Author: Holly Ashe (Page 1 of 2)

Who’s next? #MeToo concerns women who care about the men in their lives

We, and many other women, are concerned about their neurodiverse loved ones being falsely accused.

With the recent magnitude of sexual harassment claims being thrown about from every corner of the media, and ruined careers piling up like carcasses, often from unproven accusations, every man must now be questioning their own past behavior, fearing it will be misconstrued into some harrowing sexual predation that would affect every aspect of their life without evidence, a trial, or a jury.

The suicide of Welsh MP Karl Sargeant four days after such nebulous accusations unnamed women has been shamefully swept under the carpet as the #MeToo frenzy continues. Calls for an internal enquiry into the clearly deficient process he went through, where he was suspended from his job without knowing the details of the complaint, have been dropped. We can only hope Mr Sargeant and his family get the answers and the justice they deserve via the official coroner’s inquest. The tragedy of Karl Sargeant is the most extreme example of the incredible injustice many men –not forgetting their families- are going though as a result of this appalling witch hunt and trial by media.

All of us know people in our life—family members and friends—who are otherwise smart, witty, empathetic, but socially awkward, either for cultural or neurological reasons like autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or just as part of their personality. They struggle to read body language, situations or atmospheres, let alone female mind games. Men, who walk a tightrope of social acceptance already, now stepping into a world where feminists want men deemed as second-class citizens, to be distrusted and their social interactions scrutinized at every second.

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Keep Transgender mania out of schools and changing rooms

In this day and age where having an opposing opinion to liberals makes you an instant fascist, Nazi or Trump supporter, the art of debate is losing its lifeline and it feels society will shortly be pulling the plug. If only ever hearing one opinion is allowed, what happens if it’s the wrong opinion? This has become more apparent with the fiasco and utter ridiculousness with the transgender and gender fluid argument.

It started with which bathroom transgender people can use. Is it socially acceptable for a man who identifies as a woman, but still has a penis, to use the female toilets? Or if you look at it the other way, is it fair for a man who feels as though they were born a woman, to have to use the same toilets as men. (Or they could use the unisex disabled toilet; not implying in any way that they are disabled, but it’s a pretty easy solution, no?) If you had any form of evidence-based opinion that did not comport with what trans and 4th wave feminists were preaching, you would instantly be called “transphobic”.

I did not think I’d be looking back at those times of toilet squabble with fondness, as that such time was so much simpler and less frighteningly going a direction that I don’t we can go back from now.

Within a couple of days, two stories came to my attention via Twitter concerning this such direction I speak of. One, was when Topshop announced it was getting rid of women’s changing rooms, and making them all gender neutral, after one person, Travis Alabanza, felt they were the victim of “transphobia” after being refused entry to the women’s changing room. I have absolutely no problem with a person born as a male, still with a male body, wearing women’s clothing and self-identifying as a female. I do have a problem with letting men into female changing rooms where young teenagers get changed. The alarming hilarity and hypocrisy in this is most people championing this decision are also the ones crying out for “safe spaces”. How about a safe space for a bunch of 13-year-old girls to change and show each other their new outfits without the prying eyes of men who will obviously take advantage of this new goldmine peeping tom hangout? To make such a brash and harmful decision that affects the whole country is outrageous and an extremely troubling sign of where things are leading to. It will take one attack. 

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Time’s Up for Feminist fads, it’s time for #NotMe

 

I gave myself a well-earned few days off, turned 30, and then decided to see how the world has changed on Twitter. To my dismay, within 5 minutes of Golden Globes, I realised, that the intersectional feminist movement had made me want to be more of a misogynist every second I scrolled.

 

The Golden Globes predictably fuelled a pretty pathetic fire and like moths to a flame, any narrow-minded female ‘feminist’ followed idiotically, without research, free thought, or caution. You play with fire, you get burnt. I shudder to think the endgame when this fad will soon tire out, innocent men will get accused, lives will be ruined and the reputation of strong women will once again be tarnished by misandrists and one track liberal lefties.

 

As “times up” sprawled on the red carpet, and celebrities draped in black to show their solidarity against sexual harassment (the dresses were the best thing about the whole night if I’m absolutely honest, the fashion designer in me leap out in joy seeing my favourite colour finally be worn, and my eyes were able to rest from horrendous pink fluff and green disasters they usually waltz around in) what’s not to love? Well, quite a lot actually. Let me elaborate.

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Review: The Battle of Ideas 2017, London

Briskly walking through the huge entrance of the Barbican centre, the echo of my boots fills the gigantic hallways. A huge banner welcomed it guests to the conference; “Battle of Ideas” in huge bold letters, friendly staff standing under a banner which states where certain “battle grounds” are around the centre. Anyway, I finally found “The Pit”; where the first of three debates I would go to see had started, and I found myself in the debate, which essentially reflects my life lately, named “Women vs Feminism”.

I got to my seat to see the highlight of 5 willing women duking on the panel consisting of Hungarian political scientist Eszter Kovats; head of personal investing at Legal and General and founder of the 30 percent club Helen Morrissy; education editor of Spiked Online and author of “Women vs Feminism: Why We All Need Liberating From the Gender War”, Joanna Williams; author of the book “XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal WorldAlison Wolf and was chaired by the co-founder of the Institute of Ideas Sally Millard. I looked around and absorbed comments from each side of the fence; a middle-aged male’s opinion on females within the engineering career sector, and why they’re declining, a young man’s view on what constitutes as a real feminist problem, with issues like ‘manspreading’ being deemed as a real problem, when in different countries, females are being subjected to child marriage and female genital mutilation and can there really be compared? (this comment I clapped a little harder, the sting signifying my solidarity with such an obvious, but overlooked comment); and a middle-aged woman who works for an abortion charity’s thoughts on how the new intersectional feminists are singling out men as the enemy when that clearly isn’t the case and what is this doing to our younger generation of males.

Sitting among such proficient people who share that same opinion comforted me, and reinforced my beliefs that the new wave feminism is ruining our chance for true equality, until of course, when a cocky oldie stood up with a typical “this is not a question, more of a comment”. There’s always one wan**r who makes you question the concept of egalitarianism. 

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Me Too? No thanks.

Logging onto any social media site lately has been emetic for any woman, with the unfortunate overdose of #MeToo on our news feed. Sexuality is supposed to be private, and if it is selfish to say, so be it, your trauma is private as well. As a self made woman, who has never felt the need to cry about being sexually assaulted or even experienced any actual assault from the men in my life, it is encouraging watching people that I know, mustering the courage of sharing their trauma, although the cynic might question how many of these incidents are actually true. Women, just like men, lie, a lot, and sometimes the easiest way to score up in a victimhood Olympics, is to claim to be a victim.

 

Don’t believe me? Here. And here. And here. And here. And bloody HERE.

 

But the question that bothered me was something different. As I dug deeper into some of these stories (and I would like to emphasise the word ‘some’) I felt a little uncomfortable with the scenarios and experiences these women were calling “assault”. Take the Sam Kriss story, the left-wing journalist and male feminist, who was accused by a fellow journalist he was dating of sexual assault and instantly his career was over. It is a special time for right wingers. Harvey Weinstein was a Hillary Clinton guy and major donor to the Democrats. In UK, Clive Lewis, Labour MP mockingly called a man a bitch, or as some transgender activists would say, a dog born with female sexual organs. Lately, another Labour MP, Jared O’Mara was done with, for some idiotic forum comments from a decade back.

It’s understandable why people get more angry at others, who claim sainthood and then fail to live through those ideals. Proud sinners, are well, proud sinners. But these careerist lads, of course grovelingly apologised, and were instantly hanged, drawn and quartered by a online lynch mob.

 

But then I read the details of the Sam Kriss story, in Cathy Young’s article. So, kissing on the way to a bus, after a night of binge drinking, is sexual assault? Who knew!

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Real Women’s March is happening in Turkey

When my friend forwarded me this short article by the BBC, it was touching and pride filled moment; an incredible feminist alliance, standing up in the face of an actual oppression from men, unlike past protests and campaigns that are against futile and unwarranted apparent problems, western women ‘face’ which I wrote about here. Hundreds of brave Turkish women protested on the streets of Istanbul, against the antagonism and violence they face with the dress code that is enforced on them, chanting “We will not obey, be silenced, be afraid. We will win through resistance” after a rise of incidents involving men’s violent conduct towards women wearing more revealing clothing then what is expected of them.

 

I was sure that other feminists, including the intersectional feminists we all know I am so fond of, would be standing with their sisters, using their voice to back them up and unite for women’s right for fairness. Sadly, for the last 3 days I have been checking feminist sites such as The F Word, Feministing, and my all-time favourite, Everyday Feminism, but none had anything written about it. Instead their front pages are congested with articles such as 3 ways men wanting to ‘focus on her pleasure’ during sex can still be sexist, or how to be a feminist porn director. Important subjects no? Real paramount and pressing issues that women around the world are faced with every day.

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Is Yoga really harmful? Depends on what you think “Yoga” is.

Recently, the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies published an article on the negative effects of Yoga in 350 participants New York, which states that it has caused severe pain in a third of those surveyed. So after 5000 years of standard practice of Yoga across the World, why is it only now people are seemingly becoming susceptible to injury and pain?

If we go back to the birthplace of yoga, and look at some of the most influential yogis and yoginis in India, you will find many have something in common. Take for instance Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, ‘The Father of modern yoga’ who is credited into reviving hatha yoga and being the architect behind the ever popular vinyasa. Krishnamacharya was mainly known as a healer, and used yoga to restore health. Similarly, B K S Iyengar, one of Krishnamacharya’s earliest students, throughout his childhood disease riddled his frail body and turned to yoga to restore his health. Despite 2 heart attacks through his life, he still died at the ripe age of 95, and still able to do a hand stand. Iyengar was a pioneer in bringing yoga abroad and founding the yoga practice known as Iyengar Yoga.

 

See a pattern? Here’s something interesting. I myself took up yoga, as a sufferer of joint disorders and chronic pain conditions, yoga was something that helped me recognise my body alignment, that paired with weight lifting and one on one coaching has helped me incredibly, knowing my misaligned my joints are and rectifying the problem instantly as I now read my body right. If I do it wrong, I’ll most likely dislocate a joint.

 

Yoga is theoretically, supposed to heal, restore and maintain a healthy life balance, aligning and strengthening by developing your relationship between mind, body and spirit. Some of the best yoga I have experienced has been more about the connection then the physical exercise and poses. Prana Kriya was something that connected me so much and so overwhelmingly that I cried after the session was over and it was more to do with breath control than long withstanding poses. Yoga is an art that takes time precision and immense concentration and listening to fully get to achieve the full benefits of.

 

Unfortunately, that’s where it went wrong in the West.

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“I’m not a feminist” : What Kara McCullough taught me to say proudly.

For a working-class girl, who’s studying and working at the same time, let me be honest about something that I always wanted to declare: “I am not a feminist.” That F word has been captured by the intersectional postmodern left, given a complete makeover, and is now heading the realm of an authoritarian and fascistic campaign while proclaiming to be an emancipatory reform movement. This once truly and proudly progressive word helped women win some of the biggest battles, including fairness and free speech, among many others. Now the neo-feminist establishment is tarnishing the work of our foresisters, destroying the foundations of what was being built to create a world that man and woman can live side by side in total fairness, while dividing the movement further in race and completely manufactured gendered terms.

The latest victim to be attacked by this aggressive and mephitic army, just because they simple don’t agree with the extremism and bigotry these people are preaching? Our very intelligent, sexy heroine Miss USA Kara McCullough.

For the uninitiated, McCullough works as an emergency preparedness specialist in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response after earning her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry; at the age of 25 years old she just won Miss USA, and has been inducted in the National Society of Black Engineers and the Golden Key International Honor Society. Not only is she incredibly intelligent, she is also fiercely independent. Standing in front of the world, in one of the biggest competitions of her life, being judged on the kind of person you are, she decided to not sugar coat her opinions on equality and feminism, saying the brave words I started this article with: “I am not a feminist.”

The internet obviously lit up instantly, with sisterhood trolls gathering together to coerce and attack the tenacious scientist. Blasphemy, heresy, stupidity… I read it all on our illustrious Twitter hashtags (we all know how much I adore hashtags) none truly informing us curious audience, as to why not being a “man-hating” feminist is a bad thing.

This isn’t unique. Recently in the West, the postmodern liberal left seems to have some curious ideas as to what constitutes as real problems for women in the real world.

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UKGE2017: Corbyn provides hope for the future

“For the many, not the few”.  A motto that almost half the country clang onto, some of which are people living in destitute, encased in the vicious circle of poverty which the Conservative party has contrived. The hope that Jeremy Corbyn had beamed from his manifesto benefited British people who were most in need, and a way out to break the cycle and an opportunity to get themselves back on their feet.

Under the 90’s Tory government, with John Major at the helm, I was a kid living on the tenth floor flat in one of East London’s many council estates, which were constantly featured on the 6 O’clock news for whatever crime had been committed. I was raised by a lone parent, my miracle mother, whom not only managed to survive on such a small amount of money, (we had £15 a week for food) but had to endure the constant abuse and degradation from MPs and the tabloids for being a single parent (obviously a choice she freely made…. Oh wait…) and we were all engulfed in the same vicious circle that the Tories had created; punished for not working, but no help or opportunity available to get out there at work. Childcare was a fortune, adult education was limited and the lack of working rights made working mothers life impossible to balance.

Then in 1997 Labour was voted in, and despite the questionable decisions Tony Blair made in regards to the wars we were plunged into, that government did a lot for my family and my childhood. My mother wasn’t siting in our 2 bedroom flat in Leyton enjoying being on benefits, scrimping and saving and struggling everyday while enduring hatred. When the opportunity arose thanks to changes Labour made, she went out and studied law. Then when Cameron was voted in, it again affected my adult life. Shockingly diagnosed with multiply lifelong conditions, which cause pain, fatigue and mobility issues at a mere 24 years old, I was unable to work, and was left to fend for myself. The austerity cuts killed people with disability, the stress made me want to kill myself. The stress that the cuts caused was unbearable, more unbearable then the constant pain I was in. I didn’t ask for this. As a person who had worked since she was 16 years old and studied, I did not see my life trapped in another Tory snag,

Like my mother I got myself out of that circle, but with no help from the people who serve us.

Today, after years of unnecessary austerity, the top earners paying less tax than me, disastrous campaigns from May and Corbyn taking the polls by storm, we still have the conservatives leading by vote. Me and every other labour voter are asking ourselves, why? 

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Body Positivity is killing women: A Followup

1My previous post on how Body Positivity is killing women, went viral, thanks to Areo Magazine kindly republishing it.

It also raised some follow up question, and snarky comments, which needs to be followed through.

In the wake of the University of Birmingham’s extensive study, which states that people with a high BMI are at greater risk of developing either coronary heart disease, a stroke, heart failure or peripheral vascular disease (PVD) compared to healthy, normal BMI numbered people, now it’s time to finally admit the obvious, that being obese WILL cause health problems, and it is time to stop sugar coating the truth and start yelling from the roof tops the reality if one actually wants to start saving lives.

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