The F-Word Blog

'Impossibly perfect', music video edition

2009-11-07T13:42:07Z

There's been a lot of awareness raising on use of Photoshop to make women's bodies look impossibly beautiful. But what about in video?

Via Sarah at Uplift!, this showreel advertising work by post-production firm Room demonstrates how much 'correcting' is done to both women and men's bodies and faces in music videos.

You can see it here, or Sarah posted some stills on Uplift!

Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven

2009-11-06T10:53:53Z

There's a chance this Sunday to see a reading of the early women's liberation play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven in London.

According to Arts Admin, Jane Arden's play "was the first theatre work to come out of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain when it was staged at the Drury Lane Arts Lab in 1969. To mark its 40th anniversary Unfinished Histories are staging a reading of the play followed by a roundtable discussion."

You can book tickets and get venue info here.

The staging of Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven is part of the Unfinished Histories project - you can read Red Chidgey's review of their CD about women's theatre troupes in the 1970s and 1980s here.

Women and Silent Britain

2009-11-05T18:01:31Z

The BFI is holding a study day on women's role in the film industry back in the days of silent movies.

This study day will consider all aspects of writing for or about the screen by the large number of women involved in the British cinema industry of the silent era, whether as screenwriters, critics, columnists, publicists, or authors of source novels and plays. The day consists of screenings from the BFI National Archive, talks and workshops, followed by a screening of the rarely seen silent classic The Constant Nymph.Tickets £10 (day only), £15 including The Constant Nymph (Members pay £1.40 less)

More info here

First Weekenders Club x2

2009-11-05T16:52:39Z

Two films by female film-makers are out in the UK tomorrow - Birds Eye View highlights films and encourages those interested in support women in the film industry to see them in the first weekend they're showing.

One of the films, a hip hop and grime musical, 1 Day, directed by Penny Woolcock, has been at the centre of some controversy after Birmingham police intervention led to all the city's cinemas refusing to screen it.

BEV interviewed Woolcock:

I have no idea whether the police were under some sinister political pressure or whether they have decided to set themselves up as arbiters of what films we are allowed to see. The film has a 15 certificate!! It is far less violent than any Hollywood film or video game.
Sadly I think there is only one explanation. Racism. They are afraid of allowing young black people to gather to watch a film.

Also out tomorrow is Bright Star by Jane Campion - I interviewed the producer Jan Chapman last week about the film, which will be up along with a review as soon as I can get the time to write it :-)

Send a card, save a life?

2009-11-05T16:10:12Z

For some reason, last year was the first time I ever took part in the Amnesty International Greeting Cards Campaign. It was on the long, long list of things I intend to do, but never got round to.

But then last year, I did it. I made greetings cards from some of my photos, wrote encouraging messages inside, and posted them to the people I had chosen. It was easy, creative, and actually felt like a good reason to be in a Post Office queue.

I would have loved to send cards to everyone in their campaign, but I knew the postage would be prohibitive, so I had to decide on who I would send to. I went for sending cards to all the women in the campaign, and sending one to Binyan Mohammed, who was a British resident being held in Guantanamo Bay.

So when my booklet for this year's Greetings Card campaign arrived in the post yesterday, I instantly read through it and started ticking the pages of the ones I wanted to send cards to.

Again, I will focus my attention on the women. Amnesty says:

Our Greetings Card Campaign brings people across the world in touch with each other in a simple way - by sending a card with a friendly greeting or message of solidarity to someone who is in danger or unjustly imprisoned.

Below are 32 stories about people around the world who have suffered human rights abuses and would benefit from a card with a friendly greeting or message of support.

Between 1 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 we'd like you to write to as many of them as you like and remember that just one personalised message will mean the world to a prisoner in a cell or a family waiting for news of a loved one.

They give advice for each person about whether you should avoid mentioning anything religious, or political, and a suggested message. The website also gives translations of their suggested messages, if you want to write to the recipient in their own language.

Amnesty has checked with each potential recipient that it will be safe for them to receive cards, and even if you only send one (there really is no requirement to send all 32!), it can make a massive difference to somebody out there whose situation is otherwise dire.

Some examples of people you can send cards to this year are Justine Masika Bihamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo who has found herself and her family under attack because of her work for a women's rights organisation. In September 2007, soldiers forced their way into Justine's home while she was out, and tied up her six children, aged between five and 24, at gunpoint. One of the soldiers kicked her eldest daughter in the face, breaking her tooth. He then attempted to rape Justine's 21-year-old daughter.

Having failed to do so, he sexually assaulted her with a knife. Although Justine and her children were able to identify the soldiers, they have not been arrested or brought to trial. Workers at Justine's organisation have regularly been threatened and attacked because of their peaceful work against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another woman is Sonia Pierre in the Dominican Republic. She is a human rights defender and has been threatened and harassed as a result of her work to stop discrimination against the Haitian community in the Dominican Republic. Sonia is executive director of the Movement for Dominico- Haitian Women (MUDHA), which works to combat the anti-Haitian prejudice and racism that is an everyday reality for many migrant workers and Dominicans of Haitian descent.

Then there is a group of 9 women's human rights defenders in Nicaragua. They are Ana María Pizarro, Juanita Jiménez, Luisa Molina Arguello, Marta María Blandón, Martha Munguía, Mayra Sirias, Violeta Delgado, Yamileth Mejía and Lorna Norori. They belong to various organisations that work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse; promote sexual health and promote the rights of women, children and young people.

They are facing legal proceedings for their involvement in the case of a nine-year-old girl who was raped and made pregnant in 2003 and obtained a legal abortion in Nicaragua. In October 2007 a non-governmental organisation backed by the Roman Catholic Church lodged a complaint against the nine, accusing them of concealment of rape, crimes against the administration of justice and other misdemeanours. We fear that the complaint is because of the women's human rights work and their activism to ensure the right of women and girls to safe and effective sexual and reproductive health services.

They list so many people whose lives you could help by a simple action. You can put as much work or money into it as you want to, really! Send one card to one person, or get your whole community to write and send cards to everyone!

As you can tell, I believe strongly in this campaign, and will be posting my own cards off in the next few weeks. I'm also going to be photocopying some of the booklet and sending pages out with the zine orders I get until the campaign ends. If you have the spoons, give it a go.

Oxfordshire Reclaim the Night - tomorrow!

2009-11-05T10:19:10Z

Clare Cochrane from the Oxfordshire Reclaim the Night collective, talks through tomorrow's Reclaim the Night march

Here in Oxford we’re all getting excited as we build up to Oxfordshire Reclaim the Night 2009. Tomorrow, straight after work, we’ll march from East Oxford across the bridge into the centre of town, through the evening crowds with our message that all women have the right to live without fear of violence. At the rally speakers will include the city council's domestic violence services co-ordinator, the co-ordinator of Oxford's rape crisis centre and a speaker from Amnesty International, with entertainment from performance poet Lizzie Mc and legendary punk folk heroine Maeve Bayton.

This is the second year the Oxfordshire RTN collective has organised a march that involves both students and local people, helped by funding from the city council. And that’s really important in Oxford. Because despite what you might expect in an age when universities are increasingly proud of their local engagement, etc, etc, there is still a pretty severe divide between ‘town and gown’ in the city. The divide is visible in lots of ways - the postcodes in the centre of the city include some of the wealthiest wards in the UK, with levels of education, income and health all exceeding the national average. But the postcodes out on the eastern edge of Oxford, near the industrial areas with the car plant (and the proposed site of England’s first council-run urban wind turbine), include wards that rank amongst the most highly deprived in the UK. But although students and residents are different in lots of ways, the risks of violence - by strangers, at home, through forced marriage, sexual coercion and sexual abuse - faced by all kinds of women make this one issue where we need to come together to show our strength.

And just as Oxfordshire RTN brings students and residents together, it also brings women and men together. Men who support the White Ribbon Campaign help out with organising the rally, and arrive early to have tea and biscuits ready for the women marchers (all women are welcome on the march, including trans women). They help design leaflets and make banners, and of course, with women on the march, the role of men as child carers is vitally important.

In some ways, Oxfordshire is a pretty lovely, safe place to live. We’ve got a strong network of domestic violence champions, supported by the city council - professionals in the courts, the police, the social services and the health service who look out for women experiencing violence and help to put them in touch with the support services they need. We’ve got OSARCC, who have been providing phone counselling and information services to women experiencing sexual abuse for 20 years. They even have paid workers! But we still have high rates of sexual violence, our rate of convictions for rape cases hovers around the national average and isn’t anything to shout about, and reports of rape regularly make the local papers, as they do everywhere in the country.

So like last year, we’re hoping that more than 150 women and men will come together - women on the march, men joining us at the rally - to educate the general public, raise the profile in the media (we were covered by every single local media outlet last year!) and support the year round work of OSARCC and the women’s anti-violence projects across Oxfordshire. Join us if you can!

Forced marriage and 'honour' based abuse helpline faces closure.

2009-11-04T21:21:20Z

The Karma Nirvana Honour Network Helpline provides help and support to victims and survivors of forced marriage and 'honour' based violence and abuse. It has received over 6,700 calls since it was launched in April 2008, but despite being praised by the Home Affairs Select Committee's 2008 report into Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence, it has received no government funding and will be forced to close on December 9th.

The founders have created a petition requesting government funding as a matter of urgency, and would very much appreciate it if you could sign it.

The helpline number is 0800 5999 247.

Reclaim the Night Leeds

2009-11-04T21:08:07Z

Reclaim the Night Leeds is taking place on Saturday 28th November. Meet outside Leeds Art Gallery at 6pm for a 6.30pm start. The main march is open to all self-defining women and other supporters are welcome to join the end of the march at approximately 7.10pm outside M&S on Briggate. There will be a post-march reception with talks and stalls, which is open to all. Children are welcome to attend. The aims of the march are:

a. To raise awareness and understanding of rape and sexual violence committed against women and girls. This will include exploding myths around rape and sexual violence and challenging public attitudes towards rape and sexual violence as symbolised by the low rape conviction rate;
b. By publicising the prevalence and effects of rape and sexual violence, provide a platform for campaigning for improved services in the Leeds area, thus striving to make safer and sustainable communities;

c. To build partnerships with national and Leeds based organisations and ensure Reclaim the Night Leeds is citywide;

d. To encourage and promote the participation of all women and work towards encompassing their diversity.

RTN organisers and supporters will be publicising the event on Briggate all day on Saturday 14 November, please do join them if you have some time to spare.

Hope to see some of you on the 28th!

Feminist Spoons

2009-11-03T18:48:44Z

You may not have heard of the Spoon Theory, but it is worth a read.

A woman called Christine Miserandino was trying to think of a way to explain to her best friend exactly what it was like to live with a chronic illness, and came up with the Spoon Theory to give her an idea of what her life was like.

I find myself quite regularly using it, e.g. "I was planning to do that, but I don't have enough spoons". It is also becoming more well-known and well-used by other disabled people I know. It's very simplified, yes, but it gets the message across, as long as the person you are mentioning it to knows what you are talking about.

Friends and family are aware enough of my health problems to understand when I have to cancel things, or rearrange them. But these days, I am much less involved in feminist activism than I ever have been.

This is definitely spoon-related, and also directly related to my main local feminist group meeting in an inaccessible venue for so long that I gave up arguing with them about it. (They now meet somewhere which may be accessible, but they're not sure. I feel so thoroughly disenamoured with them that I'm not willing to test it out).

But I have also found that while individual feminists can be very understanding with my lack of spoons on a day-to-day basis, it sometimes seems less acceptable when it interferes with my ability to attend actions, protests and meetings.

I have it when there is a feminist action going on which I am not well enough to get to. I think of little else the whole time I should be there, I berate myself and feel thoroughly miserable. It then doesn't help when it is implied at a later date that those who did not attend were not committed enough, didn't care enough, aren't good enough.

This is far from universal, and many, many feminists have, or are developing, a really good understanding of disabled politics and the issues affecting disabled women. It is also not unique to feminism. The same attitudes can prevail in general lefty politics, the peace movement and more.

But historically, a lot of feminism has failed to address disabled issues. To quote from a blog post I wrote many moons ago,

Feminism needs to integrate disability politics, needs to embrace disabled women and our experiences, to be fully feminist. Excluding disabled women from feminist academia, analysis, activism and community not only is crap for the disabled woman, it prevents feminism from becoming all it needs to be to liberate women.

While I wrote that in fury about a particular situation, it still stands. It's not just about making sure we can get into the building! It's about understanding that without addressing issues affecting disabled women, feminism can never be fully representative of women, nor can it adequately support us, campaign for us or understand our lives.

New piece on CiF - 'Population control is not what makes climate change a feminist issue'

2009-11-02T13:43:42Z

Just a quick note to say I've got a new piece up on Comment is Free, Population control is not what makes climate change a feminist issue.

(Edit: Vikki Chowney has posted a nice follow-up about an Oxfam event which involved four women talking about how climate change was changing their lives).

Introducing our new guest blogger!

2009-10-30T10:29:09Z

A big welcome to Philippa Willitts, who has kindly agreed to guest blog for The F Word throughout November.

Philippa has been blogging under the name of incurable hippie since 2004. She particularly addresses feminism, disability, lesbian identity and mental health issues on her blog, but has covered a great many topics over the years. She has been active in campaigning around domestic violence and rape, treatment of women in the legal system, asylum seekers and refugees, disability and mental health, environmental issues and in CND and the peace movements. She is a 32 year old woman living in the north of England and she likes photography, digital design, making zines, being in nature and mischief.

More on Equal Pay Day - A Tale of Two Cities

2009-10-30T12:57:51Z

As Helen mentioned already, today is Equal Pay Day - the average pay gap between men and women is 17.1%, meaning that while men in work will be paid for the full year, women in work are effectively working for free from today until 2010.

A sobering thought! Shake Up Media has put together a fantastic graphic exploring the picture on unequal pay in more detail, comparing Haringay - in the top 10 on pay equality, with a gap of -2% - with Wokingham, in the bottom 10, with a pay gap of 31.7%. It's not the worst performer though - West Somerset has a staggering pay gap of 52.7%!

See the whole thing here

Friday 30th October is Equal Pay Day

2009-10-30T07:48:31Z

Friday 30th October is Equal Pay Day, a day of action lead by the Fawcett Society to draw attention to the fact that, on average, women’s full time mean hourly pay is 17.1% less than men’s. 30th October symbolically marks the last pay cheque that women receive in a year because, compared with men, we work on average for about two months a year without pay.

For women in science, engineering and technology (SET) - which includes IT workers like me - the pay gaps both between men and women, and between different kinds of SET occupations, show no evidence of closing:

(Image via BCS)

SET occupations don't show the same extremes in pay differentials between the highest and lowest paid compared with other occupations. And if you're a woman working in a SET occupation, you are more likely to be receiving similar remuneration to that of you male colleagues than women working elsewhere. But at the lower levels of SET occupations especially in skilled trades, part-time women’s hourly earnings are much less than the full-time earnings of women or men in the same occupations.

But there's no cause for complacency: there is a gender pay gap in SET occupations - as there is in virtually all occupations - and it shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon.

To find out more, you can visit the Equal Pay Day blog (link here), or go to the Fawcett Society website's page (link here) to sign the online petition and download further resources and information.

---------------

Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

Bermondsey suffragettes 100 years ago!

2009-10-28T14:40:28Z

One hundred years ago today, two suffragettes poured ink and chemicals into two polling boxing during the Southwark by-election, reports London SE1, in a bid to disrupt an election in which women were not given the right to vote.

But it was not only the erosion of the Liberal government's big majority that made the by-election news in such papers as The New York Times but an incident at Boutcher School in Grange Road.
At 11am Alice Chapin, a 45 year old supporter of votes for women living in the West End, entered the polling station at the school. She broke a glass test tube on the ballot box and at that moment the presiding officer George Thorley felt the liquid on his face.

The chemical splashed one of Mr Thorley's eyes. Although examined at once by a doctor who happened to be present it was the view a month later of Guy's opthalmic surgeon Arthur Ormond that there might be a slight permanent haze to Mr Thorley's sight.

However, the victim believed that the injury to him was "purely accidental". Although his clothing was burnt he maintained that Mrs Chapin did not intend to hurt him.

"The first thing I did on receiving the splash was to go to a cupboard in the polling-room where there was some ammonia, used for chemical experiments in the school, intending to apply it to my burns. One of the polling clerks tried to dilute it for me, but I found his solution was too strong to use."

The 83 ballot papers in the box were later found to be damaged but all decipherable.

The Times reported that the 'suffragists' had "struck out a new form of annoyance" which was "childish malice characteristic of suffragette methods".

At the Old Bailey the following month Mrs Chapin was found guilty of interfering with the ballot box and sentenced to three months imprisonment. In addition she was found guilty of a common assault for which she received four months to run concurrently.

Also sentenced in the same court was Alison Neilans who tried to pour fluid into the ballot box at the Long Lane polling station. There were no injuries but two papers were rendered undecipherable and Miss Neilans was sentenced to three months in Holloway Prison along with her fellow conspirator.

Both women were members of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) which was a breakaway from the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU).

The protest in Bermondsey was a direct response to the refusal of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to receive a WFL deputation. Days later the League launched The Vote newspaper which declared: "We shall make a protest where our right is denied - in the polling booth where women ought to be voting."

(links added by me)

This one is local history for me; both of these incidents happened down the road from my flat.

Photo from Parliament, of a banner unfurled at another WFL protest - more info here.

Survey: Women, Rape and the Law

2009-10-27T16:15:56Z

The Campaign to End Rape coalition is conducting a survey on women's attitudes to and experiences of rape and the law:

This questionnaire aims to collect some fresh information about what women think and know about rape. It is aimed at any woman, whether or not you have experienced rape, as we want to know what you think on this topic. We are using the word rape to mean unwanted sexual acts that you are willing to tell us about.
The information that we collect from this survey will be used to draw attention to women’s ideas about rape, what we want, whether we can find what we need after rape and what is happening in the law, from women’s perspectives.

You can find out more and take the survey here.

Crime fiction reviewer refusing to review any more books because of misogynist violence

2009-10-27T15:16:24Z

Crime fiction writer and reviewer for the Literary Review is refusing to review any more crime novels because of the high levels of misogynist violence, the Guardian reports.

Jessica Mann, an award-winning author who reviews crime fiction for the Literary Review, has said that an increasing proportion of the books she is sent to review feature male perpetrators and female victims in situations of "sadistic misogyny". "Each psychopath is more sadistic than the last and his victims' sufferings are described in detail that becomes ever more explicit, as young women are imprisoned, bound, gagged, strung up or tied down, raped, sliced, burned, blinded, beaten, eaten, starved, suffocated, stabbed, boiled or buried alive," she said.
"Authors must be free to write and publishers to publish. But critics must be free to say they have had enough. So however many more outpourings of sadistic misogyny are crammed on to the bandwagon, no more of them will be reviewed by me," said Mann, who has written her own bestselling series of crime novels and a non-fiction book about female crime writers.

She said that when a female corpse recently appeared on the jacket of a crime-writing colleague's new book, the author pointed out to her publisher that the victim in the story was actually a man. Mann said the publisher replied: "Never mind that. Dead, brutalised women sell books, dead men don't. Nor do dead children or geriatrics."

Some of these books (although not all) are written by women, the Guardian reports. But while Mann suggests this means there is no anti-feminist backlash involved, it doesn't seem so clear cut.

Natasha Cooper, former chair of the Crime Writers' Association, agreed with Mann. "There is a general feeling that women writers are less important than male writers and what can save and propel them on to the bestseller list is if they produce at least one novel with very graphic violence in it to establish their credibility and prove they are not girly," she said.

So one theory is it's a reaction to ... surprise, surprise... sexism directed at female writers.

While another theory is it's about commerical pressure:

Val McDermid, author of the books adapted for the television series Wire in the Blood starring Robson Green, whose novel The Mermaids Singing won the association's Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, said that crime writing was increasingly "sensationalist and gratuitous" because of the demands of the market.
"There has been a general desensitisation among readers, who are upping the ante by demanding ever more sensationalist and gratuitous plotlines," she said. "But when women write about violence against women, it will almost inevitably be more terrifying because women grow up knowing that to be female is to be at risk of attack. We write about violence from the inside. Men, on the other hand, write about it from the outside."

Mass Lobby of Parliament to End Violence Against Women

2009-10-27T13:14:45Z

Amnesty International have organised a mass labby of parliament on Wednesday November 4th to push for a comprehensive end violence against women strategy:

The UK Government is obliged to protect, respect and fulfil women’s human rights. As the 2010 general election is coming up and a change of government is possible, all political parties must address violence against women.
We need you to join hundreds of others in talking to your MP about the urgent need for an end violence against women strategy that ensures the same support and protection for all women - regardless of their immigration status.

At the moment, women who are of vulnerable immigration status have no recourse to public funds - so they cannot access refuges and have nowehere to go if they suffer violence. This must be overturned in order to ensure that all women in Britain have support services available to them. Find out more about the No Recourse to Public Funds rule.

Click here for details on how to get involved.

World Wide Women Conference

2009-10-27T12:43:40Z

On Saturday, I attended the World Wide Women conference in Sheffield, organised by Sheffield Fems and the Sheffield branch of WILPF (the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom). The day's aim was to highlight some of the challenges facing women in the UK and globally and to inspire attendees to take action on the issues raised. It certainly hit the spot for me.

The day kicked off with a talk from former MP for Sheffield, Helen Jackson, who identified climate change and lack of education as the biggest threats to women's liberation globally. She then focused on women's rights in the UK, highlighting workplace discrimination and the need to recognise that grandparents are also negatively affected by our long hours, inflexible working culture. She pointed out that women's unpaid caring work impacts on our ability to earn within this culture, despite the fact that the value of unpaid care of older people alone is estimated at £58 billion, and argued that no one should have to suffer financially for making the right decisions for their families, communities and health. These messages need to be heard by politicians and decision makers, but in her experience this will only happen if more women are able to access these powerful roles.

The second, incredibly moving speech was given by Marie-Claire Faray-Kele, a member of WILPF and spokeswoman for their Voices of African Women Campaign. She highlighted the devastating effects of colonialism and the violent masculinity of patriarchal capitalism on African societies, arguing that the oppression of women - often pushed through Western religion - has been one of the key mechanisms by which the colonisers destroyed and fractured African nations. 90% of African women now experience domestic violence, and in her home country of Congo, girls are confined to the home or married off when they reach puberty - sometimes dying or being severely injured in childbirth - due to a lack of sanitary products and contraception, as well as patriarchal attitudes towards women and girls.

She focused on women as courageous resisters, however, who have to fight on multiple levels to get their voices heard: they are ignored by their own male-dominated communities; by disempowering aid agencies who set their own agendas rather than listening to the needs of local people; by international bodies and the UN, who listen only to men; by multinational corporations, international financial organisations and foreign governments who fuel civil wars and support oppressive regimes in order to exploit Africa's resources; and by all of us in the West who fail to challenge our governments' policies and fuel the demand for illegal exploitation of resources such as the mineral coltan, used in mobile phones and games consoles, by our unnecessary levels of consumption. Their fight is made all the more challenging by language barriers, as many women cannot speak French, let alone English.

At present, no one but WILPF is supporting Congolese women at an international level. Marie-Claire asked that we do all we can to make these women's voices heard. You can do so by writing to your MP asking them to support the Declaration of African Women and joining WILPF and supporting their campaign.

Jean Lambert MEP then talked about the impact of anti-trafficking legislation on women across Europe, highlighting the anti-Islam bias in much discourse on migration (such as the conflation of forced and arranged marriage) and the campaign to ensure migrant women are granted independent legal status. At present many women's status - and therefore every other aspect of their lives - is dependent on the male 'head of household'. Currently it is less risky to traffic people for sexual and labour exploitation than to traffic drugs, and this needs to change.

Ann Hamilton, vice-chair of the End Violence Against Women campaign picked up on the trafficking theme, arguing that a recent Guardian article asserting that the lack of sex trafficking convictions is proof that sex trafficking is extremely rare is entirely wrongheaded. Glasgow's anti-trafficking project, TARA, has seen 50 victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation this year alone, but the women's fear and shame and the police's failure or inability to class them as trafficking victims means there have been no convictions; this doesn't mean sex trafficking is a myth. Ann also highlighted the work that has been done in Glasgow to address violence against women and tackle prostitution, and will hopefully be guest blogging for us on the latter in the future.

There was an opportunity to discuss all the issues raised in workshops, where we agreed on actions we could take collectively or as individuals to push for positive change - a great idea, as I've sometimes been frustrated by the lack of opportunity to use the information I've gained from other conferences in a constructive way - and I got some seriously good feminist networking done! Well done to all involved.

Disney Princesses

2009-10-26T16:09:44Z

Via Sociological Images and Fiona A, this is quite an interesting (if not exhaustive) deconstruction of some of the issues with Disney princesses.

New feature: Gender in the playground

2009-10-25T23:40:49Z

Primary schools are no utopia of skipping rope and gender blind comradery. Instead, girls are already learning to worry about their looks - and boys are learning male privilege, reports teacher Kate Townshend

I am in the classroom tidying up with a pupil named Ellen. One of the advantages (and difficulties) of being a relatively young teacher is that sometimes children will talk to you in an unguarded way. You get to hear what they really think about things, which is usually fascinating and frightening in equal measure.

Today is no exception to that particular rule. Ellen is telling me that she is giving up chocolate for Lent. When I commend her self control and ask if her family are religious she looks at me with amusement and tells me that really, she just wants to lose a bit of weight. Sensing my perplexity she elaborates on the statement with disarming, resigned honesty. "I would be more popular if I were thinner," she sighs. Ellen is 10 years old.

During my experiences on the supply circuit I have been into a vast number of primary schools. And I have come to believe that there is a major and universal problem with the self-image of the little girls that populate them.

Click here to read on and comment