00.000Z

... apparently feminists are better in bed.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2211202,00.html

Horrified

2007-10-29T17:46:00.000Z

I just googled a pal of my sister's from school. She's now a Sky Sports presenter, and I went to YouTube to see what she's like on the telly. First three comments on the clips were these:i'd fuck this girl so hard in her ass and fannie that she wudnt b able to piss and shit for a week ;) i want her to give me a blowjob, and i cum on her tits. wow wat a cocktease lol, i want to suck on her tits

What's in a name?

2007-10-29T15:46:00.000Z

What do people think of this? I've just had a bit of an argument elsewhere on the internet with someone who described Margaret Sandra as "a self-indulgent twit" after he read this article. I was surprised by my own anger.

Doris Lessing has been awarded the Nobel prize for literature

2007-10-11T13:22:00.000+01:00

Doris Lessing is the 11th woman to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Her book The Golden Notebook is another of the books which really inspired me as a feminist. I'm utterly delighted about this.

Sexual Politics: the limits of secularism, the time of coalition

2007-10-07T16:05:00.000+01:00

Judith Butler - theorist on gender, power, identity and sexuality, and author of Gender Trouble - has a public lecture at the LSE on October 30th on progressive sexual politics and the rise of social movements based on ethnic and religious identity. The blurb for the lecture says:This lecture considers the conditions for coalition that might exist between religious and sexual minorities through

How other feminists can keep one sane

2007-10-02T14:18:00.000+01:00

This stupid, stupid article by David Cox on rape convictions (only published in the Comment is Free section on the Guardian website, which suggests it didn't make the cut for the print version) would really get me down if it weren't for the responses by super lovely great feminists here, here and here. Go feminists!(Also I love how they all say 'don't even bother to read the comments'...)

Do men speak Martian and women Venusian?

2007-10-02T13:39:00.000+01:00

Deborah Cameron, a feminist linguist at Oxford, thinks not in the excellent and interesting extracts from her book currently being serialised in the Guardian. (These things are usually only up for a week due to copyright restrictions.)Edit: part 2 is here.

Just because it's testable doesn't make it innate

2007-10-02T13:25:00.000+01:00

A new study by the University of Edinburgh suggests that although mean 'intelligence'* is the same for women and men, there are many more men in both the top and bottom 2 percent (reported in the Times, here). The study tests brothers and sisters, in a way that's meant to eliminate the differences in family background that may influence results - but even within the same family, the way boys are

Which books turned you into a feminist?

2007-09-27T10:29:00.000+01:00

Lovely article in the Guardian asking feminists which books inspired them and made them feminists - I love Jessica Valente's story about Naomi Wolf. So: which books made you a feminist? For me, I'd say Little Women had a big effect when I was very young indeed, showing how women have to make an effort to show that they're as good as men - and that this is what they should do. When I was older,

Ladyfests and the third wave

2007-09-12T17:40:00.000+01:00

A couple of really interesting Guardian articles I've been meaning to link to for a while. I really love the idea of Ladyfests and was wondering whether we'd have the time to do one at some stage. Maybe that possible Rape Crisis fundraiser we were talking about...And another article about third wave feminism and where we're going next. I really liked the closing paragraph:It is time to stop

More on pink for girls, blue for boys

2007-09-11T15:20:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Sorcha for the link to Ben Goldacre's excellent article criticising the recent study claiming that there may be a scientific basis behind the pink for girls, blue for boys stereotype. He links to a few more interesting articles: a history and discussion of the pink/blue tradition at gentlebirth.com, an American natural birth website; an interesting discussion of the relationship between

Feminist fightback conference - 20th October 2007

2007-09-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

Link in title to a socialist-feminist conference being held in UEL in October - a friend is an organiser (or at least she was last year). It's free to attend although you have to register and the topics being discussed look very interesting.For those of you on Facebook it also has a Facebook page.

Guerrilla Girls on YouTube

2007-09-07T09:53:00.000+01:00

Great exerpt from a talk by the Guerrilla Girls at New York's MOMA about the origins of the group and how far women have come in the art world since then. Depressingly, not very far...

Have a little objectification with your lipstick

2007-08-29T10:58:00.000+01:00

Nice to see that Superdrug has started stocking a range of Playboy branded cosmetics. Because, y'know, when I see a Playboy model the first thing I wonder is 'Where did she get that great lipstick?'

Feminism declared dead, again

2007-08-29T10:30:00.000+01:00

Link in title to an article in the Times declaring feminism dead, again. This comes after comments by Fay Weldon that young women today aren't interested in feminism, and, strangely, from Germaine Greer's new book on Shakespeare's wife. Mr Linklater describes Germaine's portrait of Anne Hathaway as showing:...a woman of such shining domestic virtue that she would not have been out of place in a

Seeing red

2007-08-22T10:51:00.000+01:00

This article in the Guardian about how men and women might be 'biologically programmed' to like blue and pink had me spluttering over my cornflakes I can tell you, ladies. The reasoning behind it is just so laughable I had to check the date and that it wasn't a spoof submission from the University of Bums on Seats' social sciences division. (http://www.cynicalbastards.com/ubs/)What is surprising

Long time no post - A couple of things

2007-08-21T15:09:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I posted, but here I am again. I noticed a couple of interesting bits of research in the news today, links from the Guardian:Gender pay gaps could be caused by critical perception of women who negotiate and push for wage increases, rather than women not being assertive enough to ask for more, which is the explanation often put forward. I'm certainly aware of a lack of

New look

2007-07-24T14:23:00.001+01:00

I got absolutely fed up with all that pink. If anyone hates it, I'll change it back...

And a brief rant

2007-07-24T14:05:00.000+01:00

Why the fuck is anyone worrying about what Hillary Clinton is wearing? Ten quid to anyone who can show me an article in which a male politician's clothes are analysed in this level of detail.

India elects first female president

2007-07-24T13:55:00.000+01:00

Link in title to BBC news report on India's first female president. It seems to be more of a ceremonial role, but Feministing have mentioned a great speech she gave during her campaign in which she said that 'women were the backbone of every home and they contributed greatly to the progress and development of the nation'.

SuperMidwives!

2007-07-24T13:46:00.000+01:00

Link in title to a Guardian article about a wonderful group of midwives in SE London - focussing on natural births, trying to teach women how normal and unscary giving birth can be, they've got fantastic results: half the women they deal with give birth at home, compared to 2% nationally, and their caesarean rate is 15%, compared to 24% nationally.

Susan Greenfield writes about the difficulties faced by women in the sciences

2007-07-24T10:15:00.000+01:00

Link in title to Guardian article. Again, it's the same old problem - maternity - exacerbated by the fact thatScientists on the whole don't achieve a secure position until their mid-30s, which for women is beyond their ideal time for starting a family.As well as this there are the problems of stereotyped ideas of male and female subjects - interestingly, she points out that in the biological

"Equality is still twenty years away"

2007-07-24T09:46:00.000+01:00

The Equal Opportunities Commission, soon to merge into the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights, have said goodbye with an extensive report on gender equality in Britain today, and their results are not exactly cheerful reading. Link in title to the Guardian article, and lots of information here at the EOC website.It's pretty much a definitive answer to anyone who reckons we don't need

Happy 50th Birthday, Guardian Women's page

2007-07-19T14:31:00.000+01:00

Link in title to a celebration of the Guardian women's page which is fifty years old this year. Lots of brilliant archive articles - really makes you appreciate how far we've come. I liked the letter entitled 'The ghastly effect of short skirts and bare legs', with its warning to unmarried men:Finally, a warning to young men contemplating matrimony look at your future mother-in-law's legs in

Rape Crisis - trying to get a campaign started

2007-07-13T14:54:00.000+01:00

If you're interested in making a fuss about the removal of funding from Rape Crisis Centres, you might try contacting your MP through FaxYourMP, an organisation who will fax or email your MP for you.If you're looking for stats to back your letter up, you can find the Home Office stats for rape and sexual assault in London and rape and sexual assault nationally. The curve for rape is pretty

New UK Feminist Mags

2007-07-13T11:10:00.001+01:00

Good news, everyone! Quite a few feminist magazines have been launched in the UK recently according to The Guardian, link in title. Feminist blogs and groups are also mentioned including some we already know about, like the f word and LFN. According to The Guardian's Jess McCabe, this is all proof of a rejuvenated women's movement. Huzzah.And here's some more new mag links:

What’s Feminism Got To Do With It?

2007-07-11T16:49:00.000+01:00

The Women's Resource Centre, in association with the Directory of Social Change, is hosting a debate on the role of feminism in the women's voluntary and community sector on Tuesday 11 September at 6.30pm at the Directory of Social Change, London NW1.Do you have to be a feminist to work in the women's sector? Is feminism the key to women's activism or an exclusive, outdated or unhelpful concept?

Further to T's post below

2007-07-11T15:17:00.000+01:00

Rape Crisis's website has links to petitions about the removal of government funding - one hosted by the Sun, which is at least one good thing Rebekah Wade has done. It also suggests holding a fundraising event for RCC and talks about volunteering in local groups. A fundraising effort would be a good thing to do - any ideas?

UK Rape Crisis centre threats

2007-07-11T11:08:00.000+01:00

Guardian article is linked to in title. Rape Crisis are being threatened with closures of up to half of their centres due to funding problems.Maybe we could try raising some money? I had no idea it had got this bad, only two small centres serve the whole of London now, and they've gone from 84 in 1985 to 34 these days.

Why can't Zoe write like this all the time?

2007-07-10T15:42:00.000+01:00

Zoe Williams in the Guardian talking about how meaningful or otherwise the number of female ministers is. Shame she doesn't always write like this - when she writes on women's politics and issues she's pretty good. Splendidly vomitous quote from Hazel Blears:"The way women relate to politics is different to men, they're interested in everyday lives, stories, people they meet, not statistics and

The best and worst of Radio 4

2007-07-10T09:32:00.000+01:00

There was a really interesting documentary about Sylvia Pankhurst and her life after being a suffragette on Radio 4 last night - she spent a lot of time campaigning on behalf of Haile Selassie,. protesting the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. It's available on Listen Again until next Monday.On the Today programme this morning, by contrast, they were discussing the new Tory policy of giving tax

This headline made me really angry

2007-07-09T22:40:00.000+01:00

A 17 year old girl was shot dead in a pub near my home a couple of weeks ago. I don't read the local paper regularly, so only learned the news about a week later when I got off at a different stop and saw the police incident board outside the pub where it happened. A minute or two later I saw the front page headline on a board outside a newsagent: Teenage party girl shot dead .She was a 17 year

Interview with feminist writer Deborah Siegel

2007-07-03T11:37:00.000+01:00

Via feministing. Interesting interview with Siegel, who has written a sort of history of feminism from the 1960s to today - the book looks pretty good.

Another day, another moral panic in America...

2007-07-02T22:11:00.001+01:00

They roam the streets with pink pistols, they are from lower socio-economic groups, they go about beating up men and forcing girls to join the "lesbian lifestyle" and perform unnatural acts on each other. Yes, lesbian girl gangs are coming to a neighbourhood near you. So says, er, Fox News.

Egypt bans all female circumcision

2007-06-30T12:00:00.001+01:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/egypt/story/0,,2115290,00.html is a good start, but I wish it said more about what "exceptional cases" have allowed it to continue since the initial ban. I'm also really shocked at the percentages reported - if this is a country where genital mutilation has theoretically been banned for ten years, then how are 50% of girls between the ages of 10 and 18 reporting it in a

The end of 'Blair's babes'?

2007-06-29T17:02:00.000+01:00

Link to Guardian article in title. Gordon Brown's cabinet contains three fewer women that Tony Blair's, although he has appointed the first ever female home secretary. Tony Blair's cabinet contained the highest ever number of women - eight, a third of the entire cabinet; previously only nine women had made it to Cabinet level. However, the three women who have left the Cabinet - Patricia Hewitt,

UK doctors call for easier access to abortion

2007-06-29T14:46:00.001+01:00

Via the Today programme, feministing and the Guardian.Doctors at the BMA's annual conference backed a call to remove the legal requirement for women to obtain permission from two doctors before undergoing a termination in the first three months of pregnancy.

Annoying women's mag shocker

2007-06-29T14:33:00.000+01:00

Via feministing, this is really depressing. Marie-Claire equates the burkini with a freakshow and then features and then... well have a look. Bleurgh.When will women's mags feature things we want to read? Sigh.

Crazy judge gives lenient sentence to rapist of ten year old girl

2007-06-29T14:24:00.001+01:00

I'm sure most of you saw this. What the hell was going on there? As though how someone's dressed makes any rape a lesser crime somehow, aside from the fact that this was a ten year old girl. Christ.

Ms, Miss or Mrs?

2007-06-29T13:55:00.001+01:00

An article from the Guardian about the title Ms and how no-one uses it or see it as important anymore. To the point where an American company defines it as "the legal definition of Ms was a woman who was formerly married." What?I still use it, though mainly on forms where it's an option, if not I'll add it where possible. What title do you use on forms, or in real life? Does it get a reaction?

Ms Nasty

2007-06-29T11:48:00.000+01:00

I've just come across a discussion in Another Place about the use of Ms instead of Miss or Mrs, and I'm fair squeaking with grumpiness. Sample quotes from women there include:"I've always hated "Ms"- both the way it sounds and its chippy connotations","I think that the argument that your marital status is no-one's business is outdated; it is a hangover from a time when people would form

Anti-abortion campaigners target school sexual health services

2007-06-26T09:50:00.000+01:00

From the Guardian. This is really worrying, anti-abortion campaigners are now having a go at school sexual heath services for handing out morning-after pills, which they seem to equate with abortion. These groups are promoting abstinence drives and citing lower pregnancy figures in the US as proof that teaching abstinence only works. Gah.

London feminist network

2007-06-26T09:26:00.000+01:00

Via Feministing, and following on from posts about personal art work and street harrassment, one of London Feminist Network's projects as part of their Reclaim the Night campaign is collecting clothing that women were wearing when harrassed:Based on similar campaigns in India we are launching an “I DID NOT ASK FOR IT UK” campaign. We are asking women to send us garments they were wearing when

Street Harrassment

2007-06-25T13:40:00.000+01:00

Another thing we were discussing at the group the other week. The links via Feministing are problematic and bring up issues of race in the US alongside this form of harrassment. Still, some of the comments make sobering reading. It happens to women everywhere. Sigh.

Club des Femmes film festival

2007-06-24T13:23:00.000+01:00

A friend is curating this new twice-yearly festival of queer and feminist film."Welcome to Club des Femmes's Summer Camp for Girls, a shaded, leafy space in the hot glare of contemporary conservatism. At Summer Camp this year relive the freedom of punk as Club des Femmes revisits Vivienne Dick, Sadie Benning, Lizzie Borden - filmmakers who defined a new world order and gave back to girls the

Women, art and relationships

2007-06-22T09:50:00.000+01:00

From the Guardian, an article about French conceptual artist Sophie Calle turning heartbreak into what sounds like a wonderful work. I always feel uneasy about this kind of personal conceptual stuff, as though you're intruding somehow. Though I also feel uneasy about the criticism that women artists like Tracey Emin get for airing their dirty linen in public. The comment always seem tinged with a

And here's another fucking dreadful ad....

2007-06-22T09:45:00.001+01:00

Courtesy of the f-word's blog:The small writing at the bottom reads: PS2. Because your girlfriend bores you shitless. Do these people think women don't buy computer games?

This is just priceless

2007-06-22T09:39:00.000+01:00

Talking about body image... Ohmigod, I'm speechless at this yoghurt ad, via Feministing. Apparently Brazilian women need to know how they might look (pretty good actually, fuckos!) if they eat too much full-fat yoghurt. Argh.

That Beth Ditto nude cover...

2007-06-21T16:27:00.000+01:00

I meant to post about this a while back and the Israeli women soldiers reminded me. There's been much talk about her nude cover and lots of debate as to whether she should've done it, from both feminists and other numbskulls who took it upon themselves to be disgusted by the picture all over the internet.Personally, I think the fact that we find a picture like this so shocking says a lot about

The education 'gender gap'

2007-06-21T12:37:00.000+01:00

An interesting article about the 'gender gap' in UK education - because only 30% of boys take A-levels, compared to 40% of girls, but the same proportion of each sex apply to university, the government may not achieve its goal of sending 50% of young people to university. Interesting to see that not only do some sources suggest that girls do better than boys at school, but also...pupils who

Review of abortion laws

2007-06-21T12:30:00.000+01:00

There is to be a House of Commons review of the abortion laws, in light of the fact that medical advances mean that ever more premature babies are able to survive. I didn't know that the time limit of 24 weeks for abortion was lowered in 1990 from 28 weeks in the Abortion Act. The review is not going to take 'moral or ethical' issues into account.Abortions continue to increase by a small amount

Israeli women soldiers strip off for tourism

2007-06-21T09:44:00.000+01:00

The Israeli consulate in New York came up with this bright idea to boost Israel's image with American men. Charming. Via the Guardian, Feministing and the BBC.

Cervical cancer vaccine

2007-06-19T17:39:00.000+01:00

A life-saving vaccine against cervical cancer could be offered to all young girls in their first year at secondary school in the UK. Good news, you'd think, eh? Only some are not seeing it that way according to the Guardian's Kira Cochrane...

A couple of old articles

2007-06-12T14:45:00.000+01:00

A slightly negative review of Imelda Whelehan's Overloaded in the Guardian, and an article about the Miss World competition (in 1999) in which she talks to Melissa Benn about 'ironic' sexism.

'Right to breastfeed' to be made law?

2007-06-12T14:14:00.000+01:00

Report on a Green paper about making the 'right to breastfeed' in public a legal right, and to give women 'equal rights' in private men's clubs. Did anyone hear the awful old buffer on the Today programme claiming that men were second class citizens because they don't get family allowance and they can't join the Women's Institute? The mind boggles!

The Hollywood "celluloid ceiling"

2007-06-04T12:17:00.000+01:00

Via Feministing, Jane Campion admits to feeling lonely on the Cannes directors' podium in USA TodayWhen Jane Campion was honored onstage at the Cannes Film Festival with about 30 other major directors Sunday, she was the lone woman of the bunch. And she's still not used to how strange that feels.

Drinking when pregnant advice: sensible precaution or patronising paternalism?

2007-05-29T13:47:00.000+01:00

New government advice warns women not to drink any alcohol at all when pregnant, changing their line from previous advice which was to drink only a small amount - comments here and here in the Guardian. (The second one is by Zoe Williams and pretty nonsensical, sorry.) Is this a sensible precaution, given that doctors estimate that 7,500 foetuses are harmed every year by pregnant women drinking?

Making trouble - the seventies women's movement remembered

2007-05-29T13:43:00.000+01:00

The lovely Melissa Benn (daughter of Tony, and author of Madonna and child, an excellent book about the feminist politics of motherhood) reviews the equally fab Lynne Segal's autobiography in the Guardian last week. I love these fantastic enthusiastic seventies feminists.And more nostalgia for the second wave feminists in this lovely article about the sixties by Margaret Drabble.

Women in Refrigerators

2007-05-29T11:19:00.000+01:00

Following on from my rant about Spiderman, here's a link to a blog that's about the representation of women in comics. (Thanks, Katherine!) This is a list I made when it occurred to me that it's not that healthy to be a female character in comics. I'm curious to find out if this list seems somewhat disproportionate, and if so, what it means, really. These are superheroines who have been either

Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed

2007-05-25T11:17:00.000+01:00

Via Guernica magazine, an interview with Yanar Mohammed, the founder of Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) which I've posted about previously.

Women in need of rescue?

2007-05-21T12:19:00.001+01:00

I went to see Spiderman 3 last night and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting having read reviews and heard friends slate the film. I thought the Sandman effects were striking and action was entertaining, but, I found myself more and more annoyed by the simpering Mary-Jane who was helpless and whiny in equal parts. Maybe I'm remembering this all wrong but wasn't Mary-Jane suppose to be quite

A new Iraq for Women?

2007-05-18T11:17:00.000+01:00

I always seem to be posting about the horrific treatment of women in war zones, don't I? Pretty shocking accounts of life for women in Iraq right now. This article also has details of how we can help see below. The geek in me is also fascinated with the underground railroad that takes at risk women to safety. The Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq runs shelters for battered women in four

This is lovely

2007-05-18T10:29:00.000+01:00

Here's a lovely game for a Friday: anti-feminist bingo. Points for getting a line in any direction and for a full house...

And what's more...

2007-05-17T15:15:00.001+01:00

...it's not even the worst article in this month's issue!

Men have issues too

2007-05-17T14:35:00.000+01:00

The marvellous spitting mad blog directed me to this article about how men feel pain too (link in title). Now I have nothing against male pain; I think a major part of the problem with our patriarchal society is that it forces both men and women into certain roles, and while women have traditionally been the weaker party, it's not necessarily any more fulfilling for a man to be forced into the

Name and Shame...

2007-05-16T13:31:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the cheesy title, but I couldn't resist...This is a really interesting article on the issue of taking your husband's name, and naming your child. Like Bridget Appleby, I have been surprised at the amount of female friends who have gone back to the tradition of taking their husband's surname when getting married. She goes on to talk about her reasons for wanting to give her daughter

Sisterhood? Sigh...

2007-05-14T09:52:00.000+01:00

So I was in Peacocks at the weekend and noticed that they're currently selling a line of canvas bags emblazoned with the slogan 'Your boyfriend thinks I'm hot'. With perfect timing, the Pussycat Dolls's Dontcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me came on the music system.Now I know some men like to think we all spend our time squabbling over them, but really!

Blondes have more fun?

2007-05-11T14:18:00.000+01:00

Funny article (link in title, via Things magazine) about being a blonde woman or a bottle blonde and the social meanings of blondeness.Sigmund Freud would have had a field day. At this week's Allan Border Medal - Australian cricket's glittering night of nights - the players were almost overshadowed. All their wives or girlfriends, bar only one, were strikingly blonde. Freud's conclusion,

Feminist artists

2007-05-11T09:49:00.000+01:00

A report from the Guardian on a new show at the Camden Arts Centre and the renaissance of feminist art. Interesting that some women artists still feel this definition limits them and means their work will be dismissed: "The minute you define your art in those terms, people dismiss it as something they have seen before," said another. And most agreed that feminist politics do not attract

Old buffer talks nonsense

2007-05-10T11:28:00.000+01:00

The BBC is going to the dogs because it is 'run by women', old right wing buffer Patrick Moore says.Not one Director General of the BBC has ever been female, Wikipedia says.

Women in Eastern Congo

2007-05-10T11:25:00.001+01:00

Interesting report on Eastern Congo on Radio 4's Today programme this morning, though the link above doesn't seem to have updated to today's report which was about the women of Eastern Congo. In recent years thousands of women have been subjected to rape and violence by militia groups. Many of these men have been imprisoned but are either escaping or buying their way out of prison by the sounds

Some good news

2007-05-10T11:25:00.000+01:00

Thank goodness, the Irish teenager who wanted to travel to the UK to have her seriously brain-damaged foetus aborted has been allowed to. Common sense prevails, although how stupid that the case had to be dragged through the courts before she was allowed to do this.

Perfect girls, starving daughters

2007-05-10T11:14:00.000+01:00

There's an interesting looking book out by one of the contributors to the feministing blog: Perfect girls, starving daughters by Courtney Martin is about body image, particularly in teenagers, and the pressures on young women to conform to a certain body type and look - with relation to mental illness and eating disorders. Looks interesting. Possible group choice in future?If you go to Courtney

On the mothering imperative

2007-05-09T11:31:00.000+01:00

Also on the subject of motherhood; I'm a woman in my mid thirties and this is a very real issue for me. I regularly veer between panic at the social pressure and my own biological clock ticking (apologies for the cliché) and feeling indignant that this is suddenly the only major achievement that some expect of me or are interested in. It's hard not to let the "hurry, hurry, we're all doomed"

Home births... and free births?

2007-05-09T10:05:00.000+01:00

I'm enormously pleased by Patricia Hewitt's proposal to make home birth available to all women in Britain, as I've always wanted to give birth at home (when I get round to having children, of course). There's been some debate about the idea in the Guardian: here, here and here; and today G2 includes an article on free birth - giving birth not only at home, but without any medical attention and

Irish abortion case decided this afternoon

2007-05-09T09:53:00.000+01:00

The High Court in the Republic of Ireland will decide this afternoon whether to let a teenage girl leave the country for an abortion. The foetus she is carrying has a brain disease which means it will only survive for a couple of days after birth. Link in title to a news report. According to the Guardian, about 7,000 women travel from Ireland to Britain every year to have abortions.