Thursday 26 June 2014

Are all men insane?

A while back I was coming home from a night out and a guy sidles up to me on a bike and says hello.

I look suspiciously side ways, after all: who tries to get a girls attention past midnight in the street?

Then I relax, he looks friendly and very young.

But then he starts scooting along next to me asking me whether I've got a boyfriend etc etc.

The age gap

"I'm too old for you." I say

"How old do you think I am?" He asks.

I consider him for a moment, "17" I guess.

He puffs himself up.

"I'm 19" he says.

"I'm a lot older than you." I say.

He asks me how old and I point out there's more than a decade between us.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to make him stop.

Persistent

He continues to follow me on his bike.

Now insisting he could come in for a cup of tea.

How many times does a girl need to say no?

He's very sweet, but I am baffled.

He is young and clearly confident, why the hell is he chasing someone my age?

All the time

Add to this today I got a compliment on my legs while wearing sodding jeans on a sunny day.

Are all of you guys mad that you feel the need to approach women in this way in the street?

Couldn't you find a better approach?

Is it just this road?

It seems to happen here a lot, does this normally get you dates?

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Dating shenanigans

This is another funny one:


Friday 20 June 2014

Unspeakable Things - Laurie Penny Book Review

Laurie Penny has sent me a shiny new copy of her book to review.

It took me a week to read and I have taken a week to think about it to try to give it the review it deserves.

A brave beginning

This book begins with all the charged anger that I would expect from Penny.

She throws a gauntlet down to tamer forms of feminism and gets stuck in, even to the point of shocking me once and believe me that isn't that easy.

In all, this is a brutally honest book that comes out fighting: covering eating disorders, the feminist tradition, sex, the internet and female stereotypes.

Easily digestible, but with difficult ideas, bravo.

She refuses to offer a template for living, which is wise given that it is the message offered up so often to women.

And she is brave enough to encompass men into her thinking, wise to fight the men hating image.

Sexy lady

However, she observes that the only value a woman is allowed to have is her sexuality.

While I agree there is some weight to this argument I feel the way she has tackled it refuses to confront the problem sufficiently.

Women do manage to transcend to greater power Ms Penny, which is probably why the press try to drag them back down to talking about their clothes and eye bags.

She views unequal objectification and not objectification itself to be the problem.

Is not objectification destructive, and in danger of de-humanising everyone: after all you wouldn't be very happy if I was writing this review only of the cover of your book.

That is what objectification does, you of all people should know this.

Does looking at men like an object empower us or them?

Is this the area in which you really want more equality?

Parting shot

You say you want to re-write the old stories about work and power and sex and love, great.

How?

Do not misunderstand me, this is one of the best and bravest books that I have read in a while and equally one that merits re-reading.

You unpack some uncomfortable truths about what it still means to be a woman in today's society and for that I can only applaud you.

I just sometimes feel I may have to fight against you in the same moment as I stand with you and believe me, I'd rather stand with you.

Do you want to burn the past or evolve it?

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Do you want to makegood?

I was at makegood on Sunday.

Makegood is a festival of creators and new businesses who have been studying at the school for startups.

School for startups is a stand alone course that has been running for six years that attempts to prepare these businesses for launching their dreams.

The main event

The event had great positive energy.

There were 200 businesses displaying on the day and talks that went on throughout to do with elements of starting a business.

There were some very interesting new business ideas from a mainly young bright eyed bunch.

Among them were some beautiful craft start-ups and artistic endeavours vying for punters attention.

Pitching to the man

A panel of god like entrepreneurs held court at one 'talk' in time honoured fashion entertaining the proposals of the eager throng.

It felt like an old fashioned audience with the king.

Some of the things the panel of kings said made sense, some of it seemed grandeur laden.

I couldn't help noticing they were all white men and those attempting to gain audience spanned genders and ethnicities, not a promising vision of the power structure of the future.

I felt it was the women that presented the most interesting ideas, but I guess that's my gender bias talking.

Memento

I am now sporting some red nail varnish applied for free by nails and brows, which I have been quite impressed by as it has lasted three days of hoovering, washing-up and cooking, having only just suffered a chip.