03 PM | 30 Jan

“#Women, it’s time to age disgracefully…” [#geekgirl]

[Via The Guardian] “Feminism has encouraged us to accept our gender, our bodies, our sexuality and our desires. But rarely do we hear we have to accept our age. Amongst our protests against size zero, our growing admiration of plus-size models, and our education around Photoshop machinations, we’ve left the glorification of feminine youth intact. Being told you look younger than you actually are is still a form of flattery, an odd construct of a compliment that we are, happily, not what we appear to be. The value society places on women’s age has led us to feel shame about the most human of things – getting old. Age is a feminist issue, in the same way that gender, race, class, ability and sexual orientation are…

This is about much more than our sagging breasts, our pickled skin and our marching cellulite – it is about our growing voice, extinguished at the moment it has the most to say. And yes, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep might be great “older ladies” role models, but there are only a handful of actresses in similar positions, compared to their thousands of male counterparts.

Should we not fight to reclaim our worth, at all ages? Do we fear being called old and bitter? Enough. It’s time to age disgracefully. To do otherwise is to buy into the role society wants us to play – and it’s hard to get attention, dignified or not, once you’re invisible.”

11 AM | 30 Jan

“Why #patriarchy fears the scissors…” [#geekgirl]

[From this article at The New Statesman] “My own “game” hasn’t suffered at all from having short hair, and it’s a really good way of filtering out the douchecanoes. Neo-misogynists tend not to want to sleep with me, date me or wife me up however I wear my hair, because after five minutes of conversation it tends to transpire that I’m precisely the sort of mouthy, ambitious, slutty feminist banshee who haunts their nightmares, but if I keep my hair short we tend to waste less of each other’s time. If you’ve a ladyboner for sexist schmuckweasels, short hair isn’t going to help, although they might let you administer a disappointing hand-job.

But if you want to meet men as equals, if you want to fill your life with amazing men and boys as lovers, as life-partners, as friends and colleagues who treat women and girls as human beings rather than a walking assemblage of “signs of fertility” – believe me, they are out there – then I wouldn’t start by changing your hair. I’d start by changing your politics, and surrounding yourself with people who want to change theirs, too.”

10 AM | 29 Jan

Now #Abbott Plans to Destroy #Tasmania’s Forests…. [#GRRR] [#geekgirl]

[From the sumofus.org] “It’s not often that environmentalists, the timber industry and unions agree on forests — but now Tony Abbott wants to shred their landmark agreement to protect Tasmania’s forests. In just a few days, the government will ask the World Heritage Committee to strip Tasmania’s forests of their protection — and we can’t let this happen.

It’s less than one year since Tasmania’s forests were given the highest level of protection. Green groups and the timber industry still support the agreement — and even the Forestry Industry Association is asking the government not to interfere. But Abbott’s determined to undo this historic agreement to save the forests, unless we can show him the public won’t accept it.”