Whatever your thoughts on cosmetic (to stress cosmetic, not plastic) surgery it is probably safe to say you could be won round in an argument regarding cosmetic surgeries advertising 2 for 1 offers and vouchers for surgery.

 The argument being, you can’t offer such things with prescription drugs (or I wouldn’t recommend taking out a full page magazine ad anyway) so it’s perhaps unwise that major surgery should be advertised in such a manner.

Even more peculiar are the adverts with women declaring it’s their smile people are noticing, rather than their new and expensive heaving bosom. If I spend over £1000 on anything you all better be noticing! 

We all know the rhyme, ‘Whisky makes you frisky, brandy makes you randy and gin makes you sit on the stairs crying’ (you might know another version that scans). And we all know what people mean when they mention ‘wife beater beer’ and it seems Stella Artois and international lobbying company Portland Communications is trying to change this.

Just as no one knows what exactly is in whisky, brandy or gin that provokes such reactions, the vague bar-based utterance regarding Stella Artois’s epithet, ‘oh, there’s some chemical in it that makes you violent’ is not totally founded on science. I think we’re all agreed the ‘some chemical’ in it that potentially causes violence is alcohol. 

There are many factors that pop up in life demonstrating you’re growing up. Graduation, or your first job, perhaps. Your first 2 day hangover. Catching yourself bleating on about how children behaved in your day. For me it is watching musicians I loved grow into total, middle aged, politically incorrect buffoons.

I’m not sure I’m ready to discuss Morrissey. And besides, the recent un-Morrissey-esque (oh spellcheck, that IS a word) thing Morrissey did was to allow John Lewis to use The Smiths track ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’. Yes it is a dreadful cover blablabla, get over it, Morrissey’s got to keep himself in tofu.

No, this time it’s Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame. 

School girls in Bet Shemesh ranging from the age of 6 to 12 from an Orthodox Jewish community are being harassed on their way to school by grown men from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, Haredim. The men call the little girls sluts and whores and throw faeces as their mothers walk them to the school gates.  

I heard a report about this on the eve of Yom Kippur on the Today programme (I realise I seem to shoehorn some kind of shout out to the BBC in every piece I do) which you can listen to here but was unable to find any more coverage until today (proving my google skills aren’t up to much, the BBC [oh, HAI BBC] posted a report on the 10th). Harriet Sherwood in the today’s Guardian has also broached the subject. 

I am not a sporty person. I avoided PE all through school but I was oddly drawn to boxing. Inspired (though not enough to actually try it and risk my nose, “now I’ll never be a teen model!”) by coverage of the sport in the, now sadly defunct, J-17 magazine. J-17 spearheaded a campaign in the 90s for girls to box competitively as boys were allowed to. In 1996 the ban on women’s boxing was lifted by the ABAE (Amateur Boxing Association of England). Now it’s 2011 and we’ve moved on. To skirts. Bugger the 2012 Olympics.

AIBA, (International Boxing Association) has requested the skirts be trialled to allow spectators to distinguish female boxers from men. During last week’s European Championships in Rotterdam two countries took up the new uniform, Romania and Poland. The Poland boxing coach Leszek Piotrowski welcomed the change, “By wearing skirts, in my opinion, it gives a good impression, a womanly impression.”  The Poland team redesigned the skirts to make them more elegant.

In the UK and Ireland the skirts have received a different reception.  Ireland’s 3 time world champion Katie Taylor commented, "I won't be wearing a mini-skirt. I don't even wear mini-skirts on a night out, so I definitely won't be wearing mini-skirts in the ring." British lightweight champion Natasha Jonas also dismissed the skirts, “nothing practical is going to come from wearing a skirt. The only people who would want to see women in skirts are men.”

Of course to wear skirts in any sport is absurd. Everyone would see your lucky pants. 

Kate

Twitter users might have recently noticed the hash-tag #whatsexedtaughtme popping up accompanied by a brief description of the tweeter’s sex education at school. This is part of a study held by Brook, a sexual health service for under 25s, researching the state of sex education in schools. The results are unsurprising.

Teenagers want more say in their sex education. A poll taken by Brook revealed that of over 2,000 14 to18 year olds 78% did not feel they had the chance to influence the content of their lessons and 72% thought they should have more influence over their sex and relationships education (SRE).

It was revealed in a Research Bods survey that teenagers get about 13% of their sex ed from an SRE teacher, 10% from a parent and 14% from magazine agony aunts, books, music lyrics and videos. These are the reliable sources teenagers are using. Although I shudder to think what music lyrics they are referring to. Unless SRE classes are now ending with a sing-along. 

Sigh.

Apparently it’s not enough that there are currently only 4 female cabinet members. No, now we have to have a discussion about how badly dressed they are as well.

Comments made by Mary Portas in an interview with Heat magazine (another publication we're not putting in live links to) calling the quartet an “ugly bunch” in need of a “restyle” have attracted a predictable amount of coverage. Unlike any of the actual work of the cabinet members, that’s not important.

Because looking like a glamorous model is of course a prerequisite for being the Home secretary, Conservative Party Chair, Environment Secretary or Welsh Secretary. Not having knowledge of law or policy. That is, of course, highly arguable given the previous incumbents of these positions…

Portas’ PR insists her comments were "firmly tongue in cheek and again made in very much a light-hearted way, as is the nature of (Heat) magazine."

The interview follows the release of a recent Proctor & Gamble sponsored Harvard study which found women who wear little to no make-up are seen as less trustworthy than those who really slap it on. Scrubbed clean you’re probably a lying lesbian but wear kitten heels ONE TIME and every report about you will mention your ‘passion for shoes’ in the first paragraph.

So ladies, what have we learned? Less time on policies, more time in Debenhams buying sensible shoes and matching eye shadow. Or we’ll never get out of this recession. 


Louise & Kate

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Weird Politics

Every year the Texas State Fair includes the Big Tex Choice Awards competition to find the most creative and best-tasting new, unique food. It doesn't actually say on the website this food HAS to be fried, but it appears to be a requirement. Previous winners include the fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich, and fried beer. This year’s winner? Deep-fried bubblegum.

No, stick with it, it’s not as gross as you think.

It’s actually pink marshmallow infused with bubblegum extract, dipped in pink batter and then deep-fried. According to this video, the chef spent 2 months perfecting the recipe, based on an employee's suggestion.

I have to say, I’m certainly intrigued. What could be next year’s hit? Deep-fried refried beans? How about a fried chocolate cake?

So. A former London School of Economics Masters student is suing the university  for “breach of contract, misleading advertising, misrepresentation, and breach of the Gender Equality Duty Act.”

Tom Martin was studying for an Msc in Gender, Media and Culture. He’s quoted in the Evening Standard as saying that:

"The core texts we had to read before each class were typically packed with anti-male discrimination and bias - heavily focusing on, exaggerating, and falsifying women's issues perspectives, whilst blaming men, to justify ignoring men's issues. There was no warning of this sexist agenda in the prospectus."

Does this seem a little... odd to anyone else?

One step forward, two steps back. In some kind of sick response the WHSmith’s gesture towards not restricting women’s interests to pink, glitter and dieting American women are seriously being presented with Chick Beer.

I thought this was a joke. You know, like diet Amstel beer (which is REAL! I saw it and was chastised for NOT drinking it in New York). But no, ladies, fear no more the humiliation of carrying a 6 pack of lagers BY THE PLASTIC RINGS. Chick Beer six packs come in handbag style packaging. Here it is, curly font and sanitary product colours on the bottle, which you aren’t expected to open with your teeth.

It’s not all watery lager though, 5% of Chick Beer profits will go to charities that ‘empower women’. Hopefully these charities will be specified later now that the word ‘empowering’ for women has become synonymous with nudity.

Kate