Monthly Archives: June 2007

Feminism

Childbirth: we keep getting it wrong

June 5, 2007 – 9:10 pm

Interesting review in the TLS of three books that together seem to provide a pretty solid summary of the state of knowledge about past and present childbirth, and reproductive technology.

A couple of samples:

…infant mortality jumped 50 per cent between 1915 and 1929 in the United States in lockstep with the widespread across-class shift from home to hospital.
[Today] Women are 70 per cent more likely to die in childbirth in the US than in Europe.

And it seems not all of the latter figure can be put down to poverty – bad medicine has quite a bit to do with it as well.

Permalink | Comment (0)
Blogging/IT

Britblog Roundup No 120

June 3, 2007 – 10:40 pm

Welcome to the wandering Britblog roundup. Apologies for slightly later than usual delivery; you can blame the lovely Camden Green Fair, the glorious weather, and my ridiculous work schedule. (I’m going to leave the office after this, honest…)

Starting up this week, a fine, reflective piece from Dan Hardy on the Mousa and Mendonca case. As he points out, depite all of the layers of spin, it was in the end about a defenceless man being killed in British custody.

Then some blogging about, well about blogging…

On The Wardman Wire, a reflection on the possibilities and risks for online video channels in general and for 18 Doughty Street in particular. On Investigations of a Dog, the canine in question got a quick response from a government institution, and even a substantive one, when he questioned the conditions of use of a potentially excellent National Archive site.

Ministry of Truth reflects on an stalking case, and just what sort of person is likely to turn into an online stalker.

Staying with the navel-gazing – well if we can’t talk about this crazy new digital world who can? – Sharon on Early Modern Notes has had an encounter with a PR agency. Not a good one. (Well, are there any good ones? Perhaps not.)

Turning political, visiting on The F-word, Kate wonders if threatening in MPs isn’t against the law? (She’s referring of course to a certain Scottish cardinal – burning in hellfire for eternity sounds like quite a threat for those who believe in that stuff.) On the lighter side, Antonia finds out what happens when you have to confess to being a Labour councillor while trying to rent out a room.

Liberal England reflects on how Tony Blair made cynics of us all. The tough question for anyone involved in politics now is how to overcome that cynicism, which has spread to the public’s view of all politicians, not just the dear, soon-to-be-departed, leader.

Central News provides a roundup of thew news in May, with a particular focus on immigration. Piddogfucker offers his, as ever, blunt view on paedophiles and internet images.

Shifting away from politics, at least of a contemporary sort, Red Mum continues her profiles of great Irish women with an account of the life of Delia Larkin, feminist and trade unionist. Jim on The Daily (Maybe) meanwhile has found a younger feminist hero, Minnie Cruttwell, age 12,, who just wants to play football.

Now if you are planning to visit a doctor any time soon, don’t read this post by Katy Newton on Everything is Electric. I don’t want to be responsible for the delayed diagnosis of your illness…

I know we’re not the French, but still why shouldn’t the Britblogs get a little high-brow? So I’ll point you to Camdenkiwi’s examination of a book that explores the ideas of Merleau-Ponty. But if you fancy relaxation instead, visit the Eden project with Rashbre.

Finally, in that odd little spot that you always find in newspapers at the bottom of a column of briefs (pun intended) onyx underpants could get you into heaven. No I’m not going to explain – check it out with Early Modern Whale yourself.

The next roundup will be hosted next Sunday by Gracchi on Westminster Wisdom.

Permalink | Comments (4)
Feminism

Social pressures on women competing

June 3, 2007 – 9:20 am

A fascinating example:

Women make up only 1 per cent of chess Grandmasters. Yet according to a new study their under-performance is not down to lack of ability, but an awareness that they are expected to do badly. Researchers have shown that when women are under the illusion their opponent is female, they performed as well as the men. However their performance dropped by 50 per cent when they were aware they were playing a man. The researchers said women face accusations of “inferior (‘girl’s’) play, but when they perform exceptionally well, their femininity is also often doubted”.
They say the findings also suggest that women tend to approach chess games more cautiously and with less self-confidence, which may explain their worldwide under-representation and under-performance. “Women seem disadvantaged not because they are lacking cognitive or spatial abilities” but because of their mental approach to tournaments

Permalink | Comment (1)
Environmental politics

Recycling. Great. Well, maybe

June 3, 2007 – 9:09 am

A salutary piece in the Sunday Times this morning. Logic suggests that a lot can go wrong with the “mixed bag” recycling schemes, in which glass, paper, plastic etc is all collected in one lot and supposedly sorted later, and it seems in this case logic is right.

Chris White, its commercial manager, said the widespread practice of councils collecting material for recycling in mixed bags meant his plant was routinely sent batches of paper “contaminated” with bottles, plastic, cans and even food residue. “It’s impossible to deal with plastics and other materials here,” he said. “They go into a bin, are compacted and then it goes off to landfill.”

Permalink | Comments (2)
History Women's history

‘You build a good ruin’

June 2, 2007 – 11:20 pm

An interesting compliment to an architect, but an article (PDF) in a new edition of the online French/English history journal Cercles explores how visitors to London in the 18th and 19th centuries assessed it architecture in this way. Rome had produced great ruins; would Britain’s stack up when it too inevitably lost its imperial grandeur?

So… “In 1800 Elizabeth Lady Holland recorded in her journal,
I have been reading Le Brun’s journey to Persepolis in 1704, the ruins of which (Persepolis) seem equal to anything in antiquity in point of solidity, size, and extent. In future times when this little island shall have fallen into its natural insignificancy, by being no longer possessed of a fictitious power founded upon commerce, distant colonies, and other artificial sources of wealth, how puzzled will the curious antiquary be when seeking amidst the ruins of London vestiges of its past grandeur? Acres now covered by high, thin walls of brick, making streets tirés à cordon, divided into miserable, straitened, scanty houses, will, when decayed, crumble into a vast heap of brick-dust. No proud arch to survive the records of history, no aqueduct to prove how much the public was considered by ye Governt., no lofty temples, no public works! St. Paul’s anywhere would be a grand edifice; finer as a ruin than in its present state, disfigured with casements, whitewashed walls, pews, etc. The bridges alone would strike the eye as fine remains; they are magnificent.

(More about Lady Holland, who was a major character of the city that she was contemplating.)

There’s also a piece on Flora Tristan’s view of London, PDF, in French. It concludes, in a rough translation, that in 1840:
“What she saw in London would not make it possible for anybody to affirm that Great Britain was a country where freedom had triumphed. Admittedly, there was a Parliament, but there was no representative of the working class, or any elected official of female sex. She met women with inadequate education, completely subject to their husband, prostitutes humiliated by the upper classes, and workmen who were victims of the indifference of their owners who treat their horses better, plus humiliated prisoners given no chance to redeem themselves.”

(There’s an English account of her here.)

Permalink | Comment (0)
Feminism

One in the eye for the Pope

June 2, 2007 – 10:05 am

And also very good, sensible news: Brazil is going to subsidise birth control pills for the poor.

Dulce Xavier, a Catholic who runs a group advocating for women’s reproductive rights, says Brazilians simply aren’t listening to the Vatican.
“There is total disobedience to church doctrine on sexual reproduction,” she says. “The majority of Catholics here use condoms, take the pill and support limited access to abortion.”
According to the government’s own estimates as many as one million women a year are having abortions in Brazil, even though they’re illegal, except for cases of rape or where a mother’s life is in danger.
About 4,000 women die from the procedures annually, making it the fourth-leading cause of maternal death in Brazil after hypertension, hemorrhages and infection.

Why particularly the Pope? Well he was there two weeks ago running all the usual “I want to control women’s bodies” stuff.

Permalink | Comment (0)

« Previous Page — Next Page »

« Previous Page — Next Page »