Stop saying sorry

“Over-apologising among women is so prevalent that there is even a drama group dedicated to helping women become more assertive and stop saying sorry. At a Feminism in London 2013 conference at the weekend, a workshop aimed to “explore how we women can find ourselves and our voices to enjoy a place in the world, rather than play under it”.”

From “The nine things women can’t stop saying sorry for” in the Independent. Read the rest of the article and the list of things women should stop apologizing for here.

 

Those French bastards

Not my choice of words, but the (accurate) Independent’s translation for the Manifesto signed last week by 343 ‘Salauds’ demanding the right to have sex with prostitutes.

It’s bad enough that they should claim this right, in the light of a proposed revision of the law which would punish the client, not the provider, but their appellation is drawn from the  1971 group who fought for the right to abortion. The 343 ‘salopes’ including Simone de Beauvoir, Catherine Deneuve, Francoise Sagan, Agnes Varda and many more, not only argued for the right to abortion, but came out as having had an abortion themselves , thus risking trouble with the law. (The men who signed the petition didn’t all admit to having sex with prostitutes – they wouldn’t want to sully their image. )

This is horribly shameful, and the surviving original salopes have made it clear that they think so.

Oh, and one of the signatories was DSK’s lawyer.

 

 

Wondering how to improve the environment in your department?

There’s a new blog, Philosophical Spaces, to help you do that.  A team of philosophers with experience in these matters have got together to offer advice in response to reader queries.  The idea isn’t that they tell you the one right way to do this.  In fact, as is already apparent, they disagree amongst themselves.  But the idea is that you can go there to pose questions that you have, and get a few suggestions.  Or you can drop by to see what other people are wondering about, and get some ideas for things to do.  There’s a FAQ here.

Initial questions concern job letters, socialising in bars, non-tenure track labour and sexual harassment.  Go have a look!  And do feel free to send in some questions.