standing? gadgets? revolution?

I'm back!
I'm busy tonight.
Just read Urban Chick's post on women's toilets.
Reminded me that it's a favourite rant of mine.
But what's to be done about the endless queuing?

1 - We could lobby for more toilets for women in public places e.g. theatres, towns, festivals etc. -especially the places where we pay - e.g taxes pay for public toilets, ticket sales pay for theatre toilets.

BUT - more toilets = more space needed for building, more water etc. - bad for the environment unless the toilets use grey water.

2 - We could learn to pee standing - lots of advice here on Restrooms and MyVag. There are some people advocating provision of female urinals .... not a bad idea - except could be a problem if you're wearing trousers...the She-inal looks possible though not sure about the hose - doesn't sound clean.

3 - Problems with technique can be reduced by using gadgets. All of this assumes that it's reasonable to expect us females to learn a new way of peeing. Many men in the world sit to pee so why shouldn't we?

What a dilemma.. in the meantime I'll just stamp and shout when I'm out and about and have to QUEUE!!!

revolution?

You are having an experience that involves being ignored or hearing the same excuses over again - and it's related to issues of equality, rights, oppression etc.

What do you do?

Carry on as usual?
"Hijack" the situation by dominating the conversation with some statements about oppression, making your point and stating that it is unacceptable?
Withdraw your labour, saying that you will not engage until you see evidence of committment to positive action?

Working to make changes on a large scale in the world - what works? Gradual slow change? High impact revolutionary change?

If we gently challenge, over time people suffer anyway - e.g. poverty/ mental illness/ discrimination can entail a long slow painful death/ low quality of life.

If we revolt - this can involve high numbers of victims in the short term.

Which is best?

I tend to vote for revolution.

But then - I also think that staying internally personally committed to values and beliefs and acting accordingly day-in, day-out - whilst it's absolutely draining - if we act together in solidarity, despite not seeing evidence of the impact we have, we know that we are winning. If we stop, we have lost and those in power have won.

Take the anti-Iraq-war protests in the UK. Tony Blair appeared to ignore them, despite the huge numbers of people who took part. So what do we do - stop using our vote in the belief that it's pointless giving our views? Then oppression really has won. Whoever then gets into power is there through apathy. Democracy may be flawed - what isn't. If we don't sign up to the democratic process - we have to identify an alternative that is better.

I can see major faults in what I am saying even as I type - it's such a circular debate..... I know that if we vote against the current power, then the opposition that we don't want to have in power may get in by default.

Any suggestions?

water and song

"If I were to construct a religion, I should make use of water".
That's what Philip Larkin said.
Me and a close friend were talking last week and we also thought that water would be important in devising a new religion - we don't want a deity, an icon, a guru - we would worship water with, amongst other things our voices.

Maybe I'll write a song.....

what is it?

Wikipedia says
"Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially in terms of their social, political, and economic situation. As a social movement, feminism largely focuses on limiting or eradicating gender inequality and promoting women's rights, interests, and issues in society.
Within academia, some feminists focus on documenting gender inequality and changes in the social position and representation of women. Others argue that gender, and even sex, are social constructs, and research the construction of gender and sexuality, and develop alternate models for studying social relations."

Germaine Greer believes that women fighting for equality is a poor aim - why want to be equal to men - their position in society is not so desirable in a world full of war, poverty and abuse. Greer's aim is for a new world order - freedom for all regardless of gender. She says "Women's liberation, if it abolishes the patriarchal family, will abolish a necessary substructure of the authoritarian state, and once that withers away Marx will have come true willy-nilly, so let's get on with it."

So - feminism could be the big challenge to capitalism - thinking back to the post I did on the Beauty Myth on the 8th August - it seems obvious that if we spend less time investing energy in making our appearance conform to the stereotypes, add to that time saved by not conforming in other ways - we have more time to get together with other women - solidarity is essential.

froom is a way for us to get together online if not in person. I intend to blog on froomblog about this same topic.

Revolution can only be achieved by working together.

democracy 2

democracy

Yes - just imagine!!

I saw this poster displayed at the Council for Voluntary Services in Birmingham when I was there a few weeks ago. "It's the only life I know" is a project that has developed through discussion between [insertspace] and artists Hewitt & Jordan. Dave Beech, Hewitt & Jordan, Mark Hutchinson and Oliver Ressler will each produce a text-based poster that examines public space and its relationship to democracy. Download the posters here or get them free at certain outlets in Birmingham (listed on the site).

Don't you just wish that was the way it worked??

democracy

Did you know that every Council has a Forward Plan published every month?
A forward plan details every key decisions due to be taken over the next four months. This is the place to see what is going to cost or save the taxpayer more than £200,000 and/ or have a significant impact on your community.

This is a really important part of the process of government that is made transparent. If you want to ask questions about any of the planned decisions contact your local councillor.