25 years ago, Alanis Morissette released a feminist classic album- Jagged Little Pill. But this was only the start of her powerful career.
Living and Learning- Alanis Morissette and carving out a space for women’s rage in the mainstream
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Rebel Grrls- The Story So Far
An update on the key themes coming out of the research into women and the punk movement.
Pop goes the muso! Defending pop idols and the teenager against the tyranny of the ‘cool’
Defending pop music and divas from the credibility police
My favourite she-punks!
There have been some completely original and inspiring female musicians in the punk movement who have achieved some pretty impressive feats in terms of their musical output and their championing of women in the arts. Whilst we’re all pretty familiar with the likes of...
International Women’s Day reading list- my top 5 feminist books
The feminism shelf of my bookcase runneth over with some great works about women in political and social history- from the witch trials under James I to a look at the impact of girl bands on modern music- there are some wonderful, insightful and interesting books...
Writing a book is hard- a new update on an old project
Or I wish I didn’t have to work full time and could just do this instead- A Memoir Have you ever told people that you were going to do something- take up an evening class, start a band, paint some kind of opus, travel India and build an orphanage- and you had every...
Happy International Women’s Day!
It’s International Women’s Day 2019 and at the risk of being a bit of a bandwagon-jumper, I thought this was a good reason to write about all the ladeez who really float my boat. Nothing more complicated or significant than that- just a list of women in music, TV,...
Raging against the patriarchal machine: angry songs for angry people
When I heard that there was going to be a book released exclusively about women’s anger (Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly) at first, I was worried this would basically be my autobiography albeit with a slightly snappier title (my autobiography’s working title is...
The blame game: why do women always have to take responsibility for men’s feelings?
The music world was rocked recently by another tragic story of a life extinguished too soon. Tributes have been pouring in after the death of hip hop star Mac Miller with everyone from Childish Gambino to Travis Barker expressing their condolences and sharing their...
Girls rule the world: Viva La Diva!
I fully intended to write at least one blog about punk music in the foreseeable but other disparate thoughts about random niches of music keep seeping into my brain and compelling me to get my thoughts written down. This week, the sight of Beyoncé in an Egyptian...