Media sexism

Posted on January 25, 2012 | 5 Comments

Not all media sexism is as overt and in your face as the examples given by women’s groups during their awesome testimony to the Leveson Inquiry yesterday. Media sexism, (or #mediasexism if you want to do a Twitter search for coverage of Tuesday’s morning’s hearing) isn’t always about Page 3 ‘girls’, victim blaming, sexual objectification or downright misogyny: often it’s a lot more subtle than that.

Take the erasure of women from the MSM for example. The way women are ignored or marginalised, treated as though we don’t exist or as though our issues are unimportant in the grand scale of things, that’s also media sexism.

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Posted in blogging, campaigning, churnalism, cynical? what me?, Daily Mail shite, feminism, FFS!, gender, misogyny, sexism, the Internet, the meeja

Women’s organisations get their say at Leveson

Posted on January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

For those of you who missed it here’s the link to this morning’s Leveson Inquiry hearing where representatives from women’s organisations finally got their say on sexism in the media. The relevant bit starts at around 105:00, and it’s well worth watching: Leveson Inquiry Tuesday am

And here’s my Storify of some of the tweeting that went on during it: Women at Leveson

In other news, I did the interview about lap dancing clubs on BBC Radio Norfolk’s breakfast show that I mentioned in my previous post  – you can listen to the full thing here. And yes I know, I said Camden when I should have said Hackney, but never mind.

Anyway, here’s the money quote from that interview: I’m still ridiculously chuffed that I managed to get that line in. Hey Norfolk, have some radical feminist theory with your cornflakes…….

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Posted in blogging, campaigning, churnalism, Daily Mail shite, feminism, local politics, me, misogyny, sex industry, sexism, the Internet, the meeja, violence against women

It’s all just ‘stuff’ on the Internet

Posted on January 17, 2012 | 5 Comments

I know I know: no sooner did I announce I was going to be blogging more this year than I all but disappeared off the Internet. Rest assured though, I haven’t been idle in my absence. Last week for instance I was on BBC Radio Suffolk’s Breakfast Show talking about Suffolk Police’s ‘no means no‘ campaign (where I reminded listeners of the Rape Crisis England and Wales Christmas campaign – Drinking is not a crime. Rape is – and suggested that “Don’t Rape” might be an effective campaign message to target at young men), and I also wrote this piece for Comment is Free about Lord Astor’s contribution to the HS2 debate. And by the way, if anyone’s around tomorrow morning and fancies being woken up by my dulcet tones, I’m due to be on BBC Radio Norfolk at some ungodly hour to talk about lap dancing clubs: I’ll let you know how that one goes.

In between all that, and working, and tweeting, and watching my beloved soaps (more on those in a future post), and getting hooked on BBC 4′s Borgen; like a lot of people with far too much time on their hands I’ve also been following the Leveson inquiry.

Now a ton of ‘stuff’ has already been written about Leveson, so I’m not going to bore on about it too much here, however, I couldn’t let Ian Hislop’s testimony pass without comment.

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Posted in blogging, campaigning, churnalism, me, the blogosphere, the Internet

New year, new job, new blog, same me

Posted on January 4, 2012 | 5 Comments

Only one of the statements above isn’t true, but hopefully at some point this year I’ll finally get around to moving this blog over to a self-hosted site and then the title of this post will be entirely accurate. Watch this space (or listen out for the screams of frustration!).

So anyway yes, it’s a new year and I’ve got a new job. In fact I started my new job a couple of weeks ago, but it’s all been so hectic what with Christmas and everything I’ve not really had much of a chance to blog about it.

The long and the short of it is, I’m not working in the public sector anymore: I’m now working in the women’s voluntary sector. In fact I’m now working for a Rape Crisis Centre, doing the kind of work that (apart from writing) I’ve always wanted to do.

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Posted in blogging, violence against women, me, public services, campaigning, rape, random musings

Regrets, I’ve had a few…

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 23 Comments

….and having now seen this piece of unmitigated misogynist shite – Fake Bitch Anthem – one of my biggest regrets  is for ever endorsing the wanker concerned on Comment is free: The Andrew Lansley Rap perfectly skewers its target.

Truth be told I regretted that piece within days. Not because I didn’t agree with the message in the rap, but because I didn’t know at the time of writing that UNISON was behind the video. And even after my CiF piece had been published, no one from UNISON had the decency to tell me they’d funded the whole thing, which considering I’m a UNISON activist as well as a writer, left me (I felt) looking like a bit of a UNISON stooge. And that’s not a position I’m very comfortable with. At all.

So there you go: I’ve (finally) said my piece. All that’s left is to hope that someone from UNISON will now issue a statement disassociating the union from MC NxtGen and his vile misogyny…..

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Posted in angry? what me?, blogging, FFS!, me, music, sexism, trade unions, violence against women, what?, you really couldn't make this shit up