Privilege and White Privilege

Ruth HartleyIdentity, Power, Race, Poilitics,, Privilege2 Comments

Privilege Privilege as a distinction between people or classes or societies is never going to disappear. It can be based on skin colour, and also, or as well as, on religion, money, or education, all of which can give one power. We don’t choose at birth to be privileged or to less privileged, it is what, who and where we […]

Domestic Labour, Women’s Work, Servants and Exploitation

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Intimacy and Power, Power, Race, Poilitics,, Power, Race, Politics,Leave a Comment

Unpaid Work A quick search gave me this answer, so I quote – “Domestic labour refers to the unpaid work done within households, encompassing tasks like housework, childcare, and other forms of care work.” The key is that it is unpaid work and 56 years after I joined the 1970 Women’s Movement it is still mostly women’s work. I quote […]

Food, Family and Love

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, antisemitism, Conflict, Human rights, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, War3 Comments

Yesterday I was driven to look at my wonderful collection of cookbooks. I did so because I was furious. I had something to prove, and I knew the answer would be in my kitchen on the shelf above my bread board, kettle and toaster. (I’ll tell you what made me angry later in this blog post – perhaps you’ll guess […]

The Shoah and the Confusions of Warring

Ruth Hartleyantisemitism, Conflict, Displacement, Feminism, History, Politics, Power, War4 Comments

Full Metal Jacket and the dualities of being a human The 1987 Kubrik film Full Metal Jacket stars Matthew Modine as Private Joker, an American soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. Netflix removed BORN TO KILL from his helmet and destroyed the film’s theme of the duality of human nature. Next to BORN TO KILL was the symbol of peace […]

Campus Sit-ins from 1968 Vietnam to 2024 Gaza

Ruth Hartleyantisemitism, Colonialism, Conflict, Feminism, History, Human rights, Politics, Power, War2 Comments

Campus Sit-ins 56 years ago     I was late, as usual, for my sociology course at the London School of Economics because I had to take my 2-year-old child to the Infant Nursery School on Kingsway first. At the main entrance to the old building, I was invited to step under the rope that kept out the teaching staff and join […]