Book Review: Living Dolls: The Return Of Sexism, Natasha Walter (Virago 2010)

When the facts changed, Natasha Walter changed her mind. Or so she says in Living Dolls: The Return Of Sexism, a book that describes how raunch culture has co-opted the language of choice and liberation and how the post-feminist cultural politics of celebrating doll-like [...]

The most important aspect of the most recent Irish Times poll was not the 32% for Labour, but the combined 45% for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
Individual polls tell you very little, it’s the overall trend that counts.
Since February 2009 Labour has scored from 20% to 25% in the MRBI polls. Their recent dramatic 10-point [...]

This article is an edited version of a presentation I gave at the “Equality in a time of crisis” conference organised by the Egalitarian World Initiative and the UCD School of Social Justice (May 6 - 7).
View as a PDF (select Save As to download)
Introduction: youthful mistakes
I was asked to talk for this paper about [...]

This article is a slightly edited version of a presentation I gave at the Equality in a Time of Crisis conference, organized by the UCD Egalitarian World Initiative (EWI) and the UCD School of Social Justice in UCD last week.
The issues raised by an agenda of workplace equality have urgent implications for trade unionists.
By [...]

I don’t know the motivation behind Minister Mary White’s first substantial decision since she was elevated: to commission assessments of three state bodies with responsibility for equality: the Equality Authority, the Equality Tribunal and the Human Rights Commission, which was reported in the Irish Times at the weekend.
Her motivation might be bad, in that it [...]

The recent tragic killing of Toyosi Shittabey behooves us all to critically reflect upon, and engage in national dialogue about, the true scale and nature of racism in Irish society today. The pervasiveness of racism in Irish society is a reality that a number of young people in the Tyrellstown area—where Toyosi was killed—have eloquently [...]

Every year one of Ireland’s leading anti poverty groups, Social Justice Ireland (formerly known as CORI Justice) produces a social and economic review.
This detailed report provides both a critique of government policy in the previous year and a set of alternatives aimed at producing a more equal society.
This years report is entitled, An Agenda for [...]

“You need to find a way to sell your ideas to people. Make them want to buy into them.”
That was the advice given to me in a little Belfast coffee-shop months ago by a lady whose area of expertise is working with troubled youth. Promoting social justice issues for her is akin to selling brand [...]

Socialist Register 2010 - Morbid Symptoms: Health Under Capitalism (Merlin Press) Ed: Leo Panitch & Colin Leys.
There’s been some excellent work published on the many faults of the Irish health service by campaigning journalists like Sara Burke and Maev-Ann Wren. For those who want to put the debates about Irish healthcare in an international context, [...]

The Equality and Right Alliance conference, A Fairer Ireland: Equality and Rights at the Heart of Recovery is on today in Dublin. According to the Conference program, this morning’s speakers included Dr Kathy Walsh and Brian Harvey who are presenting their research into the real impact of government cuts in the funding of both the [...]