Jane Haile

Lie In The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism and the Reality of the Biological Clock Tanya Selvaratnam presents her own story of “heartbreak and self-discovery” relative to her attempts to become a mother at the “advanced age of 40” , having experienced three miscarriages. She notes that women tend not to talk among themselves about failed pregnancies, and overall women are not “conditioned to feel the urgency of fertility.” Were women better informed they might consider, for example, freezing their eggs in their late 20s if they wish to postpone motherhood in the interests of the pursuing a career. The Big Lie of the title, elaborated in Chapter 2, is “that women can do what they want on their own timetable.” The author reflects that like most women she grew up without ever really learning the most basic facts about the impact of delaying motherhood. ‘ “I could have educated myself, but how was I supposed to look for information?” She notes that sex education in high school and in college was totally inadequate with respect to the expiry date on her fertility. Selvaratnam considers that feminism was the major purveyor of the Big Lie in that it created a world with new possibilities that enticed women to wait too until it was too late; “second wave feminism had given women the freedom to do whatever they wanted in the world. In step with that message, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) which was successful for the first time in 1978, gave us unprecedented control over our reproductive futures. Feminism dovetailed perfectly with science and the two fed off one another. But this cosy partnership allowed for a serious omission: women have a finite amount of time in which to have a child, and no amount of independence can change that fact.” She considers that her generation became the guinea pigs for pushing the limits of reproductive choice. She was in her senior year of college in 1992 which she claims has been dubbed “the Year of the Woman,” when four women enter the U.S. Senate bringing the total number to a modest six. She chronicles her own feminist activism and the confused pressures internal and external relative to childbearing. The message repeated throughout this and later chapters is that women need to have much more information about their fertility and its limitations in addition to the now usually routine contraceptive information provided rather early in life. The critical factor is that even though women in their late 30s and 40s may nowadays remain young looking and active their fertility potential peaks between the ages of 16 and 28. Having had so little information herself on which to make a better reproductive choice the author provides a plethora of references, contact addresses of clinics and doctors and details of treatments and medication throughout the entire book. At the end of the book there are a further 15 pages packed with suggested resources on fertility issues. This book therefore belongs to an increasingly familiar though sometimes awkward genre which combines personal reflection on a critical phase in the life-cycle . . . in this case and very often fertility related . . . and information as to how help can be obtained should one finds oneself in similar circumstances as the author. Selvaratnam further boosts the narrative of her personal journey with references which are very diverse and criss-cross the centuries. These references range from her own friends, family, and doctors to movie stars, rappers, Hillary Clinton “in a pink suit” and Margaret Sanger “in the early 1900s.”Overall the effect of the attempt to link with the broader narrative of feminism is a bit random and unstructured. She is by no means the only writer to balk at this challenge. Perhaps it would have been more effective to present herself more simply and directly as the human face behind the statistics on fertility treatments and their effectiveness. Instead the author ranges through anthropology, and evolutionary biology; and as she would see it, the less than accurate presentation of fertility issues by “the media.” It appears that she would definitely agree with the book reviewed here earlier, that egg-freezing is not a new frontier of feminist choice. https://www.gendercentric.org/16-newsflash/79-waiting-for-mr-right-motherhood-rescheduled While she is to be applauded for her attempt to see the many dimensions of feminism and motherhood her reach exceeds her grasp and much of this reads like rather desperate padding of the basic story. She reaches eventually the rather obvious conclusion that there are many examples “of how public education campaigns combined with policy reform can result in new patterns that benefit society. By taking a hard look at the interplay of evolution—both biological and cultural—and delaying motherhood, we can identify ways to make the situation more sustainable. We can ensure more prepared generations of prospective mothers.” Whilst most of the book is concerned with how women can cope with and counteract the Big Lie fed to them by feminism it is noted that infertility is also a male problem, though one which relatively few men appear to take seriously. In fact not unusually the issue of fertility and parenthood is dealt with primarily as a woman’s issue and problem throughout the book. In the closing chapter of the book—Action Items for the Future—the reader is advised not to be afraid of feminism because it is (another) Big Lie that we don’t need feminism. It is not clear how she sees these different Big Lies as brackets to her basic argument. Another striking insight is that is it is necessary to encourage men to participate in childcare as well following the example of, naturally, some Scandinavian countries, Belgium, and Israel.As the author says her personal story is “a work- in-progress.” It is also both sufficiently dramatic and sufficiently typical to have sustained the reader’s interest without some of the many diversions into which she felt obliged to wander. Don’t Say: Feminism: can’t live with it, can’t live without itDo Say: Egg-freezing: not all it’s

Men & Gender Women feel that the gender scales are weighted against them in most fields; and this in turn makes them assume that men will not want to enter into a discussion on equality issues. However without more balanced involvement the situation is unlikely to change. gendercentric posted earlier the question has gender become ‘sexy’ https://www.gendercentric.org/16-newsflash/60-has-gender-become-sexy … and we’ll be looking again at this issue for hopeful signs of change in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, here’s a Man-ifesto to be going on with from the Ms.Magazine Blog. http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/09/20/mens-manifesto-2012/ “I’m proud to be a part of a growing movement—a multiracial, multicultural, global movement of men who are challenging male violence and outdated notions of masculinity. I have been inspired by, taught by and befriended by men across the world who have dedicated their lives to reducing male violence. Men and boys around the world work for domestic violence programs and rape crisis centers. They donate and raise money for women’s groups. They organize and participate in community walks and wear White Ribbons. Men Can (and do) Stop Rape and Men (are) Stopping Violence. There is a growing Call to Men to become part of the solution. We men have listened to and learned from women. We often forget to give women the credit they are due, and sometimes claim their ideas as our own. But the heart of this growing men’s movement rests in the intelligence, kindness, confrontation and love from the strong women in our lives. We are men and boys who are proud to be working to stop male violence. We are proud to be men who welcome non-traditional expressions of what it means to be a man. We will be our own role models, applauding each non-traditional male role model who appears in film and television. As representations of manhood diversify, we will welcome the by-product of such diversity—acceptance and celebration of all varieties of manhood. We are proud to be gay men and bisexual men. We are proud to be heterosexual men working to end homophobia.We are proud to be transgender men. We are proud to be African-American, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American men. We are proud to be white male allies against racism and sexism. We are proud to have survived violence ourselves. We are rape and incest survivors, survivors of intimate partner violence at the hands of women and men. We work to end all violence against all people, even as we work to end the epidemic of male violence against girls and women. We love other men. We will boldly express our love of other men with hugs, tears, high-fives, handshakes, holding hands and kisses—sometimes with sex. We will sometimes choose a man as a beloved life partner. We love women. Knowing that our gender perpetrates violence and sexism, we pledge to change ourselves and the world. Rather than riding in on a white horse, we will partner with women and support women’s leadership in stopping violence and sexism. We love our families. Those of us who are fathers love our children. We reject the aloof father image. We realize that our children’s happiness depends on treating their mother with dignity, respect and love.When a boy dresses like a princess, we will embrace him as we embrace the boy who hits a home run. We will embrace boys wearing skirts, boys wearing makeup, boys wearing black and boys with piercings.When a boy cries, we will comfort him. We will cry with him. We will celebrate boys with long hair and short hair—running boys and boys in wheelchairs—ballet dancing boys and cheerleader boys. We will celebrate shy boys, singing boys, kind boys and poet boys.We will stand up against injustice. We will speak out against it, and will listen without defensiveness when it is pointed out in us. Strength as men will be measured not just by how many weights we can lift, but by how well we can listen. We realize that in pledging to be part of the solution, we also must acknowledge that we have been (and still are) part of the problem.We pledge to listen to women and learn from women.We pledge to be accountable to women’s leadership in stopping men’s violence, and to be accountable to our own male privilege. As the White Ribbon Campaign asks, we pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about men’s violence against women. We choose to respect, seek equality with and share power with the girls and women in our lives. We encourage, demand and expect other men and boys to do the same.” Excerpted from Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex and Power, edited by Shira Tarrant.

Marriage We had of course Kate & William which looks like the first successful royal marriage for a long time because of or despite that fact that the bride is an outsider. But most spectacularly we saw the Archbishop of Canterbury being routed by a combination of gay marriage and women bishops, unless this was just an excuse to run back to his Cambridge bolt-hole which would be perfectly understandable. And in this morning’s newspapers again we have David Cameron dithering about gay marriage; not his own of course though he and Nick Clegg are promising a renewal of their Rose Garden vows. Perhaps us anthropologists have always had a more mechanical view of what marriage is for, which at the same time may shed some light on current debates about European marriage or indeed may need to be adjusted to reflect those debates. Anthropologists see marriage primarily as a mechanism for ensuring social reproduction & regulating the other kind. Marriage with all its legal and/or religious trimmings is a socially sanctioned way for ensuring that the physical and non-physical valuables of one generation pass seamlessly (in principle) to the next. If looked at in this way it becomes obvious why families with more physical and non-physical valuables make more of a fuss about having a very noticeable marriage (dynastic marriage); and conversely why people who want to suggest that they have more than they actually do tend to hold exaggerated ceremonies (the Downton Abbey effect). There are some diverting side issues; if marriage is largely about property and social continuity romantic love (‘lerve’)or fidelity are not priorities. Aren’t the aristocracy in any country famously cavalier about monogamy though not about marriage (See for example Charles/Diana/Camilla). And if physical reproduction does not match up then there are traditional ways of dealing with that; a new biography suggests that the late Queen Mother was the biological daughter of the palace cook, for example. Probably only in Jane Austen do all the elements fall into place; romantic love, large properties, successful reproduction, and the blessing of the vicar. But those couples who elope for love alone inevitably come to a sticky end. On the other side of the coin it’s also interesting to see who does not or cannot get married: in traditional British working class communities (though this is disputed) having marriage formalized by religious or civic authorities was not always a priority.Anyway, in small non-mobile communities so the argument would go, the union was already closely witnessed & monitored. It’s interesting that Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, only got married relatively recently… six months after his second child was born…. was he aligning himself with his Labour roots in some way or just demonstrating his exceptionally modern and secular outlook? A group of people who were not allowed to marry – and therefore form social bonds and develop continuity – were the plantation slave population of the Caribbean, which arguably has affected marital behavior even to this day, where marriages tend to be rather late – typically- in 40’s and 50’s – and for companionship, when both parties may have already had their children with other partners. The phenomenon of the droit de seigneur of the Caribbean plantation owners was not of course unknown. Interestingly enough the people most anxious to get married ‘with all of the trimmings’ seem to be gay and lesbian couples. As there is no discernible legal advantage to be gained from a marriage as opposed to a civil union this is an assertion of equal rights and a desire for social recognition? And as Elton John and his partner have already demonstrated physical reproduction of the next generation is easy to arrange!

Hands & Bags Even the most avid football fans may feel that they know more than they need to know about English players’ conversation on the pitch? Though probably few of us knew that ‘handbagging’ is footballer slang for ‘a bit of banter’. This seems to be an unlikely cross-over from Mrs Thatcher’s famous wielding of her key accessory (recently auctioned for just £25,000)in defence of UK rebates. Though she certainly wasn’t bantering. Despite a media overdose of asterisks and bleeps some key questions remain : along with the strong interest in unacceptable racism why has unacceptable sexism not been noticed, or does it go without saying that for a man to call another man a woman’s sexual organ is acceptable as a casual insult? To quote Mr Ferdinand, ‘When someone calls you ‘a c*nt’ that’s fine, but when someone brings your colour into it, it takes it to another level ’. And of course the pithy, explosive, Anglo -saxon wins hands down over the leisurely Latin. Could poor Mr Terry have said you are a ‘black vagina’ with quite the same élan? However the V word though still not deserving of an * apparently still has the power to shock & may pretty soon become an acceptable insult between men. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/15/michigan-politician-banned-using-word-vagina (Republican, Nashville, MI, Representative Mike Callton, added: “What she said was offensive. It was so offensive I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.”) The second question – after that small detour – is ; what do women footballers say to each other in the heat of the moment; “I called her a ‘f*ckin (black) d*ck’, m’lud, but it was only a bit of briefcase.”? See more on the language of love at: https://www.gendercentric.org/sex-a-gender/communicating-gender/why-men-are-funnier https://www.gendercentric.org/sex-a-gender/communicating-gender/power-speaks BBC News – John Terry ‘angry’ over Anton Ferdinand racism claimswww.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18781322 http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/shortcuts/2012/jul/10/handbags-game-for-two-players

Sexism & Media The research took place over four weeks in 2011 and reviewed (only) the front pages of both tabloids and the quality press. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/oct/15/women-newspapers-front-page Perhaps the most interesting findings of this report relate to the counter-intuitive comparisons drawn between different newspapers. The WiJ found that the most male-dominated was the (‘quality’) Independent with 91% of its front page articles written by men; whereas 50% of the leading articles in the (popular) Express were by female journalists. One could say that this reflects the fact that prestigious newspapers hire ‘prestigious’ journalists and reporters amongst whom for a variety of reasons there are more men? However, amongst the (rest of) the so-called quality press rather unexpectedly the Financial Times has the largest proportion of female writers appearing on the front page, namely a modest 34%. Does this mean that thrusting young female journalists realize that working on economic issues is the way to the top; that the FT has an equal opportunities policy which is starting to work; or (very unlikely) that the FT is losing prestige and therefore can only attract women. The liberal and generally forward-looking Guardian ‘had a 78% male skew’ which may be both surprising and disappointing to its readers. WiJ needs to dig deeper and wider to interpret these numbers. Staying on the front page, the study found more statistical equality in the photographs: Kate Middleton and her sister, and Prince William and Nicholas Sarkozy dominated with no single female politician or leader appearing on the front page during the research month. It’s perhaps not surprising that Sarkozy and the Middleton/Windsors dominated as the very brief research period coincided with the time when Sarkozy was running for office and the other three were running for (or after) marriage… so perhaps it’s a stretch for the Guardian to say that the front pages were ‘dominated by sexist stereotypes’ though it’s a good headline. The front page is all about extreme events which sell papers usually involving weather, crime,celebrities and furry animals …alone or in combination. The study found that ‘Where powerful women were featured, the images were often unflattering’. Are women leaders supposed to be portrayed only in a flattering light? To introduce our own subjectivity, the UK press… especially the so-called quality press… seems to operate an equal opportunities policy in terms of ridicule dished out to politicians. Prime Minister, David Cameron’s head is depicted as a condom by Guardian cartoonist, Steve Bell; and Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition, as a panda or half of Wallace and Grommit . The Home Secretary, Teresa May, is usually singled out for her taste in shoes. However, though Angela Merkel’s palette of her signature jacket draws some witticisms, even when portrayed in an ‘unflattering’, light she always looks like the winner. Discussion of media treatment of male and female leaders is actually quite timely though was apparently less so at the time of the WiJ study. What is relatively new news is the judgment being made by the media on leaders both male and female…as to their gender-sensitivity. Mitt Romney has been widely excoriated for his ’binders full of women’ remark…but at least he admitted a gaping hole in the Republican base and he has now apparently has a lead with women voters though maybe not all of them. http://www.womensmediacenter.com/feature/entry/my-life-in-a-binder Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her reputation have been going through (dare we say it) a ‘rollercoaster’ of ‘swings and roundabouts’. Her comment on misogyny was hailed both as political suicide; and as a mighty blow for feminism. Her feminist credentials have naturally subsequently been called into question by a distinguished male journalist (John Pilger), as has the decision by the dictionary to revise the definition of ‘misogyny’ to match the way in which Gillard supposedly used it. There’s power for you! http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/15/julia-gillard-no-feminist-hero http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/17/julia-gillard-australia-misogyny-dictionary Whatever her background and convictions Julia Gillard has certainly put the issue of sexism and misogyny in Australian life…… as well as more globally……squarely on the front page. For a female leader to speak out loudly on sexism and gender discrimination is relatively unusual and that also deserves further exploration. Hillary Clinton’s ‘Margaret Thatcher’ position is more common.http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/world-of-women/no-hillary-16-as-clinton-insists-women-need-to-stop-whining-about-choices/20121018919 Should we expect all female leaders to be outspoken feminists, whatever their political base, or is being a woman at the top table enough of an inspiration? As a side benefit to the Gillard story we have been allowed an insight into the Australian equivalent of UK Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Commons! Certainly not for the faint-hearted. It is pointless to criticize WiJ for not doing what they were not attempting to do. We know now where women journalists are largely not to be found (i.e. the front page) and it would be nice to know where they are (editorial, comment and debate, colour supplement?); in what numbers and with what length of tenure and seniority (yes, both age and level in the paper hierarchy); with what specialities (politics, economics, social issues, media, fashion, food – women’s and gender issues?) It cannot be assumed that gender issues are always followed by women journalists, nor that all women journalists follow gender issues .A study by the US- 4th estate… found that even ‘women’s issues’ (sic) specifically ‘abortion & birth control’ (sic) are more likely to be addressed by men, but this study appears to have been specifically in the context of the current male contestant only elections! http://www.4thestate.net/female-voices-in-media-infographic/ Ideally of course gender is a topic of universal interest and not a male or female journalist speciality? It would also be important to find out which newspapers address in a systematic, sustained and critical way issues of gender equality – both the obvious (Julia Gillard, EU 40% Female Quota on Company Boards, Jimmy Savile, gay marriage) and the slightly less ‘sexy’ (gender equality in car insurance and pension premiums, maybe women bishops in the Anglican church?). ‘Sustained and systematic’ means more than one article and an analytical discussion of the

Are you my mother ? If so, you could do much worse than to start with Are You My Mother?… the second book in a diptych by Alison Bechdel which explores her fraught relationship with her mother in the hope and expectation of finally becoming herself. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_thurman The English-speaking world …unlike the French or the Japanese… has traditionally not taken comics seriously but all the signs are that this is about to change with some graphic novels competing with literary heavy-weights for serious prizes. Two graphic novels have been shortlisted in the Costa Book Awards one an 80-page line-drawn story about a teenager’s holiday with his mother by Joff Winterhart entitled Days of the Bagnold Summer which is competing with Hilary Mantel’s 400-page Man Booker winning Bring Up the Bodies. Another in the biography category by Mary and Bryan Talbot entitled Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes is a biography of James Joyce’s daughter referencing Mary Talbot’s relationship with her own father which is in competition with Artemis Cooper’s massive biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236249/Costa-Book-Awards-2012-nominees-Two-graphic-novels-listed-list-revealed.html
Graphic novels it seems are inherently suited to exploring convoluted family relationships in an economical and witty way and to teasing out literary parallels with one’s own situation though there may also be an element of copy-catism? Certainly Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes appears to owe an enormous debt to Alison Bechdel.
The graphic novel genre has form when it comes to discussion of gender. Probably the first of these to enter the mainstream consciousness was Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis first published in France in 2000 to wide critical acclaim and described as ‘a wise, funny and heartbreaking memoir’ of a young girl from a progressive and intellectual family growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution ,with all that entailed for restrictions on women’s freedom. http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2003_08_000395.php
The creator of Are You My Mother… Alison Bechdel… has been practising her comic art since the 1980s when she started to develop what became a long-running comic strip entitled Dykes to Watch Out For. http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/ The so-called Bechdel Test was developed in this context and is used to identify gender bias in media. A work passes the test if it features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Commentators have noted that a great proportion of contemporary works fail to pass this test. http://bechdeltest.com/
Alison Bechdel is an engaging character who has declared that “The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings.” Many people could relate to that.
The first part of her award-winning diptych Fun Home: A Family TragiComic. http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/fun-home-2 was published in 2006 and was named by Time magazine as one of its ‘10 Best Books of the Year’. Reviewers described Fun Home as ‘the unlikeliest literary success of 2006,” and called it “a stunning memoir about a girl growing up in a small town with her cryptic, perfectionist dad and slowly realizing that a) she is gay and b) he is too. … Bechdel’s breathtakingly smart commentary duets with eloquent line drawings. Forget genre and sexual orientation: this is a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other.’ 
Fun Home despite its darkish subject matter –revelation of her father’s secret history of homosexual affairs may have been behind his apparent traffic accident…is visually very rich given her father’s expressing himself through lavish interior decoration of the family’s enormous Victorian house which is also a funeral parlour. He is both a high school English teacher and a funeral home director. 
The central problem of her most ambitious work Are You My Mother is to find a way of obtaining recognition and acknowledgment from her mother so that she is free to be herself as a lesbian and as a writer, in particular as an auto-biographer (her mother, who is still living, cannot understand ‘why everyone has to write about themselves’). This central relationship is explored against a background of Bechdel’s childhood, her love affairs, her interaction with two therapists and the drawing of ‘crafty symbolic parallels’ with some of her heroes and heroines…amongst them Freud, Virginia Wolf, Sylvia Plath and the British psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott who formulated the concept of the ‘good enough’ mother. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/24/are-you-my-mother-alison-bechdel-review
Bechdel has embraced the comic novel genre for her sometimes gothic and highly intimate autobiographical explorations as being an inherently subversive medium and therefore suitable to someone who feels themselves outside the normal adult world.
 As any devotee of Tin Tin knows, (and Bechdel looks like Tin Tin) comics lend themselves to mimetic display of dramatic wordless action; the eyebrows raised and the mouth open in dismay, horror, grief, mad laughter and accompanied by a full range of body language; drooping shoulders, double-takes, speedy exits, slammed doors, falling down etc.
 As Bechdel brilliantly shows the format also permits …through word bubbles, thought bubbles, streams of connection with her own memories, and literary and psychoanalytic influences…. the most economic simultaneous depiction of current action, interior monologue, and ideas across time and geographical boundaries. For example, in frames where Alison is chatting to her mother on the phone at home…usually trying to extract some understanding, reassurance or shared interpretation of their past… the bubbles and panels may be channelling Virginia Wolf and the psycho-analyst Winnicott crossing paths in Tavistock Square in London, as well as musing on something she is currently reading or her mother’s unfinished life as an actress.
 This is not an easy read and has been described as having ‘too much therapy’ but if you are ready for the ride it is a mind-blowing experience.
Don’t say: comics are just for kids.
Do say: this exciting way of presenting complex material may not yet push regular literature off the shelf; and when will Mrs Bechdel change her mind about memoirs.

Vive la France ! Badinter seeks to demonstrate how the philosophy of “naturalism” which gives primacy to me. Elisabeth Badinter the celebrated French feminist and philosopher though probably sets out to demonstrate this truth scientifically in her book The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women, originally published in French in 2010. Motherhood over other aspects of women’s role has retarded gender equality. Some countries have been more vulnerable than others to this approach. America of course is a sink of “naturalism”, despite the well-documented epidemic of caesarian-sections and the medicalization of health care in general and child-birth in particular, of which Badinter seems unaware. Other countries which have fallen prey to over-emphasis on the role of mother in the total package of women’s identity are Germany, Japan and Italy as she sees as clearly demonstrated by their respective languages: “the German ‘mutter’, the Italian ‘mamma’ and the Japanese ‘kenbo’ project a mythical aura of motherhood at once sacrificial and all-powerful. By contrast the specter of the French ‘maman’ and the English ‘mommy’ seems rather insubstantial”. There is perhaps a contradiction here which she has not explored…. Aren’t UK and US ‘mommies’ also in the grip of naturalism? At any rate, the term “English” is often used rather broadly, as the equivalent of “Not-French” though it appears on occasion to reference the UK-specifically as in “an astonishing 20 per cent of English babies regularly or occasionally wear cloth diapers”. Be very astonished. Counter-intuitively the unlikely trio of comparators Germany, Italy and Japan have experienced a decline in the birth-rate as women are less prepared to take on an “all-or-nothing” attitude to motherhood. Against all global odds and trends France and French women display a totally different attitude to motherhood according to the statistics she has chosen. In France the birth-rate has remained relatively steady at around 2.0 with even a slight rise in 2009 which is the latest figure shown. French women (“as wives, mothers, professionals”) show an undiminished appetite not only for reproduction but smoking and drinking during pregnancy, contraception, abortion and bottle-feeding, and outsourcing infants at an early age whilst still doing enough to keep the population stable. The chapter “French Women: A Special Case” gives an added dimension to the expression “vive la difference!”. According to Badinter, the source of French women’s “nonchalant” attitude to motherhood derives from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when “the model of the ideal woman has not been limited to motherhood”. And as ever some are more equal than others…including a few of those English…”Liberated from the burdens common elsewhere eighteenth century French women (and English) from the highest ranks of society enjoyed the greatest freedom of any women in the world”. Throughout the book Badinter downplays the influence of political, legal, religious , economic and even marital factors on reproductive choice in favour of such choices being a strictly private matter; “the outcome of an intimate dialogue between a woman and herself and has nothing to do with an ideological stance”. It is doubtful that Chinese women – to take just one example- would agree. The “naturalism” approach, essentially the equivalent of the “New Domesticity” https://www.gendercentric.org/16-newsflash/80-the-new-domesticity-how-different-from-the-old is crystallized in a number of organizations and movements – notably the La Leche League and the United Nations WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospitals Initiative (BFHI) – which Badinter treats with appropriate disdain. France has consistently held out against the BFHI, a programme which has greatly reduced infant and neonatal mortality associated with unhygienic bottle-feeding in many countries; but then as she wisely says, Paris is not the Sudan. Badinter presents a number of statistical tables usually without clear sources or dates. National statistics of course mask many differences among any population even of women – socio-economic status, age, ethnicity, confession – and some of these are raised and dismissed. The Irish though showing some similarities with the French have religion to deal with; and the large immigrant population in France has had no noticeable effect on the birth-rate. Adopting Badinter’s methodology it is interesting to assess through other sets of national statistics the level of gender equality French women have achieved by their enlightened approach to motherhood. In the Gender Gap Index 2012 produced by the World Economic Forum,( based on inequalities between women and men in economic opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival), France perches at a modest 57 out of 130; just between Israel and Madagascar. Some of those countries expected to be in the grip of naturalism still seem to coming in ahead in the equality stakes; the UK at 18, the US at 22. And the triplets of comparators Germany, Italy, and Japan at 13, 80 and 101 respectively. Which only goes to show that these kinds of tables whilst eagerly awaited every year do not tell us very much and should not be unpacked to demonstrate particular theories. The author cherry-picks other information across centuries and sources – Marie-Claire to Charles Darwin and in that order- to support her argument of the uniqueness of French women. Skillfully and sometimes even wittily she sets up straw men to demolish by her arguments; notably the Ten Commandments of Breastfeeding from “the Alternamoms website”. She is not always well-served by the translation and often the English-speaking reviewer is left to wonder whether this book… or perhaps it is a collection of essays produced for other outlets such as the engaged “glossies” ( Marie-Claire?) -is just an elaborate intellectual’s joke whereby Badinter is in fact poking fun at, rather than buying into, the well-established stereotype of French women as being quintessentially different and superior from the rest of human kind. It would perhaps have been more interesting had she focused only on France as other countries are only cited to prove what she wants to say about the uniqueness of French women. She might more profitably have reviewed the forces behind and bolstering the famous stereotype and investigated what its existence signifies for French women and men. All this

Dangerous Woman This massive tome of nearly 800 pages appears to be tapping into at least a couple of recent trends with varying success. The first of these is the new fashion for enormous hardback books a characteristic to which sci-fi and fantasy fiction may be particularly prone; and the second is the surge in interest over the past year in women and gender issues. Whilst the editors and some of the other authors are “giants in their field” a number of the others are relatively unknown. It seems likely that prospective buyers of this book will be attracted by one or more of the “big names” and may find new authors to please them if they persist in dipping into this frankly rather unwieldy volume, which has to be read lying down or at a lectern neither of which may always be convenient. Co-editor George R.R. Martin contributes a short story of 81 pages set in Westeros, nearly 200 years before his best-selling “A Game of Thrones” begins. This is actually a rather disappointing exercise for the non-fan and awkwardly written in a mixture of casual speech and Olde Englishe, the latter characterized by random capitalization and a plethora of ‘nigh unto’ and ‘must needs’. Indeed several of the stories with historical or quasi-historical contexts, which channel Tolkien and Harry Potter, to varying degrees seem to be amongst the least successful. What would we like to see in a short story that purports to talk about Dangerous Women? And which of these 21 stories seem best to fulfill the brief? First of all a short story should have a beginning, middle and an end. Several of these contributions appear to have been sliced from or roughly excerpted from longer works. Secondly, even if set in a sci-fi, dystopian or paranormal world the actions should have the psychological credibility and resonance to keep the reader hooked; and the “dangerous women” element should be integral throughout. It is very unfortunate if an author has to take the last few paragraphs or an author’s note to explain how he or she has actually fulfilled the “dangerous women” brief despite appearance to the contrary (see for example A Queen in Exile by Sharon Kay Penman; Caretakers by Pat Cadigan, and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Hell Hath No Fury). For this reviewer the short story by Megan Abbott ‘ My Heart is Either Broken’ takes the prize in being, yes, short, at 22 pages; having a start , a middle section and a convincing dénouement; and a truly chilling dangerous woman, without resort to any paranormal or sci-fi special effects. Overall however the stories in this anthology are rather tame, the themes repetitive and banal, and most of them distinctively rooted in Middle America even where the trappings try to suggest otherwise. There is a plethora of old ladies losing their faculties; beleaguered queens and princesses; an occasional loose woman cruising in a bar without her wedding ring, and a few witches. Humour is unfortunately not a feature of this genre? Couldn’t someone have done a re-make of the story of Eve for example, the most dangerous woman of them all? Or some egg-freezing experiment that went awry with scary consequences. However, there is no point in criticizing this anthology for what it is not and no doubt it will please the loyal market to which it is directed. Dangerous Women (ed) George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois,ToR books December,2013 reviewed by Jane Hailé at http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/dangerous-women This was a first date after all. This most amiable form of protest… perhaps a form of homeopathy… seems to be growing in popularity and was also featured during the Pope’s visit to Barcelona in November last year when 200 gay people exchanged kisses as the Pope-mobile drove by. So what next? The UK Licensing Act 2003 gives landlords the right to eject customers from their pubs but the Equality Act of 2010 says that everyone must be treated equally. For a successful defense… should it come to that…the landlord would have to prove that he also ejects heterosexual couples for displaying similar levels of intimacy. Brussels, April 17th, 2011. A ‘gay kiss-in’ of 300 people protests the ejection on grounds of obscene behaviour of a gay couple from a London pub.

Closes Staff at the pub, famous for its cider, told the couple that they were ‘obscene’ and eventually that they had to leave. Disinterested observers indicate that Bull’s ‘peck on the lips’ of Williams whilst recognized as ‘snogging’ did not fall into the category of ‘heavy petting’ let alone ‘obscenity’. This was a first date after all. This most amiable form of protest… perhaps a form of homeopathy… seems to be growing in popularity and was also featured during the Pope’s visit to Barcelona in November last year when 200 gay people exchanged kisses as the Pope-mobile drove by. So what next? The UK Licensing Act 2003 gives landlords the right to eject customers from their pubs but the Equality Act of 2010 says that everyone must be treated equally. For a successful defense… should it come to that…the landlord would have to prove that he also ejects heterosexual couples for displaying similar levels of intimacy. Brussels, April 17th, 2011. A ‘gay kiss-in’ of 300 people protests the ejection on grounds of obscene behaviour of a gay couple from a London pub.