Critic Cal

patriarchy , n .  Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˈpeɪtrɪɑːki/ , /ˈpatrɪɑːki/ , U.S. /ˈpeɪtriˌɑrki/ Forms:  15 patriarchie , 16– patriarchy .  1.  A term used by feminists, to blame men for all their problems.  Jane: "Why have we ran out of bread?"  Gill: "Because of the patriarchy."   Ooh, those cheeky  Urban Lexicographers ! Still ... they kinda got a point, right? It does  seem a fair amount of feminist fuss about nothing. Women these days ... I mean, career advancement can be slow for those insisting on the whole 'time off to play with babies' thing, but we've got jobs ... the vote ... I'm pretty sure the Spice Girls never would've happened if Patriarchy. Not to mention Buffy. Work hard, make smart choices, quit complaining ... you'll do fine, ladies! Worked for me. Well done me. Well done for being white, Western, wealthy, heterosexual, educated, childless .... Hmm. Thing is, see (I'm starting to, a bit, I think) -- this is...

There's few songs quite like Pulp's Common People  to jeopardise one's vocal cords. It came on in the car on the way to church the other day, and away we went, belting it out full volume leaving little in reserve for the song-sermon-sandwich that awaited. And oh! did we sing it with feeling. I can hardly begin to tell you how much I really meant it , y'know? She would never understand  -- how could she? How could she have any idea  how it feels ? y'know? to live one's life with no  meaning  ... no  control . Sure, she could go through the motions -- rent a run-down little flat above a chemist, spend her days behind the counter in MacDonalds, acquire a taste for Benson and Hedge's finest, make a name for herself at the local pool hall, shrug her high-brow education off like a sharp suit jacket in a sports bar ... But at the end of the day, lying there weary in bed, still smelling of chip fat, and $%*!-it there's another cockroach --maybe she'd stic...

"Prison changes a man". Except, it seems, it all-too-often doesn't . Research reported in this 2010 article , for example, found reconviction rates of 70% or more in 14 UK prisons. Here's not to dwell on the statistics though -- they can be misrepresentative and/or misrepresented and besides I've no desire to get drawn into the science or politics of the prison system. Suffice to say, the seemingly well-established fact is that incarcerating a troubled (drug dependent? alcoholic? mentally ill? socially marginalised? embittered? abused? self-deceiving? desperate? unemployable?) person is unlikely to relieve them of their troubled state and may well serve to exacerbate and further entrench the patterns of damaging behaviour that got them in there in the first place. Enter Gordon Ramsay. *Sigh*. Channel 4's ' Gordon Behind Bars ' is the latest in a string of 'famous chefs solve major societal problems' campaigns, and, for all its good intentions...