And what is the All we are supposed to want to have?
Aww bless, Kathryn Flett in today's Observer Magazine
[I]nstead of fetishising the glossy-magazine-style props of a "lifestyle"...the proof of a life well lived, of Having Had as much of the mythical All as any of us deserves, will almost certainly be internal, invisible to anybody other than ourselves.
WORD.
And also bless Barbara Ellen thinking about the Sir Nicholas Winterton groping incident in a wider context of recent harassment cases:
Is this where we are, culturally if not legally: a society automatically dismissive of women who object to chauvinism in their work environment? Are such females perceived as litigant opportunists, all too eager to cry "sexist wolf" when things don't go their way?
Certainly, many women spend their working lives shrugging off sexism. Sometimes it's because they couldn't care less; with others, it's because they fear being labelled "humourless", of "over-reacting". Is this how Engel was positioned - effectively made to feel more uncomfortable about her reaction (lighten up, Natascha!) than Winterton was about his actions?
Therefore, "silly" Winterton was not unrelated. His actions may be on the lighter end of the sliding scale but they are still part of the sexist culture of the workplace - men feeling entitled to behave badly, women having to put up with it. So, in future, keep your hands to yourself, Sir Nicholas. To paraphrase a prominent former female politician, the ladies are not for groping.
Possibly Victoria Coren is a bit too sanguine on the matter:
I was sorry to read about the traumas of Moira Cameron, the Tower of London's first female yeoman warder, who was allegedly subjected to a campaign of harassment from long-standing Beefeaters which included nasty notes and the defacing of her uniform. Goodness, who would have expected such sexism from an all-male collective of royal guards in a 522-year-old post?
I hope Moira will be comforted by the thought that this is an inevitable part of being the first woman to do anything. She should have seen life in the poker room 15 years ago. You don't know you're breaking ground until you get hands on your arse, jokes about your tits and anonymous jibes about your ability.
Don't worry, Moira, it won't last. Think of it as no more troublesome than trying to get seven-year-olds to eat spinach: keep trying and they'll swallow it eventually.
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