Tag Archives: women
A quick word from a man who loves strong women
The thing I love about you, my dear, is your passion. You fight for the things you believe in. I love the way you refuse to give in to men who patronise or bully you. You’re a strong woman, you know that? And if there’s one thing people say about me, it’s that I’m a man who loves strong women.
On the awkwardness of ‘girl’ on the net
This blog has been running for ten years now. Ten years! Christ. There are kids who were born when I started writing who already know how to swear! When I began, I was in my twenties and it didn’t feel that weird to keep calling myself ‘girl.’ But fuck it, that girl had no idea that this might turn into her job, and certainly no idea she’d be doing it long after the word ‘girl’ started to sound a little optimistic. Over the last few years, understandably, the comments I’ve had about my choice to remain ‘girl’ on the net (as opposed to, say, ‘woman’) have become more numerous, so fuck it I’m going to have a crack at explaining myself. Here’s why I’m going to be ‘girl’ on the net until the day I finally hang up my blogging cap for good.
Support trans people: respond to the GRA consultation
As a cisgender person, it’s hard to talk about trans rights in the UK without sounding either like a patronising arse (of course trans people should be able to access their rights! Don’t you realise trans people are people too?) or like I’m fishing for some kind of medal (of course trans people should be able to access their rights! Where’s my cookie?). As a result, I end up doing a weird fudge where I retweet links to things like the GRA consultation without ever writing about it in depth, because all the words I bash out onto the page seem like arsery or medal-fishing. But there are only a few days left to fill out the GRA consultation, and this is one of those rare opportunities where you get to spend a little bit of time making a tangible difference to something important, so here goes.
What are women worth?
A famous thought experiment proposed by a dude called Roger Fisher: that the President of the United States should be accompanied 24/7 by a volunteer who carries the nuclear launch codes with him, implanted in his chest. Should the President wish to launch nukes, killing tens of millions of people, he would have to first kill this one man with his own hands. Take a knife and cut the codes out of the volunteer’s chest. “The President says, “George, I’m sorry but tens of millions must die.” He has to look at someone and realize what death is—what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet. It’s reality brought home.”
Bridle: challenging our misconceptions about female sexuality
Today’s guest blogger is writer and performer Stephanie Martin – she’s here to talk about sexuality, particularly women’s sexuality and the way it is policed. Check out her blog post below and if you’re in London, come along to her play Bridle, which is on at the Kings Head Theatre in Islington on 11th, 12th and 16th July.
Steph wanted me to point out that when she talks about ‘women’ and ‘female sexuality’, she means all women: not just cis women. I kind of hope that on this blog you can take that as read, but just in case, I’m going to state it up front. Her post also includes mention of some things that might be distressing including sexual assault and rape.