Kim Kardashian is Pregnant: Let the Slut-shaming Commence

Kim Kardashian has announced her pregnancy with Kanye West. As a general rule of thumb, I try to ignore celebrity pregnancies since they are none of my business, but then I tend to feel that way about most women who are pregnant; the obsession with the contents of other women's uteruses is the hallmark of the patriarchal control of women. However, Kim Kardashian is the quintessential Circus Freak Show Act in our Reality TV obsessed culture. She...

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My Favourite Books of 2012 (Some Spoilers)

I know that everyone does this and blah, blah, blah but I genuinely don't care. I recommend books to everyone, even if they don't actually read books [or pseudo-intellectualise by parroting reviews from the Times Literary Supplement which some men might want to remember is not only available on subscription to those middle aged white dudes with penises. The rest of us can read it too. Just saying].So, these are my favourite books of 2012:Lisa O'Donnell's...

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Women's Rights News: Missing the Point Completely

Women's Rights News is possibly one of the most ironically named FB groups; almost on par with those pro-rape apologists at the Good Men Project. Firstly, they don't actually post stories about news which is just a teensy bit odd for a group who use the soubriquet 'news'.I'm willing to overlook the attempt at intellectual pretentiousness, but, honestly, what does the above image have to do with women's rights? It's the image of a very thin, young,...

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Isabel Ashdown's Glasshopper and Hurry Up and Wait

I read Isabel Ashdown's Hurry Up and Wait first. It was one of those multiple-narrator-exposing-a-secret books which I generally enjoy. I wasn't very sure about this one though. I'm never very fond of books which use school reunions as a plot device. It's too tired a plot device and, unfortunately, the secret far too obvious from the beginning. I wouldn't have bothered reading her other books had I not been stuck in the car and Glasshopper was the...

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Femen Redux: I'm not even sure what to say anymore

It's farking Femen. Again. This time they are protesting the very brutal gang-rape of a young woman in India who committed suicide rather than being pushed into marrying her rapist. This is the statement from the Facebook page to accompany the image above: FEMEN shares the world sorrow of 17-year-old Indian girl, victim of a brutal rape. According to the newspaper La Figaro, the victim took the fatal dose of poison, in response to demands by...

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At least, there are no Pandas: BBC's Women Faces of the Year

The BBC has recovered slightly from last year's gaffe in which they nominated a Giant Panda and Pippa Middleton's ass as their 'Faces of the Year in 2011'. Frankly, I'm not sure which one I find less convincing as a 'Face of the year'. Or, more misogynistic. The inclusion of Sweetie the Panda at the expense of  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Lehmay Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman was, simply, unforgivable; you know, the three women who...

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Fairy Tale of Mumsnet

My awesome friend Keema wrote this. She is the best poet everFairy tale of –New York-- MumsnetIt was Christmas Eve babeHere on mumsnetA poster whinged to meThere’s mumsnet royaltyAnd then we posted stuffInto A-I-B-UI logged onto my phoneAnd trolled about poo.So often I’m logged onI may neglect my sonI’ve started to suspectI’m not the only oneSo Happy ChristmasI love you MumsnetI can see another yearWhen I hang out here…They’ve got threads that take...

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Tiptoeing Around the Dinosaur

Elaine Charkowski wrote this as her FB status. The entirety of the document below is her work. It is cross-posted with permission.In response to my statement “male violence is the worst problem in the world,” a woman emailed me and wrote: "I do not believe that male violence is the cause of the world's problems but a symptom of a very sick system that produces violent men and submissive women. If you say that violent men are the problem, then what is the solution short of suppressing or eliminating them?" So I wrote:Violent men created the "very...

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"More Men Fake their own Deaths than Women Lie about Rape"

"More Men Fake Their Own Death than Women Lie about Rape."I remember reading this quote a few years ago. I can not for the life of me remember where I read it. I'm sure it comes from a FBI agent as part of speech given to other law enforcement officers but that's literally all I remember, despite it being a really crucial statistic. I'm also fairly sure I read it in a book and not on a blog. Thankfully for my poor memory skills, there are some...

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Playboy goes Artistic.

At least, that's what they claim to be doing by having some "leading contemporary artists",  a list which includes Tracey Emin, "explore the female body as a work of art". Normally, I'd be willing discuss the issue of the female body as art and whether or not it could be anything other than the objectification of women's bodies, but this is Playboy.Playboy. They aren't interested in art. They are interested in making money by the sexual...

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The Mumsnet Secret Santa: Thanking Those Women Who Have Changed Our Lives

The Mumsnet Secret Santa has been going for several years now. It was started by members as a way of thanking others who had helped them but also as a way helping others. Along with a Mile for Maude and the MN Woolly Hugs, it is the real side of Mumsnet: women supporting women. It is the real meaning of sisterhood. I was honoured this year by being nominated. It is such an incredible feeling to be nominated; to be thanked for helping someone...

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In Defence of Megan Fox.

Until today, the only thing I knew about Megan Fox was that she starred in the first two Transformer movies and that she may or may not have been fired from the third for calling the director Micheal Bay a misogynist. It's hard to say if she walked or was fired as Fox is keeping a dignified silence whilst Bay, and her former co-star Shia LeBoeuf, are bad-mouthing her at every opportunity. Whatever actually happened, Fox is clearly a better person...

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Proud to be a Man-hater

My lovely friend Frothy Dragon wrote this on FB yesterday:So... The past few days has had me thinking about the "man hating feminist" trope. Funnily enough, I hear this cliche from liberal feminists more than I hear it from men themselves... But we all know men lie at the heart of the liberal feminist movement, along with the demand they are included at every turn. Women have to do so little to be declared "man haters". All we have to do is...

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Apparently, "my politics" are the problem: Mumsnet, Vagenda and Feminism

I've been struggling to write a proper response to Holly Baxter's guest blog for Mumsnet. I remain incredibly saddened that Mumsnet chose to run this particular blogpost by Holly Baxter from Vagenda as part of the 16 Days of Activism on VAW.* I am unhappy that they linked my bloghop, which I intended to be a celebration of women's voices, with a blog post which erases women from the feminist movement. I am annoyed that they locked the thread on the blog post where many of us were raising our concerns. I am disappointed...

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