(no subject)
So I've made my Yuletide nominations (though I changed my 3rd one about 4 times and may change my mind when I request AGAIN but at least I'm sure there'll be somethings I want to read and write in the list *g*
In related news if you're a Member (with a capital M and have paid your $10 on time unlike some people *fails*) I hope you've read all the elections stuff that's going round. It seems like this is quite an important year for many reasons good & bad *sighs*
Yesterday was spent at the UK Feminista conference which was very interesting.
Sandi Toksvig spoke in the morning and was interesting and funny but I could see large swathes of the audience tensing every time she said something like "men are better at reading maps that's just a fact". She was mostly talking about how women & men are better at things associated with opposite sides of the brain (generally) and that perhaps what we need right now is more right brain thinking to get us out of the mess left brain thinking has got us into. IDK that I agreed with every point but it was interesting. Plus she told a fabulous story about ow Florence Nightingale was actually known as the lady with the Hammer to the soldiers at first because she smashed the locks on the medicine cabinets to share out medicine meant for officers only.
I went to two workshop sessions- one run by End Violence Against Women which talked a lot about the media & how it's connected to violence against women and then also about how we can use the media- new and old- to help. The main point seeming to be that 1) twitter isn't actually used by teens and 2) it's still really important to get your views in newspapers & on the radio.
In the afternoon I went to a thing about International Women's Day which has made me determined to mark it in SOME way though I'm not quite sure what just yet.
After that there was feminist Question Time during which I mostly realised that I hate the Question Time format- I really dislike situations with unmoderated questions because they make me anxious and people rarely go expecting to have their mind changed and it's all just a bit pointless and confrontational for me... I realise other people love it but basically when it finished and the panel changed to one for the Mayor of London hustings I ran away.
I will say though that of all the people on the afternoon panel the one who impressed me most was the one given the least chance to speak and that was Carlene Firmin (link goes to her writings in the Guardian) who is 27 and already has an MBE for her work with Girls Against Gangs and she spoke very clearly about the need for feminism to be more open to the huge swathes of women & girls who still feel it isn't really for them.
Then today was Remembrance Sunday of course and the Rainbows were generally very well behaved (though it's hard because they shifted a lot of the Children's Service stuff like shorter prayers and understandable hymns to make room for more Remembrance stuff and the girls just got bored/didn't understand. As we're not the service that covers the actual 11am Silence I feel a bit like they need to remember the large number of tinies there are in that service! That said the sermon was fab for kids and adults- all about how remembering should change us.
And now I am staring in horror at the things I haven't done this weekend and panicking slightly at the thought of next week :-P
In related news if you're a Member (with a capital M and have paid your $10 on time unlike some people *fails*) I hope you've read all the elections stuff that's going round. It seems like this is quite an important year for many reasons good & bad *sighs*
Yesterday was spent at the UK Feminista conference which was very interesting.
Sandi Toksvig spoke in the morning and was interesting and funny but I could see large swathes of the audience tensing every time she said something like "men are better at reading maps that's just a fact". She was mostly talking about how women & men are better at things associated with opposite sides of the brain (generally) and that perhaps what we need right now is more right brain thinking to get us out of the mess left brain thinking has got us into. IDK that I agreed with every point but it was interesting. Plus she told a fabulous story about ow Florence Nightingale was actually known as the lady with the Hammer to the soldiers at first because she smashed the locks on the medicine cabinets to share out medicine meant for officers only.
I went to two workshop sessions- one run by End Violence Against Women which talked a lot about the media & how it's connected to violence against women and then also about how we can use the media- new and old- to help. The main point seeming to be that 1) twitter isn't actually used by teens and 2) it's still really important to get your views in newspapers & on the radio.
In the afternoon I went to a thing about International Women's Day which has made me determined to mark it in SOME way though I'm not quite sure what just yet.
After that there was feminist Question Time during which I mostly realised that I hate the Question Time format- I really dislike situations with unmoderated questions because they make me anxious and people rarely go expecting to have their mind changed and it's all just a bit pointless and confrontational for me... I realise other people love it but basically when it finished and the panel changed to one for the Mayor of London hustings I ran away.
I will say though that of all the people on the afternoon panel the one who impressed me most was the one given the least chance to speak and that was Carlene Firmin (link goes to her writings in the Guardian) who is 27 and already has an MBE for her work with Girls Against Gangs and she spoke very clearly about the need for feminism to be more open to the huge swathes of women & girls who still feel it isn't really for them.
Then today was Remembrance Sunday of course and the Rainbows were generally very well behaved (though it's hard because they shifted a lot of the Children's Service stuff like shorter prayers and understandable hymns to make room for more Remembrance stuff and the girls just got bored/didn't understand. As we're not the service that covers the actual 11am Silence I feel a bit like they need to remember the large number of tinies there are in that service! That said the sermon was fab for kids and adults- all about how remembering should change us.
And now I am staring in horror at the things I haven't done this weekend and panicking slightly at the thought of next week :-P