Blog posts from April 2009
Time to call out another privilege……
By Suzi FemAcadem | 30 April 2009, 20:55
And of course the privilege I am speaking of, is Thin Privilege. Edited to add: Anji from Shut up, Sit down, has also blogged about Thin Privilege, and you can find her post here I have to say, I agree…
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Sure, you can have a cookie…
By Jess McCabe | 30 April 2009, 15:21
One of those phrases that floats around the femosphere is talk about people “wanting a cookie”, in recognition of their great contribution to the fight against kyriarchy, through, for example, not raping anyone, or perhaps grasping some basic point of…
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Female journalists expected to humiliate themselves for column inches
By Jess McCabe | 29 April 2009, 12:30
UPDATE: As Steph points out, Jill Parkin has been responsible for articles like this one about schools being ‘feminised’. I also found this, erm, interesting Mail column headlined “Why does food drive so many women insane?” and this anti-fat column….
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Feminists in Israel arrested for ‘encouraging’ draft-dodging
By Jess McCabe | 29 April 2009, 11:03
Seven members of Israeli feminist group New Profile have been arrested, reports Haaretz, “for allegedly encouraging Israeli teens to refuse entry into the Israel Defense Forces”. A coalition of 20 Israeli feminist groups has writen to Public Security Minister Yitzhak…
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“Now even Top Gear could fall foul of Harman sexism law”
By Laura Woodhouse | 29 April 2009, 10:23
…whinges the Daily Fail in just one example of the kind of pathetic complaints emanating from the more privileged corners of our green and pleasant land since the release of the Equality Bill. Now, I bloody love Top Gear, even…
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Equality Bill
By Jess McCabe | 28 April 2009, 16:51
The government has finally come out with its Equality Bill, bringing together (and hopefully improving on) nine seperate pieces of legislation and 100 other measures. Harriet Harman’s proposals on how to close the pay gap seem to be getting the…
New feature: Stink bombing the beauty pagaent
By Jess McCabe | 28 April 2009, 11:26
Protesters from Smash Miss Contest sneaked into the Miss London University beauty contest, releasing stinkbombs and distributing letters to the audience. Sarah Levack reports The final of the Miss University London Beauty Contest took place on Tuesday 10 March. We…
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A round-up
By Jess McCabe | 27 April 2009, 22:18
Italy’s Senate has passed legislation which toughens the sentencing for rape, and makes stalking a criminal offense. Unfortunately, it’s far from all good. The legislation was only passed by including a number of noxious anti-immigrant stipulations, including vigilante groups and…
Mary Wollstonecraft’s 250th birthday
By Jess McCabe | 27 April 2009, 19:23
Mary Wollstonecraft was born 250 years ago today. Celebrate by reading her famous tract, The Vindication of the Rights of Women. Or maybe one of her two novels, both, confusingly, titled Mary. According to Wikipedia: In her first novel, Mary:…
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Sex-ed to be made compulsory(ish)
By Lynne Miles | 27 April 2009, 16:48
Under a somewhat misleading headline, the Guardian informs us that 5-year olds will be getting compulsory sex ed. Halfway down the article it’s finally clear that PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), the currently optional element of the school curriculum…
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New feature: A woman… and a geek?
By Jess McCabe | 25 April 2009, 22:03
Geeky women have a lot to put up with, from sexist portrays of women in their favourite media to friends, family and coworkers doubting their competence, says Wisrutta Atthakor. But why should female geeks give up on what they’re interested…
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Lilith’s Brood
By Jess McCabe | 25 April 2009, 16:20
I couldn’t resist doing a bit of a mini-review of Octavia Butler’s trilogy Lilith’s Brood (formerly published as Xenogenesis). I just finished it, and it’s surely one of the most complex and interesting books I’ve read in a good while….
Guest post: The Femagazinist Initiative
By Guest Blogger | 23 April 2009, 17:10
Charlotte Cooper, from Subtext Magazine, talks us through a project to support feminist magazines over ‘women’s’ mags The Femagazinist Initiative gleefully caught my eye this week when I noticed it’s Facebook group was using a cover from an issue of…
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Earth Day and feminism
By Jess McCabe | 23 April 2009, 15:24
Yesterday was Earth Day across the pond, a day established in 1970 to foster awareness of the Earth’s environment. (Global Earth Day was on the March equinox). No, this isn’t another moan about the general failure to consider the links…
Angie Zapata’s killer found guilty.
By Laura Woodhouse | 23 April 2009, 11:00
Allen Andrade was last night found guilty of both first degree murder and bias motivation (hate crime) in his killing of the 18 year old Angie Zapata last summer. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The prosecution…
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It’s official, Boris will not fund the promised rape crisis centres for London
By Jess McCabe | 22 April 2009, 14:41
London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday confirmed that he will not fund three new rape crisis centres for London, almost the only part of his election platform that had any merit. We had wind of this back in December last year,…
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Live Through This - Edinburgh
By Jess McCabe | 21 April 2009, 12:31
Live Through This is a collection of essays and stories which explore the link between creativity and self destruction, between being a survivor and creating art. It’s a fantastic, but incredibly difficult book to read, because of the subject matter…
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Mothers For Women’s Lib
By Laura Woodhouse | 20 April 2009, 11:49
I just wanted to highlight an excellent UK blog on feminist motherhood and childcare, Mothers For Women’s Lib: Feminism changes a mother, and motherhood changes a feminist - here is a place for us to talk about raising our children…
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Times cartoon on Jacqui Smith
By Jess McCabe | 20 April 2009, 10:25
Via Cath Elliot and Caroline at Uncool As Cath says: Can someone please tell the nation’s esteemed political cartoonists/satirists to change the record and start coming up with something a bit more imaginative (and funny!) ‘cos this public school-boy crap’s…
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New review: Feminism and Peter Pan
By Jess McCabe | 19 April 2009, 22:35
JM Barrie’s creation Peter Pan has an enduring popularity. Allison McCarthy digs into the sexist and racist history of the play and novel, and how this has been addressed in modern adaptations In a world rife with contradictions, here’s one…
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Angie Zapata
By Jess McCabe | 19 April 2009, 11:28
Angie Zapata was brutally murdered in Colorado last summer: Allen Andrade is currently on trial in the US, accused of her murder. It is the first time that anyone has been prosecuted in the US under hate crime legislation which…
Sarah Haskins on euphemisms…
By Jess McCabe | 18 April 2009, 20:29
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Magdalene
By Jess McCabe | 18 April 2009, 16:15
Just a quick one: I have to recommend listening to the latest episode of Renee from Womanist Musings and Monica from TransGriot’s podcast. They talk to women from the Magdalene programme, a two-year residential programme for women who want to…
Fat is the new Folk Devil
By Suzi FemAcadem | 18 April 2009, 09:22
So the Department of Health is continuing it’s relentless assault upon those of us, who are just bad citizens for not being automatically skinny. The latest campaign in their series of adverts designed to make fat people todays folk devil…
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Council strikes blow for gender equality, cuts women’s pay by 25%
By Lynne Miles | 17 April 2009, 19:46
Sheffield City Council has announced a salary restructuring as a result of the onerous duty of gender equality legislation. Apparently the unreasonable burden of having to pay the workers equally for doing similar jobs has caused them a great deal…
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Tanya Gold on Susan Boyle
By Lynne Miles | 17 April 2009, 19:35
In today’s Guardian, Tanya Gold points out the misogyny inherent in the reaction to Susan Boyle, the by now infamous Scottish woman who has emerged as the favourite to win Britain’s Got Talent. Susan got an incredibly hard time from…
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Guest post: Time to complain to the ASA again…
By Guest Blogger | 17 April 2009, 18:53
Reader Anber Raz explains why an advert for IT equipment has been raising her hackles. Getting off the train at Waterloo station in London I was stunned to see this poster which shows the mugshot of Hugh Grant following his…
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Friday roundup
By Jess McCabe | 17 April 2009, 14:32
Vivirlatino sketches out the history of forced sterilisations in Peru during Alberto Fujimori’s time in office. Fujimori has just been sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights violations, but as Maegan notes, the sterilisation of hundreds of thousands…
Guest post: Rape in The Bill
By Guest Blogger | 16 April 2009, 21:22
In this guest post, Amy Clare considers how The Bill tackled a rape storyline I have to admit it: I’m a fan of The Bill. It’s the only soap I regularly watch, and usually I find it an entertaining hour…
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Gender and sexual politics in India and beyond
By Jess McCabe | 16 April 2009, 13:54
On Sunday, the British Library is hosting a panel discussion on “gender and sexual politics in India and beyond”, which has a fantastic line-up: Panelists for this debate will include Salma, self-educated poet and novelist in Tamil; publisher, historian ……
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Gist or Gette: how effective is direct action?
By zohra moosa | 16 April 2009, 13:08
I’ve been ruminating on ‘direct action’ more than usual over the last few weeks. It was promted during my participation in Awaaz’s G20 march, and then hung out at the G20 protests. I had quite opposite experiences at each…
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New feature: For the good of the species?
By Jess McCabe | 16 April 2009, 12:07
If you believe one story on a popular science news site, there’s proof that older men “chasing” younger women benefits humankind (or should that be mankind?) Eirwen-Jane Pierrot considers the impact of these sensationalist claims on women in the real…
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Can you help us redesign The F-Word?
By Jess McCabe | 15 April 2009, 22:57
Much as we love The F-Word, we’ve been thinking for a while now that the site (the whole of The F-Word, not just the blog) needs a bit of a revamp*. If there are any fantastic web designers out there,…
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Will targets drive up rape conviction rate?
By Jess McCabe | 15 April 2009, 17:43
The police has been… well… embarassed into doing something about their abysmal record on dealing with rape cases, in response to two high profile cases - John Worboys, who managed to attack an estimated 100 women, and Kirk Reid, who…
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French Elle puts French stars on cover, sans makeup, sans Photoshop
By Jess McCabe | 14 April 2009, 16:42
The French version of Elle magazine is putting various stars on the cover without makeup or Photoshop for its April issue. The one I’ve posted here is of the director, actor and novelist Sophie Marceau. But you can go check…
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Art project on women in prison wants clothes donations
By Jess McCabe | 13 April 2009, 19:39
Artist Eva Merz is working on a project called What Are They Doing In There? about “women in prison, criminal justice, politics, media and the public”. She’s looking for donations of women’s clothing, which will be made into a “human…
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Amazonfail
By Jess McCabe | 13 April 2009, 09:45
UPDATE 2: Well, we finally did receive a reply - the same statement admitting culpability that has been circulating around the blogs and media. In light of this, we’ve restored links to The F-Word shop. UPDATE: We’ve still received no…
Being Human - Mini Review
By Catherine Redfern | 11 April 2009, 11:03
I have tried to avoid major spoilers in this post, but feel free to let rip in the comments. I recently finished watching Being Human, BBC Three’s drama about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost in a flat share,…
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Women: Oh! We are Awful!
By Holly Combe | 9 April 2009, 20:00
We’ve heard it all before. A celebrity laments that, contrary to apparently popular opinion, women are actually incredibly horrid and the idea of “sisterhood” is a myth. The media then delightedly seizes upon it in a sexist frenzy to imply…
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May 17: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
By Laura Woodhouse | 9 April 2009, 18:14
May 17 will mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia: It was founded by Louis Georges Tin in 2005. Campaigns and inititives take place on or around May 17th every year to combat prejudice against LGBT people. May 17th…
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Question Time with Jo Brand
By Laura Woodhouse | 9 April 2009, 12:15
Great interview with Jo Brand in the Guardian today, full of so many choice quotes that I want to copy and paste the whole damn thing, but here’s my favourites: Do you think the majority of male comedians are sexist?…
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Asian Women Carnival launches
By Jess McCabe | 7 April 2009, 14:21
The first Asian Women Carnival has been posted on the yennega community LiveJournal. It’s a massive collection of posts, mostly from LJ, and I haven’t had time yet to read through everything, but some of the great posts I have…
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Monday round-up…!
By Jess McCabe | 6 April 2009, 23:19
A report by prison inspectors has highlighted the situation for black and ethnic minority women behind bars: However, there is, as yet, no diversity strategy and no guidance on the commissioning of services for minority groups such as women and…
PES Member Party Elects Woman Leader
By Holly Combe | 6 April 2009, 22:10
A press release for the Party of European Socialists (PES) announced today that the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) has has joined a growing number of PES member parties with women leaders and shown “the PES is the party of gender…
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Ever wondered about the UK feminist community?
By Catherine Redfern | 6 April 2009, 20:08
I have. For example: What issues concern today’s feminists? What do they think about the feminist movement today? How old are they? Who inspires them, what actions do they take part in, and how did they end up calling…
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Maternity leave- will this help?
By Suzi FemAcadem | 6 April 2009, 10:51
The BBC recently reported on proposed changes to maternity leave, designed, apparently to make it more equal. These changes, would see paid maternity leave cut from nine months, to six months, with Fathers allowed to take 4 months before the…
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Michelle Obama speaks to Inner London schoolgirls
By Lynne Miles | 5 April 2009, 23:27
In between wearing controversial cardigans and hugging the Queen (and from the press coverage you’d be forgiven for thinking that was all she’d been doing), Michelle Obama took time to speak to pupils at the all-girls Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school…
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More Sarah Haskins!
By Jess McCabe | 5 April 2009, 23:14
Fast food: Homicide reality TV: Lifetime:…
Trafficked boys in China
By Lynne Miles | 5 April 2009, 21:21
In case we need a reminder why feminism might conceivably benefit everyone (not just women) look no further than this very sad New York Times article. It focuses on the increasing incidence of abduction of small boys in China. The…
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‘Sizzling G20 Wives’ - the round-up
By Jess McCabe | 5 April 2009, 09:09
While the G20 met to discuss the global financial situation, Oxfam released a report on the impact of the recession on women in developing countries. The charity says the denial of basic working rights is increasing. It quoted Xiao Hong…
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Wetlands
By Jess McCabe | 4 April 2009, 22:24
So I just read Wetlands by Charlotte Roche, hailed (on the back cover at least) as evoking “the voice of JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the perversion of JG Ballard’s Crash and the feminist agenda of Germaine Greer’s…
Programme for Race, Privilege & Identity gathering in Bristol up now
By Jess McCabe | 3 April 2009, 12:09
The folks behind the Race, Privilege & Identity gathering in Bristol on 24-26 April have published the whole programme on their blog. Sounds like there’s some interesting workshops during the three-day event, including one on how to do an anti-racist…
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‘Derailing for Dummies’
By Jess McCabe | 3 April 2009, 11:58
Someone has gifted to the internet Derailing for Dummies, a satirical (and yet, also serious) takedown of silencing tactics commonly used against marginalised groups. The tagline is “a simple, step-by-step guide to derailing awkward conversations by dismissing and trivialising your…
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Claire Taylor named Wisden Cricketer of the Year
By Carrie Dunn | 3 April 2009, 11:48
The brilliant Claire Taylor, leading scorer in the England World Cup victory last month, has been named one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the year. She’s the first woman in the award’s 120-year history to be given the accolade. Well…
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Adapting Dickens… versus “vulgarising Dickens”
By Jess McCabe | 2 April 2009, 23:15
The Big Hollywood blog is up-in-arms about a BBC and PBS co-production of Oliver Twist*. More specifically, the blog is up-in-arms at the perceived “vulgarising” of the book, by: Casting Sophie Okonedo as Nancy Yep, they are arguing that casting…
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Porn, Parents and the responsibility argument.
By Suzi FemAcadem | 1 April 2009, 23:00
So like Laura I’ve been watching the Channel 4 Sex Education Show. Whilst I found Tuesday nights installment troubling due to a) the overwhelming and unbearable heteronormative aspect of it, and b) the ridiculous giggling and immaturity of the presenter,…
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New guest blogger… Suzi!
By Jess McCabe | 1 April 2009, 16:43
It’s a new month and we’ve got a new guest blogger to welcome, Suzi from Femacadem.net and organiser of the Oxford Feminist Network: Suzi is currently a student doing a degree in social sciences at Ruskin College and has a…
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