Sylvia Pankhurst, Feminism And Social Justice, Oxford
Hot on the heels of Suffragette, biographer Rachel Holmes will be speaking in Oxford about campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst and what her movement means today. Born in 1882 to suffragette leader Emmeline, the pioneering first-wave feminist fought for universal rights, believing in the then-radical idea that people should be treated as equals, regardless of gender. Holmes’s tome on Pankhurst will be out in 2018 for the centenary of at least some women being able to vote, but for now, this date is a must-do. It’s is presented as part of the Mansfield Lectures, which has hosted weekly talks from names like Michael Palin, Camila Batmanghelidjh and Sandi Toksvig. Holmes is an engaging, funny speaker, who previously profiled 19th-century champagne-lover, actor and progenitor of socialist feminism Eleanor Marx. Essential for anyone interested in human rights and action.
Mansfield College, Fri
CJ
Guardian Live: Burt Reynolds Meets Hadley Freeman, London
In the 70s and 80s, starring roles in films such as Smokey And The Bandit and The Cannonball Run turned Burt Reynolds into an alpha-male archetype of a certain kind: one that embodied a hairy-chested, medallion-sporting all-American machismo. In the 90s, he caught the zeitgeist again in Boogie Nights, perfectly cast as greying but still priapic pornographer Jack Horner. He’s recently bemoaned turning down the chance to play James Bond in 1970, but for our money, he was better off disappearing to the Appalachian mountains and making Deliverance. In short, Burt’s lived quite a life. And it sounds like he’s not coy with his secrets, either. “I’ll pay homage to those I love and respect,” he promises, “call out the assholes I can’t forgive, and try to make amends for being an asshole myself on too many occasions.” It all sounds like good, indiscreet fun; Burt’s been around for long enough to have the goods on most of the main players from the last four decades of showbiz. The event will be helmed by the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman and the ticket price includes a copy of Reynolds’s memoir But Enough About Me.
Kings Place, N1, Wed
PH
In Defence Of The Rom-Com, Falmouth
From Shakespeare’s Much Ado to Judd Apatow’s bromances via the plentiful output of Misses Roberts, Bullock and Hathaway, the romcom genre is so enduring that it could probably survive a nuclear apocalypse. Love them or hate them, their hallmarks are comfortingly familiar: the will they/won’t theys, mistaken identities, last-minute dashes, positive pregnancy tests and negative Bechdel tests. But in an age of increasing feminist dialogue and dwindling DVD sales, are these largely heterosexual Hollywoodised tales still relevant? Defending the genre as part of the BFI’s Love Season is screenwriter Tess Morris, whose latest film Man Up is something of a homage to Richard Curtis’s Hugh Grant-flavoured 90s. If you’re in need of further convincing, a screening of the Oscar-winning 1987 romcom Moonstruck follows, with Nicolas Cage and Cher on top form.
The Poly, Tue
HJD
