Blog posts from December 2010
Women in conflict - our government’s rhetoric or resolution?
by Guest Blogger // 31 December 2010, 17:35
Natalie Sharples is campaigns officer for No Women, No Peace., a campaign by Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS UK), a network of 14 NGOs working on women and peacebuilding On 25 November, the government announced Home Office Minister...
Legal aid cuts will disproportionately affect women
by Laura Woodhouse // 30 December 2010, 12:15
Cuts to legal aid for people facing issues relating to divorce, housing, employment, immigration, debt and welfare benefits will amount to £600m per year and hit women hardest, according to the government's own equality impact assessment of the proposal. The...
Weekly round-up and open thread (21-27 December)
by Jess McCabe // 27 December 2010, 22:41
It's our weekly open thread and round-up of all the things that fell through the blogging net. Please do add your own links or chat away in comments. Standard disclaimer: linking to something is not an enduring seal of approval...
A very quick note on Assange
by Laura Woodhouse // 23 December 2010, 21:02
Unfortunately I haven't had the time to blog about or fully research the Assange case, but I do want to quickly say that: 1) Certain people on the Left need to realise that all kinds of men commit sexual assault...
On comments: part II
by Laura Woodhouse // 23 December 2010, 19:36
Previously, I described some of the challenges we face moderating comments on the blog, and highlighted the fact that we feel we are spending too much time and energy on the process, resulting in reduced blog content. We have discussed...
Be our guest
by Lynne Miles // 22 December 2010, 11:22
About this time last year we put out a call for guest bloggers to bring new voices and perspectives to the site. We had a fantastic response and we loved having the guest bloggers (some of whom have gone on...
Weekly round-up and open thread (14-20 December)
by Holly Combe // 20 December 2010, 16:42
It's that time of the week again for flagging up the material we didn't get around to covering in detail on the blog but want to let you know about. As ever, we're just sharing links to articles that...
Stop the Blame campaign
by Helen G // 17 December 2010, 15:00
The Welsh Assembly Government has started a Stop Blame campaign to bust myths around rape and sexual assault. In a Press Release issued today (17 December) Paula Hardy, Chief Executive of Welsh Women’s Aid, said: "A woman is never responsible...
Don't Be On The Giving End
by Philippa Willitts // 16 December 2010, 18:00
Philippa writes with frustration about a new domestic violence campaign which urges people to 'not be on the receiving end' of domestic violence.
New review - Woman's Work: Short Stories
by Jess McCabe // 16 December 2010, 15:50
Hayley Foster da Silva reviews this wide-ranging collection of short stories by women Woman's Work: Short Stories is an anthology with one common theme: all 40 of the short stories are written by women. Published by independent GirlChild Press and...
Media adds insult to injury for disabled protester
by Laura Woodhouse // 14 December 2010, 20:44
My Facebook feed is full of people up in arms about this BBC interview with Jody McIntyre, a political activist with cerebral palsy who was pulled from his wheelchair and attacked by the police during last week's student protests in...
Wikileaks reveals how irrelevant women's rights are to US diplomacy?
by Jess McCabe // 14 December 2010, 12:00
A selective survey of the diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks found that women's rights are not mentioned. Women's eNews commissioned a reporter to read through about 200 cables from 40 countries - only a small sample, but the conclusion...
4Thought: Jesus just part of the patriarchy
by Laura Woodhouse // 13 December 2010, 21:51
Tonight's 4Thought provided a sharp counterpoint to the episode I blogged a few months back, in which Miranda Threllfall-Jones argued that Jesus was a feminist. In this episode, radical feminist Julia Long asserts that Jesus promoted patriarchy and patronised disabled...
The four Rape Crisis centres in London - where they are and how to find them
by Jess McCabe // 13 December 2010, 20:36
All three of the extra rape crisis centres promised by Boris Johnson are now up and running. London now has four Rape Crisis centres, one each in the North, South, East and West. There's also a Rape Crisis London website,...
New feature: Are you feminist enough?
by Jess McCabe // 13 December 2010, 08:54
Wearing your politics on your sleeve can be hard if you’re not in an explicitly feminist setting. Annika Spalding mulls over the challenge It wasn't until I started working for a women's organisation that I realised I was a feminist....
Weekly Round-Up and Open Thread
by Abby O'Reilly // 13 December 2010, 08:00
Hello Dear F Word Readers, Here’s this week’s list of news articles that we’ve not had time to blog about. As always, if anything interesting has caught your eye that we’ve missed out, share the wealth in the comments section....
Scrawl on us: comments November 2010
by Jess McCabe // 12 December 2010, 17:10
The November edition of our round-up of comments on features and reviews is up and ready for your reading pleasure. Kudos once again to Helen G, who does the job of coding up and organising all the comments each month,...
Search malfunction
by Jess McCabe // 12 December 2010, 12:18
I've had a few emails about the search box on the site: yes, it's broken! While we work out what's wrong and fix it, if you need to search The F-Word, you can do it via Google, like this: search...
Huge success for Run for Congo Women UK
by Guest Blogger // 12 December 2010, 10:23
It’s only been three weeks since the second UK Run for Congo Women took place on 13 November. It was such a huge success, we’ve already started planning the next. The 37-strong team braved the November elements, refused to...
Support feminist media: Women's eNews
by Guest Blogger // 11 December 2010, 22:08
In this guest post, Charlotte Cooper explains what Women's eNews does and calls for donations For those of you that don’t know, Women’s eNews is an award winning nonprofit news service based in New York and covering international news. With...
The man box
by Jess McCabe // 11 December 2010, 09:00
Tony Porter, co-founder of A Call to Men, talks about his own life experiences, the restrictions men face by trying to fit into the oppressive "man box", and also the damage this can do to women. (Trigger warning: this talk...
Women’s rights ARE human rights - but for some, those rights are more attainable than for others
by Guest Blogger // 10 December 2010, 13:37
Bridget Phillipson MP travelled to Bangladesh as a supporter of One World Action’s More Women More Power campaign, which seeks to give voice to the world’s most marginalised women. You can contact Bridget directly on Facebook or Twitter. For most...
On Comments: Part I
by Laura Woodhouse // 9 December 2010, 19:44
If there's one thing everyone who has blogged at The F-Word can agree on, it's that moderating comments is hard work. We think it's about time we let you in on our behind-the-scenes conversations and frustrations, plus the solutions we...
New feature: Dark angels
by Jess McCabe // 9 December 2010, 12:40
Roxanne Bibizadeh considers the experiences of women who choose to wear the manteau Two girls were walking to their usual bench in the playground; the only difference was the floating black cloth gracefully sweeping over the grey pavement. She stuck...
Reminder: If you shop at Amazon, please support The F Word!
by Catherine Redfern // 6 December 2010, 19:16
(With apologies to regular readers, who will recognise this post from November! Of course, if you prefer not to shop at Amazon, we'd urge you to support your local independent bookshop instead.) If you are planning on buying presents via...
Weekly Round Up and Open Thread
by Shiha Kaur // 6 December 2010, 17:23
Welcome to this week's Weekly Round Up and Open Thread! Support service for LGBT asylum seekers set up in Scotland Season 1 of Vag Magazine wraps up - the cupcakes! The Other F-Word: The Disappearance of Feminism from Our Fiction...
Fawcett refused judicial review of Budget
by Jess McCabe // 6 December 2010, 15:30
UPDATED to add Fawcett's response. The Fawcett Society has been refused a judicial review of the emergency budget. Fawcett was arguing that the Treasury did not carry out a gender audit of the budget, which it is legally required to...
New feature: Finding feminism
by Jess McCabe // 5 December 2010, 19:38
Josh Hadley charts his journey from teenage dismissal to identifying as pro-feminist I discovered that I was a pro-feminist kinda guy quite late - probably sometime in my mid-20s. Through most of my teens, I bought the party line on...
EVAW Day and the Bristol City Council
by Guest Blogger // 3 December 2010, 17:15
This is a guest post by Sian Norris ------------ On the 25th November, the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls was celebrated by the Bristol City Council with an exhibition of art and writing...
New review: Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st Century Household
by Jess McCabe // 2 December 2010, 21:47
This is a collection of excerpts from the text books used to teach early 20th century schoolgirls home economics. The material has been uncritically repackaged and marketed to 21st century women, says Victoria Dutchman-Smith Husbands! Now that Christmas is approaching,...
New review: Villa Amalia
by Jess McCabe // 2 December 2010, 17:18
Composer Ann Hidden discovers her partner cheating on her - uproots her life and moves to Italy. Villa Amalia is refreshingly free of homilies and simple explanations, but Gloria Dawson finds it too enigmatic Composer and pianist Ann Hidden (played...
NUS Protest outside Lynne Featherstone's office 8th December
by Lynne Miles // 2 December 2010, 13:08
We've just had an email from Olivia Bailey, the NUS national women's officer, calling for women to protest outside the office of the Lib Dem Minister for Women and Equalities. This will be one action as part of their...
Changing our relationship to our bodies
by Jess McCabe // 1 December 2010, 23:28
Women's messed-up relationship to our bodies has been exhaustively documented. Jezebel has up an interesting post which looks at how some of their readers have shifted from viewing their bodies in negative ways, towards, as one commenter put it, viewing...
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
