On My Tits + Off My Chest - One option is not a choice and Peggy Olsening women.

This post is a bit of a mish mash of some stuff about equality, sexism, feminism that's been percolating in my head for awhile. I've been following the No More Page 3 campaign, the Everyday Sexism project and read the occasional Vagenda post (see this by Germaine Greer on their book/The New Feminism) and I think a debate about feminism, sexism and misogyny is bubbling along on social media. 

I'm often confused as to where I stand or what I think - it's hard to have a proper discussion in 140chr sentences. But I guess a lot of it boils down to a conversation between husbando and I last week....

Here is the cover artwork for Ellie Goulding's single Burn  - it came out in August 2013

Here is artwork for the single of Starry Eyed from 2010

Her look seems to have changed a little over the 3 years between the images. Looking at them, I made some comment to Husbando about how I felt she'd "sold out" a bit. Husbando accused me of not being a feminist and that she had the right to wear whatever she wanted, it was her CHOICE. Well hell to the yes, she does have that right and that choice. But what I think is,  it's not much of a choice when there's only really one option. 

Dear SG45...I Don't Get Twitter

Dear SG45,

I keep hearing how great Twitter is, but I just don't `get` it. It just seems to be trolls, or people talking about their lunch or celebrities. What is the point?

Thanks,

A Playground Dad 

That's a good question - and one I get asked a lot - what *is* the point of twitter? I don't mean for businesses or brands, but for regular people. Why do we bother, why do I love twitter so much? It's something I don't think the big bods over at Twitter articulate particularly well. Or even show us that well. (this article agrees with me). It's a bit of a catch-22, the more you use Twitter, the more I think you `get` it. It's definitely not like Facebook, or even - as much touted - like a mini blogging site. I think it's much more communal and sociable than that.

I guess Twitter is like going to a massive party with lots of different groups of people listening to lots of different music and doing lots of different things - some good and some bad. Just like at a party, the noise and chatter can be deafening and overwhelming, but once you've (figuratively) walked the room a couple times, got a drink at the bar and spotted some people you know, you start to relax and have a good time. A few hours later you end up making loads of new friends, dancing on the speakers with no idea where the people you came with went. Well Twitter's kinda like that....

I can't speak for all of Twitter's 255 million monthly active users, but here's why I love Twitter and why I use it:

On My Tits + Off My Chest - Babies + Sleeping

(Quick note  On My Tits + Off My Chest - is a new series of posts on this blog about subjects that are irritating me. I can have a rant and get it off my chest! Always take these with a pinch of salt - they're not intended to be too serious....)

Babies and sleep - or lack thereof - where to start? I'll say it right now, Baby45 is a crappy sleeper. This came as news to me until fairly recently in his little life. Well, not that his sleeping patterns had changed , but that others had it better. I was more of the view that, hey, babies cry and don't sleep much. TOUGH. But apparently some people are getting a full night's sleep more than say, 5 times in the last 18 months....

Having a good sleeper seems intrinsically linked to how good you are as a parent - it's the first thing anyone seems to ask you. And if you have a bad sleeper then, tsk tsk, you *must* be doing something wrong. After all it's not like babies are biologically programmed to wake up for food or to scream to alert people to their presence. That little thing called evolution is such a bugger.

Having a poor sleeper also seems to mean that people will - as with anything parenting related - give you tons of unasked for and unrequired advice. If I had a pound for every time I'd heard any of the below, well, I'd be able to afford a really expensive sleep consultant to tell me stuff I already know...