I don't know if you noticed, but the South of England had a bit of weather at the start of the week. Trains stopped running, trees were felled, and worst of all everyone posted the same damn joke picture of garden furniture being blown over again and again on social media and seemed to keep on thinking it was funny. 
But we persevered, because we're nothing if not resilient in this country. Sure, friends and colleagues from other countries might have started asking slightly pointed questions about public transport, or talking about the three feet of snow they get every winter or earthquake drills, but they're just showing off. But as we stockpiled tinned goods, checked the batteries on our torches and filled up our emergency water bottles at Squeamish HQ, we got to wondering. Was this really the most extreme weather we'd ever seen, or could perhaps we each recall something even more extreme? Turns out we could...

It's Halloween today and for every person who is planning on pulling on some beige coloured underwear, tying their hair into two top knots and sticking their tongue out Miley style, you can bet your Halloween Haribo there will be someone donning a black wig and kicking it Bettie Page style.

When the Bettie Page biopic The Notorious Bettie Page came out in 2005 I remember being surprised at just how innocent Bettie was portrayed as being. While it was plausible to think of a sheltered Christian girl from Tennessee being rather naïve about sex and what might be considered – even now – deviant behaviour, it seems slightly less plausible to think she would happily pose in thigh high boots and a whip no questions asked. Lalala. 

Perhaps what started it is all those fat Buddha statues inviting you to rub their bellies for luck and wealth and maybe a more comprehensive knowledge of Eastern religion so that you become rich, lucky and aware you have the Chinese folkloric Budai  to thank for it, rather than Siddhartha Gautama. Or maybe it is social media, making everyone believe privacy is only there to be instagrammed and invaded. It is probably just a natural, physical extension of the popular opinion that women's bodies are there to be commented upon. Quite why it is apparently acceptable to reach out and touch a pregnant woman's belly without her consent I will never know. 

I read an interview with Russell Brand a couple of years ago in which he railed against current politics, then admitted he didn't vote. Since then he's come up with a reason why. Perhaps in preparation for this stint editing the New Statesman, probably because no one would face Jeremy Paxman without thinking up a couple of excuses/plausible explanations/escape routes. Mainly I imagine because it makes for a good routine and paints him as the reclining revolutionary. I got sent a press release that was simply the Paxman interview on YouTube. 

When Paxman asked, increduously, if it was true Brand had never voted Brand - like a school child who has forgotten his homework so many times now the stories come naturally though not plausibly - answered in a slight frenzy. Oh those politics, they're on the kitchen table where he left them, in his minds eye he can see them. 

No, it is not technically Halloween but in America they have been celebrating all month and we are all well aware that while Halloween is not until Thursday this is the weekend we will have to celebrate it if we don't want anybody sneering something along the lines of it being November. So today is our mandatory Halloween theme post. Steering clear of the increasingly outlandish fancy dress options open to those who celebrate, we've gone proper spooky with this theme with stories of when the Squeamish team was most spooked on Halloween...

Trigger warning: mentions transphobia, harassment, outing and transphobic hate crimes. 

If you follow many feminists on twitter it would be hard not to have noticed the arguments between trans activists and 'trans exclusive radical feminists' [TERFs]. I say arguments. I mean harassment and abuse, more often than not. 

I read, again and again, TERFs who refer to women as 'he' because they have decided that gender dysphoria does not exist; that these women are, in fact, men putting on an elaborate masquerade in order to - what, exactly? Gain access to women-only spaces? Destroy feminism? I'm not sure, but the TERFs are certainly angry about it. 

All the single ladies, all the single ladies put your hands down, you must be tired. Tired of dancing merrily to Beyonce singing about being an Independent Woman, or explaining away a single status - you're too bootylicious for them all. So you aren't crazy in love, who cares? You're a survivor and you need to say no no no to all the pressure that comes with being single. 

Oh you weren't feeling pressure? Were you prancing about all fancy-free eating what you want, when you want, going where you like and doing what you like? Oh good grief, oh you poor lamb hang on I'm going to do a really, really sympathetic face at you for a few moments until you grasp the severity of your situation. Then I shall refer you to the Guardian's life and style piece for single women, Single Women: how to be happy dating, or alone.  

Femen. The seed of Femen has been suckled (see what I did there? 'Cos tits? I know they are the most important part of Femen) from a small topless protest in the Ukraine to puppies out in Paris to flashing Putin and grabbing headlines. The message is supposed to be about women's rights. The message is 'look how pert this attractive young woman's tits look as the police drag her away'.

Nobody loves a bit of a tit flash coupled with a brief news feature as much as the UK. Therefore it makes sense that Femen should have the UK in their sights for setting up a new branch. What will the group bring to the UK that it doesn't already have in its own homegrown feminist groups? 

A study by Superdrug has been released that tells us on average women wait 4 weeks and one day before revealing their bare face to their new partner/casual lover/on again off again beau. Of the 2000 women, aged between 18 and 55, surveyed most said that being seen without make-up made them feel vulnerable, less confident and less attractive. Superdrug's head of beauty Sarah Sharp commented that: "The research indicates that for many women wearing make-up isn't just a way of looking attractive, it's much more than that, it's a way to be confident and project an image... Many women consider going au natural in front of a new partner quite a serious step, they are exposing themselves completely..." 

Magical kingdom makers Disney have unleashed their magical forces on another fairytale classic. Remember The Snow Queen? Oh yeah that story where Gerda treks the snowy wastelands (shoeless! After she gives her red shoes to a river! Almost memoryless after she has her hair brushed by a witch!) to rescue her best friend Kai from the clutches of the Snow Queen WHO Kai's grandmother had warned them about countless times, boys why don't you listen to your grandmothers? 

Well, Disney remembers it differently. Firstly Gerda and Kai are now sisters Anna and Elsa and there's a big guy with a reindeer sidekick. Oh yeah it's not called The Snow Queen any more, it's called Frozen. But other than that Hans Christian Anderson would totally know what you were talking about. We've come up with some more ideas for Disney to use...