another 4 things...

for the new year.
It's still just about January and I told myself I would do this one.....thanks to Make Tea Not War for it.

Four things I want to do before 2006 is over:
1. Go back to Morocco.
2. Have set up a successful feminist network in my area
3. Be able to say I play piano accordion and be happy to demonstrate, confident that people will be fairly impressed at my skill.
4. Know what work I want to do, where and for whom.

Four things I say a lot:
1. "I'm tired"
2. “bollocks”
3. "I love you"
4. "let’s do lunch"

Four things I don't trust:
1. politicians
2. religion
3. my body
4. my ability to relax

Four things I do trust:
1. my partner
2. my friends
3. music to move me
4. a good book to help me switch off

Four people from history I'd like to meet:
I am not good at talking to people I look up to when they are strangers, but…..
1. Carol Shields
2. George Gershwin
3. Virginia Woolf
4. Charles Darwin

Four best movies of 2005:
1. Kinsey
2. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
3. Corpse Bride
4. A Very Long Engagement

Four best books I've read in 2005:
1. Margaret Atwood – Cat’s Eye
2. Lionel Shriver – We Need to Talk About Kevin
3. Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
4. Shamim Sharif – The World Unseen

Four best gigs or albums of 2005:
1. Spiers and Boden at Northwich
2. Bellowhead at Bridgnorth Folk Festival
3. Spiers and Boden “Songs”
4. Eddi Reader at Middlewich Folk Festival

I'm following in Make Tea Not War's footsteps - I'm not tagging anyone but, by all means, consider yourself tagged if you feel you have nothing more important to do....let me know if you do and I'll link to you!

4 people who should consider themselves tagged...

Birdy Chirp at Doing the Right Thing
Clare Sudbery
Simon at under the green hill
Alec at The Valley of Lost Things

if you fancy it...I didn't realise that that should be the last of the "4 things" on my post - oops!

oh, and while I'm here - this is a "positive quote of the day" that I like -
" You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims."
-- Harriet Woods (1927-) American Politician

I found this site when I browsing for positive news sites one day late last year. Most of the quotes are by men and are often a bit stuffy.

4 things you never knew you needed to know about meme…..

Thanks to Winter Woods for the tag, I am about to lose some of my mystery!!!

4 jobs I've had:
And I’ve had lots….
1. Avon “Lady” - When I was about 16 I did a bit of selling – I was such a girly young thing – I looked about 30 and was totally signed up to the need for make-up and perfume. I mostly sold it to my school friends.
2. Sales assistant at Morrison’s – T loves to hear about how my nylon uniform with nylon tights underneath that I had to wear even in scorching hot summer vacation, would percolate my bottom. I used to “hide” in the staff dining room behing my copy of “Great expectations” that I struggled to read for my degree course – but it was better than having to make polite conversation.
3. Team manager for my local Alcohol Advisory Service – a really varied job recruiting, training, supervising and managing volunteer and paid staff most of whom were counsellors.
4. Community development worker. My main role in my last job was to bring together local residents’ groups reps, local Councillors and local public service managers to identify and try to improve things in specific neighbourhoods in the city, such as litter problems, lack of health services or children’s play areas. The Council kept the team of 10 of us for nearly 3 years but as we started to really enable local people to get their voices heard and to change things they pulled the plug and I was made redundant.

4 movies I can watch over and over
as a rule I don’t much like watching films again, I don’t tend to read books more than once either....
1. Topsy Turvy – the story of the relationship issues surrounding the writing and performing of the Mikado – based on the lives of Gilbert and Sullivan – a Mike Leigh film – brilliant (and I love the music, it reminds me of being in the school production when I was about 11, so that’s a bonus).
2. Guys and Dolls – another musical – This is a classic – funny, lively and cheesy – it also reminds me of my youth when I performed some of the numbers with my local amateur operatic society.

The next two are a bit of cheat - I used to watch them a lot, but have not done for years.
3. Clockwise – a bit sad I know, but it makes me laugh every time - stars the wonderful John Cleese.
4. Educating Rita – this is quite dated now, but I used to watch it a lot and always cried. It was one of the first films I saw that I understood to be amount “women’s lib”, that and “The Colour Purple” which I also watched many times.

4 places I've lived:
1. Staffordshire Moorlands where I was born and bred in a boring large village near Stoke-on-Trent
2. Hanley – boring, run-down, city centre of Stoke on Trent
3. Liverpool, at St Katharine’s College – part of the University.
4. Newcastle-under-Lyme – a fairly boring market town in North Staffordshire (well in the suburbs of the town really)

4 TV shows I love to watch:
1. QI – hilarious and very informative
2. BBC/ Channel 4 documentaries like “Coast”, “Life in the Undergrowth”
3. Made for TV dramas - Stephen Poliakoff plays in particular – new series of his stuff coming up on Sunday nights starting next week
4. Music programmes – Jools Holland, BBC4 sessions.

4 places I've been on vacation:
1. Morocco
2. Amsterdam
3. Cornwall
4. Lake District

4 blogs I visit every day:
well most days....
1. Desperate Kingdoms
2. Valley of Lost Things
3. Travelling Punk
4. Chozma photoblog

4 of my favourite foods:
1. pasta with tomato based sauce
2. chocolate with a high cocoa content
3. fruit smoothie drinks
4. fresh soup – anything vege

4 places I'd rather be:
1. Morocco
2. Lake District
3. anywhere peaceful with lots of trees and water and great food
4. just not at work…..

4 albums I can't live without:
1. Spiers and Boden - Bellow
2. Spiers and Boden - Songs
3. Eddi Reader – Eddi Reader
4. Billy Joel – Cold Spring Harbor

4 vehicles I've owned:
1. a bike
2. a Datsun Cherry
3. a Nissan Sunny
4. a Nissan Micra

reappropriate's carnival number 6

reappropriate has done a fantastic job referencing loads of fascinating blog entries about issues of concern or interest to us all - the one that caught my eye from my first visit was this... fugusashi

so being the season to be jolly.....

I'm going to have a little rant about it.

I have been party to at least 2 debates in the last couple of weeks about the "PC gone mad attitude that leads to Christmas being called winterfest".

One was a heated argument with some of our best friends. The other one I remember clearly was at an "Equality and Diversity" training in my employing NHS trust. I was on one side of the argument and many others were against.

Who decided that Christmas starts in October? I firmly believe that capitalism has stretched it out, simply for sales purposes.

This though means that culturally many people think that any event that takes place during this period must be a Christmas event. Therefore calling a Local Authority organised programme of event held during November and December a "Winterfest" rather than Christmas is offensive and implies that using the term "Christmas" is banned. Some people say they think Christmas itself is banned as they understand some politically correct community leaders think it upsets non-Christians.

Our friend's point was that he knows a Hindi woman who thinks like this and he agrees. He said she is happy to see people celebrate Christmas, especially as it's the British cultural standard and she is an "incomer". He said that "everyone" celebrates Christmas and it's not just a Christian thing.

My position is this -

I am happy for those who want to celebrate Christmas - be they Christian or not - to do so. I do.

I am also happy for us to have the opportunity to take part in organised events that are specifically Christmas events - like Carol Concerts and Christmas markets.

I never questioned that our majority culture in Britain is still based on the Christian tradition and our main festivals are too. I am however sure there is clear pagan relevance to Easter and Christmas-time though. And it's no coincidence that most religions and cultures have some sort of festival that makes use of light at the darkest time of the year is it?

Many people I know who practice religions other than Christianity join in with celebrating Christmas. I also know people who would definitely not celebrate Christmas, and would be upset if they were pressured into doing so.

I find it notable that some of the Christmas symbols and practices are nothing to do with Christianity- trees, snowmen, and others. It's relatively easy to appropriate them if Christmas, as it is to me, does not carry Christian meaning to you. By the way - Homer Simpson as an inflatable Santa decoration in people's gardens. What's that all about? All the other icons are without copyright - Homer is owned by Rupert Murdoch!!!

I am not happy that every other event and important festival that takes place during the months of November and December to have to take on the Christmas label by default.

I believe it is essential that we demonstrate to our fellow community members that we recognise there are alternatives and that other celebrations are equally valid and supported. When events are organised or promoted by the Local Authority - whose role it is to represent and support ALL citizens in their area - they must support all communities equally as long as the events are not breaking the law.

Diwali, Chunakah and depending on the moon phase Eid-ul-Fitr some years, amongst many others are religious festivals that happen at this time of year and need to be recognised and included. Calling a programme of events "Winterfest" makes sure that everyone is included.

I would never agree that a specific Christmas event had to change it's name. I have no evidence that anyone has ever been asked to change an Christmas events' name. Let me know if you do.

So - where do you sit on this issue?

In the meantime - season's greeting to you all!!!! Have a good Christmas, if it's your thing. I intend to.......

murder at your partners hands

happens to about 2 women a week.

The Guardian magazine (which I don't like very much) occassionally has decent articles. This week it lists all the people (mostly women) killed by ex or current partners with photos of the majority. It's a moving record of a desperately common crime. It poses lots of (fairly obvious) questions, and overall manages to raise the profile of a silent, largely unreported issue in the mainstream media.

Katherine Viner writes -

"men's power over women is at the heart of this depressing story. Very often women are killed when they challenge that power, by trying to separate from their partners, or seeing someone else, or doing something that their partner doesn't want them to do. Perhaps we should not be surprised by the fact that two men a week kill their partners, when courts say that women can consent to sex while almost unconscious, when rape itself has a conviction rate of 5.3%, when twice as many men now visit prostitutes than a decade ago. Britain is not getting any safer for women, however many get to be CEOs.

Violence against women is mainstream - the British Crime Survey from 2004 shows that an astonishing 50% of all adult women have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. (It was only in 1981 that it was made illegal for a man to rape his wife.) And we use euphemisms about domestic violence against women such as "a row that got out of hand" and "a volatile relationship", which make abusive relationships sound equal, just a bit of sparring. Press reports say, "Police are treating it as a domestic incident", as if that makes it a lesser crime....

And the late George Best, lamented as a flawed hero in reams of tear-stained articles last month, said in support of fellow woman-beating footballer Paul Gascoigne, "I think we all give the wife a smack once in a while." He certainly did so himself.

So how much is our society colluding with this? When we lionise abusers, feel sorry for those who kill women who nag, and sentence men who've killed their lovers to paltry terms in jail, you have to ask: are so many women killed by their partners because society lets men get away with it?"

I was unaware of George Best's violent history - I had no interest in his life. It only came to my notice hearing Polly Toynbee amongst others talking about why people like George become sanctified in death. She commented that she is uncomfortable about the celebration of him as a genius and role model when he was a wife-beater. I welcome this article as a reminder that we are colluding with violence by treating people like Best as heroes, and generally forgetting to report crimes like these with the respect they deserve.

a conservative royal?

According to the online "What kind of princess are you? " quiz I am :


The Traditional Princess

You are generous, graceful, and practical with both
feet planted firmly on the ground. You tend to
be a little on the old-fashioned side. You
value home, hearth, and family life and love to
be of service to others.

Role Models: Snow White, Maid Marian

You are most likely to: Discover a hidden talent
for spinning straw into gold.

This suprises me a bit as I don't consider myself traditional. Having said that I hate the idea of being any sort of "Princess" - I have never pretended to be one - my childhood games were playing teacher or lover, or just acting/ singing/ dancing about. So bearing that in mind and considering the answers I gave - like my choice to dig the garden if the King and Queen left me alone for the day - I guess it's the best I could do to bring some realism to the role!!!

What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork (Original Music is BACK!!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

go on then, have a guess.....

who's house is who's.... on Clare Sudbery's Through the Keyhole challenge.

There are 13 bloggers taking part including me.

Mike from Troubled Diva. He has TWO houses, and a Princess Diana Memorial Garden.

Gordon from Gordon McLean. He lives in Scotland, and is good at computers and stuff.

Pen from A Typical Pen. She's into flowers.

Ruth from Meanwhile Here In France. She's a musician who lives in the French countryside, with her painter husband.

Zinnia from Real E Fun, who directs funerals at a mystery location.

Rob from Eine Kleine Nichtmusik, who also lives in Scotland, and is a musician in his spare time.

Vitriolica from Unkempt Women, who lives, and indeed draws/paints, in Portugal with two small children and a professor.

Zoe from My Boyfriend is a Twat. She lives in Belgium. With newts. And a twat.

Clair from Merialc.com: Life in Reverse, who takes lots of great photos and does things backward.

Clare from Boob Pencil, who has a thing about breasts.

Lisa from Rullsenberg Rules, who gobbles up all aspects of culture and lives with a cloud.

Joe from Joe in and around Las Vegas, who lives in Las Vegas. Oh no, was that a secret? Sorry.

We have each provided some pictures and all you have to do is say which pics belong to which blogger. Please submit your answers in the comments box for the post on Clare's site.

I am trying and I haven't got much of clue!

what's on when?

To find out about important dates linked to human rights, campaigns and international political meetings see the Oxfam calendar.

rape crisis....

Fuckin 'ell, I can hardly believe it - "1 in 3 people believes that women who behave flirtatiously are at least partially responsible" according to the Amnesty International report published today.

This cannot be true as Rape is not sex - it is violence and it's about power, not attraction.

I have been reading a lot about rape and people's attitudes on various blogs over the last couple of days. I did think that I would leave other people to shout about this one, as there are so many issues I can't cover them all. But this is not something I can ignore and not post about.

David Fickling in the Guardian says -
"Police recorded nearly 13,000 rapes last year, a figure thought to amount to only 15% of the true total since most rapes are never reported. The conviction rate for rape is 5.6% - the lowest ever recorded, with 741 cases resulting in conviction last year.
A study in 2002 found that one in 20 reports of rape led to conviction, compared to one in three in 1977. "There's pretty much a rape crisis in this country," said Amnesty spokesman Neil Durkin."

What is going on - why was it SO much easier to get a conviction nearly 30 years ago!!!!

The campaign to Stop Violence Against Women has to be worth signing up to. Make sure you challenge any myths.

For a full discussion on some of these issues see a great post and comments on this site - Feministe and if you follow the links one of them leads here - Alley which sadly backs up the report referred to earlier.

nearly naked women

Last weekend I was sitting in the car waiting for T to pay for petrol and I noticed the newspaper stand outside the petrol station shop.

All the papers were covered except one - I think it was the Daily Sport, which was the one nearest the shop door.

That paper had a full page photo on the front cover of a woman in very skimpy underwear taken from below so that it was mainly of her nearly naked arse.

As I had noticed it from the car it was obvious that anyone walking past it to the shop would have to see it. Three men walked into the shop and they stared at the picture on their way in so their heads were turned towards the paperstand whilst they walked.

I found myself feeling angry. I have become immune to the domination of these sorts of images of women in the mass media of late. I was shocked by how blatant, what was clearly a porn shot, was.

I am not anti-porn.
I am not happy about a society which makes women's bodies objects used to make people spend money. I am not happy that it is only pictures of women that we see like this. I am not happy that the message that women are to look at and be titilated by is peddled everywhere with no limits. What does it teach boys and girls as they a growing up to walk past pictures like that wherever they go?

I thought about the use of images of "beautiful" women to advertise to men and to women alike. The same day as I noticed the newspaper, I also noticed a huge billboard in Manchester with a glamourous young (clothed) blonde woman dominating it - to advertise the newly refurbished and renamed store House of Fraser. The ad was definitely aimed at women. But change the words and add a car in the background and it could have been aimed at men.

So - men are told - buy this and you could have a woman like this. Women are told - buy this/ shop here and you could look like this. The message is the same - women need to be young (or look young) and beautiful to be attractive to men. Both men and women need to spend lots of money to get what they aspire to - women aspire to looks, men to having a woman with looks on their arm.

T found this Kira Cochrane article which really relates well to how I feel.

What a weird frightening world we live in...........

through the bloghole

Clare Sudbery is doing a fun thing next Tuesday - she is going to publish lots of photos that bloggers have sent in of the inside of their homes and you have to guess who's house is who's.
I have sent her 2, so take a look next week. She came up with idea a couple of weeks ago and asked me to take part..... what a privilege!!!!!!

froomin'... at last

Well thanks to the wonderful Tim, I now have a password that works and allowed my to publish froom again......just need to get people interested in sending in contributions!

women who inspire us....

this is the first topic that froom have chosen. we have started a discussion on froom talk about it.....

I want to add to the site but find that I can't publish it yet.

I want to add that Fawcett are asking us to vote for the UK's most inspiring woman until 21st November.

So - what do you think?

I would go for Germaine Greer, but although she lives and works in the UK, she is Australian.

I am inclined to choose Alison Lapper, for reasons which my earlier posts will make clear.

I am also thinking about the late Mo Mowlam.

But I am not sure about the whole idea of choosing one woman at all.... it smacks of competition and I am inspired by many women, not least my friends and family, blogger-friends included.

subtext

I am very aware of not posting for a while.

I hope I will be able to do more from now on - I am now officially a part-timer - I now work 4 days a week. I plan to use my non-work day to do some blogging and also to get froom going properly. I have done some updates to froom today but can't publish as I have lost my password!!! It's so long since I touched it......

I also hope to put some time into helping to set up subtext - a new feminist magazine due to launch in January with a full publication in Spring 06. Find out more at the website.

20 random facts about me...

thanks to tp for tagging me....

20 random facts about me

1. This is the first time I have been tagged and I am so excited. I was hoping someone would tag me soon.

2. I started to play the piano accordion earlier this year.

3. I love Yes Minister!

4. I have an obsession/ compulsion about the order in which mugs are stacked in the cupboard.

5. My favourite flower used to be the iris. Now I’m not sure. Maybe Japanese anemone. Maybe aquilegia (columbine). Maybe neither.

6. I was a HUGE fan of Michael Crawford as a teenager as part of my all consuming love of musical theatre. (blush)

7. I have two cats.

8. My first cat was named Oliver and I used to call him “you silly old scallywag pussycat”.

9. I have a dilemma about my hair. I have it being bleached and it costs £50 a time to have it bleached again. It’s a lot of money. It seems excessive to spend that on my looks.

10. I am an atheist.

11. I failed my O level maths twice and finally passed CSE when I was doing my A levels.

12. I love singing but I don’t think anyone will want to hear me sing.

13. I trained as a primary school teacher.

14. My favourite colour is purple.

15. I have 4 step siblings.

16. Two of them are named Judith.

17. I was brought up as a Methodist.

18. My other blog is atypicalpen

19. I hate knowing that the world is unfair and there is very little I can do about it. It's one of the main things that makes me depressed.

20. I am a quarter Welsh.

I now tag Winter Woods, BirdyChirp, Twisty Faster, Anna and Simon.

towel and tampon tax

Did you know that the tax on blood catchers was reduced from 17.5 to 5% from Jan 2001?

I missed that one, and I wonder if it was because Gordon Brown wimped out on something that is a significant shift in economic policy for over half the population of the country he holds the purse strings for. And that means it's our fucking money!!!!

Lucy Ward and Dave Hill in the Guardian had two very different persectives on this one - wonder why? Dave Hill makes some great excuses for Gordon - check them out!!!!!
Apparently Gordon's excuse was he wanted to let the female MPs claim credit - well if they did I did not hear them loud enough.........

What made me look this up, after thinking about it for a few months now - was reading My Vag latest post - Sarah says " Oh, I go through such phases with this blog. Even after publishing 500+ pages on the finer details of my vagina, I have trouble figuring out what kind of vaginal news is worth reading every day. Who needs to read about vaginas every day? I myself, devoted disciple of vaginal scholarship, have no desire to keep up with the day to day developments in tampon politics or whatever." So I thought - well I'm sure there must be some news that is worth writing about.

I know this is old news, but it's new to me.....

UN leader speaks out for women's rights.....

Ms Obaid director of the UN annual population fund says -
"It is time to call for action to free women of the discrimination, violence and poor health that they face in their daily lives.
"And I can assure you that women all over the world are tired of promises, promises, promises. The time has come; we have the means, we have the commitment. Now we need action."

Only an end to gender inequality will end poverty according to the UN in the Guardian today.

How bloody refreshing!

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to promote gender equality and empower women. It is central to the achievement of all 8 goals.

I picked up a book of wonderful photos illustrating the MDGs at an exhibition by PANOS at Oxo wharf in London when I went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition - they are on the web here.

My wonderful friend Claire lent me her copy of the Rough Guide to making the world a better place. I am going to use it to create a list of things I can do when I feel the urge to take action on an issue that has really got my goat.....and I will also pick up some ideas from the Millennim Campaign.
When I've created my list it will appear on this blog......

Sorry for the lull in posting - was away last week and been back to work this work and very busy.... but got lots of stuff to say and hope to catch up this weekend!

work life balance on way to being restored....

I am feeling the benefit of -
a) being off work again for a week
b) going to T'ai Chi once a week (been twice so far)
c) doing some Molly dancing (a style of Morris dancing) and accordion playing once a week (been three times now) with Black Dog Molly
d) eating dark chocolate covered ricecakes (what I am addicted to and had run out of and now have 2 wholesale boxes of )
e) having some long lie-ins
f) knowing that we are off to Cornwall soon...
g) knowing that my manager is ok about me putting in an application to go down to 4 days a week - she thinks we can make it happen and is willing to discuss how....

I think my ideal would be working a 3 day week with time to do more unpaid work getting froom up and running and helping support the development of Write-on. I could also use the time to perhaps do some sessional University teaching on regeneration/ community development/ social studies/ advice work/ counselling eventually, if I could get some hours.

I am a late bird, not an early one - and as a result am seen as lazy and a misfit. Why is the standard working day 9-5? Most people seem to prefer either 8-4 or maybe even 7-3, or a minority of us who prefer 10-6, 11-7 or even 12-8. I really need a job that is based around a working day that runs from 11am to 7pm - those are my natural peak hours.

But going down to 4 days will be a good start and should help me build up my energy levels and resilience.

My doctor told me that the dizziness I've been getting is probably not a balance/ inner ear problem. It could have been a virus thingy. It also could be a side effect of the St John's Wort. So, as I am no longer depressed I have stopped taking it and will wait and see how I feel.
I am not going to know if the dizziness was related to it if I am not dizzy again. But if I am dizzy again I will know it was not due to the medication. A bit of detective work will be needed to see what the cause is. I will probably assume it's fatigue/ stress.

The 4 day a week thing is an interesting one......
it feels like such a luxury. I am so lucky that I can afford it.

I also have struggled to get my head sorted about being a part-time worker - I had always imagined myself working full-time and climbing up the career ladder. I have now realised that I have a choice and life isn't all about career. I need to feel like I am influencing decisions that affect the bigger picture - the way services are delivered, the priorities that are set in public service, the tackling of the causes of inequalities and prevention/ reduction of them. I assumed this meant I had to be managing big budgets or lots of people or writing high level strategies.
I actually don't like do those things and have started to feel like my contribution to those things will not effect the sort of changes I want to see. I have come full circle back to the belief that is it grassroots social action that can make the biggest impact.

T and I were talking about this yesterday (again - it's a common topic in our home) and we are of the view that due to the lack of clear political principles all that government departments can do is "manage" - and that means create change to structures and systems and move people around a bit. The work that gets done is always the same. The effect on the people who are served by the services (local govt and nhs) is at best no change, at worst severe disruption to services during the upheaval and changes in personnel with reduction in trust.

For example - the cycle that the library service has gone through in the last 10 years is 5 changes of deparment each costing thousands in public money to re-brand, re-structure re-organise internally, with less to spend on changing the outfacing service.

The nhs has gone from a Family Health Service Authority monitoring the work of independent GPs, to a Health Authority, then with fund holding powers passed to GPs as individuals and groups. After that GPs formed Primary Care Groups, and then became Trusts if they were big enough. Those Trusts were told they were too small and some had to merge and the Health Authorities role shrank and so they also merged to cover larger regions. Now there is a another round of mergers and GPs will have to engage in practice based commissioning of care and services from next September. What goes around comes around.

The amount of time and money that is spent on this could be spent on managing stasis instead of managing change - and that would allow organisations to put efforts into building long-term meaningful relationships with their communities and "customers". But then the election campaigns would have nothing to put in their manifestos about changes to public services..... or is that just too cynical????

Also - back to the part-time working thing...... I have doubts about justifying it when again I am lucky enough to have a job that is not putting life and limb at risk every day. Nor is it illegal - unlike the work that some people are forced to do - having read this Guardian article about women trafficked into the sex trade, I almost cannot imagine a worse way to be made to earn money. Women and girls as young as 10 are encouraged to come to Western Europe to make money and once here are raped until they become submissive and then forced to work as prostitutes and pay their "debt" - the "cost" of bringing them to the country - back to their "owner".

As Bianca Jagger writes -
"On one level, the UK government recognises the problem. A few years ago, Home Office research estimated that 1,420 women were trafficked into the UK in 1998 in order to be forcibly prostituted. The expert consensus is that the scale has significantly increased since then. There are now certainly thousands of women and girls trapped in a horror-filled existence. Desperately poor women and girls are typically stripped of their passports and other documents by their new "employers", and taken to secure flats and beaten and raped by their "owners" to "break them in". After that, it's a soul-destroying treadmill of dehumanising servitude, providing sex for 20 to 30 men a day, according to the Metropolitan police.

Scared and abused... many lacking a good command of the language, and told by their traffickers that what they are doing is illegal and could lead to imprisonment, they are truly caught in a web. Even if they escape the imprisonment of their owners, the route home is often barred anyway, as traffickers will threaten to expose them to shame there or even threaten their lives or the lives of their families. Britain needs to stop treating women forced into prostitution as criminals. They are automatically criminalised.
In May, a new European treaty established fresh guidelines for this. The European Convention Against Trafficking, the world's first international law specifically for protecting trafficked people's rights, puts victims first. Organisations such as Amnesty International are backing the convention and calling on the UK to sign up to it, but the government is stalling. Why, when Home Office minister Paul Goggins has said that the government "fully supports" the aims of the convention? Could it be that the government is afraid of criticism from anti-immigration lobbyists that the convention extends rights to women and girls who could fabricate a story of sexual slavery to gain access to the country? You could be forgiven for thinking that protecting some of the world's most terrorised and vulnerable people ought to cancel out these peripheral concerns."

suits you sir!

but it doesn't though - does it?


I went on a shopping outing with T the other day, T fancied getting a suit (which would be his second one). He looks quite good in the one he's got, which he wears about one day a month on average. He only ever wears collarless shirts - which are very hard to find - and it's a fairly casual style.

We went to M&S and the choice (and this is totally serious) was grey, dark grey, dark blue and grey, dark blue, black, grey and black. There was nothing brown, green or light coloured. And the one he tried on made him look like an unhappy accountant/ wedding photographer. The patent leather pointy shoes that the man at the changing room gave him to wear to test the length of the trousers did not help.

It well and truly put him off the idea. Me too.

I had a little internet search after and found that Next do linen and gaberdine suits and Boden to "moleskin" (which sounds cruel to me!). They are a bit more casual.

Anyway - the point is - why wear one at all - it's so macho. He feels like it is essential on the odd occasion. One thing that is clear is it is a uniform. It is notable that women do not have the same restrictions in most workplaces. Some women wear I work wear a suit (usually bright colours or at least with a bright blouse). Others wear all sorts of tops and they have a choice of skirts and trousers. There obviously are subtleties that men can "read" from the suit-wearing, but it's so limited.

I wondered if this is because men are not meant to be attractive at work, but women are. That is Naomi Klein's view - see the Beauty Myth post. It also seems to be that men are not taken seriously unless they conform utterly. (Women are never taken seriously no matter what we wear).

We talked about how some men wear suits to go out at night - T used to have a suit as a youngster that he bought so he could get into nightclubs. Again the same issue arises - men are the ones who have to follow the "shirt and tie, no trainers, no jeans" rules - for women it's literally anything goes! We think that is because women are on display and the more women nightclubs attract in, the more men will also pay to go in.

All this reminded me of what I thought when I saw the press call on the first day of the UN general assembly when all 60 members were photographed together. Obviously there were very few women, but noticeably there was a lot less "traditional/ ethnic/ national" dress than there used to be - almost all the people were wearing western tailored suits in dark greys.

President of the Phillipines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's red suit is noted on the Phillipines government website. She is the first President of the Phillipines, the first Asian head of state, and the first woman leader to preside over the UN Security Council Summit - the webpage says this about 10 ten times. I guess it's good. Shame about the suit though even if it is red. I'm not sure what I think about women getting into positions of power - it means we are taking part - but it does not change the fact that what we are taking part in is the patriarchy....

Anyway - back to the suits. The suits we know and love are culturally specific and seem much more dowdy than the formal wear of other countries - although I don't know enough about it to know whether for example an Ghanian lawyer or an Bangladeshi hyper-capitalist company director would be expected to wear grey rather than, say red....