If you have a spare £8 in the next few weeks, and you're vaguely either Liberal or Feminist, I urge you to spend it on this quarter's issue of The Journal of Liberal History, which is a special issue about the interactions between liberalism and feminism, and is going to be great fun for me, as both, to pick apart.

:D

Because I commented on their entries, they rememed me! Luckily some of the things were things they both mentioned, so here are eight more things for that five things meme:

( click for more than you ever wanted to know about Doctor Who, Motherhood, Feminism, Dogs, Bartending, Liberalism, Multicoloured hair, and my bottom )

And now I go to help Small Person tidy her room, and put up her solar system thing at long last, and then make buns.

You can probably tell that this film was made by Daddy.



Ah, white male privilege is a wonderful thing...

Some feminists. But this time, MALE ONES. I'm not the type of feminist who thinks that men can only be allies; if you're pushing for equality then, in my book, you're a feminist no matter what lies between your legs. After all, isn't feminism all about saying that we are not defined by our genitals, but by our brains?

Thus, firstly, the ever-so-lovely James Graham has posted not one, not two, but three impeccably feminist posts today.

Secondly, my dear beloved fiancé has gone on the attack against Brian Coleman, a man who thinks it is appropriate to call one of our brightest and canniest female politicians a dizzy airhead because she did what London's Noble Fire Brigade^# said she ought to have done.

You go, boys!

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^#I find that the stylings of Hillaire Belloc still rub off on me as an adult, having been exposed to them as a child.

Am indebted to Lynne Featherstone for reminding me that today is the 90th anniversary of women first casting their votes in a General Election in this country. It's hard to believe that it's less than a century since over half of the population were barred from voting simply because they had the wrong sort of genitalia. And it's saddening that we're still fighting battles to achieve equality today.

I am grateful to my forebears for fighting these battles on my behalf. Mary Wollstonecraft, and John Stuart Mill, and Emmeline Pankhurst, and the pioneering Garretts... I am very lucky that they came before me and made my path as a woman easier.

I hope that I can do something in my life which will help the women who come after me.

I was, um, interested by thomas's response to Jo Crispy Strips' recent post. However, I realise that I might be too close to this issue to be objective. I therefore present a poll:

Poll #1273508 Sexism at Work
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 41

The best way to discourage sexism at work is to:

I mean, two of those options look completely ridiculous to me, but Thomas appeared to be seriously suggesting option one: no consequences for the harasser, the victim is blamed and made to make all the effort. I know that there are those who think that option three is sensible too - I guess they ignore the fact that if bullies can't bully someone because of their gender, they'll find another reason.

Option two is especially important for men, of course. Women can only do so much to end sexism and sexual harrassment in the workplace: at some point, men have to say hang on, maybe we ought to stop doing this, and challenge other men when THEY do it...

But maybe I'm wrong... Tell me, oh internets, what d'you reckon?

Dear grinning old perverts,

I am a barmaid. I serve beer. I am NOT there for you to grope. My body is mine, not yours. Did nobody tell you that it's socially unacceptable to grope people without permission? Or do you think that because I'm a barmaid, it doesn't matter whether you have my permission or not?

It doesn't matter how many drinks you offer to buy me.
It doesn't matter how much you smile at me.
It doesn't matter how regular a customer you are.

I DO NOT WANT YOUR HANDS ON MY ARSE. The sooner Jo Crispy-Strips' Feminist Utopia comes into being, the better.

no love,

Jennie.

I was going to comment on it, but since Jo Crispy-Strips has said everything I wanted to say much better than I would have said it, I'm just going to link to her post instead.

I particularly liked what she said about girl things, and orange.

Are YOU a Lib Dem? Are you of the female persuasion? Then go and fill out your bloody Who's Who thing. I've done it, it's not hard. Come on, chop chop. Jo gives you all the instructions you could possibly need here. Go on, get to it.

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This is basically a video of how to do an awesome Penn Jilette impression:



Such a shame that it's the evil greenhouse gas of doom :(

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Don't forget to join Bloggers for Fluffy Justice if you're on FaceAche O:-)

Firstly, a link for the girls to toss out at people who just don't get basic feminist tenets:

http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/purpose/faq-i-asked-some-feminists-a-question-and-instead-of-answering-they-sent-me-here-why/

It's like JFGI for men who think They Know Better. ginasketch, innerbrat, steerpikelet, why yes, I did just put it on a certain Griffin's facebook wall.

Secondly, Jamie Sadler has been reading Simon Hughes on Gender Balance. I agree with him that the idea is an interesting one, but have some misgivings too. Will possibly elaborate on another occasion.

Anybody here on Facebook? Do us a favour and add the blog networks app and tell it I write my own damn blog, will you? It's still not believing me because apparently I have to have ten people tell it I write it...

Also, innerbrat (currently second in the bloggotheyear overall winner poll) has written an AWESOME post about Red Riding Hood and rape allegories and related issues which you should all go read.

Honestly, what more could you want from a post?

;)

It's a wonderful thing on a Saturday morning to wake up blearily thinking that sounds like Vince... and discover that it is, indeed, Vince, being utterly awesome for a full half hour on Beyond Westminster. Vince was SO awesome that the BBC reporter lady kept calling him Doctor Vincent Cable in very reverent tones. I like it when Vince is shown due deference by the media.

The poor junior Labourite was utterly skewered on his Well of course we believe in localism because it's the buzzword of the moment, but we want to retain central control over this, and this and this and... oh, EVERYTHING! Even auntie Beeb's reporter mentioned that the Lib Dems have been talking about this since the sixties, and that the Labour position was incoherent. And it warmed the cockles of my heart to hear Oliver Letwin keep having to say Vince's party and my own in a covert admission that they were nicking our policies.

Tee Hee Hee.

And now Vince is on Money Box being awesome AGAIN! Radio Four is clearly The Vince Channel today. I am not complaining about this.

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Penny Red is having a similar thought process to me about her sexuality: feeling like you can't really call yourself bi if you've mostly has experiences with the opposite sex in a straight world is something that seems to be endemic among my gender and my age group at the moment. I think part of the reason I am reluctant is that, as Penny says Fourth-wave feminism encompasses a gender egalitarianism which rejects the notion of antagonistic binaries. I'm not BI sexual. I'm, like Penny, attracted to self-defined men, women, transsexuals and the ambi-gendered, excluding noone apart from wankers, pro-life campaigners and people I just don't fancy. Bisexual seems like such an inadequate word for all that.

And yet, I'd feel like a fraud adopting Captain Jack's omnisexual label, because, let's face it, I don't fancy poodles.

Rather similarly to the whole polyamorous/open relationship thing, I have yet to find terminology which I am happy with for the (very happy) relationship I have with My Lib Dem Boyfriend. In some ways, this isn't a huge problem, because I am happy to be labelless. I'm me, and Mat is Mat, and we are us, and as long as we're happy, what does it matter? But other people like labels, and it might be nice for them if we could just say yeah, we're Terrysexual (to pick a random word) and that would let people know...

And then, once we've done that, clitoris education for all!

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Speaking of Captain Jack related things, Mitch Benn and the LSO are doing a sci-fi musical extravaganza at Torchwood Towers Canary Wharf, with the VERY Captain Jack-friendly title of Twilight Delights.

I wonder if that'll be doable from Devon...

I was supposed to be at the Wendy House right now, dancing the night away with my lovely fiancé. Because of my trick back, he has ended up going on his own. He seems to be having a good time, though, judging by his texts. Meanwhile, I have sorted through all my BPAL (and will be doing a HUGE sales/swaps post soon) and dyed my hair...

Anyway, this entry does have substance, I swear!

Firstly, nominations for my Very Prestigious Blog of the Year Awards are now closed, and you guys voted for shortlists of five, so that's what you will get in the morning. Each category will be whittled down to a shortlist of five, and presented in handy poll format. Then the voting can commence! I'll leave the poll open for a week, and after that the winner of each category will be put into a new poll to see who gets the overall title.

And, of course, there will be shiny new graphics for each stage ;)

Secondly, Amused Cynicism has taken the ball I threw earlier and run with it. I do love the way he words things:

this is the same British government that is talking about severing the Internet connections of people who break copyright law by downloading files on P2P networks. Because the government are not hypocrites, I’m sure they will now either drop these plans, or disconnect themselves from the Internet.

Tee Hee Hee.

Thirdly, another excellent post on The Curvature, eviscerating a columnist in the Daily Fail.

Fourthly and Finally, Jonathan Calder reports on some gossip in the Murdoch Rag about who is going to be running for Lib Dem Party President. Apparently there are rumours of champagne Charlie and Paddy Pantsdown throwing their glasses/undies into the ring.

I have many comments I might possibly make on this bit of scuttlebutt, but like Jonathan, I shall restrict myself to the very restrained: this blog supports Ros Scott. Knowing what Ros is standing for, and having met her, I honestly cannot see another candidate coming forward who will do the job as well or as diligently as she, however old a parliamentary warhorse they might be.

Two text messages at stupid o'clock meant that my already-broken night's sleep was completely buggered. I am NOT in a good mood for work. Arse.

Anyway, links and stuff:

Why Abstinence Only sex education is a big crock of dangerous shite. The comments are well worth reading, if you have the time. There's some interesting genuine debate.

Abby O'Reilly checks out virtual boyfriends on The F Word.

Nominations still open in The Very Prestigious Blog Of the Year Awards. At the moment it's looking like we're goin g to have shortlists of four, unless some people nominate some more sexy men. Don't forget you can be anonymous if you're shy.

Oh yes, and to end on a cheerful note: Happy Birthday shishmish!

Everyone's favourite God, helper to Robin Hood, and president of the USA is v v v v v poorly after being in a car accident. Send him your vibes, people. I'd hate not to hear that velvety voice in anything new again.

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Jo Christie-Smith linked to a thing which led to another link, and then another, and then another and I've been sat here reading up on feminism all evening. Here are some of the things that interested me:

- The Male Privilege Checklist. Hint: if you're male, you have it. Don't think I'm picking on you though, I have white privilege and education privilege and all sorts of other privileges. It's not your FAULT if you're privileged, but it IS your fault if you fail to recognise it.
- Think women have achieved equality? Think again. Lots of people do seem to be under this delusion, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
- Feminism 101. A blog I have linked to before, but not without reason is it included here. Posts which really REALLY need to be read by some of the readers of this blog include Why do women get so touchy when I, as a man, bring up the fact that men suffer too (we know you do, it's just that just occasionally, we'd like to have a conversation that doesn't revolve around men) and feminists are all just ugly and bitter

What Planet Are You From?

this quiz was made by The Autist Formerly Known As Tim

I am, to all intents and purposes, a typical Capricorn, hence my result on this quiz. I wonder if that's why (now I've put all the manly men off by talking about star signs and shit) when I read stuff like this in Jo Christie Smith's blog I get so impotently furious. How long now have I been banging on about how it's not that women don't blog it's that men don't read us, and here's the best bloody example one could wish for.

Can you think of any bloke other than Auntie Gok who'd read the Fashion pages? I sure as shit wouldn't read the bloody fashion pages. They're all about parting me from money I haven't got, so what would be the point in me even looking? At least the motoring pages tend to have pictures of pretty bikes, or a column by James or Jeremy to read, even if they are all about parting me with money I don't have too...

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Speaking of motoring, we've finally joined the evil polluters and are now the proud owners of a purple Ford Ka. Suggestions for naming gratefully received.

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And it's back to sexism, I'm afraid. Remember me talking about the Bechdel Test recently? Somebody has pointed Charlie Stross at it (hat-tip: my lovely fiancé). When he says, at the end of his post, stuff like this:

[I]f anyone ever offers me a movie or TV deal, I am going to hold out for a clause in the contract requiring a scene lasting at least 30 seconds per hour of running time that passes Bechdel's test. Because? What hurts my fellow humans hurts me, and I can in conscience no more lend my implicit support to an anti-feminist backlash than I can lend my silence to a racist or homophobic campaign.

... that just makes me want to go out and buy all his books just because. Yes, Mat already has them, I know.

Kira Cochrane in the Graun has noticed that there appears to be something of an anti-feminist movement at the moment. I'm with those who take this as encouragement; as it says in the article, you only get resistance when there's something to resist against.

Ever wondered why there are so few interesting female characters in movies, and even when there are (Ripley and Sarah Connor being the oft-quoted examples) they still are very dependent on male characters in some way or another? BetaCandy has the skinny. Reading this? Made me want to go out and make films, lots of films, with all-female casts.

This is another profoundly depressing post. Why is masturbation STILL something for boys to boast about and girls to be ashamed of? We all do it, FFS! Why can't we just accept that and move on?

William Sanders has offered to remove the stories of writers offended by his bigotry... For $40 a pop. I have no words for this. No words. If you don't like me being racist, I want money? What a wanker.

Stuart Weir has a post on LC about the real public view on 42 Days.

Amused Cynicism gives the lie to the idea of Britain as a broken society.

Dr Beren has rewritten the end of the most recent series of Who. Can someone get her a job as showrunner, please? She's WASTED on Brain Doctorin'.

Feminism is good for men too, and they ought to remember that. The man in my icon certainly knew it :D

I spent last evening losing at Ludo with matgb and burlesque_bunny and her other half, and therefore didn't get around to backreading. Thus, today's linkspam of random things that caught my magpie eye is HUGE! Also, if I haven't hat-tipped you for the link, it's because I forgot who linked me to what. This is because I are a scatty old bint. For which, I apologise. A fair few of them came from m'colleague Douglas over at LC, though.

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First up, Ros Scott is unsure that too much choice is a good thing. I certainly agree that in terms of schools and (particularly) hospitals, people don't want choice, they just want their local one to be good. If someone is bleeding to death, the last thing you want to have to do is to decide whether St Luke's or the BRI would suit your needs better.

However, it's not just about whether or not people have the ABILITY to make choices, it's about whether or not there aren't better uses of their time, IMHO. A lot of the time I don't want to choose between a set of things because I'd rather be doing something else. Choice of beer is great, choice of buses to get to the pub is not. I just want a bus that's frequent, prompt, and stops where I want it to, not a choice of three, none of which go at convenient times, or stop at the stop I want.

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Via Neil Gaiman: No to age banding on books.

I agree, to an extent, with age restrictions (but emphatically not censorship for 18-rated films) for violence on films and computer games (less so for sex), because you don't need to put any actual effort into perceiving the violence of a film or computer game, and it could cause some serious trauma to some children. Books? No. I first read the bible cover to cover aged seven (after the Hobbit but before LotR), and you'll be hard pushed to find a book more stuffed with violence than that. I still think it was a worthy use of my time. Reading books that are "unsuitable for children" is an im;portant part of any child's intellectual development.

Similarly, I loved, and still love, books which are clearly aimed at much smaller people than me. Why should I be castigated for this by over-prescriptive publishers?

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el_staplador makes a good point about feminism, inspired by this article on the BBC:

Feminism, the way I learnt it, isn't about voting for the woman because she's a woman; it's about voting for the best person for the job because of them being the best person for the job. Where the feminism comes in is that, should a woman be the best person for the job, there should be nothing more standing in her way than there is standing in an equivalent man's way. I must admit that I haven't been following the campaign terribly closely, so can't give a considered opinion on the question. (In any case, it's too late now and I have no influence upon it whatsoever.) But honestly, it should be simple: which of the two could do the job better? They're both human beings, no?

I'd go further than the sainted El S. I think that voting for a woman just because she's a woman and not because she's the best person for the job DAMAGES feminism, just as "positive" discrimination is a patronising pat on the head from the patriarchy. YMMV, of course.

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Much hilarity abounds about Tony Blair's new plan to foster peace and stuff by not invading other nations getting people of different faiths to talk to each other. Like the author of jesus_and_mo, and I think the result of this is rather predictable:



OTOH, maybe cabalamat2 is right, and this will result in more questioning of the overweening power of religion in general. Which would possibly be a good thing. I don't mind religious folks doing whatever they like in the privacy of their own homes, but I don't want them present in my legislature, and I don't want them indoctrinating my child. Shame this still seems to be too much to ask.

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I originally did the "wife" version of this, and, somewhat predictably, I was atrocious. However:

109 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

This contrasts nicely with my result for this test, I feel:

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Hedonism Your life is guided by the principles of Hedonism: You believe that pleasure is a great, or the greatest, good; and you try to enjoy life’s pleasures as much as you can. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... ( percentages and stuff under here ) Big hurrahs for the really, REALLY old guy! I particularly like that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women". An organ which definitely disapproves of wild women, especially in conjunction with whisky and fags is the Daily Hate. Here's a couple of links to stuff about their misogyny and how it negatively affects the whole of society. Via the incredibly talented ginasketch, today is Drawing Day. So get your pencils, or Wacom tablet, out. Via shishmish on the TGT, someone at the BBC has seen the woeful Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky, and thought that's not a bad idea, but the execution is terrible... I bet we could do better! Am really looking forward to this, even though Hamster is my least favourite of the TG3. And finally, guaranteed way to get me to accept your Facebook, friends request? Unashamed fanboying of this humble blog! As a reciprocal measure, I'd like you all to go and have a nosey at ottenfeed, which is being added to lcreadinglist as we speak ;)

Other times, like right now, she makes me want to punch my fist in the air and shout YES! YES, YOU'RE RIGHT!!. Listening to Any Questions on the radio now was one of the latter times. The audience member asked something about the decline in Christianity being to blame for our broken society, and whether we're all about to convert to radical Islam. She started by saying that, as a Catholic, for selfish reasons she's rather glad that Catholics are no longer the whipping boys in this country. She continued by saying like most Catholics, I don't actually believe in God, and then continued with a list of progressive, humanitarian measures that have been introduced by people who did it because it was right, not because God would approve (because in most cases he wouldn't).

Then she made an impassioned and powerful argument that what is good is good because it's good, not because God approves (or not). She put it much better than that, but I have a bad memory for quotes. And she got a HUGE round of applause. In a church hall. And then everyone else on the panel agreed with her that secularism isn't necessarily bad, and most of our secular values derive from Proper Christianity anyway (be nice, be tolerant, don't be judgemental, etc.)...

So, yes, go Germaine. I still reserve the right to call you love if you ever come in the pub, though.