I've been thinking about seeing, and how people with disabilities are part of the social construct of looking and being looked at ( Read more... )

I'm curious to know what people think about pink and its cultural associations with femininity and girliness. Apologies for the crappy options with regard to gender. I did consider cis-female, cis-male, transwoman, transman, brought up female but don't identify as one gender, ditto male, and other, though I worried that I'd still be getting it ( Read more... )

I am so very fed up of giving my details over the phone and being asked, "Is it Miss or Mrs?" without the option of Ms, or of being addressed as Mrs by default, regardless of what I've asked them to call me. I rang the Financial Ombudsman today and was greeted with this yet again. I'd actually rung to point out that they'd got my address wrong, ( Read more... )

It's a few months old, but I just came across this article while browsing the BBC. It's about some research done which allegedly shows that men feel more comfortable with one-night stands, in general, than women do. This I think is probably true. The researchers then go on to say that this is an example of evolution in action. Erm, what? This ( Read more... )

Government considers banning free drinks for women. I should mention that I don't drink, never have, and have never even seen the appeal. So I'm having to think my way through this more than most people would, and may miss something obvious ( Read more... )

You know how some people will take off their glasses during conversation, most often for emphasis? Has anyone else noticed that this seems to be a predominantly male practice? The only time I've ever noticed a woman do it is President Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, and I can't think of any women I've seen do it in real life, while I've seen ( Read more... )

If you haven't heard about the Open Source Boob Project scandal yet, go to the_red_shoes' post here, where you can catch up. Many people have said much of the stuff I'd have said myself and phrased it beautifully - and may I mention in passing how delightful it is to see good quality feminist crit coming from a straight man - so I thought I'd add a few ( Read more... )

I've just finished reading Carol Shields' Happenstance, a novel written in 1980 which features a woman who is attending a quilting conference in Philadelphia during the course of the novel. During this conference, a psychology/art history lecturer who has obviously never picked up a needle in her life gives a Freudian interpretation of quilting ( Read more... )

I'm listening to audiobooks a lot at the moment, and I find that I pick up on things I didn't notice when reading the novel. Jane Eyre is the one I've just finished, noting that St John is even more of a bastard than I remembered, and that Rochester may be a Strong Rugged Man type, but Jane is constantly rescuing him. The bit that really made me ( Read more... )

finnygan is having an interesting discussion of motherhood, which sparked off this (poll beneath the cut ( Read more... )