by thevagenda
I have a long and complicated history with women’s magazines. I had a pretty big commitment to Glamour, although Cosmo was my long-term bit on the side. I’ve flirted with Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. I had a fling with Elle. Marie Claire and I are still casually dating (we’re taking it slow). Yep, […]
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by thevagenda
We all need to talk about Jane. She’s going to be appearing on the ten-pound note, replacing Darwin, from 2017. Sweet, inoffensive Jane Austen, provider of solace for women everywhere, producer of Mr Darcy and by proxy that wet shirt, and steady source of income for the BBC in the form of […]
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by thevagenda
‘You begin to liquidate a people,’ Hübl said, ‘by taking away its memory. You destroy its books, its culture, its history. And when others write books for it, give another culture to it, invent another history for it. Then people slowly begins to forget what it is and what it was. The world at […]
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by thevagenda
So, periods are things that happen. Once a month (ish), blood and other fun things come hurtling out of your lady area, and you need a way of dealing with it. Enter a choice of two methods: pads or tampons. Until recently I used a combination of these, and in general, they did the job. […]
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by thevagenda
So, my mother is a sex education teacher. This is so well-known and celebrated amongst my community that my best friend Rachael has introduced me to gentlemen at dinner parties with the line, “This is Gemma. Her Mum used to put condoms on plastic willies at our school.” Mum taught most of […]
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by thevagenda
Skins is back. There was a time that this morsel of information would strike excitement into the hearts of teenagers across the country. Remember that very first TV trailer for it? The mad party where the parents weren’t home, everyone was naked, and couples were exchanging pills as well as saliva? Yes. We […]
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by thevagenda
Men can’t help themselves. That’s the message that’s been drummed into us since Adam fancied a tarte tatin and needed someone else to take the blame (probably.) Perhaps you’ve heard that ‘boys will be boys’, or even that your catcaller was ‘thinking with his other head’. As a man, though, I find this […]
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by thevagenda
Contains spoilers Feminist review of a Zack Snyder film? There can be only one outcome to this piece, and it’s surely not pretty (HUMOUR KLAXON.) But back to Man of Steel. I liked it. I thoroughly enjoyed the Superman-origins-story-fantastically-disengaged-from-urgent-issues-in-reality, complete with obscene, arguably offensive budget and wastefully pervasive marketing strategy as […]
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by thevagenda
Or just, y’know, footie. But with girls. Feminism and football have never been the easiest of bedfellows. From the banning of women’s football by the Football Association in the 1920s to the sexist comments about female linesman Sian Massey from (formerly) respected broadcasters Andy Gray and Richard Keys, football has always shown a profound […]
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by thevagenda
There is a ray of hope for anyone disturbed by the ‘Get Britain Fertile’ campaign ad (pictures of Kate Garroway made up to look old and pregnant, ostensibly a ‘friendly reminder’ that fertility doesn’t last forever, but with an element of ‘aren’t older women gross? Wouldn’t it be, like, disgusting if they were […]
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by thevagenda
You can hold onto your surname, you can wear trousers and no make-up, but you cannot have a feminist wedding. Trust me, I’ve tried. When I got together with my best friend of ten years it was a big deal. We’d loved each other as friends for a long time. We felt […]
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by thevagenda
Ok, I genuinely can’t believe I’m writing this, but in the spirit of full disclosure and my intrinsic need to help others and spread enlightenment – I’m essentially Mother Theresa, only I eat egg sandwiches on packed commuter trains – I am about to share something from which I hope all Vagenda readers […]
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