Weekly round-up and open thread

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Welcome to another weekly round-up, where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles and essays from the previous seven days. This week’s collection of links includes everything from ‘vaginal beer’ to The Archers. We’d love to hear your thoughts on either (or both!) of these subjects or on any of the other issues covered.

As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.

If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.

How Society Pays When Women’s Work Is Unpaid (New York Times)

From the article: “When the time women spend on unpaid work shrinks to three hours a day from five hours, their labor force participation increases 20 percent, according to the O.E.C.D. When women are not able to go to school, their children are less healthy and more likely to stay in poverty. Women could do more paid work and get more education if men did more unpaid work, or if both did fewer chores.”

There is an epidemic of missing women and girls of colour in the UK (Media Diversified)

Visibility is Not Enough (Cheryl’s Mewsings)

From the article: “Today is a day for all sorts of trans people to be visible: those who are old, who are people of color, who are above average size, who are disabled, who have no hope of “passing” or have chosen not to, who are non-binary and genderqueer. They are part of our community too, and they deserve rights just as much as those who are lucky and hard-working enough to conform to the ideals that the mainstream media endorses.”

The essence of woman in a beer? Really? (Neeach)

The above article was written by Liz Smith who was an editor for the F-Word and has written for the site in the past. You can read more of her work HERE

Jessica Knoll on finding the strength to write about being gang-raped (The Pool)

Protestors ‘sabotage’ comedy show (Chortle)

Music Monday: An Interview with Case/lang/veirs (Lenny)

A Trafficking Survivor Shares Why She’s Anti-Criminalization (Harlot)

From the article:
“The reason why trafficking works so well is because there are no resources that could exist to help victims out of their situation. It is majorly fear and conditioning that traps the victims after they have been ‘broken’. Short of kidnapping us and giving us intensive psychological treatment to stop us from running back, the best solution for trafficking is to stop it before it happens.

The only thing that I think could work is making trafficking a pointless venture by taking away demand. Legalisation of sex work could have saved me from traffickers before they got me. Then again: so would better child protective services and trustworthy options for teen runaways. As would a decent welfare system, or a universal basic income for adults engaging in survival sex, and better employment opportunities for sex workers who only entered the industry through a lack of options.”

Supermarket introduces unisex toilet with this thought-provoking sign (Metro)

Sign reads: “We have a UNISEX bathroom because sometimes gender specific toilets put others into uncomfortable situations. And since we have a lot of our friends coming to see us, we want to provide a place for our friends who are: Dads with daughters
Moms with sons
Parents with disabled children
Those in the LGBTQ community
Adults with aging parents who may be mentally or physically disabled
THANK YOU for helping us provide a safe environment for everyone!”

What you see is not what you get: life as a female autistic (Standard Issue)

From the article: “People ask what difference a diagnosis can make at my age. It makes all the difference in the world. Confirmation means that we weren’t wrong, stupid or rude. It means that for all these decades of being frowned at because you said something ‘weird’, being missed off invitations, wanting to talk about permaculture when everyone else wants to talk about EastEnders and hitting the deck with your hands over your ears at the sound a passing police car are all explainable.”

Visible Ordinariness: the journey towards protection, acceptance and equality for trans people (Media Diversified)

A girl was asked about BMI on a test. Her answer was mic-droppingly great (Upworthy)

You are oppressing us! (feministkilljoys)

From the article: “Whenever people keep being given a platform to say they have no platform, or whenever people speak endlessly about being silenced, you not only have a performative contradiction; you are witnessing a mechanism of power.”

Read the Trans Youth Forum Report Now (Transgender Equality Network Ireland)

Non-binary People to get Legal Recognition in Scotland (Beyond the Binary)

Don’t be complacent: Donald Trump’s plan to punish women for abortions is already happening in the UK (Telegraph)

We Need to Talk About Police Brutality in the UK (The Fader)

The Archers: An Every Day Tale of Twitter Folk (Armadillo Social)


The photo is used with permission of L.Taylor. It shows evening sunlight filtering through the trees in Savernake Park, Bracknell.