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Woman's Hour

Weekend Woman’s Hour: Caitlin Moran, Trichotillomania, Prison Officers, TikTok Nans, Olivia Dean

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Caitlin Moran’s multi-award-winning bestseller How to Be a Woman has been published in 28 countries. Now she has turned her attention to men; what's wrong with them, what they should do about it and why they need feminism to help. Caitlin joins Anita to discuss her new book What About Men?

Trichotillomania is often referred to as “hair-pulling disorder”. There is little research in this area, but statistics suggest 1.1m people in the UK could have the condition, with 80% of them women. Half of those never seek treatment. What exactly is it? Why do people do it? And what can be done to help them stop? Clare MacKay is Professor of Brain Imaging at Oxford University. She joins Nuala to share her personal experience for the first time, and discuss the academic review she is doing in this area.

Half of prison officers in England and Wales do not feel safe at work, according to a recent large-scale survey. Alex South spent 10 years working as a prison officer, and she’s written a book, Behind These Doors, about her experiences. She speaks to Nuala about working in such a male-dominated environment and shares her stories.

A bar in Portsmouth is due to open later this month, which is themed on Jack the Ripper – described as an "immersive cocktail and dining experience with a modern horror twist". The publicity features a young woman in Victorian dress, being followed at night by a mysterious man. Objections have been raised to the whole idea of a business which trades on the notoriety of a serial killer. However the trading licence has now been granted. The owner has said, "There is always a fine line when working on things like this and we are working really hard not to upset anyone". Nuala speaks to Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five, in which she painstakingly reconstructs the lives of the five women killed by the so-called Ripper, in 1888.

What’s it like to go viral on TikTok in your late 80s? 27-year-old Jess and her 89-year-old grandmother, Norma, have gone viral on TikTok posting videos showing their close connection and the fun they have together. They join Anita to discuss their relationship and new found fame.

Young singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, has collaborated with the likes of Loyle Carner and Leon Bridges, earning a reputation for her stellar live shows. She joins Nuala to discuss her recent Glastonbury performance, her inspirations and her debut album - Messy.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Hanna Ward Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.0

Hello, Anita Rani here. Welcome to Weekend Woman's Hour. This is where we've curated a selection

0:12.0

of the finest interviews from the week just gone just for you.

0:15.8

Coming up this afternoon, bestselling author, Catlin Moran, explains why she's turned her

0:19.8

hand to writing about men.

0:22.4

When people are angry, it's usually that they're scared. I think anger is fear brought

0:26.2

to the boil and it's like, why are boys scared of women and the progress they've had?

0:30.3

And I was suddenly like, I need to scrap the project that I'm working on and I need to

0:33.5

write this book now.

0:34.9

The wonderful singer-songwriter Olivia Dean tells us all about her debut album Messy,

0:39.8

plus Alex South talks about her new book and shares her experiences of working as a prison

0:45.0

officer from the age of 22 and will be hearing about the hair pulling disorder, tricker

0:50.4

and telemania and the impact it can have.

0:52.7

The disorder has caused me to essentially live with a lake of shame around my inability

0:59.7

to control these urges, which has kept me quiet about it and I think that it's not

1:04.9

an uncommon experience with people with these disorders.

1:08.3

All of that to come, you know the drill by now, grab a cuppa and a biscuit, settle in.

1:13.7

Now, Catlin Moran's multi-award-winning bestseller How to Be a Woman, which came out in 2011,

1:19.1

was a watershed moment for a generation and you could say it did all right.

1:23.6

By 2014, it had sold over a million copies.

1:28.1

Catlin is, I'm delighted to say, back with her eighth book this time she's gone completely

1:32.1

rogue and turned her attention to the other sex.

...

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