It’s Boudicca v Bank of England in the battle of the banknotes – Guardian

On Friday Ailsa Burkimsher Sadler, dressed as a Franklin, said: “This is part of a wider pattern of cultural femicide, where women are simply missing, across the arts, painting, music, in business, across every platform. But also,” she added, a bit later, “we’ve got to ask whether they follow the Equality Act. What was the process by which this decision was reached? Where are the minutes? Who was in the meeting?”

As a Catholic priest in Britain I have to drag couples down the aisle – Catholic Herald (published in May, but an interesting read).

One thing I do mention is that the custom of “giving away the bride” and the bride entering on her father’s, or some other male relative’s, arm, is not part of the wedding ceremony per se, and can easily be substituted by something else. The couple can enter together, for example. There is silence in the liturgical books about this. But whenever I say this, brides look at me with barely disguised horror, and not a single one has ever taken up my proposal. They all have to enter on their father’s arm, it seems, and he has to give them away. Whatever happened to feminism?

 Ellen Page: ‘Why are people so reluctant to say they’re feminists?’ – Guardian

“I think if you’re not from America you read this stuff and you’re like, ‘What?’ But I don’t know why people are so reluctant to say they’re feminists. Maybe some women just don’t care. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?” she asks in her quiet voice that belies the firm opinions it is often expressing. “Feminism always gets associated with being a radical movement – good. It should be. A lot of what the radical feminists [in the 1970s] were saying, I don’t disagree with it.”

Bounty Mutiny – A Mumnset Campaign – Salt and Caramel

Mumsnet launched a campaign #bountymutiny to protest against the legions of women who go around labour wards, giving gifts to new mothers. Sounds innocuous, when put like that, doesn’t it? The reality is that the Bounty Ladies hand out the gift bag, then persuade women to hand over their personal details, which the company then sells on to third parties. Some women have reported that they felt pressured into giving their details, that they were approached when they were tired, vulnerable or just plain confused at the actual status of the enquirer.

In Churches Too – Restored

In Churches Too is a new campaign from Restored highlighting the issue of domestic abuse and that this happens in churches too. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness on the issue of domestic abuse, dispel some of the myths surrounding abuse, and how we can take positive action to bring abuse to an end. 

Are Christian Feminists hurting their cause? – Mike Duran

I realize this is completely anecdotal. Subjective. Deciding what is Scriptural can’t be left to responses on one blog post or one’s experience with the representatives of any given position. Just because a Christian feminist is rude — or a Calvinist, Universalist,  Atheist, whoever! — does not mean their position is wrong. Bad manners and blog misconduct don’t invalidate someone’s position. Nor does grace and diplomacy validate one’s position.

Why we changed our names – Lulastic and the Hippyshake

I am surprised at how little the name-changing tradition is challenged in my generation. I literally know ONE person who has kept their name and NONE who went for a shared new name with their husband. It’s interesting as the majority of my friends and family are ALL strong women and feministy men.

Loads of people think the married name thing is trivial. Sure, equal pay, rape and the rights of women in developing countries probably should take precedence but I’m not one to think that issues need prioritising all the time.  It’s not like we can to tick them off before we move onto the next one – it’s all tangled up.