Take Me Out has recently returned for a second series on ITV. Danielle Almond wondered what this latest incarnation of the prime time dating show had to say about mainstream ideas of gender roles
Is the 'sexualisation of young girls' really getting worse - or has it been exaggerated for the sake of shocking tabloid headlines? Ruth Whippman reports
I asked my mother and my sister what the word sisterhood meant to them today. The short answer: “Not a lot”. My sister said it reminded her of hippies and my mother said it conjured up images of nuns. 'Sisterhood' has always been one of those terms that I've regarded with suspicion. Even before I understood the concept of cis privilege (the benefits afforded those whose gender identity is the same as that which they were assigned at birth), it seemed like a special club from which I felt excluded. I don't identify as trans, but like many people who may on the surface appear cis (and access related privilege) my gender journey has been far from linear.
A relatively short time ago, I decided to stop bothering 'presenting' as any gender because it was too much hard work. It was soon after that that I learned about feminism and anti-kyriarchism and became socially aware, noticing the biases rampant in the world around me. Feminism felt like a sphere that felt right, especially since dialogues about intersectionality are taking place. After that, it wasn't long before I found out that being outside of the gender binary of man/woman was possible.
Social pressures impose binary gender on us all, but resistance is possible: Amelia Bayes reviews the follow-on anthology to a key text in queer theory