In a statement posted on womensgrid, SBS said:

We were delighted to be asked to contribute to the strategy, however SBS is compelled to boycott the meeting due to the presence of the British National Party Representative -Richard Barnbrook (GLA member for Barking and Dagenham). We cannot see how we can have a serious and informed debate in the presence of a member of a fascist, racist, sexist and homophobic party.

Southall Black Sisters was born in the midst of anti racist struggles in the 1970s. We have fresh in our minds the memories of fascist and racist activity by the National Front in Southall and the ensuing racist police response to a community that sought to defend itself, culminating in the death of Blair Peach in 1979. Such memories and ongoing experiences of institutional and street racism continue to shape our struggles for equality. Contrary to popular belief, racism in the UK has not diminished. The recent horrific treatment of Romanian families by racists in Belfast shows why we must continue to oppose fascists and racists. We cannot afford to tolerate those who use violence, intimidation or even democratic means, to subvert the very principles of equality, human rights and justice.

How can a committee that includes a member whose political stance is to encourage hatred and segregation, address the call of black and minority women for justice in the face of domestic violence exacerbated by a draconian and punitive immigration system? The BNP’s agenda - to ‘preserve Britain’ for the ‘indigenous’ people of the UK - cannot mask its inflammatory anti-immigration and anti-progressive position. Its intention is to dehumanise and exclude all who fail to conform to its authoritarian, patriarchal and exclusionary notions of British identity. Such a stance is not conducive to shaping progressive public policies in any area, let alone on health or violence against women.

These are just some of the reasons why we urge all organisations who are due to give evidence to the committee to join SBS and the Eaves project in our boycott. Together, we can challenge and defeat racism, fascism and indeed all anti-democratic movements that seek to deny our common humanity and the rights that go with such recognition.

I don't know what the process is for choosing GLA members for committees, but it seems patently grotesque to let a BNP member sit on this committee given they are an openly racist party, but also because of openly sexist policies as well.

It's a real shame that the process will lose out on the expertise of these organisations as a result of Barnbrook being on the committee. I just hope it does force the committee to be re-formed, and that they don't just plough on regardless...

Often those who repeat, "Innocent until proven guilty," when responding to a man being charged with rape are the quickest to forget or abandon this concept when a girl or woman is charged with lying about rape.

A court in India has overturned a colonial-era law which outlawed gay sex. The BBC reports:

Delhi's High Court ruled that the law outlawing homosexual acts was discriminatory and a "violation of fundamental rights".

RIP Mollie Sugden.

Glasgow Women's Library is hosting the International Heroines Exhibition:

The launch of the exhibition sees the well known local writer A L Kennedy perform readings from eight women who dared to speak out against human rights abuses and are profiled in this celebration of freedom of expression.

The featured women: Anna Politkovskaya, Lydia Cacho, Anushka Anastasia Solomon, Shirin Ebadi, Arundhati Roy, Wangari Maathai, Aung San Suu Kyi and Woeser.

AfterEllen reviews a book for young children about a lesbian sock:

How I Found My Pair! is only the first of Dottie's adventures. Once she finds her pair, the little lesbian sock is going to star in a 10-book series, through which Gayle hopes to teach children to accept and respect themselves, as well as their peers. She dedicated the first Dottie story to four grade-school children who committed suicide after being tormented by classmates.

Dottie isn't written PSA-style. The language is simple and fun, the pictures are colorful, and the little sock's escapade is believable: she's just a girl sock looking for another girl sock to love her.

"The story I’m trying to tell is that Dottie is just like anyone out there," Gayle told NBC. "It doesn’t matter if she’s black or white or Muslim or lesbian."

Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus has vetoed a bill passed by the parliament, which "would prohibit the discussion of homosexuality in schools and ban references to gay and lesbian relationships in public places where children can see them", reports the Advocate.

Charlotte Cooper of Obesity Timebomb posts about the launch of Beth Ditto's clothing line.

L'Oreal, as is widely reported, has been found guilty of racist discrimination against employees. Apu considers how the firm (and others) is responsible for perpetuating the belief that beauty is white, and the impact this has on women in India:

What does it do to a child to constantly hear that she is in some way inferior? What does it do to a South Indian child to be told that she ‘looks South Indian’, as if that were an infectious disease? Discrimination on colour is well and kicking in this country. Leaving aside the issue of media representations, until parents and schools start confronting it head-on, a large proportion of children in this country are going to grow up with warped ideas of what beauty is.

Over at Comment is Free, Zeinab Huq posts about the impact of sharia on women she knows.

A US theatre company is reviving the 1970s poem/play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange, reports AfterEllen.

AfterEllen also looks at the Independent's Pink List of influential lesbian and gay Britons.

As is often the case in U.S. lists of the same type (e.g. OUT Magazine's Power 50), lesbian and bisexual women make up a much smaller portion of the list. Of the 101 people mentioned, only 22 are women. In an another unfortunate similarity to many other lists of this sort, there are only a handful of LGBT people of color included in it.

And apparently no ethnic minority women.

Pickled Politics links to an interesting-sounding podcast about the role of Jewish women in Bollywood history.

Dr Neera Desai, one of the founders of the first women's studies programme in India, has died from cancer, aged 84, reports FeministsIndia (via Feministing).

The Tate Modern was last week the venue for a re-enactment of feminist performance art from the 1970s, Once More With Feeling - Charlotte has more info at Subtext. And The Guardian interviews French feminist artist Orlan.

Internship opportunities

Refuge is looking for capable and enthusiastic interns to provide a range of support in fundraising. Taking on an internship role at Refuge will not only provide personal development but also the opportunity to gain a wide range of work experience in a successful charity environment.

* Location: Refuge Head Office in central London
* Start date: ASAP
* Duration: 3 - 6 months
* Ideally, interns will work 3 days per week, although it may be possible to work 2
* Travel expenses provided
* Suitable for graduates or postgraduates
* Excellent IT and communications skills essential
* Candidates must have empathy with the aims and objectives of Refuge

To apply, please send a CV with covering letter (of no more than 2 A4 pages). Please outline any relevant experience including your reasons for applying for this post to: sonia_johal[at]refuge[dot]org[dot]uk

Please quote reference FW

The deadline for applications is 5pm, Friday 17th July 2009

Ludum Dare is a competition for game designers to quickly turn around mini games in 48 hours, on a theme. Via Offworld I happened to see the latest theme for this tri-annual game was domestic violence.

The idea of using games in an interesting way to make political points is very appealing - and some people have done this successfully by "social game" developers - for example ICED is meant to raise awareness about unfair immigration polcies in the US.

Let's look at the game which Offworld highlighted as "the best of the entries I've played thus far":

Queens, a short (and, in keeping with the theme, appropriately brutal) treatise on patriarchal indifference, and, as auntiepixelante aptly puts it, "the expendability of women".

queens is the best of the ones I played, certainly (warning: I didn't have time to play any of these games to the end, so ultimately that might have changed my perspective). In basic platform games, it is taken as read that the character you're playing will 'die' multiple times - that's the point, to get through the level without dying.

In queens, a small white pixalated figure, pushes a small pixilated queen off a ledge, and you are then meant to navigate her through the game without her dying. There are multiple queens, so if you die your character doesn't just jump magically back to life, you're replaced with a different queen. Or, as autie pixelante says:

In queens, these lives are characters and the repeating cycle of their deaths and replacement is the narrative, suggesting the expendability of women (who are neither faceless nor nameless) to a henry viii-style patriarch.

What about the other entries though? After School, a text game in which you play a boy and you have to choose the right thing to say out of a list, to stop his mother from hitting him.

One of the most basic points about domestic violence is: it's not the victim's fault, and it's not up to the victim to 'be good' in some way in order to avoid abuse. And as the game progresses, it makes clear that there is no magic combination of things that someone can do to avoid abuse in this situation, as every option ends up with the mother hitting the son. Domestic violence is "not a game", as it says.

Then there's Punch the Red Ones Only - you are a penguin. If you punch the red penguins, you score points. If you accidentally punch a yellow penguin, the game zooms in and ends, zero-sum, don't hit the ones like you. This one doesn't work at all for me and seems pretty problematic - after all, it just seems to segregate the penguin world into "enemies" it is OK to hit and friends it's not OK to hit, and based, no less, on colour.

This one sounds terrible, but I couldn't confirm by playing it 'unfortunately':

Domestic Abuse: The Fighting game!

Arrows is woman, needs to get to gun. Z and X is man, Z punches, X grabs. Punches only count if the woman isn’t moving backwards, grabs only work if woman is moving.

In all seriousness, someone thought that was a good idea - because equating domestic violence and a fighting game is appropriate!

I also didn't like this one called "the domestic" - in which you have to balance going to work and staying home - because it seems to be justifying/saying that work stress causes people to be violent to their partner, and that is an unavoidable reaction.

So, ultimately, there's some potential here. It wasn't as FAIL-ridden as I expected when I read about the competition, and maybe stimulates some thoughts about what games are for and their potential.

But another game designer, who ultimately pulled out, sums it up best:

Lesson learned: some themes just aren’t meant to be fun.

The current recession poses a major risk that the numbers of ethnic minority women in poverty will continue to rise even further and women will be "locked in" to poverty, the report says, especially given that the government's policies don't really address themselves to the specifics of what policies would help ethnic minority women to improve their financial situation.

So, for example, the report critiques the government's reliance on getting people into work as the solution to poverty, pointing out that the reality is for many ethnic minority women - particularly mothers - it doesn't make sense.

The report says:

The fact that caring for families is under-valued and largely unpaid, and that this work primarily falls to women, is not addressed. This has particular implications for some groups of ethnic minority women, such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, who are very distant from the labour market and more likely to be caring for their families. Despite providing essential care for family members, these women are being treated as having made inappropriate choices because their caring work is unpaid. Mothering is being deemed unproductive in this policy paradigm.

• Ethnic minority women are four times more likely than White women to have often taken a job for which they are over-qualied and are more likely to be in routine or semi-routine employment.
• They are also disproportionately likely to be working in temporary jobs leading to patchy and insecure income.
• Largely as a result of childcare needs, three quarters of all part-time workers are women, affecting not just their earnings but also the prospect of promotion.

And then you have to consider poverty in old age:

Yet having worked in paid employment does not eliminate the risk of living in poverty once retired. Of employed women of working age in the UK only 40% of White British/Irish women had an occupational or personal pension, and only a very small number of Pakistani (9%) and Bangladeshi (4%) women had such a scheme. The systematic disadvantage ethnic minority women experience throughout their lifetimes is compounded in old age, extending their risk of poverty.

The report goes on to detail how financial abuse and the financial chaos caused by domestic violence all compound the risks.

Policy-makers are basing their assessment of whether someone is in poverty by looking at the whole household together:

Despite over thirty years of evidence on households consisting of heterosexual couples indicating that resources are not shared equally between women and men, policy makers continue to analyse and approach poverty alleviation using the household unit. For example, the benets and tax credit system is based on policy analysis which measures poverty at the household level, assuming that all household resources are pooled and decision making over, and access to, these resources is shared equitably amongst all adult household members.

...

Statistics on household poverty that are not broken down by gender mask what is
actually happening within households. Women’s individual poverty is therefore concealed, as they are more likely to make financial sacrices for the benefit of other
household members.

And, of course, the assumption of heterosexual nuclear family-dom is a problem in general. But it just doesn't reflect the experiences of large proportions of women, particularly women of some ethnicities, for example: "43 percent of Black African mothers and 50 percent of Black Caribbean ones are lone parents".

Without analysing the needs of ethnic minority women separately to those of all other women or all other ethnic minorities, the reality that they have distinct priorities does not become apparent. The needs of ethnic minority women are not intrinsically invisible - it is just that no one is looking at them.

Meanwhile, the report notes, ethnic minority women "lack voice in policy arenas":

They are virtually absent in Parliament, with only two Black women out of 646 MPs in the House of Commons. There are no ethnic minority women in Cabinet, or in either of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly. They are largely missing within government as well, constituting only about one percent of the senior civil service. And they make up less than one percent of local councillors in England and just over one percent of the House of Lords.

...

As a result of this relative absence, policy debates affecting ethnic minority women end up being conducted without them.

Anyway, whilst browsing this wonderful treasure trove, enjoying a free vegan truffle and stocking up on various zines and interesting magazines such as Dublin's anarcha-feminist magazine The Rag, I spotted a new one I hadn't come across before which I thought might interest some of you.

HerStoria Magazine is a UK based women's history magazine. From the website:

HerStoria magazine explores the past to discover how the other half lived, telling the story of ordinary - and extraordinary - women. We’ll bring you opinions about the fairer sex from across the centuries, and investigate the ways in which women responded and lived their lives...

...Debate the issues that influence the way history is made: Are women making themselves heard on the radio and TV? Are young historians in school learning about women’s history? Are women given an equal voice in popular and high brow history? Do museums and heritage centres provide a balanced view of history? Are our public memorials fair to women? Do we forget our heroines too easily?

So there you go. Check it out!

I wish that just for one day we could turn the tables and straight men could feel what it's like to know that their female friends and lovers could go out into any number of bars or clubs in their town and perve on beautiful men, pay them to bend over for them and rub them off; that at a click of a button they could access millions of images and videos of men which exist solely for their gratification; that they could turn on MTV and see almost-naked men gyrating around a fully-clothed woman who sees them as just another piece of meat to get her off; that they could pay to gain a man's consent to sex and not give a shit about whether he really wants to have sex with them. How would they feel if they knew that every year hoards of women go on holiday to places like Vegas and Amsterdam where they will be offered men to use as they please at every bloody turn, and that that's the very reason they go there?

I wish men could know what it feels like to grow up desperately trying to prove that you are just as sexy and desirable and fuckable as all those millions of women and girls that they can perve on all over the goddamn place. I wish they could know how much that fucks with your self esteem. And I wish they could feel what it's like to know that the people you care about - however nice or sweet or caring or socially aware they may be - often help perpetuate this situation that makes you feel like shit. They don't mean to make you feel like shit, but when the status quo is designed with them in mind, when it benefits them and they've never been encouraged to question it, when their privilege and sense of entitlement have been propagated since birth, it's hugely unlikely that they're going to do anything but take at least some kind of advantage of what's handed to them on a plate. I don't blame my straight male friends when they do, but I wish to hell they could understand that every time they benefit from this woman-as-sex-object culture it reminds me where my place should be in this society, and it certainly isn't on an equal footing with them.

Disclaimer: I know there are a hell of a lot of other ways in which it would be nice to turn the tables for a day so men could see what life is like for us, but this is what's particularly irritating me at the moment, so please forgive the rather specific focus of this post. Also, this is a very personal post, I'm not saying all women feel like I do - I recognise that this is very much based on my own hang-ups and insecurities - but I feel that these hang-ups and insecurities are to a large extent a product of growing up in this society, so I felt it was appropriate to let off a little steam here

In the men's tournament, five-times winner Roger Federer and British hope Andy Murray invariably play on Centre.

But on Friday, after Federer left the court, the next match was Victoria Azarenka of Belarus against Romania's Sorana Cirstea.

While both 19-year-olds have top form in the glamour department, Miss Cirstea was seeded 28 while Miss Azarenka, who won, is ranked and seeded eighth.

That same day, second seed Serena Williams was relegated to the new No 2 Court for her win over Italian Roberta Vinci.

The All England Club didn't even bother to deny it:

Spokesman Johnny Perkins said: 'Good looks are a factor.'

The Mail speculates that Wimbledon organisers are trying to cater to the BBC. An unnamed "BBC source" said:

'No one has heard of many of the women now, so if they are pretty it definitely gives them an edge.

'Our preference would always be a Brit or a babe as this always delivers high viewing figures.'

The tennis players have, unsurprisingly, noticed too, and are none-too-happy:

The fifth seed, who was knocked out on Saturday on No 1 Court, said: 'It's weird. If you look at the schedule, it's not only about me.

'It's about Dinara on Court No 2, Venus (Williams) on Court No 1 and the girls who are not very highly seeded they play on Centre.

'I respect them. They're great players for sure. But this is what's weird for me; what's their strategy, what's their plan of making the schedule?

'This is what surprises me a little bit.'

Twice champion Serena Williams even got lost on the way to No 2 Court on Friday.

She was nearly ten minutes late for her match.

(Of course, the Mail, champion of women, took the opportunity to illustrate the story with huge photos of the players labelling who played on centre court and who didn't, and captioning one with a reference to the "Battle of the Babes".)

UPDATE: Reader Audrey emailed in with the info on how to complain - go here for details on how to write to the All England Club.

I was afraid that Germaine Greer's Four Decades of Fun with Feminism gig at Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury might at best be an apology. I feared that at worst it might turn into a renouncement of the Eunuch 'theories' for which she has become so renowned. My apprehensions had no grounds, however, as I discovered to my relief and enjoyment as Greer made us laugh, cringe, scoff in mutual disgust and even cry with her reflection on feminism since her most celebrated work was first published in 1970.

In the 90 minutes for which she played, Greer addressed firstly the phrase for which she has been both credited and chastised in equal measure, that "women have no idea just how much men hate them", explaining how the quote has evolved as a freelance feminist tagline in its own right and been interpreted (and misinterpreted) by feminists and others alike. From there, hammering through issues such as women in the workplace (for which, she cheerfully insists, she should not be "blamed") and the (ongoing) questions about the role of women as mothers, she was both entertaining and insightful in equal measure.

When discussing female desire Greer, flanked by nods of agreement from most of the audience (and whooping from some!), asserted that women "have not been helped by Sex and the City", and assured us that she is "not despondent...just worried" about the situation of feminism and womanhood today.

Four Decades of Fun with Feminism exceeded my expectations in almost every way (except that I did expect to be star-struck when given the chance to talk to her directly towards the end, and wasn't disappointed) and the audience, seemed to share and be endeared by her overall sentiment and bottom-line of not aspiring to be an "equality feminist" (quipping that being male is not something she has ever aspired to) but instead addressing women in their own right to be their own experience, not experiencing life as an 'other'.

She also thinks that tarragon, as a seasoning in food, is very overrated.

The curators of Off The Beaten Path, an exhibition of global art about violence against women in Oslo, have put the show online.

Obviously it's not the same as actually being able to explore the show yourself, but still a good effort to make the exhibit more accessible. Well worth a look.

Officials recorded 12,560 cases of women prisoners injuring themselves - mainly by cutting and burning - last year, equivalent to almost three incidents per inmate. In 2003, 6,437 instances of self-harm were recorded in English prisons, about 1.5 per inmate.

Paul Holmes, the Liberal Democrat Justice spokesman, said:

It is nothing short of a disgrace how women are treated in our overcrowded penal system. It shows how desperate the situation is that the number of incidents has doubled.

The issue of women in prison has been ignored for far too long. There are record numbers behind bars but no evidence of a corresponding rise in women committing more serious crime.

The Government must realise prison is not the right place for female offenders who pose no threat to the public.

While 4,291 women are currently serving custodial sentences - slightly less than last year - it is still almost double the number held a decade ago. According to the article:

Research suggests that more women are sent to prison for shoplifting than any other crime. Forty per cent of sentenced women serve just three months or less. More than half of women in prison report they have suffered violence at home, and one in three has suffered sexual abuse. Two-thirds have a neurotic disorder, such as depression, anxiety and phobias.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

Women injure themselves repeatedly in prison because they are mostly in a terrible state: poor, scared and ill, hurting from painful separation from their children, and detoxing from drugs and drink.

Why do we lock up our most damaged and vulnerable women in bleak under-staffed institutions which, despite best efforts, are almost bound to make them worse?

Despite government promises to invest money in community programmes to aid rehabilitation, and to to look at tough alternatives to jail for women with small children, the prison system is still failing female prisoners.

According to @WIREDBiz organizers, we tried hard to get women speakers, but it didn’t work out. We will try harder next time.

Check out this YouTube video of tips for Wired on how to diversify future panels:

You can see people's contributions to the #diversityrolodex hashtag on twitter here. If you're on Twitter, you can also sign and retweet this petition.

Fawcett is best known for her role as the beautiful crime-fighting heroine Jill Munroe in Aaron Spelling's Charlie's Angels, launched in 1976. The programme, featuring three female detectives, was so popular that it reportedly attracted 59 per cent of the viewing public at that time.

Perhaps her most memorable broadcast was the video diary she left behind, bravely chronicling her battle with cancer. In May 2009 the two-hour documentary, titled Farrah's Story, was viewed by an audience of nine-million people on NBC in America. Speaking about the programme she said she was fulfilling:

...a certain responsibility to those who are fighting their own fights and may be able to benefit from learning about mine

Research conducted by Tesco's Baby & Toddler Club found that since April 2008 the number of full-time fathers has risen from 192,000 to 342,000, which is an increase of 80 per cent. The report also found that seven in ten mothers and fathers share parental responsibilities regardless of who stays at home.

While the Metro says that changing social attitudes and the supposed emergence of the "sensitive new man" is the primary reason for this development, more emphasis needs to be placed on increased unemployment resulting from the credit crunch, which means that this is not necessarily a conscious decision for a lot of men.

These statistics have been presented in such a way as to suggest that men are fast becoming primary child carers, failing to show the number of stay-at-home mothers by comparison - specifically the percentage of homes where there is both a stay-at-home dad and a stay-at-home mum.

While these results are said to represent the dissolution of traditional gender roles in Britain, the nature of this as a report specifically analysing the role of fathers suggests that the stay-at-home dad is still considered an unusual phenomeneon.The subtext to the media coverage it has been given also suggests that men who do favour domesticity should be praised, despite the fact women have been staying at home and caring for their children for generations.

Tsk! This is why very few gender based surveys ever do anything but bolster gender stereotypes.

While Margolis has written a response to Mikhailova’s piece, there are a few salient points worth addressing. Firstly, this has in no way “threatened” Mikhailova’s career but has, in fact, made it. This, as she proudly claims, was “the first high-profile ‘expose’ of an online writer’s anonymity,” and as a result Mikhailova walked straight out of university to the Times’s newsroom where she began a much coveted job as a reporter. Very few people have the opportunity to begin their careers on a national newspaper and the Times, like many other rags, has done nothing but demonstrate the extent to which the British media favours the scandalous and denigration of others, rewarding the morally reprehensible behaviour of wannabe hacks with staff jobs. Mikhailova, instead of seeing journalism as a medium of communication that enriches the reader's understanding of the world, was unfortunately caught in this maelstrom of sensationalism and backstabbing that has come to characterise the press and therefore, not suprisingly, favoured self-promotion above all else. Simple as.

Secondly, she bemoans the appearance of “fresh character assassinations” around the blogosphere everyday as fans of Margolis’s blog, and those who sympathised with her position, used the Internet as a platform to express their distaste at her mistreatment. It’s not nice and it’s not pleasant being criticised by a wealth of anonymous commentators online. My personal, albeit considerably smaller scale, experiences have taught me that. But they have also taught me that if I want to write something controversial I have to be prepared to accept that people aren’t going to like it. Was Mikhailova expecting the Pulitzer?

Ok, so someone set up a false sex blog under her name. So what? She was receiving, while still a student, a level of criticism and attention usually only given veterans of the British media. Plus, as she says, she had support: “Cue an extensive effort by the Sunday Times legal team to take it down — successfully, thank goodness.” Lucky girl. It’s a shame that Margolis didn’t have the privilege of an expensive legal team fighting her corner, eh? It's not nice that personal details, along with photographs of Mikhailova, were published on the Internet - and I wouldn't condone that - but surely she must understand that she was, likewise, the author of Margolis's complete and utter lack of privacy - only on a much larger and more detrimental scale. The old adage that you should treat others as you would like to be treated yourself is probably worth mentioning here.

There was no need to ‘out’ Margolis’s identity, and Mikhailova fails to provide adequate justification for doing so, or to offer an insight into her motivation. The content of Girl with a one-track mind is in no way enhanced or diminished by knowing the author’s true identity, and Margolis was metaphorically publicly flogged for having the audacity to speak candidly about sex. Because that’s what it was about. Let’s not forget that the issue here is not just that Mikhailova chose to ‘out’ Margolis, but that she drew on aspects of Margolis’s professional and personal life (even writing about her parents) to present her as a morally degenerate woman with a “shameless interest in sex.” Of course, the whole media debacle caused Margolis heartache. How could it not? And if Mikhailova, instead of waxing lyrical about how detrimental it had been for her, accepted her proactive role in causing an individual a lot of unnecessary upset, then she would have at least gained a slither of credibility.

As it stands she was and is an ambitious journalist who abandoned her integrity to get what she wanted. That’s fine. But don’t write a pointless piece trying to explain away what you have done without, in fact, offering any explanation at all. Mikahilova just sounds like a school yard bully who’s upset because nobody wants to play with her anymore, and is using the argument that this is a natural consequence of the disparity between new and old forms of media to try and invest her actions with legitimacy. The blog is a medium that offers its users anonymity, and as such can provide insightful, interesting and blunt commentary on a range of topics which might otherwise not be given air time. It also allows a diverse range of people - those who for personal or religious reasons, for example, cannot speak publicly - a platform to share their views free from condemnation.This is the point, and what journalists like Mikhailova are doing is forcing bloggers into self-censoring their opinions before publication for fear that they may gain too much attention and be considered too influential to remain faceless. Instead of pedalling yet another article out of someone else’s misfortune, maybe Mikhailova should just leave it go?

Worried that your uterus is too small? Wow them the next time you go to the gynecologist, be the envy of all of your peers. Why is this Spanish woman so happy? Just look at the size of her uterus! Order now and see instant results! All that and a money back guarantee!

I also like her vagina pillows - with a secret comparment for vibrators - because where better to 'hide' your sextoys than a vagina pillow! She'll also make vulva portrait penants based on a photo or description.

(You can also follow VulvaLoveLovely on Twitter, which is how I found her Etsy page).

Personally, I want to be a mother. Every woman in society should achieve that...We're here to procreate.

Technically, yes, human beings do exist to procreate, but I don't think that those of us who choose not to fulfil our biological function should tattoo 'failure' on our foreheads.

The video has been pulled from YouTube following complaints from Conservative Future.

Sinclair's latest project, Top Hot Butches, was originally a list of

The 100 hottest butch, masculine, androgynous, genderqueer, transmasculine, studs, AGs, dykes, queers, and transguys

Following criticism of the inclusion of trans men in the list, at Sinclair's place and in Feministing's comments and elsewhere (including in the comments of the original version of this post), she has removed those trans men who have not specifically given their blessing to be included.

Sinclair's also posted a statement of apology:

So here’s the thing about the internet: the critical feedback is immediate, and publications are, unlike print, not static. Things do not have to stay the same.

I have decided to remove transmen from the list of Top Hot Butches, and I sincerely apologize to all who felt insulted by their inclusion. I did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and I understand how it was hurtful, despite my intentions.

I did expect some disagreement about exactly this, but I did not expect this level of discourse, discussion, openness, and productivity in the response. Look at Feministing, and also at Sugarbutch threads here & here, and the comments on the THB site itself. I also thought I understood my own reasons for the inclusion of transmen, and that my reasoning could hold up against criticism, but in the past three days, I have felt that it does not, and that many of the critiques are right.

I really recommend reading the whole of Sinclair's apology over at Sugarbutch Chronicles...

(And you might also want to check out this response by Jiz Lee, who is on the list)

Meanwhile, prior to this, F-Word reader Sebastian Conolly sent in this contribution, which I'm posting here still because it sets out really clearly some reasons why people objected to the original list. However, Sebastian asked me to add: "Since this was written Sinclair has responsed to similar critiques from elsewhere by removing trans men from the list, and issuing this statement, which I feel has addressed my problems with the orginal list":

At first glance this list of 100 Top Hot Butches by Sinclair Sexsmith seems harmless enough. Whilst any list which focuses on hotness as a metric is potentially objectifying, as a response to the After Ellen Hot 100 being mostly populated by young, slender, white, femmes, I can see why it could be a positive thing.

A closer look at the subtitle though, and my blood pressure was rising. “The 100 hottest butch, masculine, androgynous, genderqueer, transmasculine, studs, AGs, dykes, queers, and transguys.” Some of these things are not like the others. Some of these things have nothing to do with butchness.

The compiler of the list obviously has some idea that grouping all those labels together as butches might not go down terribly well, and attempts to explain the reasoning behind it, but if anything makes it worse. In particular the phrase “I am using it instead of another term ... because I think it is the most accessible and recognisable word representing some sort of female masculinity” is shockingly dismissive of trans men’s identities.

We don’t have female masculinities. We have male ones. And why? Because we’re not some kind of extra-special super butch women. We’re men.

The fact that Sinclair states “I mean absolutely no offense to anyone on this list” doesn’t suddenly make it inoffensive to slap labels on us that we haven’t chosen. It doesn’t make it any less hurtful to be told that we’re not the same as other men, that we’re united to a list by the very accident of birth that we’ve chosen to reject.

I think it’s great that people are celebrating female masculinities. It’s fantastic that the conventions of what makes a woman attractive are being challenged. I just wish that a group which has so often been dismissed as “not really women at all” would stand up for themselves without suggesting that I’m not really a man.

So, what about the list itself? Sinclair says it was direct response to After Ellen's Hot 100 list:

Yet again, readers of After Ellen chose their top hot list based on contemporary standards of feminine beauty, with a little bit of lesbian pop culture thrown in. Not to mention that the list featured primarily white, straight, young women, primarily from the US. And in this, the year of Rachel Maddow, of New York Times articles on butch fashion, there were fewer than a dozen androgynous, butch, or masculine folks represented on this list.

Hot lists have a bad reputation. And, well, for good reason: aimed at straight men, highlighting and ranking women in the public eye for how conventionally attractive they look, there's really so much wrong with most of these lists that, well, you could probably write a list of 100 reasons to hate 100 hottest women lists.

There's been a fair deal of push-back, though. Including the now defunct(?) REAL hot 100 list, which highlighted young women in the US who were "doing incredible things in their every day lives... battling the popular notion that all young women have to offer is outward appearances".

So, is Top Hot Butches a bit objectifying? The answer, for my money? Well... yes, maybe a little bit... but, Sinclair says:

Being objectified has been an important step on my own way toward gender identity development: being seen as attractive and desirable by others, and seeing representations of people like me in culture who are also desirable, has helped me feel more confident and strong about my own gender.

There is, of course, a constant flow of images in the media validating, and pushing, women embracing femininity (implicitly or explicitly for men, depending on the context), and there's still most definitely a need to acknowledge and celebrate butch (although this list is also about a broader spectrum of identities). I also like that Sinclair's list is not just confined to the young and white.

Actually the list (at least the first half of the list) is just as much about what those listed have done as how hot they look. And your Maxim-type list is offensive, not just because it's objectifying, but because it's pushing attractiveness as one, single specific ideal (even, kind of ridiculously, pretending that it's possible to 'objectively' identify the hottest woman on Earth). Efforts such as Top Hot Butches should help to disrupt that...

Check out the full list here

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