Feminism is not dead

A Times article discusses how lap-dancing clubs, and lads' mags have come to increase under a Labour government whose only criterion seems to be that if people will pay for it, it must be desirable. Anyone who opposes these is easily dismissed as an outdated feminist puritanical party-pooper.

Of course, as well as the article itself, the comments, on both sides of the argument are enlightening. Mainly they enlighten me about just how far feminism has yet to go.

Young women and self-harm in Britain

From the Independent on Sunday, an article linking these statistics to the growing inequalities in wealth. Direct quote:

The number of people harming themselves deliberately has leapt by a third in the past five years, according to new figures seen by The Independent on Sunday. The biggest rise in self-harm and attempted suicide has been among young women between the ages of 16 and 24 as they struggle to cope with the pressures of modern living in Britain.

There were 97,871 hospital admissions for deliberate self-harm in England in 2007-08 – 4,337 of them for children under the age of 14. Meanwhile, one in eight young women admitted to self-harm in 2007 – an 80 per cent increase since 2000.

According to new research published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the growing gap between rich and poor has led to an increase in mental health problems such as depression and self-harm in countries including the UK and US. People are surrounded by stories about the rich and famous – lifestyles that are unattainable for the majority. These inequalities cause psychological and physical stress which leads to mental and physical health problems, the report concludes.

Lesbians "corrective rape" in South Africa

Lesbians living in South Africa are being subjected to "corrective rape" and severe violence by men trying to "cure" them of their sexual orientation, human rights groups have said.

Reported in Guardian, Telegraph and others

Action Aid and IWD

International Women's Day (IWD) connects women around the world and aims to inspire them to achieve their full potential. It is an opportunity to highlight the abuse of women’s rights across the world, while celebrating the central role that women play in creating a fairer and more just world.
ActionAid celebrated International Women's Day on 8 March with comedy, campaigns and film.

Call Yourself a feminist? worth a listen?

I caught this on Listen Again. It is here . To those of us who were around in the late sixties and early seventies, it didn't say anything new or startling, but was an interesting trip down memory lane. Will try to summarize later.

(I know - the road to hell...)

It contains some interesting observations about clothes and feminist humourlessness, as well as taking stock of the very real progress made in Europe and the US in particular. Though one of the contributors thought the programme concentrated too much on trivia.

Interesting timeline of women's achievements - feminist or otherwise.

At least this can be a reference site

So, even though we don't seem to be very active, at least we're gathering some useful website addresses for reference.

One in Ten Women suffers Domestic violence each year in UK

I reproduce the comment made below the previous post

Amnesty UK is focusing on violence against women for this year's International Women’s Day. We’re asking people to change their Facebook status, Myspace headline and tweet to raise awareness of the fact that each year, around 1 in 10 women in Britain experience rape or other violence. Details on the Amnesty International website.
I couldn't access this via the link in the comment. Here are a few things we can do.

Feminism in 2009

Food for thought in two articles one from the Observer about a new sort of feminist film-maker , and the other from the Independent on Sunday, about women bringing femiinism to a new generation .