All blog posts
Quarantine Thoughts (2) Love does not exist
Love doesn’t exist. We’ve been sold this ideal of “love” as a force which conquers all obstacles and ends in a happily ever after. But if that were true, there would be no breakups. We wouldn’t be confused about whether we’re in love or not, or believe we’re in love but later realise we never…
Quarantine Thoughts (1): Forget feminism, race & LGBTQ rights- why freedom is the only right we should fight for!
The splitting up of campaigns to fight for the interests of different communities was useful. It provided focus, drive and benefited from the determination and understanding of affected people working together. But that time is nearly over. We have emigrated, educated and pioneered our way into a melting pot of intersecting multiple identities and oppressions.…
Why you should be enjoying the Covid-19 pandemic
CONTENT NOTE: If someone close to you is seriously ill with Covid-19 or you have been bereaved by coronavirus, you may wish to stop reading. Pandemics are a fraction of a second to Nature and mean nothing at all. However, as short-lived humans, we do notice these things. So don’t let this be a time…
The election proves Scotland needs Enhanced Devolution
The results of the 2019 General Election were that Scotland overwhelmingly voted SNP. Yet, we are now once again ruled by a Conservative UK government. When Scotland votes SNP, we get a Tory government. Read that again. How is that fair or make any kind of sense? I’m still on the fence about independence, but…
Stirling poem
On the day of the election just as I was drifting off to sleep, I started getting lines about Stirling forming in my thoughts, so I wrote them in my phone. Here they are: Historic Stirling, jewel in Scotland’s crown Beloved Stirling, jewel of my heart Nature raised the towers of your hills Us creatures…
Analysing Beijing’s 8 dirty tactics against the Hong Kong protesters
I’m no stranger to unreasonable authority using lies, tricks and stratagems to oppress the public. But China’s dirty tactics impress me, and admittedly top anything I’ve seen local government do here in Britain. On a personal level I’ve always been capable of admiration for the strategies of a competent adversary. So here is my analysis…
Free Hong Kong
Free Hong Kong from China’s dictatorship. Free Hong Kong from police brutality. Free Hong Kong from restriction of the press by police assault and intimidation. Free Hong Kong from a leader determined to betray her own people and destroy the peaceful democratic society which she benefitted from. Free Hong Kong from an extradition bill which…
Lightbringer was democracy! How every Game of Thrones prophecy came true- with a twist!
The Long Night isn’t what you think it is. The Night King was a red herring, Lightbringer isn’t a sword, and The Stallion Who Mounts The World wasn’t murdered. Most people’s reaction to the shocking Game of Thrones finale, and S8E3, was that every single prophecy didn’t come true. The Night King was defeated…
This is why Daenerys destroyed King’s Landing
No, D&D didn’t mess up (for about the first time since Season 8 started). The writing was rushed- as per usual for this season- but it wasn’t nonsensical. Some people have commented that the showrunners are making Dany fit the ‘crazy wimmin’ stereotype and completely reverse Cersei and Sansa’s characters to make them less strong.…
What every character should do to win the Game of Thrones
The opening episode of Season 8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones saw multiple reunions and preparations for war. Cersei appears to be the only one interested in the Iron Throne for now; Euron just wants to impregnate her and leave (or so he claims) while everyone else is focussed on fighting the Night King. But…
How Lysa Tully masterminded the wars in Game of Thrones
Lysa Tully Arryn was the instigator of the War of Five Kings. Lysa was more than she appeared. She was more than Littlefinger’s pawn. Lysa hid her evil behind a mask of fearfulness, overprotectiveness toward her son Robin and generally being pathetic. Just like her sister Catelyn Tully hid her own cruelty behind determination, protectiveness…
Here’s Why Shamima Begum WON’T Be Prosecuted If She Wins Back UK Citizenship- And How She Can Live In Holland WITHOUT Dutch Citizenship!
How could Shamima Begum win an appeal against the Home Secretary’s revocation of her citizenship? First off, it’s illegal for any UK court to remove citizenship if that would make someone stateless. In Shamima’s case, she doesn’t have dual citizenship (that we know of) so that’s a weight in her favour right there.…
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America Proves Right Wingers Are Ignorant About The Political Left
Sacha Baron Cohen has duped lots of people on his TV show Who Is America? where, Borat-style, he plays different characters and fools his interviewees into reacting to those characters. He’s tricked lefties, he’s tricked righties. He’s tricked ordinary Joes and lawmakers, celebrities and folks working out their payroll. Baron Cohen isn’t targeting any…
Telling women not to go out to avoid rape isn’t about safety. It’s about restricting women’s freedom. Here’s why.
We’re into Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale (which I’m not yet watching, but I’ve just read the book. Aside: Is it weird that the show has already gone past the book in terms of June’s pregnancy?) And I’m seeing lots of posts from Americans about how the show “is slowly happening in…
Trump’s diabolical plan to blackmail Britain into hard Brexit so he & his secret brother Boris Johnson can rule the world (only 48% satire)
Trump was offered a state visit to Britain. And he spent it criticizing Theresa May and Sadiq Khan, and promoting Boris Johnson as the next PM. In fact, he started this before he’d even left the US. The Guardian seems to be pinning Trump’s behaviour on his support for nationalism over supranational institutions. But is…
How much education do we REALLY need?
I’d grown up hearing that the British education system was the best in the world. (Looking back, perhaps the fact that after 13 years of schooling I still can’t type properly should’ve raised my suspicions). But after spending some time with people from developing countries I realised that they had benefited from a much superior…
Why does the law force rape victims to share child custody with their rapists?: The legal principles behind parental rights and responsibilities
In seven states in the USA. rapists can sue victims for custody of any children concieved by the assault. A conviction is needed to anull rapists’ parental rights. The problem is that most rapes don’t even go to court. Even in the minority of cases where a conviction is secured, these are often the result of…
Theresa May vs Putin: What’s their next move over the Salisbury poisoning?
International relations are driven by national leaders. But those leaders act according to public and governmental pressure. Only by understanding Theresa May’s and Vladimir Putin’s goals, motivations and pressures can we predict whether UK-Russia tensions will be enduring. The Salisbury Novichok attack has kicked off what appears to be a never-ending saga of…
Why British Campus Sexual Assault Victims Can’t Get Justice From Their University- But Americans Can
First published on The Fifth Column, 2/10/17. Students, sexual assault survivors and campaigners in the USA are riled up, and rightfully so: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last week rescinded Obama-era guidance on universities’ duties to deal with campus sexual assault. But just because there’s a relative lack of public debate on the issue in Britain,…
Motivational meme
I don’t think I’ve ever done a short ‘n sweet blog post. I’m usually into analysis of news stories or commenting on gender equality or human rights issues. The most light-hearted post was probably that last one about archetypes of women in Game of Thrones. So, here it is: I’m prone to long and…
How Game of Thrones Debunks Archetypes of Women
It wasn’t so long ago that Game of Thrones was widely criticised for its initial portrayal of female characters as powerless victims. In my view, the disconnect between the books and TV series was the main factor in these concerns: scenes such as Sansa’s (Jeyne Poole in the books) abuse was shot for TV in…
How the political correctness debate is being manufactured
Has political correctness gone mad? That was the title of Trevor Phillip’s latest Channel 4 documentary which aired a few days ago. The docco contends that Brexit and Trump happened as a result of the ‘hard left’ refusing to engage in debate and using political correctness to silence opponents. And you’d be forgiven for thinking that…
Qatar to host World Cup despite appalling human rights record
First published on Mint Press News on 27/6/16 Recently, Qatar jailed a Dutch tourist for having sex after she reported her rape. The case revealed to the West how rape victims are treated in Qatar. As Qatar will be the host of the 2022 World Cup, this raises the question of the risks faced by…
Vote remain: how EU human, women’s and labour rights protect us from the Tories
While the Brexit vs Bremain debate has been- and will continue to be- argued and analysed to death, one very important issue has escaped mainstream attention: human rights. The EU’s European Court of Justice, its laws and its Charter of Fundamental Rights safeguards our human rights more than the European Court of Human Rights.…
US Government lost woman’s citizenship records, condemning her to live as an illegal alien
First published on Mint Press News, 10/11/15. Photo credit: Flickr / U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Felicito Rustique Sally Anne is a US citizen. She came to the US as an 18-month-old when she was adopted from India by her American parents and became a naturalized US citizen. But…
Underage Sex Workers- victims of trafficking or child protection policy?
Sex work law in the UK is complicated. Though it’s not fully criminalised as in most of the US, it is illegal for sex workers to share accommodation (“brothel-keeping”) even though this would improve sex workers’ safety. Soliciting and kerb-crawling are also illegal. One of the prostitution laws is that while the age of consent…
Why Women Shouldn’t Take Precautions Against Rape
First published on The Fifth Column on 24/11/15. If you’re a female in the UK- and if you identified as or were labelled as female when you were growing up- you’ll have been told something like this: “Don’t go out at night, it’s dangerous.” “Don’t go for a walk alone, you never know who…
No legal protection for employees fired for their lifestyle, appearance or family choices
First published on The Fifth Column, July 2015 Could you be fired for your lifestyle, hair, or past job? It could be more likely than you think. We tend to think that we’re protected by antidiscrimination and labour laws. But people have been fired for being an unmarried mother, previously being a…
Why Amnesty International Should Support Decriminalising Sex Work
First published on The Fifth Column, August 2015 Amnesty International’s proposal to recognise sex work as a human right and adopt a position in favour of decriminalising sex work has met with controversy from anti-sex work groups. A group of Hollywood celebrities have signed an open letter to Amnesty calling for sex work to…
Nigel Farage’s UKIP15 Speech (parody)
Now I don’t know what Nigel Farage said at the UKIP conference, and I don’t care. In fact we all know the kind of thing he’s bound to say. I’ll bet it went something like this: “Britain needs to get itself back to being Britain again. Britain Britain Britain. And I’m the guy to take…
Job Centre bans man for making complaint, admits they sanction claimants even if they apply for enough jobs
On 22/06/15 at 10:34 (my laptop had to be repaired, hence the delay in reporting this) I saw a Job Centre advisor tell a “customer” (as the DWP calls those forced to attend the Job Centre) that he was now “banned from this Job Centre” for making a complaint against one of the staff. She informed…
Job Centre Refuses To Let Man Make New Benefits Claim And Sanctions Woman By Mistake
Today I saw three things happen at the Jobcentre. It’s a bit weird that this happened just after I finally launched the ebook. I wasn’t trying to observe anything, it was just a routine interview. I wasn’t even expecting to see anything because my advisor is fine and so, if I were the sort of person…
I Just Published An Ebook- JobCentre: Confidential Is The True Story Of Being Undercover At The DWP
Back in March I asked the Job Centre to let me do work experience. It’s something the DWP routinely does. They paid my travelling but not lunch but I was happy with this; information usually comes at a price, even if that price is only effort and time. This was the culmination of a two-year…
Why Revenge Porn Works
Originally published on Cliterati on 4/3/15. It’s now a crime in the UK to post or send “revenge porn”. A sensible law in keeping with the spirit of existing criminal law and data protection laws, and, as many would agree, long overdue. But law isn’t the only thing that needs to change. Because without certain…
Torture Report: It’s Not Just The CIA, But A Global & Structural Problem
In the light of the Senate Committee’s Torture Report, we’re all keen to criticise the CIA. But 54 countries were involved in rendition and torture, and they all need to come clean about their involvement. The problem was global. The US may have exported torture just like the British Empire once exported its questionable values,…
How I got the DWP to release “commercially sensitive info” (admit how much they pay Ingeus)
When I asked the DWP how much they paid Work Programme companies, they rejected my request 4 times. The last time was on the grounds that this information could not be released because it was “commercially sensitive”. This is obviously a completely inappropriate attempt to subvert transparency and the Freedom of Information Act. It also…
Fake Black Friday Deals
Today was my first Black Friday. And it’s only 4:30pm and already I’m disgusted with the whole idea. Being a spoilt lil’ bitch growing up, searching for deals was never something I had to learn. So it was only after watching South Park’s Game of Thrones saga that I first really knew about Black Friday…
How Jobcentres bully the disabled and set up fake JSA sanctions
Originally published as ‘Revealed: Inhumane Treatment Of Disabled And Poor By UK’s Department For Work And Pension’ on Mint Press News on 9/10/14. The Department for Work and Pension’s unfair treatment of disabled claimants has been widely reported. There was the ex-RAF serviceman who was found fit to work even though he has to carry…
Belle Knox, Libertarianism and the politics of freedom
First published 20/8/14 on Cliterati. What pops into your mind when you think of Libertarianism? (Or Classical Liberalism, if you’re from the UK). It’s about liberty- as its name suggests. Freedom from government and moral regulation, hence its socially liberal and fiscally conservative tendencies. It’s been used to justify everything from consensual incest…
The Media Should Continue To Promote ISIS Propaganda
As is so obviously apparent, the Islamic State (a.k.a. ISIS) is, just like many fairly young start-ups, only just beginning to experiment with PR, marketing and social media recruitment. Their first attempts to recruit Westerners have so far involved poorly shot amateur videos of such bad quality that they’re useless even when analysed. Their clumsy…
The REAL Scandal of Germany’s Corporate Sex Parties
First published 29/7/14 on Cliterati as ‘Corporate Sex Parties: The Untold Scandal Behind The Headlines’. Germany might be more open about nudity (nude parks), gender (third gender on birth certs) and sex work (it’s legalised) than Britain, but a company hiring escorts and throwing its top salesmen a sex party is still a scandal…
The DWP Works For YOU- Jobcentres must be run in accordance with benefits claimants’ wishes
DWP shamingThe DWP thrives on shame. Its tool for repressing benefit claimants is total humiliation and control, and its security for its controversial policies are lies and vilifying of the unemployed. If it operated otherwise, its punishments for poverty – six month workfares, daily sign-ins, mandatory meetings- wouldn’t be tolerated by either its victims or…
Natalie Rowe’s arrest: George Osborne, whorephobia and journalist privelege
“Natalie Rowe”, the escort agency madam and former dominatrix who was exposed along with George Osborne in a 1994 photo, was just arrested. She was arrested for “abusive behaviour” after tweeting a photo of George Osborne in her flat. The photo doesn’t appear to have been taken covertly, and “Rowe” purposely obscured the face…
The Porn Filter: A Censored Britain
First published as Censorship in the UK: The Internet, Media Myths and the Porn Panic on 16/5/14 on Cliterati. No censorship plan could be complete without fearmongering. And as is often the case, the enemy these days is dirty, filthy, child-corrupting, woman-defiling, enemy-of-the-family, soul destroying sex. Well, porn, to be precise. But David…
Undercover Police Spies Committed Rape
In Scots law, pretending to be someone else or lying about your identity to get sex is rape. Which means that undercover police having relationships and families with the activists they were spying on was rape. (It may also constitute lying about the purpose of the sex act, which is also rape under Scots law,…
The Prochoice Litmus Test
First published on Cliterati on 30/4/14 as ‘Josie Cunningham: The litmus test of what it means to be prochoice’ Unless you don’t pay any attention to internet culture, you’ll have heard of Josie Cunningham. The model, escort and mum of two sparked a Fifties-style outbreak of outraged pearl-clutchery when she told the…
Teen Mothers Speak: Stigma, Misogyny-And The Failure Of Feminism
First published on Cliterati on 7/4/14. Teen parents- especially teenage mothers- are stigmatised. “Pregnant girls are viewed as either poor immoral victims who need fixing, or manipulating devious sluts who need punishing,” says Prym Face, Telegraph blogger, researcher, former young mother and founder of Promoting Respect for Young Mothers. “Support for teen mums is…
Job Centre Mole: The Second Interview
First published on Guerilla Policy on 20/3/14. In November 2013 I interviewed the DWP whistleblower known as the Jobcentre Mole, who used Twitter to expose corruption and advise DWP victims. In the interview the Mole revealed the existence of sanctions bonuses and competition between JobCentres to sanction the most people. Now another whistleblower who tweets…
Objectification: The Cause Of Slut Shaming
First published on http://www.cliterati.co.uk on 8/2/14. “Objectification.” It’s a word we hear all too often. The charge of “objectification” is levelled at films, the news media, lyrics, art, and of course porn. Sometimes we intersectional or sex positive feminists might feel like it’s a catch-all term which silences those who have sex industry careers- especially…
Are Bloggers Protected By Freedom Of The Press? Wikileaks, The NSA Files And The Unanswered Questions
There is- obviously- a lot of interweb chatter about GCHQ and the NSA. But these questions remain unanswered: Freedom Of The Press Okay, we get it: the media is protected when it comes to revealing secrets (at least most of the time- they can be prevented from reporting on secret trials; the UK Guardian was…
Sex workers are #notyourrescueproject: Rape by anti-trafficking NGOs & stigma by feminists
First published on my Cliterati column on 1/2/14. “If we want anything from outside like sweets, chewing gum or magazines or phone credit we have to give hand job or blow job to security,” reveals Molli Desi Devadasi. But she’s not talking about a prison. Molli, now a UK-based sex worker, was “rescued” by an…
Why We Need An NSA WikiLeaks: Transparency Should Mean No Guardian Monopoly
What really irritates me about the discourse on Snowden and the NSA is that whether you think Snowden is a hero or a traitor, whether you’re British or American, everyone seems agreed on the “fact” that the release of selected NSA files to a single multinational corporation is the ultimate freedom ever. Let’s think about…
Why We Should All Shut Up About So-Called “Teen Pregnancy”
First published on the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association blog on 27/12/13 as “Teen Pregnancy: Stop The Stigma”. Teen mothers. They’re sluts. Benefits scroungers. They’re not good mothers. They’re all working class. And they’ll never, ever amount to anything. “Society expects the worst outcomes for pregnant teens & young parents, so it gets the worst…
Interview: How Feminism Exploits Sex Workers
This is the full text of the interview with feminist genderqueer sex worker @MxLaudanum, which was quoted in this article on the rescue industry I wrote for Cliterati (published 1/02/14). The interview itself makes a very powerful post in its own right. Written in just a couple of hours, it’s a stunning critique of contemporary feminism…
How To Stop NSA, GCHQ or press surveillance
There are many reasons why you might need anonymity online. Journalists, whistleblowers, bloggers and activists benefit from staying anonymous. So do people who might be discriminated against for expressing themselves, such as certain communities, religious groups and sex bloggers. Even if none of that applies to you, the NSA’s global reach means that it’s wise…
Slut Shaming: When Teens Adopt Traditional Values
This article was first published on Cliterati.co.uk on 11/12/13. Slut shamed to death. Not just Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons and Audrie Potts but other victims all over the world who we’ll never hear about. Most of the women we do hear about are middle class, cis, white and very young. They usually have caring, confident…
Stuff That Happened In 2013: feminism, sex work activism, DWP, freedom
So. A lot happened in 2013. Here’s a round-up of feminist, freedom-related and sex worker activism stuff that happened. Feminism Sadly it looks like we’re no closer to an intersectional mainstream feminism, as feminists continue to ignore trans, disabled, coloured, migrant and sex working women. 2013 saw the rise of the No More Page Three…
Reply to Glosswitch’s porn debate blog
Sekhmet has blessed me with a chance to defend my honour. That was one of the first things I tweeted at 1am today just after I read this blog, which accuses me of several things without evidence, attacks queer women and claims that any woman who is against No More Page 3, porn filters or…
Female Pick Up Artists: Challenging the Patriarchy’s Science
First published as “Female Pick Up Artists” on Fearless Press on 16 October 2013. Pick up artists. Men who “run game” on women. We’ve all heard of them- but why do we never hear about female pick up artists running game on men? I referred to girls trying to get boys into bed as “playing the game”…
How I Found Out Apartheid Existed In My Lifetime
I’m writing this post- a post so far removed from what I’d ordinarily write- because I have a rare perspective on Nelson Mandela. No, it’s not anything interesting or unique. It’s certainly not something I’m proud of. My perspective is that I believed that apartheid ended in the 70s and I only realised the truth…
How Glee Teaches Girls To Slut Shame
Glee. Marketed as a progressive LGBT positive show, it just…well, isn’t, as the LGBTQI community worked out about three years ago. As @princessjack has documented in this blog, Glee has a fine tradition of slut shaming: Teacher Sue Sylvester posed nude for a magazine way back when but it is used to threaten her reputation…
Don’t ban rape porn- ban rape apologism!
Our government wants porn filters. Some feminists want to ban porn, especially “rape porn”. But what’s the point of getting rid of pornography if we don’t get rid of the real issue: rape culture? Rape apologism and victim blaming is rife in the media. Mainstream horror novels like Stephen King’s Carrie suggest that rape victims…
Interview with a Job Centre Advisor: sanction targets & corruption revealed
@JobcentreMole is a Job Centre advisor who has taken to Twitter to speak out about the Job Centre’s unfair treatment of people who are claiming benefits. For obvious reasons he is anonymous. I think that what he’s doing is very brave. We did this interview by email. (All emphases are mine). The Mole says: “I…
Rochdale sex abuse & Girl A’s book: why we shouldn’t call abuse ‘child prostitution’
“Child prostitution”. It’s a term that should never be used. It insults both sex workers and victims of child abuse. Why? Because it equates consenting adult sex workers with child victims of abuse, rape and trafficking. It suggests that consenting sex workers don’t have agency and that child abuse victims are somehow complicit in their…
7 Reasons Why Radical Feminist Exclusion Of Trans Women Is A Logic Fail
Feminism. It means standing in support of all women, right? Fighting for the equality of all women. Recognising intersectionality of oppression and the different issues facing women in different situations? Well…no. At least not according to TERFS (trans excluding radical feminists). I like to think that I’m not your typical liberal, that I’m not the…
The Job Centre, illegal sanctions and state control of the body
Our government is throwing away hundreds of millions on work providers like Ingeus and A4e. The Herald claims that each provider costs us between 10 million and 50 million per year- and there are over 40 of them. It’s a tad pointless when all these expensive schemes don’t actually help people get jobs. It just…
The arguments against military intervention in Syria
So. I consider myself ignorant on the whole Syria thing. Unlike the feminist and other political issues I usually blog on, I didn’t academically study or do my own research or personally experience or interview people about Syria. If you’re looking for intelligent commentary, move along. If you’re looking for a (hopefully) intelligent argument, stick…
The UnSlut Project interview: Emily Lindin and Jessica Caimi talk slut shaming, bullying and their documentary film
Emily Lindin (founder of UnSlut Project) and Jessica Caimi are looking for funding to film a documentary about slut shaming in schools, the media, communities and culture. Emily revealed her experience of being slut shamed when she published her teenage diaries online. The UnSlut project offers advice to teens and is a space where we…
Mainstream feminist campaigns don’t help the most marginalised women
The feminist campaigns that get media attention are the ones which need that attention least. Yes, banknotes and creating a database of women experts are good ideas. But these projects’ impacts on women’s lives are minimal. The most vulnerable or stigmatised women (migrants, abuse victims, women of colour, queer women, disabled women and sex workers)…
The Marriage Tax Allowance is expensive discrimination: Don’t Judge My Family!
The Marriage Tax Allowance will give around £3 per week to married couples while discriminating against cohabiting couples and single parents. But the poorest families such as unemployed parents won’t benefit – and neither will families where both the parents work. Only couples who adhere to the breadwinner and home maker model will receive the…
The UK internet filter: Banning ‘rape porn’ will censor LGBT, feminist sites and won’t stop rape
Banning rape porn. It’s the latest UK feminist thing that’s actually being taken up by politicians. And it’s the latest Hydra head to be reared in the cyclical moral panic over Innocent Kiddies Being Corrupted By Porn. (Not that the corruption of our kiddies has ever been proved, but then who needs to rely on…
Patriarchy- is the concept still relevant to feminism?
First published on The Quail Pipe on 25th June 2013. The Patriarchy – a fundamental tenet of feminism, right? If you’re for gender equality then you’ve got to be against The Patriarchy because it’s the elite men who run society that are stopping women from achieving equality. I’m not for a moment suggesting that…
Feminism in George Orwell’s 1984
Orwell identifies lust, love, friendship, sex/orgasms and family to be what makes us human and therefore what the Party must destroy. Orwell displays a lot of liberalism here: he sees no hierarchy between lust and love (Winston’s encounter with a sex worker and with Julia are favourably compared to sex with his wife. His later…
Meg of the Ingeus Diaries: “I work for £51 a week to escape Jobcentre”
Remember Meg who previously told Slutocracy her story of the Ingeus experience (here and here)? She’s now working for £20 a week less than her Jobseeker’s Allowance just so she can escape the Jobcentre. “I earn £51 a week working 2 days a week. My jobseekers was £71 but I can’t cope with the Jobcentre…
EU free movement law discriminates non EU citizens
EU Law discriminates against individuals and families who aren’t EU citizens. Here’s a list of how EU citizens and their families are given preferential treatment over non-EU nationals (all references are to Directive 2004/38/EC): EU citizens can enter the UK (and all other EU Member States). The only requirement is that they have enough resources…
The Candies Foundation prophet: preaching abstinence, selling sex
Candies Foundation founder Neil Cole sets himself up as the saviour of teenage girls, shaming teen mothers and promoting abstinence. But does this modern-day American prophet practice what he preaches? Neil Cole’s Candies Foundation is named after his clothing line – a line aimed at very young teenage girls. Its website even lets visitors use…
List of all the things the Government is doing to increase wealth gaps
Work Tax Credit Sound good? Tax credits for poor people, right? Nope. Work Tax Credit is counted as “income” when calculating your Housing Benefit. So you actually get nothing. If you work less than 16 hours a week you won’t be entitled to Work Tax credit but that’s not so bad because you’ll actually…
New Clause 20: pros and cons of sex and relationships education
While I was getting the sex work debate posts together. this happened: On 11 June, New Clause 20 – which would have made personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, including sex and relationships education (SRE), statutory in state schools – was defeated by 303 votes to 209 That’s from the Brook Charity’s website. Brook and the…
How the internet deals with racism and why we need a change
This is Vice.com’s interview with three “Babes of the BNP” as Vice has chosen to style these teens and young women. The fact that Vice is showing the BNP’s unbelievable ignorance and race hatred to all of us here in the UK is a good thing. It’s a great thing. But the undertones of sexism…
Libel laws and free speech
Just as I was busy with with the sex work debate posts, our hard working newshounds managed to sniff themselves out another sex scandal. Now, I’m opposed to media intrusion of private lives. I’m baffled by the idea of “sex scandals” or the concept that sex can be news. And I’m against the news media…
The Prostitution Debate: Extended Edition
On 3 June 2013, a debate on sex work was arranged by Solas, Centre for Public Christianity. The debaters were Laura Lee (Sex worker rights campaigner, blogger and sex worker), Douglas Fox (of the International Union of Sex Workers, editor of the blog Harlots Parlour and sex worker), Rhoda Grant MSP (who has put forward…
Criminalising sex purchase in Scotland: public debate report & interviews
This short version of the article was first published on Blirt.com. For the longer version see The Prostitution Debate: Extended Edition. Douglas Fox, a sex worker activist, asked Rhoda Grant MSP “Imagine if your Bill [to criminalise sex purchase] is now law. Police break down the door and I’m caught in a hotel room with…
Memoirs of a benefits scrounger: Jobcentre sanctions me for getting a job
My transition from good-for-nothing benefits scrounger to upstanding citizen is only a phone call away. Yes, for the last couple of months copywriting and content writing work was harder to find and I’ve been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. Now that I’ve got a regular job again I went down to my local Jobcentre to close my…
Candies Foundation and #noteenpreg – sexism, moralising & shaming young mothers
The Candies Foundation uses hashtag #noteenpreg to discourage teen pregnancy for “teen pregnancy prevention month”. (Yes, you did read that right: they want to control teens’ reproductive choices and eradicate an entire family form.) I’ve previously blogged about how the concept of ‘teenage pregnancy’ is a social construction dependent upon acceptance of older pregnancy as…
The Ingeus Diaries (part 2): Jobcentre stalking & benefits cut due to Jobcentre incompetency
DAY 2 Before I wrote my last blog, Meg told me that some people hadn’t turned up because the Jobcentre failed to tell them it was mandatory that they go to Ingeus. As a result, their benefits will be cut. These people still weren’t there today. Meg also told me she would only have to…
The Ingeus Diaries: a jobseeker’s report of an Ingeus programme
Meg is a middle-aged migrant woman with a degree and 9 years’ experience as a legal secretary. She’s also been self employed and worked briefly as a waitress. Meg was referred to the Ingeus 2-week Stairway To Work programme by her Jobcentre two months after completing her workfare at YMCA and three months after completeing…
No Perfect Families: Margaret Thatcher’s family contradicts her morals and family values
Broken families, they’re called. Like they’re somehow deficient – a shattered part of a socially-approved whole. Single mums, because we think women shouldn’t have the right to have families without a man. It wasn’t too long ago that unmarried mother was in vogue and in America unwed teenage mother is still an acceptable term. We…
Lavishness of Thatcher funeral was personal gift from David Cameron
We had a successful revolution against Thatcher’s rule – as we did against Tony Blair’s- and she was forced to step down. That’s what revolutions in democracies look like. But today 10 million [update: the BBC just reported that the amount spent is “a state secret”] was spent on glorifying her name. This must surely…
Media turns gang rape into a joke – because victim was a man
A few days ago a news story popped up in my Twitter feed. It was the shocking report of how a 19 year old was lured into a car by four much older women on the pretense of giving him a ride home. Instead, the gang drove him to a secluded spot where all four…
Ancient Aliens: the prequel (as scientifically flawed as the second series)
The previous series of the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens was, as the title of this post suggests, as scientifically flawed as the second. But let’s skate over the fact that it prophesied the return of the ancient aliens and the end of the world on 21 December 2012. That’s just an embarassing detail in the…
Non nuclear families: support, don’t shame
The universe is infinitely mysterious – even an equation like E=MC squared is beyond the understanding of most of us. 99% of the ocean depths remain unexplored. And the issues and injustice faced by people and animals around the world are too numerous to begin to count. Yet for some people the issue of who,…
Getting pregnant won’t ruin your life: teenage girls, pregnancy and myths
As Doortje Braeken noted in her telegraph column, “we’re not teaching young women about teenage motherhood because we don’t believe it’s a good idea because we do see that it reduces a woman’s future choices.” She went on to say that personal choice is absolutely sovereign. I fully agree with Doortje Braeken but I want to…
What can we learn from Margaret Thatcher? Gender, Class and a positive message
It’s become quite fashionable to blog on Thatcher since yesterday afternoon but although I have many criticisms of her, I don’t think there’s any point in me airing them when others are doing so far better than I ever could. Instead of writing history I’m going to blog about the lessons we can learn for…
Myths about unemployment and why the unemployed deserve medals for workfare
As we all know, politicians and the media can’t shut up about how the unemployed are lazy scroungers or, recently, even child-killers (as alleged by George Osborne and the Daily Mail) just because Mick Philpott happened to be unemployed. But jobseekers are the ones who are working for free doing workfares up and down the…
Easter and April Fools: religion and discrimination
I think it’s great that Easter Monday has fallen on April Fools’ Day. My usual (internal) reaction to hearing about religions I don’t know much about (i.e. most of them) is “So, which groups of people do you have to hate?”. Because while whatever Holy Communion is remains a mystery to me, the hate and…
How workfare and students working contribute to unemployment
While workfare is widely criticised as providing free labour for corporations such as Asda and Superdrug, workfare is only part of a wider trend of free labour being used. Firstly, there’s social media marketing. When you follow Burger King on Twitter or ‘like’ the new Cadbury product, you’re providing free marketing. Many apps and sites…
Why we stigmatise teen pregnancy: teen sex and intersectionality
Why is there a stigma, perpetuated by the media, about teenage pregnancy? And why does the expression “teen pregnancy” and other terms like “teenage mother” or “young mum” exist at all? It’s because of age discrimination – the only thing pathological about these families is the age of the female parent. Intersectionality – being female,…
Problem children – why blame the parents, not the schools?
When pupils misbehave or fail to achieve their potential, it’s the parents who ae blamed. When they skip school parents can be imprisoned. The slightest “deviation” can cause teachers to call in social workers, educational psychologists, paediatricians, psychiatrists and child psychologists to intervene the family. And every now and again, some politician claims that teachers…
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