What's a Girl Gotta Do to Headline 'GLASTON-BERRY'

Festival season! I LOVE it! The beer, the wellies, the music, the beer, the sunshine, the rain, the mud, the beer....

Perhaps my most memorable festival experience (well not actually my most memorable...that one is not appropriate for this blog...) was watching Beyonce (aka 'Yonce, aka Queen Bee, aka Sasha Fierce) headline Glastonbury in the Summer of 2011....the first woman to headline in over 20 years....yes I said 2011 not 1911.  And this was literally the first headline act I had ever seen that wasn't a bloke!  and I repeat...this was in 2011.

This year, as has been widely publicised, The Foo Fighters, due to headline the Pyramid Stage, had to pull out due to a broken leg.  Their replacement...the ASTRONOMICALLY BRILLIANT Florence and the Machine! But as could so easily be predicted the reaction to this announcement (not the actually performance) has been overwhelmingly negative - with one of the comments in my Facebook page stating 'great, more wailing banshee'.  But what pisses me off more, is that although it is awesome that Glasto have a female headliner on the Pyramid stage again (it's only taken another 4 years), the only way Flo has managed it, is to be the second choice to yet again another ageing white male rocker.  Even good ol' Dolly in 2014 wasn't quite good enough, despite selling over 100 MILLION (dude, I said million!) sales world wide, AND pulling in arguably the 'biggest ever' (Emily Eavis) crowd in the history of Glastonbury...and yet still, not-a-headliner.

It's interesting that all the alternative suggestions I've seen banded about regarding the 'better' head liners that 'should' have replaced the white male Foos, are all also, surprise, surprise, white males (Muse, Blur, Stone Roses...etc). You see when it comes to Glastonbury or indeed other big music festivals there is often up-roar when the headliner isn't a white male rocker.  Does anyone remember the slating of Jay-Z...'I'm not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong' (Noel Gallagher)? And more recently the change.org petition to stop Kanye West playing...*big, tired, bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall kinda sigh*.

This becomes evening more depressing in the context of Glasto which has a reputation as ethical, liberal and egalitarian. So what hope is there outside of Glasto in the harsh world free from mud, wellies and beers for breakfast? Maybe things are changing for the better? But if Flo hadn't have been bumped up, we would be at year 5 since Bee headlined the Pyramid Stage at the next opportunity (i.e next year)...and before you know it, it's another 20 years gone....and we'll all be wondering - what's it gonna take for a woman to get to headline Glastonbury in 2035! 

It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To...Why Tim Hunt's Comments Hurt All Of Us; Men and Women.

If you hadn't heard of Prof Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize winner and Professor of Immunology at UCL (that is before he was forced to resign) before...I'm sure you have now following the furore  he created after addressing a lunch for female scientists and journalists at the World Conference of Science Journalists and stating:

'Let me tell you about my trouble with girls...three things happen when they are in the lab...you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, the cry.'

The first thing I thought upon hearing this, after controlling my hysterics that someone had uttered these words publicly was...yes, yes I do cry, I cry quite a bit actually. There are numerous things wrong with what Prof Tim said - and if you need me to point those things out then perhaps you're reading the wrong blog.  But what struck me was that Prof Tim was right about one thing for me personally, sometimes at work I cry. 

But why is crying seen so negatively?  When I cry in the workplace it is usually because I feel distressed.  And once I begin to cry, I become acutely aware that it is perceived negatively, which makes me more anxious or embarrassed and contributes....god damn it (!) to more crying!!  Now despite said crying not affecting my ability to do my job, nor my ability to achieve my goals, crying is still seen as something that is, at best, a nuisance, and at worst a sign that you are incompetent.  

Little boys are often told....'big boys don't cry' and when they are older to 'man-up', indeed Mark Wright (from the BAFTA award winning TOWIE) was incessantly shamed on twitter for his crying whilst taking part in Stricly Come Dancing (more than likely also BAFTA winning).   The implication being that boys are not to cry because it makes them seem childish or (shock, horror!) feminine.  And this is is where I believe the crux of the problem lies.  By viewing crying and the showing of distress negatively we create an environment that impacts adversely on everybody. 

Firstly, Women who cry are viewed as childish, incompetent and 'not as good as men', problematic for obvious reasons (mainly because one does not equate with the other).  Secondly, men's expression of distress is completely eradicated, making it the norm that men do not communicate distress. this is of paramount importance when we consider creating this "stiff upper lip"/"boys don't cry" is one of the factors thought to explain the increased rates of suicide in men, (over 75% in 2012).

And that's the thing about crying...it's a communication of distress.  It's a communication that something is not quite working.  It's a communication that something needs to change.  And only by communicating our distress can we begin to seek and obtain the help that we all find ourselves needing from time to time....Prof Tim included.  And so parting words of advice to Prof Tim is this....Woman up! Show a little emotion...It might just be good for you.