The Truth about Being One of the Guys

FEMINIST - I opened an email earlier today forwarded from a friend in Canada and it started off like so...

"I think they're trying to contact you guys."

What I thought was amusing was that it was an email being forwarded to two women, and yet he had chosen to refer to us as "guys".

Not gals.

Not chicks.

Not Utero-Americans.

Guys.

And I think this is a positive thing, because what it implies is that guys is now an unisex word which means a group of females or males, and there doesn't have to be 1 male in the group.

Unlike French/Francais, in which if there is 1 male in a group its automatically upgraded to the masculine form of the word. We should be so fortunate that in English we don't worry about masculine and feminine words on a constant basis.

But we do pay attention to specific instances, and being referred to as a guy is a positive sign feminism is headed in the right direction.

So now that we femmes are "one of the guys" what should we do next?

Should we also become dudes? (As opposed to dudettes, a word I find annoying.)

Or how about man? As in "Hey man, wazzup?"

I think I shall start calling all my female homies "man" from now on. If I stick with it maybe we can start a trend that spans the globe.

Which begs the question if men and man becomes an unisex term, should we use a strictly masculine word for people with penises? Perhaps 'heman' or 'He-Man'?

Repeat after me...

"Hey He-Man, wazzup?" (Masculine only.)

"Hey man, wazzup?" (Unisex, singular.)

"Hey guys, wazzup?" (Unisex, plural.)

Eff Off Hef!

FEMINIST - British feminists are planning a 2nd protest against the new London Playboy Club. The first protest took place days ago on May 26th and a second protest is coming up June 4th.

Organized by OBJECT and UK Feminista, picketers will greet Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who is flying over from Los Angeles for the launch of the new Playboy Club, with calls to, “Eff Off, Hef!”

The London Playboy Club is situated on 14 Old Park Lane, Mayfair, London. W1K 1ND. If you want to join the protest please contact: Anna van Heeswijk on 07732 075835 / anna@object.org.uk or Kat Banyard on 07775 855037 / kat@ukfeminista.org.uk.

The new club comes 30 years after its previous location was shut down by a police raid for suspected gambling irregularities. Playboy Clubs are just one many products licensed by Playboy Enterprises, which includes a mix of magazines, films, websites, TV programming, clothing and even children’s stationary. (The latter of which has since been dropped by many stores due to public outrage.)

Kat Banyard, Director of UK Feminista, says:

“When it comes to today’s pornography industry, all roads lead back to Playboy. It was Hugh Hefner who laid the political and cultural groundwork for the brutal, violently misogynistic pornography that now floods society. But sadly for Hefner, you can’t trademark sexism, and Playboy’s retro brand of ‘gentleman’s porn’ can no longer compete with the extreme degradation of modern internet pornography. Hence we see this endless diversification into nightclubs, video games, clothing and even children’s stationary."

“But whatever product Playboy stamps its logo on, the basic brand concept is the same: woman reduced to sex object for man’s sexual satisfaction - and Playboy’s financial gain. Naturally Playboy Club London embodies this brand, offering champagne and sexism. So Eff off, Hef. And take your club with you.”

Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Manager of OBJECT, says:

"Far from a symbol of sophistication and class, the opening of a new Playboy club in London signifies a worrying step backwards in the quest for equality between the sexes. It entrenches the legitimacy of a porn empire which makes its fortune out of degrading women as fluffy animals who exist as sexual playthings for wealthy men. It opens the floodgates ever wider to the pornification of our popular culture. And it serves to embed further a porn emblem which insidiously grooms girls into accepting and embracing sex object culture by marketing its brand to children through playboy pencil cases and bed covers."

"It is time to cut through the crap of the Playboy PR machine. Sexualising and objectifying women as bunny rabbits is not sexy and it is not empowering. It is sexist, and everyone knows it. This is why hundreds of women and men across the country are signing up to the OBJECT and UK Feminista campaign to object to the opening of the new Playboy club. Our message is clear - ‘Eff off Hef and stop degrading women!’"

Fawcett Society: Rape needs to be taken more seriously

The Fawcett Society has responded to policy proposals unveiled by the UK Government yesterday around sentencing for sex offenders.

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society says:

“Every years thousand of women across the UK are the victim of rape. To suggest that some of those rapes are not ‘serious,’ that there are shades of sexual consent, is offensive and legally incorrect."

“The majority of sexual violence occurs between two people that know each other – partners, friends, colleagues. The stranger in the alleyway scenario is comparatively rare – but remains the most likely image people have of rape. It is not just women who are victims of rape, but also men.

“Far from challenging wrong ideas about what constitutes rape, the way in which today’s policy proposals have been presented by the Minister suggests common misconceptions about sexual violence exist at the heart of government.

“The Ministry of Justice urgently needs to tackle shockingly low reporting levels – almost 90 per cent of rapes are never even reported to the police, and the shamefully high attrition rate – few of those cases that are reported make it all the way to court.

“In the light of today’s events, we call on the government to restate its commitment to tackling sexual violence in all its forms and to clarify that rape is always a serious crime, the perpetrators of which should always face the full force of the law.”