Equality of the Sexes? Not yet.

Following on from the Bechdell test last week, here’s another guest blog post on the topic of feminism and gender. Lois Cross examines the current state of women’s equality to men, and in particular the pay gap and the culture of maternal career breaks.

What have 15 years taught us?

Last night, I gave a talk at the University of York on historical events and movements of the last 15 years that have focused on actions of individuals. It was over 8 pages of writing, so I’ll spare you the boredom, but here’s something of the conclusion I gave, focusing on the timing of the emergence of this flood of movements, and on what they might have taught us.

Dear 20,000th Page-viewer

Graham’s Grumbles main stat counter (the one on the front page) will tick over from 19,999 to 20,000 at any moment, and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s put up with my endless ramblings over the last 2.25 years. Actually, my previous post was number 300, so 2 major milestones! I hope everyone collectively has got as much out as I have put in myself as an individual.

Graham

5 Reasons Sharing Food is Political

This post is in part a more considered response to an argument that sprung from a request to borrow a table for Food Not Bombs York, a new group rooted in the tradition of Food Not Bombs (see also Wikipedia), a tactic-movement with over 25 years of history and groups from San Francisco to St Petersburg.

Is Israel under new levels of pressure?

The BBC website delivered 2 reports on the Israel’s international relations within the last 3 days of April, which together seemed to indicate some kind of small but undeniable shift in governmental attitudes towards Israel’s foreign policy. The first predicted an ugly clash with Obama, the second reported stern warnings from Israel to the EU over suggestions to postpone improvements in Israel’s preferential treatment of Israel.

Guest Post: Male Bias in Movies

OK, I’m planning to start a regular-ish Saturday guest slot for people making what I consider good points on issues around Gender and Feminism. I don’t write very well on the subject, and wish I did, but also, its an area I wish people talked positively about more often. This weeks guest is Helen, talking about a simple test of women’s roles in films and whether they manage more than just a supporting, romantic/sexual attraction add-on.

Some mathematical Euro-elections thoughts

For those who haven’t realised, the Euro-elections don’t work by ordinary “highest vote wins” methods. Instead, a group of seats are divided up between the parties, who must declare an ordered list of candidates in advance, there lead-candidate being the first to get a seat if they have enough votes. This means that in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, where 6 seats are contested together, 3-5 parties will most likely share out the seats.

What if demons existed?

It has become clear that the post I originally made under this title, which is still available below, caused considerable upset to certain readers. I took as my point of departure a news story concerning a condition which appears to have become prevalent in Nicaragua recently, referred to locally as Grisi Siknis. There were some clearly badly communicated points and these need clearing up.

The Tamil Tigers, South Africa and Palestine

Right now, sadly, we can more or less assume that the Tamil nation is dead. When any people group is raped and pillaged of its identity, or perhaps in this case, out-right murdered, I feel hurt. There is clearly no intention on the part of the Sri Lankan government to make Tamils an equal party in ruling, and we must assume that ethnic punishment will be meted out over the next decades.

Russia, Eurovision and LGBT rights

I was planning a post on Trans Visibility and Eurovision. But this has sadly been pre-empted by the response of Moscow police to a protest by Queer/LGBT activists in Moscow, with almost immediate arrests being made and a deliberate show of force against human rights, whilst another, nationalist march, was allowed to continue on the other side of the city.