Charlotte Raven

Profile: Full name: Charlotte Raven Area of interest: Contemporary culture, popular culture, women's issues, current affairs Journals/Organisation: The Guardian | The Independent Email: Personal website: Website: Guardian.co / Charlotte raven Blog: Comment is free... Representation: Networks:

Biography: About: Education: Manchester University: BA English; Sussex University: MA Critical Theory Career: Modern Review: contributor, then editor; The Guardian: columnist, regular column from 1999/2002 Current position/role: Occasional contributor also writes/has written for: The Observer (feature writer), and contributed to The Face, Critical Quarterly, The Spectator and New Statesman Other roles/Main role: Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: How we met: Derek Draper and Charlotte Raven - New Labour commentator Derek Draper recently achieved notoriety when the 'Observer' newspaper accused him of boasting of his contacts in the Government... - The Independent, 4th October 1998 How I beat the dark - Little was wrong with Charlotte Raven's life except she couldn't stop crying. Then she faced her depression and began the long battle to conquer it - The Observer, 17th March 2002 Broadcast media: Video: Controversy/Criticism: An article in The Guardian caused controversy in June 2001 with criticism of the mother of Jamie Bulger, see: Why the Bulger mourning marathon sickens me June 26, 2001 'City limits', The readers' editor on… Crossing the line between opinion and diatribe The Guardian, 30th June 2001 Complaints flood in from 'whingeing Liverpudlians' The Daily Telegraph, June 2001 Awards/Honours: Other:

Books & Debate: Latest work: Debate: Speaking/Appearances:

The Guardian: Column name: Remit/Info: Contemporary culture, popular culture, women's issues, current affairs Section: Comment Role: Columnist Pen-name: Email: Website: Guardian.co / Charlotte Raven Commissioning editor: Day published: Regularity: Column format: Average length:

Articles: For most women, free choice is still something we can only dream of - The commodification of the female body and interpersonal relationships have become the defining feature of modern British popular culture - 25th June 2011 (writing in The Independent) Life through a lens - We see everything now through a viewfinder, from food to friendships. It's irritating, but does it matter? - 7th June 2011 (writing in The Independent) Who'll be my role model? - Our choice of heroine says a lot about us, whether it's Rihanna or Rebecca Adlington. But as she mourns the loss of the woman who most inspired her, Charlotte Raven argues that today's contenders offer little to look up to - 12th May 2011 (writing in The Independent) Female mid-life crisis: Has an epidemic of narcissism made women delusional? - The vogue for middle-aged women finding themselves – and then writing tell-all books about it – has become big business. But it makes their journeys of discovery as predictable as the daily commute - 14th April 2011 (writing in The Independent) In MasterChef Britain, the elevation of food has turned into a sickness - It is a form of psychic escapism. Taste is immaterial to the millions of addicts who are eating to alleviate the pain of existence - 5th March 2011 (writing in The Independent) Bespoke: Delusions of grandeur - It is not enough to buy designer – one has to order bespoke. But this 'Grand Designs' life of endless choice is just an ego-stroking sales pitch that lets us believe our cash makes us creative - 3rd /december 2010 (writing in The Independent) How the 'new feminism' went wrong - From pole-dancing lessons to baking cupcakes, modern woman thinks she can do it all. Germaine Greer's free-thinking female eunuch has been replaced by the desperately self-inventing 'Madonna', argues Charlotte Raven, who looks back in shame at the moment in the 1990s when her generation turned its back on feminism - 6th March 2010 Should I take my own life? - When Charlotte Raven was diagnosed with Huntington's, an incurable degenerative disease, there seemed only one option: suicide. But would deciding how and when to die really give her back the control she desperately craved? And what about the consequences for her husband and young daughter? - 16th January 2010 Peter knows we all love a pussy cat - Peter Mandelson, the minister for everything, has let out his playful side to give politics a new Saturday-night appeal - 16th August 2009 Vanity Fair likes to sneer at the more downmarket celebrity magazines. But isn't it playing the same game? - 13th March 2008 I've never liked the consumer herd, so self-denial was made for me - if I could just resist the plasma TV - 31st January 2008 Why mistresses are still mattresses - The idea that loveless extramarital affairs and no-strings sex are empowering is nonsense - 6th January 2008 How my generation lost the plot - Charlotte Raven was an enlightened, progressive woman - until she had a baby. And she's not alone. How did conservative parenting sneak back into fashion? - 15th July 2006 For us romantics, Pop Idol was the last straw - The Guardian, 19th February 2002

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Links: New Statesman: articles (archive) Wikipedia bio