Sympathies all around.

A former UKIP councillor has been found guilty of murdering his wife, after he had an affair with their son’s partner.

Stephen Searle, 64, strangled his wife Anne at their home in Stowmarket, Suffolk, on 30 December.

…

Searle had previously told a jury his wife had uncovered his affair with Ms Pomiateeva, who is the mother to at least one of their grandchildren, months before she died.

…

Following the verdict, former politician Bill Mountford told BBC Suffolk he still considered Searle “a friend”, adding “these things happen”.

Mr Mountford, who was leader of UKIP at Suffolk County Council when Searle was a councillor, said: “I still regard Steve as fundamentally a decent man who

The BBC followed up on that bound and gagged worker story.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs she is “absolutely horrified” by a photo of a woman allegedly taped to a chair and gagged by male colleagues.

Ms Sturgeon said she had asked a top civil servant to conduct a full review into the circumstances and report to her personally as soon as possible.

The BBC obtained the photo of DeeAnn Fitzpatrick being restrained.

She claims it took place amid years of bullying and harassment at Marine Scotland’s Scrabster office.

Ms Fitzpatrick, a Canadian national, said the incident happened in 2010 as a result of her blowing the whistle on a threatening and misogynistic culture at the Scottish

Me, yesterday morning, in the post titled It’s all because she said no:

The people in charge of news headlines and first paragraphs and the like really need to stop doing this:

Spurned advances provoked Texas school shooting, victim’s mother says

“She provoked me so I killed her and nine other people.”

Also? Simply saying no to a guy’s invitation or request is not “spurning” anything. It’s just not accepting an offer you don’t want. Women are allowed to do that. Women are allowed to say no. Women are allowed to say no without being killed or raped or beaten up or blamed for it. Women are not walking talking merchandise that is there for the use of

Wanna sammich?

At 16 years old, Australian explorer Jade Hameister is the youngest person to ever complete the polar hat-trick by reaching the North and South Poles and crossing Greenland, but even she has to deal with loudmouth critics who have opined that her place is in the kitchen. In 2016, after the then-14-year-old become the youngest person to ski to the North Pole from outside the last degree of latitude (a distance of about 60 miles), she gave a TEDx talk in Melbourne in which she encouraged young women to embrace an adventurous mindset, and to resist societal pressures that discourage them from their ambitions. Male YouTube commenters took offense to Hameister’s message, as users flooded the page with

BBC Northwest tells us:

No “girls” at Altrincham Girls….
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls has asked staff to not use the word “girls” when talking to pupils because they don’t want transgender pupils to be “misgendered”. But say there are no plans to drop the “Girls” from the school’s name.
The plan was announced in a letter to parents from Principal Stephanie Gill. She said …” We have moved to using gender neutral language in all our communications with students and parents. We are working to break ingrained habits in the way we speak to and about students, particularly referring to them collectively as ‘girls’.”

[takes deep breath]

How can you possibly be a principal of a girls’ school … Read the rest

Least surprising news ever: Vice is another hotbed of sexism. No, really?!

One woman said she was riding a Ferris wheel at Coney Island after a company event when a co-worker suddenly took her hand and put it on his crotch. Another said she felt pressured into a sexual relationship with an executive and was fired after she rejected him.

A third said that a co-worker grabbed her face and tried to kiss her, and she used her umbrella to fend him off.

These women did not work among older men at a hidebound company. They worked at Vice, an insurgent force in news and entertainment known for edgy content that aims for millennial audiences on HBO and

A few years ago Soraya Chemaly pointed out that very mundane bit of everyday sexism, the long line to get into the women’s restroom.

Faced with a long restroom line that spiraled up and around a circular stairwell at a recent museum visit, I opted not to wait. Why do we put up with this? This isn’t a minor pet peeve, but a serious question. Despite years of “potty parity” laws, women are still forced to stand in lines at malls, schools, stadiums, concerts, fair grounds, theme parks, and other crowded public spaces. This is frustrating, uncomfortable, and, in some circumstances, humiliating. It’s also a form of discrimination, as it disproportionately affects women.

After counting the women, I tweeted,

On the one hand:

Comedian. The word is comedian. https://t.co/ttKHll121m

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) November 10, 2017

On the other hand:

I mean, I understand your distaste for "comedienne" where "comedian" would be equally accurate, though I think you attribute far too much significance to it. But where you actually need a word that means "female comedian", it seems silly and narrow to object to its use.

— Charles Peyton (@Friedmanzone) November 10, 2017

I attach “far too much significance” to it. One tweet, five words long – that’s “far too much significance.”

Mansplainers; honestly.… Read the rest

More foolery.

Usborne publishing has apologised and announced it will revise a puberty guide for boys that states that one of the functions of breasts is “to make the girl look grown-up and attractive”.

Published in 2013, Growing Up for Boys by Alex Frith is described by Usborne as a “frank and friendly book offering boys advice on what to expect from puberty and how to stay happy and confident as they go through physical, psychological and emotional changes”. According to the publisher, it “covers a range of topics, including moods and feelings, what happens to girls, diet, exercise, body image, sex and relationships, self-confidence, alcohol and drugs”.

It is the section on breasts that has drawn criticism, after

Oh for FUCK’s sake.

Hey @nationaltrust – this stupid hat is for sale at Tatton Park. Your young female visitors deserve better merch (+ better grammar) pic.twitter.com/isTBCSHm3L

— Laura Goss (@sparklepanties) August 29, 2017

A pink hat bearing the slogan “FUTURE FOOTBALLERS[sic] WIFE”? Why on EARTH?

That’s so intensely, even maliciously insulting that it makes my teeth hurt. “Hahaha toots, you’re not anything, you’ll never be anything, all you can aspire to is being somebody’s wife. Enjoy your visit to Tatton Park!”

The Tatton Park people did remove it, but with an uncomprehending gloss.

…Following your complaint we can confirm that they have been removed from sale. We apologise for any offence caused. 2/2

— Tatton Park (@tatton_park) August 29,

Updating to add: it’s now being reported that there are rumors this is a falsehood, originating perhaps with Boris Johnson.

Some more banal sexism:

Philip Hammond has provoked bewilderment and anger with his suggestion that driving a train is so easy that “even a woman could do it”. Theresa May has done little for women’s rights but even she was shocked, slapping down her Chancellor with a curt remark.

Yet egregious as these ministerial reflections were – and we’ve had a few, in these grim Brexit times – they are not as out of tune with the age as we like to think.

…

[T]ake Wimbledon. Female players have complained that men are more likely to be

Deborah Cameron suggests a category of “banal sexism” for the background noise of stale jokes and insults about women that most people don’t even notice.

Sexism also has ‘hot’ forms, and those are the ones mainstream discourse finds it easiest to recognise and condemn. The western media have no difficulty in recognising the sexism of the Taliban and Boko Haram; the more liberal parts of the western media have no difficulty in recognising the sexism of Gamergaters and Donald Trump.  But what you might call ‘banal sexism’—ordinary, unremarkable, embedded in the routines and the language of everyday life—is a different story. It does often go unnoticed, and when feminists draw attention to it they’re accused of taking offence where none

Today in everyday misogyny:

Our cartoon at noon #cartoonatnoon pic.twitter.com/BYOtiuKS6C

— The Spectator (@spectator) July 14, 2017

Ahaha. Haha. So funny.

Woman 1: How can I get my stalker to lose interest in me?

Woman 2: Marry him.

Ahaha. Funny. Marriage=boredom; so funny, so fresh, so worth making a joke of stalking and its attendant terrorizing and violence.… Read the rest

It’s everywhere. It’s in shoes – kids’ shoes. (“Ice cream, Mandrake? Children’s ice cream?”) Francesca Cambridge Mallen, chief campaigner for Let Clothes Be Clothes, went shopping for school shoes with her daughter age 8.

Three shoes are available in her size: two pairs are slip-ons which with a knowing look from Grandma we dismiss immediately. After all, these are what Clarks describe as “sophisticated style” which makes me wonder how they could have missed the fact they are selling to kids, not office staff. When my daughter plunges over in a tangle of shoes and playground, I’ll be sure to console her with how classy she looked doing it.

The third pair are the most common style in the

Hm. Plates shifting just a bit. Maybe. Pink News reports:

The Green Party has hit out at a Science Museum quiz that tells kids they have a “male or female” brain.

Feminist campaigners hit out at London’s Science Museum on Twitter this week, after a woman was taken aback to see ‘girl’ brains coded in pink and ‘boy’ brains blue in the interactive exhibit.

Well yes. I was taken aback by that exhibit too, as were a lot of my friends. We’ve all been a good deal taken aback by this whole claim that there are “girl brains” and “boy brains” because it sounds so very identical to the pseudo-scientific justifications for the subordination of women we could have … Read the rest

Rebecca Schiller points out that maternity rights aren’t some kind of posh luxury:

The fact that three-quarters of women experience a negative or discriminatory effect of their pregnancy at work, as a report from the women and equalities select committee shows, isn’t a huge surprise to me…

The committee estimates that 53,000 women each year are being discouraged from attending antenatal appointments by their employers, despite permanent employees having the right to time off for these crucial check-ups…

Banging the drum for the rights of pregnant women is often portrayed as an occupation for the privileged. Defending women’s rights to choose how and where they give birth or insisting that employers make careers possible for working mothers has

Even at the Olympics. Even when women win gold medals at the Olympics – still they are called “wife of Man” instead of their own damn name or their event is given a cutesy belittling label.

Take judo. Majlinda Kelmendi made history when she became Kosovo’s first ever Olympic medallist – and a gold medallist to boot.

Her triumph in the 52kg event against Italy’s Odette Giuffrid marked a huge moment for a war-torn country that declared independence from Serbia eight years ago, and was only admitted into the International Olympic Committee in 2014.

And yet many viewers were taken aback as one BBC commentator described the contest – a sophisticated match-up of strength and guile – as a “catfight”.