Blog posts by Guest Blogger: 2009
Guest post: Reclaim the Night Leeds
By Guest Blogger | 22 December 2009, 17:06
Rosie, a member of the RtNL steering committee, reports back on the event. On November 28th 2009, 300 women, children and supporters reclaimed the night in Leeds. The weather held, and from 6pm the crowds gathered outside Leeds City Art…
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The Ghosts of Christmas Past
By Guest Blogger | 21 December 2009, 21:38
A guest blogger talks about dealing with Christmas as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. (NB This post is not graphic, but for some it may be triggering) So, it’s that time of year again. Compulsory happiness and lots and…
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Guest post: “Facebook rape”
By Guest Blogger | 11 December 2009, 12:56
Alex Corwin reports on the insensitive and potentially triggering use of the word ‘rape’ on Facebook and explains how to report it. Today while skimming through the list of status updates and the like on Facebook I was horrified to…
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Guest post: Protecting choice in childbirth
By Guest Blogger | 8 December 2009, 15:14
Albany Midwives Practice is facing closure. In this guest post, Amity Reed reports on the effort to keep it open and why it’s so important for reproductive rights When we think of reproductive rights, we often automatically associate the term…
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Vigil
By Guest Blogger | 26 November 2009, 19:34
For those of us who couldn’t be at the vigil in London yesterday, Gem, who is on the co-ordinating group for Million Women Rise, sent in this which she read out. The photos are by Sarah from Uplift Magazine and…
Guest Post: Misfits and rape culture
By Guest Blogger | 13 November 2009, 11:59
Longtime commenter JenniferRuth on rape culture in a new E4 superhero show On Thursday evening the pilot episode of Misfits was broadcast on E4. It seems that E4 has decided to jump on board the current superhero revival and make…
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Representations of Women in Media - back for 2009
By Guest Blogger | 12 November 2009, 11:25
The F Word reviewer and commenter, Sian Norris, tells us about an exciting upcoming West Country project … The Representations of Women in the Media Project was set up three years ago by the Bristol Fawcett Society, who spent a…
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Guest Post: No to Eggsploitation!
By Guest Blogger | 15 October 2009, 10:00
The No to Eggsploitation campaigners argue that we need to protect women from the risks of egg donation. In July, Lisa Jardine, Chair of the Human Fertilization And Embryology Authority (HFEA), announced that the HFEA is likely to rescind the…
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Guest Post: Disability Benefits Under Threat
By Guest Blogger | 7 October 2009, 19:38
Amy Clare writes on the news that the Tories have announced plans to get half a million people “off incapacity benefit” if they get into power and explains why this is a feminist issue. EDIT: She also gives details of…
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Guest post: More attacks on mums
By Guest Blogger | 6 October 2009, 11:54
Amy Clare is exasberated by yet another piece of research and media reporting stigmatising mothers who work in paid employment (as well as child care) Another day, another piece of sexist research being loudly trumpeted in the media, with the…
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Guest post: How to respond to those viral ‘rape prevention’ emails
By Guest Blogger | 6 October 2009, 11:38
Katie Toms continues the theme of how to respond to viral emails urging women to be careful and stop themselves being raped/sexually assaulted, sharing with us the email she now sends in reply. Katie writes about music, books, art and…
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Guest post: More on Polanski
By Guest Blogger | 2 October 2009, 10:56
Guest post by Rosamund Urwin, journalist - for more on Polanski’s arrest see Laura and Louise’s posts It has been with horror that I have read most of the newspaper coverage of Roman Polanski’s arrest. It is bad enough, if…
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Guest post: Reclaim the Night Leeds
By Guest Blogger | 1 October 2009, 22:36
This guest post is by Leanne Sutheran, on behalf of the Reclaim the Night Leeds Steering Group Sisters, you are all warmly invited to join with the women of Leeds as they march to Reclaim the Night on Saturday 28…
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Guest post: Feminism in London 2009
By Guest Blogger | 1 October 2009, 15:21
Less than two weeks to go until Feminism in London 2009, Yasmin Eshref talks through what the event is about and what to expect. This year, Saturday 10 October is a very special day. London’s Conway Hall will play home…
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Guest Post: No, Katie Price is not obliged to name her rapist.
By Guest Blogger | 18 September 2009, 20:54
Reader Anji Capes responds to Abby’s post on Katie Price. Katie Price (the former glamour model more commonly known as Jordan) has stated that she is one of the estimated one in four women in this country who has been…
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Guest post: [95] Minutes of Sexual Double Standards
By Guest Blogger | 28 August 2009, 17:22
In this guest post, Kaite Welsh considers the sexist backstory to (500) Days of Summer (500) Days of Summer is the latest indie hit about to make it big. Based on the true story of screenwriter Scott Neustadter’s failed relationship,…
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Guest post: The Lib Dems manifesto for ‘Real Women’
By Guest Blogger | 15 August 2009, 15:31
In this guest post, Melanie Newman considers the Liberal Democrats’ ‘Real Women’ manifesto The Liberal Democrats have produced a 42-point manifesto for women, which includes proposals on airbrushing in advertising, domestic violence, and 12 months’ parental leave for mothers and…
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What would a Tory government do?
By Guest Blogger | 10 August 2009, 11:34
In this guest post, Ella Prostick takes a look at just how ‘Progressive’ the Conservatives are under Cameron It’s been a year since David Cameron’s speech in which he argued that social problems were the result of people’s choices and…
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Killing of Sister George re-visited
By Guest Blogger | 27 July 2009, 00:02
Queer feminist film festival Club des Femmes organised a screening of The Killing of Sister George during Pride. Here, co-curator Sarah Wood reflects on how the film fares more than 40 years since its release Watching The Killing of Sister…
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Cheap sex for the saddle sore: Berlin brothel offers cyclists discount
By Guest Blogger | 19 July 2009, 12:13
In this guest post, Charlotte Cooper considers a German brothel that is offering a ‘green’ discount for punters who arrive by public transport or bike “Release the puns” must have been the call to journalists when news was delivered that…
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Real Justice?
By Guest Blogger | 17 July 2009, 22:35
In this guest post, Clare Laxton considers the Coroners and Justice Bill’s impact on women who kill their partners after years of abuse. Clare is feminist campaigner, living in London and working for a sexual health charity The Coroners and…
In-fighting injures feminism
By Guest Blogger | 10 July 2009, 00:46
Ellie Levenson, author of The Noughtie Girl’s Guide To Feminism, wants an end to the in-fighting… One of the defining characteristics of the feminist movement, as well as other liberal movements throughout history, has been the in-fighting and internal spats…
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Review: Germaine Greer: “not despondent…worried”
By Guest Blogger | 28 June 2009, 23:21
Christabel D reviews Germaine Greer: Four Decades of Fun with Feminism at Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury. I was afraid that Germaine Greer’s Four Decades of Fun with Feminism gig at Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury might at best be an apology. I feared…
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Guest post: A few words about France and the burqa
By Guest Blogger | 24 June 2009, 09:40
zohra asked if I could write about France’s project to launch a Parliamentary inquiry about the burqa from a French perspective. I write with two caveats: I am not a Muslim so I am wary not to take up space…
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Guest post: Body Image panel debate at the Women’s Library
By Guest Blogger | 19 June 2009, 15:24
Chrissy D reports back from last night’s debate on body image at the Women’s Library, which featured Susie Orbach. At the panel debate, “Body Image: the impact of magazines”, last night at the Women’s Library, it became apparent to me…
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What is going on at the Guardian?
By Guest Blogger | 17 June 2009, 17:31
Orlanda Ward does not think much of Tim Worstall’s musings on how there is “no gender pay gap” Now I understand that these are testing times, and papers are doing all they can to increase traffic and therefore advertising revenues…
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You’re fired! Sexism in The Apprentice
By Guest Blogger | 9 June 2009, 15:30
Fiona Hutchings is not impressed with the BBC’s sexist hype around Sunday’s final of The Apprentice… The BBC really can’t handle the idea of career, competence and women in the same sentence, it seems. Sunday’s Apprentice finale was - shock…
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Guest post: Woman-friendly news?
By Guest Blogger | 5 June 2009, 12:03
Lindsey M Sheehan longs for a newspaper that doesn’t alienate female and feminist readers… I’m starting to realise that there is no such thing as a woman-friendly newspaper. At one end of the scale are the porn tabloids offering “twenty…
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M&S chair says women have “more equality than you ever can deal with”
By Guest Blogger | 31 May 2009, 18:15
In this guest post, Charlotte Cooper considers M&S chair Stuart Rose’s views on women (oh, excuse me, “girls”) in the workplace “Apart from the fact that you’ve got more equality than you ever can deal with, the fact of the…
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Guest post: Telling the truth
By Guest Blogger | 28 May 2009, 11:43
Jake talks through her family’s reactions to learning she was sexually abused by her father I am an incest survivor; my father sexually abused me during my adolescence. I kept his secrets for as long as I could, swallowing back…
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Guest post: Rape is not entertainment
By Guest Blogger | 23 May 2009, 10:43
Anber Raz, Asia Programme Officer for Equality Now, reports on the organisation’s new campaign against sexually violent computer games produced in Japan and their promotion of sexual violence against women. When the computer game RapeLay first came to our attention…
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An open letter to Carol Sarler
By Guest Blogger | 22 May 2009, 14:22
Amy Clare guest posts about a particularly infuriating article in the Daily Mail, about women without children Dear Carol, Thank you so much for writing this well researched, intelligent and thoughtful article on the subject of childless - sorry, barren…
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Guest post: Bullied Boys
By Guest Blogger | 15 May 2009, 13:55
All bullying is bad. But the Independent has its priorities mixed up, argues Rosalind Kemp The Independent’s Education section yesterday ran an article claiming that clever boys are “most vulnerable” to bullying. It is absolutely shocking, more so in that…
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Guest post: Home birth and mattresses
By Guest Blogger | 4 May 2009, 20:40
Kate Joester muses on a beautiful depiction of home birth - in a Spanish mattress ad. Check out Kate’s blog Rebel Raising (subtitled “changing the world, one nappy at a time”) The crunchy mama blogosphere has gone nuts for this…
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Guest post: Civil partnerships and the NUS
By Guest Blogger | 3 May 2009, 11:26
Katie Sutton reports on the NUS LGBT Campaign’s annual conference Last weekend, the NUS LGBT Campaign held its annual conference in Nottingham, to elect officers for the 2009/10 academic year and vote on new policy, which I attended as an…
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Guest post: Cambridge gets ready to Reclaim the Night
By Guest Blogger | 1 May 2009, 18:05
The women of Cambridge are all set to Reclaim the Night this Sunday, 3 May. The march is for self-defined women, and starts at 8:30pm in the middle of Parkers’ Piece, to be followed by a mixed-gender talk, music and…
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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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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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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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A record a mile long
By Guest Blogger | 25 February 2009, 22:51
In this guest post, Rachael Jolley from the Fabian blog Next Left explores the history of the Daily Mail of blaming poor people for being poor, and poor mothers in particular You might imagine that the Daily Mail suggesting that…
Reclaim the Night Bristol
By Guest Blogger | 6 February 2009, 14:57
In this guest post, Sian Norris urges Bristol readers to Reclaim the Night this 20 February Bristol Feminist Network started up with the aim of creating a space for women and men to come together to discuss feminist issues and…
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Chemistry kits ‘for boys’
By Guest Blogger | 29 January 2009, 11:14
Frequent F-Word commenter Sabre guest posts about chemistry kits ‘for boys’ Reported in the Telegraph yesterday was the unveiling of a range of chemistry sets for kids. “Great!” I thought eagerly, “I wish I’d had toys like this when I…
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Progressive London Conference report - The new Mayor and women in London
By Guest Blogger | 27 January 2009, 14:13
In this guest post, Orlanda Ward reports on the Women in London panel at the recent Progressive London conference While some of us might love Boris Johnson’s floppy hair and comic persona, can London’s women really leave their best interests…
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A ‘sister’s’ perspective of the Gaza demo, 10 Jan 09
By Guest Blogger | 19 January 2009, 21:30
Following our recent posts here and here on the Gaza demos, this guest post by Zubeda Limbada is an account of one woman’s experience of being one of only two women in the sit-in that was staged in front of…
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All about Club Des Femmes
By Guest Blogger | 8 January 2009, 15:24
[The Club des Femmes collective got in touch, after I implied their mission statement was a bit enigmatic when I posted about their screenings at the ICA this month. They’ve come back with this great summary of what Club des…
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