Gender and Protest

American soldiers "leaving" Iraq. Labour on the verge of bankruptcy. Rumours of leftish LibDems quitting the party. The closest Australian election since the war. 83 folk at a North Staffs TUC public meeting. Yup, there's been no shortage of things to write about. But sadly I'm not really in a writing mood. Maybe next week, huh?

In the meantime I've come across a very interesting piece on gender and protest in the last 350 years. It's really quite good - who knew the BBC's online News Magazine could do thought-provoking? Here's an extract:

In the early 18th Century, labourers in Surrey rioted in women's clothes, and men disguised as women tore down the hated tollbooths and turnpike gates on the Gloucestershire border. Most notoriously, the so-called 'Rebecca riots' in Wales in the 1830s and 1840s, by farmers and agricultural workers against taxes and tolls, were led by gangs of noisy men in women's clothes.

Found out why here.