Once a year, a couple of hundred people gather somewhere in the UK for a weekend of discussion, socialising, and workshops known as Bicon.

I spent last weekend at Bicon 2012, and when Squeamish Kate asked me to write about it for this site, I wasn't sure where to start at first. But then I realised that when I've said where I've been, I often get the same few questions: what? how? And, perhaps most often – why? So I'll do my best – newbie to the scene that I am – to answer them. Not necessarily in any particular order mind you...

The most straightforward is probably the 'what?'

As the name might suggest, it's largely a place for bisexuals. But the event is not exclusive – as the main website explains, “We don't all use the labels "bi" or "bisexual" or even agree on what it means to be bi, but bisexuality is the common theme.” Friends, allies, lovers and the curious are welcomed with open arms, so long as they abide by the code of conduct (which I'll come onto in a moment). 

Since the recession hit the UK suicide rates among men have rapidly increased, the British Medical Journal reports. Speaking on the Today programme Liverpool University's Ben Barr said that the parts of the UK experiencing the greatest rise in unemployment has also seen a rise in suicide rates. The report, published in the British Medical Journal asked: “Few would contest that the UK government’s austerity policy has increased job losses, and indeed, one of its core aims has been to achieve large scale reductions in public sector employment. But what are the implications for health?” 

Between 2008 and 2010 the report found 846 more suicides among men than historical trends would have led them to expect. There were 155 more suicides among women. This is the first time fluctuations in unemployment have been associated with suicide rates among women. This increase in suicide rates follows 20 years of rates being down in England. 

Yesterday former Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief and Sex and the Single Girl author Helen Gurley Brown died New York at the age of 90. Squeamish Kate and F1 Kate discuss the original Cosmo Girl...

It has been a long running joke in sitcoms, a shorthand for a housewife's frustrations and teenage aspirations. A multiple choice Cosmo quiz has been the plot line for husbands taking their wives out on farcical dinners at French restaurants (5 Ways to Reignite your Marriage!) and teenage girls furtively trying to extract answers to their quizzes from the object of their affection (5 Ways to Tell if He's into You!) to see if they are a match.

Cosmopolitan magazine has taken a bit of a bashing from the feminist blogosphere, continuing where the first wave feminist Cosmo sit in left off. While the Cosmo house style might have become a slightly comic cliché it has yet to become compulsory reading.

Usually talk of a new industrial estate or city causes me to picture a mini Dystopia akin to Canary Wharf, a Dystopialette if you will. Dull grey buildings, filled with dull grey suits, all dependent on the activity on grey screens. Red Bull providing the only splash of colour – its content casting an eerie glow against all the employees' faces. Across this earth they are all the same. Until now.

2012 will go down as the first year women of Saudi Arabia were allowed to represent the kingdom in the Olympics. Sarah Attar ran the 800 metres dressed in a hijab and told the BBC: “The door is open... this legacy will really develop the women's spirits to get more active and get involved [in sport]”

It seems now in Saudi Arabia 2012 will also see the beginnings of a women only industrial city. The women's spirits in Saudi Arabia evidently inspired to get more active and involved, in sport and in other matters. Saudi women make up 15% of the workforce and this women only industrial city proposal is following government plans to increase job opportunities for women. The hope is women will take on a greater involvement in the country's development.

Louise Mensch. We thought she had been a bit quiet, turns out she's fallen back on the long established musician's favourite free publicity machine. Retiring. These musicians have one last goodbye tour. Another 'I mean it this time' goodbye tour. Then the final 'No, really' goodbye tour. Whilst Mensch will not be touring Corby with a microphone, pyrotechnics and tears in her eyes she will be continuing the musician theme by trying to break America.

Once Mensch has recovered from the upset of disappointing Edwina Currie what will she do? Mensch has given the reason that she can't balance Westminster life with raising a family, having chosen not to take Currie's advice to quit whining and get the help in. But Mensch doesn't seem the type to settle down to a Wisteria Lane housewife life. We had a think about what Louise might do if money's too tight to menschn.

When I first read this story I thought 'aw' and moved on. A teenage girl who suffered constant teasing over her sticking out ears received money from a charity for surgery. 14 year old Nadia Ilse had been asking her mother for an otoplasty operation since the age of 10. Researching how to pay for such surgery her mother stumbled upon the charity Little Baby Face and ear pinning surgery was scheduled.

The charity Little Baby Face appears to usually deal with children who have cleft palates, facial palsy and hearing restoration. Physically Ilse's case is mild, but ongoing bullying has had a strong emotional affect so the charity agreed to go ahead and fund surgery.

That's great! While they haven't done Will Smith any harm, I have heard stories of protruding ears being more trouble than they're worth so huzzah! Good for Nadia Ilse and well done Little Baby Face. The before and after pictures look great, she's glowing, who knew an otoplasty and an eyebrow shape could do so much... 

Old wives' tales can have people raising a brow as they dismiss them or nodding wildly as they swear blind the old wives were right. Handed down over centuries old wives (or rather various women over time) have had us waiting around by the pool, gathering verruca viruses, as our lunch digested and drinking milk to aid sleep. The suggestion leaping into water after eating will give you cramp is a nonsense, but milk contains traces of Tryptophan and warm milk probably reminds us of our newborn suckling days. It is clear that, while some of the old wives' tales have turned out to be true, a lot of them have been designed to make the kids shh, or at least stop furiously masturbating (you'll go BLIND). Squeamish Bikini have recently realised our own parents might have dropped the odd big fat lie to tease us. So here are some tall tales we were told as children...

Who are Pussy Riot?  I could give you a music review of the Russian activist band, adopting the vocal style of Bratmobile's Allison Wolfe, inspired by Bikini Kill and breathing new life into the 1990s Riot Grrrl scene. But Pussy Riot aren't just a fistful of grrrls smashing guitars in their father's garages, swapping photocopied 'zines and fretting over privilege or wishing they'd been of age in the '90s. “What we have in common is impudence, politically loaded lyrics, the importance of feminist discourse and a non-standard female image.” They are mothers, wives, artists and in pure back-to-its-riot-roots activists, grrrls true to their riot.