Star Trek: Into Sexism

I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness last week, and I wasn’t that impressed. I’m not a fan of the franchise (although I did enjoy Deep Space Nine back in the day, when it was on before Buffy) so I don’t know much about Kirk, Spock and the world they inhabit. I was hoping the film would show me, but much of it was centred around this generic cat and mouse adventure plotline in which the heroes chase the bad guy, capture him, are hoodwinked and eventually regain composure. Snore. The best bits; alien races, space cities and future technology, were mere scenery and thirty second snapshots for a film set largely on deck.

That wasn’t the stupidest bit though.

Street Harassment: How A Stranger Stole My Hat

Last night at eleven, I was getting off a train at Manchester Piccadilly after a day in the countryside. As soon as I hit the streets, I realised it must have been a football day or something, because the city was one huge chant. Teenage bullying and general life experience makes me wary of large groups of men, so I kept my head down and power-walked onwards to the bus stop.

So there I am, pressing the wait button at the traffic lights, one earphone in blaring Fun’s Some Nights on repeat to distract me from the world, when I feel someone behind me. A man snatches the hat off my head and keeps on walking. I turn around to see a group of five or six “lads” jeering, pointing and shouting at me whilst the thief in question adjusts my hat on his head.

Pull Yourself Out

(ETA: I decided to write OUT my thoughts  on depression. specifically mine. Warning: It’s self-indulgent, rambling and  off the top of my head so maybe even I won’t agree with it in the morning. If you don’t want to read about how mad I am, keep scrolling. all opinions are my own and i’m not claiming my experience is everyone else’s etc etc etc.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about depression recently. Well, who am I kidding, I think about depression most of the time. Occasionally I devote bus journeys to wondering why certain people’s brains came attached with happiness-seeking-missiles, but generally I’m thinking about how great I’ll feel when I’m not sobbing and clawing at the walls of my bathroom.

Can You Help Save Wizard’s Way?

Most of you won’t know this about me, but when I was fourteen I used to be pretty big on the Wizard scene. I’m not talking about party tricks, where you pull multicoloured silk scarves out of a tube or guess whichever card someone picks. No, I’m talking about hardcore, magicballs-to-the-wall wizardry.

Why The Gaming Industry Is Still (Button) Bashing Women

It seems impossible for anyone to still insist that video games are a male past-time now. With a games console in practically every home that can afford one, anyone can play from five year old kids to eighty year old pensioners. Yet there is still a stereotype, an opinion that women don’t understand games, aren’t very good at them or just don’t fit into video game culture.

The evidence stacks up. Female characters are usually super-sexualised or placed in frail, supporting roles. Peach longs to be rescued and Bayonetta “can pick up an enemy’s spear and use it as a stripper pole”. Sexy, slim and beautiful but without the muscle definition, obviously. Something nice to look at. The idea seems to be that if you have a strong female character at the forefront of the game, men will not be able to relate to her. Good luck girls, because sex is still selling. You’re just not allowed to buy it.

We Are Disgusted, But Rarely Surprised

With intensive coverage of the gang rape of a woman in New Delhi, people have been quick to condemn India and it’s relationship with the female body. “A Dark Day For India”, “India Should Be Ashamed” is the general opinion of bloggers, journalists and people on the street. This mentality is strange to me, because of it’s utter hypocrisy.

Why Does Everyone Hate Taylor Swift?

This week, the tabloid news tells us that Taylor Swift has split from her brief relationship with One Direction singer Harry Styles. I don’t know why I felt the need to mention his band’s name, as I’m pretty sure even my Grandma knows who Harry Styles is by now. You can’t buy a scrunchie from Claire’s without squeezing past a gondola of 1D-themed keyrings, bags and necklaces. Suffice to say One Direction are huge, which has led to some assuming that “Haylor” was only a PR stunt to begin with. But hey, they went to the zoo. That’s a pretty cool marketing contract to have with someone.

When All Else Fails Try A Different Approach

This is the CV of Red Newsom, aged 24 and in Manchester,
who is currently seeking a full time job somewhere

Personal Statement:

I am a human being and I am doing my best.

Education:

The Job Centre told me to lie about my education in case I came across as overqualified. I’m not sure how a dual honours English and History Bachelors and a Masters in Creative Writing could possibly over-qualify me for anything, except the painting and decoration apprenticeship I was turned down for. And McDonalds, who told me I wasn’t what they were looking for.

I think really all these degrees show is that I can read and write to a more-than-acceptable standard. I am also good at meeting deadlines (ie staying up all night) and am skilled at passing off other people’s opinions as my own, which is useful when you consider things like “company manifestos”. Basically, if you needed me to write or communicate with someone I could do that.

Work Experience:

Because the only positions I have been successful in getting over the last three years have been temporary and part-time, my CV is a total mess and it feels embarrassing listing all the companies I’ve had to leave after a matter of months. I have never voluntarily left a job, except once in 2010 when I was made homeless unexpectedly. Does that count? I don’t like leaving jobs because failure disappoints me and change scares me. I’ll pretty much kick around forever if the work is interesting and the pay is reasonable.

I have had on-and-off jobs in retail since I was fifteen, ranging from hanging up old lady knickers in British Home Stores to managing a charity shop on weekends. So a lot of “using my initiative” there, especially with the latter. If the job I’m applying with you isn’t retail, I personally don’t think it matters because the skills I have are transferable and I am probably so bored from being unemployed that everything will seem exciting to me. I can learn fast.

One non-retail job example: I have worked as a Publicity and Marketing Assistant for two non-profit organisations. I worked for them simultaneously because the two directors “fought over me” because I gave a good interview. One of them calls me up occasionally to offer me the odd bit of work, so I must have been good at publicity and marketing. And admin. I’ve done a lot of admin.

At the moment I work at a bookshop, but they don’t have enough money to pay me so I will be unemployed again in January. I love working there because, as suck-uppy as it sounds to write this, I love ordering in books for customers and seeing their happy little faces when they arrive. Generally I try to be very chirpy and interact with my colleagues, although I am rubbish at the crossword. I try very hard not to take days off and recently worked an entire week whilst dying from the flu. I come into work even when I am hungover, which is serious dedication because my hangovers are really bad.

Other Experience:

I was an editor of an arts magazine that a couple of friends and I brought over from Keele University to Manchester. I did a lot of marketing, editorial decision making and layout design. I only left because the magazine started to take a turn for the fashion photography and that’s not my thing, but I’m involved with another group now who are putting out an ebook and a print publication next year.

I podcast weekly on a show called Zombie Cast, which speaks for itself in terms of content. I do seem to discuss what I would do in the event of an apocalypse a lot, ie; I am very forward-thinking. It airs live at 12.30AM our time, so being a podcaster has taught me great time management (fitting in a nap before the show) and how to function on very few hours sleep.

I am a responsible person with two cats who haven’t starved to death or gone feral at the time of writing this. I am pretty organised and love making lists. It really bugs me when my flat is messy and I’m thinking of alphabetising my books. I definitely walk the right distance between “enthusiastic” and “desperate” when it comes to having a job. You know, the constant fear that if you say no to working a Sunday you’ll instantly get sacked, that kind of desperate. Generally I do honestly believe I could be good at whatever I put my mind to. Unless it was something to do with bees.

*

I hope you will consider me for a job, Potential Employer. I know this isn’t how you’re supposed to write CVs but I have tried everything else. Everything. I thought maybe telling you honestly about me as an employee and a person thus far would be more useful than using the kind of “stock phrases” and blatant lies which end up in you employing someone who turns out to be rubbish.

Ghost Watch: How I Faded Away

It’s not a good time to be British.

I suppose I should relinquish the shock and surprise of another Conversative Party attack against the poor, since news reports seem to pop up every day now. Telling people what they can and can’t buy on benefits, making the unemployed work for free, and generally more cuts and hate-fuelled propaganda, with working people also coming up short. The stagnant “living wage” ensures the working poor continue to rely on benefits, leading the government to pit them against the “lazy, scrounging” unemployed.

At this point, you’d have to be a millionaire in order to justify voting conservative. Even our small-c, middle class parents must be questioning the wisdom of David Cameron as he advises twenty-somethings to move back home rather than claim housing benefit. Whether policy or a whacky idea, the Conservative mentality is a dangerous one that is dividing the country. Cuts to essential services, prohibition rather than education… It’s easy to sit in front of your laptop and feel doomed. How far will they push?

A Retail Christmas

Christmas. A time for everyone to relax, forgetting the cold commutes to work and the stresses of the everyday to spend quality time with the people they love. Presents are torn from their festive wrapping and we all sit around the table gorging ourselves on turkey and parsnips, pulling crackers.

Unless you work in retail that is. The companies that pay large sums of money to put warm, cheerful advertisements on our televisions and in our magazines about this lovely quality family-orientated time also conveniently rota in their staff to work straight through Christmas.