Emer O’Toole: ‘I’m glad my body hair can be read as a political statement’

This week Roísín meets and greets author, academic and noted feminist Emer O’Toole.

They discuss how Emer has strived to shrug off some of the world’d expectations of her as a woman, and how the world has responded. They also discuss the many slang terms for breasts.

On gender equality: “ I think a lot of people think that equality is a gentle progression and, you know sure, its all changing and it’ll be fine, I’ll wait and equality will come. That is not the case... we have more equality because of campaigners and because of the tireless work of activists.”

On body hair: “I’ve been hairy beastie for half a decade I think. I was doing a lot of work on breaking down my gender assumptions and reading a lot of theory, and I was increasingly uncomfortable with the extend to which women have to modify themselves to be considered, not even attractive, but simply normal.”