(Courtesy of Shakespeares sister)
breast feeding-woah there!! that's not what breasts are for! They're only sexual objects for me to ogle at!! Disgusting...

Boobophobes (via Chris Howard):

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine.”

…“I immediately turned the magazine face down.”

…“Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob.”

…“I shredded it. A breast is a breast — it's a sexual thing. [My 13-yeard-old son] didn't need to see that."
Those are just some of the reactions to Babytalk’s recent cover, which “incited more than 700 letters to the editor, a record for the magazine.” A quarter of their 4,000 readers polled found the image “inappropriate.”

O.K..it is in America, but you can SO imagine that happening in the UK. Breasts are for one thing, and one thing only-to grace the cover of Nuts.

American fundamentalists are convinced that the second coming of Christ is at hand; they have developed an end-time scenario of genocidal battles based on a literal reading of Revelation that is absolutely central to their theology. Christ cannot return, however, unless, in fulfilment of biblical prophecy, the Jews are in possession of the Holy Land. Before the End, the faithful will be "raptured" or snatched up into the air in order to avoid the Tribulation. Antichrist will massacre Jews who are not baptised; but Christ will defeat the mysterious "enemy from the north", and establish a millennium of peace.

This grim eschatology, developed in the late 19th century, was in part a reaction to the "social gospel" of the more liberal Christians, who believed that human beings were naturally evolving towards perfection and could build the New Jerusalem here on earth by fighting social injustice. The fundamentalists, however, believed that God was so angry with the faithless world that he could save it only by initiating a devastating catastrophe; they would see the terrible battles of the first world war, which showed that science could be used to lethal effect in the new military technology, as the beginning of the End.

Judgement day, Prophecies, The four horsemen... This is the superpower's idea of foreign policy?!!
read it all here

I was disgusted to read in metro this morning that they are considering a new scheme whereby women can have their eggs harvested in order to receive reduced rate IVF treatment. How is this policy of preying on vulnerable and hormonal women even being considered let alon possibly actioned? It is a disgrace. Women are being treated like a commodity, which is bad enough, but at a time when they are emotionally and physically fragile it is just sickening. Our bodies are not for farming to increase the governments profitibility.

I've just looked at Dita Von Teese's 'Festish and the Art of Teese' and have to say I absolutely loved it. I know this probably makes me a massive hipocrit but I think the pictures really come across as a beautiful representation of sexual expression. The fact that they are in complete contrast to the mainstream bombardment of airbrushed, tanned, bleached blonde bionic-seeming bimbo's made them a pleasure to look at. They celebrate the female form, manipulate the male gaze and seem to control rather than be the subject of objectification. Its self-awareness and nostalgic harking back to 50's pin-ups acts as a reminder of how far we have come in terms of feminine expression, and seeing her incased in rubber and PVC promotes the future(istic) possibilities. It reminds me of that awful film Barbed Wire with Pamela Anderson where she attempted to look like a dominatrix but instead just looked like porno-goth barbie. In comparison Dita really does show power, grace and sophistication and transcends just a sexual interpretation of her body. It's got me thinking about how fetish and the dominatrix fit into third wave feminism....

The UN used to stand for peace and diplomacy. In last thirty years the project of globalisation heralded the end of sovereign states, boundaries and territories. The UN had the potential to be a positive agent for a new era of global politics. One where all countries could work within the new rules of globalisation, where universal norms and rights were upheld and where the focus on global politics was diplomacy not war. The UN has never been without its problems, outdated power structures, smaller and less economically developed countries have little bargaining power and the veto’s allowed to bigger countries allow many issues to be side stepped. However, within the structure of the UN smaller countries can work together, forming a powerful voting block to be reckoned with. NGO’s and grassroots groups work with countries in issues such as health, human rights and working practices.

I like the UN. It symbolises a desire to work together to reach unanimous goals and ideals and that all countries-no matter its size or GDP-have a place at the debating table.

Not any more. We all know about Bush and Blair’s horrific acts of ignoring international law. Iraq. Tony Blair began his career as PM as a force for diplomacy and democracy, and after the long days of Thatcher, British politics needed an international statesman. He began work on the Africa Commission, albeit he always had a bit of the Christian missionary about him. Britain’s place in international politics was almost something to be proud of.

Not any more.

Fighting escalated on both sides as the much-vaunted peace conference in Rome broke up after failing to reach agreement to call for an immediate ceasefire. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, backed by Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, resisted calls from 13 other countries, as well as the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, for such a ceasefire.

(The Guardian today)

I feel so angry, ashamed and scared that as a country we are part of a team that is producing global instability. For Blair’s supporters, Labour and the left has always been associated with the Palestinian cause, and for Blair kneel down and let Bush tell him what he can and can’t do it horrendous.

After 7/7 the government was adamant that British Foreign Policy had nothing to do with the London bombings. Even for an armchair politician this is clearly untrue. Home grown terrorists do not just suddenly become so through a visit to Pakistan. What led them there does. Living in a country in which you are still framed as the “other” and watching the very people you would call brothers and sisters die on a daily basis would politicise any marginalised youth. When Bush is creating what seems to be a religious war, if you are already on the “evil” side, then where else is there left to go?

This isn’t about Israel’s right to defend itself, this is about the continuation of the so called war on terror- condoning a devastating attack on a country that has slowly rebuilt itself after many years of civil war. Destroying infrastructure, killing UN observers and trapping citizens is out and out war. There are three known wars occurring in that region at present. Make no mistake, if this was the UK, France and Germany, this would be named World War III.

Amnesty International, The Church of England and the Muslim council of Britain are among those who have urged Tony Blair to press for a cease fire. He didn’t.

Marching in February 2003, I had a feeling that I was doing something, that I was actively engaged in the democratic process in the UK. It is clear now, three years on and with the Taliban rising again in Afghanistan, civil war in Iraq and the Israel/Palestine/Lebanon mess that Tony Blair is no longer fit to govern. He is nothing more than Bush’s yes man and he is ignoring the protest of his country.

The Lib-dems need to reclaim the left to offer a viable alternative in UK politics. Labour no more, and god forbid the Tories. Shit

What we all know...
Start behaving like a prime minster of a democracy (seeing as you percieve yourself as some kind of democratic deity) and listen to your people!!
grrr.

A new invention for female drivers- an inflatable man. 'Buddy' is flat packed in the passenger seat and at a time of anxiety (driving at night, instances of road rage, motoring down isolated country roads etc) can be instantly inflated to give the appearance of a male passenger. Isn't this just merely dealing with the symptom and not the condition? The crux of the problem is women are afraid to drive alone, I doubt many men require an inflatable doll for the same purposes.

Feminsim reaches a more mainstream forum with Daisy Garnett's article in this months Vogue magazine, she argues the case of whether post feminsim really is feminism or just an example of women perpetuating their own inequality...

....the more I think about it, the more I realise that far from feminism being merely taken for granted, something much more frightening is happening. We women no longer need men to treat us as little more than sex objects. We are doing it, even paying for it ourselves."

The plastic surgery industry is booming, now there are even adverts in tube stations for 'alignments and improvements'. Women feel that they are enpowering themselves by 'owning' their own sexuality and attempting to control the aspersions cast upon them from their appearance. but does that really make it feminsim, just because we feel we are allowing it to happen? Surely it is not an issue of control.
By attempting to have it all- career, beauty, family etc- are we really gaining equality or just too busy to notice we are being taken for a ride? Many women spend a fortune on beauty products, the latest fashions and accessories as well as working 60 hours a week and then going home to do the domestic routine and childcare. But actually this is not equal to the experiences of men, yes they are becoming more fashion and beauty conscious (feeling the same pressures women have felt for years) and yes we work the same hours, but no we generally do not earn the same money and generally they separate themselves from domestic responsibility. By attempting to have it all have we gone to far? Do we as a society have domestic duties so ingrained as a female occupation that even women expect it of themselves yet, seeing themselves as equal in the workplace and overlooking the inequality in their home life?

I have just received an email from the co-ordinator of Hollaback Europe saying that due to a campaign of intimidation she has been forced to close the site.

There has been a lot of negative press about this site and it really angers me that it could create such a violent backlash.

She was seeing offensive posts on the site and having had posted her home address was genuinely fearful of what would happen to her.

Street harassment IS sexual violence and it creates an atmosphere of fear preventing many from actively choosing their daily route to work, nights out and use of transport. A campaign of such fear is nothing but out and out socially acceptable violence.

Why are people so scared of a platform created to allow women to re-empower themselves?

The backlash is often thought of as some faceless patriarchal machine, but clearly it is carried out by such deluded people as those who threatened and intimidated the co-ordinator of Hollaback EU.

This was a chance to revolutionise how society viewes street harassment, to get people thinking and debating about the line between flirting and sexual harassment. I wonder how long it took society (i.e. the patriarchy) to accept equal pay and work harassment.

Women are still perceived as victims in the public sphere, up for approval or disapproval by the "normal" majority, and clearly any attempts to question this is met by complete opposition, allowing no room for debate.

Another problem faced was the lack of posts. People just weren't prepared to engage in this project. Why? Fear of reprisal? Misunderstanding of what street harassment is? Thinking there was nothing wrong with it? Or was it that they didn't know about it?
As such a successful project in the US it is a shame that it didn't pick up, but after such a short time, maybe we will never know if it could.

Well done though to the co-ordinator, she genuinely risked her own safety to set up this site, and its such a shame that it never had the chance to get going because of some appalling behaviour from the ignorant, frightened bullies who posted on the site.

I am still incredibly keen to get this project up and running, and if anyone has any ideas then lets do something about it!

Nowhere at all did any of them blame another woman for her 'complicity' in the oppression of women. Academic radical feminist analysis at the time placed responsibility for the oppression of women fairly and squarely on patriarchial systems of oppression. It still does. Radical feminists did not - and still don't - point the finger at other women.

I see women like Jodie Marsh, Posh Spice, Lea from Big Bro (in fact all the ladies from Big Brother) and I think-where's their choice? Why are they perpetuating it? But by doing so, I am "laying the blame at these women's feet" Are they not also victims of a system whereby they must look/behave like that- the same as me? These are grown women with minds of thier own and active lifes to live so by me assuming they have no control- OR are some how to blame for the system they (and I) live within am I (gulp) a misogynist?

Alexi Sayle has cast his comedic eye over the media in the Daily Mail today and noted that there is a proliferation of pregnant people on our screens. Indeed, Davina McCall seems to be pregnant more often than not, and hit the headlines wearing her 'big mutha' tshirt whilst presenting Big Brother. Alexi (albeit rather tongue in cheek) seems to consider the prevalance of pregnancy gracing our screens as a development for feminism. Obviously its good to see women 'having it all' (I refrain from using that awful term 'juggling'. Whoops). However, its undeniable that a large percentage of a presenters job is to provide something nice to look at and pregnancy in our society is not deemed attracive (presumable sexualising a body that has been manipulated by nature and not collagen etc is unnerving for the dominant male spectator). So yes, its great to see preganant women on screen but does this have to be as a complete antithesis to the pumped up versions of femininity offered by Jordan and the like?

Earlier this week, I read a piece in the guardian saying that many of the Spice Girls biggest fans will be turning eighteen and how interesting it will be to see this group become young women. However, (not without noting that Girl-Power was only ever a male marketing ploy in the first place)WAGs, raunch culture and the 90's backlash/ironic/loaded culture have conspired to perpetuate the worst of myths about women, money and sex . Two surveys in the last year have shown that teenage girls would rather be glamour models and young women in their twenties aspire to be WAGs.
AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Ronan Conroy rightly makes the link between designer vaginas and FGM. There's a good article in the Independent

We like to think in the west that as a "developed" nation we make all our own choices (tighter vaginas) but those in the developing world do not (genital mutilation). The two practices are both cultural in origin, both wanted by the recipients and both involve what the World Health Organisation would classify as FGM

"All procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons."

The ethnocentric hypocrisy that the west has is outstanding. Colonial ideas of "the natives" inability to make rational decisions still holds true in the 21st Century. Both practises work to limit women's natural response to sexuality, child birth and ideas of genital aesthetics.Maybe we should bring back the 70's consciousness raising classes that involved no knickers and a mirror.

Hollaback Europe has begun! Hollaback started as a New York campaign to shame those street harassers, flashers and general pervs many women encounter every day.
The premise is if you're grabbed, flashed or intimidated in anyway there is a platform for you to vent. Either post pictures of your harasser or tell your story here.
It's an excellent project in empowering people and letting the world know-we're not going to stand for it any longer!!
I'm very very excited about this project and think it has the potential to revolutionise the way arse pinchers, wolf whistlers and lewd comment makers are seen. It's not nice, its not flattering and it's incredibly scary and offensive.
If you've never experienced this, imagine having to be very aware every time you leave the house of what you're wearing, having to cross the street if you see a big group of men, dreading using public transport in case you are assaulted or avoiding building sites. Even if the men you avoid were not going to do or say anything, experience would have taught you that they probably will and it wont be nice.
And shock horror backlashers-some hetero men are supportive of it too! (see website)

Just heard this on the news-
Samaira Nazir was a 25 year old recruitment consultant who was stabbed to death 18 times by her brother and her cousin. Her father is thought to be involved but fled to Pakistan where relatives claim he has died. The judge called it "a barbaric murder" and jailed them for life. Sickening. Read about it here

Tragic and rage inducing but well worth the read
River Bending

On a similar note-
I've been thinking a lot lately about globalisation and what it means for people (my reading list came through for my masters!). I started thinking about globalisation in terms of movement of ideas and the impact of it on social movements. Which then got me thinking about feminism and what we're doing with this blog. We used to run a zine but didn't really get any sort of dialogue going with our readers and eventually it became quite insular as it was only us contributing, with the exception of one or two from America and Canada or friends of friends.

My immediate reaction to having this blog is that it has put me in contact with more feminist groups, new ideas and like minded people. But how much has the internet changed social movements ability to co-ordinate efforts and bounce ideas off each other?
On the face of it, my experiences have been very positive, but there is a HUGE chasm of missing vioces.

For me and my British feminism to overcome its "white, middle class" label, it's important to be visibly inclusive and engage with women from all over the world.

Globalisation potentially can be an exciting chance to open up debate and discussion with so many people, but is arguing for access and usage of information sources niave in the context of poverty?

Sitting in the hairdressers last night, picked up a mag and lo and behold yet ANOTHER drink=rape story. Suffolk police have told girls to remember to wax and wear nice kinckers when they are drunk, as when they pass out in the street-no-one wants to see a big grey pair of pants. Nice.. Next to this was a picture of a girl passed out with her skirt up.
This follows the continuing belief in the police force that "if you don't want to get raped, don't drink". Last month, the head of Scottish police said women should avoid drink if they didn't want to get raped.

Not so long ago, a student failed in her attempt to get her rapist-sorry alledged-rapist prosecuted because she was so pissed she didn't remember giving consent. There is the explicit note in rape legislation about consent being about having the "capacity to make that choice". She was passed out on the floor-how did she have capacity to consent!!

The judiciary and the police force need to stop seeing rape as something we let happen.Apparently the police distinguish between "real rape" (ie stranger rape) and other forms, totally bypassing the stats that you are much much more likely to get raped by someone you know. Only 17% of rapes are committed by strangers. People often use the excuse of drink for making men commit rapes and/or violence, how about the police telling men NOT to drink. Similarly, the advice to avoid walking alone at night could well be "men, don't go out at night". It makes as much sense and it is ridiculous that women should be held accountable for their own rapes. It's no wonder that the prosecution rate is so low, when our juries are made up of people who hear these stories and swallow them whole as well as the victims who buy into these ideas, thus making it harder for them to accept it was not their fault, they didn't make it happen and they will be believed.

I love her even more now she says she was "a bit of a feminist". Now, where's Fern...

Oh dear

I've said it before-the West is horrified when we hear stories about FGM. Is this is our version of it?

Lord Goldsmith has called it "unacceptable", Amnesty International has called it "a human rights scandal" and now Gordon England, second in command at the Pentagon has said that Guantamano Bay does fall within the Geneva convention. The previous excuse has been that as a war time President, certain rules do not apply, and the Bush administration has argued that the convention itself is "ambiguous"..hmmm."don't torture" is ambiguous?
Prior to this Pentagon admission, the supreme court ruled this week that the military trials are "unlawful". The Bush administration seems to believe that is above the law, and has nearly destroyed the UN as well as broken other codified rules of international engagement and diplomacy.
For Tony Blair, with Cameron snapping at his heels, this would be a perfect political and moral opportunity to do what the British public has asked of him for the last five years-condemn this torture camp and disassociate the UK from the Bush administration.
The guardian has the full story

you've gotta love stories like these-

THE Scottish NHS is introducing controversial "lunchtime" abortions under local anaesthetic in a move it claims will make the procedure safer and quicker for thousands of women each year.

Doctors will begin a pilot next year in which women undergo terminations while fully conscious in outpatient treatment rooms, rather than operating theatres. Health chiefs believe the move could boost abortion safety by reducing the need for general anaesthetics or powerful drugs. It would also free up operating theatres for other patients and save money.

fair enough
but...

But Church leaders and anti-abortion groups have reacted with fury and disbelief, accusing NHS managers of reducing abortion to something as trivial as a trip to the dentist

(Scotland on Sunday)
yep, I'm sure a woman would see an abortion as like "a trip to the dentist". God! do these people have NO idea about women's relationships to their bodies!
There's a great line in Manifesta about how the pioneers of legal abortion probably didn't forsee it as becoming a souless factory line. Yes, it's a woman's choice and without a doubt I am pro-choice but I think there is a lack of awareness (from anti-choicers) and a dodging of the issues (from pro-choicers) that abortion isn't ever going to be nice. As a pro-choicer I understand that the dickheads who oppose this choice have somehow got the media in their pockets and are scarily powerful, and so to say-"actually, abortions aren't nice and no-one really wants to get it done" (womb scrape anyone?) is like admitting some failure in the choice movement. Be it a social, physical or emotional reaction- women, I believe, need a bit more support when under going this LEGAL procedure.Every time a new way of doing the procedure is looked at, it's turned into some tabloidesque horror story.

The Onion has a great piss take along these sort of lines.

Victoria Beckham's jeans have a 23 inch waistband. Thats the size of an average 7 year old. She is hailed an icon on pro-anorexia websites by sufferers. The weight debate is getting incredibly tiresome but its still raging. What worries me is the 'curvy' girls (hailed as a refreshing sexiness compared to their bony peers) are still only 'filling out' a size 10-12. Celebrity role models are shrinking down to a size 0 (Miss Nicole Richie), so now a size 4 can be sneered upon. This androgenous shape is accompanied by massive hair and pneumatic breasts, resulting in a perverse sexualisation of the infantalised body. Why do women no longer want to look like women? Why is variety no longer spice of life? When will the relentless battle of the bulimics end?

Finally have found a mag I want to read!!
Whilst I do have a soft spot for marie claire (good campaigns) we all know most mags out there are either a) rubbish b) patronising or c) actually quite misogynist, so the idea of having a cool readable feminist magazine was very appealing. The American's have been doing it for years, magazines like Bust, Ms and Bitch are abundant-fresh feminist magazines with music, culture and articles on subjects like the politics of knitting and fashion.
Anyway, I received my copy of the first edition of Verge/Vagina Magazine at the weekend and I am v impressed.A Brit feminist magazine-Horay!
order it here

So Chris Moyles is making news again for using offensive language..quelle suprise. 

The BBC claimed that it was ok for him to use the word "gay" as a term for meaning "rubbish or lame". Gaydar radio is not happy that they weren't involved in OFCOMs consultation with radio stations, and as the only gay station out there-you'd think they'd be the first port of call. Language policing is an incredibly contentious issue, but I think when the government and the education sector are making moves to tackle homophobia in schools, allowing someone whose main audience is school age to equate gayness with being rubbish is quite appalling.

The old argument-if you don't like it, don't listen to it doesn't apply here- I don't listen to him, but there will be thousands who do.

People keep telling me how hilarious he is but you've got to wonder why this personification of everything that was bad about the 90's is allowed so much leniency. Here he is being foul about women-we're dirty whores apparently..
grr this man makes me angry!!

To mark the anniversary of the July 7th bombings there will be a two minute silence at midday. The question many victims and their families are asking is- why? The report commissioned by the government was found to be lacking in real explanations of how and why four young British men undertook these attacks. Trying to understand the alienation and marginalisation many Muslims feel in Britain today is essential if we want to remove this threat of fundamentalism. Tony Blair at the Commons liaison committee on July 4th remarked  that there is a "false sense of grievance" against the west. Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan.... I'm not a muslim but these conflicts do not sit well with me. British foreign policy is instrumental in fermenting fundamentalism. It's about time Blair stopped bending over for Bush, and do what he claims he brought to Iraq (no, not a civil war) but govern a democracy. 
But for those who lost loved ones, the most important issue is remembrance .

Horray! It's finally coming into the mainsteam! Go to the Guardian story on harassment on public transport-v encouraging that this is being discussed.