(Belated) Friday Miscellany (9th July)
I admit that the last few weeks have not been as timely as a weekly Friday round-up ought to be, but I’m sticking with my story that it’s just way too hot in the UK to write regularly.
According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (yes, I know that I was looking for facts to back up a pre-determined theory), heat can affect the brain by:
- Loss of concentration
- Loss of efficiency in mental tasks
And of course, writing requires both of those.
Anyway, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts…
I was reading last Thursday’s Metro as I travelled on the London underground and was struck by two stories carried by the same edition. The first was aimed at women looking for help in choosing a swimsuit for their summer holidays by the beach. The article begins:
“Walking around half naked in front of a bunch of strangers is something every woman dreads. But as we jet off for sunnier climes, that’s exactly what we’ll all be doing.”
It just makes me wonder, if every woman dreads walking around in skimpy clothing, then why do it? The answer appears a little later in the article, albeit somewhat unwittingly:
“Each season we’re bombarded with campaign images of girls wearing next to nothing as they advertise the latest summer styles for fashion brands…[ ... ] ‘Many people are fooled by marketing,’
But what really struck me as baffling was that elsewhere in the paper, there was a story that read: “One in four men ogle beauties at the beach.” The article added:
“And 68 per cent of women in the poll of 1,500 people said they often worried about their partner looking at other women on vacation, compared with just 23 per cent of men.”
So women themselves don’t want to wear skimpy attire at the beach, and then the fact that other women are also dressed scantily (presumably they also feel uncomfortable?) makes them feel additionally anxious.
But marketing tells women they should do this, so that makes it ok.
In another news, Altmuslimah.com has started running the Dating Dialogues. Focusing on creating debate around building healthy marital relationships, the dialogues will be a forum which: “aims to explore topics such as gender relations, courtship, marriage, divorce, and sexuality in an honest, engaging, and constructive manner that will help both individuals and communities.”
You can imagine that with my first book being Love in a Headscarf, I’ll be watching with interest (and participating too).
