Women's Views on News |
- Men have a body-clock ticking too
- Does ‘Gravity’ live up to the hype?
- Fixing the police’s ‘women problem’
| Men have a body-clock ticking too Posted: 07 Mar 2014 06:12 AM PST
Being in the ‘over 35′ age group and childless, I am constantly being reminded by ‘concerned’ male friends that ‘there is a time-limit, you know’, or being ‘kindly’ told that the alarm bells on my body clock should really have started ringing by now. And when we get to the ‘over 45′ age group doctors say they don’t recommend us to have a baby now. The risks, they say. Well, gentlemen, it seems that time may be of the essence for you, too; according to a new and pretty extensive study, children of older fathers are at more risk of a number of conditions including autism, bipolar disorder and ADHD. Children of older fathers are also more likely to have a lower IQ and do worse at school, display suicidal behaviours or have problems with drugs. The research, by Indiana University in the US and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, looked at more than 2.6 million babies born to 1.4 million men in Sweden between 1973 and 2001. The results showed that children born to men over 45 are 13 times more likely to have ADHD, compared to children born to 24 year-old fathers. They are also 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder, three times as likely to be autistic, two and a half times more likely to have suicidal tendencies or drug dependency and to generally achieve lower scores in school. The study, published online in JAMA Psychiatry, certainly challenges the idea that sperm is timeless. Men often seem content with the notion that they can reproduce whenever they like, and it’s the age of their partner that really matters, but Dr Allan Pacey, fertility expert at the University of Sheffield, said men should have children as young as possible. "This is the biggest and most comprehensive study of its kind and it really highlights that there is a time limit for dads on when they should have their children. "Men don't have the menopause, they don't stop their ability to have children as they age, but what we do see is their partners struggle to get pregnant and have more miscarriages and they increase the risk of their children having a range of problems. "I think the changes start to take place when a man gets to 40, you start to notice detectable differences in his offspring. "My advice would be that if you are in a position to have your family early then do it, even if you want to wait a bit longer. Nature wants you to have children early.” Dr Brian D’Onofrio, one of the researchers on the study, said he was shocked by the findings. “The implications of the study is that delaying childbearing is also associated with increased risk for psychiatric and academic problems in the offspring. “The study adds to a growing body of research, that suggests families, doctors, and society as a whole must consider both the pros and cons of delaying childbearing.” He believes that as a man ages, he is more likely to produce sperm with genetic mutations. It is established fact that as women get older, their eggs are more susceptible to mutations that can cause disorders such as Down’s Syndrome, so it’s not surprising if the same applies to men. There have already been studies that have also shown a link to older fathers and the increased likelihood of autism and other disorders. In 2012, Dr Kari Stefansson of Decode Genetics, who led research into the subject, said: “Society has been very focused on the age of the mother. “But apart from [Down's Syndrome] it seems that disorders such as schizophrenia and autism are influenced by the age of the father and not the mother.” The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority doesn’t accept sperm donations from men over 41. Granted, men could still have a few years on us, but will they feel the same pressure to procreate before the blackout descends? Will other men look at their childless peers over 45 with pity? Perhaps suggesting that they will never know what it is to be truly fulfilled in their lifetime? As their 45th birthday looms, will we see men ‘of a certain age’ stereotyped as desperate and baby-obsessed? Perhaps trying to ‘accidentally’ get someone pregnant before their sperm takes a turn for the worse? Somehow I doubt it. But it would be nice to see responsibility for a baby’s health and wellbeing placed equally with fathers and mothers.  |
| Does ‘Gravity’ live up to the hype? Posted: 07 Mar 2014 04:15 AM PST
Our regular cross-post from Bitchflicks. Spoiler Alert Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity is primarily an experience. It's an edge-of-your-seat survival tale set in the vastness, the darkness, the solitude of space. I was eager to review this film because I love sci-fi, and I love women in sci-fi flicks. I can take or leave Sandra Bullock (mostly leave her), but her performance in Gravity's opening sequence sold me: It's silent in space. Astronauts are working on the exterior of a space satellite. George Clooney as astronaut Matt Kowalski is floating about making pleasant conversation. We can hear the labored breathing of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock). Her heart rate is elevated, and she's not taking in the majesty of space because she's too focused on her work, too focused on keeping herself under control. Dr. Stone is not an astronaut. She's a civilian medical engineer who's designed some special program that NASA wants to use. Trained solely for this mission, she's fighting not to have a panic attack while perched outside the world, and then she is violently wrenched from that perch, from that narrow margin of the illusion of safety into…chaos. No other film has communicated to me the desolation of space the way that Gravity does. Dr. Stone's vulnerability and lack of awe translate into a visceral feeling within this audience member of the true terror and anxiety of being in space, the smallness of the human animal, and the rawness of her grip on survival. Gravity's cinematography is stunningly beautiful. The film is shot with such a unique style, and its zero gravity environments faced so many challenges that the movie's innovations are being lauded as "chang[ing] the vocabulary of filmmaking." They used puppeteers for Christ's sake! How cool is that? Some shots did seem indulgent, perhaps trying too hard to convey Cuaron's metaphor. The best example being when Stone makes it into a damaged space station that still has air. She disrobes in slo-mo from her suit, and the exactness of her body's poses are anime-esque in their echoing of the fetus in the womb and birth metaphors.Though in booty shorts, Stone is never stripped to only her bra and panties. I liked Ryan Stone's vulnerability and her constant battle with blind panic (that she sometimes loses). It made her and her experience more accessible. It's iffy whether or not Gravity, though, manages to be a feminist film. Gravity certainly doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but to be fair, there are very few characters at all in the movie. The only personal detail we're given about Stone is that she was once a mother who lost her daughter to a tragic accident. This irks me because it casts Stone as the grieving mother archetype. Boooorrriiiinggg. It too simply explains her unhappy adventure beyond the ends of the earth. It forgives her for being a woman who would give up familial ties to go into space because she, in fact, has already lost those ties. Because her loss consumes her, Stone's despair and lack of connection, in fact, justify her trip. Veteran astronaut Kowalski is a bit too perfect, too in-control, and too optimistic. When we contrast his cool command with Stone's panic attacks, freezing up, and bouts of giving up from which he must coax her, Kowalski seems like more of the hero. That leaves Stone to be the basketcase woman whom it is Kowalski's chivalrous duty to rescue. Stone finally encounters a situation that seems unbeatable, and she resigns herself to death. She hallucinates Kowalski comes to rescue her and gives her the information lurking in the back of her memory that she needs to save herself. He is her savior even within her mind. Not only that, but as she rouses herself from her hallucination, she says something like, "Kowalski, you clever bastard." This leaves open the interpretation to spiritual types that she may not have, in fact, hallucinated; instead she may have had a supernatural experience in which her friend's ghost did save her life from beyond the grave deus ex machina style. Frankly, that is just poop. Either way, Clooney as the noble, infinitely calm and self-sacrificing astronaut dude is just spreading it on a bit too thick for my taste. Gravity survives on the merit of its spectacle. It is beautiful, terrifying, and gripping. The characters, while feeling real, are underdeveloped. The story itself is one big metaphor for Stone's journey into isolation and despair after suffering personal tragedy. It is an epic allegory about the journey toward life, toward connection with the earth, which is a poignant, compelling story, but I couldn't tell you what kind of card player Stone is or what made her want to become a doctor. Her life is a blank because she's not an individual; she's an archetype. If Gravity could have accomplished its visual feats, told its epic story about survival and rediscovering the self all the while giving us rich characters, I would have loved this movie. Instead, I merely like it for its grandness of vision and its ideas; I like it in spite of its tepid storyline and lukewarm characterizations. Amanda Rodriguez is an environmental activist living in Asheville, North Carolina. She holds a BA from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and an MFA in fiction writing from Queens University in Charlotte, NC. She writes all about food and drinking games on her blog Booze and Baking.  |
| Fixing the police’s ‘women problem’ Posted: 07 Mar 2014 03:15 AM PST
In September last year the Home Secretary, Theresa May, commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to carry out a review into how police forces in England and Wales are responding to domestic violence. According to the Home Office website, the review was launched 'in response to a number of high profile cases where protection for victims has fallen below the standards expected'. The commission is due to report back in April. Women's groups, charities and other practitioners in the field are awaiting the report with interest, concerned to see how far the report will go, if and what practices within the police it will shine a light on, and how far the police and Home Office will be willing to go to redress the problems identified. According to figures released this month, more than 1.1 million – or 7 per cent – of the women in the UK were victims of some form of domestic abuse in the last year, so this report feels more timely than ever. Making this report equally timely is the fact that, despite what we know of the prevalence of domestic abuse and violence, stories continue to hit the news – to say nothing of those that don't – that show that the police response to violence against women remains woefully inadequate. There was the case of the teenage girl called a "bitch" and a "f*cking slag" by the male police officers meant to be investigating her complaints of domestic violence. There have been the official findings of a "culture of disbelief" within the police against women reporting sexual violence. Eight police officers faced misconduct hearings last summer for conducting an unjustified strip-search on a woman, leaving her naked in a cell in full view of the CCTV camera, the screen for which was at the main desk, for all to see. None of this does much to instil women with any sense of trust in the police. As a recent Guardian article asked, if women can't be even guaranteed they will be treated by the police with dignity and respect, how can they trust that they will gain justice? Victims of domestic violence are often at their lowest point by the time they report an abuser to the police, and doing so takes a great deal of courage and strength. Women need to know they will be believed and taken seriously when they come forward to report crimes; but sadly many do not, because they know that they won't be. The Home Office website for this commission says that: 'This government has driven forward significant progress in tackling violence against women and girls by ring-fencing nearly £40 million for victim support'. While this investment is welcome, many also feel that more should be done to protect women from becoming victims at all. Surely ensuring a better police response to domestic and other gender violence would be one way of working towards this.  |
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