A light snack of linkspam
Interesting, well, fairly, piece on contraception and the experiences of women of several generations with same. Let us note the difference between woman now in her 20s 'A conversation revealed that a lot of us forget to take our pills' (which is such a post-availability of morning-after pill attitude?) and Yvonne Roberts, who is, approx, my generation: 'the simple expedient of fear'. And, K Whitenorn, bless, on the much longer history of birth control. (Though I don't see anyone remarking that IUDs were available, at a price, and if you knew one of the few specialists, from c. 1900. Recent research trip turned up letters of a boho lady who found that it was actually cheaper to go to Germany than be fitted by the one Harley St specialist known to oblige; also her trying to persuade friends of the merits of the method.)
I rather liked this interview with Amy Bloom (also liked her book Normal, which gets namechecked), and greatly admire her desire not to write a whomping great doorstopper of a novel.
I don't think we've reached a point where people stop asking: a) where are you from? Or b) are you a man or a woman? There are a lot of people to whom it does not occur that the question is a) rude and b) none of your business. There's always going to be people like that. And there's obviously a group of people who, in fact, intend to harm.
Though I wish I were as sanguine as her about the following:
The number of people who are really, really annoying who find themselves seeking out therapy is not tiny. What's moving is the other side of being really, really annoying is being really, really alone. If you're smart, you might reach out for some help with that.
I just wonder if really, really annoying people make that connection.
While there is massive annoyingness about opening an interview with controversial woman scientist/science populariser with her 'young, youthfully blond hair and... above-knee pink dress and cream wedges' (le sigh) I cannot feel a great deal of sympathy for Prof Greenfield (known for her jeremiads about The Terrible Effects of Social Meedja). Particularly as she naively seems to think her publishers submitting her dire dystopic novel to the Booker says anything at all about its quality as opposed to them making up a job lot of their eligible works and posting off the parcel.
And also on science, interesting article on the practical component in science exams and the role of practicals and whether it is actually inspiring school students to have to replicate (or possibly fudge) standard experiments in lab sessions. (Can't help thinking that fears around Elf 'n' Safety may be involved.)
A survey has discovered that 'people eating in restaurants with table service consumed just as many more calories as people who ate fast food' (scroll down). They probably do it less often, though, unless they're restaurant critics.
Middle-class rules deaden too many arts venues. Let's fill them with life and noise. Let's not get creepily sentimental about the superiority of your fubsy nostalgic vision of the working classes and their culture.
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