Are white middle-class men discriminated against? No, seriously.

Well, they are, if you believe one Mr Jeremy Paxman. It seems that race relations have progressed so far in this country, that beyond mere equality, bigotry in its latest form means that white middle-class men have no hope of making within the television industry.
At a pre-recorded interview at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Paxman [...]

Positive discrimination is still discrimination

It’s a tragedy that the ugly disease of racial and gender discrimination still plagues our society. Fifty years after the civil rights movement, one can’t but help feel that not much has changed, or at the very least, not enough. Rather than defeating the very core of racism, British politicians seem content to replace [...]

The New Enlightenment: The Role of Women in Muslim Reformation

First, of all, apologies for the long gap in blogging; work commitments as well as general laziness are my less than adequate excuses. Having said that, last week, I attended a lecture by Professor Madhavi Sunder, who is a leading scholar in the field of legal regulation of culture. Her lecture was deeply insightful and [...]

Is the Orange Prize for Fiction Sexist?

The Orange Prize for Fiction is exclusively awarded to women for contributions to literature. According to Orange, the reason for this is:
When setting up the prize, we wanted to celebrate women’s critical views as well as their writing. And it makes an interesting point of difference with other prizes.
The Times today reported that celebrated [...]

Oxytocin and The “Self-Imposed” Glass Ceiling

I read a rather interesting article published in The Times last week, about Susan Pinker’s new book, about the hormone oxytocin.
It talks about a lady who was offered a high-powered promotion in her company, but turned it down because the position would destabilise her family. This sounds like a perfectly reasonable basis for turning down [...]