The VOICE JOURNAL
Rants. Plus poems about rage, motherhood, politics, grief, awakening and the refusal to be quiet. New work posted as it happens. Read, share, feel something.
You Can Have It All
They told us we could have it all. The career, the kids, the spotless house, the lot. It was never an offer. It was a workload dressed up as freedom. Here's the con, and what I'm doing about it.
The Monster Has A Lanyard
We hand girls a faceless monster and point them at the shadows. We never tell them to look at the lanyard. On the myth that protects the trusted man, and the case that proves it.
How To Be The Best At Everything
I found two books in a charity shop. One teaches boys how to fight a bull. One teaches girls how to look beautiful tomorrow. Both published well within my lifetime. This is the painting that arrived in one second, and the lifetime of sorting that made it inevitable.
Every Reason Not To Ban It
The ban's real. So is every argument against it. Here's what I think of each one, where I'm on shakier ground than I'd like, and why none of it changes my mind.
Eight Minutes
He gets 23 minutes before the algorithm radicalises him. She gets 8 before it tells her she’s not enough. Same machine. Different position.
Let’s Just Blame The Parents
Every time I write about what the internet is doing to kids, someone says it's just bad parenting. It’s not. We age-gate everything else that harms children and back parents with the law. Social media is the one shop with no line, and we're blaming the parents instead of the dealer.
23 Minutes
Twenty three minutes. That is how long it takes the internet to start teaching a thirteen year old boy that women are beneath him. He never went looking. It found him, in his pocket, while no one was watching.
It Was Never Just One Bad Judge
Getting rid of one judge will not fix this. It was never just one bad judge. It was a system built in a world that has never taken violence against women and girls seriously enough. One man pulled the trigger. The system loaded the gun.
They Did Everything Right
They reported it. They were believed. A jury convicted the boys who raped them ten times over. And a judge sent all three home, without a single night in prison. This was never just a verdict for two girls in Hampshire. Every woman in the country read it.
Let’s take it all back. #shadesofwomen
Smart glasses are becoming more of a thing. And it’s NOT good for women. Men are using them to secretly film us in public. One woman’s video got 23 million views before she even knew it existed. Here’s what we do about it.
Uncontainable
Too much in my head. So I painted. Uncontainable is a mixed media artwork about feminist rage, collective voice, and refusing to be quiet.
Rage. Roar. Rise.
You know Live. Laugh. Love. You have seen it on kitchen walls and coffee mugs and cushions and cards. Handed to women as the full extent of what they are supposed to feel and want and be. Content. Quiet. Decorative. Grateful. I took that format and I put something else inside it.
I Could No Longer Stay Quiet
I started With Shaking Hands because I could no longer contain it. The rage. The grief. The watching. The knowing. The gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be, and the feeling of standing at the edge of that gap with no bridge and no ladder and no way across…
Because. We.
Because I am an English woman,
and I care what happens there.
Because what they do with women’s rights
ripples through the global air.
Because in the land of the free,
they’ve locked the clinic door…
The Rucksack
There’s a rucksack I carry.
Invisible, but heavy.
It wasn’t packed in one go,
just a slow, relentless loading.
Not days or months,
but years of collecting…
Can You Even Imagine?
I didn’t mean to cry today
not in the cereal aisle.
Not because of war.
But I thought about my boy,
his Spiderman pyjamas,
the way he skips when he runs…
Brave Enough
You don’t have to roar.
You don’t have to rise with fists clenched,
shoulders squared,
battle cry ready.
You don’t even have to move…