Blog posts by Holly Combe: 2008
Help Save Bitch Magazine
By Holly Combe | 16 September 2008, 22:20
Via Feminist Philosophers… Bitch magazine are in trouble and need to raise $40,000 by 15 October in order to print the next issue. Their website says: While it’s true that $40,000 is a lot of money, we know the number…
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Rape Compensation Cut Overturned
By Holly Combe | 12 August 2008, 20:30
A decision by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to cut the compensation awarded to a woman who was raped after a night out has been overturned. Unbelievably, she had been told in writing that the reason for the reduction…
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And Now for Something Really Annoying…
By Holly Combe | 29 July 2008, 00:00
No-Follow tags at the ready! If you fancy reading a real howler, check out this prime piece of retrogressive poppycock from the Daily Mail that I discovered through Polly Styrene’s blog today: …Clearly, men and women are increasingly out of…
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Criticism and Obligation
By Holly Combe | 26 July 2008, 01:25
Regular readers of the F-word will probably be aware that a post about speculated future scientific advances in women’s fertility attracted criticism this week. I’m not about to needlessly parrot what has already been said but, as it happens, I…
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Crap Word of the Week: Gastrosexual
By Holly Combe | 25 July 2008, 17:33
We’ve seen the so-called metrosexuals and ubersexuals (courtesy of the trend experts) and now we have the food company PurAsia commissioning a report on the apparent “Emergence of the Gastrosexual.” We’re told (click on the PDF on the left…
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Subvertising on Facebook!
By Holly Combe | 16 July 2008, 01:37
Today, I belatedly discovered an interesting project that my Facebook friend Corinna posted a link to a couple of days ago. Basically, Teresa of Teresacentric.com got so sick of complaining about the endless “self-serve” ads for weight loss products…
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Eileen Atkins to Star in Play Inspired by Greer
By Holly Combe | 17 June 2008, 23:25
Next month, Dame Eileen Atkins will be starring in a comedy said to be inspired by Germaine Greer being held hostage in her home by a student in 2000. The Female of the Species will preview at the Vaudeville Theatre…
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Who are the Harajuku Girls?
By Holly Combe | 4 June 2008, 23:10
NB: I changed one of the words in the final paragraph of this article. The details can be found in the comments. Harajuku is an area in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. The term Harajuku Girls is commonly…
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Belated Thanks to Hoyden About Town
By Holly Combe | 28 May 2008, 15:55
You may recall that, just before the New Year, Hoyden About Town were taking nominations for their selection of memorable posts from 07. Well, last week, the results were announced and I was really happy to find that my post…
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Alert for Feminist Gamers
By Holly Combe | 22 May 2008, 15:15
The online gaming magazine Thirteen 1 has launched a campaign against the bad press received by the gaming industry for its alleged negative influence on young people (scroll through to page 15 in the issue above). Now, despite not being…
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When the Personal is Sometimes Political: Abortion on Demand
By Holly Combe | 21 May 2008, 17:10
I’ve been thinking about Zohra’s entry on the personal not always being political in the abortion debate but wanted to make sure we won the battle to retain the 24 week limit before I voiced my thoughts about it,…
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Tourist Guide for Woman-Watchers
By Holly Combe | 9 May 2008, 23:00
A speech writer for Bernard Kouchner (France’s Foreign Minister) has written a book advising on the best places in Paris to look at beautiful women. According to Pierre Louis Colin, people go to Paris to see the city’s magnificent…
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The Numbers Game
By Holly Combe | 11 April 2008, 21:01
Reporting on Kira Cochrane’s article about Nick Clegg admitting to having slept with ‘no more than 30’ partners, Dodai on Jezebel is asking whether the number of people we’ve slept with actually means anything. Personally, I’ve always refused to count…
Justice for “Ugly People”
By Holly Combe | 11 April 2008, 19:40
Now here’s an idea that seems fair in theory but would be an administrative nightmare to put into practice: Gonzalo Otalora is arguing that good-looking people should pay more tax. This would make up for the better deal they get…
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More Silly Research Reporting
By Holly Combe | 10 April 2008, 17:50
Following the bollocks that Samara reported on a couple of days ago, is the Daily Mail’s report on a study apparently claiming that women with big eyes and small jaws are perceived by men as being more into the idea…
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Gok Wan: Not so Nice After all?
By Holly Combe | 10 April 2008, 17:39
I’ve always felt a bit ambivalent about Gok Wan (i.e he’s very charming, I want to like him but often find him patronising etc etc) so the latest news that he may not be as much of a crusader for…
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Mind the Gap: Criticism and Leadership in Feminism
By Holly Combe | 9 April 2008, 22:40
Warning: this post contains speculative generalisations. Following up on the allegations recently levelled at us, Zenobia at Mind the Gap has offered some wise words about the importance of open and fair criticism. Successful debate obviously requires co-operation on both…
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Is it Better to be a Woman or a Man?
By Holly Combe | 7 April 2008, 18:40
This was the theme of the debate that Kate Smurthwaite, Vince Graff and I took part in on last Tuesday’s Phil Williams show on BBC Radio 5 Live. (Scroll through to the second hour of the programme.) I was pretty…
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Hoax e-mails
By Holly Combe | 6 April 2008, 22:30
Ever received one of those pathetic scaremongering e-mails from an apparently well-meaning colleague and told them the story is an old hoax, only to get a touchy “can’t be too careful” response? Ever got forwarded the same one again months…
Positive Discrimination Debate
By Holly Combe | 21 March 2008, 20:56
When it comes to the question of positive discrimination, I tend to err towards a similar view to the one that Lib Dem MP Jackie Ballard expressed a few years back: it doesn’t sit well with me but in the…
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Another round-up: Unsurprising News, PMS, Playground Insults and a Porn Debate
By Holly Combe | 21 March 2008, 19:39
There’s a very heartening article in the Telegraph about the recent finding that being a feminist seems to offer some protection against the negative influence of current fashion when it comes to assessing which body types are attractive. Admittedly, it…
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End Patriarchy: For Geeks Only?
By Holly Combe | 17 March 2008, 20:00
I’m guessing that most of you will be aware of the rather clever End-Patriarchy thing that Jessica Valenti has drawn attention to on Feministing today. I’d also guess that most of you will have got the hook inherent in the…
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More on Chivalry
By Holly Combe | 13 March 2008, 15:20
Do we need signs telling us to give up our seats on the tube for those who might need them more? Apparently, Ken Livingstone thinks so because he has launched a priority seating scheme that includes pregnant women. While I…
Last Night’s Pro-Choice Demo in Cardiff
By Holly Combe | 5 March 2008, 22:00
There were over a hundred of us in attendance at the pro-choice demo outside City Temple last night. Aside from the heavy-handed arrest of a well-known Cardiff anarchist that resulted in a bunch of us picketing the police station…
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Pro-Choice Demo in Cardiff Tonight!
By Holly Combe | 4 March 2008, 00:00
You may be aware that Ann Widdecombe and Lord David Alton are on an anti-abortion tour of Britain with various pro-life groups, as the bill on Human Fertilisation and Embryology moves through parliament. It is anticipated that this bill will…
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Regina Lynn on Polyamory and the Internet
By Holly Combe | 2 March 2008, 14:30
There’s a post on Regina Lynn’s Sex Drive on the rise in awareness of polyamory in recent years, due to the availability of information on the internet and selection of online communities out there. Sadly, I’m not sure how…
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Racist Perceptions of “Femininity”
By Holly Combe | 16 February 2008, 18:39
There’s an interesting post by Tami over at Racialicious (originally from her own blog “What Tami Said”) about her experience of white male colleagues at work treating her as somehow less “feminine” or attractive than her white female colleagues. Here’s…
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Vulvas Get Bad Rap on Yahoo Answers
By Holly Combe | 16 February 2008, 15:04
First, a bit of background: Yahoo Answers is a community where users informally ask and answer questions on a range of topics. It can be a bit hit and miss if you need a reliable source of information but…
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“Men Should be Obsessed with Success” Says Lad Mag “King”
By Holly Combe | 8 February 2008, 20:12
Here’s what the former Maxim and Men’s Health Editor, Greg Gutfeld has to say about his part in the latter’s promotion of male fitness (in the superficial sense as well as the health-related one): I’m culpable for this horrible phenomenon……
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Feminism is Dead? Nice Try Harry!
By Holly Combe | 8 February 2008, 19:20
It’s time to strike an angry pose next to the mythical bra-bonfire, dear readers, because (yet again) the worn-out tableau of stinky old feminism finally crawling away under a rock to die is being presented in the vain hope that…
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The Feminist Case for Gossip Mags?
By Holly Combe | 30 January 2008, 18:50
I’m sure we’ve all done it. We groan when we see yet another front-cover revelling in the cellulite, spots and general physical imperfections of the nation’s “favourite” celebrities. We righteously tut when it seems that, yet again, women in…
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Last Chance to Listen: Chivalry Debate on R5
By Holly Combe | 23 January 2008, 21:20
It looks like the internet archive for the Richard Bacon show on Radio Five Live only goes back a week so click here now if you want to check out Kate Smurthwaite in last week’s discussion on chivalry. Also speaking…
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Now Magazine's BMI Blunder
By Holly Combe | 14 January 2008, 17:47
For an example of how reports about celebrity weight loss can get the whole weight debate completely out of proportion, take a look at Now Magazine’s interview with Natalie Cassidy (AKA “Sonia” from Eastenders): After playing Sonia in EastEnders for…
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