Quote: Steve Sunshine @ 14th November 2013, 12:24 AM GMTPromising news on growth.
Is this Coalition finally managing to undo Labours profligacy?
Credit where it's due!
It's odd.
Labour are in the position where the only thing that will save them is some sort of financial meltdown.
They must go to bed praying for the very thing those they seek to represent, dread.
Quote: Harridan @ 14th November 2013, 10:02 AM GMTI think it's great that it's been banned at many students' unions. It is a song that encourages the idea that explicit informed consent is just a formality.
I quite like this campaign by Newcastle University's SU: http://www.nusu.co.uk/up/content/928913/_up_against_it_campaigns/_man_up/
'Lad culture' is a growing phenomenon in the UK and seems to have a 'special place' with students at our universities and colleges nationwide. What is it? Well, it's sometimes difficult to put your finger on, but it can be generally described as a damaging idea of masculinity that revolves around drinking, sex, 'pack mentality' and often harassment, and has greatly contributed to the growing normalisation of rape culture on campus and off. Sexism is central to lad culture, with objectification of women a major source of 'banter' for those partaking... think 'get back in the kitchen' jokes galore! This brings us nicely to lad culture's antifeminist stance, with 'feminazi' an offensive term frequently used to rather unhelpfully compare the women's rights movement to the holocaust.
A good way to summarise lad culture would be to look at the idea of 'banter' - check out UniLad if you're stuck for examples!
So... what is harmless 'banter', what is too far, and where IS the line? That's what 'Man Up' wants to talk about. We need students to get involved and give us their thoughts. Ultimately we all want a safe and inclusive campus, but we need students' help with getting there!
It's a great campaign but boy do they need a better writer, much as I agree with them that article is pure Millie tant
They need a sharper, wittier to laugh them into silence
Quote: sootyj @ 14th November 2013, 10:14 AM GMTIt's a great campaign but boy do they need a better writer, much as I agree with them that article is pure Millie tant
They need a sharper, wittier to laugh them into silence
Indeed, but in my experience the people who decide to run the students' unions tend not to be the most dedicated academics.
Or the most literate, it's good to see though the discussions at least starting.
At root, "Get Back Into The Kitchen" is a sign of class discrimination more than sexism even if it is gender specific.
As such, it is a symptom of the modern malaise.
Sexism would not have taken that form regularly in universities 20-30 years ago.
Quote: Horseradish @ 14th November 2013, 10:22 AM GMTAt root, "Get Back Into The Kitchen" is a sign of class discrimination more than sexism even if it is gender specific.
As such, it is a symptom of the modern malaise.
Sexism would not have taken that form regularly in universities 20-30 years ago.
I think it's more to do with internet memes and repetition of tropes like "Make me a sandwich" etc. which are bleeding out into the real world for people who have had the internet their whole lives.
Quote: Nogget @ 14th November 2013, 9:10 AM GMTRobin Thicke's Blurred Lines gets banned at another university
Another student union has banned Robin Thicke's song Blurred Lines. University College London student union (UCLU) has joined around 20 others, including University of London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Kingston, Derby, Chester, Brighton and West Scotland in forbidding the playing of the song at functions within union spaces. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/12/robin-thicke-blurred-lines-banned-another-university
Good.
For a while, music had got beyond this.
It didn't help that, in dread fear of being accused of racism, black street music was allowed to get away with hideous misogynistic lyrics and imagery for far too long.
Quote: Harridan @ 14th November 2013, 10:27 AM GMTI think it's more to do with internet memes and repetition of tropes like "Make me a sandwich" etc. which are bleeding out into the real world for people who have had the internet their whole lives.
I accept that as the world of memes is like a foreign language to me. Sootyj had to explain to me what a meme was several weeks ago.
But that sort of phrase was heard "as a joke" among the working classes. My Grandad almost certainly said it to my Nan in 1972.
In some ways, it ironically intoned the class distinctions irrespective of gender in the workplace and it also indicated older traditional male attitudes of all classes which were on the wane.
It disappeared and is now back but among Bullingdon types and those who aspire to be like them. And the same thing occurs in many other areas - race for example though mainly post-ironically.
I don't think many people understand how awesomely powerful the internet and social media is.
Its certainly responsible for a growing plague of sexual disfgunction and narccisistic apathy
Social media created David Cameron and blurred lines
The media is pretty inconsistent with the way it deals with sexism. The Guardian asks the question of why Miley Cyrus is assumed to have been manipulated by the music industry, while men are not. In fiction, I noticed when watching Inspector Montalbano straight after The Killing, the differences between the ways Italians and Scandinavians deal with women in their TV crime dramas. Inspector Montalbano has no absolutely women in the police force, and he solves many of his cases by having dinner with some femme-fatale, or astonishingly, by sending his Lothario colleague Mimi to seduce them. The women are usually either harlots, gossips, housekeepers or waitresses. It's strange that there hasn't been any outcry, what with it being on the BBC; I can't imagine they'd put up with such outdated characterisations of ethnic minorities.
White supremacist finds out he has black ancestors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptSZnTtGCQA
Hee.
(So weird seeing Trisha on American TV.)
Quote: Nogget @ 14th November 2013, 12:20 PM GMTThe media is pretty inconsistent with the way it deals with sexism. The Guardian asks the question of why Miley Cyrus is assumed to have been manipulated by the music industry, while men are not.
That is true I mean from Liberace and beyond gay performers, have had to pretend to be straight so as to entice female fans.
I think sex is the problem and should be kept out of the media all together
Quote: zooo @ 14th November 2013, 12:43 PM GMTHee.
(So weird seeing Trisha on American TV.)
When I was little she used to be on Playschool in Australia.
