All by Lydia Bruton-Jones
I am thin-skinned, hysterical, irrational. "Stop being so sensitive," they lecture, forgetting that it's in my nature, that it's as much a part of me as my eyes are green. I’m easily affected. It’s both an inconvenience and a blessing having a heightened sensitivity to the world.
The news app on my phone sent me a headline about a ‘Tinder Horror Date’. When I read the article, however, all was not how it had first seemed. Do we need to use clickbaity buzzwords with more sensitivity? YES. Do we need to think a little deeper about how we discuss violence? YES.
The UK government is looking to reform the Gender Recognition Act, with the aim of making it easier for trans people to change their legal gender. Some feminist groups have responded with protests and fears for women’s rights. Are their arguments valid, or a mere veil over their transphobia?
Bees are dying out. We need to do something to curb it.
I’m sure this isn’t news to all of you – and amidst the other innumerable nightmares taking place across the globe, it can feel like just another sign we’re hurtling towards apocalypse.
Voting is important. It is empowering. Cast your vote, have your say, and take strength – may it only get better.
To mark International Women’s Day on the 8th March, Penguin are collaborating with Waterstones to open a pop-up shop selling books written exclusively by women and non-binary people. Open from the 5th to the 9th March on 1-3 Rivington Street in East London, the pop-up will host a number of events aiming to ‘celebrat[e] women, past, present, and future’, including the launch of literary magazine Five Dials’ special issue in which women and gender non-conforming artists and writers contribute works on the female gaze.
Chrimbo-limbo – the gloopy non-time between Christmas and New Year – is upon us. Should I be in work today? Cheese board for lunch again? Is it still acceptable to listen to Christmas music? For those who wish Christmas might still Stay Another Day (get it? Get it?!), read on…
This October, two First Nations women filed a lawsuit against the Saskatoon Health Region in Canada for coerced sterilisation. This legal action, which claims the women were subject to systemic racism, follows a report released on the 22nd July 2017 by Dr. Yvonne Boyer and Dr. Judith Bartlett (both indigenous, of Metis descent) titled ‘Tubal Ligation in the Saskatoon Health Region: The Lived Experience of Aboriginal Women’.
