amica

"If I have to stop smoking indoors, I want people to stop eating
disgusting smelly fast food near me. Hey, overeating kills too!" over 2 years ago via web

www.heelarious.com sells high heels for babies, www.urbanbratz.com sells toddler t-shirts reading 'I love boobs'. At least Bhs has stopped selling padded 'Little Miss Naughty' bras for the under 10s. Anyone else feel like boycotting? over 2 years ago via web

"Ryanair has flown straight into a new media storm over its 2010 charity calendar which features its own scantily clad employees. The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has slammed the airline as “irredeemably old-fashioned” and accused it of a “serious lack of imagination.”

In response, the boss of Ryanair Michael O’Leary said the calendar was empowering for women and said the NWCI didn’t have “a clue how young women empower themselves.”

To be honest, the fact that a bunch of stewardesses are prancing around jet engines half naked doesn't really bother me. Pirelli and other types of companies have been doing this type of stunt for years, although I'm more in favor of Pirelli as it actually has some style - but this is ryanair after all. Budget airline, budget pin-ups - but I digress. The only thing that bothers me about this story is that Michael O'Leary claims this calender 'empowers young women'

'Empowering' young women through nudity has been a byline for playboy and other such publications for decades, and I'm starting to wonder what the hell empowered means?

Chicks are naked. Men like it. Men buy it, money goes to charity. I have no issue with this. But let's not dress this up (or take the dress off as the case may be) with pseudo post feminism and brand it as 'empowering'. Let's all be clear: it's lowbrow spankbank material designed for young lads taking a budget holiday to Lanzerote. That's cool, whatever; but this isn't exactly going to get the ERA passed anytime soon. Come on! over 2 years ago via web

The other day on the 65 bus, the driver decided to stop the journey midroute in the middle of nowhere and in the pouring rain. We all had to get off, wait in the rain for 20 minutes and then pay for another bus to get where we originally had intended to, bringing a single bus journey to the total of £4. Oh joy. over 2 years ago via web

http://www.punchjohnandedwardintheface.co.uk/ over 2 years ago via web

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/marie-claire/features/real-life/article/-/5886737/how-does-your-make-up-affect-your-career/

I think this article sums up everything that is wrong with the working world. over 2 years ago via web

I used to work for Shelter: the average pay for a street fundraiser is £9ph. Considering the cost of training, uniform and wages (approximately 100 chuggers spread out in teams over London) for 9 hour shifts, paid wages alone are in the realm of £8100 per day. Considering how few people sign up and the cost involved, it seems like a total waste of charity resources. I could understand why people hated us at the time, but if we were 'underperforming' we were encouraged to use more aggressive sales tactics.
Charity organisations have become more about business than charity: after all, given the head office location, all the behind the scenes staff and 'fundraising' events, I'm surprised any money went back to the people who needed at all. over 2 years ago via web

It’s become a mandatory requirement in a corporate environment that female workers must adhere to a dress code. From my own experience, this is most predominant against workers in the secretarial and reception industry. Upon graduating university, I got a job with a financial firm in the city as a receptionist where I was told in no uncertain terms to flirt with the guys and look ‘glamorous’.
Being 19 back then, and a bit of an ejit, I thought to myself, all righty then – glamorous eh? And wore an American Apparel mini skirt into work the next day. Hell on fire was poured down my neck that day and I was nearly fired for ‘horrendously inappropriate attire’. Three complaints were made by members of staff about my skirt because – I quote “It provided too much of a distraction for those trying to work.”
Oh yes, my short skirt was apparently enough to send PhD educated men into such a frenzy the whole capitalist system was at a serious risk of tail spinning into a meat grinder. Maybe they had a point – the economic situation is probably the fault of women everywhere who dress inappropriately. So the next day, I went into work wearing no make up, trousers and a suit jacket. I was kinda happier about that look anyway.
Same deal – dragged off into the back office for another bollocking about not ‘being the face of the company’.
‘Sexy, not slutty’ became the mantra. ‘Sexy enough for the men to feel happy, but not too sexy as so to intimidate the other women.’
For two years I endured this kind of bullshit, struggling to find an impossible medium between sexy (knee length tight skirt, blouse unbuttoned two buttons and immaculate hair and make up) slutty (anything above the knee, curly hair apparently is a big no no) and butch (another girl I worked with was reprimanded for wearing trousers everyday. Turn up in no make up, and go home again) whilst my male colleagues were welcomed into the office unshaven and in casual t-shirts.
Ultimately I quit finance because the inane mandatory dress codes became too much of a burden to uphold. I thought perhaps, that my experience was shafted into one unpleasant industry within our society, but today, upon interviewing as a waitress I was met with exactly the same comments, if not worse. No trousers, no flats. Skirts and heels every day. Bare in mind, this wasn’t Stringfellows. This was a regular restaurant. Still minimum wage, to stand outside in Antarctic temperatures for 12 hours in paralysing heels. Of course the men got to wear trainers and trousers.
This is 2009. It shocks and saddens me that in this day and age, we are still subjected to the sexist bollocks that was rife in the middle ages. How one dresses for work, has no impact on how one performs that job. In finance, I picked up phones and organised meetings. This was in no way affected by my chosen attire for that day, except perhaps for that bloody pencil skirt cutting off circulation below my waist and making me a lot more snappy than usual. So in many ways, the mandatory dress code made my work suffer if anything.
I’m not saying one should rock up to work in a bank in fishnets and a wifebeater, but eradicating words such as ‘sexy’ and ‘flirty’ from the office lexicon should be in place.
The question arises, how do we deal with this vast inequality in an office environment? I’m throwing out the question, what is the best way to deal with passive aggressive sexism within the working environment?
over 2 years ago via web