“In the past five years, hen parties have had a bit of a facelift,” says Beth Nicholas, a founder of Betty’s Birds, which organises hen dos. “Weddings and hen dos have been among the most rigidly heteronormative experiences of my life,” agrees Alice Shepherd, 30. Spending time with a large group of women – friends or otherwise – obviously doesn’t mean you aren’t a feminist. The only genuinely revolutionary shift that Nicholas describes is in the increase in the number of “sten” parties she caters for: stag and hen parties combined. Traditions such as hen parties, that play so heavily to gendered type, seem like exactly the sort of thing this new movement hopes to overwrite.

Source: The Guardian August 08, 2016 12:45 UTC