Feminism

Fashion, eh?

Fashion has become a dirty word – and believe me, it hurts. Not long ago, fashion was the VIP room of popular culture and movie stars and politicians flocked to the front row. Now it has come to symbolise everything that is wrong with the modern world – from carbon emissions to global inequality and from crass materialism to unrealistic beauty standards. Fashion is not the only polluting industry, or the only morally dubious one. But even if you love fashion, as I do, it’s hard to deny that it tracks in the 99th percentile for pretty much all of the most problematic contemporary issues.

The actual problem is with fast fashion. That is, it’s cheap. Which means that fashion is no longer performative at its main duty – being able to identify at a glance, the Eloi from the Morlocks, the withit and glam from the proles.

So, of course, fashion is changing so that this base and only important role is reinforced. Concentrate on the price, peasants. For only then can it possibly work as a means of distinguishing those who can afford the price and those who cannot.

Know who is using a euphemism:

Mr Brettler has represented a string of celebrities facing sexual assault charges, including actor Armie Hammer, who is accused of rape and of expressing cannibalistic fantasies in messages to women.

“Eat me” and “Eat you” can indeed refer to cannibalism. So too terms of endearment – “I’m gonna eat you up” – and also to fairly common sexual practices – “I’m gonna eat you out” in Americanism – and blessed as we are by zero knowledge of what was said or how it was said we don’t know which of these was used.

Well, except that these are allegations in a screechy lawsuit so we’d rather assume that one of the less terrible versions is being read as one of the more terrible of course.

There’s something that annoys here:

Traditional masculinity is programmed to look at the slighter, smaller, more delicately boned female and feel protective. It’s biology. Fine, but while protectiveness might be welcome in a dark lonely street or a jungleful of tigers, it easily slides into a warm sense of dominance. There’s a paternal desire to make decisions for the fragile creature’s own good, and a doubt as to whether a woman can do a tense and gruelling job. Suppose she cried? Or had some weird Woman’s Problem with her innards?

The presumption of helplessness can get internalised by women too, strengthened by the modish tendency to redefine normal weariness and frustration as “mental health” issues, and the new status in which victimhood wins you points.

Yep, very fine performance, she’s going to go on and win many more etc etc etc.

And yet what this isn’t is a proof that girls are the same as boys, that women are equal to all in everything which is the way that some are trying to play it.

Because she won in the women’s section of the competition. Anyone suggesting that she would have beaten Djokovic is insane. As that Williams Sisters against the Oz tab and beer taker episode showed.

Outstanding performance in a gender limited competition does not, in fact, show the equality – in all things, musculature etc – of the genders.

To nutshell it – woman wins women’s competition, this proves women are equal to men?

This is ever so slightly odd:

Carrie, 56, and her husband David, 65, the Songs of Praise presenter and former pop star from the band Linx have four children. The three oldest were born girls; now all are “trans/non-binary”.

“Olive Gray, the oldest, is 26 and non-binary,” says Carrie. “Olive uses the pronouns they/them. Nineteen-year-old Tylan [a star in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks] is non-binary masculine, and uses the pronouns they/he so that is quite a big change. Our third child, who is 15, is currently called Arlo. They are non-binary — they would say they are a demigirl.

So, let’s assume that the current story is entirely correct. That some women are in fact just born into male bodies, vice versa. Hmm, OK.

There’s some incidence of this across the population. Given the only recent acceptance of the idea we’re not really sure what that incidence is. But we can run with the idea that it’s unlikely to be higher than Teh Gays. Which, for women, is about 1% of the relevant population.

So, all three of the girls out of the four children are this some version of trans. With an assumed 1% incidence across the population that’s a most, most, unlikely outcome.

Well, sorry, among 25 million families it’s a certainty. But most unlikely to any one family. (OK, so we’ve not got 25 million families of 3 girls, 1 boy, but the point is obvious.)

Given the unlikelihood on that statistical basis we’re predisposed to believe a different explanation. One could be that it was always thus. But given that previous generations didn’t offer the choice – nor the surgery – it was never bred out. Or, there’s something about the dynamic of this particular family that’s led to the concentration of unlikely events.

Even, that we have grossly extended adolescence these days, meaning that the teenage attempts to wildly differentiate from both parents and siblings last rather longer. Do demisexual, non-binary masculine, non-binary (possibly unlikely given the motorboatability there) end up replacing goth/punk/Barbie/jock/ as methods of shocking the parentals and distinguishing the individual?

No, of course, I’m entirely wrong, couldn’t possibly be. But given the way that right on and woke means being terribly understanding of the kiddies these days ever more shock must be applied to appall them, right?

Well this wasn’t easy. At all. It was one thing doing a monologue. It’s another now it’s in print. I spent hours wondering whether it was the right thing – for me – to do. Maybe not

But if we don’t talk about these things, nothing will be done. For anyone https://t.co/Mpc66h0cql

— Alex Phillips (@ThatAlexWoman) September 3, 2021

Along with dishwashers and tumble driers, microwave ovens and supermarket ready meals, disposable nappies have arguably done far more to liberate women from the drudge of domestic work than any feminist campaign of recent decades. Now this progress is under attack – not from dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists, but from zero carbon zealots.

You can have that Green world where we all do more for ourselves, work more at home. Or you can have the economic liberation of women. So, which do you want?

For it is that automaton of household labour that allowed the liberation.

An “old boys network” persists in the surgical profession with women more likely to be passed over for promotion or quit altogether, a study has shown.

Analysis of more than 3,000 junior surgeons in the NHS in England found that in 2010, 57 per cent of junior surgeons were men.

A decade on, this had increased to 63 per cent, as more women than men had dropped out of the career structure according to the research, which was presented at the British Academy of Management’s online annual conference.

The proportion of men who had been promoted to consultant was 53.6 per cent, and for women it was 36.5 per cent, the data showed.

The counterpart to this, that GPs are overwhelmingly female these days, isn’t being discussed alongside this.

At which point we might want to discuss whether there’s something about the career structures that appeals to one or t’distaff side.

GP training is 10 years. 5 year medicine degree, 2 year foundation course, 3 GP training. Then out into the wilds as an actual GP. Age 28 and that’s the peak, it flatlines from there.

Take the typical female – professional – life curve, kiddies in mid-30s. So, training, 5 to 10 years full time work, couple or three of 2 year breaks for maternity, decade of half time working.

Now compare with surgery and the climb to consultant. Those childbearing and rearing years can’t be taken as time out nor half time. Well, people try to insist that they can – I’ve seen that insistence – but consultant requires 7 years in that third stage. And that’s just to get onto the waiting list to possibly become a consultant.

It’s also not a job where years out nor half time greatly aids in career progression.

So, we’re surprised at the female problem here, are we? Just as surprised as we are at the female preponderance in GPs? And if we’re not equally surprised at each why not?

Shon’s compelling argument is that the fight for trans liberation is irrevocably tied up with broader anti-capitalist struggles, and explains how transphobia is a direct result of capitalist society.

Quite how who owns the electricity company makes people hate, or fear, those whose gender conflicts with their biology is difficult to divine.

But, you know, capitalism is puppy dog tails, anti-capitalism is sugar and spice. What else do we need to call in evidence?

…They’re not just a hate group; they’re masquerading as a legitimate LGB rights organisation, seeking to undermine the existing charity that fights for LGBT rights, and replace them, while being nothing but an arm of the religious right.

…Imagine for a second they hadn’t faced such public scrutiny and pushback and got their way? The UK would have an “LGB rights charity” that opposes anti-bullying, opposes hate crime legislation, thinks gay teachers are predators and that school LGBT groups are harmful

This is all well documented and easy to find. Media outlets that continue to platform them or present them as a legitimate organisation are either incompetent or malevolent.

They may or may not be a group we like but they are still legitimate. It is, indeed, legal to hold those views and to advocate for them.

We’re in that PJ O’Rourke world of gender not mattering – like when trading bonds – and gender mattering – like when making babies. Or even, sex being a biological reality sometimes – when making babies – and trans- being something that doesn’t matter most of the time.

Black patients ‘less likely to have successful kidney transplants’ than white people

The core of the problem apparently being tissue matching:

Abdul Rahman Hakeem, a consultant hepatobiliary and transplant surgeon in Leeds, and the lead author of the new study, said the issue is that black, Asian and ethnic minority individuals have worse odds of finding a match in the first place.

A dearth of donors from ethnic minorities means many individuals have to wait longer for a suitable transplant, often twice as long as white patients, due to the abundance of white donors and a lack of donors from different backgrounds.

This, Mr Hakeem said, means the patient is often on dialysis for longer and therefore sicker than their white counterparts when they have the operation, reducing the likelihood of success and a full recovery.

Race doesn’t exist. It also doesn’t matter – it’s just a societal construct. Until, of course, it does matter.

Thus as with the gender/sex and trans- thing. The important point is when does it matter and when doesn’t it? For we know that the difference does matter at times, thus we need to know when to differentiate and when not. Yes, we do indeed need to, have to, discriminate at times, a society blind – always – to the distinctions doesn’t work.

Biological sex matters when making babies. Trans- issues matter when calling in for the prostate or cervix exams. Race matters over transplants. Discrimination is, at times, necessary.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, plans to defend herself at her federal fraud trial starting next week by arguing that her ex-boyfriend, who was an executive at the company, emotionally and sexually abused her, impairing her state of mind at the time of the alleged crimes, according to newly unsealed legal filings in her case.

Possibly the best description of this is the modern equivalent of pleading her belly.

Strong, independent woman and all that but when things go tits up it’s all the patriarchy, right?

As a result of the alleged abuse, Holmes plans to argue that she suffers from mental health conditions, including intimate partner abuse syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression.

The abuse claims relate to the fraud charges because she is expected to argue that Balwani’s actions were equivalent to “dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions,” including her ability to “deceive her victims,” the court papers say.

Yep, puppy dog tails. Bad things must be male.

Then again, she’s not got a great deal of choice in her defence strategies, has she?

One study on the subject from the US estimates a staggering 60% of female university students have experienced unacknowledged rape.

The definition of rape there must be too wide to be useful. Otherwise there would be many fewer university educated women sending their daughters to university.

Boys have become as unhappy about their looks as girls over the past decade, a study by the Children’s Society has found.

The charity warned of a “deeply distressing” downward trend in the wellbeing of children, as its research found a sharp increase in the number of boys troubled by their appearance.

Historically, the proportion of girls unhappy with how they look has been greater than boys, but this has drawn closer to parity over the past decade.

They’ll be suggesting we get in touch with our feelings next.

One female surgeon reported that their theatre uniform policy is for surgeons to wear blue caps and nurses to wear pink.

“The only female caps available were in pink and after repeated requests to managers and requisition staff for female blue surgeon caps, I was laughed at and told I shouldn’t care about it,” she said.

Well, yes, perhaps shouldn’t have been. That interaction between a Stalinist state monopoly and the changes inherent in the modern world never will work well.

But it’s hardly crushing oppression, is it?

The women who responded said they (…) were judged on their looks,

Terrible. Humans do that you know. Ever met any?

So for example while it’s illegal to discriminate against trans people in employment, one in three UK employers say they wouldn’t hire someone if they knew that person was trans. And as Faye says, even if you’re pretty certain you have been discriminated against, you probably can’t afford legal action against the employer.

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We act for most of our clients under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) – also known as a ‘no win no fee agreement’. If your case is unsuccessful then you don’t have to pay us (except in very specific circumstances that your solicitor will discuss with you). If your case is successful, then the majority of your legal costs will be paid by your opponent. Your solicitor will explain exactly how this works in more detail.

And yes, Leigh Day do take employment tribunal cases on a conditional fee arrangement.

“The BBC has a serious problem with older women. Despite years of pressure, including legal action, the corporation is still resisting putting older women on TV,” she said.

“Of course, the BBC will deny it has an issue with women in their 50s and beyond being on screen, particularly on primetime. Inevitably, it will trot out a handful of names to try and prove the point, but it is a losing argument.”

It’s the natural flipside of toothsome young totty getting presenter gigs.

This does not, of course, apply to Ms. O’Reilly – she is a serious journalist who was only ever hired for her professional skills – but birds who do not look like a bag of spanners do get hired when those who do don’t. That is, TV is a visual medium, looks matter. Looks, in our society – among hom sap – do tend to mean youth and vitality for women. Or, to be frank, fertility and shaggability.

Every Ms. Willoughby hired for her obvious professional talents means some old trout not being so. To complain about this is not to complain about the BBC it is to complain about human beings.

Something of the reverse applies to men. The number of pouting 22 year olds presenting programmes is? The number of gravitas laden elders? The base calculation hasn’t changed, just the expression of it – looks matter in a visual medium and what is considered good looks is different across the sexes (OK, genders if you must) of our sexually dimorphic species.

Ho Hum.

Alex was about three years old when she began to correct her mother if she called her a boy. “I’d try to encourage her good behaviour, as any parent does, by saying things like ‘good boy’,” Kate explained. “She began to reply, ‘No. Good girl.’”

We don’t listen to three year olds about mashed carrot nor bedtime so why we’d think they understand sex or gender I’ve no idea at all.

Children’s stories such as The Tiger Who Came to Tea are causing sexual harassment and rape because they reinforce “harmful” gender stereotypes, campaigners have claimed.

Zero Tolerance, an influential Scottish campaign group largely funded by taxpayers, highlighted Judith Kerr’s much-loved 1968 classic as an example of a “problematic” text due to its “old fashioned” portrayal of women and family dynamics.

The group’s co-director claimed on Monday that removing some books which feature gender stereotypes, such as housewives, female nurses or secretaries, from nurseries would be “a small price to pay for the lives of women”.
…
Rachel Adamson, co-director of Zero Tolerance, questioned why the tiger was male rather than female or gender-neutral, and highlighted the “old fashioned, stereotypical” ending in which the father comes home from work and “saves the day” by taking his family to a cafe.

Seriously Honey, fuck off.

Learn to make a sammich or something to give your life meaning would you?

Female directors at the UK’s biggest companies are still being paid a fraction of the amount their male counterparts receive, new research shows, underlining the pay gap that still exists between men and women in Britain’s boardrooms.

The average pay for FTSE 100 female directors stands at just £237,000 which is only slightly more than a quarter of the £875,900 paid to their male counterparts, according to research by New Street Consulting Group.

With female directors paid 73% less, the figures show the gender pay gap at blue-chip companies is far worse than the overall population, with women paid 15.5% less than men in the broader jobs market, based on official data.

The large pay gap at board level is mainly due to the majority of female directors at FTSE 100 companies holding non-executive jobs which attract lower salaries than executive ones.

Astonishing, isn’t it?

Therefore women – who can – wear clothes which emphasise tatas:

This summer’s latest trend might – off the body – look as demure as the cardigan, but this is not for the shy and retiring. Described as either the “curtain reveal top” or the “pin top”, the item is worn with nothing underneath. The two curtains of the top are held across the wearer’s breasts by a safety pin or a tiny piece of string.

Worn by models including Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Hailey Bieber, and endorsed by Vogue, search platform Lyst reported that searches for these tops increased 78% in the last two weeks. After Megan Fox was spotted wearing a red cropped cardigan by French brand Jacquemus like this, searches for the item went up 52% in 48 hours, and when Ratajkowski wore the Cult Gaia pin top in June it sold out.

The display of secondary sexual characteristics is, umm, characteristic of a sexually dimorphic species.

The problem, of course, becomes when fashion strikes and those who should not wear do.