Blog Archive

Saturday, 15 February 2014

... Thinks Celebrities Shouldn't Have To 'Hide' Their Sexuality Anymore?


Ellen Page, 26 year-old star of Juno, announced to the world that she was a lesbian during an address at a Human Rights Conference in Las Vegas. She emotionally stated that she was 'tired of hiding and lying' about her sexuality, and hoped her coming out would help others do the same.

After the gay marriage campaigns of last year, and the recent legalisation in Scotland, I believed we lived in a more accepting society, where you didn't need to repress your true self to be accepted and to be successful. If we don't live in a society like this, why? Surely it's time something changed.

Monday, 10 February 2014

... Thinks Panel Shows Are Better Without Women?


Danny Cohen, the BBC's Director of TV, has vowed to banish the all-male panel show, saying it is 'unacceptable' to not have women in the show. Fantastic for the feminist within me, but not so good for the part of me that actually wants to be entertained.

Cohen's promise comes after criticisms from the likes of Victoria Wood and Jo Brand, labelling panel shows 'testosterone-fuelled', as well as a report from the BBC Trust condemning the lack of female voice on such shows. From now on, any panel show filmed by the BBC will have at least one female on the panel. But what's the point of just shoving them on there to cover their backs, when they don't really add anything to the show?

Friday, 7 February 2014

... Is Sick Of University Strikes?


Yesterday witnessed yet another strike by university teaching staff in a long-standing battle for better pay, pensions, and conditions. To disrupt teaching further, a series of 2 hour strikes have been scheduled in the near future also.

When I first discovered I would be missing a lecture and a seminar yesterday, of course I was over the moon, and so were my course-mates; it meant even more time to procrastinate on Facebook, sleep, and everything else that comes with being a student aside from work.

 But no matter how much I enjoyed my lazy day, I am annoyed that I am missing out on vital information for upcoming essays and exams. Last term, due to strikes, my English Literature course-mates and I missed a great proportion of learning due to strikes, shortly after, the text we had not been able to study fully was set as the exam text. Is this fair?

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

... Thinks Michael Gove Is A Modern-Day Stalin?

I couldn't resist a picture that made Gove like he was attempting to MC.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary of the UK, is completely out of touch with his most recent proposals for educational reforms, which include 10 hour days and exams for 4 year olds. With crazy ideas even Stalin would laugh at, and pictures such as the one above circling the internet, it seems impossible to take this man seriously.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

... Doesn't Find This Sexist?

It seems that every public area in the UK has a 'Spotted' page on Facebook nowadays: from university libraries to local parks, Big Brother is definitely watching (and judging) us all. 

A recent, unstoppable phenomenon on Facebook - the notorious 'Spotted' pages - has sparked outrage in certain social groups, agitated by the offensive and not so politically correct comments that these pages attract. These pages seemed to appear from nowhere, but now any public area has the potential to be a Big Brother house, and the housemates are lambs to the slaughter.

An article in 'The Women's Blog' section of The Guardian website caught my attention this week concerning said pages; blogger Laura Bates argued that these pages fuel sexism and harassment which is affecting two-thirds of female university students. These 'demonstration[s] of objectification...and misogyny' which are so typical, she says, of today's culture, are making women terrified of going anywhere in public in case they're publicly ridiculed on the internet.