Blog posts from October 2010
Quick hit: Stephen Fry misquoted?
by Jess McCabe // 31 October 2010, 23:39
Stephen Fry says he was misquoted over comments suggesting that women just don't like sex. Misquoted or quoted, taken out of context or not, Fry's reported remarks include gems like: I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women...
Interview with TNTT: Covering 'Closer'
by Jess McCabe // 29 October 2010, 13:24
Argentinian electro-pop-rock duo TNTT are the latest in a string of acts to cover NIN's classic hit 'Closer'. Due out on 15 November, you can listen to a preview on the band's MySpace or download the HouseHood remix here. No...
Katie Makkai's Pretty
by Jolene Tan // 29 October 2010, 08:55
Check out this powerful poetry slam performance by Katie Makkai, indicting the beauty imperative and its hollow, reductive joylessness....
Sisyphus and feminist burn out
by Jess McCabe // 28 October 2010, 22:39
We all get it: the dreaded burnout. Those Sisyphus moments, where you feel like all the energy and effort that has been poured into making change is just not producing anything. Earlier this year, Bidisha wrote a rabble rousing piece...
UFFC march to Downing Street this weekend
by Helen G // 28 October 2010, 15:56
Via Harpymarx comes word of the United Families and Friends Campaign march to Downing Street this weekend: United Campaign Against Police Violence is supporting the United Families and Friends Campaign march to Downing Street this weekend for justice for those...
London: Cis woman charged with murder after Kings Cross Tube station death
by Helen G // 28 October 2010, 15:50
On Tuesday evening this week (26 October), an incident on a platform of the Piccadilly line underground at Kings Cross station in London resulted in the death of a gender variant person. The newspapers have been speculating about the victim's...
Details for the London International Transgender Day of Remembrance service 2010
by Helen G // 28 October 2010, 15:44
Via Facebook, here are the details of this year's London International Transgender Day of Remembrance service: Date: Saturday, 20 November 2010 Time: 15:00 - 18:00 Location: Room LT1, the Cruciform Building, 5 University Street, London, WC1E 6JS [Streetmap] Performers, musicians,...
Women At The Cutting Edge: Feminist Fightback event this Saturday
by Laura // 27 October 2010, 22:24
Feminist Fightback are hosting "Women At the Cutting Edge" in London on Saturday, a day of discussion and networking that will enable participants to "put these cuts in a political context, link up, and share ideas and skills as we...
A day in a life that means nothing to Cameron and his cronies
by Laura // 27 October 2010, 20:46
Like many of you, no doubt, I've spent the past week screaming at the TV. This country is run by people who would rather stamp in the faces of those who are already at the bottom of the social...
Visiting Scotland!
by Catherine Redfern // 27 October 2010, 19:11
Kristin Aune and myself are heading to Glasgow and Edinburgh this week to talk about our book, Reclaiming The F Word! Here's where we'll be: Thursday 28th October (Kristin Aune only - sorry I can't make it!) Glasgow University...
Join our Campaign to report Violence Against Women and Girls in the Media in November
by Helen G // 26 October 2010, 14:24
This is a guest post by Sian Norris. Did you know that 25th November is the UN International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women? To mark the date, we’re asking the media to dedicate ONE day for every week of...
New feature: Putting survivors back in the centre of the anti-violence movement
by Jess McCabe // 25 October 2010, 22:46
Girls and women who have survived violence are increasingly marginalised and silenced by the very services set up to support them, say Sophie Taylor and Davina James-Hanman from the AVA Project The movement to stop violence against women and girls...
Weekly Round-Up and Open Thread
by Abby O'Reilly // 24 October 2010, 11:41
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....
Feminism in London 2010
by Catherine Redfern // 22 October 2010, 20:06
Tomorrow, over 1000 feminists will converge in London for the annual feminist conference in the Capital, and this year's will be HUGE. Details here Speakers include Helena Kennedy, Natasha Walter, Ceri Goddard, Nadje Al-Ali, Beverley Beech, Naana Otoo-Oyortey, Rebecca...
A step forward for bolstering EU-wide maternity and paternity leave
by Jess McCabe // 21 October 2010, 08:07
The EU Parliament has voted to extend maternity and paternity leave across the EU, so that mothers would get a minimum of 20 weeks at full pay, with fathers getting a two weeks also at full pay. EUObserver reports the...
The cuts: a disastrous blow for women's equality
by Jess McCabe // 20 October 2010, 16:49
“Taken apart, many of the measures announced today will dismay women across the UK. Add them together and they’re a disastrous blow for women’s equality.” This is the early reaction from Ceri Goddard, CEO of the Fawcett Society to today's...
Stonewall unravelling
by Helen G // 20 October 2010, 09:53
Further to my recent post Unravelling Stonewall, I'm obliged to my good friend and co-blogger Holly for sending me this link to AllMedia Scotland, which states that Stonewall has dropped its controversial nomination of Bill Leckie for their Journalist Of...
Weekly Round-Up And Open Thread, 19 October 2010
by Helen G // 19 October 2010, 08:49
Better late than punctual, here’s this week’s open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we’ve noticed but not had time to post about over the last week or so. If you have...
September feature/review comments online now
by Jess McCabe // 18 October 2010, 11:41
Belatedly, click here to read the comments round-up on features and reviews from September. From the archive this month, Sophie Platt's feature on the taboo against girls masturbating. Massive thanks again to Helen for coding and collating the comments on...
New review: Click!
by Jess McCabe // 17 October 2010, 14:52
Did you have a 'click' moment, a sudden realisation that "I am a feminist"? Or was it more gradual? Sian Norris reviews an anthology of stories about coming into a feminist identity It's that moment when something happens in your...
Unravelling Stonewall
by Helen G // 14 October 2010, 20:16
Stonewall UK, "the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity", has recently - and not for the first time - found itself the centre of perhaps unwanted attention following a number of controversial statements by its executive chief, Ben Summerskill. The tale...
It’s Time to Speak Out About ‘The A Word’ - Will You Join Us?
by Helen G // 14 October 2010, 12:11
This is a guest post by Education For Choice, who were guest bloggers here at The F-Word in April 2010. Here at Education For Choice we are wondering how to shore ourselves up against massive and imminent public sector spending...
Fighting Browne and Fighting Cuts
by Guest Blogger // 13 October 2010, 22:30
This post from NUS Women's Officer Olivia Bailey was first published yesterday on NUS Connect and is published here with permission. Many of you will have seen that this morning Lord Browne has published his review in to the...
The Cuts Won't Work
by Laura // 13 October 2010, 21:04
The Cuts Won't Work (Facebook) provides links to campaigns against the Coalition's cuts, and suggests five other ways to deal with the current financial situation (edited version, see more on the website): **CUT LATER** About 1 in 5 of our...
Sakineh's son and lawyer arrested
by Jolene Tan // 13 October 2010, 19:33
From the International Committee Against Stoning, further developments in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who is at risk of a judicial punishment of stoning in Iran:Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and lawyer, Houtan Kian, were arrested along with...
New feature: A cautionary tale of a ‘feminist’ man
by Jess McCabe // 13 October 2010, 19:33
Justine tells the story of one abusive relationship As stories rarely have a clearly-defined beginning, let alone end, I will start this one on the day that I emailed the local Rape Crisis Centre, as they were looking for new...
New review: Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory
by Jess McCabe // 13 October 2010, 11:31
Deborah Withers’ book is not a biography of Kate Bush. Instead, says Sian Norris, it is a treasure map to the theories underpinning the cultural icon’s work Having been a huge Kate Bush fan from a young age, and very...
New feature - Women in punk: the return
by Jess McCabe // 13 October 2010, 11:28
The 1990s brought with them grunge, riot grrrl - and fresh inspiration for the women at the centre of Britain’s 1970s punk scene. Cazz Blase continues her series This is part five in a series of features writing women back...
Female character flowchart
by Jess McCabe // 13 October 2010, 11:04
Penning a script for a movie/TV show/game? Writing a book? The folks at Overthinking It have put together a female character flowchart, representing the common stereotyping pitfalls of writing roles for girls and women that ultimately come across flat, two...
Misrepresentation of Netmums survey result
by Holly Combe // 12 October 2010, 21:30
Last week, the Guardian ran three pieces in response to a Netmums survey result apparently suggesting Mothers are more critical of their daughters than their sons. Netmums has stated that 21% of the 2,500 Mums surveyed "admitted they are...
Birmingham Reclaim the Night
by Catherine Redfern // 12 October 2010, 19:42
I'll be attending Birmingham Reclaim the Night march and rally this coming Saturday: Facebook Event Page Time: 16 October · 19:00 - 23:00 Location: VICTORIA SQUARE, BIRMINGHAM Join us on a women-only march in the city centre of Birmingham to...
Feminism in London tickets selling fast
by Jess McCabe // 12 October 2010, 18:34
Just a quick service announcement: if you're wanting to buy tickets for Feminism in London 2010, you may want to get on that. Around 930 out of 1,000 tickets available have sold already for the 23 October event, with...
Monday round-up and open thread
by Laura // 11 October 2010, 21:59
Here's our latest collection of links we haven't got round to blogging in the past week, feel free to have at 'em and add your own in comments. Jessica Valenti asks who stole feminism. V at Feminazery shares her personal...
Bad Reputation blog launches
by Jess McCabe // 11 October 2010, 20:43
Bad Reputation is a new UK feminist blog, or, as their subhead would have it, "a feminist pop culture adventure". Only launched at the beginning of this month, there's already lots of good, long-form posts to read, including the...
Against recruitment fees for migrant domestic workers
by Jolene Tan // 11 October 2010, 14:12
From United for Foreign Domestic Workers' Rights, a press release accompanying a protest by Indonesian workers against the Indonesian Consulate in Hong Kong:...more than 350 Indonesian migrants trooped to the Indonesian Consulate from East Point Road in Causeway Bay to...
How Fair is Britain?
by Helen G // 11 October 2010, 10:22
Every three years the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is required to report to Parliament on the progress that it thinks society is making in relation to equality, human rights and the rather vague-sounding 'good relations'. How Fair is...
"Should we be paying people to have children?"
by Laura // 10 October 2010, 20:41
Thus ran the not-at-all-leading title of a debate on BBC1's Sunday Morning Live earlier today. Apparently it was not obvious to the programme-makers that a maximum of £20.30 extra per week per child isn't really enough to support said child,...
National Coming Out Day
by Helen G // 10 October 2010, 20:05
National Coming Out Day is an internationally-observed civil awareness day for coming out and discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. It is observed by members of the LGBT communities and their supporters (often referred to as...
Irish Feminist Network vox pops on the street
by Jess McCabe // 10 October 2010, 16:16
Interesting vox pop by the Irish Feminist Network. They're also on Twitter....
Feminist football in London!
by Laura // 10 October 2010, 12:22
This sounds great: Feminist Fightback FC is a football team open to all self-defining women of all sporting abilities and all ages. Our team members include beginners working through their PE lesson traumas and experienced players who want to improve...
Why cis attendees of RTN are letting trans women down
by Anji Capes // 9 October 2010, 18:21
A few years ago I attended, for two years running, London's Reclaim The Night march, organised by London Feminist Network. It was an amazing march, full of an powerful pro-woman atmosphere. We marched through London to raise awareness of violence...
Actual headline
by Jess McCabe // 9 October 2010, 11:38
The Daily Telegraph keeps it classy with a blog post headlined "Ted Hughes's pain will never be intense enough for the Sylvia Plath harpies"....
Yvette Cooper tops the charts
by zohra moosa // 7 October 2010, 23:41
Following on from my last post listing all the candidates running for Labour's Shadow Cabinet, the votes are now in (via the BBC). Yvette Cooper MP came in with the highest votes. Eight women in total were voted in within...
Radio 4 Analysis: Whatever Happened to the Sisterhood?
by Catherine Redfern // 6 October 2010, 18:46
On Monday Radio 4 aired a programme called Whatever Happened to the Sisterhood?, as part of its Analysis series. You can listen again on the link above, or you can read the transcript. I am quoted on it briefly...
To be or not to be declared a Feminist?
by Josephine Tsui // 5 October 2010, 19:06
Lastly, I am proud to be a feminist because it creates an inclusive environment of values that I chose to live in. It's like a boyscout's badge of all the labels I give myself. I have a knot tying badge, a bird watchers badge, and a tea drinking badge.
Weekly round up and open thread, October 4th
by Josephine Tsui // 4 October 2010, 17:41
Hi everyone! Happy Monday! These are just some of the news items relevant to the f word this week. Queer fat researcher and activist Charlotte Cooper interviews Judy Freespirit (Obesity Timebomb) Gamers battle Racism online (Racialicious) The Lavender Screen, a...
New feature: Out with the old warrior queens, in with the new?
by Jess McCabe // 4 October 2010, 15:33
Boudicca's warrior-queen appeal to activists is enduring. But, argues Hanna Thomas, is it time to create some new myths? I came across this Cordelia Cembrowicz print earlier in the year and I am not exaggerating when I say that I...
New feature: ‘It’s not RAPE rape’
by Jess McCabe // 3 October 2010, 11:36
A flurry of reports on birth rape have prompted a backlash against women who use the term to describe their assault experiences. Amity Reed responds Birth rape is not rape because: the intent was not likely malicious; you solicited the...
Feminist postcard auction this Monday
by Jess McCabe // 2 October 2010, 10:08
38 postcards by artists, pop stars, actors and other prominent figures on the theme of feminism will be auctioned in London on Monday, to raise money for Feminism in London 2010. Even if you can't make it to see...
No women, no peace
by Guest Blogger // 1 October 2010, 14:32
Guest blogger Ashleigh Murphy urges readers to attend the launch of a campaign to ensure women's place at the peace keeping table All around the world women are prime targets in conflict. Rape, displacement, torture and kidnapping, are just some...
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
