Feminism chat thread II

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Since it looks like the first chat thread is about to fill up, here's the next one all ready and waiting.

Think of it as the gated commune with babysitting on demand and gorgeous poolboys serving the drinks :o

'no more violence' I mean

Drive-by post as I'm heading out.

Can anyone help out here?

Dittany, I have gone through some stuff with her. She knows to sit with other people and that if she feels uncomfortable in any way that she can move away or speak to the driver.

I am more concerned when she it outside waiting at the bus stop, but she knows she is not obliged to speak to anyone, be friendly or pleasant or let them approach her simply because they are an adult.

Aw seth, can she be friends with whoever it is whose DD now always responds to "what do you want?" with the words "safer streets!"?

Ashley Judd is a feminist.

'As far as I'm concerned, most rap and hip-hop music - with its rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as 'ho's' - is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny.'

'I believe that the social construction of gender - the cultural beliefs and practices that divide the sexes and institutionalise and normalise the unequal treatment of girls and women, privilege the interests of boys and men, and, most nefariously, incessantly sexualize girls and women - is the root cause of poverty and suffering around the world,' she continued.

thanks for link Tabouleh.

surely what's most interesting about it is that the Daily Mail is putting the word 'misogyny' in a headline with a straight face?
and that the most green arrowed comments are the ones agreeing with her?

really seth, I CBA with the comments today.

Clearly the DM don't realise that they also very much contribute to the "social construction of gender" (Femail anyone ?) nor of course do they in any way "sexualize girls and women" (with their constant focus on women's clothes/weight/plastic surgery etc) .

sorry to go on about my dd, but today she was marching round the kitchen carrying the placard I made for MWR (but didn't take) chanting 'Boys can wear pink, Girls can wear blue, More girls on CBeebies, It could come true.'

we really need to find a way to harness the energy of our primary age feminists, don't we?!

Milly what haoppened with your dd? I might be reacting like the mother of a pfb but I would be inclined to get the bus with her for a while and make it VERY clear to this guy that you know about him. Alongside telling the police of course. :(

Go seth's DD!

MillyR - what did the school say?

Just been reading the free range egg thread on AIBU and it struck me that the thread development, tone, polarisation etc are just like those heated threads on hair slides/childrens' books/husband watching porn. It's given me a bit of insight into my own approach to those types of debate and its usefulness or otherwise.

Sigh. It really never ends, does it.

Yesterday I was the physiotherapist's with my ds2. As I was a bit bored, I leafed through a magazine on the table in the waiting area. It was a magazine that comes free with a newspaper, one of the major national newspapers in Greece, looked on as being progressive and leftwing. And there a phrase caught my eye: "the feminist mistake of wanting full equal rights." Mistake? Surely I can't have seen properly, I thought. So I read the entire article. And that was exactly what it said. The mistake of full equality. The evil that this has done to society - people don't know who they are any more, apparently, society has lost its way because of feminism. All this came, somewhat incongruously, with some stuff about women being silly for wearing high-heeled shoes that are impratical and uncomfortable.

This stuff really is everywhere. It's so depressing. (I can't let you enjoy the article for yourselves, as it was in Greek, but really, you're not missing much. For any Greek speakers out there, it was in Vima Donna, April 2011, page 70.)

alex -that is similar to David Willetts' argument (university minister) that feminism has been directly responsible for the UK's lack of social mobility. I love how a party whose leaders are almost entirely made up of old Etonians can shift the blame onto women. Makes me want to spit feathers

Wasn't sure where to post but this is as good a place as any. A friend posted this on her fb wall and I thought it was interesting - particularly the link between mass media imagery and violence against women

speaking of that dittany, I once opened an old Country Living Mag from the seventies, and in the back was a charity asking for donations. For who, you might ask. The poor and impoverished? Orphans? Widows?
Nope.

For rich aristocrats and their ilk who for whatever reason might have to sell their estates. The charity was to prevent the embarrasment this would bring among some social circles.

It literally was someting like " we all know how it would feel if we were to go down a notch down in the world; stop others like you from experiencing this shame by donating to X" next to a picture of a wealthy looking gentleman...

couldn't believe my eyes.

LOL Sakura.

is anyone else really missing Engelbert? I hope she gets her new internet sorted out soon.

Yes, me. You can't be a proper gang without one of the founding members present

Afternoon all. I really like (ignore rubbish video), seems to be about a woman running away from an abusive relationship. Lyrics here.

DD's letter to CBeebies asking why there are more boys than girls in the programmes, written and sent.

am expecting a fob-off: if I had taken over more we could have put some actual statistics in it and more devastating arguments but it was her thing not mine.

She insisted on spelling everything properly and rewriting it when she made a mistake, which probably decreased the impact - a few cute mis-spellings and back-to-front letters might have added a look of authenticity, but it actually was authentic IYSWIM.

Sounds good seth - have you seen the children's TV thread?

Someone there has suggested a Bechtel test for children's TV - you could get DD started on the research.

Talking of TV, we have an old video recorder and I've been buying DS 3.5 some videos from charity shops. We watched one of the Animals of Fathings Woods videos the other day and the representation of the female characters was . The adder is female and sneaky and sly, there is a female pheasant trapped in an abusive marriage (honest!) and there was something else which I don't remember.

I wonder if CBeebies has an equality policy wrt to numbers of and characteristics of female and male characters?

well done to your dd, seth! I hope she gets a response. Even my 3 year old has started noticing. She asked me "Mummy, where is Mummy Smurf? And where are the other girl smurfs?" I told her they had all gone on holiday.