Penny Red: linkdumpage

Friday, 9 March 2012

Women, activism, anger, and other things I've been up to..

I write and publish a great deal these days, and sometimes, like this week, there'll be a publication run where pieces I'm reasonably proud of will come out almost every day. Not only do I not want the hard work I put into these articles to go to waste, you can get a better sense of where my politics are and what I'm interested in right now from looking at what I'm writing all in one place. So here are this week's offerings, which appear to be about feminism, trolling, the state of the left, personal and political revolution and Rush Limbaugh's terrible face.

So, it turns out that feminism is a CIA plot to undermine the left - blog for New Statesman. In which I encounter the American dudeleft and pull some strange faces in a New York bookshop. Video editing by Willie Osterweil.

Eating disorders and the White Strike - when youthful dissidence cannibalises itself - column for New Statesman. This was quite a personal piece and harder to write than I thought it would be. I could write a whole book on the topic, so getting to the point in 600 words was a good exercise.

A report from Occupy AIPAC - for The Independent. In which I go to Washington DC and watch peace activists pretend to be doing something new, and learn more about lobbying.

Sugar Daddies - for Salon.com. A report on the trend of older, rich men looking to pay financially desperate, 'non professional' women for sex, affection and maybe a bit of tidying. In which I troll the hell out of some creeps on the internet for fun and feminism.

Rush Limbaugh, Sexist Shit and the Art of the Decoy - a blog for New Statesman. Written mostly in a rage-fuge in the back of a friend's play, having just drunk some absinthe by accident (I can't have absinthe since that night in 2005 of which we do not speak). Features a metaphor about arses I'm quite pleased with.

Deeds, not Words: a column for International Women's Day 2012 - For the Independent. The effervescent Molly Crabapple did an illustration to go with this piece, which I am stupendously excited about, and you should all go to her Kickstarter and get involved in redefining gallery art for the 99% or some aesthetic revolution or other, I don't know, I'm all tuckered out after this week and should probably have more coffee absolutely right this minute.

Ciao, L

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Linkdumping Wednesday!

Guys, I apologise for being off-radar. This is a week in which I have two freelance deadlines on top of a house move, which I've just completed, and I'm sitting here in a pile of boxes in no mood to blog about anything. So instead, here are some links to interesting and/or important things I've been reading this week in the mainstream press - I know, I know, but they're great sometimes - and in the blogosphere.

- The Guardian's moving interview with Warren Hern, the last late-term abortion doctor in the United States, may well make your skin crawl with horror if you're a British feminist. Think it couldn't happen here? Take a look at the Tories' abortion rights policies, why dontcha.

- In other angry practical feminist news, Tanya Gold has very good reasons for hating fashion.

- Sam Leith takes classic horror to Prospect magazine, arguing that Vampires are creatures of the Right, and Zombies are monsters of the Left.

- At Liberal Conspiracy, Zarathustra reminds us why NHS employees are not the same thing as Nazis.

- Johann Hari, who I want to be in every single way, has a beautiful piece celebrating older women, and another extremely wise offering on the British culture of overwork.

- The Samosa has an exclusive story about the English Defence League's new tactics to persuade us that they're not a bunch of racist wingnuts, by new writer Secunder Kermani.

If you've got to the end of all that and are still thinking no, Laurie! Bugger the exciting wider world of journalism, we want your words and yours alone! - then you may be interested to read something I wrote for One In Four's last issue -

- an interview with Andy Roberts, founder member of the Mental Patients' Union in the 1970s - an astonishing gentleman who I'm very glad to have had the privilege to spend an afternoon with.

Normal service will be resumed as shortly as is feasibly possible. Keep the red flag flying in my absence, you wonders.