Strippers, Sexism and Safe Spaces on Campus

In the wake of NUI Maynooth’s recent stripper incident, Pádraig McCarrick talks about what it means for 3rd level institutions as safe spaces. 

There was an extra special case of irony around the most recent furor of sexist allegations against some at NUI Maynooth insofar as that the story broke just after International Women’s Day. This highlighted that for all the successes in increased gender equality that have been achieved, the culture of casual sexism exemplified by the lad culture seen on campuses across the country is attacking the concept that universities and other public places are to be seen as safe spaces for all.

 

This particular incident, which took place last Monday involved an event in which a current Students’ Union Exec Officer was having a mock stag night before a charity wedding later on in the week. In good stereotypical fashion exotic dancers/strippers (which apparently have no connection with the Ex. O in question despite his name being attributed to the event) were produced and the story ended up being picked up by the Sunday World. If you want more on

Re(al)-Productive Health: Learning from real experiences – demanding real action

– Aoife Campbell writes about a new campaign launched today which aims to improve accessibility to the Morning After Pill in Ireland.

The debate surrounding the legalisation of abortion in Ireland has dominated both national and international media discourse, exploding particularly in the last twelve months. Full reproductive emancipation of women and the right to safe, legal and accessible health care in Ireland challenges traditional and detrimentally Catholic social policy, denounces the entitlement or importance of religious views in the health care of others and holds firm that, despite centuries of social and political subordination; women are in fact the experts, rulers and legislators of their own bodies. Bearing this agenda in mind, there is no better hour than now to examine policies governing reproductive rights already legalised in Ireland; the reality of their accessibility and the experiences of women who choose to access them. One such being – emergency hormonal contraception, or ‘the morning after pill’. 

‘Women Working? We Can’t Have That!’

Sarah McCarthy writes about the scandal that has raged this week about banks possibly forcing parents to give up their jobs.

There has been a good deal of uproar this week about the soon to be published Personal Insolvency Service guidelines. The controversy has centred around the possibility that parents whose incomes is less than the cost of their family’s childcare will be forced to quit their jobs.

What Happened?

‘Are ya well?’

Fiona Dunkin makes her debut for the blog with a feature on the nasty prevalence of street harassment in Irish society. This piece originally appeared here in the College Tribune of UCD. You can learn more about combating street harassment here .

“There was a phase where we’d be walking into college and get terrible abuse from guys driving by in cars, in broad daylight, sometimes quite early in the morning. They’d beep the horn, just generally shout at us, one awful one was in the morning I think and the two of us were just walking along, they shouted out the window something along the lines of “We can smell ye from here”. There was another day where two guys tried to get the two of us to come over to them, they were like standing down the dodgy side of the canal and they just kept pestering us…”

“Walking through the snow last winter at about 4 pm in Balbriggan and out of no where a middle aged man (sober) by himself walked past me and grabbed my upper thigh, saying ‘hello’, I was totally shocked and could just about muster a ‘fuck you, pervert’ but he just stood there and stared at me so I ended up just rushing off.”

“I had a fifty something man walk up to me on O’Connell street, leer at me and shout out ‘Nice tits’…I can honestly say it was absolutely mortifying. I was by myself, which made the whole thing worse. Apart from being mortified, I felt quite disgusted. I just kept thinking that he shouldn’t have been able to do that. Why could he just walk up, have a stare and say that to me?”

Gilmore Declines to Dine with Bigots; Everyone Thinks He’s God’s Gift to Women

“It’s Okay Ladies; I Got This!”

– Sarah McCarthy writes about Eamon Gilmore’s recent refusal to attend an males-only dinner in the US.

On his St. Patrick’s Day trip to the US, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore decided to skip the traditional visit to the city of Savannah in Georgia. He did so to avoid the awkward moment of having to turn down an invitation to attend the Hibernian Society’s men-only annual dinner. Apparently, this “bold move” means we should now all pat him on the back for his feminist-ally credentials.

Irish Hospital Prepared to Forcibly Perform a C-Section on Non-Consenting Woman

– Sarah McCarthy writes about last week’s High Court case in which a hospital brought a pregnant woman to court to try and compel her to have a C-Section. This post originally appeared on Sarah’s personal blog here. 

How would you feel if I told you that a hospital in Ireland went to court last week, because they felt it necessary to tie a woman down, forcibly give her an anaesthetic, and slice open her abdomen, then her uterus? Horrified; disgusted; transported back to a time ofsymphysiotomies and the Magdalene Laundries? Well, they did.

The X Case: an Entire Generation of Failure

 

– Sarah McCarthy writes about that momentous moment in Ireland’s abortion history.

Twenty-one years ago, this cartoon appeared on the front page of the Irish Times. It encapsulated perfectly the grotesque actions of the State at that time, and the striking image haunted a divided nation.

It’s hard not to know the story of X by now. She was a fourteen year old rape victim, who had been assaulted by