The F-Word Blog: Posts by Jane Eyre

Dangerous Jobs For Girls, Dubious Fetishism For Women, and Sheer Blinding Hatred...

2008-07-29T11:16:16Z

I see there's a programme on T.V next week called 'Dangerous Jobs For Girls' and, to be fair, I have no intention of watching it, but, having seen the adverts for it and read some blurb on it in listings mags, I can't help but feel a sense of deja vu. Surely we've seen this kind of programme several times before? Wouldn't it be slightly more challenging and slightly more interesting to do a programme about female dominated professions for a change, and perhaps examine why certain jobs in certain sectors are so female dominated? rather than do a programme about girls taking on the boys in big macho professions? how about why men aren't catering assistants, or why men do so few MRI scans in hospitals? or how the role of secretary has become a female dominated profession, and how the switch from male clerks to female secretaries saw a corresponding dip in wages and diminishing respect for that profession, and why this happened?

On a different note, and at the risk of coming over all Glenda Slagg, 'Saving Britney Spears' is another documentary that's on this week, and will apparently focus on the various people who seem to be enjoying her breakdown far too much. Possibly interesting, but surely, by its sheer existence, it will encourage what it appears to be challenging? In a similar Glenda Slagg vein, when will the press possibly stop running pointless Amy Winehouse stories? Isn't it telling that two of the most talked about women in pop at the moment are being talked about almost entirely in their capacity to not remain in control of their lives? would they be as interesting if they were fully in control of their lives and their careers, and are we fetishising this notion of the damaged pop star, yet again? It's the whole grown women as children thing, and I for one am sick of it.

Another sickening thing: cyber nationalism, intelligent piece about the phenomena of hate groups online here. Depresssing reading, but oh so telling in oh so many ways.

Never Fear, Ladyfest Is Here (Again, well, in November...)

2008-07-25T20:42:35Z

Still feeling wistful after Ladyfest London? well, never fear, because Ladyfest Manchester is due to happen in November, and events are underway to raise money, including a compilation CD. So, if you didn't make it to London, or fancy a rematch, nows your chance...

Elections: There is blog life outside London....

2008-05-03T20:29:03Z

As a kind of follow up to the 'The End Of The World Has Arrived, And Its Name Is Boris' type blogs above, would just like to point out to any non British residents reading that Thursday was also polling day in over 200 local elections, that is, wards outside of London that have nothing to do with the election for London Mayor. Whilst a certain amount of discussion happened here viz the London election, it was fairly muted and detached, whereas the the following, rather more impassioned, cry was one I heard time and time again on Friday, and it really seemed to sum up the mood in the Manchester area...

"Can't believe the Tories have won Bury..."

Report on women's rights in Saudi Arabia

2008-05-03T17:27:25Z

Over on the Economist there's a piece concerning a recent report on women's rights in Saudi Arabia. I shan't attempt to summarise it here, but it's summed up well by the following comment:

"As the report points out, half the kingdom's citizens are treated in effect like children or the mentally ill for the duration of their lives."

you can read more here...

Lancashire Police To Widen Scope Of Incidents It Will Record As Hate Crimes

2008-04-26T16:53:25Z

According to The Big Issue In The North, Lancashire constabulary is to broaden the scope of incidents it will record as hate crimes to include offences against disabled and elderly people. They will also record incidents against what the magazine describes as "the growing number of people in the county from Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Portugal." The idea behind it is to help the police "better understand the nature of hate crime as defined by Home Office Guidelines." They accept that hate crimes are widely under reported, both in and outside of Lancashire, and in and outside of Britain. In addition to these changes, the police are also encouraging people to

"report hate incidents at locations rather than police stations. Incidents can now be reported at churches, mosques, shops and libraries as well as via the Crimestoppers phoneline and on www.report-it.org.uk. Incidents can be reported 24 hours a day and anonymously."

How this will all work in practice isn't spelt out, but I would expect some sort of awareness campaign to be rolled out across Lancashire in the coming weeks and months. There was no mention of hate crimes against women, but I would still argue that the approach Lancashire is taking is a step forward because it recognises hate crimes against groups who have been targeted but have not seen crimes committed against them treated as hate crimes, and also because it aims to look at where crimes take place as well as who is being targeted, which would hopefully lead to better services.

(All quotes and information taken from Gopal, Kevin "Police improve hate crime records", the Big Issue In The North, 21-27/4/08)

Women Warriors, not in Woolworths...

2008-04-26T16:32:50Z

There is an interesting short piece in The Economist concerning atlatlists, that is, spear throwing. Atlatl is an Aztec word, which refers not to the spear itself, but to the device used to throw it. Said device is apparently

"a carefully shaped stick just under a metre long which acts as an extension of the human throwers arm. The spear is balanced along it, with the blunt end snug against the hook. The other end is held by the hurler. The atlatl serves to amplify the hurlers arm movement in a way that allows a stone-tipped spear to be propelled at speeds well over 150kph."

This is important, it is being argued, because it may have played "an important part in human evolution" that is to say, it was a social equaliser, allowing "dextrous women and children" to use a spear "as well as muscular men." This is worth thinking about in a war situation, the report suggests, because a woman who could hurl a spear "particularly in hunter-gatherer societies" where war is often "a hunt with women as the prize" would have a significant advantage. The atlatl, concludes the report, would therefore be "one of the first great assertions of feminism."

Oxfam mothers campaign

2008-04-26T16:03:17Z

From The Big Issue In The North, 14-20/4/08: "Oxfam wants people to knit nine inch squares for a giant baby blanket, with each square representing a mother who did not survive pregnancy or childbirth. The aim is to get 250,000 squares by September - the number of mothers who could have been saved in that time if decent healthcare had been available. The blanket will be handed to the UK government before world leaders meet to discuss the Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015." The find out more about the Oxfam campaign, click here.

Boys, boys, boys...

2008-03-29T14:11:02Z

Nice to see WKD going down the Yorkie bar route with their recent ads. I wonder if they will cause a wave of young ladies to down their last cheeky vimto before switching to that more girly of drinks, the bacardi breezer? No, thought not...

Because a war in Chechnya is still a war

2007-12-01T18:14:29Z

A former conscript of the first Chechen war (1994-6) and volunteer in the second one (1999 onwards) has written a book about his experiences. Entitled 'One Soldier's War in Chechnya', Arkady Babchechenko tells, in full unflinching detail, of

"the taste of water tainted with rotting human flesh, the merciless beating of new recruits and the killing of a pet dog for food."

There are also the "venal, violent and incompetant" officers, who steal food from their soldiers, the fact that everyone flogs supplies to the rebels, and Chechen insurgents who slit their captives throats or trade them as slaves. As the review of the book points out, "Both sides treat civilians atrociously." This book would appear to reinforce not only the work done by the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, but also reports submitted or reported on by such organisations and charities as Medicin Sans Frontiers and The Medical Foundation, who help victims of torture. Both have revealed that rape and torture are routinely being used by both the Russians and the Chechen insurgents in Chechnya, but that organisations such as the UN have so far proved less than interested in getting involved in a country under Russian control.

Cameron's bid to make the Tories sympathetic towards rape victims

2007-12-01T17:50:09Z

David Cameron has been speaking out against Britains low rape conviction rate, and has been calling for longer prison sentences for convicted rapists, plus changes in school sex education, and more rape counselling centres. As the report shows, our statistics are quite revealing when compared to those of other European countries, albeit not in the ways you would initially think. According to the British Crime Survey, only 60% of women subjected to forced sex are willing to call it rape, which naturally has an impact on statistics of reported rapes. The Conservative party, of course, has a chequered history so far as sex education is concerned, and it would be interesting to see if this is another example of 'Call me' Dave's attempt to woo the voters with a seemingly more caring image, or if he really means any of it. As the article points out, he spoke of sex and violence in music and the media influencing behaviour, before walking out to The Killers, which suggests a lack of thought (still, at least it wasn't the Stranglers...) as well as hinting towards another attempt to look youth conscious or whatever.

Learning And Inequality From An International Perspective

2007-11-17T22:09:18Z

There's also a good piece about learning and inequality in The Economist, but looking at it from an international perspective, which makes for sobering yet occasionally uplifting reading.

Prostitution and small ads debate

2007-11-17T22:05:24Z

Just thought I'd draw your attention to a fascinating and well balanced piece of journalism in the Economist that explored Harriet Harmon's recent discussion of small ads for "adult massages" and the like that you so often see in local papers, magazines, etc in Britain. Harmon, on 28th October, linked these ads with people trafficking, and has argued that some of the girls advertised in the ads may be working against their will. As the article points out, it's not illegal to sell sex here, or to buy it, but soliciting in public is forbidden, and so is kerb crawling. There are newspaper codes that come in to play as far as accepting and running these type of ads are concerned, apparently, but there is also debate as to whether such ads can be used to moniter the sex industry and if banning them altogether would drive such services further underground, and make things worse in the process.

Wonder if Lauren Henderson could extract any new style feminist enjoyment from this...

2007-11-04T18:16:29Z

In response to Abi's piece about sexual harassment, couldn't help but be reminded of an incident that happened on a bus I was on earlier this week. As we were crawling along the rat run route from Oxford Road to Piccadilly, almost at a standstill in the traffic, a man came up to the window on the opposite side of the bus to me, breathed on the glass, wrote something in the steam, and then proceeded to unzip his kecks and wank against the side of the bus. Two female students were sat by this particular window, so they were obviously the ones who got the closest view of this dubious bout of 'entertainment', but the whole bus load of passengers, and the driver, were party to it because he made a point of whacking the side of the bus really fucking hard, and loud, with his fist just before performing the above act, and once more afterwards for good measure, making us all jump out of our skin. To make it worse, it was actually a new, clean Finglands bus that got the benefit as well... Even at the time something like this happens, you can't help but speculate in your mind as to the appropriate way to react to the un-reactable to... I did at first hope that the bus would move before he was finished, leaving him exposed and ridiculous on the pavement, but when that didn't work, I did toy with the idea of opening the window above his head, leaning over the two students in the process, and gobbing on him, but figured that would be less than ideal given that we didn't appear to be going anywhere and he was built like a brick shithouse.

To add a slight context to this occurrance, I should also point out that I was on a bus last year where a teenage girl threw herself at the window, screaming 'GOD I LOVE YOU!' and badly embarrassing the fifty something man who was sat by said window in the process, and that this is not the first time I've seen men either make obscene gestures, or thump the window, in order to harass a woman on a bus I've been on.

On a more optimistic point, I should also like to mention that there was a case in the local paper about a month ago where a teenage girl had her boobs grabbed by a man on her way home from school, which Greater Manchester police are investigating, and do appear to be taking seriously.

7th September in Salford: Volunteers Needed

2007-08-29T20:07:16Z

From The Big Issue In The North:

"Organisations that want to know more about the benefits of volunteers from groups not normally attracted to volunteering - such as young people, asylum seekers, black and minority ethnic communities and the unemployed - are invited to an event in Salford on 7 September. The event, at the Lowry, is organised by GoldStar, a national project to boost volunteering. Among the speakers will be 21-year-old Ahmed Shazad, a volunteer adviser at Cheetham Hill Advice Centre."

Cool Vs. Freak

2007-08-26T12:20:56Z

Yesterday at the supermarket checkout, I saw a very young girl (let's say about 7 or 8 tops) wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the legend COOL VS. FREAK. Whilst the first few immediate reactions I had ranged from "Oh my God, this child clearly idolises Lana Weinberger from 'The Princess Diaries'" to "I wonder who bought it for her?" to "The Pussycat Dolls have got a lot to answer for," what I chiefly felt was depressed.

I could over-exaggerate and over-dramatise the impact of such aggresive t-shirt slogans by claiming that this kind of slogan encaptulates exactly why people are shooting each other so much lately, but I'm not the Daily Mail, so I'll leave that particular thesis to them.

I do feel though that the aggressiveness of this, and other, t-shirt slogans reflects the aggressiveness of British society at large, and can be taken as being just one tiny part of the day to day psychosis of living here, and growing up here, but to say it causes teenagers to shoot each other would be over-simplistic at best, hysterical at worst.

No doubt it will be said that a t-shirt is just a t-shirt, it isn't hurting anyone, and that the child wearing it doesn't necessarily buy into the message on the t-shirt anyway. For this reason, you can sleep safe at night knowing it's O.K if your ten year old is wearing a t-shirt that reads BARBIE IS A SLUT, DEAD GIRLS DON'T SAY NO, or WILL FUCK FOR SHOES/CAKE/NEW TITS. Hhmmm... Of course, if you apply this theory of naivete and being led, there's not reason why there shouldn't be lots of ten year olds wearing NO TO THIRD RUNWAY, THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE, or MARXISM: MAKING PROPERTY HISTORY t-shirts, although the fact that these t-shirts generally aren't available in Bay Trading or Selfridges, or worn by pop stars, models, and actors might, of course, have something to do with it.

So, this is simple plea to parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, friends... get them a different t-shirt, one with a slogan less socially divisive, less about hate, more about love, get them a slogan that means something less crass. Maybe even buy them a t-shirt that raises questions, rather than providing a list of assumptions about the wearer and the buyer.

A degree in activism and social change

2007-06-18T23:29:12Z

From The Big Issue In The North, 28/5/07 - 3/6/07:

"Leeds University is to launch a new masters degree in activism and social change. The course will bring together the worlds of academia and radical social campaigning and is being supported by the World Development Movement (WDM). The course will include an introduction to key thinkers and ideas in social justice, campaigning methods, research for social change, and action research placements."

I'm not entirely sure if it's a good idea or not. Whilst creating a wider knowledge of activism is obviously a good thing, I can't help think that academia could slow the fast paced world of radical activism down a bit. I imagine it'll be a good thinking experience though.

Campaigning just got easier...

2007-06-05T10:26:15Z

news comes from the Big Issue In The North that a website has been launched by Advocacy Online to allow individual campaigners and small campaigns to set up online actions. Users will be able to customise every aspect and remain in control, and it will hopefully make things easier for those with a voice but less resources.

Abortion around the world

2007-05-30T21:37:47Z

There's a very good report in the May 19th edition of the Economist about abortion in an international context. It mentions the recent Irish case, whilst also mentioning that Mexico City has recently voted to legalise abortion. In China, meanwhile, the state's "one child" policy means that abortion is controversial not because it's banned, but because it is obligatory for women who already have a child: Recently, a father was fined 600,000 yuan for breaking the one child policy. I really recomend you read this because it takes the issue outside of a U.K/U.S context and as such, is discussing the issue in a new way, beyond the usual battle lines.

There's also a profile of Hilary Clinton, and her bid for the presidency, that you might like to compare to the Giuliani feature in a previous edition of the magazine.

Also, in a non feminist yet equally interesting context, there's a rare positive story about Iraq concerning Iraqi Kurdish soldiers in Baghdad.

Also, unrelated, there's a darkly funny, scathing account of the death of the British "left-wing revolt" in the current issue of Private Eye, ("Left In The Lurch", p7, 25th May - 7th June) that would be even more hilarious were it not so sad.

Family Policy, German Style

2007-05-30T20:56:15Z

Germany's family minister, Ursula von der Leyen, is aiming to increase nursery places in Germany to 750,000, to cover a third of Germany's under threes. The aim is to make it easier for mothers to work, and to encourage them to have more children. Germany has the lowest birth rate in what the Economist terms "rich Europe", at 1.3 children per woman, and the birth rate is particularly low among professional women. Apparently spending on family policy compares badly to many countries in the European Union, but von der Leyen's proposals are not without controversy.
Walter Mixa, a Catholic bishop, has argued that it would degrade women to "birthing machines," and the Economist makes the point that Germany has a "troubled relationship" with family policy, largely because, as Leonie Herwartz-Emden of Augsburg University told their writer, because the word "motherhood" is "loaded because of the Nazis' glorification of child-bearing."

Elsewhere in the same weeks edition of the Economist, there's a thorough and even handed profile of Rudy Giuliani and his bid to become President.

Plus a scientific report on a study concerning rape in the bird world, that I won't even attempt to go into here, as it would require getting too technical too fast.

The brutality of childbirth, with a footnote about post natal depression

2007-03-04T17:30:51Z

According to a report in the independent today, there has been a 21% rise in deaths of pregnant women in the care of NHS maternity services over a three year period. In addition to this, 17,000 women have suffered physical harm while in labour wards. I shan't re-hash the entire story, because the reasons why it's happened are (as in all NHS stories) not straightforward, and if you're sufficiently interested, you can follow the link to the story. What I will say is that it ties in, at least partially, with recent stories about trainee midwives finishing university and being unable to find jobs whilst, at the same time, the NHS is crying out for more midwives. I'm very interested as to what M.D in Private Eye will make of it... if he/she writes anything interesting about it, I will summarise it on here.

Another thing: For anyone who may or may not have been watching the series 'Lilies' on BBC1 in recent weeks, can't help but think that the depiction of May giving birth in the final episode should be shown to 13 year olds in schools as part of their sex education... even though we do, obviously, have painkillers and medical professionals on standby these days and it's therefore all meant to be less traumatic and less dangerous... Oh, wait, that's what the above story was all about...

In a yet more tenuously related story, there are even more Britney rumours circulating, this time suggesting she is suffering from post natal depression. Whatever you feel about the woman, I personally feel sickened by the way all of this has played out in such a public fashion, by which I mean people filming her on their mobile phones and putting it up online, flogging her hair online, as well as the inevitable paparazzi pictures etc. I realise it's hypercritical in the extreme to state that and then blog about whether she is or isn't suffering from post natal depression, but I think it's time we all accepted our own culpability and encouragement of the celebrity obsessed society we live in.