If you have a vulva between your legs, could you identify the seven separate structures in a mirror? If your partner has a vulva, can you identify theirs? For over half the population, the vulva is a significant part of their body; an exit and an entrance, a site […]
Viva la vulva: why we need to talk about women’s genitalia
Najla Bouden: what next for Tunisia’s first female PM?
Sara Medini, political analyst at the Tunisian feminist organisation Aswat Nissa , was in a meeting at work last week when she happened to glance at a news alert on her phone. What she saw left her at first flabbergasted, then delighted. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought […]
Pink offers to pay fines for Norwegian women’s beach handball team
Pop star Pink has offered to pay the “sexist” fines handed out to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team after they refused to wear bikini bottoms while playing. The European Handball Federation, the sport’s governing body, fined the team €1,500 (£1,295) last week for “improper clothing” at the European […]
‘Finally!’ Bayreuth festival gets a female conductor for first time
For the first time in its 145-year history, the Bayreuth opera festival has been opened by a female conductor. Oksana Lyniv was applauded with warmth and vigour by the festival audience at the end of conducting Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman . The festival had been forced to take a […]
Seonaid McIntosh: the British shooter with first gold of Games in her sights
By the time the final member of Japan’s Olympic team has entered the stadium at the tail-end of Friday’s opening procession, Seonaid McIntosh – pronounced “show-ner” – will have set her alarm for a 5am start to catch the first bus from the Village on Saturday morning, in the […]
Britney Spears’ Lawyer Now Quits Controversial Conservatorship; Singer Indicated She Wanted New Representation
AP Less than 24 hours after Britney Spears ’ longtime manager tendered his resignation , the singer’s court appointed attorney and legal firm want out of the restrictive conservatorship that has controlled the former Princess of Pop’s life and career the past 13-years. “SAMUEL D. INGHAM III hereby resigns […]
Mel B on domestic abuse, trauma and recovery: ‘In my mind there was no way out’
elanie Brown is in her tracksuit talking to me from her Leeds home. Her mother has popped round and is chomping away on an Easter egg she has just found, despite the fact that Brown has made her some “amazing” spicy curry soup for lunch. Her oldest daughter, Phoenix, […]
Blue plaque honours Caroline Norton, ‘unsung hero of women’s rights’
Caroline Norton, a woman at the centre of one of the most publicised court cases of the 19th century and an “unsung hero in the fight for women’s rights”, is being celebrated with a heritage blue plaque in London . The biographer Lady Antonia Fraser this week unveiled the […]
Tunnel visionary: why was land artist Nancy Holt never given her due?
Holt made mesmerising works that filtered stars and vanished in the desert heat. But land art was seen as a male preserve. A new exhibition redresses the balance The story of land art is generally believed to be a tale of white men in weathered denim descending on what […]
‘It has never been more pertinent’ – Margaret Atwood on the chilling genius of Laurie Anderson’s Big Science
Here come the planes. They’re American planes! Musicologists and the less young will recognise those lines, which are from Laurie Anderson’s 1981 unlikely voice-synthesiser hit O Superman . This song, if it is one – try humming it in the shower – led to Anderson’s first multi-song album, 1982’s […]
