‘Call me Caitlyn’
You know you’ve reached peak fame when you no longer need a surname for people to know who you are. And Caitlyn (Jenner, formally Bruce, if you really haven’t been paying attention), who revealed her new identity on the cover of Vanity Fair this week, has achieved this feat in less than one week.
But while it is pretty easy to remember a new name, some found it harder to know which pronoun to use. Even some media outlets momentarily referred to Jenner as a “he” in their tweets, before deleting them and correcting themselves. Misgendering, as journalist Caitlin Dewey explains, is a stubborn problem within the LGBT community, one which was highlighted by Jenner’s transition. And so, seeing an opportunity to help tackle it, Dewey set up a Twitter bot “to quietly, politely correct misgendering errors”. By scanning tweets with the words “Jenner” and “he”, the bot sends a message to the user alerting them to their mistake.
While it is undoubtedly positive that the world (and by the world, we mean the press and social media) has appeared to embrace Jenner and all that she represents, it is less pleasing to see how she has, overnight, become subject to the same treatment as every other woman in the mainstream media.
Jon Stewart nailed it on The Daily Show:
It’s really heartening to see that everyone is willing to not only accept Caitlyn Jenner as a woman, but to waste no time in treating her like a woman. You see, Caitlyn, when you were a man, we could talk about your athleticism, your business acumen, but now you’re a woman, and your looks are really the only thing we care about.”
Sadly, it is going to take more than a Twitter bot to change that.
The thinking woman’s knickers?
Are days of having your knickers ruined by poorly designed feminine hygiene products over? We’re not sure. But one new brand, Thinx, would like to think it has found the solution in the form of three different types of knicker – a thong for light days, a brief for middling days and shorts for heavy days – designed to be worn instead of tampons, towels or Mooncups.
The three women behind the brand, twin sisters Radha and Miki Agrawal and friend Antonia Dunbar, are being hailed as feminist geniuses. Speaking to Forbes this week, Agrawal said:
Tampons were invented in 1931 and, aside from adhesive strips and wings on pads, there hasn’t been any major innovation in 85 years. It is time to change that – and to change the taboo.”
It is certainly true that, with 12bn pads and 7m tampons dumped into US landfills each year, Thinx offer an alternative that’s kinder to the environment. But do these knickers really signal the end of leaks, stains and tampon tax? And can women get over the mental barrier of wearing what is effectively a period nappy?
Fifa’s other offside rule
Could the next Fifa president be a woman? The short answer is “no”. As contenders are put forward to replace Sepp Blatter, a common theme is emerging: they are all men. However, Brazil’s Marta Vieira da Silva, the world’s highest ranking female footballer, has commented this week that there is no reason a woman shouldn’t take the role in future. As the women’s World Cup kicks off in Canada, she told Bloomberg:
You need to have the knowledge of what needs to be done to improve the sport, so I have a preference for capability, independent of whether it’s a man or woman.”
Despite this, Marta admits that her own capability and success in the game has done little to bring her closer to male Fifa officials:
People from women’s football don’t have much access to people in this environment. We see them in the competitions from time to time.”
Unsurprising, really, given Blatter’s attitude towards his female peers: he referred to himself as the “godfather” of female football and famously suggested women play in tighter, more feminine shorts.
Even though Blatter’s former job won’t be going to a woman just yet, his departure will, hopefully, mark a change in attitude.
Boob or bust
If you’ve been feeling guilty that you haven’t done your bit for breast cancer by getting in on the bizarre #HoldACanOfCokeBetweenYourBoobs campaign, then don’t. Because guess what? It turns out sharing photos of a sugary drink between your breasts has nothing to do with raising awareness of cancer.
As more and more women complied, it became clear that this particular challenge had no affiliation with any official charity whatsoever and was, instead, a ruse cooked up by adult entertainment talent scout Danny Frost to get women to share topless photos of themselves on the Internet. Charming.
Jezebel called out its futility, long before it was outed as a hoax:
Last summer’s viral ALS Ice Bucket challenge has given way to this year’s contender for ‘worst way to make anyone aware of anything while showing off your body’, the aptly named ‘Hold a Coke With Your Boobs Challenge’. For breast cancer. Or something …
Like the ‘put your cock in a sock for ball cancer’ campaign before it and the myriad other attention-seeking memes … the Coke/boob challenge allows people to show off their best assets while pretending that they give a shit.
Twitter was also quick to deem it absurd:
Quite.
Equality for all
After sustained cross-party campaigning from MPs, the government has this week announced that a women and equalities select committee will be formed.
Tasked with holding the government to account on all matters of equality, the committee will help ensure more is being done for women and minorities by scrutinising practices in Whitehall, as well as the impact of certain legislation on society. Former Tory MP for Isleworth and Brentford, Mary Mcleod, who was one of the key campaigners for the committee, alongside Yvette Cooper and Jo Swinson, said:
Women and equalities is one of the very few departments that doesn’t already have a select committee, so we need a dedicated committee to hold government to account on all equality issues. It is especially great to see the APPG’s [all-party parliamentary group] hard work breaking ground just weeks after more women took up their seats in parliament than ever before.
Who exactly will make up the committee is yet to be announced, but it is vital, as the Guardian points out, that male MPs are included too:
The new institution risks being devalued if it is too easily dismissed as an all-women enclave complaining about a man’s world from the sidelines. Its remit goes well beyond questions of gender balance.
Marathon woman
If you are still struggling to complete that couch to 5k app you downloaded right after new year, then perhaps this will give you the motivation you need to dust down those trainers. At 92, Harriette Thompson has become the oldest woman to run a marathon after completing the Rock‘n’Roll marathon in San Diego in 7hr 24min. Not only that, but Thompson only ran her first marathon at the age of 76, proving that it’s never too late to start.
ICYMI
The WI hit 100 this week – and is still going strong thanks to a new generation
‘Not One Woman Less’: massive demonstration highlights killings of women in Argentina
