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Where did I put that high horse?
Now, I have been conditioned by society to find body hair as repulsive as the next woman does, but where do Gillette get off telling us that we cannot reveal our inner "passion" and "strength" unless we scrape one of their pink plastic razors across the skin on our legs every other day? These adverts annoy me almost as much as L'Oreal flogging "anti-fatigue" moisturiser to blokes by claiming that us womenfolk think they look "over-worked". You think your lines make you look distinguished - she thinks they make you look like a haggard old fool who couldn't pull at a bell-ringers' convention. Oh, really? Get a life. Men look better with age and women are just as able to be awesome when covered in a bit of bodily fuzz (OK, perhaps not in a bikini, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here).
If Topper buys anti-wrinkle cream, he is dumped. If I buy something pink and vibrating, it certainly won't be made by Gillette.
Posted on July 19, 2006 | Comments (1)
Workin' 9 to 5
Education is a subject that's always been close to my heart, because I like to always be learning something. From the ages of 5 to 18 I attended school in Buckinghamshire, then spent a year at art college before enjoying another three at university in Manchester. So, at the grand old age of 22, it was time to find a full-time job. After a large number* of failed applications to both graduate training schemes and jobs that would be the first rung on a career ladder, I finally ended up back at my low-paid summer job because some money was needed. Since then I have been achieving pay rises solely by moving jobs, and so finding out today that graduates in the south of England (on average) start out on more money than I have worked my way up to in nine years has not really done anything to brighten my mood. Is this a result of my lack of confidence, ambition, luck, or a combination of all three? Who knows, but the news would be easier to bear if I enjoyed the work I currently do.
When I try to analyse what I would like to do, it usually comes back to education in one form or another. Teaching people how to use Microsoft Office is something I enjoy doing and I have the knowledge, but not the training qualification which is often requested. Becoming a driving instructor is another option, if I could pay for the training course, but I don't think that would be a job I could do everywhere (i.e. not if we moved to London), so perhaps that's one for a few years down the line when we're definitely settled in one place. Another choice that crossed my mind was helping kids and/or young people to avoid being in my situation in the first place, by becoming a careers adviser and giving them a bit more help than I had. Careers advice at school was practically non-existant as all the girls were being groomed for university. Once at uni, although the services were there, more compulsory sessions with advisers should have been scheduled as we didn't use the facilities nearly as much as we should have. I thought I knew what was going to happen - apply for graduate training scheme, get place, work way up in company - but nobody thought to give me any other options should that route end up blocked for me. I realise that when you're still in education and people talk to you about jobs, it never seems as important as the impending exams in the 'here and now', like mentioning retirement to someone in their first or second decade of employment, but it might be nice to try and warn the students that they'll end up like me if they don't think about it now.
My current involvement with education, outside work, is also proving to be frustrating at the moment. After spending one academic year of studying part time for an AS-Level qualification, I am now faced with the possibility of not being able to do a second year of study to gain a full A-Level because the government has cut funding for many courses available in further education colleges. Perhaps I should just ditch that idea, as it was primarity for 'personal use' rather than improving my career prospects, and instead focus on getting qualified for a new job that I might actually enjoy doing. Whichever I choose, it all costs money. I sometimes wonder what life would have been like had I made different choices when my education was free. I may have been in a job I loved by now but, if I'd never been to Manchester, I wouldn't have met the love of my life and that would be a whole lot worse. My gran used to say "what's for you won't go past you", so perhaps we would have met anyway... and perhaps a great job will come my way some day.
* I lost count, because it was just too depressing.
Posted on July 13, 2006
Please don't feed the trolls
Zoe Williams' article on abortion in today's Guardian has stirred up quite a discussion in the online comments. It's mostly a fascinating and articulate debate, but there's always a few who take things into the realms of the unimaginable ridiculous... "Is it nothing to be ashamed of to poke a baby's eye with a biro, in order to cause said baby's death, when only its head has as yet emerged from the birth canal? would you condone the mother's so doing in order to save her OWN body from tearing?" ...or the downright offensive... "Its like the Soviet Union now anyway, abortion is used as a form of birth control by women who dont give a shit."
I know it's a controversial subject and it was to be expected that the people moved to comment would be both for and against, but did these two really think at all before posting? I would have replied myself but, with over 250 comments already on the article, I think my point would be lost. Not that I have a point - I've actually been left speechless.
Posted on July 05, 2006 | Comments (4)
A right riveting read
The news of Doctor Who's new assistant reached me yesterday and I was pleasantly surpised by their choice. Rather than Rachel Stevens or someone from Eastenders, they have gone for an unknown actress whose portrayal of a minor character in last week's episode I really enjoyed. I'm sure she'll be great in her new role but, as they haven't begun filming the new series yet, we have a while to wait before we find out. However, the one point that really stood out for me in the BBC news article on this was about the departing actress, Billie Piper who is "currently filming a BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman's Victorian thriller The Ruby in the Smoke". Now that takes me back.
There were only a handful of books I read as a young teenager, outside of school, that really stuck with me through the years and one of these is The Ruby in the Smoke. I don't remember much about the plot, but recall enough to know that Piper will be perfect for the role of Sally Lockhart. No doubt this dark tale, set in the backstreets of Victorian London, will be adapted wonderfully by the BBC - I just hope they don't schedule it for a kids TV slot too early for those of us who finish work at 5pm. Something tells me I shouldn't hold my breath for an adaptation of another favourite though. Liz Berry's Easy Connections contains some rather controversial subject matter - more Channel 4 than BBC.
Posted on July 05, 2006 | Comments (3)
It's different for girls
Although I like to think of myself as a modern liberated woman, I realised recently that I have one last hurdle to overcome. It's not that there are things I have yet to open my mind to as very little can shock me these days, it's a little more than that. Even acts that I really wouldn't consider trying myself still don't have me responding in horror at their mere suggestion, because it's a wide world out there and I say 'each to her own'. Just because it's not for me doesn't mean that someone else shouldn't be getting her kicks out of it, but this is where my problem lies. Despite not judging other people on what they choose to do, or not, I am inexplicably concerned about the opinion of those people who do judge.
I never used to care about what other people thought. When I was a 19-year-old student enjoying both the money and male colleagues provided by my part time job, I must have had a terrible reputation as I wasn't entirely discreet about my desires or careful in my choice of men. Back then, however, I only briefly wondered how much other people knew and what they must think of me, but these days it really concerns me far more than it should. Twelve years down the line and I am a closed book to anyone other than close friends as soon as the subject of sex rears its smutty little head. Although my partner will happily reveal details of bedroom preferences to work colleagues if the conversation heads in that direction, I would never do the same because I'm worried that people will make judgments and assumptions based on the information I share with them. OK, so my workplace is completely different and my colleagues seem more likely to be offended but, even with the situation reversed, I'd still be remaining tight-lipped.
One deviation from my plan to keep my private life private happened a few years ago, when I was in a different job, but even the total lack of negative reaction there hasn't encouraged me to be more open. Won over by a friendly and relaxed female production team, I agreed to appear on national television discussing orgasms and learning how to have better ones. When the show aired I spent a few days being embarrassed by good-natured comments from colleagues, friends and people I hadn't seen in years - even my parents watched it without disowning me. Although this shows that people aren't quite as offended by the discussion of sex, or judgemental of the people indulging as I'd first thought, I wonder how different things would be if it wasn't all so vanilla. Any television programme that shows an interest in anything other than 'ordinary' one-on-one sex between people in a loving relationship can't seem to resist portraying them as just a teeny bit freaky.
The reputation a woman's exploits earned her used to be a result of assumptions spread by gossip - this time the culprit is TV. Sex has never been so high profile, with Ann Summers shops on every high street and mainstream magazines telling us to get stuck in whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself, but we've still got to do it just how these people say we should. The result is: why admit to enjoying something when it means that, in the minds of your friends and co-workers, you're going to be lumped together with the couple portrayed as weirdos on Sky One or five last Wednesday night? In some cases perhaps honesty isn't actually the best policy in these still slightly prudish times. Not that I personally have anything to confess, of course.
Posted on July 03, 2006 | Comments (2)