jenny

Killer Ink Giveaways, Competitions and Promotions

We run very regular giveaways and promotions, so when I get the information I need I jump into action! Here are a few examples of the kind of content I write which is used to promote the event on social media, by email, on the website and in pop-ups.

A Pound of Flesh Giveaways

Website, email and microcopy to promote competitions and sales!

A Pound of Flesh Giveaways
Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments
Killer Ink Blogging

Killer Ink Blogging

As a writer, I’ve written about a lot of subjects I don’t know or care about – that’s part of the job, and how I’ve managed to write for so many different industries. But sometimes you get paid to write about something you actually love: enter the tattoo supply company.

I’ve learned so much about the equipment and tools used in tattooing, the rules and regulations, as well as the culture of the industry. For someone who has long gone to comic conventions, my first tattoo convention felt like home.

In my job at Killer Ink I write everything from highly technical product descriptions to pun-filled microcopy. I get to inject a bit of badass energy into newsletters and blogs, and I also write video scripts – which is super technical, but a whole different kind of writing from that which is meant to be read!

Tattoo Convention Previews

There are several major tattoo conventions over the year, and we write preview blogs for a lot of them, but especially the ones we'll be filming at. They're full of helpful information for artists and enthusiasts, like who's going to be there, how much tickets cost, and what to expect in terms of entertainment.

Tattoo Convention Previews

Interview with Marc Gagnier – Founder of Recovery Aftercare

At Killer Ink we'll regularly highlight brands or products by doing interviews with someone high up in that company!

Interview with Marc Gagnier - Founder of Recovery Aftercare

Tattoo Studio Visit Videos

We send the videography team all over to get interviews and videos with amazing tattoo artists. If there's an interview, I'm the one who writes the questions (and occasionally asks them), then writes up the related blog post.

Tattoo Studio Visit Videos

Product Focus Blogs

Sometimes you just need to promote a product with all the information you have about it! A highly technical blog which simply explains everything about this particular rotary machine and power supply bundle.

Product Focus Blogs

Tattoo Convention Videos

For every convention we film, we need a blog to go with it, especially if one of our sponsored artists won an award! At Milano in 2022 they did, and we'd been lucky enough to get an interview with the winner Sampaguita Jay earlier in the weekend.

Tattoo Convention Videos

A Quick Look Back At 2022…

At the end of each year, one major blog is put together encompassing ALL of the blogs and video releases throughout the year. Beware, it's a monster!

A Quick Look Back At 2022...

Sponsored Artist of the Month

On the first Monday of every month, we post a blog like this. I typically write the questions for these, send them to the artist, then turn it into a blog - sometimes the writing needs quite a lot of proofreading, which doesn't bother me one bit!

Sponsored Artist of the Month

Best Seasonal Tattoo Blogs

At key points throughout the year, I'll write a blog like this that collects together excellent examples of the subject matter in question from our sponsored artists. Halloween is probably the easiest, as the industry is full of horror fans - Christmas was a little more challenging!

Best Seasonal Tattoo Blogs
Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments
Party Delights Blogging

Party Delights Blogging

I had pretty much full reign over the Party Delights blog, and it was my mission to improve the quality of content as well as create new content which would work well for the company.

Old blogs were assessed periodically to ensure they were up-to-date with products, well-written and hit a minimum number of words.

New blogs began with researching, usually either identifying a current trend to discuss or finding evergreen content to write on, such as commonly asked questions. I’d then run my concepts by the Design team and compromise where needed due to practicalities. I’d then research and write the content myself, minify and optimise the images and post the blog, coordinating with the Social and Email teams to promote individual blog posts.

How To Make An Arch With Balloons

Based on questions that constantly came up on the Party Delights social feeds, I worked closely with the Design and Social teams to create this helpful how-to guide

How To Make An Arch With Balloons

Mother’s Day Cupcake Bouquet Tutorial

A piece designed to show off a new product - the bouquet boxes - and to update a previous blog about giving your mum cupcakes for Mother's Day!

Mother's Day Cupcake Bouquet Tutorial

Fortnite Party Ideas & Free Printables

Party Delight's biggest sellers are kids' party supplies, but the blog was strangely lacking in set-up ideas. Here we provided everything you need for a (knock-off) Fortnite party, with costume suggestions, games, and free printables

Fortnite Party Ideas & Free Printables

10 Ways To Celebrate A Socially Distanced Halloween

I started my job with Party Delights during the first lockdown of 2020, and was presented with the problem of advertising our biggest season of the year while keeping our customers safe. Although this content was only really useful for that year, it had some great tips in it!

10 Ways To Celebrate A Socially Distanced Halloween

How To Throw The Best Disney Villains Party

Capitalising on the success of Disney's Cruella and Maleficent movies, I designed a Disney villains themed party complete with costume ideas and this amazing Ursula cake how-to!

How To Throw The Best Disney Villains Party

10 Ways To Celebrate A Socially Distanced Halloween

A major challenge at Party Delights was joining the company during a global pandemic - although these Covid-related blogs have limited reusability, we felt they gave good value to the reader

10 Ways To Celebrate A Socially Distanced Halloween

The Horror Movie Fancy Dress Lookbook

We were excited to be getting a new range of officially licensed Halloween costumes from Warner Bros, including versions of Jason and Freddy Kruger. I had some fun in promoting these costumes while presenting seriously creepy Halloween ideas.

The Horror Movie Fancy Dress Lookbook

Festival Themed Party Ideas For Your Garden

In the time of Covid, we couldn't promote - or even take photos of - more than one person inside at a time. This presented real problems for the Design team, which is why I came up with this idea of an outdoor party that people can do while socially distanced, that would still be useful in the future.

Festival Themed Party Ideas For Your Garden
Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments

Glacial Art Blogging

I was lucky enough to be in charge of the website, social media and blog content for an ice sculpting company that actually created the ice altar in Game of Thrones! We were told about the ice altar very early in the process and had to keep it firmly under wraps until the episode aired.

The Liverpool-based sculptors were often hired for experiential marketing campaigns, including creating an ice version of the Game of Thrones throne.

Click on the images to be taken to the full article and please note that due to the nature of agency work, in this case the blogs are not published under my name.

This was a huge opportunity to get some great PR for this company as Game of Thrones was the biggest thing on TV at that time! The story was actually picked up by several news agencies, including the Liverpool Echo.

A keyword-supported blog to get Glacial Arts appearing on the first page of SERPs for terms around "vodka luges"

Simply showing off the incredible sculptures shown in a beautiful city!

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments
Redesigning Party Delights’ About Us Page

Redesigning Party Delights’ About Us Page

When I joined Party Delights it was pretty clear to everyone involved that the About Us page was no longer fit for purpose. It told a different story of the company than the one we wanted to tell, but more importantly it was messily formatted and mostly made up of not very interesting milestones. Working with design and UX teams, I rewrote the content to frame it more around the new company CEOs and to be more selective about what accomplishments we showed.

We also put in extra information about the company’s attempts to start their eco journey, as well as the company values (click to enlarge!)

The Old About Us Page

The old About Us page was quite boring in the layout, really just a big block of text with a couple of headings.

It also discussed the original founder of the company, Alison Graham. This was a great story to start with, but years after Alison left the company we wanted to talk more about the current owners.

Finally, the Our Journey timeline was unnecessarily long and also a little buggy (see the month and year), while the entries weren’t very exciting. We narrowed down what timeline events we really wanted to focus on rather than putting everything out there.

Old version of the About Us page
New about us page

Newly designed Our Story page!

How much nicer is this?!

We designed the layout of the page so it flowed a little better downwards and kept things looking interesting.

The copy was jazzed up, as were some of the dry numbers. You can see that we reduced Alison’s story down to two paragraphs, which was all we needed to pay homage to her.

Further down we highlighted the MD Claire Grasby, our newest leader, and then the series of values that Party Delights claims to have.

Finally we added in a little information about progress towards being environmentally friendly, and narrowed down our milestones to just the most important ones (it’s still a lot!)

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments
Writing on Rhinestones!

Writing on Rhinestones!

Lately I’ve been working with the rhinestone company Crystal Parade on some more content for their blog.

Rhinestoning is something I’ve primarily learned through my burlesque mama, Millie Dollar, but as with all crafts I get FAR too excited about them!

Check out some of the pieces I’ve written, and I’ll update with more titles as they come out.

Posted by jenny in Latest, 0 comments
Whittingham Place

Whittingham Place

Click the picture to see the full PDF of my writing work on Whittingham Place, a prestigious housing development in Preston. A very specific tone of voice was needed for these!

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Amtico Laying Patterns

This involved taking a lot of complicated information and rewriting it to these two separate audiences – to make things more difficult, the offerings were slightly different between the two audiences!

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments

Milestone Games

While working at Mayfly Internet Marketing, I managed over a dozen company profiles on Facebook alone. One of these, and the one I had the least amount of time to spend on, was for a board game seller called Milestone Games (and I am a big board game nut). I used my knowledge of games, took photos mid-play in weekend and evening gaming sessions, edited them and created a strong, engaged community. Here are some of the images I created for use on Facebook.

Buzzfeed Quiz

To generate interest at Halloween, I also made this Buzzfeed quiz to find out what board game you should play - it's still live now if you click the image below.

Facebook Headers

 

Images for Social Engagement

 

Posted by jenny in Social Media, 0 comments

Wirral Waters Website

The regeneration zone of Wirral Waters needed a comprehensive website appealing to stakeholders, investors and the general public. Working closely with the director of the project, I pulled together the relevant information, fitted it to his own idea of what the brand voice should be, and helped to populate the website.

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments

Primark Christmas Campaign 2017

Before I joined Uniform, they had successfully bid for the global Primark Christmas campaign. This involved many elements of the team, but most of my work was based around social outreach. We created a series of microsites to help promote the theme of New Fashioned Christmas, including a Party Personality Quiz (wherein I wrote all of the Personalities, questions and answers, as well as intro text), an Excuse Generator (for which I helped to generate content suggestions) and one supporting the Christmas Unicorn Cab experiential (providing site text, directions for involvement and on-hand help for the promo film’s creation).

Party Apology Generator

We came up with the content and format for this, and then had to spend a lot of time looking for combinations that were too rude!

Party Personality Quiz

I researched and wrote the questions and answers for this fun little quiz, as well as creating the Personalities.

Social Media

We were tasked with creating a list of New Fashioned Christmas themed gifs and memes, some of which were used in campaigns while others served as inspiration! 

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, Social Media, 0 comments
Infinity Waters Script

Infinity Waters Script

Inifinity Waters is a future development at Liverpool Waterfront. The Architectural Visualisation department at Uniform created this beautiful film. I was lucky enough to work on the script for this highly-publicised piece. Working from a rough script they had produced, I injected a little excitement into the descriptions and helped to create a proper flow of script for the video.

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments

Bedrock Gin Export

Uniform have worked with Spirit of the Lakes through a range of products, most recently their premium export strength gin, Bedrock Export. Using the brand tone of voice documents created in-house by Uniform’s Senior Copywriter, Steve Lalley, and a short description of the taste, I was given free reign to resdesign the style of writing for Bedrock Export with a bolder and more assertive tone across online promotions, point of sale and bottle descriptions.

Posted by jenny in Copywriting, 0 comments
Nadine Shah — A Live Show & Album Review

Nadine Shah — A Live Show & Album Review

The first time I laid eyes on Nadine Shah, she was not what I expected.

From the reviews I’d read, I’d imagined this willowy, sinuous and androgynous creature, hair slicked back and a steely expression. What I wasn’t prepared for was recognising her in a relatively short, bob cut, smiling body with a bubbly, welcoming Geordie accent – someone who looks both friendly and accessible, passionate and steadfast, and who switches with a twitch of the lips between statuesque model to someone any of us might know. While I would have loved to have seen the Nadine Shah of the Fool video — a brutally cutting song, therefore my favourite — this new version of her (in my mind, at least) was an unexpected delight.

“You my sweet are a fool, you my sweet are plain and weak,
Go let the other girls indulge the crap that you excrete”

When I saw her first in Sheffield, I made the mistake of drinking more than I’d thought. I endured the supporting act that was entirely not to my taste, and then I danced. Oh god, how I danced. For music that I’d usually listen to in the bath, I danced my arse off, and had an incredible time – even if, at the end, I couldn’t quite remember which songs were played.

Nadine Shah in the video for Fool

So the next time my opportunity came around, I was ready. I wasn’t going to drink. I had a broken foot but, luckily for me, the venue at which she was playing was hugely accommodating, reserving a sofa right to the side of the stage. So what that my vision was mostly blocked: my pain was alleviated, I got to enjoy the show, and every now and then I had a clear view to stare in slack-jawed passion at this incredible woman, whose incredible beauty seems entirely unknown to her.

She’s passionate, she’s expressive, and she dances like no one’s watching – even when a room of people who have paid to see her are in fact watching – and I can’t help but respect the Patti Smith-esque display. Every droplet of emotion heard in her songs turns into a tidal wave when seen live. You know the way most people can’t help but clutch their fists in the air to power ballads?  That’s how Nadine looks when she’s performing – like I imagine I look when I’m singing along with gusto, but probably much more impressive.

Credit to Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

But it’s no wonder this passion comes through in her live shows. Her newest album, Holiday Destination, is more widely political than either of her two previous albums. She sings about the despairs of 2016; living in a Trump-ruled world; and perhaps closest to her heart the refugee crisis (as the daughter of two immigrants, it would be difficult not to feel strongly about this). Her songs vary in tone from dark and anguished to full of joy, but even the more upbeat of her collections tend to be sarcastic, even cruel. With this album especially she rockets between total despair and inspired hope; especially in Mother Fighter, her ode to political activist Raghda who was featured in A Syrian Love Story. Casting off the more commercial, radio-friendly hits of her previous album Fast Food (by no means an insult – music can be meaningful and accessible at the same time) and the smoke-filled jazz lounge set of Love Your Dum and Mad, Holiday Destination is more of a call to arms than anything else.

Where would you have them go,
A generation searching for a home?

During the performance, she spoke about the importance of artists in discussing politics. So many fans try to discourage artists and especially musicians from becoming political, and Shah has been particularly praised for highlighting issues such as the Trump administration, the refugee crisis and more — but she wanted to know how any artist could remain apolitical in times like this. Although I could name a few bands that have released songs about Trump, Brexit and refugee crises, they’re often bands like Depeche Mode that have always been political. For me, the greater question is how can any artist who sees what’s happening in the world not want to write about it? The answer is, unfortunately, “easily”.

“Cruel 2016 was the year that took our idols,
What is there left to inspire us with a fascist in the White House?”

Making the night even more special was her live backing band. Featuring collaborator Ben Hillier among other seasoned session musicians, they weren’t just a humble backup — everyone on stage worked together, regularly smiling at each other and grooving along to the music. Combined with her effortless vocal acrobatics which from honey-smooth to hauntingly husky, the entire band’s presence and undeniable skill kept the audience enraptured.

I can’t wait to see what Nadine (that’s Nay-dine, not Nuh-dine) comes up with for her next album – especially if she does decide to do something separate from her long-time collaborator (and all-round music legend) Ben Hillier. With a track record for one album every three years, I hope to be enjoying and appreciating her newest offerings in 2019!

Posted by jenny in Music, 0 comments
Thought Bubble 2017

Thought Bubble 2017

Oh, Thought Bubble.

Highlight of my social calendar, pinnacle of the annual comic world. It’s gotten bigger each year but managed to maintain its charm. Despite only managing a day of this year’s convention, I had an incredible time and met so many wonderful creators.

This year was the first Thought Bubble not to take place at the Royal Armouries Hall and surrounding areas, and there was some concern that some of the atmosphere might have been diluted by the presence of the “normal” people going about their business in Leeds city centre. But aside from the few weddings trying to take place amidst a swarm of cosplayers (sorry, guys) it didn’t feel diminished.

One of my favourite things about this year were the huge number of LGBT stalls – so many in fact that some enterprising person made their own “rainbow road” map of the convention, the easiest way to take in all of the fantastic LGBT comics, art and merch on display. Falling as it did on Bi Visibility Day, it felt especially poignant to pick up this excellent pin.

My personal mission for the day was to get my Saga Vol 1 signed by Brian K Vaughan, and to get my email address into his hands, and it was certainly worth getting in early to get that accomplished in the first hour. As out of touch as I’ve been with comics this last year, I wasn’t sure who was worth looking out for – except for Gillen and McKelvie, creators of The Wicked and The Divine (among others), whose signatures I’ve sought out for the last few years to no avail. Obviously the first year that I didn’t bring anything for them to sign, their queues were accessible!

There was a divide at the weekend between those excited about Gerard Way’s appearance, and people like me who wondered why anyone cared. Admittedly I’ve never read any of his comics, and I have been told by reputable sources that they’re good, but I find it hard to shake off the anti-emo sentiment of my metalhead teens. Clearly I was in the minority though, as Way’s queue would suggest (Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool got it on video) and tales circulated of fans crying as they came away from his table. I was marginally worried that the grown-up-emo contingency might ruin the vibes, but they were generally occupied in his very long queue all day, so it certainly could have been worse.

Without further ado, this year’s haul!

From top left going anticlockwise:

Time and Space – An H.G. Wells Comic Anthology from Dundee University

The Skillamalink Chuckaboos (illustrated limericks) by Stish

Death Sentence #1 by Montynero and Martin Simmonds

D & Doodles, an artbook anthology by various artists

A drawing of my head on a snake warrior’s body by Awesome Comics

Into The Black by Benji Goldsmith & CJ Reay of Black Lodge Press

Freebies: The Graverobber by Tom Burleigh, Dr Geof‘s Colouring Book of Cats With Their Tanks preview, and The Song Collector preview

Video Games For Good, an anthology curated by Claire Hubbard

Flirting With Death by Rudra Purkayastha, Lyndon White and Paulina Vassileva

 

I also picked up this beautiful necklace from Birch, Please (whose designs I’ve been painfully resisting for years)

And this amazing Divine patch from Black Lodge Press

So long, my comics family – see you next year at Thought Bubble!

Save

Posted by jenny in Comics, 1 comment
Wonder Woman: An LGG Review

Wonder Woman: An LGG Review

The new Wonder Woman film had a huge challenge in front of it: pleasing both the feminists who were pushing for equal representation in superhero movies, as well as the misogynist action-lovers who assumed that a female superhero could never work as an action film. Despite the films’ faults – exacerbated by the disproportionate amount of scrutiny under which it fell – it performed admirably on both fronts.

Although I love comics, I never managed to develop a passion for Wonder Woman. I tended to think of her more as a female Superman than anything else – and I didn’t particularly care for him either. While my attention was focussed by the dark, gritty world of Batman, I missed out on the bizarre humour, sensitivity, kinkiness and action of Wonder Woman. Making a chick flick of Wonder Woman would have ruined it completely: instead, Jenkins balanced wonderfully on the edges of extreme violence and cautious optimism for the state of the world.

Wonder Woman was created by the polygamous inventor and psychologist William Moulton Marston. A psychologist who by all accounts loved and respected his wife, another psychologist named Elizabeth, he imagined a superhero who would fight with love instead of brute force and took on her suggestion that it should be a woman. Their live-in partner was the physical inspiration for the very first Wonder Woman, her bracelets of power taken from those that Olive often wore. Elizabeth and Olive would go on to create their personal version of Themyscira, co-parenting their children by William after his death and living together well into old age.

Marston believed in a sexually liberated, powerful woman. He believed that the future belonged to these women: that they would be the ones to guide humanity to a more peaceful future. He was a dedicated feminist, in a time when the idea was virtually unheard of, especially in men. He believed that bondage and submission in both genders could be a loving and empowering experience, and long before Beyonce he knew that girls should run the world. He was remarkable in expressing complex ideals of gender as early as the 1930s.

In The American Scholar, he wrote:

Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.

Sadly, Marston lost his life at a young age, after just six years of working on Wonder Woman comics. Control of her character moved hands several times from then, each writer taking her in a different direction, from whimsical to patronising and so on. When she was eventually accepted into the Justice Society of America (which would later become the Justice League), it was as their secretary.

Now that we have the background out of the way, let’s get into a spoilerific review!

I can only tell you my opinion of the film, which is that it was everything I hoped for. The Amazons were athletic and beautiful, their presence on screen defined by displays of muscle and feats of strength. Diana is no different, although her status as the youngest of the Amazons – and one who is part god – is shown in her naive impetuousness, out of which she often has to fight.

At points, her ignorance of the world at large is used for comic relief and sometimes it leads to profound moments of gender and societal satire. When Diana is taken shopping, she believes a corset to be a kind of armour, and doesn’t understand the concept of having to reign in her stomach. The main source of comedy in the film – the tenacious Etta Candy, played by Lucy Davis in a way that would have fit well into the Ghostbusters remake – remarks that only a woman with no stomach would say that. It’s easy to accept this as a straightforward statement about the foibles of gender, or you could read it as Diana’s insight into the ridiculous extremes that women have gone to for the purpose of pleasing men. This, obviously, not being a problem where Diana is from.

The entirety of Steve and Diana’s relationship seems based on an inversion of traditional sexist filmmaking. Shortly after his arrival Steve (played by real-life sex symbol Chris Pine) bathes in a rock pool, and Diana’s intense scrutiny of his body when he emerges is the perfect example of a female gaze. Confused about Steve’s watch, she asks, innocently enough, “you let that little thing tell you what to do?” Combined with Steve’s continued protestations that he is an “above average” specimen of a man, we get a wry feminist sense of humour which – I could be wrong – aren’t alienating to men. Later on, Steve will take on the role of most women in superhero and action films – the sacrificial lamb, whose demise spurns the hero on to fulfil their potential.

Although the film is largely propped up by a male cast, the women truly stand out. Aside from Diana herself, Etta Candy’s part – however small – is fantastic, providing the sassy female sidekick whose lack of fighting experience doesn’t prevent her from lifting a sword to help. Even the cast of villainy represented women, with the girls-can-be-evil-too murderous scientist who provides her male counterpart with the strength he needs to even attempt to fight Diana.

Diana is beautiful, of course, and strong. She is the woman who reclaims No Man’s Land, who as a child sets her heart on a weapon to kill gods, who resolutely does not do what she’s told and who gently, forcefully, pushes away unwanted physical contact. She realises early on that pitting men against women isn’t helpful, and that love not rage can save the world…however, she isn’t afraid to cut some bad guys down on the journey and dominate a battle scene.

Wonder Woman is by no means the perfect superhero movie – if one can be said to exist – but coming as it has after a decade-long deluge that would have been nigh-on impossible to achieve. Of course, everyone’s ideal superhero flick will be slightly different, but if you’re a fan of explosive action scenes, mythology, ground-shattering landings and fight scenes of dazzling strength interspersed with wit, you won’t go far wrong with Wonder Woman.

Bring on the Justice League movie..

Originally posted on Liverpool Girl Geeks

Posted by jenny in Film & TV, 0 comments
How To Be A Badass: Course Review

How To Be A Badass: Course Review

I recently went along to ‘How to be a Badass’ training, which was provided by Liverpool Girl Geeks and led by Jenny Radcliffe. The two-hour session was designed to address some of the known issues around women in tech; namely that we often lack key negotiation skills and the resilience to navigate a male dominated workplace. Here I’m going to share some of the insights so that you too can become a Badass…

People Hacking

Jenny describes herself as a ‘social engineer,’ which is ominously ambigious, but basically entails the art of psychological manipulation or ‘people hacking.’ Jenny is equal parts endearing and terrifying: after telling us how she’s made an art of affability, my mind is immediately filled with suspicion. But she also seems like a genuinely interesting person with whom to have a drink and a chat.

It’s hard not to like her immediately. Her casual references to Discworld and Firefly, as well as the Mr Robot Evil Corp sticker on her laptop, automatically ingratiated her to a room of geeky girls. We talk about how difficult communication is for most people, perhaps especially for women – we’re often spoken over and ignored in professional situations, the social expectation for us to be demure is often butting heads with a need to be assertive.

It’s interesting to note however that in negotiation, talking loudest doesn’t always work, and in fact the real power lies with the listener.

She encourages us to continue with many traditionally female tactics, such as trying to understand others point of view and attempting to create a situation in which everyone wins. So often in business, women are encouraged to assume masculine traits – to show how professional they are through aggressive handshakes and powerful poses.

It’s a relief to hear that these aren’t generally considered to be indicators of professional success, and in fact betray a forced sincerity. Yet there are aspects of traditional femininity that we need to tone down. For instance, trying to keep emotion out of the debate can be one thing that is especially difficult for us women.

But it wasn’t all hippy-style communication techniques! She also talked about various methods used in torture, such as how to discover what people fear most and use it against them, and also explains ‘Aristotle’s rhetorical devices’ which are an effective tool for getting your argument across. I could go on here as it was fascinating stuff, but as her sessions sell for thousands I wouldn’t want to sell her short by giving the tools away for free!

Negotiation tips

The first half of our session dealt with negotiation. For many of us, we fall into business out of the necessity of having a job – we aren’t trained in how to negotiate a salary or ask for a raise, and most of the time our employers benefit from this situation. I’m lucky that I was brought up knowing my rights, and have a partner involved in a union, but generally speaking our society encourages us to be thankful for any paid employment and not to push for more. Being given the tools to properly prepare, to keep yourself calm and to reach a situation that pleases everyone is a valuable gift.

She talks to us about what we need to plan out before going into a negotiation – the outcomes you want, the interest lying beneath (for both parties), and the logical way to go about getting these things. I’ve often felt very anxious going into any kind of conflict, but having the right preparation underway can not only help you in the meeting, but also to calm nerves ahead of the sit-down. She explained a few in-depth psychological concepts but also how to present facts in a logical order and examining the motivations behind everyone’s position. I felt like this was really important – so often, business coaching seems to involve fighting to get what you want at the cost of others. Jenny made it clear that it doesn’t have to be this way, and in fact you’re more likely to get what you want when you appeal to what the other party wants as well.

The art of reading body language

The second part of our session was concerned with body language, and here I was totally hooked. As someone who binge watched ‘Lie To Me,’ I find the whole concept of micro-expressions and body language fascinating. Luckily, Jenny quickly assuaged my fears that she’d be telling us how to spot a liar based on minor ticks and microexpressions. The truth is, it doesn’t work like that – not everyone lies in the same way, or has the same giveaways, and you can’t always draw conclusions from a single point of data.

We learn body language from childhood, but it’s never taught to us directly. So we learn that this facial expression means sadness, this means happiness, this means fear, and we use their face and their body to decide whether they are strong people, truthful, confident or otherwise. The leaders among us will be the best at communicating non-verbally, making their words match their actions – and politicians are a whole other kettle of fish!

Log your successes

survivedLastly, she gave us some confidence tips, which felt like a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – teaching us not to think in extremes, not to beat ourselves up for not achieving perfection, and to focus on solving a problem rather than assigning blame. One very important note she gave was to log our successes: most people will remember their failures far more acutely than their successes, but the wins are so much more important. By keeping a note of when your work has been praised, or when you’ve received a compliment, you have a record to look back on when you feel like a failure.

In short, I could have listened to Jenny talk for days. Whether she was telling us how to engage in manipulation, or showing us how to be confident her talk was fascinating. Everything could either be used practically, or was of great interest; after all, don’t we all want to learn those secrets of the body that give us away, and can help us to understand each other better?

 

Originally posted on Liverpool Girl Geeks

Posted by jenny in Miscellaneous, 0 comments
Steven Universe: A Feminist Dream

Steven Universe: A Feminist Dream

Let’s have a chat about Steven Universe.

Steven Universe is two shows. One is about a supernatural boy living with his ass-kicking alien guardians, fighting the forces of evil that would literally tear the world apart; the other, a magic boy with a pink shield, teaching compassion and humanity to ancient otherworldly women made of precious stones.

But the fact that it doesn’t easily fit into the concept of a ‘girls’ or boys’ show is the awesome foundation on which this show is built.

The Premise (real quick)

Steven is the child of a human male and a Gem woman. He lives with three alien women – the Crystal Gems – who are part of a rebellion against their home planet. As Steven grows up he learns more about his mother and ancestry, developing his powers and helping the Gems to protect Earth.

The Crystal Gems

The Gems’ Homeworld comes across as a nightmarish dystopian oligarchy, ruled by the Diamonds. The rest of the gems are ranked in order of rarity and strength, from Crystals down to Pearls, which are mass-manufactured servant gems. Every gem has their pre-ordained role, and is expected to do nothing else – it’s like something Aldous Huxley would have written.

The more you learn about the Gems’ planet and society, the more impressive the Crystal Gems appear. Amethyst, the youngest, emerged on Earth and lived her first years in isolation; Pearl has learned to be her own Gem, rejecting her preordained life of servitude.

Love is Love

The third Gem, Garnet, is probably the most complex of the Crystal Gems. A fusion of two gems, she is an amalgamation of the aristocratic Sapphire and a standard Ruby soldier, who fall in love over the class divide. Despite the fact that Sapphire’s life is valued much more highly than Ruby’s, the two have a love so great that they can’t bear being apart – so they never are. Garnet is a unique combination, possessing both Sapphire’s stoicism and Ruby’s passion.

Pearl also has a great love – the now absent Rose Quartz, Steven’s mother. Her resentment for Steven’s father isn’t subtle, and there’s no attempt to shy away from the fact that what she felt for Rose wasn’t loyalty or admiration, but truly romantic love.

There are other shows which feature gay and lesbian relationships, although they are typically more subtle. Adventure Time and The Legend of Korra are both commendable for including lesbian relationships – Princess Bubblegum and Marceline in Adventure Time were obviously once an item, and Korra’s hand-holding and lingering looks with Asami have been confirmed as indication of their blossoming romance.

There are certainly other examples, although many of them require a little reading between the lines, usually thanks to restrictions set by less progressive networks.

Any amount of normalising non-conventional is commendable, but Steven Universe is hugely successful in being overt without making an issue of it. There’s no shock and horror from anyone that a woman could love another woman; it’s not a defining character trait or a point of contention. It just is.

Pick A Gender, Any Gender

When you first tackle Steven Universe, you might be unsure where to place it in terms of childrens’ cartoons. The protagonist is male, but his powers, in the form of a rose shield and healing spit, are traditionally feminine (within the standard fantasy adventure set-up). The Gems appear as humanoid females, but their bodies are an illusion, and gender an alien concept. It’s tempting to try and apply female qualities to the Gems, as we so often see male and female as binary opposites. By taking away the option of being male, we can more easily perceive the sliding scale of gender in all of its complexities.

Steven’s best friend Connie is another fantastic addition to the show, a remarkably intelligent young girl who becomes his fearless ally and sword-wielding protector. Their friendship is built on equality, and just like Garnet they work best together, becoming both the sword and the shield.

Steven Universe contains storylines about friendship and understanding, and others about monsters, horrible experiments and the desire to fight. It’s nowhere near as overtly female-oriented as the Powerpuff Girls, but also not as traditionally masculine as other fighting cartoons such as The Power Rangers. Frankly, it manages to toe the tightrope of gender neutrality better than any other show I can think of, even the incredible Adventure Time.

In times like these, it’s all too easy to feel that attitudes about women and homosexuality are becoming less progressive: that’s why it’s such a beautiful thing to see inclusivity and feminism in shows for children.

Steven Universe isn’t the first to introduce these concepts, it shouldn’t be the last, and – despite intervention from networks slowing progress – there does seem to be a greater level of acceptance moving forward.

If, like me, you dream of a world where gender or sexuality doesn’t define your character, I urge you to enjoy some Steven Universe.

 

Originally posted on Liverpool Girl Geeks

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Posted by jenny in Film & TV, 0 comments
Depeche Mode – Spirit

Depeche Mode – Spirit

“Possibly the band’s most industrial, wrath and rancour-filled album, Spirit deals with the darkest parts of the human experience, including apathy, self-hatred, political revolt and hopelessness. A lot of Spirit despairs at humanity; it’s hard not to see the effect of Trump, Brexit and the rise of far right extremism on this album…”

 

Head to Soundsphere magazine to read my full review of Depeche Mode’s Spirit

Posted by jenny in Music, 0 comments
Fifty Shades Of Feline

Fifty Shades Of Feline

Making new years resolutions – and, crucially, following them – has never been a strong suit of mine. So this year I’m not giving anything up, I’m not setting unrealistic goals, and I will plan for things to go wrong.

What I am doing is encouraging myself – and others – to practice their artistic talents by producing fifty pieces of art related to cats over the course of the year.

That’s right.

It’s Fifty Shades of Feline.

“But how do I get in on the ground floor of this revolutionary idea?!” I hear you cry. Allow me to expatiate!

  • Create a piece of art inspired by your cat or other cats (I’m sure like many others, my cat is my muse). Draw, paint, sing, make videos, craft – whatever you feel like.
  • Use the hashtag #fiftyshadesoffeline so that we can see everyone’s work, and I’ll repost some.
  • Nothing has to be perfect, beautifully artistic or poignant. Just do what you can and get it out there! It’s about quantity, not quality.
  • You may have noticed that a year has 52 weeks in it. I have done 50 specifically so that you can have two weeks off. Use them wisely!
  • The idea is to have 50 pieces by the end of 2017. If you don’t end up starting until later in the year, you can choose to either play catch-up or start the year from your first piece. Your call.

 

I’m going to be attempting this with my fancy new drawing tablet. I can’t draw, so don’t expect much.

Let’s kick this off shall we?!

fiftyshades1

 

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Posted by jenny in Miscellaneous, 0 comments