Sexual Harassment at Work

I’ve just finished my final shift at my first paid job, working part time reducing out of date food for a supermarket. My general experience was faultless– I just want to establish that before I begin (so that this doesn’t affect me reapplying in the future) (and also so that, if you do know who I worked for, you don’t judge them). Blady loved my job. I quit because I had to study, not because of what I’m about to discuss.

Because I was both the youngest and fresh out the employment oven I suddenly became exposed to this world of sexual harassment. I was already familiar with catcalling (often when I was in my school uniform- not weird at all), everyday sexism and the occasional I’m-just-going-to-fall-asleep-in-your-lap-don’t-mind-me on the subway, but I had no idea what kind of timber ft Pitbull was going down in the workplace.

The company I worked for treated men and women almost perfectly equally- the ratio of female:male managers was pretty even and their wages were the same. The only difference was that the women’s shirts had waaay less buttons which left our necks more exposed and exemplified the huge colour difference between my orange foundation and chalk white neck. Oh and we didn’t get ties. As someone who blady loves a tie, this sucked. But, as much as I don’t want to justify their tailoring, these differences are so engrained in society that the company probably doesn’t even realise there’s anything wrong with them. So I’ll let that one lie. 

How To Femalify Your Spotify

Yes, I have made up yet another word. Because the other day I overheard a conversation in which a guy turned to his friend and said ‘I’ve never had a proper conversation about music with a woman before- they just don’t get it.’ As someone who has Spotify playing in the background for at least two thirds of her life, I was understandably pissed off.

But this seems to be a common view. Everyone I’ve asked since seems to think that because your average woman doesn’t give a shit about Bob Geldof (haha omg wrong one I meant Bob Dylan- shows how much of a shit I don’t give) and knows all the words to 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton, their taste in music is less important than a man’s.

There’s always been notable snobbery surrounding music but it often affects women most- after all how many female rock bands can you name? Female rappers? Female instrumentalists? Women dominate pop and, as pop isn’t considered ‘cultured’, when women finally hear themselves represented and are all ‘omg I relate to this, it’s a woman singing about what it means to be a woman!’ (aka every time I hear Little Mix) they’re instantly labelled as knowing nothing about real music.

We all know the standard babes: Beyoncé, Sia, my childhood idol Katy Perry (we had matching jackets in 2012 it was magic) but the music industry doesn’t end there for women and so I’ve compiled a list of women who are both ruling my ears rn and super cultured. Fight me music snobs.

The Problem With Blogging Chats

I love Twitter chats. If you have a spare hour they are one of the best ways to grow a large following at once and engage with loads of like-minded bloggers. After a few polls and lots of encouragement on social media, I’m thinking about launching a feminist chat in March, which got me thinking about all the features of chats which get on my nerves a little so that I can rather try to eliminate them or prepare myself to laugh them off from my own. So as much as I love chats, here are some things I could do without:

The Timings: Every evening that I’m not working I suddenly think about joining in a chat only to remember that most chats start on the hour and it’s now 23 minutes past so unless I want to be, like, third wheeling on your conversation I have to wait for 37 minutes to pass. But then by the time this comes I’ve started doing something productive like washing my hair or tidying my sock drawer so participating is strictly off-limits.

People Sharing Their Links Too Soon: If you’re leaving the chat early then fair enough share away but if you share your link and THEN CONTINUE CHATTING what are you trying to achieve? Well more blog views obvs. But metaphorically speaking. I’m all for shameless self-promo but I also want to my feed to be full of interesting discussion, not a stream of Times Square adverts.

Should We Support Ivanka Trump?

Headlines from the past few days make it apparent that Trump’s eldest daughter has been suffering from her father’s election:

‘Sales of Ivanka Trump apparel slumped at Nordstrom’

‘Upset with Trump the President, consumers boycott Trump the brand’

‘More companies drop Ivanka Trump products’

Here we see a female entrepreneur- a breed which is unfortunately still rare in the modern world- having her business boycotted due to the actions of the men in her life. On paper it’s a feminist’s nightmare, but in practice I think it’s pretty justified.

Don’t get me wrong, as a rule of thumb judging women for the actions of the men orbiting them is a no-go, but in this case, to blame men for the entirety of her demise just isn’t accurate. It’s not about boycotting Ivanka because of Donald’s actions (first name terms amiright), it’s about boycotting Ivanka because of her own. Or should I say lack of. Because yes, he is her father, and yes it would be blady awkward at their next family Thanksgiving if she publicly condemns his behaviour, but it’s still her choice not to do so. To deny that she has a choice is, as Sartre aka King Of My Heart describes it, ‘bad faith’.

Valentine’s Gifts I Don’t Get

I don’t really have an opinion on Valentine’s Day- most likely because my uranium heart is only capable of loving myself and The Great British Bake Off- but when it comes to gifting I’m like the present police. I’ve noticed that on V-Day people are exchanging gifts that you’d need a PhD in Cringe to understand, so I thought I’d compile a list of pressies that I don’t get (both physically and metaphorically):

P.S. If you received any of the things on this list then I still love you (unlike, perhaps, your partner) (that was a joke) I just had to write something Valentine related and this is the first thing that came to mind xo

Giant Teddy Bears: Don’t get me wrong my Build a Bear was pretty much my only friend up until 2011- if only they had some kind of human Build a Bae version eh- but she wasn’t the size of a baby elephant. I look at men lugging huge, stuffed animals through town and can’t help but think about the custom made IKEA storage solution they’ll need just to home it. Then once it’s in your house, other than recreating your first date to Chester Zoo, what’s its actual purpose? Surely, your other half will just end up cuddling it more than you, in order to get value for money. The impracticality is beyond me.

CDs: They’re just a bit vintage now, yknow. Make them a Spotify playlist available offline or something instead.

Period Perks

I feel like everyone hates periods. And this makes me really sad because, although they’re messy, painful, inconvenient, expensive, and considered taboo pretty much everywhere, I’m a big fan. Often it seems people overlook the joys of menstruating, so here’s a cheeky reminder of the period perks.

Period Boobs: Are the bomb. For 25 days of the month I’m looking in the mirror wondering how there are falafels bigger than my boobs and then bam my period hits and I have five days of feeling like Emily Ratajkowski in the Blurred Lines music video. Obviously the transformation isn’t that huge, but to me it feels like the Kylie Jenner boob job drama all over again. Who needs surgery when you can just menstruate instead?

Having An Excuse Not To Do Anything: Fuck all those articles that are like studies show that women who exercise for 62 hours a day whilst menstruating reduce their PMS symptoms by 3% (we all know that sociologists are probably just meninists in disguise anyway) because periods are the perfect excuse to sit on the sofa eating Ben and Jerry’s and catching up on the box set that you’ve managed to become two seasons behind on- cough cough Game of Thrones. Plus it means that every time you’re asked to contribute to housework or homework you can just clutch your stomach and maybe dramatically let a menstrual cup fall out your pocket and soon people will get the hint that you’re out of action for the next few days. Or weeks, depending on how long you milk it.