Lads party like it's 1999

29/11/2011

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Sigh. I seem to be shouting, “It is 2011!” a lot lately. To the men in the white van beeping their horn at me, to the scaffolders demanding I smile, to the stupid comic shop guy in a super hero costume who insists sexist jokes are funny and I have permission to laugh. Let me tell you, the old (well, 11 months) “It is 2011! You’re an anachronism!” line is not nearly as devastating as I might hope.

If anything demonstrates the relevance of feminism it is this tangible step back in time. I recall halcyon days when it was possible to pass a building site and not receive marks out of 10. This return to 20th century stereotype is not because I suddenly blossomed, but because for a while was clear that behaviour was Not Okay.
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Wild Science Tamed

29/11/2011

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For some time now the UK’s school curriculum has been noted for how outdated and dull it is. It’s embarrassing to think of Google execs informing us our children are peculiarly behind in computer science. They are right, of course, we aren’t educating children to take an interest or be curious. But we can’t lay the blame totally with schools. It seems our educational toys are increasingly lacklustre too.

When these products were first brought to my attention I despaired a little. I had seen these stacked up in WH Smith's and lamented their presence over any badge or sticker making kits. Partly because that is what I was after but also because I am fond of the notion little girls might have interests outside make up. 
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UK Women top European BMI List

28/11/2011

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Women in the UK are the fattest in Europe. Men in the UK are a very close second to Malta on the obesity scale but ‘Men in the UK are second fattest’ does not make for such a snappy headline.

I can’t imagine anyone is all that surprised about the results. People in Britain don’t seem to have the same attitude to food as those in mainland Europe. This is not to say the rest of Europe is without its dietary faults, but it goes to prove my point that cheese and wine have way more nutritional value than we give them credit for.

Facetiousness aside for a moment, meal times are more likely to be just that outside of the UK, a time set aside to prepare and then pay attention to as you ingest it. What you read most on any report on the eating habits of the UK’s population is that they are too busy to eat properly. We appear to have a population surviving on convenience foods. 
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Regeneration Gap

28/11/2011

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AAAH! Birthday Dalek! Flee!
So Doctor Who has just turned 48 (yes, yes I know it was 23rd November but I don’t think I’ve ever got anyone a card on time). If the show was a person it’d be worrying about the upcoming Big Five-Oh, eyeing up sports cars and reminiscing about its life so far. Which is exactly what I’m going to do…

The show is now part of the family (although based on the number of children it has traumatised it’d probably be the creepy uncle that nobody likes to talk about) – you’d be hard pushed to find anyone in the UK who wasn’t aware of the basic premise even if you managed to find someone who’d never seen an episode. The characters are burnt into the public consciousness, even if they are slightly out of date (the Doctor hasn’t worn a long scarf in 30 years. He wears bowties now. Bowties are cool), so much so that the police force recently lost a court case to the BBC over the image rights for police boxes.
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Friday 5...Feminist stereotypes or ‘Feminists we’ve never met’

25/11/2011

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As it happens we had this Friday 5 planned well in advance, it is pure coincidence the Friday we had it scheduled in for happened to also be the day it became clear there are still some people out there who misunderstand what a feminist is. Here are 5 feminist stereotypes we at Squeamish Bikini have never encountered. 
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Smells like Obscene Spirit

25/11/2011

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Reading various little pieces about the Lynx internet advert featuring Lucy Pinder my main thought was; I’ve seen worse. I was equally indifferent about action by the ASA after 10 complaints. The lame adverts were removed on the basis the advert “objectified women”. The adverts didn’t make me raise my eyebrows or anything; I do think the breaks between The Hotel Inspector are probably improved with the absence of any Lynx.

What has got my eyebrows reaching for my hairline is Brendan O’Neill’s opinion in the Telegraph stating that feminists “possessed by Mary Whitehouse” have taken the ad down.

Dude, if you want to see Lucy Pinder so badly she has a website. You can look at images of her to your heart’s content whilst spraying yourself with cans and cans of Lynx. 
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International Men's Day? You missed it.

24/11/2011

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lest we forget; everybody poops
The 19th of November was the 12th International Men’s Day. I suspect, as International Women’s Day tends to, this went largely unnoticed. Were it not for this article I would have had no idea there was such a thing as International Men’s Day. But apparently we need to be talking about it.

It seems every time there’s a discussion concerning such subjects there’s a clause that the phrase ‘Battle of the sexes’ has to be used. Which is both irksome in its playground mentality and useless since pitting groups against each other rarely gets either set anywhere. This is not some opportunity to mock International Men’s Day. I am a week or so late anyway so HA HA joke’s on me. Nor is it an argument over which sex is more deserving and you won’t find the sentence ‘every day is International Men’s Day’. At least not beyond this paragraph, which ends…now. 
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Kristen Wiig awarded Bro of the Year 2011

23/11/2011

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Kristen Wiig, I love you.
After a seemingly rapid rise to success in the comedy world Kristen Wiig has another accolade to add to the list since the success of Bridesmaids. GQ has made Wiig an honourary bro!

Bro of the year? Dude! Congrats man! Major fist pump action.

Only…what does it mean that GQ couldn’t think of a better compliment for a funny woman than to award her some kind of frat-boy status?

Call me crazy but doesn’t GQ like to style itself as kind of classy? The thinking man’s Nuts, if you will. A magazine that often has a man on the cover, looking all suave, doing his best suited and booted Bond impression (you know, looking up as he fastens a button on his suit, or looking up as he straightens his cuff, examples here, here, here and here) (and here)

Fine, yes you can wear suit and still appreciate the idiom of college age guys. It’s not really the choice of epithet for this award I have any problem with. It’s the message awarding it to a woman gives. A woman who has achieved her popularity and recognition by being talented and funny. 
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Educating Sue: Part 3

22/11/2011

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Photo: Wayne Hiebert

Squeamish's resident mature student Sue's studies are going well. If only she could get her glasses prescription right...
Half term has been and gone, I blinked and missed it. In fact I didn’t blink much at all due to the matchsticks holding my eyelids open whilst I completed my History, English and Sociology Assignments! They were quite involved and I wanted to get on with them to give me a breather between the finish of one lot and the start of the next; so I was a bit put out to find that the nearer we got to the deadline, the more help we were given. The dilemma being if you leave it for long enough, you will receive enough hand outs to virtually write the thing for you, but you have no time in which to write it because by then the next assignment is being handed out.  

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Glitter and Twisted

21/11/2011

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Animatronics are out creepily singing festive songs and rolling their unseeing eyes in shopping centres. Students are trussed up in elf costumes luring small children into Santa’s grotto and celebrities you’ve never heard of are flicking switches left right and centre, bathing towns and cities in twinkly lights. Christmas is coming.


But it’s not actually Christmas until the 25th of December not only are the shops flogging sequinned garments, but you are looking at said items and thinking; ‘ooh, that’s quite nice’. The cynical amongst you will say ‘yes, well that’s only natural if you’re lambasted with the sight of any fashion trend long enough you’ll start to like it’ and I would agree with you. We all remember wet look leggings.
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