Sunday, March 26, 2006

Feminism at work and in the newspapers

Philobiblon: Time to boycott the anti-female Observer Natalie Bennett at Philobiblon earlier in the week drew attention to a daft article in Prospect about females in the workplace. She has summarised the article so one does not have to read it ;-), and succinctly dispatched its main arguments. I wish everyone in the world thought as clearly as Natalie on this topic. Since that posting, the Observer has picked up on the Prospect piece and published their own daft article on the topic, again as pointed out at Philobiblion. There is a lot of incoherent comment on the Observer's blog about the article, but Natalie has it right on the nail. My general opinon of Sunday papers (in the UK) is that they are a waste of time: they don't have any news to report that can't wait until Monday (or read online if you are a news junkie), and the Saturday papers contain supplements for everything one could possibly want to read about and plenty more that one would not. There are plenty of good blogs publishing roundups and highlights of weekend papers. I have, as noted, long since given up on the Sunday Times, so it is good to have it confirmed that not only am I not missing anything by not reading the Observer, but I am gaining something by my abstinence. Incidentally, in the link at the top of this posting, Philobiblon also links to a (Sunday) Times piece on online shopping. This is what I mean about not having to read the Sunday papers -- with people like Natalie Bennett and Sarah Weinman around, no need ;-) . The online shopping piece is quite readable, though did not tell a veteran like me anything I didn't know. Useful for people considering whether to dip an electronic toe into this cyberwater, though.