WARNING: idiotic meme alert

Don't say I didn't warn you.
Link

Fembot 'actress' now on TV

Perhaps I've been watching too much Battlestar Galactica, but recently I've taken in interest in the pop fascination with female robots/androids etc. I had however thought it was all a somewhat dubious fantasy, until I read about a Japanese company that has made a scarily-lifelike 'actroid,' already starring in adverts:



It's called 'The woman who doesn't rust,' and we are told that she uses the product shown, because 'as a woman, my skin is important.'

hehehe

It's a cake. I swear.
Originally uploaded by Shmoovio (Jarrett)

Simple psychological test: when you see this, what do you immediately think of?

OK, I've been quiet for a bit, what with the summer job, but there will be much more a-blogging soon...

disabled women more prone to domestic violence

According to a recent study, women with disabilities are twice as likely to encounter domestic violence than those without. To make matters worse, they consistently face barriers such as inaccessable shelters.

Why feminism should be good for men...

grouchy little lego man
Originally uploaded by massdistraction

...because gender stereotypes hurt men too.

a warning

from postsecret

vogue's black issue

The fashion industry has never exactly been a paragon of diversity, but when Naomi Campbell was a star of the catwalk and not the front page it may have seemed that racism in fashion was being overcome.

As I mentioned in my Beaver commentary about Miss LSE, there is racism implicit in the ideals of the fashion industry which fetishes 'neat' curves and facial features together with hair 'like that of a monkey'. However, the debate around the recent Black issue of Italian Vogue shows that fashion still has to deal with racism even on the level of skin colour.

guess the countries with low fertility rates

Joy of life
Originally uploaded by AmmarQ8.com

Cuba, Costa Rica, Iran and Sri Lanka, among others, have fertility rates below the replacement level; so it is not limited to 'advanced economies' as is often thought. Tyler Cowen has some interesting thoughts on why the rates differ between superficially similar countries, based on the expectations of and opportunites available to women.

'Late' abortion permitted in Romania.

An 11-year old allegedly raped by her uncle is being allowed an abortion at 21 weeks (the national legal limit is 7). Story in the guardian.

More Sex is Safer Sex

free prostitutes
Originally uploaded by wacky doodler

..or so say economists.

The argument runs: (some?) men will always want sex, so they will either get it for free in relationships etc., or use prostitutes. Women in 'traditional societies' who are more promiscuous than the norm; having affairs or sex before marriage, help control the spread of STDs as they are likely to have had fewer sexual partners than the prostitutes men might otherwise go to to fulfil their 'needs'. (Yes, it's heteronormative, sexist and arguably racist).

The important thing to disease control is who is having the sex. It's suggested that widespread use of prostitutes helps spread STDs because prostitutes have so many sexual partners. However, the number of partners is not the only risk factor: if prostitutes are not in a position to negotiate safer sex, then this disempowerment will in itself allow disease to spread, and is fundamental to whether the sheer number of sexual partners becomes a risk factor.

Of course, there are wives, girlfriends and other unpaid sources of female sex who may be unable to negotiate protection: prostitutes are generally especially vulnerable.

What is obscene?

We've had a bit of a break over the exam period; let's start again with things that always spark a debate in feminist circles - censorship and pornography.

Here's an interview with the head of the Met's Obscene Publications Squad.

Link to photo

sewing = grassroots development

From Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, a 'seamstress turned district council member,' and a rare story of optimism in American media coverage of Iraq.

follow-up to the Johnny Vegas incident...

Background to the Johnny Vegas story. A member of the London Feminist Network reported the incident to her local police, who referred it to the Sapphire Project (a Police department specializing in sexual assault cases). She got the following response:

"I've just spoken to the police at the Sapphire Project in Holborn. They say there is nothing they can actually do unless the victim comes forward and says that she is not either a plant put in the audience or that she didn't enjoy it. They say that it has been logged and passed to the supervisor. If such an incident gets reported again about him in the future, my complaint will be brought up.

I asked about internet pornography that seems dodgy and he said this can be reported to the police as its easy to find an IP address to trace it. I then said that Johnny Vegas could easily be traced as we know who he is. He insisted that the woman must come forward to make a complaint herself. I said that surely if the police came out and said this would be investigated if the woman came forward - the incident would be taken much more seriously, than if it just looks like a journalist with an axe to grind. He agreed.

He said that it would be easy to have a word with Johnny Vegas as 'he doesn't live to far from here'. I asked if he was going to do it, and he said he had already planned to.

Perhaps the woman may come forward if there was something in the press reporting that Johnny Vegas will be spoken to by the police about this matter, and it will be investigated as assault if she does approach them - she might find the idea less shameful...."

When Photoshop turns bad #2

Seemingly pointless censorship or pure Photoshop clumsiness?

Would you like a lapdance with your latte?

Coffee shops, karaoke bars and lap-dancing clubs are currently licensed in the same way. The ever-busy activists at Object are starting a campaign to challenge this. Read more here.

Constitutional Female Orgasms

No, it's not another C&S scandal (though may I add that Antonia is currently doing a wonderful job in said committee).

A member of Ecuador's government has suggested that a woman's right to sexual happiness should be enshrined in national law.

Protest against the BNP in the Greater London Assembly

Last night, Richard Barnbrook, the BNP's mayoral candidate gained one of 25 seats in the GLA.

There will therefore be, as promised, a protest at 3pm TODAY outside of City Hall:

NO BNP IN GLA!
Protest if the BNP get elected to the Greater London
Assembly!

The far-right, racist British National Party has been
polling just less than 5% ahead of Thursday’s vote. If
they get 5% on the list and they get a seat,
International Socialist Resistance and Youth Against
Racism in Europe are calling a protest outside the GLA
building, City Hall (nearest tube London Bridge) at
3pm on Saturday 3 May.

It is an important for feminists to be involved in
this campaign alongside other campaigners. Leading
members of the BNP are totally opposed to women’s
rights, as BNP member, Nick Eriksen, shows. He was
number two on their London list.

In August 2005, Eriksen wrote: “I've never understood
why so many men have allowed themselves to be
brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into
believing that rape is such a serious crime ... Rape
is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such
a terrible physical ordeal.

"To suggest that rape, when conducted without
violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that
force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous
offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by
having her handbag snatched. The demonisation of rape
is all part of the feminazi desire to obtain power and
mastery over men. Men who go along with the rape myth
are either morons or traitors.”

In November 2005, in an item entitled ‘Give her a
slap!’, Eriksen approvingly quoted Noel Coward as
saying: “Some women are like gongs - they need to be
struck regularly.”! He later claimed that “the vast
majority of domestic [assaults] are initiated by the
woman.”

Eriksen also wrote that mothers “should never go out
to work” and described career women as “unnatural and
vile... it is a strange kind of woman who would want
to invest [her] energies into her job rather than into
a man.”........ ...

The author of the Sir John Bull blog, which stopped
publication last autumn, is not identified on the
website itself. But the Evening Standard established
that it is Eriksen by posing as a BNP sympathiser and
sending a message to the site’s contact email address,
johnbull@englandmai l.com.

Within two days, Eriksen replied, signing his name,
giving Mr Barnbrook's contact number and saying: “As
for your kind comments about the blog, I may well
restart this after the elections - we shall see what
happens! All the best, Nick.”

The BNP has refused to condemn his comments, or take
any serious disciplinary measures. If they get a seat
on the 1 May, a bold campaign against them and their
ideas will be necessary to make sure they know their
racist and sexist ideas are opposed by the vast
majority.

For more info see www.anticapitalism.org.uk or contact
ISR on 020 8558 7947.

FYI: I got this message through the London Feminist Network mailing list.

Revision getting you down?

feminism-loves-you2
Originally uploaded by Mind the Gap Cardiff Feminists

Cardiff's Mind the Gap Feminists have a cheery message for you all.

(Unless you're the kind of person who likes your feminism all bile-drenched. Ew.)

When Photoshop turns bad #1

OK, so you ideally want to give your Playboy model a 'really fit' body, complete with a torso so perfect, so don't you dare let anything as prosaic as a belly button disturb its flatness.

When is a comedian not particularly funny?

When they're "sexually molesting a librarian whilst singing Shakespeare Sister's [sic] Stay With Me Baby."

Shock!! Teen Star 'deliberately manipulated' to sell magazines.

Germaine Greer deconstructs the infamous Vanity Fair Miley 'Hannah Montana' Cyrus picture in 'We like our Venuses young.'

(Also includes: Branded for Life: How the tweens became an advertiser's dream)

Woop! New Blog!

So, here we are, the LSE SU Feminist Society Blog! Yay!

We keep finding all kinds of interesting things going on, being written or blogged about, that we wanted to share them with you all.

Visit the blog regularly for links to interesting events, news stories etc. Maybe put us on your RSS reader.

...coming soon...
invitations to contribute to the blog
if you'd be interested, please email us at:
su [dot] soc [dot] feminist [at] lse [dot] don't write this bit, I'm just trying to confuse spammers [dot] ac [dot] uk