Starsinherbelly

This week I've been reading... the International Women's Day edition

Today is the 100th International Women's Day so naturally this weeks articles are pretty strongly themed. 

Firstly, is this post from Left Foot Forward  (always good when someone points out the stupidity of the Daily Mail):

The Daily Mail appears to have used the finding that 60 per cent of all women have not personally experienced sexist remarks to leap to the illogical conclusion that the same number believe sexism is dead.

This piece by Johann Hari (from 2007 but still relevant) on powerful men who get away with extrodinary misogyny :

[Norman Mailer] has been called "brave", "determined to experience life's richness", "compassionate", even "nice". It is noted only briefly that he violently despised women. He said they are "low, sloppy beasts; they should be kept in cages". He campaigned to halt every move to give women control over their lives, including birth control – because he said he wanted to retain the "thrill" of knowing the woman he was having sex with might later die in childbirth. He said feminists wanted to "destroy men" and wrote a bizarre 300-page book – The Prisoner Of Sex – to "prove" it.

This piece by Selma James, from the  Guardian's Comment is Free blog:

A century ago International Women's Day was associated with peace, and women's and girls' sweated labour – which votes for women were to deal with. Not a celebration, but a mobilisation. And because it was born among factory workers, it had class, real class. Later it came to celebrate women's autonomy, but changed its class base and lost its edge. This centenary must mark a new beginning.

Mariella Frostrup's article Feminism's Global Challenge: With One Voice, from the Observer:

In the western world the greatest triumph of spin in the last century is reflected in attitudes to feminism. Our struggle for emancipation and equality has been surreptitiously rewritten as a harpy bra-burning contest

And finally, Which Woman am I?, from thetopsoil.org:

I am the woman who needs to learn that businesses cannot be expected to accommodate the mothers who make up it’s work force, and the state shouldn’t be expected to subsidise the inequality they ‘choose’. I am the woman who is being dramatic if I say that equality till you breed, isn’t actually equality at all. I am the woman who should pretend that women’s equality is an acceptable price to pay for bankers recklessness. .I am the woman who should be constructive and accept that solutions which widen inequality are the only way to cut the deficit, and  accept the expertise of a political system that where decisions are made by men.

Happy International Women's Day!

(now that I've finished depressing you)

 

 

 

Feminist Coming Out Day

via feministcomingoutday.com

A little selection of some of the things I've been reading this week.

This article by Owen Jones, "Social mobility is a dead end" (from the Guardian)

Instead of putting social mobility at the heart of politics, we should emphasise the social worth of working-class jobs and support struggles to have pay and conditions that reflect it. Take a report by the New Economics Foundation a couple of years ago, which compared the social value of different occupations. Hospital cleaners, for example, are generally paid the minimum wage. However, when taking into account the fact they maintain standards of hygiene and contribute to wider health outcomes, NEF estimated they generate more than £10 in social value for every £1 they are paid. Waste recycling workers are another case in point: because of their role in preventing waste, promoting recycling and keeping down carbon emissions, NEF calculated that, for every £1 spent on their wages, another £12 is generated. But the NEF model was damning when it came to well-paid jobs like City bankers (for every £1 paid, £7 of social value is destroyed) or advertising executives (£11 destroyed for every £1 popped into their bank account).

This piece by Laurie Penny, "Julie Burchill's imperialist froth over Israel" (fromt he New Statesman)

Ultimately, if we're really going to play the who-got-here-first game, someone really needs to put in a word for the poor old Philistines. And the Caananites. And the Midianites. And the Amalekites. And the followers of Ba'al, all of whom have some prior historical claim on the land by virtue of being slaughtered or enslaved or driven out over the course of three millennia of gory religious tribal wars – it's all there in the Torah. The sort of self-deception that calls all temperate inquiry "Jew-baiting" is just dogged, ahistorical worship of the politics of bullying.

The Green List  (from The Independent)

And finally, this wonderfully named Tumblr: http://keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus.tumblr.com/

The Promise

Watch The Promise. 

Now.

I won't give anything away by doing a review, but I will say it is the only time I've nearly cried at the death of an animal. 

It's only 2 weeks late! 

I have stolen this idea from Elsie (A Beautiful Mess) because its great. I don't ever really want to make new years resolutions, they always feel like they supposed to be broken. This list is like resolutions for myself- things I want ot achieve and things I want to change about myself. Some of the things are pretty easy and others a little trickier! 

So, without further ado:

22 things before 23...

1. Move out

2. Get a cat (or two)

3. Begin to get some idea of what I want to do with my life!

4. Make some new friends

5. Make my blog spectacularly fabulous

6. Go to an exercise class

7. Get a new haircut

8. Take more pictures

9.  Make more of an effort with clothes

10. Go swimming regularly (like I did when I was 11.. .I really had no idea I went swimming so much!)

11. Cook more non-cake food

12. Take part in anti-cuts demonstrations (or just kill David Cameron) rather than just ranting at home!

13. Start to learn Italian

14. Keep positive

15. Get better at French, maybe have some lessons

16. Visit Rome

17. Learn to drive

18. Complete NaNoWriMo

19. Moan less – change it or shut up!

20. Start my proper grown-up life

21. Make a crochet blanket

22. Read more (I never used to let myself read really trashy novels and now I can only read really easy trashy books, perhaps as a reaction to having to read Ulysses and Pamela at uni?)

 

The best song ever

The red and black book

When I was 11 I looked like this:

 

It was the year 2000 and my best friend in the whole world moved to America, my mother had the cheek to produce another child! And I was in love. I was desperately and unrequitedly in love with   X *. And sadly I remained that way for a good few years... despite never actually speaking to him after we left primary school...

I don’t know how to properly explain my love for him without sounding severely mentally ill. So, to put all of my obsessions into context: today I heard about a woman who is so obsessed with Johnny Depp that she actually changed her name to Depp, and has requested a 3 bedroom house from the council housing people because she needs a room for all of her Depp memorabilia and another room for other Depp enthusiasts who visit. So look like a model for normal behaviour after that!

This is my first diary, the red and black book. 

[It begins on Boxing Day 1999 and I have inexplicably gone back and marked my diary, as if I were a teacher, with ticks and little comments like “I do too”. God only knows why.]

January

The first month of the millennium was full of self-loathing and insane crushes (just like the rest of my life really)

1/1/2000

New Year’s Resolutions:

1) To think about other people’s views before I decide mine

2) Finish Juniper Berry [my novel...LOL]

3) Try hard to spell and on my handwriting

4) Change and makeover before my birthday

4/1/2000

Went to work with Dad. I used Alistair’s desk as he was in ‘the cage’. Dad is right, Alistair is not the quietest sandwich eater. [WHAT!??!?!]

I am so nervous about going back to school tomorrow. I want to so much to be like everyone else.

17/1/2000

I’m sick of being taken for granted. I wish I could be really ill in hospital and see what people’s reactions would be. I bet X wouldn’t care.

Mum thinks she’s proud of me – there is nothing about me to be proud of! [Is there anything more obnoxious than self pity?]

18/1/2000

MRS SPEEDY

[for some reason I gave this day a multicoloured title]

We had a supply teacher called Mrs Speedy. She is completely strange, weird and creepy!

21/1/2000

Frances’s guinea pig died last night. Aoife went swimming with me.  [these were on the same line. Strange strange juxaposition. Plus, I swim A LOT in this diary]

I love X. he’s...

Sexy, cool, funny! Intelligent, good looking, kind and caring

24/1/2000

I think X fancies me. We were joking around on our table at literacy and Chris and Alison said “you fancy Frances" to X and when I was looking for Izzy, X was walking down the corridor and he talked to me! [OH MY GOD! HE ACTUALLY SPOKE TO ME!]

25/1/2000

5 Pet Hates:

1) Old fashioned teachers

2) Mum eating

3) Dad sneezing

4) H K

5) M H

26/1/2000

I think I am going off X - he called me a plonker just because I asked a simple question.

 I am beginning to think nobody likes me. I want to throw a massive tantrum or be really ill and then a lot of people will be sorry about a lot of things.

Although X said I was a plonker, I still think he fancies me because I suggest titles for his work and give him words.

He sat on our anything else table today Louise put a gas mask on and blew through her nose to make a strange noise. You could almost feel her smugness. [HAHA I still say this about people now so I've clearly grown up a lot since I was 11]

31/1/2000

MY TOP FIVE HEROES OF ALL TIME!

1)      John Lennon – because he was cool

2)      J.K. Rowling – because her books are wonderful

3)      Jacqueline Wilson – because her books are wonderful

4)      Judy Blume – because her books are wonderful

5)      Nick Sharrat – because I wish I could draw like him.

February

I wonder if X loves me too and I finally turn 11.

1/2/2000

X is so kind and caring. When James got himself in a tantrum and was sat on the floor of the quiet area X went over and told Joe (who upset James) to fuck off.

The world is so prejudiced, I mean old people go on as if we are as different to them as aliens, they go on about us as if we don’t care about them and they don’t give us respect – why should we respect them just because they are older than us? Jenny showed me her disco invite design. [More crazy juxtapositions! ]

2/2/2000

School was alright except we saw a toad near the Japanese garden and tom chambers threw a stone at it and its foot came off.

9/2/2000

I went to Aoife’s. It looks likely that they will go to America. [I hardly talk about this at all! which is crazy]

10/2/2000

I found out that Alison fancies X 

11/2/2000

Perhaps 16 is my lucky number and when I’m 16 something wonderful will happen to me! [hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I've no idea why I thought this]

 We had an English assessment X got sent out because he was talking (we were talking!)

13/2/2000

 

14/2/2000

X got a valentines card. I’ve been thinking, X says he fancies “crap-head”  and we all assumed it was AC (crap-x is Alex and they are best friends) but perhaps it’s me! When they asked him if it was me, he didn't say anything.

16/2/2000

One of my big fears about going to the Girls' school is apparently there are tampons and towels stuck to the ceiling – I don’t want one to fall on my head! [LOL! that never happened! where the hell did I get that crazy idea from!]

27/2/2000

I think mum’s pregnant:

1) Mum didn’t drink much wine

2) I overheard her saying “but then I thought, 'I shouldn’t be picking it up in my condition!'”

3) I found a positive pregnancy test.

28/2/2000

NINE WISHES

1)      X was my boyfriend

2)      I had a boyfriend!

3)      I had all my grandparents

4)      I had smaller boobs

5)   You didn't have to go through all the horrid bits of growing up

6)      We had a bigger house

7)      I had a kitten

8)      I had more beanie babies

9)      Children could vote

March

My behaviour becomes more stalkerish...

1/3/2000

X was late and arrived at the same time as me!

7/3/2000

I sat on the same table as X’s sister at lunch because he sometimes says hello to her. He didn’t today. [Probably because his stalker was there too?]

17/3/2000

Mum is pregnant. [old news by this point!]

 

24/3/2000

X’s mum is the same age as mine

X carried his little sister home on his shoulder just because she wanted him to. This what he will do with our kids! [WOAH! I was 11! Seriously!]

April

Humiliation and misery

7/4/2000

Firstly we were on the field, talking about M H, who wears padded bras, and I laughed and someone said that I was the only one with real boobs. Then we were in the changing room and A P was talking about me (they seem to think I don’t care or have feelings). Then N J says, “how old are you? They’re a bit big aren’t they?” and then laughs and doesn’t stop. I cried and all the girls gathered round saying “it wasn’t me was it?”.

[I still remember the pure embarrassment and distress of this. It was so horribly cruel and, as I remember it, everyone joined in and then afterwards tried to be nice to me and pretended they hadn't been part of it.  I managed to be the first girl to get changed and get out to the corridor where the boys were all waiting and I remember them asking me why I was crying but I was too inconsolable to speak at all.]

June

Still hopeful!

4.6.2000

School tomorrow. X might fancy me.

5.6.2000

Stood next to X in both school photos! So I'll be there in his memories forever! [how scary and creepy is that!!]

 

*Obviously, not actually called "X", I just picked a random letter the he couldn't be identified by! & other people 

My birthday cake

Chocolate with cream cheese icing.

Dolly

a warning

Don't sing love songs; you'll wake my mother

she's sleeping here, right by my side

in her right hand, a silver dagger

she says that I can't be your wife

 

All men are false, says my mother

they'll tell you wicked, lovin' lies

the very next evening, they'll court another

leave you alone to pine and sigh.

 

My daddy is a handsome devil

he's got a chain 5 miles long 

on every link a heart does dangle

of another maid he's loved and wronged. 

 

Go court another tender maiden

and hope that she will be your wife 

For I've been warned and I've decided

to sleep alone all of my life

Silver Dagger (Joan)  

Silver Dagger (Dolly)