Thursday, June 4, 2015

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Ashes Fever set to hit cricketing Britain

Posted: 03 Jun 2015 09:15 AM PDT

the ashes, test cricket, women's cricket, T20, ODIsEngland's women aim to retain the trophy – again.

Hot on the heels of the football World Cup comes the biggest prize in cricket – the Ashes.

The Women's Ashes begin on 21 July at Taunton and end at Cardiff on 31 August.

For the first time both Sky Sports and BBC Radio will broadcast all seven matches live.

The men will be playing their Ashes tests too, but the two series have been scheduled so that no matches overlap.

The series will comprise all three formats of the game again, but this time the Test match will take place in the middle, with three One-Day Internationals (ODI) beforehand and three T20s afterwards.

The multi-format series has proved to be very popular although this year the number of points awarded for winning the Test has been reduced from six to four, as it was thought that winning the test last year gave England an unfair advantage.

Thus the Ashes Fixtures for 2015 are: ODIs on 21 July at Taunton, 23 July at Bristol and 26 July at Worcester; the Test from 11-14 August at Canterbury; and the three T20s on 26 August at Chelmsford, 28 August at Hove and 31 August at Cardiff.

Australia have already announced their 14-strong squad to tour England, with three new Test caps in the offing.

Of the three, Nicole Bolton will certainly be the one to watch, as although she will be playing her first Test, she hit 124 on her ODI debut against England last year.

England will be feeling confident, though, with several players showing good form in the early season, notably Kate Cross, who has been making a big name for herself in the men's Lancashire league, with best figures of 8-47 for Heywood against Unsworth at the beginning of May.

Equally confident will be captain Charlotte Edwards, having been named England Women's Player of the Year 2014-15 by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last month.

As it stands, the women have played 20 Ashes series – in different formats – since its inception in 1934-35.  So far, Australia have seven series wins and England six, with seven drawn contests. England will be determined to level it out this summer.

There has never been a better time to follow England women's cricket; "It's not being broadcast anywhere" is no longer an excuse.

Tune in to Test Match Special on Radio 5Live Sports Extra, or Radio 4 long wave to hear full coverage or watch the drama as it unfolds on Sky Sports.

Better still, treat yourself and go and see it live – it's what summers are made for. All the ticket details are on the ECB website.

Snoop Dogg a feminist?

Posted: 03 Jun 2015 08:03 AM PDT

Snoop Dogg, sexist lyrics to end He used those words ‘at a time in his life when he didn’t know any better’.

Rapper Snoop Dogg has said his attitude towards women has changed and he will never use derogatory words such as 'whore' when referring to women in his lyrics again.

Snoop has had a long career in hip hop, starting back in 1992. His first albums, with hits such as 'Gin and Juice', dominated the music charts and brought him international fame at the forefront of the gangsta rap movement.

However, his choice to frequently use terms such as 'ho' and 'bitch' throughout his lyrics earned him a reputation as a sexist misogynist. In 2007, US talk show host Oprah Winfrey even accused Snoop of being the driving force behind misogyny in hip hop.

From song lyrics peppered with derogatory terms about women, to arriving at award shows leading women by dog collars, there could be no question that Snoop's attitude towards women has been more than a little sexist.

So why the sudden change of heart at the age of 43?

In an interview with Sky News last week Snoop explained that he has changed as a person in the twenty years since he first started making music.

“As I grew I fell in love with my wife and started to love my mother, my grandmother and my daughter,” he said. “I understood what a woman was and I started to write about and express that.”

Referring to having previously used derogatory terms to describe women numerous times throughout his career Snoop said he used those words at a time in his life when he didn’t know any better.

“I am more sensitive and more vulnerable writing-wise and accepting a woman for being a beautiful person, as opposed to me saying she is a bitch or a whore because that was how I was trained when I first started.”

But although he said that he has seen the error of his ways and would no longer write song lyrics using terms such as 'bitch', he does not look back with regret.

“I have no regrets … Once I figured out there was room to grow and learn and to be a better person, then I incorporated that in everything I was doing.

“I don’t feel like you can be ashamed or mad about not knowing – if you don’t know, you don’t know."

Hmm.

Snoop’s turnaround in regards to the language he uses when referring to women is quite unexpected, but long overdue. With rappers like Snoop coming forward and saying they no longer agree with defining women in such a way, are we due to see an end to this type of misogynist lyric in the future?

Perhaps so.

Snoop has revealed that the singer and producer Pharrell Williams talked him out of including derogatory lyrics on his latest album. NME reported that Snoop changed the name of the song 'So many Hos' to 'So many Pros'.

The NME article said 'Snoop told Pigeons and Planes: “That's what I love about [Pharrell] as a friend – he ain't afraid to challenge me. [He] was like, ‘You ain't 25 no more. You're 43, you've got a daughter’.”

Snoop's change of heart may not be exactly worthy of celebrating, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

It is also refreshing to hear that some younger artists such as Pharrell do not agree with Snoop’s old ways.

We may be a long way from labelling Snoop as a feminist, but there's hope that his newfound respect towards women may have an impact on artists who still think such behaviour is credible.

Is it possible that after twenty odd years of rapping flagrantly derogatory terms, the person to influence new musicians to eschew the sexist lyric might just be Snoop Dogg?

It goes to show that apparently an old dogg can indeed learn new tricks.

Test please ignore

Posted: 03 Jun 2015 07:13 AM PDT

Domestic violence in NI: action needed

Posted: 03 Jun 2015 06:42 AM PDT

PSNI, CEDAW, Northern Ireland, violence against womenWe need a total change in attitude to how statutory agencies deal with gender-based violence against women.

During 2014/15, the number of incidents of violence against women recorded in Northern Ireland by the police increased by 2.4 per cent on the level recorded in the previous year.

Put more clearly, that is 28,287 incidents with a domestic abuse motivation. Northern Ireland has a population of about 1.8 million, and about 450,000 of those are aged below 14.

So a truly shocking figure.

In an attempt to share experiences and work together to tackle domestic violence, Footprints Women's Centre and the human rights organisation Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) launched a report about how to tackle concerns about the way in which the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) currently approach the issue of non-molestation orders and more specifically the effectiveness of such orders for women living in the Colin Neighbourhood area of West Belfast.

A non-molestation order aims to prevent a partner or ex-partner from using or threatening violence, intimidation, harassment or pestering.

The order is issued to ensure the health, safety and well-being of a woman and/or child in situations of domestic violence.

Violence against women, which violates their human rights and has a negative impacts upon their ability to fully participate in all aspects of society.

The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) requires State parties to ‘take appropriate and effective measures to overcome all forms of gender-based violence, whether by public or private act; State parties should ensure that laws against family violence and abuse, rape, sexual assault and other gender-based violence give adequate protection to all women, and respect their integrity and dignity.

It also requires that appropriate protective and support services should be provided for victims.

Gender-sensitive training of judicial and law enforcement officers and other public officials is essential to ensure the effective implementation of the Convention, CEDAW continues, and state parties ‘should encourage the compilation of statistics and research on the extent, causes and effects of violence, and on the effectiveness of measures to prevent and deal with violence.’

Violence against women was also centre stage when Rashida Majoo, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women visited Belfast. as part of a tour of the UK.

Afterwards she said that the UK had a 'boys’ club sexist culture' and 'the justice system as a whole is not equipped or responsive to addressing the specific needs of women and girl survivors of violence.'

The report now launched by Footprints Women's Centre and PPR identifies 3 actions that need to be taken to make non-molestation orders in Northern Ireland more effective.

They are:

‘That the PSNI adopt a policy of routinely informing the person who has taken out a non-molestation order that it has been served on the perpetrator';

‘That the PSNI set and monitor an official target for when non-molestation orders should be served'; and

‘That the PSNI provide written information to the person impacted by domestic violence on how to obtain and renew a non-molestation order, and the process that should be followed when they are breached’.

What is striking about the calls to action in this research is their simplicity – three actions that could make a huge difference to the lives of women.

Of course actions alone are not enough; this needs to be followed by a total change in attitude to how statutory agencies deal with gender-based violence against women.

Not only do the police need to hold perpetrators accountable, but they need to recognise their own role in addressing the imbalance of power relations between women and men.