NME Awards 2014 - Blondie

Nice to see Blondie receive the NME 2014 award for Godlike Genius. There has been some backlash over this, namely that this is the first time a female musician will have been awarded this (emphasis on musician, see Penny Smith 2002). And fair enough, that considering how many female musicians there are there does appear to be a disproportionate amount of male musicians who have received the award. Not too convincing are the mumblings regarding the award being given to Blondie as a band, rather than Debbie Harry in her own right (it's been awarded to bands previously to recognise the genius of said band, their collective effort). But that aside, it does seem to further emphasise that despite the increasing numbers of females in the music industry (whether creating, playing, producing or distributing), there is still a prevalent focus on the men. On a side note...also disappointing to see a number of news reports on Blondie's receipt of this award using very dated images of the band. They're still active so why not use an image which reflects them today?

And the winner is...

As reported here boys this year overtook girls in maths GCSE. Why? Because of the eradication of the coursework and it being purely assessed now by exams; which, we are told, boys do better at. We are told "Coursework will be scrapped from nearly all GCSEs next year". I'm sorry but should we be rejoicing at this removal of coursework in future GCSEs because it means boys can statistically get ahead?

In The Guardian write-up, Mary Bousted (general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers) is quoted as saying:

The problem has been that in the 1960s and 1970s boys were getting 12-13% more O-level passes than girls and no one really talked about it. When girls started to do better there were Panorama programmes and inquiries and a national debate. There's a national panic if girls and women start to be successful. Girls have been more successful at GCSE and A-levels but that hasn't closed the gender pay gap. Even if they do better they don't get paid as much.

This is exactly the points I have stressed again and again in any writing on the gender gap in education - firstly this completely unjustified panic over girls 'doing better' than the boys and secondly the fact that despite what the qualification statistics show, better attainment at GCSE/A-Level does not equate with the better pay. Why can't female students be seen as 'doing better'? And why this stress on the "gender gap"? What about differences according to ethnicity or socio-economic background? Because I'm sure as hell that it's not every girl 'doing better' - what about those who aren't?

Teacher training courses emphasis the importance of differentiation and using a variety of techniques for learning and assessment in our lessons because no-one learns the same. We are told that coursework is becoming a problem because of plagiarism but then is that really a reason to remove what is potentially an effective assessment method for a large number of female students (if indeed we take the slightly deterministic argument that coursework benefits girls, exams boys)? Isn't reliance of assessment through exams not differentiating?

A side thought (not properly investigated or backed): I think it's telling that coursework is being removed at the educational stages where firstly girls are 'doing better' and secondly where girls and boys are present in proportional figures to the population when, for instance, no-one would dare suggest the removal of essays (or even dissertations!) at undergraduate level. It would be interesting to see whether such gendered patterns are present at this educational stage and the ratio of female to male undergraduates.

x-posted over at Subtext

Cervical Cancer Screening

The government yesterday announced its decision not to lower the screening age for cervical cancer to 20 in England (which it is elsewhere) as it would do "more harm than good". Yes, you did read that right. More harm to who exactly? More harm for the women involved or more harm to the government's pockets?

News Fix

A selection from The Guardian over the last week:

Boys outperform girls at science in UK, gender stereotyping to blame?

Interview with a Shanghai professor of women and gender studies

Orbituary

Patricia Crawford, Australian feminist historian.

Betty Scharf, Academic (LSE, Fawcett Society).

(link to news article as slacking right now with blogging...)

News piece: Meet the women bringing feminism to a new generation

Thoughts?

Charlotte Roche - Wetlands

I've already posted about recent articles re: this book over at Subtext Magazine blog but I just wanted to speak a little here about the dichotomy which always seems to be presented in cases like this.

Articles on this book are always presenting the debate - is it feminist literature or is it merely pornography? This debate is grounded in the argument that therefore feminism and pornography cannot mix; it's one or the other. I'm not going to venture at the moment into my thoughts on pornography (other posts on the blog may very well do/have done) but it's not such a clear-cut line. We cannot say that every feminist is anti-porn because it's just not the case and I think it's real shoddy writing when the author of the article is seeming to engage in feminist debate, yet has obviously not considered that this dichotomy is merely a stereotypical ideal and does not exist.

Anyway, Wetlands is released in the UK on 5th Feb. Ever one to form my own informed judgements, I have pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.

you've got to love it when parents protest

Breastfeeding mothers stage protest over ban at McDonald's

Heather Mills' Settlement

Taken from the BBC website:

Ms Mills made reference to the £35,000 a year their daughter would receive.

"Beatrice only gets £35,000 a year - so obviously she's meant to travel B class while her father travels A class, but obviously I will pay for that."



Let's just go over Heather Mills' choice of words here...Beatrice only gets £35,000 a year does she? Does she think perhaps her attitude towards the settlement might be deemed insulting by the countless of single mothers in the UK who are working their fucking asses off to make sure their children are clothed, bathed and feed?!

I'm sorry Heather Mills but you are just a money grabbing, heartless cow. Don't use your child as justification for your own greed.

Rustlers' "Date" Advert

In the continuing spirit of ranting over advertisements, Rustlers has now caught my attention. The advert is for a microwave burger and begins with a date ending at a house, the man goes into the next room to make a drink and the room the woman has remained in becomes a microwave, allowing the man to speed time from the woman sat on the sofa to the woman sprawled out in her underwear. The end idea is along the lines of "if only everything was as quick as Rustlers". Whilst searching for the video on Google I came across a piece in a local newspaper regarding views of the advert in question. The article quotes the senior brand manager at Rustlers as saying that:

"We believe that the advert is tongue in cheek and empowers women, as it is the woman in the ad who has decided to take her clothes off, not the man...The whole theme is that you can get a tasty Rustlers snack in just 70 seconds, there's no waiting round so you are fast forwarding to the best parts of life"

Just how are women empowered through this advert?! The argument that the advert empowers women because it is the woman 'deciding' to take her clothes off is completely defunct since prior to the microwave experience, when asked by the man if she'd like to remove her coat she declines. So instead he uses the microwave technique to get to the stage which perhaps she was not willing to do. And fast forwarding to the best bits of life? How about the courting of a woman, getting to know her, building up trust? Apparently none of that is important - it's just about getting the sexual pleasure by the looks of fines. And Rustlers wonder what's happened to our sense of humor?

Britney (Breakdown) Bashing

Subject title says it all really. Now I don't like Britney Spears as a (ahem) musician and I was not particularly keen on the messages she was sending out to young fans BUT can't everyone take a step back from the Britney bashing? Please find below my points of reference which has resulted in a rather fed-up moi.

1. Britney has been bashed for certain lifestyle practices which have strayed from the perfect princess of pop picture (think smoking, partying, pictures of Brit with a burger and chips...) yet we're completely forgetting that she's a young woman in her early twenties who is not only capable of making her own choices, but is free to let her hair down. The minute a young starlet (Lohan I'm looking at you here too) is seen clubbing or hitting the town BAM! the media's all over it like a fucking rash - double standards somewhat? I'm sure there's not this much commotion with male stars.

2. Britney was slammed in the press for being a "bad" mother, mainly due to driving with one son on her lap and the infamous (near) baby dropping incident. I just saw a You've Been Framed this evening in which a bride dropped her baby down some stairs. Did the YBF screen the video and think 'Jesus Christ we have a bad mother on our hands...', course not! We merely got a joke about mistaking your baby for the bouquet.

3. In the same breath in which we comment on Amy Wino's skeletal drug-induced frame, put Nicole Ritchie on magazine front covers with headlines like "TOO SKINNY!" and applaud Beth Ditto for breaking the mould, we leap on Britney's comeback performance and her (apparent) tummy. Whilst the stomach may not have resembled the toned (result of workout after workout) tummy of Hit Me Baby Spears, it was your average, healthy looking belly (and using the word belly even seems wrong). So let's call it fat shall we? Really scrapping the barrel here for justified bitching people...

4. Lastly (and probably the most serious) Britney obviously has some issues (post-natal depression perhaps) which no-one seems that bothered to deal with as they're too happy reeling in the soap drama which her life has become. I might not be too proud of the fact I'm discussing Ms.Spears on my feminism blog* but I'm happy in the knowledge I'm voicing what I feel is the unjust treatment of a woman.

* also slightly perturbed by the amount of 'starlets' I've referenced