The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20130623072801/http://www.newstatesman.com/glosswitch

Glosswitch

A feminist take on parenting and politics

Syndicate contentRSS

New Statesman
By Glosswitch - 25 May 11:42

Glosswitch has always had a love for all things German, so she's happy to learn that everyone else agrees.

No woman's life is really like this. Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 24 May 8:00

What is this unspoken authority and how is it exercised?

Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 13 May 11:16

After my hospitalisation for eating disorders, my brother's schizophrenia diagnosis came as a relief, of sorts. Whether family history or chemical imbalance, we desperately seek a reason for the unreasonable.

1958: "Mr and Mrs C Baker and family of Cambridge take part in a march from Traf
By Glosswitch - 08 May 11:43

If feminism winds up assuming “someone else” will raise the kids while “we” get on with the real work, it's just become what it was fighting.

Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind". Unfortunately, not all schizophrenics are g
By Glosswitch - 29 April 11:20

We’re brilliant at defending the mentally ill in principle, but we can be terrible at hiding our revulsion at some of the sick people we’ve encountered in the flesh.

The Duchess of Cambridge "flaunting" her bump
By Glosswitch - 25 April 13:03

You don't just go about your life when you're pregnant. You "debut" your bump, and then "flaunt" it.

A baby holds its mother's hand. Photo: Getty
By Glosswitch - 24 April 14:01

Tanya Gold writes that "motherhood and autonomy can never coexist" - but how does that affect the debate over abortion?

A group of toddlers being pushed around. Photo: Getty
By Glosswitch - 22 April 16:28

Isn’t it only a few weeks since the PM’s advisor on childhood Claire Perry was claiming that children’s lives were over-regimented and that the little blighters needed to be bored?

A child plays tennis at school. Photo: Getty
By Glosswitch - 20 April 9:18

Teachers must wish Michael Gove worked shorter days and took longer holidays - then his department might stop coming up with so many ill-considered changes to the education system.

London Fashion Week runway.
By Glosswitch - 14 April 12:09

Who could possibly see beauty, creativity and inspiration when the human beings selling it are in such pain?

Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 10 April 12:20

Glosswitch reads parenting manuals so you don't have to.

Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 30 March 12:39

Anger, shame, responsibility, guilt - these are all feelings we need to have a way of expressing when a pregnancy ends in an early tragedy.

Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 19 March 11:27

Childcare is a fact of life - making it more “affordable” for some women not to earn money is not the same as granting non-earners choice, status and respect.

Cupcakes, from Flickr/tenderisthebridge, used under Creative Commons.
By Glosswitch - 09 March 11:15

In which Glosswitch reads parenting books so you don't have to.

You can't use lessons from your own life to judge other parents.
By Glosswitch - 04 March 13:11

The Conservative MP’s concerns only represent one experience of parenting – her own.

Seth MacFarlane hosting the 2013 Oscars ceremony
By Glosswitch - 26 February 10:41

"We Saw Your Boobs" teaches us a lesson about postmodern irony and the appreciation of tits, says Glosswitch.

Mummy blogging reframes the mundane. Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 22 February 11:32

Writing about raising children and domestic life is no more trivial than any other blogging subject, argues Glosswitch.

A woman breastfeeds her newborn baby.
By Glosswitch - 11 February 10:07

Blind adherence to the principle of “breast is best” seems to have become more important than treating babies, toddlers and parents as whole human beings.

Shopping, mummy-style. Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 09 February 10:33

In the first of a new regular series looking at parenting books, Glosswitch takes on Jessica Valenti's "Why have kids?" and other miserable-mummy manuals.

Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 04 February 17:02

If this is going to be a match of anecdotes, don't devalue mine, argues Glosswitch.

David Cameron visiting a London Early Years Foundation nursery
By Glosswitch - 30 January 12:02

Childcare qualifications are great, but they don’t help you look after more children at once, as the government seems to be hoping.

Is there really such a thing as a perfect way to raise your children?
By Glosswitch - 25 January 13:48

Traditional gender stereotypes belie the fact that almost everything about parenting is a compromise.

Eton boys watch the tradtional wall game. Photograph: Getty Images.
By Glosswitch - 20 January 10:22

It’s easy to claim richer students are more confident because of their superior education, but it may be more accurate to say they’re more confident because they’re rich.

A young boy swings on a climbing frame in Brockwell Park, London.
By Glosswitch - 15 January 10:58

The mean and narrow-minded advice in Steve Biddulph’s “Raising Girls”.

"So then I changed my relationship status to 'it's complicated'". Photograph: Ge
By Glosswitch - 10 January 12:57

Rules girls are Stepford wives with “difference™” stamped on back of their swan-like necks. This book makes me glad we live in an age of rampant oversharing and overexposure.

A fedora, universal symbol of Nice Guys everywhere. Photograph: Getty Images
By Glosswitch - 07 January 13:01

How to deal with being single, without being a creep.

Telling women how to feel about their bodies is nobody's business
By Glosswitch - 02 January 10:18

"Celebrating" female self-esteem assumes it's been destroyed in the first place - why not protect it instead?

Tess Billington demonstrating at the House of Commons in 1906.
By Glosswitch - 20 December 9:56

We have to change the mindset that says women's choices must be “won” or “awarded”.

A gallant deckchair attendant rescues a woman from the advancing tide
By Glosswitch - 14 December 13:56

If that’s respect, I’m Chrétien de Troyes.

The most scrutinised pregnant woman in the world? Probably.
By Glosswitch - 04 December 10:52

Kate has been forced to announce she's expecting early. Even though Glosswitch miscarried after doing the same, she says she doesn't regret it.

Latest tweets

DCSIMG
Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.