Girls Can't Have their own magazines because it's "sexist"

I've been spamming every Facebook group I'm in with links to JumpMag which is an utterly brilliant advertising-free magazine aimed at young girls from 7-13 and has no make-up tips or free lip gloss or OMG look at Justin Bieber's hair!!!! articles.

I love JumpMag as both a mother and a radical feminist. It combats harmful gender stereotypes and cultural femicide which are two issues which greatly concern me. JumpMag publishes lots of articles, poems, and reviews by girls themselves. The silencing of women's voices begins in childhood so having an online space where girls can share their lives, their stories, their art and their dreams without being told to be quiet or make space for boys is so very, very important to destroying the patriarchy. 

I've been awed by the support of women for JumpMag. Today, I shared it again and the support was amazing.

Yet, that one niggly question rose up again: isn't JumpMag sexist because it excludes boys?

I mean, seriously? Does every single fucking thing have to include boys? Can't girls have one little thing just for them in a culture which is dominated by men's voices? 

Where are the men whining about Ben 10 and Young Justice excluding girls? Or, Harry Potter having to be written about a boy and by an author with a non-woman name so that boys would read it? Where are the men whining about girls being excluded from footballl? Or, the music industry?

Nothing is gender-neutral in our culture. JumpMag is trying to eradicate this by showing girls that there is so much more to life than what the media dictates is acceptable for girls. 

This is JumpMag's official statement on inclusivity:

From time to time, we are asked, 'Isn't a magazine aimed only at girls sexist?' 

Jump! Mag was founded to offer girls something that boys already have. Magazines aimed at their gender, which neither patronise, demean nor make them feel inadequate about their body, their minds or their feelings.

We did consider a gender-free magazine, but there are other magazines on the market already, which cover this sector for preteens, such as the excellent Anorak Magazine. 

Jump! Mag aims to inspire girls to be more than they ever thought they could be. To aim high, and to never stop believing in themselves. If we inspire some boys along the way, then that is a bonus.

See, JumpMag doesn't exclude boys. It just focusses on girls. How fucked up is our culture that the first comment about a magazine aimed at girls is that it's "sexist" considering the sheer amount of television, books, films and video games aimed at boys?

Frankly, if you are worried about boys feeling excluded by one measly online magazine for girls you've got some seriously fucked up values and internalised misogyny. 

I'd suggest you start working on that instead of belittling a magazine aimed at teaching girls that they have the right to be whoever they want to be.

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Silent Sunday IX: The Weekly Blog Round-Up

Money is Not a Substitute for Consent at Feminist at Sea

So, you think you're a dyke at The Arctic Fox

It has always fascinated me - the ageing at Carregonnen

Just because you like it doesn't make it feminist at Feminist Current

I Hate Nightclubs (They Feel Like Street Harassment to Music) at Gradient Lair

Why is Gary Francione Slandering Eco-Feminists? at The Vegan Pensieve

So Gwyneth Paltrow is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World at The Negress

You Teach People How to Treat You. Really? at Dear Patriarchy - Die

The Problem With Puppy Love at RoleReboot

Annulation de RadFem2013: quand les Queers et les masculinistes font cause commune at Woman's Liberation Without Borders

Another Week, Another BBC Predator at HerbsandHags

Silent No More at Portia Smart [with trigger warnings for child rape]

The Stuart Hall Case Should put to rest the debate over anonymity for rapists at Sianandcrookedrib

Why Whites Call People of Colour Racist at Gradient Lair

This is white privilege at Renieddolodge

This is white privilege: the response at Renieddolodge

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#ReadingOnlyBooksWrittenByWomen: Radical Feminist Theory

My reading theme for May is radical feminist theory. I haven't actually read many classic texts of radical feminism; a lot of my radical feminist theory has been learned reading blogs and discussing it with other women on FB and at conferences. Since I am attending my first formal RadFem conference this June, I thought it might be worth covering more texts than Andrea Dworkin's Intercourse and Kate Millett's Sexual Politics [both of which are must-reads].

These are the texts I've lined up for this month:

Valerie Solanas' Scum Manifesto
Marilyn French's The War Against Women
Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy
Robin Morgan's Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Womens Liberation Movement
Lynne Harne & Elaine Miller's All the Rage: Reasserting Radical Lesbian Feminism
Janice Raymond's A Passion for Friends
Diane Bell & Renate Klein's Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed

Three of the texts, Robin Morgan's Sisterhood is Powerful, Lynne Harne & Elaine Miller's All the Rage and Diane Bell & Renate Klein's Radically Speaking, are anthologies. They are also huge. I'm not sure I'll make it through them all but I wanted to get as big a variety of radical feminist voices as possible.

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Andrea Dworkin's Pornography: Men Possessing Women

Everyone's got an opinion on Andrea Dworkin and it's frequently one based in myth. I love Dworkin's writing. I don't always agree with her (and she's sometime historically inaccurate) but she was an utterly brilliant polemicist. Her gift was amazing. She was a truly brilliant woman.

I've collated some quotes from the text here and here but the full text is available on the online Andrea Dworkin library.

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Angela Bourkes' The Burning of Bridget Cleary

Angela Bourke's The Burning of Bridget Cleary is a social history of the use of fairies and other myths to control people's behaviour in Ireland in the 19th century. She traces the history of these myths to contextualise the brutal torture and murder of Bridget Cleary by her husband and kinsmen. It is very powerful but equally horrifying. What impressed me the most is that Bourke places the murder of Bridget firmly within a narrative of domestic violence. There are no excuses for male violence so, whilst the murder is contextualised with a history of faeries, changelings, power struggles, and jealousy  Bourke holds the murderers accountable. Bourke then situates the trial of Bridget's murderers within the political context of British Home Rule of Ireland and the British construction of Irish people as savages.

The Burning of Bridget Cleary is one of the most fascinating and well-researched books I have ever read. Bourke traces multiple layers of  history and myth to tell the story of the murder of Bridget Cleary. It's rather like Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher* but from a feminist perspective rather than a comprehensive social history. 

I honestly can not recommend this book enough. It is brilliant, insightful, frightening and, above all, a true picture of the complicated processes required to tell the history of women. 

*The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is worth a read too as it contextualises the origins of detectives in British society within the literature of the day particularly in relation to the work of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens.

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#ReadingonlyBooksWrittenByWomen : On Pornography and Prostitution

I've been enjoying theme reading these past few months: February was Black History Month in North America and March was, obviously, a celebration of women's history. This month I'm going to read feminist critiques of prostitution and pornography. As ever, I probably won't make it through the whole list but these are the texts I have lined up:

Melinda Tankard Reist's Big Porn Inc.: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry
Karen Boyle's Everyday Pornography
Laura Lederer's Take by The Night: Women on Pornography
Jennifer Hayashi Danns with Sandrine Leveque's Stripped: The Bare Faced Reality of Lap Dancing
Trine Rogg Korsvik & Ane Sto's The Nordic Approach: Feminists Write Candidly about the Nordic Battle to Ban the Purchase of Sex
Andrea Dworkin's Pornography: Men Possessing Women
Linda Lovelace's Ordeal 
Linda Lovelace's Out of Bondage
Kathleen Barry's The Prostitution of Sexuality: The Global Exploitation of Women 
Sheila Jeffrey's Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution
Christine Stark & Rebecca Whisnant's Not For Sale:  Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography

These are some texts I highly recommend:

Gail Dines' Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
Robert Jensen's Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity
Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture
Julia Long's Anti-Porn The Resurgence of Anti-Pornography Feminism
Melinda Tankard Reist's Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls
Natasha Walter's Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

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Silent Sunday IX: Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Blogs

Facebook is a Misogynist Time Sucking Piece of Shit by Ann Tagonist

8 Simple Rules for Not Being a Dick at It's Not A Zero Sum Game

We Could have Been Anything that We Wanted To Be at One Dames Thoughts

Activism to Normalise Gender Transitioning Now Comes at Children's Expense at Sex Matters

Letter to the Attorney General Regarding the Unduly Lenient Sentencing of Paul Keene for the Killing of Carmen Gabriela Miron Buchacra by Karen Ingala Smith

Counting Dead Women by Karen Ingala Smith

Desperate Art Dudes Can Only Save Themselves by Exploiting Women by Exiled Stardust

Sex Positivism: No Thanks by Portia Smart

Do You See What I See? by Portia Smart

The Peta Complex: On Post-Feminist Activism, Gender and Veganism at Feminist Current

Prostitution Chic is Now a Thing at Feminist Current

Letter to a Punter by Rebecca Mott

Separating the Art from the Artist by ScallopsRGreat

Men Who Knock Down Doors and the War Against Women: Tyrants at Home and Abroad at Common Dreams

The Fast Food Feminism of Topless Femen at International Boulevard 

A Feminist Critique of CIS Gender at Liberation Collective

Why Looking Through A Rapists' Eyes Won't Help You at That Pesky Feminist

Intersectionality has its Limitations at You Think I Just Don't Understand But I Don't Believe You

Sisterhood Doesn't Mean Unity at What Stilli Did

On Perpetual Twitter Beef at Renieddolodge

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Hilary Boyd's Thursdays in the Park

This is one of those books that I really wanted to enjoy. It is the story of a woman's reawakening after an unhappy marriage to an unpleasant man. Unfortunately, the entire book is the minimisation of male violence both in the marriage of the main character, Jeanie, and that of her daughter. Like Paula McLean, who wrote The Paris Wife,  Hilary Boyd seems to have little understanding of the level of coercion and control that is common. Boyd also gives both husbands an 'excuse' for their abusive behaviour: one is the victim of child sexual violence and the other suffers from extreme jealousy. Obviously, neither man is responsible for their own behaviour to the point that Jeanie labels herself a bitch for wanting out of her unhappy marriage.

I would really like to read a "romance" novel, since Jeanie had to find a new man rather than be happy by herself, that actually understood the dynamics of domestic violence. Just one. 

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Barbara Kingsolver's Pigs in Heaven

I love Barbara Kingsolver's books. I know I'm late to the party on this having only discovered her books two years ago but she is an amazing writer. The Poisonwood Bible is one of the best books I have ever read. Pigs in Heaven covers the same terrain as The Poisonwood Bible: motherhood, sisterhood, female friendships, family and surviving.

Pigs in Heaven is the story of Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle who is Cherokee. The central plot is who Turtle really belongs too: the woman who illegally adopted her but who nurtured her through the trauma of her extensive physical and sexual abuse or the Cherokee nation into whom she was born. Kingsolver asks complicated questions about family and sisterhood and, whilst the ending is too pat, it is, fundamentally, a testament to how we should be raising our children: not as possessions but as members of extended communities built on love and tradition.

These are my two favourite quotes: 

Alice realises something important about her daughter at this moment: that she's genuinely a mother. She has changed in this way that motherhood changes you, so that you forget you every had time for small things like despising the color pink. 

... 

Sympathizing over the behavior of men is the baking soda of women's friendships, it seems, the thing that makes them bubble and rise.  

For obvious reasons. 

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Silent Sunday Blog Round-Up VIII

The Cost of Masculine Crime by Annie Oakley and Cynthia Cockburn

Little Tales of Misogyny at Little Tales of Misogyny

Identity Politics: Paper, Sisters, Stone and RadFem13 at Sisterhood is Powerful 

I Believe Her and No Menz, I don't believe you've been falsely accused at Frothy Dragon and the Patriarchal Stone 

This piece by feminist Soraya Chemaly, written last week, is a must-read.

On Rape, Cages and the Steubenville Verdict at Black Girl Dangerous 

#IBelieveHer: What Steubenville has reminded us about Rape Culture at Frothy Dragon and the Patriarchal Stone

On Steubenville and ruining "promising lives" at Glosswitch

CNN Grieves that rape verdict ruined "promising lives" of the rapists at RawStory

How the Media Took Sides in the Steubenville Rape Case at Think Progress

I am the Blogger Who Allegedly "Complicated" the Steubenville Gang Rape Case -- And I Wouldn't Change a Thing at xoJane

I am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter at BelleJar

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Helen Castor's She-Wolves:The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth

I couldn't put this book down. Helen Castor has a real gift for prose; a rare gift among historians. The hours I've wasted reading badly written historical texts in my life are extensive so this was a joy to read. I also knew next to nothing about the 5 queens that Castor profiled: Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine,  Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou and Mary Tudor. She-Wolves: The Queens who Ruled England Before Elizabeth is a fascinating and quick read. There are some problems with the text; notably the complete lack of footnotes and sources. I understand this was written as a piece of "popular fiction" but the inclusion of the bibliography at the back was not enough. I want to read more about these four women but it's hard to tell which would be the best texts for me to read next. 

Castor's respect and admiration for these five women, however flawed they were is evident, but this is still a military history of battles and men. Yes, this testifies to the paucity of primary source material on the lives of these women but the book is still focused mainly on military history, dynastic squabbles and male temper tantrums. There is very little about the women themselves and much of what Castor writes focuses on their military and political battles. In many ways, this is a very traditional "history" text, albeit one written about women.  Castor simply doesn't make enough of the social and cultural milieu in which the women lived. She focuses on the military history to the exclusion of the households and courts of the women themselves. They are all defined in relation to the men they married or birthed.

Castor also leaves numerous questions unexamined. She claims from the start that these 5 women were prevented from becoming true queens because of their inability to lead armies. Her first evidence of this is Matilda's inability to lead an army to fight Stephen who ousted her from her thrown. Yet, less than 20 pages later, Castor claims that Stephen's wife lead an army against Matilda's troops. Why could King Stephen's wife, a queen consort, lead an army whilst the ousted Queen Matilda could not? These women also lived across 4 centuries and Castor makes very little of the changing political and social structures which dramatically changed the women's ability to claim the thrown. After all, Matilda was English -born [but the granddaughter of William the Conquerer] whilst Isabella, Eleanor and Margaret were all foreign-born. Mary become queen by dint of being properly English [and a Tudor]. That makes a significant difference.

I did enjoy this book as Castor's gift for writing compensates for any problems within the text. It isn't the best text for learning more about these 5 Queens of England though. What She-Wolves does demonstrate, more than anything I've read in a long time, is cultural femicide: the complete erasure of women from culture. The fact that there is simply not enough evidence of the lives of these 5 women to write a history without basing it on their relationships with men is cultural femicide.

As ever, I would love recommendations for histories of these women!

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The Daddy Rat : Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender, The Real Science Behind Sex Differences

It's a standing joke in the Mumsnet Feminism/ Women's Rights section that we should all be receiving royalties for Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences. I must recommend it at least once a week on threads about gendering children or men being too stupid to see dirt so they, consequently, stink at housework. This, of course, is the same men who are so "visual" that they need to look at porn in order to get off. How, precisely, one can be simultaneously visual and non-visual is beyond me but that's the argument always put forward by those who believe in innate gender differences.

I'm a neuroskeptic. I don't believe in innate gender differences. I certainly don't think we can "scientifically observe" gender differences when our culture is so seeped in woman-hating that anything constructed as "female" is immediately wrong. I have no tolerance for people who claim that boys are physical and girls are emotional. Or, that boys are better at math and spatial awareness than girls because their brains are hardwired that way. All the neuroscience I see insisting on innate gender [and never sex which is what they actually mean] differences has been about supporting the status quo of women's subordination. 

Cordelia Fine deconstructs all the major "research" on innate gender differences and demonstrates what unrelenting twaddle it is. She is equally snarky, funny and downright angry at the misuse and falsification of "scientific evidence" to support fallacious constructions of gender [which fail to acknowledge the historical and cultural situations in which they were created]. I can not recommend this book enough for anyone who thinks that its totally normal for boys to be violent and girls to be nurturing. This is by far one of my most favourite feminist texts, despite not being advertised as such.


This is my favourite quote from the book: The Daddy Rat

Male rats don't experience the hormonal changes that trigger maternal behaviour in female rats. They never normally participate in infant care. Yet put a baby rat in a cage with a male adult and after a few days he will be caring for the baby almost as if he were its mother.  He'll pick it up, nestle it close to him as a nursing female would, keep the baby rat clear and comforted and even build a comfy nest for it. The parenting circuits are there in the male brain, even in a species in which paternal care doesn't normally exist. If a male rat, without even the aid of a William Sears baby-care manual, can be inspired to parent then I would suggest that the prospects for human fathers are pretty good. (88)

It makes me snigger every time I read it.


Some interesting Discussions on Mumsnet: 

Cordelia Fine Webchat

FeMNist Non-Fiction Book Club

Gender-Neutrality? 

Feminism and Natural Sex Differences

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Round-Up VIII: Inspiring and Thought-Provoking Blogs for Silent Sunday

A Rambling Post about Online Abuse, Misogyny, Rape and Football at Opinionated Planet

The Cult of Pornography: A Black Feminist Perspective at Black Feminists

So, Who at the BBC has an Axe to Grind about False Rape Allegations at HerbsandHags

Rape in Marriage at Too Much to Say for Myself

Not Tonight Honey. My Patriarchy Hurts at Liberation Collective

He Said (TW) at Left at the Lights

Our Movement Must Be A Safe Space for Women at Too Much To Say For Myself

Through a Rapists Eyes at Die Patriarchy Die.

Heads Men Win. Tails Women Lose. Bring in the Dancing Lobsters at Femonade

Women-Only Communities: Feminism's Past or Future at Progressive Women

Online Porn Blamed For Rise in Sexual Violence at Porn Harms Research

How I Lost Faith in the "Pro-Life" Movement at Love, Joy, Feminism

"When She Talks, I Hear the Revolution": Looking Back at the Riot Girl Revolt at Tropics of Meta

Veganism is a Feminist Issue at Vegan Pensieve

I don't know how many times I've read Rebecca Solnit's piece which started the Mansplainin' Awareness Movement but it is essential reading for everyone.

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Jewly Hight's Right By Her Roots: Americana Women and Their Songs

The problem with this book is that it is just one book. It should be nine separate books: the eight singer-songwriters that Hight adores so much:

• Lucinda Williams
• Julie Miller
• Victoria Williams
• Michelle Shocked
• Mary Gauthier
• Ruthie Foster
• Elizabeth Cook
• Abigail Washburn

And, Jewly Hight herself; because Hight might claim to be writing the stories of these eight women singers-songwriters and their examination of "their geographical, cultural, familial, and religious roots in their music" but Hight's actually written herself into the text. I want to know more about the 8 female artists and Hight.  A longer book would have allowed the inclusion of more of the lyrics by these talented women but also more of Hight herself. Right by Her Roots is a love affair with these talented women singer-songwriters and it's love-affair that just isn't long enough.

It's all fascinating but at 200 pages, there simply isn't enough space to really examine these issues and fully explore the back catalogues of the music of these women. I want to know more about all 8 women but equally I want to know about Hight. I want to know about how Hight traces her roots and I want more of Hight's personal responses to these women. 

I definitely recommend this book but with fingers crossed that Hight writes more in-depth books about these women (and herself).

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Barbara Black Koltuv's The Book of Lilith

I'm in two minds about Barbara Black Koltuv's The Book of Lilith. I found the history of the myths surrounding Lilith, and her previous incarnations in other cultural traditions, utterly fascinating. This is a history of women and myth that I knew nothing about. Koltuv's choice to quote large sections of original text were of immense value. On the other hand, I was less fond of Koltuv's use of psychoanalysis because I felt it involved an essentialist construction of women as being either Eve or Lilith. This is obviously an odd criticism considering Koltuv is a well-respected psychoanalyst but the constant reference to the power of modern women's sexuality detracted from the origin myths of Lilith. 

Prior to reading this, I knew nothing of Lilith and I will have to reread this book as there is just so much information packed into such a short text that I feel I have missed out on pieces of Lilith's story.  I knew Lilith was the first woman in one version of the Christian tradition but I did not know about Lilith's construction within Jewish texts. I certainly did not know that Lilith is purported to be one of the two "mothers" of the infant in the Biblical story the Judgement of Solomon. I want to know more but I found myself distracted by Koltuv's inclusion of her current patients. Koltuv's use of psychoanalysis to read the stories of Lilith throughout history was really powerful and riveting but the references to her modern practise were simply not. 

Lilith's rewriting as mother and whore, as the moon but also a deity fascinates me. So, if anyone has any excellent recommendations to read on the story of Lilith [and written by women!], please let me know.

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Bristol Women's Literature Festival: Or, Where Stewie Would Rather Be this Weekend.

(Image from here)

Anyone who is familiar with this blog will know why I'd rather be at the Women's Literature Festival this weekend. A whole weekend dedicated to celebrating women writers and combatting cultural femicide: what's not to love? Unfortunately, and after consulting several maps, I am led to believe that Bristol is located not only nowhere near my house but also not on a single non-environmentally destructive form of public transport. (sulks)

Anyway, for those of you lucky enough to live in Bristol or within traveling distance, do check it out. The whole weekend looks fabulous.

The information below is taken directly from the Women's Literature Festival website:

Bristol Women’s Literature Festival brings together the country’s best women writers, academics and feminist commentators to the Watershed for a weekend of thought-provoking discussion, debate and activity.

Buy your tickets for the festival today.

The festival has three aims:

1. To celebrate the diversity and creativity of women writers
2. To counter the male dominance of literature and cultural festival line-ups
3. To promote women’s writing and literary history

Across the weekend of 16th-17th March, we’ll be hosting three panel discussions at the Watershed, along with a talk and film screening:

Out of the Ivory Tower: writing feminism for a non-academic audience

Women’s Writing today: contemporary women writers discuss their fiction

Bluestockings and Muses: a history of women’s writing

Bringing women’s issues to a mainstream TV audience + film

The Bristol Women’s Literature festival is entirely unfunded. If you would like to support this event, then please donate to us via the PayPal donate button.

Tickets still available!

Tickets have been going as fast as hot cakes and as a result Watershed has moved Saturday’s talks to a bigger room. Isn’t that great news? So if you’ve been worrying about getting tickets worry no more. We advise booking in advance to avoid disappointment but you are still probably fine to buy on the door. 

You can book your tickets by calling 0117 927 5100 or going online to Watershed. 

Book for Feminism on the Small Screen

Book for Women Writing Today

Book for Bluestockings and Muses

Book for Out of the Ivory Tower

So, what will you be booking?

A weekend ticket is available if you want to catch all four fascinating talks – to order yours just call  Watershed on 0117 927 5100 or go directly to the Box Office.

If you would like to hear renowned screenwriter Emilia di Girolamo talk about her career writing for Law and Order:UK and dramas like The Poison Tree, and how she brings women’s issues to a primetime audience you can book online now. Her talk takes place on 16 March, 11am along with a screening of Line Up.

To hear Stella Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Beatrice Hitchman and Selma Dabbagh read from their work and talk about Women Writing Today with Bidisha, you can book online now. They’ll be on at 3.30pm on Saturday 16th March.

Then, there’s Sunday. To book your tickets to discover the fascinating and often hidden history of women’s literature with Kate Williams, Dr Charlotte Crofts, Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts, Professor Joan Adim-Addo and Professor Helen Taylor, you can go online now. This talk is happening at 2pm on Sunday 17 March.

And the festival finishes with a discussion on how writers today are bringing feminism to a new audience with Kristin Aune, Debi Withers and Josephine Tsui. Book your ticket now for 4pm on Sunday 17 March.

Individual tickets are £7/£6 and weekend tickets are £25/20. You can book via Watershed website or by calling the Box Office on 0117 927 5100

Book for Feminism on the Small Screen

Book for Women Writing Today

Book for Bluestockings and Muses

Book for Out of the Ivory Tower

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