March 8th, 2007
International Women’s Day, Trócaire, The Women’s Room…
*You’ve probably seen the above ad as part of Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign for International Women’s Day about gender inequality. If you haven’t, no doubt you’ve heard about the row with the BCI who have banned the ad because it was deemed to have a “political end”. Red Mum discusses the controversy and Hugh also makes some points about it. I saw the ad again last night, has it been tweaked in some way to allow it to be shown pending Trócaire’s appeal? In the meantime, sign Trócaire’s petition against Gender inequality.
* Omani wants to keep the women writers thread going, jump in if you can offer any suggestions/omissions/sage wisdom. Speaking of women’s writing, and partly prompted by the ‘Pop Fiction’ Arts Lives on RTE the other night, (mentioned here:), The Swearing Lady and That Girl have started debates on the merits of chick lit, Jane Austen and rebranded book covers.
* Is NUI Galway to close its Women’s Studies Centre?
* Just realised that the BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour has been running the first ever radio adaptation of Marilyn French’s classic The Women’s Room. It only started on Monday March 5th and runs until March 23rd, so you can catch up here:
* Speaking of feminist writers, our next bookclub book is Simone De Beauvoir’s She Came To Stay. Apart from The Second Sex, the only fiction of hers I’ve read is The Mandarins which got mixed reviews in my previous bookclub, so hopefully this one fares better.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Update: Just spotted another post for IWD on the Guardian Book Blog - ‘Patriarchy lives on: in literature as elsewhere’
March 8th, 2007 at 11:43 am
If I was to get a voucher for her indoors to ‘get her nails done’ for International Wimmins Day, just how likely would I be to get a dig in the kisser?
March 8th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Why would you get a dig in the kisser for recognising a day like this, no matter what the gesture? And pressies are always good, full stop.
March 8th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
bah, I can’t wind up anyone properly today. I just juts get back to doing some work.
March 8th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Re. the Trócaire ad: Did you see it on RTÉ? The BCI’s remit doesn’t apply to RTÉ, according to the legislation, so they are at liberty to continue broadcasting the ad on TV and radio. That might be it.
March 8th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
It must have been so… I think it’s a very powerful ad. When I first saw it, I assumed that the “one thing all these babies” have in common was poverty.
March 8th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
God, that’s disgraceful about the BCI. I love that ad, especially the way it looks like the last baby is raising her little fist, Rosie the Riveter style.
March 8th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
There’s a reading for International Women’s Day, hosted by Poetry Ireland, and with poets including Eavan Boland, Carol Ann Duffy and Paula Meehan. It looks good. Pity it’s on NEXT Thursday…
Oh well, nothing wrong with celebrating a day like this twice, I suppose…
March 8th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I know ESV! Was looking for IWD events and came across that, looks like a possible mix up in Thursdays. Worth posting that in the women writer’s thread too…
March 8th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Thanks Sinead. Great to have another plug for the Irish Women’s Writers thread.
I hope your read the poem I posted on Omaniblog today.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Apparently this is just the start of BCI baring their teeth. From what I hear they want to be as strict as BACC in London - famous for their “you can’t say that and you won’t say that” attitude.
March 9th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Just watched that Trocaire advert. Are the BCI nuts? Ridiculous, surely it’s talking about poverty and societal imbalance for females in 3rd world countries. Why would the BCI have a beef over that? Am I missing something?
March 9th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
[…] Lots of places have linked to the YouTube video of the original tv ad (eg Anthonymcg |Bloggorah | Damien Mulley | Duncan’s TV adland | IQblog | Lex Ferenda | Sigla (Sinéad Gleeson) | VoteTube | Zoomtard (with superb commentary)) and various places have audio of the original radio ad ( | Holy Shmoly (Donncha O’Caoimh) | Irish Eyes (Bernie Goldbach) | also here (mp3)). […]
March 9th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I think it’s a superb ad.
I also think that Trócaire (the Catholic church sponsored charity) have some cheek asking us to dig deep to stamp out gender inequality!!! Let’s work on the boys in black and scarlet too?
March 11th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Trocaire must be a little tiny bit delighted with all the publicity this has gotten - more people are now talking about the ad and the gender-equality issue since the BCI decision.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Sinead, lovely to meet you at the blogger awards, and congratulations on a great blog. I too found the Trocaire ad very powerful, and am greatly puzzled by the decision to pull it. It does at least provide me with more arguments for swatting those ludicrous rants I hear all too frequently about how feminism is redundant and how we’ve somehow achieved all the equality we could ever want, therefore case closed. Not likely, sunshine.