Just a short note- bitch, bust and ms superb American women's magazines. Where is the British equivalent??? A funny, insighful, feminist mag that looks at everything from politics to music and knitting.Would be great.

As you may have heard, Claire Curtis-Thomas MP's bill to classify lads mags as pornography won overwhelming support in Parliament on Tuesday. There will be a further reading of the bill on October the 20th. (read more here) Why is it that whenever women make any progress someone steps in and says-"well what about xyz?" I keep stumbling across articles and hearing people say- what about Cosmo? When there is overwhelming violence and discrimination against one gender, it is the responsibility of both to examine the whys and wherefores. Men need to take some responsibility and stop seeing progress as if someone gains someone else automatically loses. The reason's I support her bill? Well, to begin with there's the Beijing Platform for action. Article J.2 of the Beijing Platform For Action clearly states that it is the duty of signatory states to- "Encourage the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities, rather than presenting them as creative human beings, key actors and contributors to and beneficiaries of the process of development; " Magazines such as Zoo and Nuts allow for derogatory images of women to be passed into the mainstream. To remain unquestioned by our government would be to contravene the gender mainstreaming initiatives such as Beijing and CEDAW that Britain supports. The advertising campaigns of these kinds of magazines-the ubiquitous Don't expect any help on a Wednesday perpetuate images of women-especially young and attractive women- to be unable to complete simple tasks such as opening a garage door. As a 24 year old blonde woman I find that such imagery makes it harder to become anything other than a 24 year old blonde "girl" to many people. It is our governments responsibility to open doors to its citizens to enable them to obtain a certain standard of living,free from prejudice and discrimination. It is still unfathomable how one of the biggest selling papers in the UK features a semi-naked women in its opening pages.Previous attempts by Claire Short saw her derided for being "up tight" and "jealous" . The undermining of an intelligent woman's valid questioning of this practise was horrific and already there are comments circulating regarding this bill about campaigners being "jealous dykes" and "uptight". I believe the responses to this bill and those before it allow us to get a deeper insight into why these magazines are so popular. A woman is still reduced to her sexuality, body or attractiveness when we should be welcoming debate and challenging assumptions. If Britain really wants to be seen as a world leader in democracy and freedom, these sorts of images should be marked as what they are-pornography. For consenting adults, pornography is their individual choice. I do not choose to go into a newsagents and see Abi Titmus naked, nor do I choose to be told I must ask "my man" for help opening a door.

My favourite topic at the moment is wolf whistling. The combination of reading great feminist sites and a fantastic book (Rethinking Violence against Women-Dobash and Dobash)has made me realise that I am not alone in feeling uneasy walking past groups of men and walking by building sites.

In fact two incidences spring to mind when I'm positively fuming about this-
1-group of builders near where I used to work-EVERY day they would say/do something disgusting-I did nothing but not want to walk there!
2-being groped in a club and telling the letch to "go away". He called me mental and for a split second I thought I was- grrr.
So on the back of these fume inducing incidences I started thinking about wolf whistling.

Wolf whistling is irritating. It's intrusive, offensive and makes me angry. Firstly, I can't imagine if any women has ever taken up the challenge and responded positively (although I do remember a story about a telephone number on a polo packet) and secondly, I believe it is nothing less than out and out sexual harassment.

It seems to be simply for the pleasure of other men and to scare or intimidate women. Male bravado perhaps- but the lengths to which groups of men will go to impress each other whilst working topless smacks of the apparent paradox of homo-phobia and homo-eroticism.

In an exclusively male environment the need to assert masculine modes of "normal" behaviour is seemingly heightened. Heterosexuality is associated with aggression, and the louder or more puerile the statement the more hetero it is. Asserting heterosexuality on the one hand and impressing your work buddies in one go. Brilliant work boys.

Wolf whistling is not only experientially offensive but it is symbolic of the need to dominate the public arena. A woman who walks past a building site is out of her "territory" and thus is open to all. The context of gendered power relations makes this act one of sexual violence. Thinking about sexual violence within a circular framework (see above book) makes me even more adamant that this is an act of sexual violence-it is intimidating, demeaning and is directed in the most part towards women. (I keep stumbling across men saying that it happens to them as well but I doubt on such a grand scale)

This issue yet again highlights the need for a reworking of British cultural and social norms in respect to gender relations. It is deemed uptight or humorless to be offended by such behaviour. Women are meant to respond positively to this behavior- certain celebrities applaud this "recognition" of.. well what exactly? That you are your body and men are entitled disprove or approve of your body and therefore your self.

However, there are some brilliant sites out there that talk about street harassment, for example anti-street harassment BUT the fact remains-it is not our responsibility to not get whistled at so whose is it? and how can it be stopped? Crucially, where are the men in this debate?

Hello there
This is our new blog/site combo. We used to run a little zine called batterythinkers, which although was truly kick ass, lacked the feminist edge we hoped for.We are three young women from Britain and we wanted to create something that had the passion and fervour of the American sites that inspired us, wwww.feministing.com et al.
so...

i carried a watermelon was created for a place for us to vent our feminist splein, engage in the HUGE network of feminists out there and generally comment on anything and everything that tickles our fancy from a brit perspective.
we hope you enjoy