:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Saturday, March 28, 2009 ::

Outrage++

There is a pattern to my blogging here that shows that every time I buy an actual hard copy of a newspaper I blog about half a dozen stories out of it I may otherwise never have stumbled upon. This is no exception, here are my picks from Thursday's Guardian:

British therapists still offer treatments to 'cure' homosexuality
"Survey suggests a significant minority of mental health professionals continue to provide treatments to gay men and lesbians despite no evidence they can change orientation and concerns they are harmful...One counsellor who is a member of the British Psychological Society said: "Although homosexual feelings are usual in people, their physical expression, and being a person's only way of having sexual relations is problematic. The physical act for male homosexuals is physically damaging and is the main reason in this country for Aids/HIV. It is also perverse.""
This is outrageous. It can be criticised, if not demolished, from so many different angles I don't think I need to point that out. It's like a throw back to the 50s, when our society lost great minds like Turing because of it's backwards treatment of sexuality. From some of the quotes in the article there are, to me, some scary signs of counsellors forcing their personal (probably 2000 year old religious based beliefs) on people. These practitioners should not be allowed to "help" people again.

Are women doing better or worse in IT since Ada Lovelace?

Why not let the security services spy on Twitter? It's not like they'll learn anything from it

Getty Images now licensing hand-picked Flickr photos

Google's would be watchdogs are distracted by its chew toys

Vintage sound chips? They are music to my ears
Chip tunes goes mainstream?

E-government survey urges councils to free data

"Never mind the recession - Lego is now so popular that there are 62 little coloured blocks for every person on the planet. Yet only five years ago this family business was on the brink of ruin. Jon Henley reports from the Danish town where it all began"

Labels: Electronic Music, Feminism, Flickr, gay, Google, IT, Lego, News, Photography, Politics, Retro, Secuirty, web 2.0

:: Dan 28.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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The beeb on The sexual revolution... in cartoon form



vs

Mark Kermode on Jason Statham [via natali]

Labels: Feminism, Film

:: Dan 11.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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The Imus vs Rutgers debate in the US at the moment has intrigued me. Some of the media there are playing the bigoted racist angle by selectively only using photographs of the female basketball team that only show black players, there are white players on the team too. They are quick to call Imus's comment – he called them "nappy headed hos" – racist and sexist, which it could be, or it could just be a very badly judged joke. I don't know.

(I'll quickly make the point here that I had never heard of Imus before this and my initially impression of him is that of someone I would dislike and would be unlikely to agree with.)

Parts of the media have then attempted to position his comment (and in part explain it) but showing use of similar phrases in gangster rap and saying that it's perfectly normal then. (I'm thinking of Channel 4 news in the UK when I say that.) Yet they never question the borderline racism in preventing white people using words that are seemingly acceptable from a black person (in my mind as long as the context is the same it should be ok) or the issue of the glorification of sexism and degradation of women in rap culture.

By using that phrase was he pointing out the inherent hypocrisy in the allowable use of language? Or intentionally trying to provoke a response? Or just being naïve? I think he might actual just be stupid, but calling for his resignation because of that is ignoring the bigger issue and exacerbating a double standard.

Labels: Feminism, News, Politics, Rasism

:: Dan 12.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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There was an interesting article about the new wave of feminism in the Big Issue a couple of weeks ago. In particular it sited as issues pushing this resurgence as the growth of anti-abortion groups that obviously contradict pro-choice values and the commercialisation of the female form in lads rags like Nuts and FHM.

It notes that The Nuts website has an "Assess my Breasts" section for women to upload pictures of their tits to so men can letch at them. The terms and conditions when uploading photos include "[I agree] that I waive all moral rights or any similar personal rights" and "[I agree] that all photographs... whether or not retouched, altered or worked-up... and any statement and or words published in conjunction therewith… shall be deemed to represent and refer to an imaginary person and not myself."

Pretty disrespectful, no?

A collection of links to feminist blog and websites was included at the end of the article. I've corrected the mistakes in the URLs:
www.object.org.uk
www.ussu.info/women
charliegrrl.wordpress.com
www.antisexism.org
www.nusonline.co.uk/
mindthegapcardiff.blogspot.com

The only point I'd pick up on was the comment about the role of the internet, saying, "It's ironic that something so negative in so many ways – which has brought us the worst of the pornography industry – is also helping bring feminists together." The internet is a communication tool. It can be used for good and used for bad, just as any other tool could be. But that's another argument.

Coinciding with seeing this I also heard an interview on Radio 4 on the same day about council pay scales:

"This month is the deadline by which local authorities in England and Wales must implement an equal pay structure for men and women." [RealAudio link]

I can't believe that they were arguing that there simply isn't the budget to pay women the same! That should have been budgeted for LONG ago, and if the money still isn't there it should come from the men's pay. Simple as that.

Labels: Feminism, News

:: Dan 26.3.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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