With the General Election swiftly approaching, it is time for us all to ensure that we are informed enough to make a reasonable decision on who deserves our votes. It’s important to know exactly what your chosen candidate stands for; not just what you think they stand for. sadly, the wEP have missed the boat […]
Feminist Friday
Feminist Friday: the problems of commodity feminism
Neoliberalism has become so pervasive that we seldom recognise it as an ideology. Simply put, it is the belief that everything has a price tag and can be made into a consumable product. It sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. So by naively believing that it’s in our nature to be competitive […]
Feminist Friday: Can love really trump hate?
I am a feminist. There – I said it. I believe women should have political, social and intellectual equality to men. Outrageous, right? I shave my legs (admittedly more in the summer months…), have a boyfriend and have never treated a man any differently because of his gender. I simply, truly, wholeheartedly believe that the fact […]
Feminist Friday: Equality in the workplace should be business as usual
With role models such as Hilary Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg, the promising statistic that 26 per cent of women now lead as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (up from zero in 1995) and the fact many organisations are promoting gender equality in the workplace, it’s easy to assume that workplace equality has been achieved. However, I […]
Feminist Friday: Sexist jokes
Last week, I heard a sexist joke. It went something like ‘What do you call a woman with two black eyes? Nothing, you already told her twice’. Everyone in the room chuckled and yet I found it very difficult to laugh– it made me too annoyed. I was accused of ‘not being able to take […]
Feminist Friday: A close shave
The first time I tried to shave my legs, I was about seven, so had no actual hair to shave off. As a result, all I did was cut myself and cause a literal bloodbath. Why did I try to use a razor? Well, it wasn’t because I was influenced by the smooth, shiny pins […]
Feminist Friday: the gendered language barrier
In the globalised, 21st century world, traditional language barriers have all but lost their significance and digital advancements have made communication easier than ever. So now we can have a dialogue, it’s time to break down the repressive lexical and semantic walls erected by our ancestors that form the gendered language barrier and to make […]
Feminist Friday: Why is nobody talking about Native women?
Trigger warning: violence, sexual assault, suicide For most people, the phrase ‘Native American woman’ conjures up thoughts of Disney’s Pocahontas with the wind in her hair, staring pensively into the distance. Unfortunately, the reality of life for many Native women in the USA and Canada couldn’t be further from this quaint idea, as the hashtag […]
Feminist Friday: abstinence for academia?
Recently it has been revealed that a mayor in South Africa is offering education scholarships to female students, something which should be fantastic news. There’s just one catch; the scholarship is only available to virgins. Not only must the girl reveal personal information about themselves to strangers in order to receive the scholarship, they must […]
Feminist Friday: Jennifer Lawrence, Planned Parenthood and the ‘war on women’
After the tragic Colorado Springs shooting in November last year, the non-profit organisation Planned Parenthood has repeatedly made the headlines. As university students, many of the services offered by Planned Parenthood are relevant to our well-being. Students across the country will be using the UK equivalent of Planned Parenthood to get access to birth control or seek advice about […]