Wimbeldon women win equality

Male and female competitors to receive same rewards for first time ever the guardian reports.
Coo-el.

Suck on that Andy Murray.

Lazy as a marmaset's arse

I don't know if that's how you spell marmaset, and I'm too lazy to check. I'm too lazy to write, too. For someone who professes to love writing, I don't actually write that much. I have ideas in my head, developed, ridiculous, readable ideas - but they're staying there where it's safe and warm and no one actually gets to see them.

I want to set up a copywriting business. I have already done the fun bits of designing the website and writing the copy for the (most) of the website. The not so fun bits are yet to be tackled. Finishing the website, trying to drum up business etc.

There are many more winges of the lazy that I could bore you with, but I'll spare you that at least. Maybe one day I will write all those things I thought I'd write, and then you could read them. I've still not written the article of feminism and capitalism I promised you so very long ago (like, 2 years ago!).

You spell it marmoset. I checked it, but it would mean my whole intro would be shot through if I changed it.

In training / whoop

I'm officially in training for my trip to Skye in April. I will have to walk up big hills, I think they're classified as mountains they're so big. Today I took the stairs from the ground to the seventh floor. My legs ached and I was a bit out of breath. More training required.

Before then though, I' going to Morocco! I am fully excited about this. Not only is it my first hot sunny beachy holiday for two years, but it's a girls holiday. I'm going with Jess, assistant editor of Subtext, drinker, punk band drummer, kariokie singer (I've never seen her sing kariokie but I can totally imagine her doing it) and fun to be around bad influence.

I am going to have to be so good - we're somehow affording to go all inclusive, so that pretty much equals free alcohol and cake all the time.

The above reads like I'm some kind of richy-rich jet setter. Believe me, this blog should be renamed 'budget travelling punk'.

Tiny baby, big decisions

There's an article in the Guardian online today about tiny baby Amellia who was born by cesarean at 22 weeks (making her about 17-18 weeks premature).

I expect her survival to have a big impact on abortion laws, both here and in the USA, because she lived despite being under the age considered 'viable' in the USA (23 weeks), and under the 24 weeks abortion limit in the UK.

It's brilliant news that this baby survived, and I can understand why a desperate mother would lie to doctors about her baby's age. However it is concerning that this may have a detrimental impact of a woman's right to abortion if she past 22 weeks. I can imagine the question will be 'if babies can be kept alive by medicine after 22 weeks then should the age of viability be lowered?'

Comments in the article from another mother who's premature baby survived via medical intervention suggests that each case should be considered individually, rather than a 'catch all' rule being enforced. I hope if this is adopted for premature babies that they see fit to give women who choose not to have children the same respect and considered their cases individually rather than applying a catch all rule after the normal cut off point for abortions.

Who would be a medical ethicist? Stressful much.

Animal rights is a racy business, promise

PETA, who are you trying to speak to exactly? Your 'latest and raciest' ad campaign certainly doesn't appeal to me. Are the big fur wearers all Nuts readers?

Maybe not, since they paid for this ad to be on the blog 'Go Fug Yourself'. I'm guessing that website has a majority audience of bored women.
How pervy does the bit in brackets sound "yeah, she looked so good we couldn't choose just one". Lord.

What is it with everyone? UPDATED

Britney shaves her hair off - the media reports she is loosing her mind.
In and of itself, shaving your head does not mean you are going mad - it means you wanted to shave your head. Britney choosing to see the back of her long blonde extensions, reportedly hanging off just a couple of centimeters of her own hair seems pretty understandable to me.

There's an summary of shaven heads in among celebrity women on the Guardian website that's quite interesting - basically concluding there are many different reasons to shave ones head.

The main reasons for the furore seems to be, as picked up by the journalist for the Guardian, that the renunciation of traditional femeninity associated with a bald head can still shock people.

UPDATED: to add a link to a BBC story about Britney, there are some great encouraging comments from both women and men who think that it is not the 'break down' the media are protraying it as. There are also comments from short and skin head women who rock their look and wonder why there's such a fuss.

This is the most I have ever blogged about Britney. Someone who works for her is a pr whiz, everyone is talking about this!

WTF?

According to the BBC, this is news - Breastfeeding 'aids class status'

Who exactly wrote the policy to tabolidise the BBC?

Rape conviction rates under spotlight

A look at possible reasons behind low conviction rates for rape on the BBC website today. Some very deluded and annoying comments. Some sad personal accounts of decisions not to report a rape because of lack of faith in criminal justice system too.

Bill to bring laws against forced marriages in the UK

Another great 'comment is free' article on the gaurdian online, today taling about forced marriages and a bill that is in front of the House of Lords designed to help the women (and men) forced into marriages that are abusive, miserable, degrading.

"Even India and Pakistan have laws against forced marriage, however badly
enforced they may be. It is time Britain not only had them, but sent out a clear
signal that violence against women in this country, whatever their colour or
religion, should never be tolerated. "

Positive that Sunny Huandal framed this as not only a gender issue, but an issue of violence against women.

And while we're here link to more Sunny Hundal articles on the Guardian website
And link to Sunnys profile - lefty dream-boat.

Ambiguous laws

Thoughtful article on the Guardian Online regarding the ambiguity in the law that makes it very difficult to convict someone of rape - ie. the jury have to be 'sure' a crime has been committed.

Some interesting comments, some fights over language, and a commentator suggesting trying people for GBH rather than rape ie. rape not as a crime in itself, but part of a spectrum of violence covered by grevious boldily harm.

Could classifying rape as GBH add weight to the accusation, lead to a better conviction rate or prompt a change of perception away from thinking of it as the victims fault? Should rape be classified as GBH?

Appaulingly the convication rate for rape has fallen way below the rate I had heard in previous reports (1:5) to an even more worrying 1:20 (in 1999).