5 HRS AGO - Scores of women are publishing details of their relationships with the Transmetropolitan writer, who they say offered mentorship in exchange for sexual contact. But they don’t want him cancelled – they want a conversation‘Stories are what make us human,” comics writer Warren Ellis told an audience on 28 April 2005, as that year’s Toronto Comic-Con began. “They’re an advanced form of play. Cats have play. Sometimes very sophisticated, dramatised forms of play. But they’re not communicated or externalised. So far, only humans use stories to dramatise the way they see the world.”Two days after that, on 30 April, a 23-year-old woman flew to the convention to surprise Ellis, whom she believed was her boyfriend. The pair had spoken on video chat and email regularly since they first met online in 2004, with some of their conversations lasting through the night. She alleges that Ellis, then 37, never told her that he had a long-term partner, and that he had asked her to keep their Collapse

23 HRS AGO - An official review of vaginal mesh and medicines in pregnancy reveals systemic weaknesses, and sexism tooGreater openness about women’s bodies was one of the big themes of postwar feminism. Access to contraception and the right to terminate a pregnancy were crucial stepping stones on a path to liberation from a social order that for centuries constrained women. The right to choose whether to have children is now well established, along with access to education, employment and equal pay (although gender pay and pension gaps remain). But sexism has not gone away. Among the findings of the Independent Medical Devices and Medicines Safety Review set up to investigate vaginal mesh implants is that the UK’s health system has a habit of ignoring women.One patient likened the search for a doctor who would take seriously her concerns about the implants, which were widely used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence until 2018, to “traipsing through treacle”. A former Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - The vaginal mesh scandal betrayed the intimate trust that should exist between doctor and patient, whatever their sexWhatever comes next in the vaginal mesh scandal, let’s hope that it spells the end of the “shut up and put up” medical culture when it comes to female healthcare.The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, led by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, spent two years looking into meshes. It also scrutinised Primodos hormonal pregnancy tests and the epilepsy treatment sodium valproate – both thought to cause birth defects. Continue reading... Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Cumberlege report is a damning reminder of how arrogant, intimidating doctors have suppressed their patients’ viewsJulia Cumberlege’s report into avoidable harm inflicted by the healthcare system exposes an institutional inability to listen to patients in general and women in particular.Her investigation into decades of failure batters the reputation of the NHS, professional bodies, regulators, manufacturers, private providers and policymakers. Continue reading... Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - We need a public register to show if healthcare professionals are in the pay of industry – or more patients will sufferIt was never “just women’s problems”. After decades of having their suffering dismissed, many patients will have been relieved about the publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review yesterday. Led by Julia Cumberlege, the review has spent two years investigating three medical interventions: pelvic mesh, used in prolapse surgery, which resulted in chronic, life-changing pain for many women; Primodos, a hormonal pregnancy test, used up until 1978; and sodium valproate, an epilepsy treatment. The latter two have both been linked with birth defects. Related: Denial of women's concerns contributed to decades of medical scandals, says inquiry Continue reading... Collapse

5 DAYS AGO - Every day I don’t buy diapers, I’m sticking it to the man. And I have the time to think, to be creative and to cultivate a careerRead out entire series hereWe want to hear from childfree women: share your experienceLast autumn, I fell in love for the first time in at least 20 years.That enormous feeling overwhelmed me like fall in New England or a natural disaster. I knew I was in serious trouble when I found myself patiently, even blissfully, ironing his shirts. Who the hell am I right now, my besotted self thought. In a flash of recognition, I knew: I was a woman taking care of a man. Continue reading... Collapse

6 DAYS AGO - When there were too many kid-related errands … my mother would break down and cry, calling out to no one in particular ‘When is it my turn?!’ Read out entire series hereWe want to hear from childfree women: share your experienceAny time I try to make sense of my strong aversion to motherhood and my utter glee over having escaped it, my mind immediately turns to the “mother-daughter day” my mom took me out of school for in the spring of 1975, a year before she and my father split up.Our mid-week adventure came as a complete surprise to me, although I was happy for the day off from fourth grade, as any nine-year-old would be. It was going to be a special day for just us, my mother promised. We were headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, and to lunch at a fancy restaurant. Continue reading... Collapse

7 DAYS AGO - Ferly uses cognitive behavioural therapy and other techniques to help its users overcome sexual difficulties or to become more aware of their bodies and discover what works for themWhen entrepreneurs Billie Quinlan and Anna Hushlak were developing their mindful sex app, Ferly, male investors said the idea was not worth funding: they claimed that women were a “niche market” and recommended the pair focus on porn to get ahead.“We were told that as two women talking about sex, we’re never going to be taken seriously,” says Quinlan. Continue reading... Collapse

7 DAYS AGO - To prevent inequality from increasing, we need a recovery plan with care at its heartIt is several months since the public was alerted to stark differences in the level of threat posed by Covid-19 according to their age, sex and underlying health. As the pandemic progressed, it became clearer that people of colour and those on lower incomes faced a heightened risk. Men in the UK have died from Covid-19 at almost twice the rate of women, with the most pronounced difference in older age groups. Among the working population, male security guards and taxi drivers have had the highest death rates.The economic and social effects of the pandemic follow a different pattern. The lockdown meant thousands of women and children were trapped in homes where they were vulnerable to abuse, while women were more likely to lose their jobs as well as carrying a disproportionate share of the domestic burden created by the closure of schools and nurseries. They are also overrepresented in the caring jobs Collapse