Blog posts from May 2011
New Review - Granta 115: The F Word
by Iman Qureshi // 31 May 2011, 19:32
Despite being The F-Word's namesake, Iman Qureshi argues that Granta 115: The F Word misses the mark A sprig of wit, a dash of bile and a hearty glug of good old-fashioned girl power, you would think is not a...
Call For Music Reviewers
by Holly Combe // 31 May 2011, 18:00
Do you love music? Do you have plenty to say about it? Do you ever find yourself listening to something and thinking it's just the sort of thing we should be covering at the F-Word? If so, you might...
Egypt: "virginity checks" performed on women arrested after protests
by Helen G // 31 May 2011, 17:57
Via CNN International and others, it seems that the allegations of enforced "virginity checks" made by Amnesty International (link here after the pro-democracy protests in March this year - and denied by military authorities - have now been confirmed...
The pregnant pro wrestler: 'You can't fully blame it on her'
by Carrie Dunn // 31 May 2011, 13:40
The magnificent Kia Stevens, otherwise known by her ring-name Kharma, joined the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, the biggest pro-wrestling company) at the turn of the year. She's had a distinguished career all over the world during the past decade....
Expanding journalism - Global Connect!
by Jess McCabe // 30 May 2011, 22:54
Who is the average journalist? Do they look anything like the communities they serve? In many cases, the answer to that is no. In the UK, women make up only 30% of reporters and 33% of editors. That's slightly...
Weekly Round-Up and Open Thread 23-30 May 2011
by Holly Combe // 30 May 2011, 22:04
Here are some articles and blog pieces we've been reading over the past week that we'd like to draw your attention to. NB: The weekly round-up post is a place for us to share links to articles that we...
New Review - Generation Indigo by Poly Styrene
by Holly Combe // 29 May 2011, 22:29
Cazz Blase reviews Poly Styrene's final work, an angry album with socially biting lyrics but an overall optimistic theme It is painfully hard to set aside the fact that Poly Styrene died not long after the release of Generation Indigo...
Events listings
by Helen G // 27 May 2011, 16:09
Just a quick reminder about The F-Word's Events listings page - if you are organising, or know of, an event in your area that's of interest to other feminists, please email us with the details at events@thefword.org.uk and we'll add...
Storm: The genderless baby
by Josephine Tsui // 27 May 2011, 14:51
A Canadian couple have decided to keep the sex of their baby a secret and thus have unleashed international mayhem. Their goal is to allow Storm (the name of the baby) to decide for hirself without having the world...
Under an Emerald Sky
by Iman Qureshi // 27 May 2011, 14:43
Lukela Aimmado explains why Under an Emerald Sky, a novel by black, queer, feminist activist Olukemi Amala is essential reading for all Under an Emerald Sky begins with a quote by the writer and philosopher, Umberto Eco: "I have come...
Poland: ECHR ruling says pregnant woman's human rights were violated
by Helen G // 27 May 2011, 13:00
Via email from Human Rights Watch: The European Court of Human Rights found on May 26, 2011, that Poland’s failure to ensure that a pregnant woman was given access to available diagnostic services to which she was legally entitled was...
Where rape is concerned, talk isn’t good enough.
by Guest Blogger // 27 May 2011, 10:52
Where serious consideration of rape is concerned, public ignorance, silence and disinterest has held a lengthy reign.
Issues facing young girls today: interview with project manager at RECLAIM Manchester
by Lara Williams // 26 May 2011, 15:04
RECLAIM Manchester is a leadership and mentoring programme working with young people from disadvantaged communities in Greater Manchester. It is soon to launch a girls’ programme focussed on issues surrounding body image, valuing yourself for more than how you look,...
It's a child's right to be educated; not given a morality lecture - a response to the Sex and Relationship Education Council
by Guest Blogger // 25 May 2011, 17:09
I grew up in the “teenage pregnancy capital of Europe”, Scarborough. When I was 13 in 1998, 55.8% of teenage girls became pregnant at some point.
Draft DSM-5 again open for public comment
by Helen G // 25 May 2011, 08:58
The forthcoming revised DSM-5, which will shape diagnoses of not only Gender Dysphoria, but also such conditions as Bipolar and Related Disorders Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive-Related, and Trauma-Related Disorders, has been opened up for public...
Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed my Life
by Charlene Moore // 24 May 2011, 19:59
Stephanie Staal re-examines some of the central texts of her undergraduate feminist classes, now critiquing them from her position as a wife and mother. LonerGrrrl argues that we should all consider how our relationship to feminism may change over time...
The Importance Of Language
by Lara Williams // 24 May 2011, 11:37
As the ensuing (and justified) Twitter furore indicated after recent comments by Kenneth Clarke and Nadine Dorries regarding rape and abuse, words have power. Especially in the linguistic minefield of discourse surrounding rape and abuse. If something good can come...
Men outshouting women on radio
by Jess McCabe // 23 May 2011, 17:19
Men's voices dominate the airwaves, an assessment of the ratio of male to female presenters on radio has concluded. Journalist, novelist and sometimes F-Word contributor Bidisha totted up the number of presenters on one week's radio programming, and found...
Diet but don't dance
by Shiha Kaur // 23 May 2011, 13:49
Image shows a tape measure. Courtesy of Auntie P - shared under a Creative Commons license. There is a video currently playing on the phones of many British Punjabi men showing a professional dancer at a wedding in India....
Weekly round-up and open thread, 23 May 2011
by Helen G // 23 May 2011, 10:41
Here's this week's open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we've noticed over the last week or so, but not had time to post about. If you have a link or comment...
New feature - A woman called Toothpaste: an interview with Lucy Whitman
by Jess McCabe // 21 May 2011, 14:16
Cazz Blase interviews Lucy Toothpaste, who wrote the fanzine JOLT and played a central role in the punk feminist movement During the course of researching and writing my recent series of essays on women and punk, one person I was...
Madrid manages what London didn't
by zohra moosa // 21 May 2011, 10:57
25,000 protesters are currently occupying Puerta del Sol, the capital's main square (sound familiar?), having defied the midnight deadline in Spanish law which prohibits political rallies the day before elections. Local elections are set for tomorrow. According to the...
Abortion: let's get off the back foot
by zohra moosa // 20 May 2011, 16:42
As Jess posted last month, Nadine Dorries and Frank Field have begun making the first attempts since the Coalition Government took office to restrict abortion access. And as Sunny Hundal has covered on Liberal Conspiracy, these attempts have already gained...
On "serious rapes"
by Jolene Tan // 20 May 2011, 16:32
Image shows an apple and an orange. Courtesy of TheBusyBrain - shared under a Creative Commons license Trigger warning for discussion of rape and violence Without going into the specifics of Ken Clarke's statements and proposals, I want to make...
A bad business all round
by Jolene Tan // 20 May 2011, 14:08
Image shows a question mark, shared by the.sprouts under a Creative Commons license Previously, I wrote about the news stories reporting that a woman in America had injected her 8-year-old daughter with Botox and that the daughter was subsequently taken...
Art critic calls Tracey Emin "drunken slut", gives us uncomfortable insight into his psyche
by Jess McCabe // 20 May 2011, 13:30
A survey of Tracey Emin's work in London prompts a virulent backlash from the Evening Standard, demonstrating a continued unease with female artists and writers.
Radical childbirth
by Amity Reed // 20 May 2011, 12:27
Childbirth. Most people consider it solely the domain of mothers, the secrets and intricacies of which are only shared when one becomes pregnant and chooses to carry a foetus to term. A large percentage of women, even the most well-informed...
#FeministQuotes, twitter style
by Philippa Willitts // 19 May 2011, 20:20
Philippa summarises a twitter crowdsourcing of feminist quotes.
Is Breast Best?
by Charlene Moore // 18 May 2011, 12:30
Alexandra Roumbas Goldstein reviews a book which challenges both the science behind the assertions and the value of breastfeeding campaigns in a "neoliberal risk culture" Of all the topics discussed by mothers online and off, one of the most controversial...
"I just don't think wrinkles are nice on little girls."
by Jolene Tan // 18 May 2011, 08:08
(Image shows a bottle of Botox.) Trigger warning: this post involves abusive behaviour towards a child and possible body dysphoria issues The eight-year-old girl whose mother injected her with Botox has been taken into care as the case is...
Adding my voice to those revictimised by Nadine Dorries.
by Guest Blogger // 17 May 2011, 22:34
A guest blogger writes anonymously about why Nadine Dorries' view that teaching children to say 'no' will reduce sexual abuse is so wrong.
Roseanne Barr on the challenges of making a hit sitcom
by Jess McCabe // 17 May 2011, 21:44
Roseanne was pretty radical for television. So, it was sad and disappointing to read Roseanne Barr opening the curtain and showing what it was really like to get the sitcom made. It didn’t take long for me to get a...
Fashion Fail: New face of Miu Miu is fourteen years old.
by Lara Williams // 17 May 2011, 16:57
Italian fashion label Miu Miu have recently confirmed the ‘face’ of their Autumn/Winter collection: True Grit actress, the fourteen year old Hailee Steinfeld. Fashion has never been feminism’s greatest ally, and aside from any arguments about its glorification of (often) unhealthily thin frames - what is perhaps more disturbing, is its heralding of adolescent girls as a sort of female physical perfection.
17 May: International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia
by Helen G // 17 May 2011, 07:36
To mark this year's International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) has published its Rainbow Europe Map and Index in which it rates each European country's laws and administrative practices according...
Bad science alert! Satoshi Kanazawa and evolutionary psychology
by Josephine Tsui // 16 May 2011, 18:07
Psychology Today published a blog article yesterday "Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women, But Black Men Are Rated Better Looking Than Other Men?" by Satoshi Kanazawa. Where race did not significantly alter attractiveness rating...
Unclipped: Q&A with Edith Zimmerman, editor of The Hairpin
by Jess McCabe // 16 May 2011, 11:05
The Hairpin won me over in January with editor Edith Zimmerman's photoessay collating together stock images of women laughing alone with salad. But it's the daily gems that keep me reading, from Lili Loofbourow's posts on sex in the 17th...
Weekly round-up and open thread, 16th May 2011
by Carrie Dunn // 15 May 2011, 13:22
Here's this week's open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we've noticed over the last week or so, but not had time to post about. Lots of Slutwalk stuff, unsurprisingly. If...
A quick reminder...
by Laura Woodhouse // 15 May 2011, 10:40
[Image of a yellow warning triangle with a black exclamation mark.] ... to all those arguing in various places on and offline in relation to Slutwalk that women who dress in a certain way are asking - either implicitly...
New feature: Fashion and gender
by Jess McCabe // 14 May 2011, 21:51
Androgynous trends come and go, but high-street fashion remains for the most part strictly divided into womenswear and menswear. Lorraine Smith searches for an alternative No matter how much it protests otherwise, fashion is a many-gendered thing. Of course, when...
Short skirts and stalkers in sport
by Carrie Dunn // 13 May 2011, 22:05
Two little sports-related stories you may have missed... There's a heck of a kerfuffle over the Badminton World Federation attempting to enforce a dress code whereby women players would have to wear skirts in competition rather than shorts. The Evening...
Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention
by Lara Williams // 13 May 2011, 16:35
If you’re in Manchester this Saturday (13th May), the Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention will explore the past, present and future of self-publishing in the beautiful setting of Manchester’s Victoria Baths. With stalls featuring self-published books, zines and pamphlets alongside talks,...
Out of Libya
by Jolene Tan // 12 May 2011, 22:15
The Guardian reports on Iman al-Obeidi's escape to Tunisia:Obeidi, who drew worldwide attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to describe to foreign journalists her alleged ordeal at the hands of 15 men, has been given refuge in Tunis...
How will NHS reforms affect abortion access?
by Jess McCabe // 12 May 2011, 10:22
The Guardian's NHS reform live blog is focusing on abortion all day today - particular how the reforms will affect women's access to abortion. It's good to see this discussion going on: given the attacks on abortion from the right,...
Last ever comment round up - April & May 2011
by Jess McCabe // 12 May 2011, 09:02
It's the end of an era: I've posted the last ever monthly round-up of comments on features and reviews. It was a difficult decision to move away from a letters-to-the-editor style comments page for features and reviews, but it's been...
Dr. Brooke Magnanti renounces feminism
by Josephine Tsui // 11 May 2011, 23:22
Have you heard? Dr. Brooke Magnanti’s aka “Belle de Jour” had a fall out with feminism. The first sentence of her press release of her new book, Sexonomics, declares “Belle de Jour, aka Brooke Magnanti stands up to her...
Applying intersectionality in practice
by Jess McCabe // 10 May 2011, 21:57
Intersectionality is, very roughly speaking, the idea that different systems of oppression (such as racism and sexism) can't be dealt with in isolation: these systems interlink. It's a bit of feminist jargon which gets used frequently in blogs and theoretical...
Bear with us...
by Jess McCabe // 10 May 2011, 17:42
If you've been trying to comment on The F-Word today, and run into issues, it's because we've got some technical problems going on behind the scenes right now. Apologies: it's teething problems from the redesign and introduction of registration for...
Weekly Round-Up And Open Thread, 10 May 2011
by Helen G // 10 May 2011, 12:59
Here's this week's open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we've noticed over the last week or so, but not had time to post about. If you have a link or comment...
Can non-overt feminism be the most radical of all?
by Lara Williams // 9 May 2011, 13:30
Having watched both Scream 4 and the concluding episodes of French crime-drama Spiral this week, I was struck by how feminist both were. And yet, on closer inspection, I was pushed to find distinctly feminist tropes in either. The...
Fair pay for royal cleaners
by Laura Woodhouse // 8 May 2011, 16:09
I'm a bit late to this one, but PCS trade unionists protested outside Buckingham Palace the day before the royal wedding to put pressure on the royal family to pay their cleaners the London Living Wage of £7.85/h. They...
Domestic violence courts face closure in ConDem cuts
by Jess McCabe // 8 May 2011, 13:40
One in six specialist domestic violence courts will be shut down as a result of the cuts, the Law Society Gazette is reporting: Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter has tabled a series of parliamentary questions to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke...
Bristol anarcha-feminist group
by Josephine Tsui // 7 May 2011, 23:27
I had a lovely afternoon at the Bristol Anarchist Book Fair. I met some great people and have a lovely time. I met this new group called "Bristol anarcha-feminist group" that started about a year ago. They ran an...
Introducing... the new-look F-Word
by Jess McCabe // 7 May 2011, 18:42
Notice anything different? Yep, that's right! The long-awaited F-Word redesign went live this morning... We hope you love the new site as much as we do. It's great to be able to unveil the new design in 2011, which is...
1 in 6 women would rather be blind than fat - so?
by Philippa Willitts // 6 May 2011, 18:17
Philippa looks at the outrage expressed about a survey which showed that 1 in 6 women would rather be blind than obese, from a disability perspective.
Who's to blame if kids "look like tramps?"
by Josephine Tsui // 6 May 2011, 09:53
Thanks to Mel J's post "So when will we stop pimping our kids?". To continue on this line, I've just found a CNN interview of LZ Granderson responding to comments on his article "Parents, don't dress your girls like...
New feature: The questions journalists ask
by Jess McCabe // 5 May 2011, 08:52
Feminism took up many more inches of print in women’s magazines last year. But, asks Hannah Mudge, did the media coverage accurately represent the movement? In the summer of 2010, I attended a feminist conference in London. It was a...
New feature: The revolution is in you
by Jess McCabe // 4 May 2011, 23:49
Chloe Stopa-Hunt looks back to the historical figure of Lucile Duplessis from the French Revolution and considers how she has been 'put back' into history by modern writers In the flourishing, highly bankable genre of historical fiction, women are a...
Does AV make a difference to women's representation?
by Guest Blogger // 4 May 2011, 21:34
Nan Sloane, Director of the Centre for Women and Democracy, explains why political will is the key to increasing women's representation in parliament Tomorrow, I will be voting Yes in the referendum on the alternative vote (AV). I will be...
WAR's open letter to the DPP
by Laura Woodhouse // 4 May 2011, 21:12
Women Against Rape recently met with Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to object to the number of victims wrongly accused of making a false allegation of rape and then prosecuted. You may remember that I blogged...
The problems with Nadine Dorries’s motion
by Lara Williams // 4 May 2011, 15:42
As reported by Jess earlier - Nadine Dorries today proposed a motion posing the introduction of abstinence based sex education for girls only. Proposing a ten minute rule motion - Dorries wants to ensure girls are educated in the benefits...
Abstinence only sex-ed - for girls only - passes first reading
by Jess McCabe // 4 May 2011, 15:01
A measure to introduce mandatory abstinence only sex education - but only for girls - passed its first reading in the Commons today, 67-61. Who introduced this bill? Our friend Nadine Dorries. Sunny at Liberal Conspiracy breaks down the situation....
Women and faith blog
by Laura Woodhouse // 3 May 2011, 22:20
Hannah Mudge, of We Mixed Our Drinks fame, is setting up a new blog to provide a space where women can write about and discuss their experiences of faith, religion and womanhood "without judgement and without being silenced". I...
'Borderline' diagnoses
by Tracey Plowman // 3 May 2011, 21:00
This will be the last of my posts as a guest blogger, a role I have greatly enjoyed. Many thanks to everyone who has read my posts, in particular those who took the time to leave comments and criticism from which I have learnt a lot. I wanted to take some time to write briefly about my experiences with mental health because I have found some cross-over between these experiences and my identity as both a woman and a feminist.
Interview - Women in rock: Tamar-kali
by Jess McCabe // 3 May 2011, 17:41
Metal and rock and punk are still dominated by mostly white, mostly male bands (or at least that's the popular image of those scenes and the most commercially successful bands). What do you think about women's position in the...
Weekly round-up and open thread, 2 May 2011
by Helen G // 2 May 2011, 08:21
Here's this week's open thread for discussion and our regular round-up of some of the articles and blogs we've noticed over the last week or so, but not had time to post about. If you have a link or comment...
Women spoke out
by Mel J // 1 May 2011, 11:26
My stint as a guest blogger is now over but, before I sign off, I just wanted to thank the collective and everyone who has engaged with my posts over the last month. I also wanted to use my...
Let Us In! Blogging Against Disablism Day 2011
by Philippa Willitts // 1 May 2011, 09:08
Philippa writes a post for Blogging Against Disablism Day 2011 about how to make feminist groups accessible to disabled women.
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the 
