Tag: intersectional feminism

  • Review: My Thoughts Exactly – Lily Allen

    Review: My Thoughts Exactly – Lily Allen

    I’ve always been a huge fan of Lily Allen’s music and I love an autobiography, so when I heard that she was writing one I was very excited. My Thoughts Exactly is an addictive read that doesn’t disappoint. I’ve always considered Allen to be a bit of a lyrical genius, but now she’s proved herself as a talented writer beyond the realm of music.

    As much as I wanted to savour My Thoughts Exactly, I whizzed through it because it’s so engaging and moving. Allen reveals her darkest moments, fesses up to her failings and raises awareness about a whole bunch of important issues.

    The book chronicles her life so far but not in a strictly chronological order. Always a controversial figure, the tabloid press has often had it in for Allen, so there are some events that you expect to read about, some that show just how wrong some of Allen’s critics appear to have been and others that you don’t see coming. Unsurprisingly, given the title, the stories are very much from her perspective, she doesn’t try to give other sides of the story because she can only give her version of events. From the off, she’s very open and honest about what you’re about to read.

    It’s not a particularly happy book, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. Tackling drug abuse, stalking, infidelity, assault, stillbirth, divorce and mental health, it’s a rough ride. Allen writes it all so vividly and honestly that you’ll often be angry at various people and things, including, but not limited to, Allen’s parents, the music industry, the police, the press and Lily Allen herself. She apologies for the racism in the satirical music video for Hard Out Here and says it was a result of her not paying attention to what was going on around her. Given her very intense personal life that seems entirely possible, but also, it isn’t really good enough, is it? She does, however, talk about how once she stopped being defensive about it she then became interested in intersectional feminism. Allen seems determined to learn from her mistakes but doesn’t deny them ever having happened.

    My Thoughts Exactly documents a lot of chaos. In fact, it’s not unlike the late, great Carrie Fisher’s autobiographies, it’s certainly written as well as them only with considerably less humour. It gets really dark at times, and you find yourself wincing through several chapters, but happily, it has a hopeful ending.

    Allen also departs from the big events to talk about some topics in broader terms, female sexuality is one of them — which of course caught my attention (#sexualityinculture)!  She discusses her struggle with orgasm and the lessons she had to learn to take her own pleasure seriously — it turns out that the song It’s Not Fair wasn’t written about one partner in particular but all sexual encounters in general. Even more relevant to this blog, she touches upon how trauma impacted her menstrual cycle and contraception. #Nevernotrelevant

    For fans of her music, it’s a must-read. One of my favourite things about Allen’s music is that it’s not all romantic love songs, she writes about the press and politics, siblings and parenthood, loss and feminism. All the backstories you’ve imagined from the lyrics and dodgy press coverage are set aside as you learn the real stories behind the songs. It doesn’t make them less relatable, instead, it allows her music to mean even more.

  • Review: It’s Only Blood – Anna Dahlqvist #Periodically 25

    Review: It’s Only Blood – Anna Dahlqvist #Periodically 25

    Last week I attended the launch of gender, sexuality and human rights journalist Anna Dahlqvist’s book It’s Only Blood: Shattering the Taboo of Menstruation. The conversations on the night, between Dahlqvist, the founder of Bloody Good Period Gabby Edlin and the audience were interesting enough, but the book itself stands out as an enlightened piece of writing about the profound impact that period taboos, period poverty and poor menstrual hygiene have on menstruators’ lives.

    The book was originally published in Swedish and has been translated into English by literary translator Alice E. Olsson. Olsson was at the launch and discussed the fun (and struggle) of translating some of the menstrual colloquialisms.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BjJ2uqLFo_-/?taken-by=baraliteblod

    It’s Only Blood is not a list of historical period myths, instead it’s a contemporary assessment of how reinforced menstrual shame continues to cause harm on a monumental scale. “Even though shame and silence are experiences shared by menstruators all over the world, the consequences become far more serious when an additional dimension is introduced: poverty,” Dahlqvist writes.

    The testimonies, many from school girls and activists from Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, America and Sweden, are combined with Dahlqvist’s research of UN legislation to highlight the fact that inaction when it comes to menstrual hygiene, education and resources means that many human rights are being violated, and yet, there’s a distinct lack of retaliation by politicians. The book is also coloured with Dahlqvist’s personal anecdotes and descriptions, which makes this serious book palatable – it’s rare to get a non-fiction book that you can’t put down.

    “Power over the period is a necessity, a precondition for participation in public life,” Dahlqvist writes, in reference to the serious social and educational issues poor menstrual hygiene can bring about. When school girls don’t have access to running water or locking doors, their options are rather bleak. If they bleed in public they’ll experience immense shame (the weight of which is only heavier when menstrual myths maintain that seeing or touching menstrual blood is bad luck), returning home to secretly clean and change a cloth at lunchtime, avoiding school entirely or hoping, at risk of infection, that one cloth or pad can survive a whole school day. Unsurprisingly, this has a profound and direct impact on their education. The book also explores how, contrary to popular opinion, these problems don’t go away as menstruators leave school.

    One particularly interesting part of It’s Only Blood is the connection Dahlqvist draws attention to between infections, like UTIs and Bacterial Vaginosis, which can be caused by poor menstrual hygiene, with HIV and HPV (leading to Cervical Cancer). Society, including period product providers, encourages menstruators to aspire to be clean and fresh while simultaneously not letting anyone around them know that they are bleeding. With all this shame and secrecy, it’s no surprise then that students in Malawi dry their menstrual protection under their mattresses or that in Bangladesh, one women hides her cloths in the roof, rather than drying them in sterilising sunlight. It’s a public health issue, why aren’t we treating it as such?

    Not only is Dahlqvist’s book intersectional in the stories that it tells, it also covers the intersections of menstrual hygiene with poverty, politics, commercial business and cultural and social stigmas. If you’re already active in combatting period poverty It’s Only Blood will spur you on and if you’re new to the discussion, the book will motivate you to join the ranks. Activists’ stories of feats large and small show how desperately change is needed, but also how in some cases, how little it takes to dramatically improve things.

    It’s Only Blood perfectly showcases how menstrual shame causes problems for everyone and why shattering the taboos will undoubtedly improve individuals’ lives and society in broader terms.

    Buy It’s Only Blood from Wordery by clicking here.