Feminism's New Entry Policy

This blog post has been brewing for a while - ever since the Guardian published an article on Tory feminism several weeks ago in fact - and I discovered the hitherto little known "fact" that you could only be a feminist if you hated the Conservative Party.

I've described myself as a feminist from a very early age. I remember reading about the suffragette movement whilst I was still in primary school and being shocked that women hadn't always been allowed to do the same things as men. Equality has always been one of the most important principles in my life - and not just for women - I believe passionately that all human beings are equal regardless of race, sex, sexuality, religion or any other descriminating factor that anyone cares to think of. All feminism has ever been for me is the belief that women are equal to anyone and anything. 

However, according to people like Suzanne Moore, the fact that I voted for David Cameron negates my right to believe this. Because Margaret Thatcher wasn't a feminist, because the Conservative Party have on occasion acted like the the worst kind of right wing dinosaurs you can only be a feminist if you are "left-wing" (I put left wing in inverted commas here because there is no mainstream political party in the UK whose policies are remotely left of centre). Why? Why in 2012 when no major political figure would deny female equality or the power of the feminist movement can I as a feminist not make a decision to support a political party based on my own beliefs and priorities? In 2015 I may well vote for a different political party (hell, I may even set up my own political party to avoid the dilemma of having to vote for any of the uninspiring choices currently on offer) but in 2010 I voted for the Conservative Party (the reasons for which are explained here). I am technically a Conservative Feminist and thus cannot possibly exist.

So again I'm back to the question of why? Surely it's a good thing that women are represented across the political spectrum and are fighting in different ways for issues important to them! I don't particularly like Louise Mensch or Nadine Dorries but I can't deny that they stand up and fight for the issues which they feel are important. I may fundamentally disagree with Dorries' stance on abortion but hell I fundamentally disagree with every word which comes out of Laurie Penny's mouth as well - and I deny neither of them the right to be a feminist. I may not like the way they do it - dictate what I can do with my uterus or what type of cake I am allowed to eat at your peril - but the most important thing is that they are women standing up and being counted.

So my message to the sisterhood is pretty much just this: respect my right to say and be something, even if you don't like what I'm saying or what I represent. Women aren't all the same, just as all human beings aren't the same. If you don't like my stance on something politically challenge me, I'll debate anything with anyone - I have even been known to change my opinion if given a decent enough reason to do so.  But never ever deny my right to call myself a feminist because of what political party I support.

Caitlin Moran manages to sum up what I'm trying to say far more eloquently than I'm ever going to be able to:

"The purpose of feminism isn't to make a particular type of woman. The idea that there are inherently wrong and inherently right 'types' of women is what's screwed feminism for so long... What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be."

(Seriously if you haven't read How To Be A Woman yet - do it! Even if you're a man, it's fine...)

Thoughts about the Riots...

So we've had three days of riots across England - mostly London-based but spreading to Birmingham and Manchester over the past few days. Things have started to calm down now but that just means people are increasingly casting around for someone to blame and to try, in a largely reactionary way, to suggest ways to deal with the aftermath. I don't have any kind of solution for this particular brand of lunacy but just wanted to get a couple of things off my chest.

Ken Livingstone yesterday referred to the rioters as protestors. Well they're not. I'm sorry but that's the long and the short of it. Protest implies you're protesting against something rather than just stealing plasma TVs and designer clothes "because it's free innit". This whole episode may have begun with a protest (against the shooting by police of Mark Duggan in Tottenham) but it seems clear that this legitimate protest was soon hijacked by those looking for trouble - as per the student protests last Autumn. I'm not saying there aren't serious underlying social issues at work behind this violence but these are long term factors created by decades of social mismanagement by politicians of all stripes. The fervid media attitude towards cuts in public spending combined with a resurgence of global economic problems has made the world feel a less secure place. In my opinion you can't say that an austerity programme less than 9 months old and only marginally more severe than the programme of cuts proposed by the previous government is a genuine factor here. Both the rhetoric and the growing reality of public expenditure cuts is a potential trigger factor but not a root cause.

It has also been suggested that abolition of the Education Maintainance Allowance caused young people to riot. Well in one way that's true. EMA is simply a symptom of a culture of entitlement that can be seen throughout society. When I was a teenager (and it's not that long ago) I had no need of EMA to encourage me to go on to further education - I knew that was what I had to do to improve my chances in life. I had supportive parents and teachers to help me on my way but I knew that to get on in life I had to help myself as well. I got my first job when I was 13 and have been lucky enough not to be out of work since. Very few of my early jobs were glamorous - I was a paper girl then a waitress - but I learnt social skills and earnt my own money long before I had any qualifications to my name. I wasn't unusual - all my friends and classmates had part-time and Saturday jobs. It was just what we did to earn the money for driving lessons, nights out and new clothes. It is tougher to find a job now than it was in 2001 but there are still hundreds of migrant workers doing the jobs that British people won't do. There's a large Polish community in the town I come from many of whom have university level qualifications but are doing relatively menial jobs because they'd rather work than be unemployed. I get the overwhelming sense that for a considerable section of British society they'd rather be unemployed/on benefits than do a job which is more menial.

So what are the answers? Well, I don't have any. My instinctive argument is in favour of a small state and a balanced budget but dogma is no use here. People make a country not politicians - surely the very essence of any kind of big society - and if the policiticians of this country continue to fail her people then things will only get worse. Austerity protects our economy in some ways, preventing massive interest rises on government borrowing and shielding us from some market forces but it makes growth more difficult especially in a time of continued global financial turmoil. If the Eurozone is falling apart and America has its credit rating lowered how can we possibly expect our economy to grow at anything like the pace required? This isn't the government's fault particularly - as a country recovering slowly from recession and with a big burden of debt there's only so much that can be done to improve matters. A fiscal stimulus like a VAT cut may well increase consumer confidence but then again it may not and runs the risk of market disapprobation.

Meanwhile what do we do about social problems? How can we teach kids to aspire to something more than a life on benefits when it's all they and their parents have ever known? How do we encourage children to get an education in order to get a great job when the costs associated with gaining a degree are spiralling and the job market is so challenging? I was lucky - my family all had jobs and my parents encouraged me to try and earn some money of my own. It was just obvious to me that I would have to work for a living and if I worked really hard then one day I would be lucky enough to do a job I really enjoyed. I wholeheartedly believe in a meritocracy but I can see how soul-destroying it must be not to have that vision, not to believe in your own ability to get on in life. To see things getting more expensive and politicians talking about tightening your belts when you and your family couldn't afford the things you needed or wanted even when the UK economy was booming. Perhaps that's why people jumped on the bandwagon of the riots. It's not an apology or an excuse but it's a reason.

So I ask again, how do we solve this? We could ask our politicians to stop becoming entrenched in the dogma that didn't win an election and work together to look at how we can be fiscally responsible and encourage growth. It's not an easy circle to square but surely if MPs stop arguing with one another and start thinking constructively they might just be able to do something productive on our behalf. At the same time we need to look at what we can do with resources other than money to encourage aspiration. If 13 years of a Labour government throwing money at every public service it could think of should have taught us anything it is that social problems can't be solved with investment alone. We need to encourage people to work together within and across communities to help kids realise that they can do anything they want - the only limit is their aspirations. We need to help people who got involved in violence over the past three days put it behind them and use this experience as a catalyst to do something useful.What this situations doesn't need is kneejerk reactions like reducing civil liberties or removing benefit. Yes the actions of those rioting, looting and in some cases killing and injuring people are deplorable but some of the reactions I've seen in the media and on twitter/facebook have been equally so - you don't solve a crisis by suggesting mass murder, you just don't. People convicted over this should feel the full force of the law, no-one should be disputing that, but it is just as important that they receive compassion, help and support to help them realise that there is more to life than a free flatscreen TV and that this country does have more to offer them than violence and poverty.

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Twenty Eight

Day 28: A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty

This is a very strange question - I presume it doesn't refer to guilty pleasures as I've already done that one! So something that makes you physically feel guilty then - interesting concept... To be honest, I don't feel guilty about a whole lot these days - it's been a long time since I've done anything that caused serious guilt. I'm not saying I'm an angel, far from it, but I do tend to behave reasonably well these days - I had my fill of inappropriate relationships a long time back and I've never much been into petty theft, drug taking or anything vaguely illegal. The nearest I get to misbehaving is the odd occasion where I drink too much but even that's increasingly rare these days - I'm getting very boring in my old age evidently!

So what does make me feel guilty? Well in a strange way - music does. I always feel like somewhat of a late starter when it comes to knowing about bands - I own a considerable amount of music and listen to even more but there is so much fabulous music out there that I'm just utterly ignorant about. It's likely I'm being too harsh on myself here - no-one can ever hope to live long enough listen to all the music that's ever been produced for a start! I can let myself off the hook for not knowing about a band but I'm also guilty of glibly saying that I love a band or an artist on the basis of one song and then never bothering to look into anything else they've done. Which sometimes is acceptable - they could only have one good song - but I do feel I should make more of an effort when it comes to knowing about music, if only to not sound like an idiot in the company of more musically geeky people.

She's Lost Control by Joy Division is a fabulous, haunting, brilliant song but the first time I heard it was whilst watching Control - the film about Ian Curtis' life - about two months ago. Even worse, I'd had the DVD sitting on my desk for two years gathering dust. I can now legitimately say I love Joy Division (having listened to their entire back catalogue out of shame) but this song does make me feel guilty for not having done so earlier.

"Confusion in her eyes that says it all.
She's lost control.
And she's clinging to the nearest passer by,
She's lost control.
And she gave away the secrets of her past,
And said I've lost control again,
And a voice that told her when and where to act,
She said I've lost control again"

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Twenty Seven

Day 27: A Song You Wish You Could Play

As discussed in the last post I am not a musical person. I can't sing and I can't play any kind of instrument let alone play even one of the songs I love. In a perfect world I would be a singer/songwriter with multi-coloured hair and a wardrobe full of rock star clothes. However, it isn't a perfect world - don't get me wrong, my world is pretty damn awesome - but there are things I will never be able to do and being a musician is one of them. To a certain extent this is my own fault for not taking the time to learn/practice/whatever but it's also just a lack of natural skill!

There are therefore a lot of songs I wish I could play, most songs if I'm truthful. But I've got to choose one and as I'm a guitar chick at heart it has to be an air guitar classic - Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns'n'Roses. This song is a deserved classic and I love dancing to it although as I do a lot of air guitar I undoubtedly look like a complete moron whilst doing so! If by any chance I discover any hitherto untapped musical brilliance this is definitely the first song I'd want to learn to play...

"She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry
Sweet child o' mine
Sweet love of mine"

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Twenty Six

Day 26: A Song You Can Play on an Instrument

Bahahahaha! This is going to be the shortest blog post in the history of the world. I can't play any instruments, at all. In fact, despite the fact I adore music, I must be one of the least musically talented people in the world. I wasn't allowed to learn the violin or join the choir because I couldn't tell one note from another and I played the recorder ineptly for a few months at primary school - that's the full extent of my musical repetoire! It's a shame because I'd love to be able to play some of the wonderful music that I love but I long ago accepted the fact that I'm musically incapable! 

So the answer to this question is, by default, the only song I have ever been able to play on an instrument - a French nursery rhyme called Frere Jacques on the recorder (the video is not me by the way). And I couldn't play it now to save my life!!

"Frere Jacques,
Frere Jacques,
Dormez vous?
Dormez vous?
Sonnez les matines,
Sonnez les matines.
Ding Ding Dong,
Ding Ding Dong."

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Twenty Five

Day 25: A Song That Makes You Laugh

British music is full of quirky silliness that makes me chuckle - Village Green Preservation Society by the Kinks, anything by Lemon Jelly, the Darkness or Goldie Lookin Chain and so on. As is British culture - from the Goonies to Black Books our comedy is by turns daft, dark, deeply human and utterly hilarious. The apotheosis of all this silliness is, at least as far as I'm concerned, Monty Python. The credit for my love of Monty Python has to go equally to my dad - I remember watching Python sketches with him when I was younger - and friends in my first year at University. I must have watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail about a million times during that year - I can still quote great big chunks of it from memory and it's undoubtedly one of my all-time favourite films. In fact, I slightly judge people who don't like it...

The Pythons were also brilliant at bonkers songs and of all their music there is one song that will always make me laugh out loud - however much of a terrible mood I'm in. My friend Jodie used to play it to me whenever I was having a crisis and although I've become much less melodramatic over the years it still works. So a little bit of laughter for a Tuesday morning - the Galaxy Song!

"The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."

30 Day Music Challenge: Day Twenty Four

Day 24: A Song You Want To Play At Your Funeral

A somewhat depressing question this one and one that it's quite hard for me to think about. It's only about a month since my Nana's funeral and the feeling of complete unreality as we walked into the church behind her coffin is as tangible to me now as it was then. There must have been music playing and I know we sang hymns but I honestly couldn't tell you what any of it was. I don't remember what music played at my Uncle's funeral either for that matter or at any other funeral I've been to. So in the face of death does music become insignificant to me or do I just choose not to remember it? Poetry seems much more appropriate for funerals to me - so many of the poems I'm most familiar with - Brooke, Sassoon, Owen, Rossetti - are infused with war, loss and grief.

Music is however an important part of my life and I want that reflected at my funeral - even if no-one really listens to it. I don't want anything too upbeat playing - I seriously doubt I'll be happy about dying and I'd like to think that people will be at least a little bit sad that I'm gone! However I'm not having anything dirgelike either - no Smiths or I will haunt the person who chooses the music for the rest of eternity... So instead let's have a bit of classic rock, namely the Rolling Stones. The Stones are undeniably an epic band, love them or loathe them, their music is incredible. After I'd worn out my ears listening to the Beatles at 16 I then moved on to the Rolling Stones fully prepared to dislike them - I'd got it into my head that you couldn't be a fan of both bands I think... That clearly isn't the case - in fact I don't think there's a Rolling Stone song which I don't like! Ruby Tuesday is however one of my favourites and I think it'd be entirely appropriate for saying goodbye. Of course I'm not going anywhere just yet so don't get too melancholy listening to this...

"She would never say where she came from
Yesterday don't matter if it's gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No one knows
She comes and goes

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you...

Don't question why she needs to be so free

She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost

There's no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind.
Ain't life unkind?

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you..."