• The UK government has rejected all six proposals to increase female representation in parliament, insisting that setting firm targets for female candidates and MPs would put too much of a “regulatory burden” on parties.
• Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley shares stories about sexism and abuse in the TV and film industry:
“There’s a real culture of machismo [on set], even among women, where you don’t want to be the person in tears or complaining. That carries its own stigma.
“There are a million ways in which you are taught to think that this is completely fine and consensual when it absolutely is not. It takes a lot of years before you have words for it, being able to name something. ‘Unwanted.’ ‘Harassment.’ ‘Not consensual.’ These are words that take a long time to attribute to the experience you are having. Most people feel that for the sake of the art or for the sake of the production, someone’s humanity or awareness or willingness or consent comes second.”
• What if we talked about male historical figures in the same way we talk about female historical figures?
• Miki Agrawal, the co-founder of Thinx period underwear, gave out breast milk at Burning Man this year.
• Meghan Murphy at the New Statesman on sexism and gender neutrality at the MTV Awards:
“The solution to sexism is not to imagine away males and females, it’s to stop treating males as though they are naturally deserving of more power and privilege than women, and to stop treating women as though the marginalisation they experience is merely an unfortunate coincidence.”