The week in quotes

[...] a shed is to a man what a handbag is to a woman.

Both contain all the essentials for surviving in the modern world.

The ‘Men’s Shed’ project in Meath provides a meeting place for older men. A sweet idea, however I think the handbag is given a little too much credit here…. Irish Times, 15.11.10

[...] the clever people at Lancashire County Council are much smarter than you or I, and have spotted something which could, conceivably, be offensive.

To a mad person.

Yup, they have now instructed their schools to change the name of gingerbread men to gingerbread people in case anyone thinks this is discriminatory against women.

All those mad anti-discrimination people out there! Can’t get away with anything these days! Ian O’Doherty, Irish Independent, 15.11.10

[S]he really needs to think about a diet

Alan Sugar’s very relevant response to Kirstie Allsopp’ tweet that Sugar tweeting about his new book during a two minute Twitter silence was unforgivable.

The female sex falls into two distinct categories. The first is that of the women I personally know, who are bawdy and girly and talk about food and fashion and clothes and sex and breasts and like dirty jokes and gossip and celebrity magazines.

And then there is this other female sex, who are funless and dour and oppressed and always being picked on by society and by men, and whose existence I know of only because I am told of them by the minnies in the media. It’s not that I seldom meet the Second Oppressed Sex, I NEVER meet them.

The world according to Kevin Myers. I hope his female friends don’t mind being branded as the ultimate one-dimensional female stereotype in a national newspaper. As for never having met the ‘Second Oppressed Sex’ Mr. Myers, that might be related to the fact that unless you’re a character in a Murakami novel, the likelihood of  meeting people who are products of your own imagination is pretty slim.

[M]edia minnies [Myers' newly invented word for feminists]  love a good whinge, and [...] part of the feminist dogma is that women only enjoy sex within a concerned and caring relationship

News to me! Myers somehow have more knowledge about feminism than feminists. Kevin Myers, Irish Independent, 17.11.10

I often ask myself what is my purpose in life. If I can supply milk to premature babies, that’s enough for me.

Donating milk is a kind gesture, but that’s selling yourself a bit short in my book. Breast milk donor to the Irish Times, 16.11.10.

Tagged: Quotes

The week in quotes

[T]he mother opened her blouse and began to breastfeed the baby. Naturally, I felt a bit embarrassed but kept staring straight ahead as if all was right with the world.

As I approached my destination, (…)the woman was still feeding the baby. I glanced at the woman and decided that she was someone not to be messed with, so rather than disturb her act of babyfeeding I stayed in my seat and continued on to the town of Z. At Z she had completed her task and I left the bus after she disembarked.

I then had to pay €20 to a taxi to get back to my destination Y . . .

Reader describing the nightmare of breastfeeding mothers in the Irish Times, 09.11.10

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — GLAAD, to you and me — have been busy working their little socks off recently.

Ian O’Doherty involuntarily justifies the existence of GLAAD. Irish Independent, 11.11.10

Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.

Birmingham Councillor Gareth Compton’s ‘humorous’  Twitter response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown after she said on Radio 5 Live that no politician had the right to comment on human rights abuses, even the stoning of women in Iran. Irish Examiner, 12.11.10

FYI. New clunge.

Apparently the way some senior accountants in PricewaterhouseCoopers introduce new female trainees.

Those [in PwC] who passed [the sexist email] on may have a better chance of keeping their job. The company couldn’t do a major cull because some of those involved are their best staff in whom they have invested hundreds of thousands of euro

It’s all about the money….(‘Cull’….good ol’ Daily Mail) Laura Lynott, Irish Daily Mail, 12.11.10

This is not a feminist issue, it’s a humanist issue

Panelist on the Marian Finucane Show, 14.11.10, on the PwC email controversy. (To which Blathnaid Clarke brilliantly responded that feminists are humanists)

The week in quotes

[....] women prefer romance. The idea of a romantic encounter, a walk through the woods on a summer’s day, the sight of Mr Darcy on a horse, women need to fall in love whereas a man may well do with falling into bed

Just when you thought the Fry debate couldn’t get any worse, Eileen Battersby comes to his rescue. Irish Times, 02.11.10.

[Stephen Fry] is charming, witty, sympathetic, immensely appealing, obviously hugely intellectual, vulnerable, great company and exactly the kind of man most women would love to be the father of their children

Never mind what a man stands for. Never mind his outrageous opinions. Don’t get caught up in trivial matters like sexism and stereotyping. Focus on what really matters. Ask yourself: would he be a good father to your future kids?  Eileen Battersby explains the important things in life in the Irish Times, 02.11.10.

UN Development Programme report rank[s] Ireland fifth in a quality-of-life index. (….) However, Ireland fares a lot less favourably when it comes to gender equality in which it ranks 29

Quite the disparity…..Irish Times, 05.11.10

Better to have a passion for beautiful women than to be gay

It’s Berlusconi of course…Irish Independent, 03.11.10

We need more men showing and taking responsibility in all aspects of care services so children grow up to see both men and women are carers. We should be showing children that there are many different ways of being men and women instead of dredging up the male role model idea all the time

Professor of early childhood provision Peter Moss, on how to tackle the fact that Ireland has the lowest representation of male childcare workers in Europe. As in ONE registered male childminder, according to Childminding Ireland, the national association for childminders. Irish Times 01.11.10

Be careful with those wrinkles when high definition comes in

Director of BBC programme ‘Countryfile’, Dean Jones, to presenter Miriam O’Reilly just months before she was dropped from the programme. She is now seeking compensation for alleged sex and age discrimination. BBC News, 04.11.10

Have you ever invented anything?

Young girl puts Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan in a tight spot at at the launch of Science Week Ireland 2010. He had to admit he hadn’t. Irish Times, 05.11.10

Tagged: Discrimination, media, News, Quotes, Stereotyping

The week in quotes

Can this really be true? Is childbirth really confined to women? Because if this is the case, then maybe there are some other things that women are better at than men, and maybe some things that they’re less good at

Again, Kevin Myers proves his excellent reasoning skills in the Irish Independent, 26.10.10

Low female sex drive ‘a true disorder’

Headline, the Irish Examiner, 26.10.10

A gay icon on Sesame Street? Bert comes out of the closet after 31 years

Headline, the Irish Independent, 26.10.10

They do not exist below the waist

Sesame Street spokesperson explains that, despite recent rumors, Bert and Ernie are ‘neither gay or straight’, Irish Times 30.10.10

Young women desperately need role models – and what the media gives them is heiresses, sex objects, surgery addicts and emotional wrecks

Kira Cochrane, the Guardian, 31.10.10

I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want

Stephen Fry, Attitude magazine, November issue

The week in quotes

If there are two candidates and one is a buxom young woman of child-rearing years and the other is a fellow, who is an employer going to hire when he or she knows that they will have to pay 20 weeks’ maternity leave?

As if the statement wasn’t insulting enough in itself, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises chief executive Mark Fielding throws in a not-so-strategic ‘buxom’.

Irish Times, 20.10.10

Women can be distrustful of their men at the best of times. (…) A study claims sex hormones in the contraceptive Pill bring out the green-eyed monster, making a woman more possessive and more likely to fret about her husband or boyfriend’s fidelity.

By ‘Daily Mail Reporter’ (now why would you want to retract your name from such a great article?), Irish Daily Mail, 20.10.10

Fergie lashes Wayne for disrespecting the club. Coleen goes shopping.

Important front page news from the Irish Daily Mail, 20.10.10

The upcycling trend is empowering women. It’s about making do with what you have. What can you do to keep your interior fresh without moving house? It’s fun.

Architect Lucina Lennon explains the previously unknown feminist benefits of interior design.

The Irish Times, 23.10.10

The popularity of models such as Jess Hart, Lara Stone and Georgia Jagger has increased demand for cosmetic orthodontic procedures. Some models are having brackets inserted between their front teeth to widen the gap and improve their career (…)

I wonder if a handy combo package of surgically created dimples and brackets between front teeth will be available for the fashion savvy any time soon?

Alice Fisher, the Observer 24.10.10

Mama Grizzlies lead the Republican hunt for America’s angry women voters

Headline in the Observer, 24.10.10

The week in quotes

‘Get your tits out’

A store managers suggestion to a female employee to boost sales. The employee was subsequently awarded € 7000 for sexually offensive remarks.

Grainne Cunningham, Independent, 13.10.10

‘As a good little lefty and sympathiser of feminism (…)’

Kevin Myers? Sympathiser of feminism? Really?

Kevin Myers in the Independent, 15.10.10.

‘Yes, you really can get lipo for knees. You might have to spend a week in surgical stockings – but it’s worth it’

Avril Mair, Irish Daily Mail, 14.10.10

‘They depend on their wives to be the breadwinner and in exchange they do all the housework. But are ‘kept’ men’ a model for equality…or just lousy?’

Julia Lawrence, Irish Daily Mail, 14.10.10

‘If it’s a girl, tell her: “Why don’t you go home and wash your hair, and maybe you’ll feel better”. ‘

Woman in Dublin telling her friend how she advised her son to approach children at school who kept pulling his hoodie.

‘The Apprentice catfight did businesswomen no favours’

Does using the word ‘catfight’ make it better?

Heather McGregor, The Observer, 17.10.10

Quote of the Week

‘Was it the right time [to become a father]? Paternity leave, taking a child on to licensed premises -such privileges were still being fought for then’

Blake Morrison in ‘When is the right time to have a baby?’, The Guardian Weekend 09.10.10.

Ah, the bliss of living in a country where the fight for paternity leave is a thing of the past.