Dieting has always seemed something rather ridiculous to my mind. I think it is because I associate it with svelte teenage girls at school announcing they were going on a diet because they were 'so fat'. This is not an interesting conversation jump off point to me, but then nobody spoke to me at school so who am I to say what's an interesting topic?
Image: J@ck (ED Trigger warning) Sisterhood. Being a feminist I am all for sisterhood. I am all for the magazine industry thinking up some new ideas at the beginning of each new year instead of cracking out the diet plan filing cabinet and doing some sort of lucky dip of New Year – New You articles. I would prefer if, on declining a biscuit, I was not automatically accused of being on a diet. Because I am a woman and it is January so naturally I must be on some kind of diet, or a detox.
Dieting has always seemed something rather ridiculous to my mind. I think it is because I associate it with svelte teenage girls at school announcing they were going on a diet because they were 'so fat'. This is not an interesting conversation jump off point to me, but then nobody spoke to me at school so who am I to say what's an interesting topic?
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Single People Food Image: Daniel Oines I was once doing a comical bit about a recent dating failure when a friend said to me, “You should write a book about your romantic exploits. It’d have reams and reams of blank pages, but occasionally you’d stumble across a right corker.” Yikes. A two pronged jibe. You’re ALONE. You’re UNSUCCESSFUL. POW POW. But as my dear old nan used to say, don’t get mad, get vicious. So I yawned all the way through her coupley Ikea anecdote. That’ll show her. It wasn’t an unfair statement to make. I’m single. A lot. And not Carrie Bradshaw single. Not even Bridget Jones single. I’m more How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? single. If Captain Von Trapp was homosexual. Or Maria was a drunk and swore at the children. Or the Nazis had got there just in time. Hot Diamonds Emmeline Brooch 138.8%, that’s how much reports of domestic violence rose in the west of Scotland when a Celtic and Rangers game is played on a Saturday. 96.8% when they play on a Sunday or weekday. I remember back in 2011 when I heard Strathclyde police’s statistics, it was demoralising. Domestic abuse occurs throughout the UK but too often goes unseen. It’s not a rare occurrence, domestic abuse is normality for many people, woman, children and men. This report dragged me into the homes of those women and their families and forced me to confront the reality of many women’s lives. I thought about the intimidation, fear and abuse that can be invisible to society because it is happens in the victim’s home. Image: Uggboy In July we wrote about the General Synod's decision to adjourn the debate on the legislation of women bishops. The votes were counted as 288 for the appointment of women bishops, 144 against and 1 abstentions. Perhaps you're not particularly interested in the fight over who gets to wear what hat. Maybe you think it doesn't apply to you – you're not of the C of E domination, you aren't a church goer. Perhaps you are someone who enjoys discussions about all the evils organised religion has brought on the world. Or you are simply of another faith. Yawn, are we still talking about this? Surely it's just another sign of how behind the times the Church of England is. But is it? Is the hostility towards women in pointy hats something that belongs in our shameful past (hah) of witch hunts or is it bang on to the present? It isn't necessarily a question of readiness, tradition or scripture (the difficulty with which I will discuss later) but precedent. Consider the apparent lack of consideration for a woman Director General of the BBC. There's no real reason why there shouldn't be one besides the fact it just isn't done. Ooooh Aaaaah Image:Bayassa I’m sitting at home listening to the booms of unseen fireworks. This is the time of year for my favourite festivals – Halloween and Bonfire Night. They’re my favourites not just because they feature fire, dressing up and pumpkin pie (although come on, I’ll take those over plum pudding and creepy rabbits any day), but because they have the most tenuous links to religion. I am not, as you may have guessed, religious. But I do like a good celebration. And I don’t want to talk about religion, as such. I don’t think that religion is the reason our traditions and festivities are where they are. India Knight is sick of hearing celebrities talk about their battles with depression. I can, sort of, understand that. I don't think her point was hugely well expressed but it seems that she's not tired of hearing about depression per se, so much as seeing it used as a hook to sell celebrity memoirs or flog their latest product. No matter how tenuous the link to the subject matter. But, like I said, not well expressed. In fact, it might have come across a little like she was saying she was tired of hearing people talk about being depressed, full stop. To the extent that the mental health charity Mind saw her column as an attack on anyone who has the gall to talk about being depressed, and used their twitter feed in a seeming bid to encourage people to attack her for this view - ironically creating a situation where a mental health charity was seen as bullying a prominent writer. Image: Aimee Heart 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... Garland your vulva in flowers! Image: Brian Kusler Humans like messing with our bodies. Decoration, enhancement, adornment - the reasons differ, but it's found in many societies. So why is it that, out of the wide range of ways people modify their bodies today, in the UK, I find things such as tattoos, piercings and earlobe stretching to be desirable, while I usually frown upon cosmetic surgery - breast enlargements and nose jobs for example? There are lots of reason I give myself; I'm not sure they all stand up to scrutiny. Surgery involves a general anaesthetic, so it's life-threatening. Ok, but I'm not going, "botox seems like a great idea! Let's all go out and get some!" The main thing it comes back to is the reasoning behind it. Tattoos are personal; this kind of marking is about differentiating yourself. Getting cosmetic surgery is about conforming to a norm, making yourself look closer to 'societies' view of what beautiful should be. But there are sub-sections of society: I know enough people who got tattoos as teens only to later have them removed or covered up. Just as I know plenty of women have surgery to change something about themselves and remain happy with that decision. It's not so black and white. Big pants Pants. Of the knicker variety. According to the Daily Mail big pants (sorry, ‘Bridget Jones pants’ [can we stop with that now? It was 16 years ago]) are on the up in sales and thongs have fallen down a marketing crack. Which I think means everybody apart from Peter Stringfellow realised we were exchanging money for self-induced wedgies. Pants. Germaine Greer doesn’t wear them, Mary Beard recently tweeted in response to Giles Coren’s article in The Times that she has never been briefed. “Mary Beard Currently Professor of Classics at her alma mater and a very successful television presenter of famously scatty appearance, Beard’s finest hour came in the long, hot summer of 1976 when, while out punting on the Cam, she stripped to her knickers for a series of saucy poses bent over a punt pole. Fellow students at the all-girls college Newnham thought the shots were “a bit slaggy”, but the boys awarded her the coveted Rear of the Year prize any way. (Note: The gong was later withdrawn amid allegations that none of the boys had ever seen any other female bottoms. Also note: Beard became a feminist around this time.)” Bag contents. Photo: Sarah We are all entitled to our own little epiphanies. These can be small in impact and we can sort of continue as normal, acknowledge their logic without changing a thing. Often epiphany seems rather a grand term to award the tiny realisation, but as the personal is political, what seems small can be universal. This is why it’s often the small epiphanies that go on to dog us, because eventually it could be big. I am trying to prepare you. I am trying to excuse the small thing I am about to share then analyse. I want to make it clear the item I had a miniscule epiphany, an ‘oh’ moment about is not something I tend to think about.Reader, I am about to discuss bags. |
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