This weekend I travelled down to Manchester to attend pride with my bf. (I know, feminist with a cat and a gay best friend-stereotypes r us) Thoughts from the weekend were-

1. I normally HATE the pussy cat dolls, but watching a club full of men with men and women with women grinding away made me rethink my whole objection to them. It's all about the context. Young girls watching strippers lap dance for snoop (who is hardly known for his women friendly lyrics) is disgraceful, and that horrific "don’t cha" song boils my blood-regurgitating all the damaging myths about heterosexual relationships and competition between young women-BUT here it was in an out and proud environment where all this seemed to reflect nothing but entertainment. Grown men and women enjoying their day in their space and dancing to music they wanted too…
2. Dancing, drinking and laughing in an environment where I was completely free from grabs and gropes was excellent. I didn’t worry at all about someone saying/doing anything to me and I loved it. However, not so for my bf, he said it’s completely the opposite for him and he’s had numerous occasions where someone’s tried to put their hands down his trousers!
3. Dancing behind some drag queens made me think about the whole issue of gender behaviour. They were, dare I say it, acting like the worst kind of women. Giving the evil eye, coming over all swooning and incompetent, waiting for a big strong man to rescue them from not having a light. It just made me feel weird watching a man act out all the behaviours, I as a woman, feel uncomfortable with.
4. There was lots of semi naked dancing men giving it some on podieums and I’ve got to say, a man in nothing but hot pants is actually a very nice sight. I don’t like the idea of women dancing like that-but why is it ok for a man? Am I being completely hypocritical, or is it more about context? (A woman lap dancing in the context of societal gender exploitation is more degrading than a man doing the same thing)

Brought up a lot of interesting thoughts which we tried to talk over, unsuccessfully, with raging hangovers and we ended up watching the x factor instead. So, any thoughts?