Why ‘Chav’ is a Feminist Issue.
Posted: September 29, 2011 Filed under: how i was made, Rants | Tags: bad reputation, barbara ellen, catherine tate, chavs, class, comedy, david walliams, feminism, in the news, jack cullen, james delingpole, lauren cooper, little britain, london riots, lynsey hanley, matt lucas, middle class, owen jones, politics, Rhian E Jones, uk, vicky pollard Leave a comment »Chav, n. British slang (derogatory). “In the United Kingdom (originally the south of England): a young person of a type characterized by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of designer-style clothes (esp. sportswear); usually with connotations of a low social status.”
– Oxford English Dictionary
1. The C word
If ‘cunt’ is reportedly losing its power to shock or offend, don’t worry, other c-words are available. ‘Class’, for instance, appears to have become unsuitable for use in polite society these days, while ‘Chav’ has never been so commonplace in the respectable parlance of those who would never dream of using any other c-word so blithely. Owen Jones’ book Chavs, a welcome and necessary analysis of the latter phenomenon, identifies it as a culture ‘created and then mercilessly lampooned by the middle-class, rightwing media and its more combative columnists’, and examines the word’s place in current political and cultural discourse in the context of a simultaneous narrowing of socio-economic opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
The Raincoats, Odyshape
Posted: September 26, 2011 Filed under: Reviews (recorded) | Tags: albums, ana da silva, gina birch, patti smith, postpunk, Rhian E Jones, the raincoats, the slits, women in music, x-ray spex Leave a comment »Written for Wears the Trousers 26.08.11
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The wave of musical experimentation which took place in the wake of punk generated many new and startling sounds, some of which endured and grew in influence while others became lost to musical history. The Raincoats, a London-spawned, ever-shifting collective based around the partnership of Gina Birch and Ana Da Silva, are now firmly in the former category. Their self-titled debut was described by Vivien Goldman as “the first woman’s rock album” to emerge, its lack of musical or vocal hierarchies or focus-pulling solo virtuosity pioneering an arresting and persuasive kind of rock without the cock. In 1981, Odyshape continued to shift the rules of the game. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted: September 5, 2011 Filed under: how i was made, Rambling | Tags: amanda palmer, gigs, lupen crook, manic street preachers, martina topley-bird, music as politics, politics, self indulgence, singles, the kent delta, tricky 1 Comment »*
Yeah, I’m still here, although increasingly writing elsewhere. Notably I wrote for BadRep on Why ‘Chav’ is a Feminist Issue.
Have some more songs.
Lupen Crook, Junk n Jubilee
This from oh, such a while back now. Seems like a whole other London. A cut-off video, which is all I could find, but do hear the proper version, which still makes me tense with the urge to put my fist through the window of the Hawley Arms:
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Manic Street Preachers, A Design For Life
This from the band too weird to talk about when you talk about the 90s. Included half because I’ve just been back to the place I grew up (and for ‘grew up’, read ‘grew up a Manics fan’) and half because the song resonates with me right now, with reality topping dystopian visions at every turn almost faster than one can think them up:
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Oh, and I went to an Amanda Palmer gig last Friday. Not to damn with faint praise or anything, but I liked her more than I did when I wrote this.
