Silly pop songs, over-the-top costumes and dance routines, and a (possibly) fake sense of intra-European bonhomie.

Yes, it's easy to dismiss the annual Eurovision song contest.

But wait. This year might be a little bit different. Eurovision might actually get political - and not just political in the usual...

Is porn a "huge wart" on our society, as Germaine Greer puts it, or is it beneficial? Or both? And is it worth studying as an academic discipline?

Whatever your views are on pornography, and especially on how it affects the next generation, we can't deny that it's freely and...

Sometimes people claim that we don't need feminism any more. Women have rights, they argue, so what more could they possibly want or need?

One only needs to look around the world at the terrible situation for many girls and women to realise that feminism is still necessary and vital....

This week, the big news for queers and sports fans (and queer sports fans, of course) was that basketball star Jason Collins came out as gay.

He stated that he would rather not have been the first athlete on a major professional team in the US to do so, but...

In all the news stories this week about former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her legacy, there have been few mentions of Section 28. That's odd, because all the recent political and social shifts regarding homosexuality in the UK, the US, and elsewhere show just how wrong Thatcher was, and...

So, is February LGBT History Month? LGBTQ History Month? LGBTQQIA History Month? Queer History Month? GSM History Month? GAM History Month? Or something else altogether?

While special days and months such as LGBT History Month are great for awareness-raising, they can also be a challenge for other reasons. No community...

LGBT History Month is a good time to consider whether and, if so, how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are represented in popular media. While TV shows, films, and books are frequently analysed, one form of popular media that might get forgotten is video games. So how do video...

February is LGBT History Month here in the UK. In my opinion, this means a few things.

First of all, we can start by looking back and considering what lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have accomplished in the past, how they have been treated, and what their circumstances...

What made so many adults so very keen on the Harry Potter books? How does Dr Seuss help children learn how to read? In what ways does Winnie-the-Pooh reflect British colonial attitudes? What messages do readers get about punishment from fairy tales? Why did some people consider Judy Blume's books...

News flash: Suffering is not a competition, regardless of what Julie Burchill and her ilk would have you think. Suffering is not really something you can quantify and compare and, even if it were, what would be the point?

Burchill, Suzanne Moore, and Julie Bindel recently have gotten into an(other)...

The new year brought with it the news that rail fares are going up even more in the UK, even surpassing the increase to average incomes. Considering what you get for the amount of money you pay for a rail journey in this country and considering how essential it is...

Christmas is traditionally quite a gendered holiday, especially when it comes to children. Here are some lovely dolls to buy for the girls in your life, and some toy dinosaurs for the boys. Or there's the big book of alien stories (with a dark blue cover) for the young male...

Food connects us to one another. We break bread together to forge bonds.

Christmas - as with most holidays, in fact - is often very food-centred. For many people, cooking and eating during holidays is fun and exciting (while, of course, for others, it is stressful and upsetting, for a...

Jingle bells, jingle bells.

Will someone please turn off those stupid jingling bells?

Why must we be attacked by the ghost of Christmas commercialism everywhere we go? And why has this been the case since, oh, October?

In practically every place you go in this country, Christmas music is playing,...

Not long ago, my hair piece received a lot of attention.

I wrote an article here on The Huffington Post UK about pubic hair and the response to that article was overwhelming. There were more than 400 comments, over 600 shares on various social media, and in excess of...

Bushy pubic hair floating like seaweed in a bathtub.

It's a lovely image, isn't it? It makes me think of a soft, soothing pile of hair, a welcoming cushion, a beautiful, slightly mysterious place.

Well, Cameron Diaz doesn't think so. In fact, she seems to think it's something disgusting, something...

What a gay election in the US this week!

The election was historical and important in many ways, but one of the biggest was in regard to rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

As has been noted in the news, Maine, Washington and Maryland voted to approve same-sex...

Here's some really gay news. And by "gay", I mean "great".

This week, it was announced that France is going to start teaching about LGBTQ issues in primary schools as a way of helping to combat homophobia. They've likened the situation to educating young people about other types of bullying.

At many gyms, large TV screens show a non-stop series of music videos, presumably to get people pumped up and ready to work out. But these videos are interesting for another reason: the messages they offer about society.

During an hour at my local gym recently, I watched the videos...

"God, she looks like a hag, doesn't she?" one woman said, laughing. She was sitting on a train with her friends, waving a popular book in the air.

"I know! If I published a book, I'd dye my hair to cover the grey before letting them take my picture," a...