Day: 2008-08-15

Friday Hoyden: who’s your hoyden?

And when were you last hoydenish?

Open nomination thread for your favourite hoydens: any woman with a whiff of unconventionality about her!

Yes, stay-at home mums absolutely do count: there’s nothing to stop us being audacious, exuberant, and boisterous in our mothering. And you can count yourself, too, if you’ve done anything particularly hoydenish lately. Here’s me:

Big Brother Friday Fauxpology: Mo’s been in the headmaster’s office before, hasn’t he?

Just thought I’d revisit Big Brother UK with a little “Oh no he didn’t!” post.

As clip one begins, Mikey, the blind cross-dressing Scotsman radio dude, has just had his hair shaved off as part of a task. The task involved the housemates cutting or clipping their hair such that the combined hair filled a flask to the top.

[Transcripts/summaries of clips are at the bottom of the post.]

I’m guessing Mo would justify this action, outside the house, as being just him, paragon of equalism, treating everyone equally badly. You can sure tell that he’s been in that hot chair before, and knows exactly the script to follow, though he still stumbles over it. It grates.

The HuffPo is off my reading list

That’s it, I guess. I’ve had the impression the Huffington Post was going downhill for a good long time now, and it’s now confirmed. This, on the front page?

underagegymnast

Is not funny or clever. It’s just downright creepy and exploitative.

Feminism Friday linkage:

Impossibly Beautiful
from Shakesville by Melissa McEwan (read the whole series, linked at the foot of the post)

Olympic medal-winning women called “gold-diggers”
from Feministing by Ann

aussie gold diggers

Why feminism should be taught in schools
From The Times by Joan Smith

Looking back, I’m amazed at how much we achieved – many feminist ideas, such as the right to maternity leave, have become mainstream – but I’m also horrified by the casual misogyny of 21st-century life. Since my book, Misogynies, was first published in 1989, it has got much worse.

But 21st-century politicians don’t use the vocabulary of their 20th-century forebears, and feminism needs to reinvent itself as much as any other political movement.

Also from The Times: