Articles by andieberry

working class women have always been feminists so why do we find the word the word feminist an alien term which doesn`t apply to us? I want more women in politics and in I.T and more men teaching primary school and running play groups.
The right out of white
The right out of politics
Fave chant “Not the church and not the state, women must decide their fate”.
nerdiest thing i`ve ever said , (in politics class) “Well, peace of course will be achieved circa 2280 when Cochrane tests the first warp engine” (its star trek, to none nerds)

Slivers of time or how to screw over the informal jobs market.

Thursday 9th December, 2010 in News, Politics, Uncategorized by andieberry | No comments

So the new buzz after flexible working is Slivers of Time the concept as covered by The Guardian reports that sections of society are unable to work because of time constraints.The argument is that some work is better than no work, claimants are allowed to make a certain sum before it affects their benefits. Tesco has announced ‘slivers of time’ as an alternative to eight hour shifts and a way to enable employees to book certain hours of overtime. Okay, so far so good. With previous columns I have called for the recognition of informal work performed by women to be recognised as economic activity and, according to the slivers of time model, it can be.

A look to the website of slivers of time ltd reveals that is a social enterprise company set up explore the notion of ‘markets for all’, in that socially disadvantaged people should be able to access markets and sell their labour at their discretion. In a paper (to download) from the website Whigham Rowan explains and illustrates the example of how the system works.Basically you put yourself on the website, cite hours in which you are able to work and the rate per job. The potential employer then looks over the website and picks out a candidate.The more jobs you do the higher rating you get (think the star rating on seller websites such as Amazon and e-bay).

The idea of slivers of time in a non corporate sense is an idea directly taken from the examination of informal micro-economics performed in low income areas such as council estates (I know I’m from one). I remember a down on his luck painter , painting my portrait for £30 , the girl over the road being paid a fiver for babysitting me, two pairs of tracksuit bottoms being traded for 3 hours of gardening etc…

This informal market is problematic, mainly because people who aren’t on benefits (if the Daily Fail be believed) and are comfortably well off believe that informal earning is lucrative, however, for the babysitter it is not, for the person who does someone’s ironing it is not. The informal market is only lucrative for individuals such as drug dealers and money lenders.The informal market also has the same problem as the legitimate labour market- the markets flood and saturation of labour occurs, thus lack of employment , formal or informal.

Ok then, informal work is only lucrative for individuals who indulge in dealing narcotics and money lending, so this idea for people on benefits to do legitimate jobs without the fear of prosecution for being being a benefit cheat and to improve their later employability chances when the market settles down is no bad thing in theory. However, as I looked to affiliated partners to slivers of time I see that the TUC is cited. I went to the TUC website to search for a paper on their finding (usually very good) but find nothing but a press release, puzzling. More questions come to mind:-

1)If you transfer informal to formal work, where is the safety net such as the one provided for in the formal market sector? Sick pay, Maternity leave etc. As a person offering your labour on this kind of site are you, in the case of being ‘picked’ by a local business for say, three days work, entitled to the rights in place for contracted workers? Join a union you may say, but if you were on a base level of income (such as ‘benefits’) and have a fluctuating income based on your labour being picked by a user on this website, would you really have the money spare to pay subs to a union?

2) The demographic this scheme has been touted to help suffer from lack of self confidence. If someone who is fresh out of university can’t get a job and then advertise themselves on this site , what chance does a long term unemployed or incapacity benefit have? Is there going to be a certain criteria that has to be met by candidates selling labour?If so, is this another example of the ghetto-risation of the poor much like out of town council estates?

In theory, as with headline stories it sounds too good to be true , for me its no coincidence that the Con-Dems announced that they would be including the happiness index into configuring the nations GDP the same day as the slivers of time is approved by big business.What we can see clearly now is what the government plan to do about the shortfall in jobs in the public sector, some can volunteer to run services and the lucky ones , depending on their rating , may actually get paid for short contracts but without the long term benefits.

Mind the gap

Friday 12th November, 2010 in Accepted Social Situations, caring, Civil Liberties, feminism, gender, Politics by andieberry | No comments

So the headlines blazing across the Sunday Papers was the story of how the Coalition intend to ‘make’ benefit claimants do unpaid work for a specific period or risk losing their benefits. At first glance it seems a good idea, being out work takes it toll on your mental state, so why not do some unpaid work whilst looking ? Firstly, job hunting takes time, the internet searches, the rehashing of the C.V and even the time to travel to employment agencies (as my favourite champagne socialist Polly Toynbee found out and expressed in Hard Work). Secondly, most people already do unpaid work, its called voluntary work which, if you’re lucky enough not to had to trudge to the dole before, you have to declare as part of your job hunting plan, but you’re not allowed to do ‘too much’ voluntary work nor state that you have made a fixed time commitment less it stop you from landing a ‘proper’ paid job. So , if the government makes you do unpaid work because you are guilty of the crime to be out of work in the middle of double dip recession what gap are you filling? Why! the gap made by public spending cuts, think tank genius! The third sector is awash with recent graduates, the long and short term unemployed already, so I can only presume that the newly unemployed (fresh from the spending cuts, low level civil servants , librarians etc) are going to fill the gaping gaps left by the shrinking state. However, there is another kind of unpaid work done by nearly half of the planets population that the Coalition government never mention, a gap that is always filled due to social construction and that is the unpaid domestic labour provided by Women.

According to to a paper commissioned by the UN, the unaccounted economic activities performed by women include:-

Cleaning, decoration and maintenance of the dwelling unit

Preparation and serving of meals

Care, training and instruction of children

Care of sick,infirm or old

Transportation of the household’.

Sound familiar? All that day to day stuff you do is worth nothing to the government and my argument is that it should be for several reasons. Firstly, these unaccounted activities are presumably unpaid because financial sustenance comes from a partner or the state, which as everyone knows is complete rubbish. Only the elite and upper middle classes can survive on one wage per household. Single mothers live on a pittance and even when in work often end up hovering just above the poverty line . Secondly we also have to factor in the concept that women’s work is a relic of the industrial revolution,- the Woman offers emotional and maternal support to the man who ‘is’ the wage slave ( the Women being a non economical unit). This concept is problematic now as Woman in this country have long been visible in the public sphere and now Woman finds she is a wage slave Herself but but still endures the double burden. This is nothing compared to our Sisters in developing countries but non-the-less, equal,sexist free Britain? Thirdly even if you don’t have children, Women are socially immersed into ideals of being this caring, nourishing being, via the media (domestic goddess that can whip up a four course meal in 10 minutes,drop everything for your friends, look out for your neighbours). Women have always been the volunteers that filled the gaps left by the state’s policies, the PTA’s that raise money for schools (mostly women), the coffee mornings for charity, Women activists that march and lobby at grassroots level , keeping your eye on that neighbour who you know is taking abuse from their ’other half’, saying hello and engaging in conversion with an elderly person who you know, probably hasn’t spoken to anyone all day. If I where to categorize our ‘unaccounted economic activities’ as paid work then the list would be this;Nanny,Counselor,Lobbyist,Community worker,Fund-raiser,Chauffeur, PR,Carer, Nutritionist, Personal shopper. All validated, trusted positions, economically viable but not so if the work is unpaid.If as the DaveCam puts it we are ‘all in this together’ then why is unpaid ‘domestic labour’ economically irrelevant in these days of the Big Society? We fill the gaps!

Did you notice that last week the fire service threatened to strike on bonfire night? The New Statesman posed the question is it an abuse of power? No actually its not, it strikes at the heart of the public’s fear of unsafety. So why is it that Womens strike day this year was largely ignored by the media? Well you know why,Women in the west are still seen as unpaid labour, economically irrelevant, whining when we have so called political rights.If we were were to strike, can you imagine the gap? This is what I say, mind the gap left by Women, the void is too vast to cross safely, society would as we see it would crumble. Women fill the void left by the shrinking state , unpaid work for women claimants creates a triple burden. Marx once wrote’ We stand on the shoulders of giants’ but that’s rubbish we all stand on the shoulders of women and society is taught that those strong shoulders are irrelevant because of a chromosome. MIND THE GAP!

Tags: attitudes, class, Conservatism, discrimination, equality, feminism, Parenting, power, sexism, social capital, The Recession, the tories, women

Reclaim the night: Oxford

Monday 1st November, 2010 in Reclaim The Night, Uncategorized by andieberry | No comments

Last Friday the Oxford Reclaim the Night march took place….(told from my perspective)

After various incidents I manage to get to the March start point at the Sheldonian theatre (slap bang in the middle of Oxford academic institutions) with my two young daughters, ex-boyfriends mother and her ten year old daughter. I see a few banners and secretly hope it’s going to be bigger than last year (about 40 women). It turns out there is over a hundred women there. I sift through the crowd and find some of the organising committee, namely the awesome Clare Cochrane (who campaigns on many issues) and the irrepressible (femacadem) Suzi stewarding, with baby in sling at the front. Suzi and I engage in banter which goes

Me: Look at me out and about of a Friday night, I’m a single mother what would the Daily Mail say?

Suzi (in big booming middle class voice): Yes , you should be at home , you may steal someone’s husband!

Some of the newbies stare not getting the joke.

Meanwhile , ex-boyfriends Mum starts to get bored but reiterates that she should be here because she was in a Women’s Refuge, my kids tire of standing up, someone passes a comment about me smoking a cigarette in front of the children ( I ain’t gonna hide it) and I get the disapproving vibe about bringing the children from others which makes me even more belligerent. Then the mood changes…

The always excellent Louise Livesey starts up the chants and gets the march under way and we march towards the High Street. The kids are on either side of me , the chanting starts whose streets?, our streets!. Women come to talk to me; a woman named Kate who organises the new Oxford branch of Fawcett; Hannah, a co-ordinator at OSARCC introducing me to other volunteers. I spy a little boy in front of me wearing a ‘this is what a feminist looks like’ t-shirt and blowing bubbles and I recognise his mum from the main Fawcett publicity. I notice people on the street; the cheers, the jeers and the people who look look at us as if we belong to another era. But mostly I see the people ahead of me, the chanting and chatting, the smiling and the banners flapping in the wind. We block the footpath as we walk down St Aldates, a council rubbish van beeps us again (for the third time), we stop taxis making their way down the small cobbled backlanes (we pull to the footpath to let them pass). We pass the lapdancing club chanting womens bodies should not be sold. We march down New Hall Inn Street chanting Whatever we wear, wherever we go , yes means yes, no means no.

My youngest gets knackered by this point so I have to perch her on my shoulders as we get to the busy junction, someone presses the crossing button (we have no police escort) half the contingent gets across whilst the other stays on the other side of the road. We wait and chant some more . We then make our way to the rally point at Ruskin college, a group of young men shout at us ‘we’re gonna chop you into pieces ‘ (apparently this happened on the march too but the stewards took care of it) I ignore them but ex-boyfriends mum chases them down (she knows their Mums).

I get into the familiar settings of Ruskin, sort the kids out with a drink and realise the actual scale of the march, I hardly know anyone here, but it makes me glad, new people on the march is always a good thing.I have a quick chat with random people, ex-boyfriends Mum takes the kids home and I slip out front for a cigarette.

I’m chatting with the Warden and the awesome Debbie when the two police show up, they address the warden first (of course, he is a bloke) then they talk to me.

Bloke plod:Good evening Miss, what’s going on here then? Do you have a licence?

Me: We don’t need one – you were informed and we have insurance.

Bloke plod: So, any more marching tonight?

Me: No, but thanks so much for your help

Warden: Its a rally and the college is insured

Bloke plod: So whats this all about?

Me: Its called Reclaim the Night , where Women march to be seen and heard at a time when society tells us we should be indoors because of all the nasty things that may happen to us …

Bloke plod: ohh…

Me: Which we wouldn’t have to do if your institution took women seriously.

Bloke plod: Well goodnight miss *jogs on*

I go in and relate the tale to the organisers and have a good laugh, chat to Suzi and then go home, sadly missing the rally speeches. Its only the second march I’ve been on, but this year was bigger and better all thanks to the women who organized and attended, love and thanks to the Oxford Collective.

Call for papers…and comment on the female gaze

Tuesday 19th October, 2010 in feminism, gender, LGBTQI, Media, Popular Culture, Post Feminism, sex by andieberry | No comments

A call for papers comes via the Filament magazine FB page, Feminst Porn Studies is looking for papers between 3000 and 7000 words from both sex industry workers and academic writers.

Oxford University’s Left Review is looking for submissions for Issue Three, which gives you two weeks to submit if you have any sociological, radical politics or economics papers.

When it comes to Filament magazine, I’m still in two minds about it. Yes, I like looking at sexy men and yes Ii think women should be able to access porn if they want to. What I can’t actually bridge is the gap between the following- when did I start thinking it was OK to view men as sex objects when most feminist thought dictates that women must not be seen purely as sex objects? Surely as a result, neither should men. What is this female gaze discussion all about?

The female gaze can be seen as binary to the male gaze, but how do we truly know what the female gaze is? If it is the opposite to the male gaze then where is the space for Lesbians and Trans men? I know that all men do not not desire the slim blonde identikit archetype offered by the media, and all women do not desire the chiseled jaw six pack ‘hunk’ also offered by the mainstream. Nor are all women ‘secret bisexuals’, so why are the main images in this magazine oiled up and laid out for the ladies pleasure?

As a critic of post-feminism, I could simply say that this is a new and improved way to control women’s sexuality, to mould us as sexually subservient to men. Don’t be fooled by embracing the so-called power of what I truly think the female gaze is . The male gaze is digested in the consciousness of women, who then internalise and invert this gaze because ultimately men have power. To seize this power you must be seen as this veracious, ironic being who sees women as the media do- as a consumable product . Ariel Levy in her excellent investigation ‘ Female Chauvinist Pigs’ explores this notion within both heterosexual and homosexual culture and illustrates this perfectly.

As a woman in the ‘real’ world, having been socially conditioned to what is ‘hot’ and what is not (lets not be naive here), maybe Filament is a good thing. I enjoy reading the feeds on FB asking for what kind of image the readers would like to see ( I can’t help but think that it may sink into a readers boyfriends/husbands expo). Most of the articles are pretty good and I don’t think I’d ever put it under my bed to avoid detection. That said, can any sexual objectification ever be justified?

Tags: attitudes, Filament, porn, Post Feminism, sex, sex workers, sexuality

Update from Andieberry

Thursday 15th July, 2010 in Education, feminism by andieberry | No comments

Apologies to all, for you may have noticed the lack of posts from Suzi and myself. Well, I have just finished my SPE degree and Suzi is in the midst of catching up on work. Tradition dictates that Suzi does a thorough investigation of subject matter and so she decided to do her dissertation on the Politics of Breastfeeding, which naturally, included having a baby to perform test analysis on the subject! I did my dissertation on the subject of Post-Feminism from a radical feminist approach which, once its marked, I will condense and post here.
So at the moment (like a lot of people) I’m going through the misery that is job hunting in a double dip recession, so in between the endless job search I can actually manage to poke my head into the real world. I realise that I’ve had the privilege of having three years out to learn, study and develop my own ideas. I have met amazing people that I otherwise wouldn’t have met (Suzi being one of them), have taken part in events such as the Ruskin@40 Womens conference where I took some academic baby steps into a group discussion about what post-feminism is, I also listened and watched in awe as Beatrix Campbell took my economics tutor down a peg!

Real life sucks but its up to all the bloggers , the off-line activists and networks to keep questioning, profiling and lobbying for full equality between the sexes.

How Sexual Assualt leads to Identity Theft

Tuesday 1st September, 2009 in feminism, gender, Sexual Violence, Violence Against Women by andieberry | No comments

Warning: This post may be triggering for Sexual Violence survivors.

Standing up to a ‘minor’ sexual assault.

Picture the scene: you’re a woman who is gaining confidence in who she is and what she does. Upon entering Higher Education (something you never ever thought you had the brains for) you find yourself looking at the top spot on the student union and thinking to yourself ‘I can do that’ . You run for office, you succeed. The college administration has respect for you because you unearth diplomatic skills you never thought you had, students like you because everything gets sorted and at the top of your ‘to do list’ is student welfare, every single time.

You help to organise the end of year ball, and you dress up- not in a posh frock, but in a ringmaster’s costume (because some wag said the student union was a circus). You turn up to the ball, and naturally people want to talk to you and take photos because you are one of the few that has turned up donning fancy dress. You have a couple of drinks and go outside for a cigarette.

Its dark outside but that doesn’t matter this place is familiar to you, it is safe. Suddenly you feel someone place their hand on your arse and stroke right across the cheek. You turn around to see someone you barely know, another student. You tell them to ‘fuck off’ . The person towers over your five foot six small frame by at least a six inches. You figure the verbal warning was enough but the person takes it as a challenge and proceeds to do it again. Again you tell them to ‘fuck off’! The person explains that you must be ‘up for it’, otherwise why would you be talking and joking with every one? Why would you be in fancy dress?

You don`t move from your position because it’s the only way you can show you won’t be cowed. It happens again, then a male friend comes around the corner and the person runs off. You try and shake it off , after all, you’ve worked in bars for years and put up with all sorts of sexist shit, but this time it feels different- the experience was threatening.

You shrug it off and drink some more and get back to the ball but you find yourself unwittingly clinging to your male friend. You find yourself talking to your male friend outside and then suddenly the perpetrator comes walking past you and addresses your friend saying that you’re a ‘slag’ and asking ‘what are you doing with THAT mate?’ Next thing you know you’re cleaning blood off someone who has tried to help the perpetrator, after he decided to put his head through a glass door.

You wake up in the morning and realise the danger that could have occurred! How can the behavior of this individual go unpunished? He`s clearly a danger to women and to himself what do you do? Your best friend advises you to call the police and register a complaint; you were touched without consent in a sexual manner and also verbally abused.

The next day you are visited by a lone male police officer, you give your statement and hand over clothes for DNA analysis. You feel foolish, like you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, after all you’re thirty something tough cookie, you put it to the back of your mind and get on with things.

You explain what happened to your boyfriend, he`s sorry that it happened, it wouldn’t have happened if he was there, then if not me who would it of happened to? Would they have handled it the same way as me, what if my friend hadn’t walked around the corner , what if I was by myself when the verbal assault happened? No-one would have seen, they were all inside. Had he done this before ? Why didn’t I move? What if? What if?

You go to the shops you start to see tall skinny men just like him, is it him? Your heart quickens and you freeze- what do you do if it is him? You walk through the park, see tall skinny men, is that him? What do I do?

You examine in detail what you are wearing, you dress down more than usual, a bit less make up, looser jeans. But then you look in the mirror and you realise it’s stupid- it’s not about what you wear. In fact it’s not about you at all. It’s about him. It’s not about sex it’s about power. He didn’t get what he wanted and he put his own head through a glass door. This guy has serious problems but that’s not my concern. I want to stop being scared of what ifs .

I talk about it with close friends, and the more I talk about it, the more I get angry, the more I want to get some people to go after him and kick the shit out of him. The rational part of me says it won’t solve anything. But what will happen? Will the police take it seriously? The P.C informs me that he believes me and he is reporting to a sexual assault ‘Tzar’ in the Thames Valley Police. Why does a PC need to tell me that he believes me? I’m smart, I’m in a position of trust, I don’t normally display intense emotional responses with complete strangers. I said I was willingly to take it to court without having certain protections such as a video link, instead of appearing in court in person. I know I’m right to report this I’ve never called the police in my life but I know deep down this individual has to stop and examine what he’s doing and what he thinks is normal behavior to females.

I go and report this to the principal ,she’s behind me one hundred percent as are two of my tutors , I find a different response with the third tutor who implies that I’m aggressive. Aggressive how? Ok, I’m forceful but that’s my personality and anyway isn’t that a cop-out? Aggressive personalities don’t deserve to be sexually assualted anymore than anyone else. Examining my personality, this tutor knew me and knew that deep down I wouldn’t have taken such steps if I thought it was just a bit of `party banter’.

I go to the women’s officer, a Marxist feminist, and explain the situation and how I’m feeling. I was seeking support in bringing the case to the college authorities- I know he’s done this to other women on campus who for their own reasons won’[t speak up. The next thing I know its all about him according to our ‘Feminist’Womens Officer ‘well he is from a council estate you know’. Erm…well so am I and believe me most males from a council estate would never act like that. Yeah I know he`s got problems but does that make it ok to act out in a sexually aggressive manner? A male friend of mine commented that every pat on the back side from a male to a female has two thousand years of patriarchy behind it. Well I never think that deeply I just thought the situation was bang out of order.

The P.C rang me up ‘we nicked him’. Great. Now what? When questioned (after a night in the cells) he claimed that ‘it was that sort of night…it was banter..I thought she’d be ok with it’. He claimed the time between taking photos and chatting was immediately prior to the assault. In short his word against mine, and therefore the CPS won`t take it up. ‘Well at least he got a night in the cells, that’s not very nice’ said the PC. No mate, but neither was the self evaluation, the anger, the fear and the retrospection. The feeling that no matter how much I gain confidence there’s always a patriarchal pat on the backside that can make me question my personality, my appearance and what makes up my identity.

Tags: sexual assualt; patriachy; police;

Techy sexism, Apologies and Pulling

Sunday 30th August, 2009 in Education, feminism, gender, Politics, Popular Culture, Technology by andieberry | No comments

Apologies to all for lack of posting on the site , Suzi and myself have been going through last term of academic year hell and I’ve also made myself a glutton for punishment and been voted in as Student Union President (again).

Pursuing my interest in the doctrine (or non doctrine) of anarchy, particularly the action, or non action of forum use and the ‘feeling’ that being, in these anarchist forums is to them, a space of free thinking (or, to use Hakims Beys definition, a ‘ temporary autonomous zone‘) I started a thread on an online anarchist community. So far so good. In a second year of degree act of stupidity I made too good an argument, leading to a situation where the forum users just blankly agreed with me.

Thing is, I used an androgynous handle (name) so I decided to stir things up a little and reveal explicitly that I was female- can you guess what happened dear reader? Yep, the thread wasn’t pulled, but, my explicit reply was! I e-mailed the sites administrator to ask why my reply was pulled and he replied that my mentioning radical womens squats ‘marginalised’ a lot of the forum users! I’m sorry I forgot there are no female anarchists! My topic was valid and a useful talking point, oh, pat on the head for me then for being clever, erm WTF?

I’hm not immune to the notion that there is inerrant sexism in the world and on the net ,I just thought that there may be a little less sexism on the net. The net is a place of deception as well as a place of truth telling and yes you could argue that my handle gave no clue to my gender, but should it matter on an anarchist website? In an anarchist utopia we are all equal and not subjected to the mindless actions of blokes in balaclavas smashing up shop windows and ‘us’ women keeping the collective home fires burning. We are elders as we always (and have been ignored for many a generation and governmental policy) have been within the collective, just as men pass on their wisdom, so do women.

I know I may sound naive but I really feel that this is 2009, I’m a working class, single parent woman and I am free to be educated, select partners etc, however, I have to also acknowledge that I’m blonde ,’skinny’, white with technological advantage. I have to acknowledge this privileged in off-line life , but do I have to on-line? Why, if the Internet is a virtual space where everyone is supposedly equal am I bombarded with adverts for pink computers, dating sites and online bingo halls? Its time to campaign against on-line sexism as well as offline sexism.

I watched the last episode of Pulling. It was ok at times its quite sexist towards men. However, hey how many times to you see a BBC programme where the women get the funny lines?

I`m reading ‘The Dispossessed’ by Ursula K.Le Guin. Anyone else read it? I’ll do a review in a few weeks time.

Tags: Anarchy, attitudes, cyberspace, equality

Last bastion of sexism in the retail sector?

Thursday 7th May, 2009 in feminism, gender by andieberry | No comments

Ever felt your money wasn`t good enough when you walk in a shop? Or been completely patronised, ignored or at worst treated like the only customer in the shop because of your sex? If you’re a woman then yes, let’s see if your experiences match mine.
I was in an upmarket pub/restaurant a while ago with Suzi and her partner, Lovely Admin, who is in fact, a dude. We ordered a lovely meal and were served by a waiter, who was sporting a recently received black eye. Incidentally, I mention the black eye because I thought to myself , if one of the waitresses had turned up with a black eye, would she have still been ‘allowed’ to work and to walk around and tell the tale of heroics associated with obtaining said black eye? Would the reaction of the party of men lapping up this tale of a partner in distress, and the other partner obligingly stepping in to resolve the matter, and, receiving ‘a good kicking ‘ for their trouble, have been the same if the waiting staff was female. Would they have assumed that a woman could of got into the same kind of scrap and not been the victim? No, I didn’t think so either.
Anyway, overpriced but delicious food was served, and we argued about the bill as per usual. Suzi slipped off to the loo and I requested the bill from the waiter. The waiter presented Lovely Admin with the bill – he then explained that I was paying (well that’s what student loans are for sometimes!)- and the waiter looked a little embarrassed and then presented me with the bill.
I went to P.C World with the express mission to buy a laptop, I was clued up enough to know exactly what I wanted because I hate to shop, I like to go in, make a purchase and get out. The laptop section was at the rear of the shop, and there was desk close by that seemed to be the ‘consulting desk’ . Two suited men who had name tags on were discussing some important postmortem comparison notes from the night before, so I decide to just have a look over at the laptops to ‘show’ that I may wish to purchase one. Big mistake. I saw that several customers, mostly men had decided to use the same tactic as myself, except for some reason their use of the tactic had worked and said salesmen completely ignored me when I said ‘Hi ,could you help me?’ (apparently men don’t have to say that in shops).

After being ignored for a good ten minutes I decided to go over to one of the salesmen (who wasn’t with a customer) and say “I want to buy a laptop ,this model in fact’”. I didn’t even get mid sentence as the salesman said ‘I’m just with a customer’ . “What what the hell am I ?” I said . Obviously some kind of penniless ghost given the lack of service .
I went into an electronics shop (the geeky computer hobby kind of shop) to get a refund on an item that I’d mistakenly bought. The (by now) inevitable wait to be recognized as a paying customer was remarkably quick as I’d learned that standing at the sales counter just wasn’t going to work, so I looked for the manager. I explained to the manager that I wanted a refund, I needed the next model up and explained (as it was a geeky tech shop) exactly what I did need and what I planned to do with it. The transformation in service was instantaneous; the manger summoned one of the sales staff to get the stuff I needed, transaction done big smiles all around.
Like I said you’ve probably had these kinds of experiences . I could put the first example down to be dressed like a scruffy student, but we were all dressed like scruffy students.
I could put the second experience down to being short with a chameleon like ability to blend into the background, except that, even with wishing to having the chameleon like superpower at times, I don’t.

I could put the third experience down to being an informed consumer who the staff was happy to interact with, except that I had to take steps before I could prove I was a ‘worthy’ customer.
All three experiences were, in my opinion, down to gender socialised roles. Men always pay and women don’t know anything about computers . I don’t get that sort of treatment on-line , I know there, that I’m an anonymous consumer and the only time the website requests my gender is to market the ‘pink’ products in their store, so I avoid it .The only trouble is (call me old fashioned) I actually like to go to the shop, have a good look at the product and compare before I buy. Why should I have to be conscious of my gender when going into a shop and receive inconsistent degrees of service ?

Tags: consumerism, discrimination, gender roles, service, sexism, social capital, socialisation

The silent death; does it need a less invasive test?

Saturday 2nd May, 2009 in Health, Media Personality, sex by andieberry | No comments

The silent death is cervical cancer. I knew a little about cervical cancer, skipped appointments for the screening because its embarrassing and uncomfortable and occasionally when I did turn up got the ‘abnormal’ diagnosis. I had the abnormal diagnosis three times ,dutifully turned up at the hospital, had an electrode strapped to my thigh in order to power the electric cheese wire that sliced off the abnormal white spots in my cervix. Was I scared? No- in fact I got quite blase about it- after all I’m young , healthy and I’ve had kids (some doctors I saw when I was younger, claimed that most ‘womens’ problems disappear after having kids!). Then came Jade Goody.

Has Jade Goody done for cervical cancer what Kylie Minogue did for breast cancer? The signs look good- an average figure for more women going for smear tests is 40%, so the short life of Goody was not in vain. What is never discussed in the media is one of the real reasons behind why women don’t go for smear tests. Women have that discussion- its embarrasing , sometimes it hurts, you worry about what the doctor or nurse thinks about your pubic hair, does your vagina look ‘normal’? Does it have a funny smell?

Ultimately its the invasision of privacy- knickers off , lie on the bed and open your legs to ,sometimes, a complete stranger, and then have a cold instrument inserted in order to take a sample of cells. Ok prevention is better than a cure and early detection is crucial, but in these days of stem cell research , the mode of injecting medicine through the pores rather than injection and keyhole hysterectomies is there any possibility of a non invasive way of detecting cervical cancer?

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