Is single positivity good for women?

“Nature abhors a vacuum, and society abhors a woman on her own”, I tweeted drunkenly and loftily in October 2020, and honestly, I stick by it. Our society is not built for the uncoupled, and no one is made to feel this more acutely than women who are mostly single, by choice or otherwise.  Over… Continue reading Is single positivity good for women?

What we accept as normal

You can judge a society by what it accepts as ‘normal’ and whose truths it takes at face value, I think. What it doesn’t see as particularly remarkable, or out of the ordinary. Who, when they speak, it decides to automatically believe, and who it chooses to doubt and interrogate. We started the week of… Continue reading What we accept as normal

It’s not about her health

I am a reasonably thin woman and every ‘news’ story of a celebrity losing weight feels like a tiny betrayal. That sounds mean-spirited, doesn’t it? It sounds like an ugly way to live. Especially since I couldn’t give a toss what the people I know and love weigh. It just doesn’t occur to me to… Continue reading It’s not about her health

The myth of “ready”

  One of the only cheering pieces of news to have caught my attention in the last month was Natalie Imbruglia’s announcement that she has both signed a new record deal and is having a baby on her own, using IVF and a sperm donor. (It is barely three weeks since Boris Johnson became our… Continue reading The myth of “ready”

The greatest adventure

Recently, I’ve stopped looking at men. When I’m pottering round the Lanes at the weekend, on the bus to work, or in the park with the dog, it’s not men that catch my eye. Sure, I can still clock a stylish pair of glasses on a whippet-boned face at twenty paces – like the most… Continue reading The greatest adventure

The feelings gap

This is essentially a Fleabag fan blog now; deal with it. I think I’ve always been angry. Certainly since adolescence; I threw almighty strops as a teen and my mum used to say, “God, you’re so angry – what’s wrong with you?” Looking back, I see it clearly: I was a shitty teenager, that’s all,… Continue reading The feelings gap

Choose your camp?

A few days ago, I became one of those awful people who starts a conversation with a stranger on public transport. Ordinarily, I’d say there’s a circle in Hell reserved for these shameless types, but sometimes you overhear a morsel that’s so gosh-darn up your street that you’ve chimed in before you’ve realised what’s happening.… Continue reading Choose your camp?

So much left to do

Sometimes I like to play a little game with myself called, “What would a world designed by women look like?” (I know; I’m great fun at parties.) The first things that jump to mind are always fairly minor inconveniences, like high shelves and heavy doors. Shop space designed by women would surely bring the higher… Continue reading So much left to do

Leave no woman behind

I know I’ve been something of a one-issue pony over the last week or so, but funnily enough, as a woman, a referendum in a country just across the water on whether women should be forced to continue with pregnancies they don’t want feels quite personal. I don’t buy the often-trotted-out line that “feminism will… Continue reading Leave no woman behind

The houseguest

If you invite someone into your home, you do so because you want them there. If they turn violent, start to smash your belongings and pose a danger to you, you’re entitled to make them leave, or call for help. If someone breaks into your home – kicks the door down, batters their way in,… Continue reading The houseguest