By the Secret Victorianist ‘If the Victorians had had airplanes, these are the books they would have read on them’. This is my default response when trying to explain away my geeky obsession with nineteenth-century sensation fiction, or convince people my blogging life is not so very different from my (marketing) day job. There’s a…
by Claire Sedgwick Calvin, R. (ed) Gilmore Girls and the Politics of Identity: Essays on Family and Feminism in the Television Series Jefferson, McFarland, 2008 As an English Literature student, contact hours were seldom during my undergraduate degree and whilst I wouldn’t want to understate the hours I spent reading, writing and revising it would be a…
In my last blog I talked about how many of the most interesting and important new faces in Feminism are teenage girls and how they are quickly coming into their own at the forefront of the Feminist movement. It is perhaps not surprising that so many teenage girls are becoming active and vocal Feminists, because…
by Nicola Gauld Freelance Project Manager Fight for the Right: the Birmingham Suffragettes was an opportunity for young women living in Birmingham to explore the activities of both sides of the suffrage campaign, militant and non-militant, in Birmingham in the early 20th century. Female students aged 12-15 from two local schools, Kings Norton Girls’…
by Kesiena Boom Being a feminist isn’t easy. Not just because the patriarchy is stubborn as hell and ridiculously difficult to smash (what is UP with that?), but because all too often it is horrendously isolating. The sad truth is that as a feminist, eventually you may reach a point where the bonds that you…
There is an unimaginative and overused motif in the media today- the heavily sexualised and idyllic female body- simultaneously painting an unrealistic picture of perfection for young girls and women and alienating these girls and women from their own bodies, because they cannot match up to the impossible ideals of such images of computerised faultlessness.…
by Helena Horton 'Trim that tum!' 'Banish those bingo wings!' 'Beat your body into shape!' 'Tone those pins!'- I could find you unlimited phrases from Hello!, Cosmo, Grazia et al that refer to our bodies at 'the other'. And this isn't a weird coincidence, or a strange turn of phrase. The patriarchy, along with its…
by Jemima (Twitter: @notahappyhooker) As a teenager I described myself as a Feminist. I also described myself as a trot; did my Barota project from a Maoist perspective; railed at my friends perpetual diets; and for some reason had little success with boys. My Feminism was mainly formed from reading the Guardian, but that put me in contact…
By Hannah Karpinski I’m interested in how the media portray women within society, as the recent outcry at the song ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke, emphasised the prejudice and negative attitudes that still exists towards women. In this article I’m using the example of lyrics to Nelly’s ‘Hey Porsche’ to explore similar ideas. Nelly…
by Elizabeth Crawford As a researcher and writer, I have been fortunate in acquiring the voluminous manuscript diary kept by Kate Parry Frye (1878-1959) from 1887 until October 1958. It is in effect the record of one woman’s entire life. The diary is of particular interest because from 1906 Kate was involved in the…
