Newsflash: Violence is not Ladylike

I expect you’ll already be aware that the attack on Danielle Lloyd in a nightclub last week prompted the usual predictable response from the Daily Mail about Bad Women. (I won’t bother linking to them on this occasion but will tell you that it’s all about the so-called “Rise of the Thugettes”.)

Why is it that violence committed by women is so often treated as somehow “special” or beyond the pale when, really, the problem is surely that some people, regardless of their genders, think it’s okay to behave like that? Then there’s the glory and awe often attached to being seen as “hard” that has seemed to rule both the playground and the street for as long as I can remember…

I touched on these issues during a phone-in with Shelagh Fogarty on Radio Five Live breakfast. You can still catch it until 10am tomorrow morning (scroll to 3.05.20 in the programme onward or click here to listen to part of the discussion).