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‘I’m just going to write because I cannot help it’ – Charlotte Brontё

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I wasn’t planning on posting again so soon but was quite intrigued by this subject. I’ve seen quite a few tweets over the last few days regarding Lily Cole and the Bront ё Society. If you haven’t seen anything about it, 2018 is the bi-centenary of Emily Brontё ’ s birth. Lily Cole has been appointed as creative partner for the commemoration led by the Bronte Parsonage Museum in West Yorkshire. Part of this included her making a short film about Heathcliff, from Bront ё ’s Wuthering Heights amongst other things. The reason it’s been in the news is because literature expert Nick Holland has resigned from the Society in protest over the decision. At first I thought this was a black and white issue but now I’m not so sure.  In Holland’s blog post, which you can read here , his main two issues with the decision seem to be: - the fact that Cole was chosen in order to attract a younger audience to the parsonage - the fact that she’s a supermodel I can clearly see why the ...
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History was not made by those who did nothing

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H ey. So. I watched a film and had some thoughts and they couldn't fit in a tweet. I've just finished watching 'Made in Dagenham' (2010), and it struck me in a way that few films do. The film follows the fictional Rita O'Grady, who leads the 1968 Ford female machinists in a strike, when they learn they are being re-graded as Category B (less skilled production jobs) and that they will be paid 15% less than men in the same section. The women fight against the sexual discrimination they face in the workplace and strike in a demand for equal pay, which eventually leads to the 1970 Equal Pay Act. The film made me stop and think for a few reasons. I knew that women didn't have equal pay and that it has been a contested issue for many years since, but it was the casual way that the men of the film reacted to the strike that shocked me. Husbands berating wives for standing up for their political and financial rights. There was one scene where a man was tal...
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