Activism, Glitter and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

March is fast upon us (how? Just how?) which means only one thing. It is nearly one of my favourite days of the year. Whilst it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I think we should shout from the rooftops the successes of the women in our lives every single day, Thursday 8th March is officially International Women’s Day.

Last year the theme for this most magnificent day was #BeBoldForChange (read more here). In the context of Trumps inauguration and the first Women’s March it is insane how poignant this phrase has become.

With #MeToo and #TimesUp, it is a pretty wicked time to be a woman. Chicks coming together to support each other, men standing alongside the women in their lives to say time is up on the toxic masculinity that has gone ignored for so long.

Yet I know, like last year, I will have more than a handful of conversations with men asking why we still need International Women’s Day and when is International Men’s Day?

To answer your second question- officially it is November 19th but it is mediocre white, middle class men’s day every day of the year. And I get it, it is uncomfortable to come face to face with the ways that women are still being harassed and silenced. I am not so hot on it myself.

But the reason we still need International Women’s Day is that when you joke with your friends that a girl is a slut for wearing a short skirt (because apparently that is still a thing) it makes it dangerous for us to walk home alone at night. It allows judges to tell girls who have been raped that maybe if they had fought back harder they wouldn’t have been attacked. It enforces the belief that victims are to blame. We are used to the headlines that 100 more school girls have been taken by Boko Haram, millions of girls still do not have access to education and reproductive rights for women around the world are continuing to be violated.

The World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report told us that gender parity is still over 200 years away. There has never been a better time to keep up momentum- to come together with all of your friends, have some cocktails or a coffee and recognize the ambition and ability of the women around you. To unite under the theme #PressforProgress.

If, like me, you intend to be as loud about International Women’s Day as you can possibly be then why not do it with other people? If you want to find a space to do this go to https://www.internationalwomensday.com/events

As I will be spending the run up in Manchester here are some of the places you should join me-

Walk for Women: Saturday 3rd March 1:30 St Peters Square 

Ending with speeches from some of Manchester’s most brill women ( Claire Mooney, Shirley May, Sarah Judge, Aisha Mirza and Jackie Hagan to name a few) providing the beast from the east has spared us and we really aren’t facing Snowmagedon, the walk for women will be a great opportunity to get together with friends and meet new people. For more information…

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/events/event/4675/international_womens_day_walk_for_women

Pen:Chant & Gorilla present ‘SHE PWR’: Thursday 8th March 6pm- 1am Gorila

This is essentially a massive party bursting at the seams with art, craft, performance, talks, DJs, music and glitter (GLITTER)! Between 6 and 8 entry is free and there will be  Q&A sessions with prominent female creatives and entrepreneurs, a maker’s market selling locally made crafts, an art exhibition, live music, DJs, cocktails, canapés and a glitter station! 8 until late you’ll need a ticket and the main club space will host a special show from Pen:Chant guest hosted by alt-cabaret live wires Eggs Collective. Think drinks and glitter, spoken word and live music.

Dancing in my Nuddy Pants: Thursday 8th March 11pm- 3am The Deaf Institute

With a strap line like ” Apply your longest boy entrancers, assemble your Ace Gang, and strap up your basoomas; we’re bringing a celebration of Georgia Nicolson” how was I supposed to miss this event? Celebrating 10 years since Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging changed your life this will be the only way to spend next Thursday night. There will be 00’s pop and indie hits, hopefully all the Sex Gods of Manchester and your gal pals. Organizers will also be collecting sanitary products for The Monthly Gift – a charity which provides tampons and sanitary towels for homeless women across Manchester. This is the spirit of International Women’s Day wrapped up in one! You will need tickets (search on Facebook).

There are so many more spaces around the city exhibiting art and photography, Q&A’s and meet-ups. Get on twitter, source your glitter and get excited!

 

The closest to New Year New Me as I think it’s going to get…

I don’t want to start this post by sounding like the elderly woman that I truly am but where did Christmas go? It always seems to come round so quickly but this year it’s come and gone so fleetingly that I’m not entirely sure whether I should still be in the pub day drinking or preparing for the New Year. Because obviously new year new me…

In all seriousness I hope you had the best Christmas celebrating with your nearest and dearest and are now cuddled up on the sofa in your PJ’s nursing the food baby that won’t budge until January 5^th. That is doing Christmas properly, after all.

I have written in the past about my niggles with New Year’s resolutions. If you want to do something go out and do it now. You don’t have to wait for the coldest, darkest month of the year, when you are surrounded by the most delicious food on God’s green earth to decide that you are going to drop four dress sizes and become a vegan. I promise you, nothing is more unappealing than leaving your cosy home to go to an overcrowded gym at 8pm on a Thursday night when it is practically Baltic weather conditions outside. January is the Monday morning of the months and I salute anyone who can do dry January when you spend the 1^st nursing the biggest hangover of the year.

This year feels a little bit different though. Whereas September used to be my motivational month- the month I would look forward to a fresh start, I am no longer in education so if anything September marks the end of summer and no one wants that. So this year, sat on the sofa nursing my poor body after a month of living off Christmas tree chocolates, sharer bags of Walkers Sensations and gin and tonics I have decided to make some New Year’s resolutions.

Look it really is New Year New Me…

• So, the first is completely practical- I need to learn how to drive. As someone who finds it very difficult to sit still, hates public transport and is over the age of 17 I should probably know how to drive already yet here I am still being ferried around by my increasingly irritated parents. So this year I am going to bite the bullet, book some lessons and with a bit of luck, pass my test. What is the worst that can happen?

 

• I want to read 50 books. This is fairly self-explanatory. I have a book shelf full of books that I have partially read and for Christmas I received 10 books- 4 of which were on Brexit (what a barrel of laughs I must be). I hate that I am forever buying books or adding to the ever increasing list of must reads on my phone but I never get round to actually sitting down and reading. If I have enough time in the week to get through three series of Made in Chelsea I should probably do something that adds to my intellect rather than taking away from it.

 

• Get published by somewhere that I love. Vague? I know but I don’t want to write down specific publications because then it becomes real and heaven forbid anyone hold me accountable… Since finishing my degree I have spent so much time writing cover letters and applications and dropped off with pitching and producing articles- actual journalism, you know, the thing I want to do. Pitching is one of those things that, in reality isn’t that hard until you stop doing it. Then you have the existential crisis that you have no good ideas, all editors are soul destroying (they’re not) and you have no idea what is going on in the world. So this year I am going to pitch and pitch and pitch until somewhere I love takes something of mine- or I’ll die trying.

 

• I don’t need to tell anyone that the last year in politics has been a little bit of a shit show. I have given up on saying Trump can’t get any worse because he always comes through and manages to surprise me. The British political establishment isn’t much better. However, through all of the disappointment something good has come from this year. I have had more conversations with friends about the issues that really matter to them than ever before. Me Too opened a space to start seriously talking about sexism, harassment and assault in an environment where, on the whole you wouldn’t be silenced. Years of austerity in this country has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and there is so much more we can do. And Brexit is, well it’s Brexit. This next year instead of just talking to people about the things that I care about or taking to social media like some sort of tyrant keyboard warrior I want to get involved with activism. Go to a meeting, march, be fully involved. The news makes the world seem like a pretty bleak place but we are living in a really exciting time too.

 

• I would love to visit two new countries or cities this coming year. I got the opportunity to go to Prague last year and whilst I made friends for life and worked under some amazing journalists, it wasn’t exactly a holiday. I have the itch again, even if it is a couple of long weekends. I want to go and wander around a new place, people watch from a coffee shop and eat ridiculous amounts of food- all the appropriate holiday activities.

 

• And last but certainly not least I will see my friends more. I have loved moving home and getting to spend time with people I haven’t seen properly for the last four years. They have got me through the first few months of adult life. Saying that I so miss my friends from university. Spread out across the country, it feels completely unnatural that I wouldn’t see or speak to them every day. So this year I am going to make a proper effort to see them all as much as I possibly can.

So there it is. What an infinitely better human I will be by the end of next year… And obviously I will hit the gym harder, find a way to impeach Donald Trump, reverse Brexit and stop eating so much garlic bread. Even if I get to March and decide that my brain cannot retain anymore books and I have had too many near misses that I will be Ubers sole customer in my town I checked up on last year’s list and my first resolution was learn to snowboard. So if anything 2017 has made me a realist and once I have slept off the inevitable New Years Eve hangover (I can already tell it will be a two dayer) maybe something could get done in 2018.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

One of the reasons I love this time of year the most is because I will binge watch the entirety of Harry Potter from start to finish, at least three times. I know they’re not strictly Christmas appropriate but nothing gets me in a festive mood quite like Christmas day in the Philosophers Stone or the Yule Ball in the Goblet of Fire.

Like so many people my age Harry, Ron and Hermione shaped my childhood (my entire life). Coming of age at the perfect time, I don’t remember a time before Harry Potter. I became completely obsessed with the boy who lived, arguing with my school friends daily about whether we would be Ravenclaws or Gryffendors and fantasizing about my die hard crush, Dean Thomas. As a Ravenclaw our love would have transcended houses…

Come on now, you see it!

As a child who really struggled to sit still unless my tea was in front of me, reading was a bit of a mission. My parents had always read to me before bed but as I grew up and that stopped so did reading. Harry Potter showed me that reading could be incredibly enjoyable. It led me to try books by other authors, which has paid off many times since. It changed my life because it allowed me to love reading again.

The books also taught me some integral lessons growing up and in the spirit of Christmas I have picked my favourite from each book…

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

“Don’t let the Muggles get you down.”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Numbing the pain for a while will only make it worse when you finally feel it.”

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scars than almost anything else.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

“‘The thing about growing up with Fred and George,’ said Ginny thoughtfully, ‘Is that you sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.’”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”