Category: Semi-Retired Riot Grrl

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The… Porn

Posted on by Kelly Welles

It’s rare that I feel even remotely sorry for the great swathe of male porn addicts who occupy my country. And the news that four of the biggest ISPs in the UK are outlining measures to introduce an ‘opt-in’ scheme to enable users to decide whether their home computers can display pornographic images and sites doesn’t particularly tweak my conscience.

But it did make me laugh to think of their already overstimulated minds exploding in frustration as they try to figure out how to tick the ‘yes’ box without alerting their wives to their needs as a consumer.

Image via uproxx.com

Madonna: Uncut & Unaware

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Let’s be honest. The only fame-hungry whores featuring on eatblogordie.com this week are the dudes who chose to sell these photos of Madonna and the people who think they’re funny and scandalous.

Tools.

Image: Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

Saudi Arabia: Driving For Change

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Shaima Jastaina has been sentenced to ten lashes after being caught breaking Saudi Arabia’s prohibition on female drivers.

Before launching into our collective repertoire of women driver jokes, (a myth that is perpetuated by women who refuse to believe that the absence of a Y chromosome equates to an inability to parallel park, incidentally), let’s remember that like many others before her in history, Jastaina is part of a movement defying law in the hope of changing it.

While her punishment is quite clearly egregious, brutal and ludicrously innappropriate, I, for one, can only admire what women in these countries are prepared to do to effect change.

It’s more than I think I could manage.

Feminists, Cardboard Meat Cleavers & Not-So-Lame Excuses

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Image: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

The Radisson Hotel in Bloomsbury is hosting the XBIZ EU conference this weekend – a digital media summit for porn industry executives. The event has attracted criticism from feminist groups who have stated that pornography is degrading to women and likened it to a meat market, articulating their point by dressing up as butchers and protesting outside the venue.

On seeing the protests, Claire Wigington, head of marketing for Television X (purveyor of edifying fare such as ‘Entry Level Whore’ and ‘Freddie’s Tattoo Tarts’) responded by saying their argument was ‘simplified’ and ‘women in the porn industry know what they’re doing’.

Is it worth giving that tired old cliche another pummelling?

Continue reading “Feminists, Cardboard Meat Cleavers & Not-So-Lame Excuses” →

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Behind Every Man…

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Here’s French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, arriving home after sexual assault charges filed against him by a maid in a New York hotel were dropped. Apparently, exhaustive investigations into the matter resulted in prosecutors determining that the maid’s evidence was not credible.

Well, it wouldn’t be, would it? She’s a maid.

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Honey Money: A Prickly Insight

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Surely by now, anyone with any interest in the subject of feminism will have finished rolling about on the floor and screaming their response to Catherine Hakim’s book ‘Honey Money’, which promotes the very modern notion that women should use their looks to get ahead in the workplace.

However. You may not have read Guardian journalist Zoe William’s spiky interview with Hakim, which not only confirms many of things you suspected about Hakim, having spent time considering her theory, but a few you couldn’t have hoped for.

Enjoy.

Image via crushable.com

Tune Of The Day: Jumpers – Sleater Kinney

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Not, as you may suspect, an homage to knitwear, but a storming romp through the matter of suicide from the Golden Gate Bridge. Which to date, has not been used in any San Francisco tourist literature.

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Julie Burchill & The Structural Aesthetic Of Doom

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Image via mademan.com.

Why is Julie Burchill so unpopular? Is it because she is outspoken, deliberate provocative and prone to shouting things people don’t want to hear at inappropriate moments? Partly. Is it because she refuses to accept that she no longer has anything worthwhile to contribute as she skipped past the age limit on relevance in women’s lives some time ago? Possibly.

Or maybe it’s something even simpler. Could it be that people dislike Julie Burchill because she isn’t particularly nice to look at? There. I said it. Kill me now.

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Icons Of Our Time: Katie Price

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Armed with little but a pneumatic chest and a smart mouth, Katie Price had managed to elude accusations of being a feminist icon until around 2004, when her appearance on ITV reality show ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ propelled her into the ante-room of debate that precedes such an honour.

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Misleading Make-Up Musings

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Having joyfully contravened a number of employment dress codes myself over the years, I was intrigued to read the story of Melanie Stark, who recently left her job at HMV Harrods after the employer insisted she must wear make-up to comply with theirs.

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