I found out yesterday that I have been elected as National Campaigns Co-ordinator for the Green Party. This is hugely exciting and also a big responsibility, and one I don't intend to take lightly. I'll be finding my feet for a few weeks yet but then I'm sure this blog will be full of the campaigning adventures this new role will take me on!
I was interviewed by the Sunday Telegraph today about whether fashion and politics do or don't mix. It's for a piece they're doing a couple of weekends from now in their 'Stella' style supplement. I had a really interesting conversation about all the questions surrounding the issue with the journalist doing the piece. Why do female politicians get labelled 'dowdy' if they play it safe in the fashion stakes, and then when they wear something even a little different, why does the entire media focus shift to what the woman chooses to wear, rather than what she has to say?
It all comes down to the notion that if a woman is deemed attractive, she can't possibly be taken seriously, or be considered all that intelligent. It's incredible that those beliefs still exist, but exist they do. Evidence, if it were needed, that we still live in a sexist, narrow-minded society, no matter how much we think we've moved on over the past few decades.
I told the journalist that I thought that without the art of self-decoration, life would be very dull. At the same time, the tyranny of looking good - the message that women have drilled into them that they must look perfect, slim, young and beautiful the entire time (even when pregnant - yes, they're making sexy pregnancy underwear now) - is a dangerous one, leading of course to all sorts of extreme behaviour.
By the way, has everyone else being enjoying the cosmetic surgery ads on the tube recently? There they are, alongside ads for car insurance and chick lit, like having a boob job is just a normal part of life.
Oh dear, this blog has started to get a bit ranty tonight - I started with elections and ended with boob jobs. And there I must leave it.
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