New warning on ‘perfect vaginas’
Women are undergoing surgery to create the perfect vagina amid a "shocking" lack of information on the potential risks of the procedure, a report says. Research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology also questions the very notion of aesthetically pleasing genitals. Operations to improve the appearance of the vagina for both psychological and physical reasons are on the increase.
I remember the first time I read about vaginal reconstruction/ cosmetic surgery, I was almost sick. That hasn’t changed for it still makes me feel queasy.
I am fully supportive of women making the decisions that they want about their own bodies, but I believe that it should be done in a culture of full and complete information about the dangers of procedures. New research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology indicates that many of these procedures are taking place without full knowledge of the dangers.
Of course, the pressure to have such surgeries, and to achieve a "homogenised, pre-pubescent genital appearance", is central to this issue, and society/ media/ celebrity-obsession/ beauty-obsession can once again be cited for putting pressure on women to remain young, to never age, and to search for something to keep them ‘beautiful’. Tackling these new and dangerous cultural norms is just as important to me as describing the problems with the procedures they bring about.
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Quoted text from news.bbc.co.uk
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Tags: beauty-obsession, celebrity-obsession, feminism, health, misogyny, patriarchy, psychology, research, society, sociology, women
A huge rise in the number of children calling to report sexual abuse by women has been revealed by ChildLine. Over the past five years, the charity says the number of such calls has risen five times faster than youngsters reporting abuse by a man. Of 16,094 children who called ChildLine about sex abuse last year, 2,142 told of abuse by a woman, up 132% on 2004-5. Men still account for the majority of child abuse claims, but the NSPCC said female sex abuse was under-reported.
It is absolutely under-reported. It is also thought by some that women can’t abuse – they can, and they do. These figures show exactly that. (People often think also that because I am a feminist, I think that women can do no wrong. That is not the case at all. They can, and they do.)
This situation with female abuse will have to go through exactly the same motions that the situations with rape and domestic violence went though some years ago (and continue to go through). There has to be an acknowledgement first and foremost that it does happen – that women sexually abuse children. Only then will it start to be reported, and only then can we start to tackle it.
Now, it is noteworthy that ChildLine did not claim that sexual abuse by females is necessarily on the rise – rather that reports of this abuse are on the rise. There is an important difference. When any official statistics on crime rise, they nearly always do so because the number of reports increase rather than the number of incidents themselves. It is impossible to say right now what these figures mean in terms of actual abuse taking place, and that is something that we need to work on finding out.
But that aside…
The ChildLine report said the issue of female sex offending was not well-reflected in policy, practice and guidance on child protection and offender management.
Indeed.
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Quoted text from news.bbc.co.uk
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Tags: child abuse, crime, criminology, feminism, society, sociology, women, sexual violence, criminal justice
Drug addiction clinics say they are becoming increasingly concerned by the health risks associated with the chemical – the only known example of the body forming a third drug following the ingestion of two others. For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat to users, and indeed society as a whole.
I don’t think these findings will come as a surprise to anyone: cocaine is not good for you, and neither is alcohol. If you mix the two, then you’re in even worse trouble. But perhaps these findings, if publicised widely and properly, may drive home the serious consequences of mixing the two.
Many who consider themselves social users – for whom a line or two of cocaine coupled with a few drinks in a bar or a club is a weekly or monthly event – do not consider the health implications of their drug taking. “I am not sure I have ever taken coke when I haven’t been drinking alcohol,” one 30-year-old television producer who has been taking the drug socially for the past seven years said yesterday. “It allows you to drink more, so if I am feeling a little too drunk I might take a line as a sharpener. It makes you feel a bit more sober.”
And there is an increase in cocaine use (not least because cocaine is so much cheaper than it used to be).
Increasing cocaine use among the young may explain heightened concerns about the effects of cocaethylene. Last year’s British Crime Survey revealed that there had been a 25% increase in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds taking the drug compared with the previous year. The number of people under 25 who have sought help for cocaine abuse has doubled in the past four years.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: health, research, science, society, sociology
Children brought up according to "tough love" principles are more successful in life, according to a study. The think tank Demos says a balance of warmth and discipline improved social skills more than an laissez-faire, authoritarian or disengaged upbringing.
We were talking about child-rearing (particularly smacking) in my office the other day. I got the odd smack from my parents when I was a child and bold, and it didn’t do me any harm at all. Now, I’m not an advocate of smacking, per se, because smacking is something that can lead to beating all too easily, and it is not always used in a constructive manner. It was in my home – and I always learned from it – but it’s not in many others.
Now, this new study suggests that ‘tough love’ is actually good for children. Here’s why:
According to the report, qualities such as application, self-regulation and empathy were more likely to be developed in children whose parents employed a "tough love" approach. It found that these qualities made "a vital contribution to life chances, mobility and opportunity". The report said these characteristics were profoundly shaped in pre-school years.
The piece goes on to say that although socio-economics are a factor in developing these ‘key characteristics’, the effect of socio-economic circumstances is much reduced when parental styles and parental confidence are considered.
The Building Character report analysed data from more than 9,000 households in the UK. It found that children from the richest backgrounds were more than twice as likely to develop the key characteristics compared to those with the poorest origins. Additionally, children whose parents were married were twice as likely to show such traits than children from lone parent or step-parented families, the report said. But it added that when parental style and confidence were factored in, the difference in child character development between richer and poorer families disappeared. The report concluded that this indicated that parenting was the most important influence – and the same result occurred when the family structure factor was analysed.
(Although in the next sentence it remarks that parental education is important, so it seems that socio-economic factors cannot be discounted after all.)
For me it emphasises questions that are prevalent in debates about child-rearing today: that of ’self-esteem vs. discipline’. Many sociologists and psychologists are arguing currently that maintaining a child’s sense of self-esteem and self-worth is more important that ensuring that they are disciplined. The findings from this research may give this debate a new slant.
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Quoted text from news.bbc.co.uk
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Tags: family, parenting, psychology, research, society, socio-economics, sociology
If you commit a crime and get caught it is reasonable to think that you will go to court, be prosecuted and pay the price for your actions. Not necessarily. In fact, in England and Wales half of all criminal cases brought to justice these days are punished out of court by way of cautions, warnings and fines.These direct measures are supposed to be fast and fair.
This is becoming a serious problem in England and Wales. Because of a lack of resources, people-power, and court availability, ‘direct measures’ have been introduced to push offenders through the criminal justice system faster. Many of these measures lead to offenders being given police cautions (aka rap on the knuckles) or fines. However, Panorama (a BBC investigative programme) has discovered that these measures are being applied to criminals who are committing very serious offences, such as violence, grievous bodily harm, and rape.
Cautions are formal warnings, issued at the discretion of the police if the offender admits his guilt. However, an investigation by BBC’s Panorama has found concern right across the criminal justice system – from defence and prosecution lawyers, to magistrates and even judges – that these out-of-court punishments are increasingly being used for more serious crimes than originally intended. Our research found cases of burglary, child neglect, sexual assault and even rape which were dealt with by caution in 2008.
I am not someone who views changes in the criminal justice system, and crime statistics, with an uncritical eye but I am ready to accept these findings for what they are because I know them to pretty accurate. And I find them absolutely terrifying.
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Tags: crime, criminology, law, legality, politics, society, sociology, violence, criminal justice, policing, victimology
Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found.
I don’t think that processed foods are ever good for you, irrespective of depression. They’re bad for your health in so many other ways, too. I will still be up for a greasy spoon after a night on the town, but I try to eat fresh everything on a day-to-day basis.
Of course, there is a socio-economic issue at play here: if you shop around in the UK, for example, you will actually find that some processed foods are cheaper than fresh foods. In this respect, healthy eating is unfortunately easier for some people than others.
[In the study] those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods. By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.
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Quoted text from news.bbc.co.uk
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Tags: economics, health, research, science, society, socio-economics
Women are paid less than half as much as men in some parts of the UK, according to statistics published today that reveal huge regional variations in the pay gap between male and female workers.
Some recent reading had led me to believe that this was a situation that was improving. The evidence seemed to be indicating that the differences in pay for men and women were reducing and not increasing. These figures from a study conducted by the Fawcett Society suggest otherwise, and indeed indicate that in some parts of the UK men make twice as much as women in their pay packets.
Nationally, women earn an average of 21% an hour less than men for full- and part-time work. The Fawcett Society’s data shows that this figure is 53% in West Somerset, while in Windsor and Maidenhead it is 49% and in South Northamptonshire 43%. The smallest gap is in Sevenoaks, Kent, where the difference is just 1%.
And in the few parts of the country where women make more than men, it is nowhere near 50%. I had no idea that the gap could be that wide.
Indeed, it seems that Britain is not doing well at all in terms of gender equality, and is falling in the ‘league tables’.
The findings follow the revelation earlier this week that Britain has slipped down the international league table for gender equality again. It is now ranked 15th out of 130 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, having fallen from 13th last year and 9th in 2006. In terms of wage equality, the UK fared even worse, dropping to 78th in the world behind countries including Egypt, Malawi, Tajikistan and Malaysia.
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Quoted text from guardian.co.uk
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Tags: discrimination, economics, employment, feminism, gender, gender differences, law, legality, sexism, society, sociology
A traffic stop led officers to discover that a Willard man allegedly has been compiling nude photos of patients from the medical facility where he worked.
Oh sweet mother of all that is good and holy, can you imagine! A medical facility is the one place I feel safe taking my clothes off (I don’t in shop changing rooms, for example) but not any more. Of course, this case is more serious than a man taking photos of people in a medical facility – he was also taking photos of minors.
Aguirre was acting strange so officers investigated further, the chief said. They found a small wireless camera hidden in his truck and further found nude photos of juveniles and videos “taken covertly within a medical setting.”
This has certainly raised questions for me of trust for these people. Although I’m sure it’s not the first case of its type.
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Quoted text from norwalkreflector.com
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Tags: crime, internet, law, legality, privacy
… here is one of the reasons I give.
Marlon King, who earned about £1 million a year, was sacked by his club, Wigan Athletic, after being found guilty of groping a 20-year-old woman and breaking her nose with a single punch. He was out drinking last December to celebrate his wife’s pregnancy, and a winning goal he had scored hours earlier.
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Southwark Crown Court was told that on the night of the assault, King was “cold-shouldered” by a series of women in the Soho Revue Bar in London. He then approached his victim, a “slightly built” student. During the trial, the victim said: “I felt someone grab my left buttock. I turned round and was quite disgusted and shocked.”
She said King told her: “You’re not even in my league, love, I’m a multimillionaire.” Then, in a burst of “completely gratuitous violence” he hit her, “smashing” her to the floor.
The woman wept as she listed her injuries. “It split my lip, broke my nose and gave me a black eye. It felt like I was bleeding everywhere, but it was mainly my nose and mouth.”
This man approached several women in the bar, was rejected, then groped another, and when he was rejected again, lashed out in an extremely violent way. But not before ‘reassuring’ the victim that she wasn’t good enough for him anyway. After groping her.
Because, as you know, sexual violence against women is a compliment; it’s an indication that he would ‘do her’, and she should be grateful for the attention.
This behaviour is a clear demonstration of this man’s sense of entitlement to have sex with any woman of his choosing, regardless of what she thinks. When he was rejected by said woman, he became violent. Because she turned him down and he did not believe that it was her right to do so. No does not mean no to this man; it means that she should be punched in the face for not fulfilling his sense of entitlement for full sexual access to women.
These attitudes are everywhere. If you go into any pub or club in the UK on a weekend night, you will see men who have exactly the same attitude and who expect that they should also have full sexual access to women.
And this is one of the reasons that I am a feminist.
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Quoted text from timesonline.co.uk
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Tags: feminism, misogyny, patriarchy, sexism, sexual violence, society
The wages of the typical woman who had a job during the worst recession in decades rose faster than those of the typical man, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Over the past two years, the wages of the median woman — at the statistical middle — rose 3.2% when adjusted for inflation. Wages of the median man rose 2%. Minority men were particularly hard hit, while minority women and highly educated women of all races did better.
This may not come as good news for menfolk but it does for womenfolk. And let’s face it, these statistics do not suggest that women are now out-earning men, but rather that some women, in these recession times, are catching up with men.
The typical full-time female worker earned $657 a week in the third quarter, the BLS said. The typical man earned $812 a week.
I think this is particularly welcome news for women form minority groups (e.g. women of colour) who historically and traditionally earn much less, if they earn at all.
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Quoted text from online.wsj.com
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Tags: discrimination, economics, employment, feminism, gender differences, men, sexism, women
