Emotions
What's in a name?
When this month's cover star, the lovely Patsy Kensit, revealed
that, following her marriage to DJ Jeremy Healy, she'd changed her
surname - adding his Healy to her Kensit - it caused a bit of a
stir. It was noted in the papers and was a hot topic last Saturday,
when I had dinner with a group of girlfriends. There was a
judicious spread of opinion: two wouldn't countenance changing
their surnames, one had taken her husband's, one has become a Ms
but kept her surname, an engaged party is in the throes of
indecision, and I have a foot in both camps: I kept my maiden name
professionally, and took my husband's privately (some might call
this sitting on the fence; I call it having my cake and eating
it).
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Emotions
The New Feminism
The weekend before last an article in The Sunday Times
discussed the findings by the US Bureau of Economic Research that
apparently
women are less happy after 40 years of feminism. Our feature in
the July issue, The F Word, where we've spoken to
inspiring women including TV presenter and campaigner June Sarpong,
Sarah Brown, fabric goddess Cath Kidston and erotic emporium Coco
de Mer founder Sam Roddick, would beg to differ. Many of these
women speak about how feminism has helped them achieve their goals
and successes and how they feel women should use their increased
power and freedom to their advantage and continue to make changes
for the good of everyone. Feminism today should be about taking
what has already been achieved and using it in a positive way in
the current climate to achieve a better situation for everyone. In
Fay Weldon's introduction, she says "The New Feminism won't be
anti-man and anti-sex, or about women wanting to be men - the
pendulum will swing the other way..." many of the women here speak
about women appreciating themselves more, creating a situation
where women don't have to choose between their home life and their
career, encouraging women to take a stand - against things you
believe shouldn't happen and for things you do and valuing female
skill sets in their own right. It's not militant stuff, just a
practical way of pushing things forward so we are happy
with ourselves and the way things work, and continue to be so, and
so are our children, and so are men.
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Emotions
wedding bells
In my official capacity as the-next-person-in the-office-to
be-married, I'm the temporary expert on all things bridal. In a
nutshell here are three of my favourite finds to inspire
chic-budget weddings.
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