The gendered connotations of clothing

Masculinity is more common than mud in the working world. Not only are nearly 90% of CEOs and executive directors men, but women with ‘masculine’ traits and styles of work have been proven more likely to succeed in an environment otherwise dominated by men. Margaret Thatcher, for example, had professional voice coaching to lower her voice to a more ‘masculine’ level in order to seem more authoritative and respectable. This logic, unfortunately, carries through to work attire. The most common outfit worn by women in corporate environments usually involves a shirt and blazer, traditionally paired with a skirt, heels and makeup. While the latter components are becoming rarer as forcing traditional and inconvenient ‘femininity’ onto women is becoming less accepted, the classic collared blouse and jacket combination shows no sign of decline.

The gendered connotations of clothing

The Intriguing Case of True Crime’s Popularity

For as long as we can remember, humans have held a grim fascination for the gory, the gruesome and the grisly – and stories about this have long since enchanted us, whether the local gossip around the latest public execution in the 14th centuries, to the world’s most famous unsolved serial killer Jack the Ripper, to the excellent entertainment that is Buzzfeed Unsolved. But why do humans hold this illogical desire to hear the crimes about our fellow man? And why, in the last half decade has it exploded, enjoying previously unseen popularity?

The Intriguing Case of True Crime’s Popularity

Iconoclasm, The Destruction of Art

The destruction of art is as much a part of art history as its creation. From the Roman times to the present-day, people have felt the need to destroy it, often justified by religion, politics, power, and morality. The toppling of statues, the erasure of portraits or the destruction of images reveal what it is that people value in art and why it matters enough to be worth attacking.

Iconoclasm, The Destruction of Art

A brief history of the term ‘sex worker’

The term ‘sex worker’ was coined by Carole Leigh in the late 1970’s. Before this, sex workers, who have historically been overwhelmingly women, were referred to as prostitutes, which means ‘to put to an unworthy use’ or ‘to expose to public shame.’ Although the term ‘sex worker’ is relatively new, it has since, through activist work, been adopted as the official term to describe the act of sexual service for money and is used by leading organisations – such as the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/Aids, and the World Health Organisation.

A brief history of the term ‘sex worker’

A Brief History Of Gender Non-conformity

A common defence of those who abstain from using they/them pronouns is that they are part of some new-fangled ‘trend’ and are far too sudden and transient for anyone other than ‘The Youths’ to use, along with the argument that using ‘they’ in the singular form is grammatically incorrect. However often these claims are used, both are wrong. ‘They’ in the singular form has been in use since the 14th century by prolific writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales, 1386), William Shakespeare (Hamlet, 1599) and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, 1813); and the concept of gender-nonconformity has been around a far longer (ancient Mesopotamia, to be precise).

A Brief History Of Gender Non-conformity