The guinea pig is behind the sette

Argh! Two new baby guinea pigs, just discovering the joys of hiding around the house, sharing a space either under the sette, behind the chair or under the futon. They don't seem to want to spend their time in their newly cleaned hutch. And they keep pissing everywhere. They're called Bert and Ernie. Photos eventually...

Fingers crossed I'm getting a new bike! This is super exciting. I'm getting a beach cruiser! I am going to be the queen of the neighbourghood. For ages I thought Bikini Kill were singing 'she's got the coolest trike in town' not 'she's got the coolest dyke in town'. I think my version is better - though probably not as political. I'm going to ride my new bike everywhere! I'm so excited!!!

When I get a new bike, do you wanna start a biker gang? We can tour about looking ace and visit tea shops and eat cakes. What could we call ourselves? Where does one advertise the formation of a new girl cruiser bike gang? I would have to design posters! I love desiging posters.

I can hear my boyfriend downstairs calling "Bert, Bert, where are you? Come out..."
He got stuck under the chair the other day (Bert, not my boyfriend) - it's going to be a nightmare getting him out for under the sette...

Reclaim the Night - Ipswich

I reaction to the murder of 5 women in Ipswich, and the subsequent warning from poliece for women to 'stay indoors' or be putting your life in danger a Reclaim the Night march has been organised (I found this out via Laura and the F word).

The march is taking place on December 29th stating 7 pm at Ipswich town hall.

Two thoughts:
1) Great, it's so good to show solidarity with the women of Ipswich, and to rise up in protest against the ridiculous insitence women of Ipswich should remain indoors after dark for their safety (confine the men to their homes - lieklyhood is it's a man who's commting the crimes!)
2) Opposing thought - is it a good idea to put more pressure on an overstrectched poliece force by requiring them to police the march? I know its a peaceful event, but they're still going to try and police it regardless.

Muse-ick

The hunt is always one -more music more of the time.
So today I finally downloaded some Nerd Core(free). For those of you who haven't come across Nerd Core yet, it's g33k hip hop (yeh, I had to use l33t for that).

I ain't much of a geek, I'm too easily distracted to know about computers etc, but the concept behind Nerd Core got my attention. Think '77 punk - Nerd Core is D.I.Y. music, but rather than guitars/drums etc this is made in people's homes on their computers. (How very Kathleen Hannah/Le Tigre - I am desperate for a mixer for my machine, one day I will be rich enough to afford one)

Nerd Core rappers write about computers/code/star wars/other nerdy stuff, and cos it's hip hop it's also about girls - but there's more hip hop beats and lefty politcs and less mysogyny than main stream hip hop, so if you like to shake your ass to the beat, maybe the feminist in your brain will feel a bit more comforatble shaking it to a song about geeky stuff rather than how hot a naked 'bitch' is and how many caps some guy's gonna pop in your ass.

The next quest is to fnd a truly feminist hip hop artist. Tarrie B's first cd was a hip hop record called Power of a Woman, or something like that. Need to find it.

Party on

Yo! Are you hip to the news that Subtext are putting on a club night at which you can shake your jolly fine arses to the best in electro, pop, punk, riot girl and rock and roll?

It's on January 18th at Bar Non, Lace Market, Hockely, Nottingham. £3 in + drinks deals (and we're trying to score a designated driver drinks for free promo too.)

Be there or be square.

www.subtextmagazine.co.uk/clubnight.htm
www.subtextmagazine.co.uk

It's 2:45 am

Argh - I am awake. I'm not meant to be. I should be asleep.
Women's issues woke me over 1/2 hour ago and I am desperately trying to find some way of easing said issues so I can go back to sleep. Sometimes being a woman, being this woman in particular, sucks like a vacuum.

And I can't figure out how to comment on my own myspace site (ie to answer questions in the comments on the Subtext page). Does that make me a myspace dumbass? I think it does.

Help Hollie

One of the contributors to Subtext has appealed for your help in completeing a questionnaire for research for her dissertation (she's studying creative advertising).

Hollie is looking for responses from feminist women and men, and I've copied her questionnaire below. If you can help her by taking part either copy the text below into a word doc, complete and send back to her, or email me and I'll send you a word doc with all the questions on travelling punk at gmail dot com.

If you can spread this around the blogosphere a bit (I know a lot of your blogs have a much greater readership than my scratchy effort) I'm sure she's be extremely grateful.

Questionnaire

DETAILS
Age:
Gender:

SECTION A:

Have you ever been offended by an advert?
If so when and why?
Have you ever been offended or concerned by the way a man or woman has been portrayed in an advert?
If so when and why?
Have you ever written to the Advertising Standards Association to complain about an advert?
If so when and why?
Do any ads come to mind that you would wish to complain about?

SECTION B:
For this section you will need to watch a series of adverts. Please open www.myspace.com/helphollie in a new internet window. This site has all the adverts related to the questions, you will be told when to view each ad.


VOLVIC – The wheel
Please view the first advert on the website, titled Evian.
What is your opinion of this ad? (reactions, thoughts)
Do you think the ad is sexist in any way? If yes why?

SURE DEODRANT
Please view the Sure Deodorant ad on the website
What is you opinion of this ad?
What are your thoughts on the use of a career woman in this advert?

LYNX vs. IMPULSE
Please view both ads on the website before answering
Which ad do you prefer? And why?
Do either of the ads make you think in a negative way?
Which ad do you find more believable? Why?

Bisto
Please view the next advert on the website
What do you think about this advert?
What are your thoughts on the male and female roles in the ad? (Modern? traditional? dated?)

SHAKE n VAC
Please view this ad
What are your general reactions to this ad?
Would you say that this ad is aimed at females? Yes/no, Why?
Would you say that most cleaning ads are aimed at females?
This ad is from the 1980’s, do you think the way women are shown in adverts has changed much? Why?

AUDI QUATTRO – spider
Please view this ad on the website
· Does this ad appeal to you? Why?
· Would it make you want to buy this car?
· Would you say this ad is aimed a specific gender? Yes/no. And why?

YORKIE – Its not for girls
Please view this ad
Does this campaign appeal to you? Why?
Would you buy this product? Yes/no
Do you think a female buyer would be put off from buying/consuming this brand now?
How do you think Yorkie get away with producing a gender bias ad?

VAUXHALL CORSA – hide and seek
Please view this ad on the website
Does this ad appeal to you? Why?
Would this advert persuade you to buy this car?
Do you think it is aimed at a specific gender? Yes/no. why?
Think back to the Audi advert, out of the two car ads, which do you prefer?

DOVE – campaign for beauty
Please click this link to view the ad:
http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=36450
(You may have to click ‘broadband version’ under the video on the left.)(If a membership box pops up just close it and continue)

Dove have a campaign running called ‘campaign for real beauty’, all their ads feature real people, no models.
What is your honest opinion of this campaign?
Do you think the ads are too revealing? Why?
Do you think the advert would be more effective if professional* models were used? (*slim, tall, stereotypical, models you would expect to see in perfume/cosmetic ads) and why?

FLASH - Cleaner
Please click this link to view the ad:
http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=12201
What is your first reaction to this ad?
What do you think about the idea of a househusband and the stereotype being used in the advert?

EGG CARD – hamsters
Please click this link to view the ad:
http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_83818--View_1739,00.html
What do you think of this ad?
What are your views of the gay community being featured in soaps, films and adverts?

SLOGGI – press ad
Please view this press ad:
What is your first reaction to this advert?
Does it offend you in any way?
What are your thoughts on the way that the advert portrays women?


This is the end of the questionnaire!
Please send it back to me at madchick32 at hotmail dot com
You may need to save this file and then start a new email and attach it
(as you would a picture)

Thank you for taking part in this questionnaire, your help is very much appreciated.

Douse the flamer

I've enabled comment moderation.
I don't have time to deal with/react to flamers comments on the site.

Oh I despair for these people who feel the need to leave flamer comments on blogs - do they have no life?

Well, I have a full time job, a part-time magazine, a pet hunt, a house and some semblance of a social life to be getting on with. There is no time left in my day for cyberspace arse holes, or real life arse holes for that matter.

I will try and keep on top of moderation stuff for those of you I love to hear from - you know who you are intelligent, interesting, funny bloggers.