This is the second part of a two-part interview. You can read the first part here.

As the Snooker World Championship Final gets underway today, the referee is under almost as much pressure as the players during the long, long match ahead. This year, Michaela Tabb is refereeing the Crucible final for the second time, and she talked to me about the extra attention she gets as a female referee, and offers advice for women wanting to join the profession, as well as discussing her hopes and fears for the final match.

Michaela Tabb is not just popular within snooker for her refereeing skills. She was half-expecting the attention that she would get as, as she puts it, "a woman in a man's world", but was not quite prepared for just how many fans she would gain. She is recognised far more than her male counterparts, which means that she is under incredible scrutiny. This can be seen with a quick YouTube search for her name, for instance, where her every move around the snooker table seems to have been filmed and watched, sometimes many thousands of times.

"As the only female, you stand out", Michaela explains. "The men don't stand out the same. So I still, to a certain degree, have to work harder. Because it's more noticeable if I do anything wrong".

Michaela does enjoy the positive attention she gets from fans, feeling flattered by flirtation, and explains that there have been very few occasions where anybody has crossed a line into inappropriate behaviour. When she first entered the profession, she says some people viewed her as "easy meat", but they soon learned that she takes no nonsense, and has clear boundaries about where acceptable behaviour starts and ends. This has been witnessed during matches when she has dealt with unruly audience members swiftly and firmly, but she insists that the vast majority of her interactions have been respectful and enjoyable.

It is at Exhibition matches that she has encountered a few problems,

"You know when you do the exhibitions and people have had a few much too to drink and they think, then, they can say what they like? Well that's not acceptable, and I sort that out [...] I'm not having anybody demean the person, the reputation I've built up just on that. A bit of fun, yeah, but that's where it ends."

It is her enjoyment of being complimented and seen as attractive that makes her wary of calling herself a feminist.

"I like to think I'm flying the flag for women, but I'm not standing out there bashing it off the drums kind of thing, you know?"

It is precisely because she is flying the flag for women that when I ask what advice Michaela has for other women who are interested in getting involved in refereeing professional snooker, she is full of encouragement.

"Go for it! Get as much experience as you can, whether it's in the local league, or whatever, you've got to. I mean, I made a number of mistakes, and my learning curve was obviously, basically, on TV, because that was where my experience was gained. And the best way to not do that is to get out there and get as much experience under your hat as you can".

The two-day final gets underway today, and the pressure is certainly on. While she is looking forward to taking on the challenge, she has fears about maintaining her focus.

"What worries me is - depending on who the players are, if they're long sessions - I'm worried about my concentration, because I give it so much to every session, that I'm quite worried that I'll be mentally knackered by the final session is if it is going to end being a full session. [...] So that's a worry, because I do put so much into each session."

Michaela confesses that she always finds herself rooting for the player who wins the first frame, no matter who they are.

"When I'm actually reffing a game, whoever wins the first frame, that's the one I want to win the match. Yet I don't give a hoot who it is - whoever goes one nil up, he's in the lead, and I just want him to... [...] I couldn't even tell you what their names are, but I want a nice match, I want a clean match, and I don't want to be out there for hours and hours. [...] I couldn't care who it is. It could be a huge upset, I couldn't care less. I'm quite happy with that."

And as a woman who herself was the focus of considerable upset amongst some of snooker's old guard, she has more than proved herself capable. She is considered not just "a good female ref", but as one of the best referees in the game. She will need every skill she has learned over the next 36 hours, and will receive little of the credit.

However there are many of us who, along with cheering along the players, will be rooting for the 'Lady Ref' too.

[The first image is of Michaela Tabb at a snooker table, it was taken by Michael Palmer and is used with permission. The second image is of Michaela smiling at a press conference. It was taken by Vladimir B. Sinitsyn and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. The third image is a photograph of Michaela concentrating as Mark Selby is at the table. It was taken by Maciej Jaros and is also used under a Creative Commons Licence]

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: Michaela Tabb, referee, snooker, sport

TFW bloggers' note: We're aware there are issues with this post and have reached a decision to temporarily suspend further comments until certain matters have been clarified. We apologise for the inconvenience and will provide a further update as soon as we are able.

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This is a Guest Blog post by Tahera Dudhwala

After trawling the pop scene for feminist music icons, moving outside of the spotlight seems like the only way to find truly inspiring women. Amanda Palmer, best known for her time with her duo the Dresden Dolls, is a brash, outspoken, unshaven and empowered woman. She might not be topping the charts or plastered over the front pages of magazines, but she makes waves in her own way. Currently working on a new solo album with the help of the Grand Theft Orchestra, she is a real poster-girl for feminism in modern times.

Amanda Palmer started out in the "punk cabaret" act the Dresden Dolls, which featured her on piano and Brian Viglione on drums. Their self-titled debut album attracted some attention, but nothing major. After releasing a second studio album and a compilation of B-sides and forgotten tracks, Amanda decided to go solo. She released a solo album entitled Who Killed Amanda Palmer and is currently working on a follow-up in Melbourne.

She isn't afraid of tackling serious issues in her lyrics, and this got her into trouble with the release of her solo single "Oasis." The song is about a woman who gets drunk at a party, is raped and then is hassled by Christian campaigners on her way to an abortion clinic. The subject matter is obviously risqué, but the up-beat music and chirpy tone in which she sings the lyrics create a stark contrast. Palmer got into trouble for "making light" of the serious issues, but she really intended to shine the spotlight on the lyrical protagonist. She is a woman who is violated and abused, and ends up becoming a crack whore, but says "she doesn't care" because her favourite band (Oasis) have responded to her letter with a signed photograph. She is unable to take her situation seriously, and Palmer wants to shine the spotlight on her denial of the serious and emotional issues.

Commenting on this controversy, she said "When you cannot joke about the darkness of life, that's when the darkness takes over," and stressed the actual intent of the lyrics. Palmer is interested in empowering women, and the reason she tackles tough subjects with a humorous glint in her eye is because that is how she believes you can fight the "darkness." She wasn't making light of rape or abortion, just trying to tackle these serious issues that affect women through her music. She wanted to wake women like her protagonist up, make them see the true gravity of their situation, and ultimately to come through it.

She made a video for a single, "Leeds United," from the same solo album, which was edited to "be more flattering." She was understandably incensed by the comments, and embarked on a "Rebellyon" campaign to celebrate the beauty of the belly. This received coverage in a major newspaper and was a further rallying cry against the media's unrealistic "ideal" of the female body. Palmer also doesn't shave her armpits, a further display of her celebration of the natural female form. When asked if she ever wished to be a "Jessica Simpson type" she replied with a stark, "Hell no! God, I'd be so unhappy."

Amanda Palmer is a true feminist icon. Her empowered and passionate approach to her art and image are inspiring to women across the world. Whether she's waxing lyrical about controversial subjects in the aim of deconstructing their power, playing on one of her favourite Gibson guitars, http://www.dawsons.co.uk/guitars/brand-gibson or brashly embracing her unconventional appearance, she is consistently and unashamedly herself. Her most recent release is a cover of Nirvana's "Polly" with the Grand Theft Orchestra, and the music world eagerly awaits her new album.

Image of Amanda Palmer performing live at the Gov, 2009. By ZeeLilBee, shared via a flickr creative commons licence

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Michaela Tabb was the first woman to referee a professional ranking snooker tournament, as well as the first woman ever to referee a World Championship Final. This year, she will be in charge of her second Crucible Final, and has been joined by another female ref, Zhu Ying, who took some of the first round matches in this year's competition. This brought about another record - for the first time, two women walked out together in the Crucible to referee matches side by side.

I met with Michaela Tabb at the start of this year's tournament to talk about her 10+ years as a professional snooker referee, working in an almost exclusively male environment and the attentions of her rather devoted fans, as well as how she got through the challenges she has faced and her successes along the way.

Michaela Tabb's cue sports career began as a pool player: she headed the Scottish Ladies 8-ball team and won UK and European singles titles in 1997 - 1998. From here she began refereeing pool matches, and was recruited by World Snooker in a bid to change the image of the game. She explains,

"World Snooker had always gone to this professional Referees Association to get their refs. They changed that the day that they gave me a contract, and a few others a contract, they basically stuck their two fingers up to them and said we'll deal with who we want to deal with".

This fasttracking, as well as the fact that she was a woman, led to resentment from certain figures within the game. I ask Michaela whether, when she started, she felt she was not only proving that she could do it, but whether she felt she had to prove that women could do it at all.

"I felt as if, when I came into the game, because, there had been other women in the game, there had been other referees, but nobody doing ranking events, nobody at the level I was at, and I felt as if I had the whole women population on my shoulders, that I was sort of trying to carry and go forward".

Michaela no longer experiences any resentment or hostility, having proved herself more than capable, and I ask her how long it took for her to be fully respected as somebody great at her job.

"I mean it took a little while, but obviously I have been doing the job for over 10 years now, so it's the new ones now that they... It's not that they turn their attentions to, it's just I've earned my place, so no there's nothing, nothing like that now".

Her passion for the sport is clear, as is her commitment to being the best referee she can possibly be.

Michaela has played a big part in inspiring other women to take up snooker and pool refereeing. One thing she is doing now is mentoring other women in the game. She explains that when she was starting out, she had a lot of support from, amongst others, fellow referee Jan Verhaas:

"It was nice to know that I had a couple of people that had mentored me, and took me under their wing. So when it came time for other females to come through, I felt like it was important to be able to give that back".

The support that Michaela received was so important to her that she knew she had to offer the same to other upcoming referees, and she refuses any suggestion that they are competition to her.

"Any help that I have ever been able to give any ref, but obviously women in particular, I'm... they are not a threat to me. Any woman that is coming through is not a threat to me. So anything that I can do to help them is only for the good of the game."

Michaela is aware that she has inspired other women to take up refereeing, and feels strongly that this gives her a responsibility to then encourage and support them where she can.

She explains,

"The thing is, I've been in the situation where it's hard and you've got the scrutiny, so I just think it's only fair to try, you know? I weathered it, and there was good times, there was bad times, it wasn't all good, but you you know, in any way for some of the other ones, because there are so many women now and nearly all of them that I have spoken to have taken it up they've seen what I'm doing. So I cannae be their hero in one perspective and not help them in another, you know? No, I want to sort of do what I can for them to continue being that sort of idol that they thought, you know?"

In the second part of the interview, to be published tomorrow, I talk to Michaela Tabb about how she feels about the attentions of her fans, whether she is a feminist, and her advice for other women who want to get involved in refereeing cue sports professionally.

The first image is a photograph of Michaela Tabb. It was taken by Michael Palmer and is used with permission. The second image is a photograph of Micheala Tabb looking at Mark Selby to confirm that the ball is reset correctly during a match in Poland. It was taken by Maciej Jaros and is used under a Creative Commons Licence.

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: interview, Michaela Tabb, professional, referee, snooker

Brooke Magnanti wants to expose the truths behind the sex myths which provoke outraged newspaper headlines and panicked public policy. Lindsey Sheehan considers Magnanti's opinions on all things controversial, from lap-dancing to online pornography

In the first book published under her real name, Brooke Magnanti - better known as Belle de Jour - has taken on a topic often delicate, often controversial, but clearly close to her heart. The title apes Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth, but Magnanti actually targets nine specific myths in her laser sights and obliterates them using a combination of statistics and carefully backed up analysis.

I admit that when I first started reading I wasn't sure I'd be on board; it's difficult to accept that I could have been taken in by so much media bumf. In some of the early chapters I was unconvinced by the points made: for example, the idea that women make more successful strippers simply because they can fake arousal more easily. There has long been a cultural bias towards viewing women as attractive, decorative objects while men are participants in activity (such as looking, lusting, and masturbating); if it was only floppy penises that stood in the way of a successful male stripping industry then surely Viagra would have solved that problem?

Click here to read the rest of the review and to comment

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Another week, another epidemic of sexist abuse on Twitter. This one, however, you may have noticed in places it's not usually reported, like the Telegraph and the BBC, as well as Radio 4. The police provided comment, which is pretty unusual when the abuse is 'merely' sexist.

The target in question this time was Conservative MP Louise Mensch, and on the conservativehome blog (not, I add, a website I often frequent), Frank Manning posed the question: Why do Conservative women like Louise Mensch, Nadine Dorries and Margaret Thatcher receive such vitriolic abuse? His conclusion was that it was because they stand for conservative values, and as such, the left and the "divisive, man-hating feminists" dislike them and encourage - no, even participate in misogynist abuse of them, saying that left wing women are the worst culprits. This article is something of a response to that.

Nonsense #1: It's just Conservative women who get abuse. Claptrap. It's just that you don't notice when other women do. Online misogyny is a massive problem for women who have the temerity to put their heads above the parapet, particularly those women who are in a position of power.

The New Statesman ran an article about it only last November, citing a number of well known bloggers and writers who get abuse. Well before Louise Mensch 'favourited' her abusive tweets for posterity, Laurie Penny did the same, and her tweets make Louise's look like the murmured endearments of a languid lover. The contention that it's only the Tories who suffer these barbs would no doubt surprise Harriet Harman, Jacqui Smith, Polly Toynbee, and anybody who was ever referred to under the patronising and sexist banner of "Blair's Babes."

It's not even restricted to political women: Caroline Farrow blogs at Catholic Voices, which one would imagine has a more spiritually minded readership than most - but she reported getting sexually threatening emails as a result, too.

This is abuse that women get for being women with opinions. That's it.

Nonsense #2: It's mostly women who conduct these attacks. Manning says that "a large majority of the insults come from Labour-supporting female activists." Either he can't count or he couldn't be arsed to count: of the 22 tweets in question, 18 came from men, 3 from women, and 1 from an organisation. Labour-supporting female activists will argue with Louise Mensch, sure, but you won't find them calling her names.

Nonsense #3: Lefty women hate righty women. The misogynist abuse didn't come from "Labour supporting female activists;" see nonsense #2. Yet in what can only be a spurt of dripping irony, Manning propagates one of the most widely believed misogynist myths about feminism: that what we do is catfighting, bitching, bickering, and that the movement can be dismissed as a bunch of silly women squealing at each other.

We feminists disagree. Of course we do, and it's important that we do. Feminism is not a hive mind. It would be peculiar indeed if, Stepford Wife style, we behaved as if programmed. We agree on one thing: that women are equal to men and should be entitled to equal rights, and most of us would be on board with the Seven Aims of the Women's Liberation Movement. We don't always agree on the best way to achieve that utopia of equality. Radical feminists, socialist feminists, progressive feminists, liberal feminists, conservative feminists, queer feminists - there are just as many perspectives in the political beliefs of women as there are in the political beliefs of men, yet nobody scorns the differences between Cameron and Milliband as mere "catfighting."

So yes, we disagree, often with just as much conviction and passion as men do. There are many reasons that I disagree with Louise Mensch's politics (some of which are encapsulated here at the Sturdy Blog) and many reasons that I find her variety of feminism flawed, self-serving and inadequate. I daresay I'm one of those horrid lefties that Manning describes as man-hating (clue: I don't hate men), because I do find conservative feminism problematic. I would have no issue telling Louise to her face that I think her support for Murdoch and indeed for "Calm Down Dear" Dave to be inherently at odds with claimed feminism. However, unlike some of the blokes on Twitter I don't feel the need to call her names while I do it.

So while feminists might have variety in our views (just as if we were, like, people or something!) we are diverse, not divided. You will not find a feminist using misogynist insults to another woman. What is divisive are articles like Manning's, with its approving head-patting of Tory feminists and dismissal of the rest of us as "man-hating," and its attempts to put in an arbitrary divide between left and right where - on this one issue - there is none.

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An exciting little nugget of legal news this week, oddly underreported in the mainstream press. Nadine Quashie, who sued Stringfellows after being dismissed, has won the right to have her unfair dismissal claim looked at.

I should begin this piece with two disclaimers: first that I do not specialise in employment law, so if there are employment lawyers out there who can leave further information in comments, please do! Secondly, this is not a blog post about the rights or wrongs of the sex industry, but about this one case.

Ms Quashie worked for Stringfellows as a lapdancer before being dismissed in 2008, allegedly for drug dealing (a claim she hotly denies). She attempted to sue the club for unfair dismissal, but was unable to do so because she was not held to be an employee.

The difference between being an employee and self-employed is sometimes a fine line, but an employee is entitled to a raft of benefits (including the right to claim against unfair dismissal) which a self-employed person is not.

The Employment Tribunal initially held that Ms Quashie was not classed as an employee for the purposes of the Employment Rights Act 1996, saying that although there was an element of control and personal service, there was no mutual obligation between Ms Quashie and Stringfellows to provide and do work.

Ms Quashie appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal who have just reversed that decision, holding that there was a mutual obligation to provide and to do work, and therefore Ms Quashie was indeed an employee.

Ms Quashie had expressed criticism of the way that dancers were treated at Stringfellows, saying that Peter Stringfellow compelled dancers to give his friends free nude dances, and that 25% of their wages were taken. The Mirror reported that

"bosses also lopped 25% commission off their nightly wage, deducted a £65 "house fee" and a took a £15 "tip out" fee...

...she told how she had to perform free "on the hour every hour" and was fined £50 if she failed to appear.

... customers would stuff prepaid vouchers called Heavenly money into a garter.
Ms Quashie added: "If we were caught with cash it would be confiscated. One dancer was caught without a garter and was told not to come back until she had one.
"I was required to provide a fully nude lap dance every hour for free.
"I also had to dance on stage. Stage shows were not paid for. We attended regular meetings with Peter Stringfellow. If we were late we would be fined and if we did not attend we would be suspended."
But the club's barrister Caspar Glyn told an employment hearing in Central London her case was "constructed on lots of little lies".

Interestingly, these "little lies" seem to have been accepted as true by the time of the EAT hearing, suggesting that this is indeed how Stringfellows operated.

The next stage for Ms Quashie personally is that her unfair dismissal case will, finally, be heard. If the Tribunal hold that she was indeed dealing drugs then she would have no case as that would inevitably be gross misconduct, but if not, then she may well be entitled to damages.

More generically, this has implications for women who work as lapdancers either at Stringfellows or at similar clubs. If they are held to be employees - and it seems that they are - then they have employment rights which would not otherwise be afforded to them. That could include holiday entitlement, sick leave, parental leave, antenatal care, national minimum wage, the right to apply to work flexibly, and the right not to be unfairly dismissed. In theory a dancer could even claim for sex discrimination.

I don't imagine that this will be an immediate panacea for the ills of the industry's exploitation of lapdancers - it is more likely that Stringfellow and his ilk will pragmatically rearrange things so that they have a more watertight case for saying the dancers are self-employed. However, it does mean that women who have worked there hitherto will fall to be treated as employees with the benefits that this status affords.

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Director, writer and performer Lucy Foster reflects on the experience of creating The Pirate Project, a play exploring the lives of female pirates, opening at the Ovalhouse Theatre, London on 15th May.

About three years ago I decided that I had lost touch with what I termed my inner pirate. I realised that emerging out of my teens and sailing into my early twenties I had been confident, unquestioning of what I could achieve, and a complete believer in my ability to fulfil ambitious goals. I was also more or less unaware of gender as a factor in my behaviour or the way the world treated me.

But as I approached and passed thirty I began to entertain massive doubts about whether I had the qualities necessary to be in the kind of leadership positions I imagined I might be when I was younger. I now apologised way too much, dwelled at length and critically on actions I had taken, and couldn't identify myself as enough of an 'adult' to be a person who told other people what to do; even nicely and apologetically. Like all pronouncements we make about ourselves this is not one hundred per cent true, one hundred per cent of the time. But it was, importantly, the perception I came to hold of myself. And then suddenly, for the first time in my life, I had a real sense that these feelings had a connection to being a woman

I looked around at male theatre directors (that is what I do!), and saw people who didn't seem to possess any of these feelings, far from it. They were relaxed, incredibly confident of their own abilities, sometimes bordering on arrogance, and I couldn't imagine them ever talking to themselves quietly on the bus on the way home saying 'oh god, why did I say that!'. This feeling was backed up by the fact that they also still seemed to be getting the jobs, the prizes, and the media attention in far greater numbers than their female contemporaries.

At the same time that these thoughts were sloshing around my head, a friend said to me 'if you're trying to get back in touch with your inner pirate you should look at these real life female pirates', and started sending me links to the endless pages on the internet written by pirate obsessives. And here I came across Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Ching Shih, and The Pirate Project was born! A way to turn my current personal crisis into my next show.

Much of what is known about these female pirates is of doubtful historical accuracy, but nevertheless, their amazing stories offered up survival against the odds as a sailor and pirate, leadership over thousands of men and ships, physical strength, all in a world where their actions were not only unconventional but downright extraordinary.

They are brilliant starting points for the very reason that they were bold, decisive, assertive, brave, and nonconformist, and playing out their stories allows the female performers to do things on stage that remain uncommon for women on stage or in films. There's the fighting and the being dirty and messy and extremely physically active and not in any way trying to look pretty or elegant. And there's the being funny, which I personally think they are, but I could of course be biased!

But beyond this there is also the sheer diversity of roles and emotional states that the performers get to play out that I have found exhilarating and liberating to watch. Because more and more making the show, as well as a good swashbuckling sword fight and the release of a blood curdling 'Ah harr', we became attracted to putting something on stage that allowed the performers and the characters they played to represent all the parts of themselves and all the parts of being a woman. It is so fun and delicious to be aggressive, then vulnerable, then sexy in a knowingly swashbuckling way, then indecisive, then unashamedly power hungry, then rebelliously teenage, and then idealistic and utopian all within the space of an hour and twenty minutes. I find it exciting because whereas portrayals of men often take them on epic journeys through an array of different ways to be a man, women's stories are still too often boring, narrow and predictable. The few women that appeared in the recent The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! are a case in point.

As our rehearsals for the show progressed I began to feel that more than any specific feminist message or point the show may or may not leave its audience with, it was this room for the range of ways to be a woman that felt exciting and important. 'Be the change you want to see in the world' may be the most overused of Gandhi's writings, but it nevertheless seems appropriate to me here.

When represented in the mainstream media, images of women having a great time and excelling in their lives seem to be becoming increasingly narrow and prescribed. You can be wild as a woman, but only if it involves being dressed up to the nines and out drinking tequila shots. You can be successful but only if you wear a well-cut business suit and pretend you always have the answer to any question. You can be a good mother, but only if you decide after the birth that every other experience in your life thus far now pales into insignificance.

I have enjoyed being involved in a show that, I think, offers other visions and, albeit gently, questions the rigidly narrow depictions of wildness, success and motherhood that currently abound.

Now that the show is made and out on tour I think I can say that it has been good for me. I have more or less got back in touch with my inner pirate, although it is now one that I have shaped along my own lines to include, along with determination and decisiveness, vulnerability and room for doubt. And accepting that because life is complicated I will never, ever be in touch with it one hundred per cent of the time!

Please see here for more info and tickets.

0 comments // Permalink // Tags: gender, media, pirates, theatre

With her roots in drone folk, noise rock star Erika M. Anderson now (AKA EMA) describes herself as a "digital media artist and guitar destroyer." As David Wilkinson flagged up in his review of Past Life Martyred Saints last March, she has a tour coming up this month. We've got one set of tickets to any one of the gigs from the list below to give away to a reader and a friend.

You might recall that I ran the Gaggle competition back in December on a first-comment-first-served basis but this time I'm going to take my lead from Ania and issue a challenge.

For your chance to win, please answer the following question:

Where did Erika M. Anderson grow up?

Please send your answer and the date/location of your preferred gig by 23.59 on 4 May (Friday) to holly.combe[at]thefword.org.uk

Dates are as follows:

9 May: Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
11 May: Manchester, Night & Day Cafe
12 May: Brighton, Great Escape Festival
15 May: London, Scala

Here's a taster of EMA performing for those of you who may not know her work:

Picture shows Erika M. Anderson performing at Academy 3, Manchester, on 24 November 2011. She is wearing a white T-shirt. Black background. By Man Alive!, shared under a creative commons licence.

ADDENDUM: To clarify, the first person to e-mail the correct answer will win the tickets.

1 comment // Permalink // Tags: EMA, gigs, music, tickets giveaway

Heya lovely F-worders!

We've got a double showing for you this month in terms of guest bloggers.

First we have Julian Norman. Julian is a lawyer, a feminist, an activist, an armchair politician and aspiring mad cat woman. She is involved in the organisation of London's annual Reclaim the Night march, and is one of the inaugural members of the Feminist Lawyers Group. She runs the londonfeminist.com blog, administrates the London Feminist Network's online forum and tweets as @londonfeminist.

Next we have Lucy Fenner. Lucy Fenner is an English literature graduate of Cardiff University, where she focused on feminist theory and contemporary womens' writing. She is a would-be writer and is currently starting work on a feminist, post-colonial, dystopian novel. She spends most of her time trying to overturn and undermine gender stereotypes and is especially interested in the concept of gender as performative. Her literary and feminist icons include: Anglea Carter, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood and Marjorie Garber.

Please give our guest bloggers a warm welcome!

Picture is of a stone flower taken in Rome by Josephine Tsui. Please ask permission before reprinting.

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This is a guest post by Nicky Clark. Nicky is a parent, a carer and a disability rights campaigner.

Hair - and the presence or absence of it - is widely regarded as a feminist issue, along with many other aspects of slavish adherance to the dictates of the Glitterati. The edict from on high is that true feminists dare to bare hair.

The theory, I gather, is that the patriarchy are oppressing us and rendering us incapable of independence of thought- it places the intractable certainty in our brains through stereotypical conditioning that we are repellent in our natural state. I disagree. I just don't like being a "hairy Mary".

What is the point of the fights we've had thus far in striving for equality, or striving to be taken seriously, or striving to be listened to, if all we have to say is, "Stop being brainwashed and do what I say"? Caitlin Moran may sport hair in her bikini region, so abundant that it stands a good chance of winning a Rolf Harris look-a-like competion. It may sing "Two Little Boys" for all I care, but am I breaking one of the ten Morandments and failing the sisterhood by thinking, "Up to you, lovely, but I'd prefer a bikini wax"?

Am I not a feminist at all? I dunno.

What I do know is that I am is sick to fucking death of the bullshit of absolute adherance to latest notion of what makes a feminist and what doesn't. To me, the only real value lies in the realisation and grasping of choice. Be untouched by beauty therapists hands, great! Be a salon frequenter, fab! But do it because it's what you want to do, not because some zeitgeist has you reeling from the fear of failing to be on message. Because the message changes.

If choosing to wax or shave makes me less able to articulate my views, less of a role model to my daughters - because it somehow bypasses my neurological circuitry and takes me straight to patriarchy jail - then what the fuck is that about? How does having armpit hair on view, against my will, make me less brainwashed and malleable?

I love women. They have been my strength and my support network for 45 years. I love being a woman and a mother and a friend. I've also loved being a wife for all it's fluid state as with any relationship and a housewife. I saw someone on Twitter the other day laughingly equating Laurie Penny's feminism with a cupcake in a housewife's kitchen. When I suggested that the cupcake could have been baked in a feminist kitchen with the words, "I'm a cupcake undefined by my circumstance", the woman writer and her feminist mate called me a cunt. Interesting.

Maybe by their standards I'm not a feminist because I'm a housewife, but when you're a carer for 3 disabled people the career ladder doesn't beckon in the same way. When I had my girls in a small town there was a little frowning at the lack of a wedding ring. Fuck that. When men argue with me on twitter and I argue back in kind, just to be called aggressive, fuck that too. As I age and see the response that the unbotoxed, greying, wrinkled invisibility of a woman of a certain age yields from the media, fuck that even more. The beauty that my Mum exuded at 77, dying from the ravages of Alzheimers, was as undimished as ever because it stemmed from the gentleness of the spirit she possessed as much as it did from the bone structure her DNA provided.

Hair or bare, it's up to you. Just be who you want to be, look as you wish and let neither the patriarchy nor the sisterhood tell you differently.

[The image is a photograph of a red, fluorescent sign reading "Hair & Waxing" against a dark background. It was taken by Jeremy Brooks and is used under a Creative Commons Licence]

21 comments // Permalink // Tags: body hair, feminism, guest post

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