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Laurie Penny

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Laurie Penny (born 28 September 1986) is a British columnist, blogger and author.

Early life and education

Penny was born in London and grew up in Brighton.[1][2] She attended the independent school Brighton College.[1] She has written about her hospitalisation at age 17 for anorexia and subsequent recovery.[3]

She studied English at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating in 2007. Whilst a student she joined and performed in a burlesque troupe,[4] and was a committee member[5] and appeared in amateur dramatic productions with the Oxford University Light Entertainment Society.[4] She then completed her NCTJ journalism training certificate in London.[citation needed]

Career

Penny's blog, "Penny Red", was launched in 2007[6] and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2010.[7] (The name Penny Red refers to a Victorian stamp.) She began her career as a staff writer at One in Four magazine and then worked as a reporter and sub-editor for the socialist newspaper Morning Star. She has written columns and features for several publications,[8] and is a columnist for the New Statesman[9] and regular contributor to The Guardian.[10] Penny is the author of the Zero Books publication Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism (2011).[2] In it she mounts an attack on liberal feminism, which she characterises as embracing the consumer choice offered by capitalism as the path to female emancipation.[11]

In April 2011, Penny presented the Channel 4 Dispatches programme "Cashing In on Degrees", and appeared on the same channel's satirical current affairs programme 10 O'Clock Live.[12] and BBC Two's Newsnight.

Penny was selected by Truthdig as "Truthdigger of the Week" for the week of 25 November 2011.[13]

On 26 March 2012, Penny announced via her Twitter account that she was leaving the Statesman to take up a full-time post at The Independent newspaper as a reporter and columnist.[14]

In June 2012, she clashed with historian David Starkey at the Sunday Times Festival of Education which took place at Wellington College.[15] Following her accusation that Starkey was a racist "playing xenophobia for laughs" in his statements about the Rochdale 'grooming' case. Later, Penny claimed he responded "with a furious ad hominem attack before marching up to me, wagging his finger in my face, shouting abuse, swearing and showering me with flecks of spittle".[16] The recording of the incident shows clearly that Starkey neither swore nor shouted.

Penny's approach to activism and journalism has attracted much criticism, from critics of the left and right, for excessive use of hyperbole, suggestions that her current political stance is merely a distraction from thinly veiled personal ambition and for allegedly assuming the position of being the voice of British left-wing political activists irrespective of whether or not those activists actually consider or want her to fulfill that role. [1] [2] [

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b "Shut up, little girl, don't you know grown-ups are talking?". Laurie Penny – via Penny Red blogspot. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Laurie Penny author profile at Zero Books". Zero books. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  3. ^ "Life tastes better than skinny feels". London Evening Standard – Laurie Penny. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Burlesque laid bare". London: Laurie Penny – via The Guardian. 15 May 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  5. ^ "Previous committees – 2006 social secretary (Wadham)". Oxford Light entertainment society. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  6. ^ "We have achieved preambulation. Bring me a sweetie-bag of amphetamines and the head of Margaret Thatcher". Laurie Penny – via Penny Red blogspot. 23 September 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  7. ^ "Laurie Penny – Student Media Awards judge". The Guardian. London. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  8. ^ "Home page on "Penny Red"". Laurie Penny – via Penny Red blogspot. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  9. ^ "Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist". Laurie Penny blog at the New Statesman online. Retrieved I3 April , 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ "Laurie Penny profile at The Guardian online". The Guardian. London. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Chocolate, Snuggles, and Straight Hair, review of Meat Market". Oxonian Review. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  12. ^ "10 O'Clock Live Episode 11 guest listing at Channel 4 online". Channel 4. 31 March 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  13. ^ Truthdigger of the Week: Laurie Penny – Truthdigger of the Week – Truthdig
  14. ^ Laurie Penny "Laurie Penny (@PennyRed)", twitlonger, 26 March 2012
  15. ^ "Videos show Laurie Penny and 'dinosaur' Starkey in full rant", The Week, 25 June 2012
  16. ^ Laurie Penny "The violent prejudices of dinosaur David Starkey", The Independent, 25 June 2012. Visual evidence of this incident are reproduced here: "Video: Clip of historian David Starkey exploding at Laurie Penny, after she labelled him a racist released", TNT magazine, 25 June 2012
  17. ^ "New prize for radical writing announces shortlist". 6 March 20. Retrieved 2 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "author-Alison Flood" ignored (help)

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