Hey everybody, this is a feminism party and everybody's invited! Accept you. Oh and it appears feminism is holding this party all wrong. First of all everybody knows feminists don't have parties - unless it's political party, which probably explains the lack of paper cups round here. Second of all it looks like you feminists are concentrating on all the wrong things. You should be only concerning yourselves with one thing at a time - your pretty little heads are only able to hold one cause at a time, so let's prioritise and see what Michael White says Barbara Castle would do (I'm getting WMWSBCWD on a wristband so's I can always remember and I suggest you do the same) because you are all getting over excited and hysterical. No more pop for you feminists.
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You might think it's just your parents, wistfully looking in the Mothercare window whilst just letting you know that an old school acquaintance you weren't all that friendly with has had a baby, that are on womb-watch. Or maybe you think it is only newlyweds who have to bat away impatient and inappropriate comments about when they will hear the patter of tiny feet. But if you're a woman and you're childfree then the media has something to say to you and science has reminded them they've got science to back their concern about when you're going to have a baby. Lord Rennard is refusing to offer up the apology it has been suggested he might like to make over allegations of sexual harassment of women activists. Well look, what kind of suggestive business suits have Lib Dem ladies been wearing? Has anybody asked that? Were they compiling sexy expense claims for the taxpayers to cover? Or simply doing that thing infuriating thing cis-women tend to do and walk around with genitals and secondary sex characteristics like boobs under their clothing? Unreasonable. Unreasonable! And wait, get this, these ladies want their complaints regarding who says what to them to get a proper response. Recently Public Health England released figures to the Daily Mail concerning children under the age of consent and STIs. Over 5000 children under 16 were diagnosed with STIs in 2012. This number has more than doubled since 2003, with cases being reported of under 16s being treated for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, herpes, warts and other STIs. Is this hysteria over a minority? Meh, perhaps perhaps. In fact looking at the recorded numbers... why, yes. But how long do you wait before you react? It isn't about if you react or not so much as how you react. Firstly in the reporting of these figures the Daily Mail vaguely mention that "Charities said easy access to online porn meant thousands of schoolchildren barely into their teenage years are getting their sex education online." We recently learned that it has been confirmed (confirmed!) that the male and female brain are totes different. Ragini Verma, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, commented that the findings support stereotypes such as the idea (now fact) that the male brain is made up of slugs, snails and puppy dog tails and the female brain is sugar and spice and multitasking. "If you look at functional studies, the left of the brain is more for logical thinking, the right of the brain is for more intuitive thinking. So if there's a task that involves doing both of those things, it would seem that women are hardwired to do those better...Women are better at intuitive thinking. Women are better at remembering things. When you talk, women are more emotionally involved - they will listen more." I'm a word person. I like words and therefore I like definitions. I don't like it when words change their meaning. I understand that the English language is something that develops and changes (see I picked those words rather than 'evolves') because it is alive. Which is why sometimes things are done for prosperity, or people will earnestly announce that pacifically speaking the grocer's apostrophe doesn't matter. Sometimes I can just groan a little and sometimes these things annoy the hell out of me. Usually it is the latter. 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. 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. Today is Bi-visibility day. I actually first wrote, nay googled, bi-invisibility day. Probably because every day is bi-invisibility day. Liv has written about how bisexuality is often overlooked or not taken seriously. Squeamish Louise wrote about her experience at Bi-Con and biphobia. I don't know a single bisexual person who has claimed not to have experienced some form of biphobia, which the day seeks to highlight the extent of. The day is also known as International Celebrate Bisexuality Day - it's just not used...internationally and it has been going since 1999. So, y'know, take your pick, I like the first one. I have written about being single. I have written about being mistaken for a gay woman. I have never written about the amount of women who have asked me if I have considered women. I am not insulted by this, there's nothing to be insulted about. They've kissed a girl and they liked it, therefore maybe I would. But the implication - unintended - is that bisexuality is an option. I can't find a guy, so perhaps I should just settle for a lady. We're the altruistic sex right? Some kindly woman should embrace me against her friendly bosom. Until I meet Mr Right. Yeah you know how it is lady. See ya. I know plenty of people who skip from relationship to relationship. I don't doubt their sincerity with each relationship (which is not to say I give them my blessing. Not that my blessing is much sought after). I know lots of people who are promiscuous. Some are straight, some are gay, some are bisexual. They all get equally lucky. And I think they are all greedy.
"However, bisexual people often face prejudice from within lesbian and gay groups as well as heterosexual communities. They are invisible - not represented in mainstream media, policy, and legislation or within lesbian and gay communities.
"Government and communities need to single out bisexual people as a separate group in order to address this equality gap." I can think of only one openly bisexual politician in the UK, Simon Hughes deputy leader of the Lib Dems, who after repeated questions over his sexuality came out after The Sun newspaper said they had proof he had used the gay chat room Man Talk (which sounds like a slightly ill-conceived girls board game, consisting of some profile cards and a chunky pink phone) I know of some celebrities who identify as bisexual. Though on occasion I cannot help but suspect it is for titillation. Which fuels the casual biphobia we see and hear every day. Or am I being biphobic doubting their sincerity? I am after all dismissing certain celebrity sexuality as 'just a phase'. And how frustrating must that be? Let's look at the research again: "A report on mental health issues in the Brighton and Hove area of the UK confirmed that those who identified as bisexual, queer or âotherâ in terms of sexualities were more likely than lesbian and gay identified people to have mental health difficulties and were more likely to have attempted suicide." The study found that this meant they were more likely to experience homelessness, abuse and violence. This is not some little Pride left over day. This is a day to highlight the biphobia out there and the acute dangers of it. Because for some people who are bisexual out there, it's not Girls or Boys, it's life or death. Squeamish Kate September 21st is Peace One Day, an international day of ceasefire founded by British director and actor Jeremy Gilley. He conceived the idea in 1998, and the first day was celebrated in 1999, although it was not until 2001 that all the member countries of the United Nations adopted the program. In 2006, the first life-saving activities began to flourish as a way of observing the day. The World Food Programme dropped food aid in Southern Sudan, and the International Rescue Committee repatriated a child soldier with her family. Initiatives have flourished since then, as Peace One Day has partnered with a number of UN agencies, governments, and non-governmental organisations. Many children have received immunization against polio and other serious illnesses. |
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