Tag Archives: feminism

Frozen? That’s not feminism

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Samira Ahmed

My daughter finally got me to watch Frozen recently. I think she’s sorry she did. Though I sense 13 year old girls are watching it with a sense of irony and a  kind of knowing detachment in the way my … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Film, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

The 70s in brief: If you don’t want it pinched, don’t flaunt it so.

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Samira Ahmed

The 70s. WTF. The Channel 4 documentary series It Was Alright In the 70s that aired over the last 2 Saturdays drew on the extremes. Rape jokes galore, and X-rated child safety information films that terrified us. For those interested … Continue reading →

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Outrage is cheap: Challenging politicians about Rotherham, race & misogyny

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Samira Ahmed

  I suppose it’s good to still get agitated about stories I cover. But the amount of political capital that politicans have tried to make out of the Rotherham child sexual grooming scandal left me all the more appalled when … Continue reading →

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Why doesn’t Wonder Woman wear a mask?

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Samira Ahmed

Originally written for a recent Radio 4 programme pilot about “masked men”.  In bicentennial year 1976 on first trip to the USA, I first confronted the conundrum of Wonder Woman and masks in three comics I bought. While most of … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized, War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Don Johnson on being a man’s man and “toooo much oestrogen”

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Samira Ahmed

I interviewed Don Johnson yesterday for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row programme about his new film Cold In July.  Two things that stood out — the way he deploys a disarming exaggerated twang to the end of phrases and words … Continue reading →

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Big Girls Don’t Cry: Lord Rennard, Barbara Castle & women who make a fuss

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Samira Ahmed

When the Space Shuttle programme was grounded I wrote this big newspaper feature about how it left a generation, reared on the promise of deep space exploration, on the gantry of broken dreams. It was rather fine, I thought, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Justice, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Battling it out with the 70s & The Lamb’s Navy Rum Girl

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Samira Ahmed

My earliest registered nightmare (circa 1971): Coming downstairs in the dark to find the TV taken over by a ghost station, broadcasting horrors for the denizens of the night. I didn’t know then of course, that one day there would … Continue reading →

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Why you need to look at Acid Survivors

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Samira Ahmed

  I’m doing the Radio 4 Appeal this weekend for the Acid Survivors’ Trust. It’s the only organisation dedicated to ending acid violence and is focussed on helping women and girls who’ve been attacked. The chances are you already know about acid violence. … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Justice, Education, journalism, Media, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Plotting the arc of darkness with Joss Whedon

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Samira Ahmed

Here’s a link to my interview with Joss Whedon for Radio 3’s Night Waves on June 12th. We covered his writing for Roseanne, Shakespearean superheroes, his love of musicals — especially Brigadoon —  the way studios treat writers, (take Firefly … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Children, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Media, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Billy Liar, Bradford and the birth of the dollybird

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Samira Ahmed

“A lazy, irresponsible young clerk in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family.” Everyone loves Billy Liar. Apart from whoever wrote imdb’s current bizarrely censorious plot summary … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Comedy, Film, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments