And Finally…
Everyone’s talking about…
It’s been a shabby news week for women. After Ken Clarke‘s rage-inducing rape comments last week, MEP Roger Helmer waded into the fray and suggested survivors of date rape ‘surely share a part of the responsibility’ for being raped, and are to blame for ‘establishing reasonable expectations’ in the rapist’s mind. Classy, right?
Then there was the news that Life, a group which is against abortion in all its forms and promotes abstinence-based sex education, has been appointed to advise government on sexual health.
Similarly, in another umbrella body, all the organisations involved in the Sex and Relationships Education Council seem to have an anti-abortion, pro-monogamy and pro-hetersexual marriage agenda, a move which has caused concern when it comes to those of us who don’t necessarily want the so-called holy trinity of monogamy, marriage and a mortgage.
Our Jess Haigh was written about it all in a brilliantly vitriolic feature on The F Word, so head here for more on that.
News you might have missed…
While all that was going on, we were in Manchester, having a night of Books & Blues for Chorlton Arts Festival, and then launching the For Books’ Sake Lending Library at Nexus Art Cafe.
You can natter about all that and more on the brand new For Books’ Sake Forum, and don’t forget that we’ll be back at Nexus in July for our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, so take advantage of that pay day bank balance and nab your tickets soon.
In other news…
It’s the Alternative Press Festival this weekend, and on Sunday you can catch yours truly reading at Storytails in Stoke Newington. Over in Bradford, fabulous all-female theatre company Kindle will be reinventing the myth of the Minotaur this weekend with Bull: An Invitation to Dinner.
Elsewhere, we’ve got two tickets up for grabs for the Orange Prize and Grazia Writer’s Evening at the Southbank Centre, so head here to find out how you can be in with a chance to win.
Last but not least, Lori Smith is after recommendations of queer fiction in a guest post by Nick Campbell about the Green Carnation Prize on Lori’s blog, Rarely Wears Lipstick. Head here if you’ve got rave reviews or recommendations to share!
Jane Bradley
Photo from Brit.’s Flickr photostream
What do you think?