Feminism

Clare Gilmartin, 45, said that she would be stepping back for “personal” reasons after seven years leading the company to spend more time with her young family.

Halima Begum is director of the race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust

Yep, you Halima, a cretin.

Absolute transparency around remuneration is the only way to achieve this goal. Here, the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 is instructive. As organisations such as the BBC have found to their cost, failing to address the historical remuneration bias towards men is a surefire way to incur the wrath of both serving staff and the public.

But the government has failed to make the ethnicity pay gap report mandatory, effectively ignoring numerous important reviews and consultations, including the 2017 McGregor-Smith review, which found racism affects ethnic minority workers in every aspect of the labour market.

The gender pay gap is 9.6%. The ethnicity pay gap is 2.3%.

The thing that we do not have transparency and reporting upon is, by the standards of these things, solved. The thing we do have transparency and reporting upon is not solved. This is not a logical argument in favour of transparency and reporting as a solution to such problems.

You cretin.

Patriarchy was a system built to ensure the provision of free care. Capitalism ensured care was cheap or free.

Her investigation into the care system is not likely to get off to all that good a start with those assumptions.

Just to clear it up if Laurie Penny or such come reading. The human economic unit is the household. The aim is to have and raise enough children in order to gain grandchildren. That’s just how that nature thing works, this is the aim and point of life and the structures within which we live it.

We are a sexually dimorphic species. Pre- the invention of machinery our power source was human muscle, something the male has in greater abundance. Thus the male goes out of the household to bring in income – which can be anything from a hunk of mammoth to a pay packet – because that’s the obvious division and specialisation of labour within a household. So, that’s patriarchy explained.

The price or cost of care was higher or lower before capitalism? Quite, so that form of asset ownership has nothing to do with it either.

Sigh.

A social revolution in the role of women was left half-finished in the 1980s when my generation of feminists set our sights on the workplace, and men failed to step up in sufficient numbers to take on a share of care.

Maybe these plans might work better with another species?

I’d been paying a lot of attention to gun violence over the last many years since Sandy Hook, which happened when my kids were in elementary school and happened about 10 miles from my house. When Marjory Stoneman Douglas happened, I just started asking the obvious question, which had never really occurred to me before: Why is it boys who are doing this? Not just these big, horrible shootings, but the day-to-day violence that we see so often in our lives. It’s almost always boys. Why?

Sexually dimorphic species, a certain specialisation between the genders, violence being one of them….

Authorities have poured cold water on an audacious plan to fence off a chunk of Bondi beach over summer for an exclusive “Euro beach chic” club aimed at surgeons, bankers and models.

The Amalfi Beach Club is proposing to erect a private area on southern end of the iconic beach, where 100 guests, each paying $80 for two hours of entry, would be served food and drinks.

But Waverley council, in response to media coverage of the plan, has clarified that it received and rejected the Amalfi Beach Club’s first proposal, which was lodged in May.

The plan doesn’t include charging the models $80 for entry.

In the UK, women who defend trans rights are subjected to sustained, vicious, misogynistic abuse that’s much more serious than a celebrity being called a bigot on Twitter; any trans person considering political office will receive even worse. So it’s hardly surprising that while Belgium has a trans Deputy Prime Minister, the UK has no openly trans MPs, MSPs or MEPs at all.

Of course, we did have a trans MEP. I – and others on that far right that would toss all those even vaguely different into the ovens – worked rather hard to get her elected as well. Nikki Sinclaire got stick for all sorts of things but as I recall no one was very worried, abusive about or even interested in her being trans. But then you know, Ukip, full of those – us – vicious little bigots.

On Saturday, writer Vanessa Grigoriadis posed some of these questions in an (admittedly flippant) Twitter thread, and a fight ensued. “I guess one of the things I don’t understand about Amy Comey [sic] Barrett is how a potential Supreme Court justice can also be a loving, present mom to seven kids? Is this like the Kardashians stuffing nannies in the closet and pretending they’ve drawn their own baths for their kids”? she asked. Grigoriadis got ratio’d, then linked to in multiple op-eds (coming from the right, and the center-left) calling these kinds of questions “anti-feminist.”

As has been true for a few hundred millennia now older children aid in raising the younger.

Are large families really in such short supply in the US that journalists don’t know that today?

Pantone has unveiled a new shade of red inspired by the colour of women’s periods, as part of a new campaign to end the stigma associated with menstruation.

Yes, OK, certain Nepali things like menstruation huts and so on. But here and now in the west? What damn stigma? When the with wings stuff soaks up the blue liquid during every ad break can we really say we’re a society that stigmatises?

Just like every emergency, every disaster, Covid-19 absolutely does discriminate. It’s ageist, it’s racist, it’s classist and it’s worst of all for those with pre-existing health conditions or disabilities.

It also affects men and women differently, with more men than women dying directly from the virus. However, this is only the first part of the story. Because of societal policies, the socio-economic impacts of the virus are hitting women hardest.

Do bugger off Love.

As we might put it, I get to die and Helen has to suffer going to the funeral.

We can explain lefty politics and much feminism using this example:

Five foul-mouthed parrots have been separated after learning to swear at a Lincolnshire zoo.

The parrots – named Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade, and Elsie – joined Lincolnshire Wildlife Centre’s colony of 200 grey parrots in August, however soon started encouraging each other to swear.

“We saw it very quickly; we are quite used to parrots swearing but we’ve never had five at the same time,” Steve Nichols, CEO of the wildlife park, told the PA news agency.

“Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it.”

The parrots have since been distributed to different areas of the park so they do not “set each other off”.

Birds of little brain see one gain a reaction from the audience through certain behaviour. So, more do it. And to continue to gain the reaction the action must become ever more extreme. Add in the effects of groupthink on never bothering to refer, even occasionally, to the reality outside the window and there we are, all is explained.

We can replace the word “incel” here with some others an it all still makes entire sense:

There are three pillars of radicalisation: needs, narratives and networks. These are the critical drivers that can turn perfectly nice, normal people into something much more dangerous. And social media brings them together more effectively than ever before.

Needs are people’s motivations: what drives them. That could be a need to feel special, or a need to feel part of something, or it could be a negative such as having experienced trauma.

Narratives are the stories these people can become part of, and many of those narratives are conspiracy theories. They’re incredibly appealing because they tell you that you’re special, that you have knowledge that the wider population is too stupid, too brainwashed or too evil to see.

And finally there are networks, which are the people who will give you the approval and status you crave and who will constantly reinforce the narrative of your particular group. These networks have always existed to some extent but social media has supercharged them and brought them into every home.

So which word shall we place in there instead of incel to see if it all still makes sense then, Carrie?

Female voices ‘drowned out’ in reporting on Covid-19, report finds
Analysis of stories across six countries including UK found fewer than a fifth of experts quoted on the pandemic were women

So, what is the male/female count of known and noted experts in epidemiology then?

A split of 1 to 4 at the top end of a science doesn’t sound too awry from reality.

Whether that should be the split at the top of science is one thing. But reporting should reflect fact, no?

Each woman’s voice in news coverage of the crisis is “drowned out” by at least three men, it said.

The report, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and examining the UK, US, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and India, said women have been “locked out” of coronavirus decision making at a national level in five of the countries.

Bill might want to have a word with Melinda on what that money’s being spent upon.

This could be unfair. Probably is. But as we all know a usual complaint is that when an area, an occupation, becomes feminised then it becomes worse paid and less attention is paid to it.

Here’s the list of the peeps running the climate change campaign by some selection of the world’s major investors:

Seiji Kawazoe, Senior Stewardship Officer, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management (SMTAM)
Rebecca Mikula-Wright, Director, Asia Investor Group on Climate Change
Andrew Gray, Director, ESG & Stewardship, AustralianSuper (current Steering Committee Chair)
Emma Herd, CEO, Investor Group on Climate Change (current Steering Committee Vice Chair)
Anne Simpson, interim Managing Investment Director, Board Governance & Sustainability, CalPERS
Mindy Lubber, CEO and President, Ceres
Stephanie Maier, Director of Responsible Investment, HSBC Global Asset Management
Stephanie Pfeifer, Chief Executive Officer, Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change
Laetitia Tankwe, Adviser to Ircantec President Jean-Pierre Costes, Groupe Caisse des dépôts
Fiona Reynolds, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment

So, that’s the invasion of the power skirts. What does that tell us about how seriously investors are taking climate change?

XR go topless.

I’m sure they’re all lovely ladies and most committed to the cause. But……

No way:

A couple who were victims of a violent, homophobic attack on a London bus are calling for misogyny to become a hate crime, as a report reveals that women are three times more likely to experience sexual violence and threats than men.

If misogyny is to be a crime then so must be misandry. At which point, of course, it all collapses down to not attacking people, something which is already illegal.

‘We should have the right not to like men’: the French writer at centre of literary storm

Difficult to explain modern society without agreeing that this is the cornerstone of the system of organisation.

Of course, if misandry is just peachy then so is misogyny….to argue otherwise would be cakeism.

There must be something in the air, from Scout Willis’s fringed covering to Lana Del Rey’s delicate pale pink mesh mask on the cover of Interview magazine’s September issue, it feels like the mask is finally being embraced beyond its role as a garment of medical necessity.

Human beings like to show status. They will do so by fancying up those things that are used in life. There is no explanation for gold plates – heck, for any porcelain or china above earthenware – fashion or Ferraris other than that.

Equally obvious is that in a time of masks eye make up will become more of a focus than lipstick. This is just how humans work – haven’t you met any?

But while Uber has made lots of promises, it’s hard to get around the inconvenient fact that its entire business model is fundamentally exploitative. Uber is practically synonymous with the “gig economy”, which has decimated labour laws under the guise of “flexibility’” and which is disproportionately staffed by people of colour: according to one study black workers are twice as likely to be on zero-hours contracts compared with their white peers.

Uber has also fought tooth and nail against attempts to reclassify its drivers as employees and pay them the national living wage. But even that’s not enough to make the company profitable: Uber’s long-term future rests on replacing its drivers with self-driving technology; such automation could make racial inequality even worse. So enough with the woke-washing and sanctimonious apptivism, Uber. We don’t want slogans, we want substance.

So employing lots of blacks is bad but also not employing lots of blacks through automation is bad because reasons.

But then logic and female Guardian columnist, eh?

Yet the Garrick Club’s strictly male-only membership is now under threat
Now, a female lingerie tycoon has accused the famous gentleman’s club not only of having a sexist membership policy, but also treating women like “second class citizens”, and has launched a legal bid to force the club to accept female members for the first time in its 189-year history.
Emily Bendell, 39, from east London, has instructed lawyers to use UK Equality law to seek an injunction preventing the Club from "continuing to operate its discriminatory policy" which she claims is "unlawful” in a bid to force the club to overturn its ban on women members.
The founder and CEO of lingerie company, Bluebella, told The Telegraph: “This is where QC’s, politicians, journalists are – people of influence and power over our country, right in the middle of London, and it’s not okay that there’s no good reason, in my opinion, that women shouldn’t be members…
“We wouldn’t accept an exclusion like that on the grounds of race, so why should we accept it on gender?”

It’s called freedom of association. It’s right up there with freedom of speech and equality before the law as a cornerstone of a free and liberal society. You get to associate with who and how you wish. So does everyone else.

End of.

For it is the corporate insurance policy which pays for this:

Duncan Bendall took his wife, Fiona, and their company The Female Social Network (TFSN) to an employment tribunal claiming he was discriminated against because he is a man and due to his nationality when he was pushed out of the firm.
He also claimed unfair dismissal after she ousted him following the breakdown of their marriage.

An employment judge awarded him more than £100,000 for race discrimination and unfair dismissal, but rejected his claims he was fired due to his gender.

The tribunal heard Mr Bendall received an email from his wife three months before he was sacked in August last year in which she said: I hate Australian mentality and you have it [in] droves just sh**…And DO NOT say you are a founder in MY business MY efforts ever again You Leech – you don’t even believe in women or have ever stuck your neck out.

Mr Bendall claimed he was dismissed as a result of his gender and nationality, and told the panel his wife kept treating Australia as an inferior race despite the couple living there for 15 years.

That last might be because, not despite but still.

One way of engineering the divorce settlement. Not that that happened here of course.