From a young age, I was always told that I was a bossy person, and I just accepted it and took it as the criticism it was intended to be. Thinking back to when I was labelled bossy, it was when I took charge of a task and put myself in a leadership position in order to do something. This adjective has never been used to describe one of my male friends, but many of my determined female friends.
In primary school, a boy once asked me, “Aren’t all brown people quiet?” I had no idea what to say, standing there in my oversized bottle green cardigan and kilt. I was eight years old. I mean, I knew I was quiet, but not because I wanted to be; in a predominantly white area, it was the best way to fit in, to survive the glares and stares I received day on end. At home, I was different. I would speak up about anything I could, and as soon as my friends got to know me, I would tell them stuff too. As I got older, I found my voice: first by writing, then by speaking. By the time I started my undergraduate degree, I had plenty to say.
When I was younger, living in the north of Scotland, we would have some pretty miserable winters. It would be dark at 3pm, wet and cold and windy. The one silver lining was that on clear nights, even when your fingers felt like they would fall off as you broke the ice in a water trough, you could see so many stars overhead. I could stand with my neck craned back and stare at them for hours.
Anger is an emotion that has defined most of the past year for me. It presents itself in many forms: pure rage, frustration, powerlessness, a strong sense of injustice; but also anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, hopelessness, fear, and sometimes complete shutdown. It gets so overwhelming at the moment; it feels like I’m just not equipped to be thinking about all the things that are going on. And as soon as I reach my absolute limit, something else happens to pile on more anger and more of all the things that come with it.
Hey, Ma? Don’t read this one. The reason the above warning exists is because whilst I am queer, I’m not actually out to my parents, or many people in the small town I grew up in and have recently moved back to. There are a lot of reasons for this, though I am lucky enough that it is not because I feel unsafe, or that my parents would reject me.
On Wednesday night the world watched in horror as scenes from Capitol Hill, the political heart of the United States of America, were broadcast live onto television. Upon encouragement from President Trump, a mob of armed fascists marched on the building; breaking in and occupying the House floor and the offices of senators.
In all the kerfuffle of the last six months or so, one piece of news from November passed by without much comment: the Equality and Human Rights Commission declared that the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies on immigration broke the law.
So, what have you all been unlearning this month? I’ve been working on a few things, mostly regarding productivity and self-worth. There’s always going to be something you’re getting wrong, and that’s alright!
During my undergrad in biomedical sciences, I was let down by the lack of societal context on our courses. More than lack – at times it seemed like a deliberate absence that was incomprehensible given what I was learning outside of lectures. Things became particularly interesting and disappointing when we came to the module on global health and infectious disease, where lecturers and students alike were given free rein to voice their unqualified opinions about the health of developing countries – needless to say, both groups were mostly white and from the global North…
It’s been two months now since Scotland moved into Phase 3 of lockdown restrictions, and pubs, shops and workplaces are beginning to reopen. I recently started a new job, and received a long policy email about how to fight COVID-19 in the workplace as part of my starter pack. Unfortunately, not every woman has been given this privilege: experts have found that women in the workplace have been set back ‘decades’ by the effects of lockdown…
71 years ago, Simone de Beauvoir concluded her foundational work The Second Sex by discussing the then status of ‘The Independent Woman’. Her existential feminist thought was crucial for the wave of feminism that followed and today her understandings of independence remain pertinent and needed…
THE SECOND MONTHLY COLUMN OF ‘LEARNING WITH LUCY!’: The maternal mortality rate for Black women in the UK is five times higher than that of their white counterparts. The Five X More campaign is fighting to change that…
It’s starting to become a familiar refrain when I watch television in the evening: first the music, sounding enough like that one Beyoncé song to suggest power, followed by various shots of women with truly flawless skin staring unashamedly down the camera, or doing something cool like skateboarding. A voiceover with buzzwords…
Home Secretary Priti Patel’s name pops up in the news circuit regularly; whether she’s gaslighting a minority group, bullying the opposition, screaming the ‘benefits’ of Brexit or devising racist and classist immigration plans. As a chest-thumping fascist using her modest upbringing and brown skin to masquerade as one-of-the-people- Patel is the Tories’ wet dream…
The notion that the best place for a woman is the home is, for the most part, seen as an outdated one in the 21st century. In 2020, the home is the best place for everyone! However, this extended period of being at home has set me thinking about what home represents for women, and the fact that women can often have a complicated relationship with the notion of home…
I know what the best form of self-care is. Unionising. The pandemic is widening the cracks in our society every day, and the divide between rich and poor has never been starker. But lo, light out of the darkness: Amazon workers in Chicago have won paid time off by forming the organisation Amazonians United and presenting a petition to upper management…
We must urge the government to ensure abortion is sufficiently accessible during the Covid-19 pandemic… READ MORE TO FIND OUT HOW…
Quite understandably, the vast majority of all health news coverage in 2020 (and, more recently, all news coverage in general) has been focused on Covid-19. But if you’d like to read some happier-than-a- world-pandemic news, I’ve compiled a short rundown of some UK health-related news stories from so far this year that have been overshadowed by the elephant (with a viral infection) in the room…
Has anyone noticed a weird trend in Guardian articles? Not across the board, no, but specifically the ones about feminism. The Guardian is known as an institution of liberal media, one of a few remaining left-leaning papers that isn’t behind a paywall. So it’s deeply troubling to see that they’ve published multiple pieces calling for the rolling back of rights for trans people…
Read about why our wonderful Political Editor, Caitlin Flavell has complicated feelings about Elizabeth Warren… “Following Super Tuesday in the US, the day in which the majority of states vote on which candidate they want to run for President, one issue is being thrown around here and there…”
Our Environmental Editor Meg introduces us to some pioneering LGBTQ+ activists, both past and present…
In the US, the presidential primaries have kicked off for real, with the first round of votes being held in Iowa. The Iowa Caucus is regarded by most as a good indicator of how the rest of the contest is going to play out. You know what’s really bugging me? Nobody is talking about the Republican primaries, at all. What’s going on with them? Trump might have pulled out of the race altogether, but nobody would know because everyone is talking about the Democratic primaries all the time…
Ever felt unappreciated at work? Ever felt unsafe at work, or on your way there? Ever felt uncomfortable when a colleague or service user made a sexist/racist/homophobic comment? Ever wondered how come women, especially women of colour, always seem to end up in the most insecure positions…
Home Secretary Priti Patel has revealed a whole raft of counter-terrorism measures following the attacks on London Bridge last year, including a new Counter-Terrorism Bill. Now, I could go into intense detail about how often government measures to decrease crime are misguided, but one point in particular caught my eye…
The following essay is the second part of a discussion on Transphobia by Hazel Sanderson…