tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60125678044719953662024-03-14T05:44:06.168+00:00Royal Holloway Feminism SocietyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-60068955458229786132014-11-18T20:21:00.002+00:002014-11-18T20:21:12.379+00:00FemSoc Saved my Life <div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<u><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">FemSoc Saved my Life - anon<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
TW: Abuse and mental health. </div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">People consistently ask me how I got in to feminism but from
where I am standing my feminism seems like such an integral part of my identity
that I find it difficult to know where it really originates. Maybe my feminist
awakening happened at age twelve when I cried in a history class because one of
my friends dismissed the suffragettes as boring or perhaps it happened when I
was fifteen and my PE class staged a walk out against my school’s change in
uniform policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I know that if I am really being honest with myself it didn’t
happen until much later. When I arrived at Royal Holloway I was still hesitant
about the idea of feminist society, I spent a few minutes lingering around
their booth at the freshers fair wrestling with the idea. I was still new to
the idea and very much afraid of anything that seemed ‘too radical’
(occasionally I wish that I could show 2011 me what I have become I think I
would be impressed but also mildly horrified).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My life has changed a lot since first year and now I am talking
to you one mental breakdown later and I want to tell you that FemSoc saved my
life. I failed my first year at university due to severe agoraphobia and
anxiety that rendered me unable to attend vast swathes of my lectures. So when
I arrived back for my second year alongside passing my incomplete first year
courses I launched my own personal campaign to try to ‘be braver’ (This was a
goal that is very simple to say but near impossible to realise).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.7pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The first step I took on my
mission to ‘be braver’ was attending a Post Secret event alone. Whilst I was
there the floor was opened up for people in the audience to be able to share
their secrets, this was the first time that I spoke about my ex-boyfriend
having raped me. I told my most painful secret to a room full of 500 strangers
and I felt supported. Two people came up to me after the event and told me that
they shared my secret; the first was a police woman who specifically dealt with
cases involving abusive relationships, the second was a feminist blogger who I
recognised and admired and it was this interaction that encouraged me to become
as involved with feminism as I could.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
I knew I needed people around me who could provide me with a sense of support
and community and FemSoc was where I found them. My mental health has been
through ups and downs and I have had some awful ‘cannot get out of bed because
the world is far too scary’ days and on those days it has been friends that I
have made through feminism that have encouraged me and supported me and I have
tried to offer them the same sort of support in return. Feminist spaces are
where I feel at my happiest and most fulfilled and I mean it in complete
seriousness when I tell people that FemSoc made me feel safe and supported at
university and that is what saved my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-90064936284765190292014-10-06T11:24:00.000+01:002014-10-06T11:24:41.690+01:00<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><b><u>A Word on Catcalling </u></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Antonia King</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: magenta;">Hey Freshers and
returners! </span>I remember that when I first came to university the cat calling and
street harassment was a bit of a shock as I grew up in a very small town where
it was less of a problem. So, I thought I'd do a little piece on street
harassment in case anyone of you are in a similar position, or have just moved
off campus and will have to deal with Egham hill a bit more often, or just want
to read about about why cat calling sucks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">There
are so many reasons cat calling is awful and there's also many people who will
explain it better than me here, but I'll give if a go. Essentially cat
calling is just reminding someone they're a sexual object. It's as if we should
think, 'Oh, I was just going about my day to day life. I had forgotten for a
second that my sexual appeal was the most important part of my existence, thank
you for reminding me kind cat caller.' Not to mention that cat callers often
reduce the object of their affection to body parts, boobs and bum being the
most popular choices *rolls eyes*. To quote my most recent experience, one man
decided to tell me that my 'ass' was so big he could see it from space. Now, no
ones actually been to space to check for me, but I'm pretty sure he
was exaggerating. All of this gives the same impression that magazines and
tabloids do, that women are primarily there for the use of men and for sex
objects. This is also part of the reason why boobs are used to sell everything
from cars to groceries, but women are told breast feeding in public is
disgusting, but thats a whole other thing. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">The major reason why I personally
hate cat calling is because of how it makes me feel. It makes me feel like I've
done something wrong. As much as I know I shouldn't blame myself, I do always
end up thinking 'well this dress is short' or 'maybe the heels are giving the
wrong impression'. It also makes me feel unsafe, particularly if I'm on my own.
It's the reason I spend a lot of my money on taxi's and not walking at night
instagramming pictures of at the moon (which I love to do). Cat calling makes
me want to hide, and that is a problem. Trust me when I say that is their issue
and problem, not yours! I like to say something back, for my own pride I
guess. I'll often shout 'no scrubs' as I'm a massive TLC fan. Or I'll sometimes
just run after a driver who beeped me shouting something like "I love you
too!"- they look terrified. This being said, only do this if it is safe to
do so, eg when you're with someone or in a busy location. Cat calling can
sometimes lead to more dangerous behaviour such as following,
which unfortunately I guess some of you are already aware of. So as
much as you shouldn't have to moderate your
behaviour because of harassment, do stay safe lovelys! There is
no right way to respond, if you shout back then thats fine, and if you put your
head down and walk fast away from the situation then thats fine too. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Serious bit coming up*. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is also important to note is that this is part of
a wider problem. Unofortunately men are kind of taught they have an entitlement
to women's bodies everywhere (that being said I have of course met some amazing
gents who are more clued up on this than me). This isn't some complex radical
feminist or misandrist argument, it's pretty basic stuff. Video games,
language, the delightful Robin Thicke all help to make this stuff normal and
all contribute to this feeling of entitlement. Even rom-coms do it (and I love
my rom-coms). Guys are taught, even in romantic movies, that if she doesn't say
yes, chase her or jump on her fayre ground ride (looking at you Gosling, my
future husband)! When men are taught that "you know she wants it" and
rape jokes are on main stream television shows, shouting at women on the street
is seen as no biggy. Also, there's many reasons why most women don't talk about
this more. For one, it's often seen as so normal that it doesn't need to be
discussed. It happens so much, why even bring it up? It's nearly always treated
as just a part of life. Also, alar<span style="background: white;">mingly, if a
women talks about cat calling experiences it can feel like bragging, cause all
male attention is good right? Male attention is what girls are taught to want
and compete for from a young age, with 'female' toys and games being based
around makeup, beauty and 'getting the guy'. So why is this male attention bad?
This is why you'll often hear the word compliment used in relation to cat
calling. No! 'That's a nice dress' is a compliment, so is 'you look nice'.
Commenting on body parts and shouting isn't a compliment, ever, it's just
really creepy. So, if you do ever experience cat calling please know that
you are entitled to feel however you want to about it. You may
be told to stop 'humble bragging' when discussing it, or you may get told
"well you do look fab tonight', but please know it isn't okay! Also, talk
to any of the lovely SU support staff (Sid, the co-president for welfare and
diversity is always here to help!), or of course fem-soc if you feel the need
too. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Sending love!</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 13.5pt;">aj </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-size: 13.5pt;"><b><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">xx</span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-54199959018143190982013-12-23T20:09:00.001+00:002013-12-23T20:09:11.907+00:00Prez got cross about sexual harassment so she wrote about it.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWMzI-ZAphg/UriWAL--62I/AAAAAAAAAtY/mMELJ6QXjrY/s1600/Fullscreen+capture+23122013+195537.bmp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWMzI-ZAphg/UriWAL--62I/AAAAAAAAAtY/mMELJ6QXjrY/s400/Fullscreen+capture+23122013+195537.bmp.jpg" width="341" /></a></div>
<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">
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<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 0.45cm;">Content warning: This poem contains strong language and discusses rape culture.</span></pre>
</span><u><b><span style="font-size: large;">Rhyme for a Crime</span></b></u></span></span></pre>
<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">
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<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last Saturday I went out, out to a bar, </span></pre>
<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 0.45cm;">The music was dodgy and floor sticky like tar</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 0.45cm;">,</span></pre>
<pre class="western" style="line-height: 0.45cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I was with two friends who are great and so, </span></pre>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was happy to be there and for drinks to flow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">We joined up to the big long queue, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 men were behind me, doing what men do,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clapping each other on the back and the arm, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Seemingly fine and doing no harm. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />Then low and behold, what did I find?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Some fucking cunt's hand on my behind!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps<span style="color: #333333;"> it was tired and needed a rest -</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">of all my features, my arse is known as the best.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">But you know what, mate? That's not your call. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">It's for people in bed to compliment, not you to maul.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Because maul's what you did, you ham-fisted fuck, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">I flew round pretty quick and boy you all ducked. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">All 3 of you creeps laughing along,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">You just didn't get that what you'd done was so wrong. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The worst was I didn't know which of you it was out of the bunch,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">So I decided not to guess my punch. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">I moved away, silently seething,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">My heart kind of felt like it was bleeding.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This<span style="color: #333333;"> is why I fight so hard – because it's wrong and it's sick and it's twisted and gross, </span><span style="color: #333333;">It's not a compliment - it's just fucked up, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">Don't you dare fucking tell me to stop making a fuss.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333;">My friends weren't too sure, 'it's not that bad'</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I said 'if that happened to you on a bus you'd go mad.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br />So this rhyme's little moral is, kids -</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just d</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on't do it or laugh or shrug it away,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Consent is consent, and my body is mine. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">It's not a play-thing for anyone to abuse, that's not fine.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333;">And it's moments like that which cause me to fight, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Because it's men like that who don't know the meaning of 'No.' </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Those men are the ones who our society shapes,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">The ones who refuse to stop, and will rape.<br /><br />Rose Walker, 2013-14 President</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-32740119806095110052013-11-26T14:00:00.000+00:002013-11-26T14:01:58.804+00:00Visit from Chloe Trayner (Underwire Film Festival)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XIrx_GBl3vM/UpSo9SD7OnI/AAAAAAAAAtE/bdmODBF13Ss/s1600/UnderwirePoster2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XIrx_GBl3vM/UpSo9SD7OnI/AAAAAAAAAtE/bdmODBF13Ss/s320/UnderwirePoster2.png" width="221" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last Thursday, the lovely Chloe Trayner (producer of the ‘Underwire Film Festival’) came to talk to us at RHUL about the London based film festival; she brought along a fantastic showcase of last years films to give us a taste of what to expect, as well as answering our questions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Underwire’ is a festival celebrating and discussing short films made by up and coming female film makers; as well as various screenings, the week long event (19th-23rd) included panel discussions on women's representation in film. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The festival is run almost entirely by women, after being founded in 2010 by Gabriella Apicella and Gemma Mitchell, it focuses on the fact that women still make up a small minority of film creatives and aims to help create a ‘more balanced industry’. Short films are nominated for female director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor awards and entries compete to win career based prizes - membership to organisations like ‘Directors UK’ or editorial suite time and training. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Chloe’s showcase of films demonstrated the huge variety of films they screen, everything from music videos to a dramatic experimental piece called ‘Stormhouse’ in which the actors never spoke. It was really refreshing that the festival is so inclusive, it seemed to give women a huge amount of creative space and the chance to experiment with their ideas and create any type of film they desire. This resulted in some striking pieces, a lot of which focused on feminist or feminine issues or points; pregnancy, women’s career choices, prejudice both against genders and nationalities. The topics stayed with us after hearing Chloe talk, a good demonstration of how the festival is achieving its aims by giving women creative space at the same time as spreading ideas and prompting discussion on significant topics. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On top of the captivating nature of the films, it was massively inspirational to talk to a woman like Chloe who has done so much with her career by such a young age. Her success is extremely encouraging especially to students studying film and media but also generally to women with strong career aspirations, reminding us all that if we push ourselves hard enough we can achieve a huge amount. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall, it’s fantastic to see events and organisations in creative industries to begin to tackle the issue of gender bias in media representation of women and supporting people with by giving them a good starting point in their career. Hopefully this mentality and motivation will emerge in other industries.</span><br />
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- Natasha (Communications Officer)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">Image at top of page: a poster in grey and pink, advertising </span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">the event described in this blog post, with a picture of Kathryn Bigelow behind a camera. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-24383943491220858972013-11-09T20:10:00.000+00:002013-11-26T14:01:06.572+00:00Choice: The Patriarchy Matrix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htHHweLfm-Q/Un6PNa74IMI/AAAAAAAAAs0/aUXyr6HQmZw/s1600/Red-Pill-Blue-Pill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htHHweLfm-Q/Un6PNa74IMI/AAAAAAAAAs0/aUXyr6HQmZw/s320/Red-Pill-Blue-Pill.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image: Two shiny pills, one red, one blue</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>Trigger warning: discussion of genital surgery, offensive sex worker tropes and stereotypical beauty</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since I was elected as the SU's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/rhulwomen1">Women's and Marginalised Genders' Officer</a>, is has become almost impossible for me to go a day without discussing feminist or otherwise political issues. I talk extensively to both people who are roughly on the same page as myself and those who have very different opinions. I try to explain my point of view rationally and calmly and put in my best effort to empathise and understand other's views. It's not always easy, but I think that's what we owe each other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The recurrent theme over the last ten days or so has been the importance of 'choice' or 'free will'. An interesting example of this is that because women choose to have cosmetic surgery it's none of Feminism's business and those of us who think it's often harmful should go back to burning our bras, thanks very much. On the flip-side, all of feminism is based on enabling choice, accepting all voices and not dictating good and bad.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Occasionally, this means I get stuck between a rock and a hard place, and no simple answer in sight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why? I'll try not to get too existential on you, but this is the question I often come up against: Do we, or do we not, we have free will? Are our choices completely our own? Spoiler alert! Probably not. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The argument goes that we are essentially a sophisticated machine - our 'wiring' (genetics, childhood,...) is meant to pre-determine how we respond to any given situation. We have awareness, but all our thought processes and actions are a result of our previous life and genetic material. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine your brain is spread out over a pool table in the form of pool balls. The order, number, colour of the balls is due to your genetics and previous experiences. For some reason (chance, god,...) a red pool ball drops into the middle of the table, hitting some other balls, and setting of a chain of collisions and movement. Some balls </span>ricochet<span style="font-family: inherit;"> off the sides and crash into others, some drop into the pockets, some are completely unmoved. If you record all this and play it back slowly, you can see that everything that happened was due to the position of the balls at the start. The black ball was already teetering at the edge of a pocket, the green ball was missed by the red ball by a few centimeters. If the red ball had been slightly further left, it would have hit the green and possibly not affected the black. Etc. This view is called determinism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Determinism is difficult to deal with in our society, because he hold people accountable for their actions. We obviously couldn't do that if we accepted we had no free will. So let's 'zoom in' a bit and just say that it doesn't matter whether we have a free will or not - in the sense that the we can move our pool balls around ourselves without outside interference: Choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I know, I know. Bear with me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, what remains? The fact that we all have a certain set-up before something in the world happens to nudge (or make us choose to nudge) our <strike>marbles</strike> pool balls. If we grew up being told that there are no black swans, we'll choose to assume that any black swan we see isn't a swan. If we're taught it's not alright to steal, we'll choose not to take anything without paying for it. And if we're taught we should be a good person and that a good person helps others in need, we'll choose to give money to charity or support a friend going through a rough patch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now imagine we were taught that there are only two genders and they depend on what genitals you were born with. Imagine we were taught that people who have sex for money are bad lowlifes, full of disease, and to be avoided at all cost. And imagine if we were taught pretty women have a BMI of 20, symmetrical faces, small noses, white skin, medium to large tits, long hair and hairless legs... Us women would feel bad if we had small breasts, or a big nose, or dark skin, or love handles and we would perhaps choose to pay someone to 'fix us'. Because we've been taught being pretty is important and good. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As Nimco Ali from </span><a href="http://www.dofeve.org/about-us.html" style="font-family: inherit;">Daughters of Eve</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> said at the recent ULU Sexpression event: "No woman just randomly wakes up in the morning and goes 'I think I'd like to cut off my labia today'. And yet thousands have labiaplasty every year." Without porn, without recurring, harmful portrayal of women and other marginalised groups in the mainstream media, making the choice of taking a </span>scalpel<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to perfectly healthy parts of ourselves would seem ludicrous. That kind of behaviour only appears to make sense if we are trying to achieve an ideal. Unfortunately, that ideal is a fictional construction propped up by a desire part us from our money.</span><br />
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So. A fight for feminism or a triumph of freely-made decisions? You tell me. <span style="font-family: inherit;">The one thing discussions over the past two weeks have made clear to me is how much getting active in Feminism is like Neo taking the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill" style="font-family: inherit;">red pill</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> in the movie The Matrix. Once you've seen the Matrix, you can't unsee it, and you notice it everywhere. The difference between The Matrix and the real world is that once we see the </span><a href="http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/word-of-the-day-kyriarchy/" style="font-family: inherit;">Kyriarchy</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Matrix, we can all be Neo.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Alexandra Sophia, 2013-2014 Secretary</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-91086420370991791372013-09-22T11:25:00.001+01:002013-11-26T14:00:33.565+00:00'Defined Lines' and Online Activism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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'Yeah, I had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you, I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two.' Let's take a moment to analyse this quote, Shakespeare, it is not. Taken at face value (I can glean no other poetic meaning from it), it's crude, unpleasant and leaves nothing to the imagination. Imagine someone speaking these words in everyday life. To every parent reading this, would you be happy if someone approached your daughter in the street and said these words to them? If they did the same to your sister? Your mother? I'm going to assume the answer is no.<br />
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This quote is taken from one of this summer's most popular songs, 'Blurred Lines', a charming melody by Robin Thicke, featuring Pharrell. The video depicts Thicke and Pharrell surrounded at all times by topless women, all of whom seem to have no other purpose than to prance from side to side and rub themselves up against the two gentleman. Apart from one lucky young lady, who gets to hold a lamb.<br />
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The song has spawned many parody videos, and this alone is nothing newsworthy. A quick Youtube search shows that there are hundreds, if not thousands of parody music videos on the internet that include a fairly enjoyable, tongue in cheek (as opposed to out of mouth) take on Miley Cyrus' 'We Can't Stop.' The difference in the video I am focusing your attention on is not that it is amusing, though it is. It is not even that it has so far received nearly three million views. It is that this video has a message that is urgently relevant in today's society, a message that many think is outdated and no longer necessary in today's 'progressive' world.<br />
The parody I refer to is called 'Defined Lines', a video that directly challenges the depiction of women and the ideas that are perpetrated in the lyrics and video of 'Blurred Lines'. The main issue of contention many commentators found this summer is not the video's overt use of female nudity (prevalent enough in today's popular music culture, and nothing so tame as a pair of naked breasts are likely to shock those intimate with MTV) but the message its lyrics contain.<br />
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Though I said earlier there is no deep meaning to glean from the songs wording, I meant from a purely poetic angle. What the lyrics do contain and promote is the idea that sexual consent is a 'burred line', that if women would just realise they really do just want it, it would be a lot easier for men to get on with having sex with them and not have to deal with anything as annoying as rape accusations. The lyrics have already been analysed and criticised by many, and not just bloggers. The song has been accused by Rape Crisis, a charity that raises awareness and understanding of sexual violence, of "reinforcing rape myths". Rape Crisis spokeswoman Katie Russell said: "Both the lyrics and the video seem to objectify and degrade women, using misogynistic language and imagery that many people would find not only distasteful or offensive but also really quite old fashioned. More disturbingly, certain lyrics are explicitly sexually violent and appear to reinforce victim-blaming rape myths, for example about women giving 'mixed signals' through their dress or behaviour, saying 'no' when they really mean 'yes' and so on."<br />
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Thicke has called the criticism “ridiculous.” In an interview with GQ magazine he claimed the video did not denigrate women “because all three [artists in the video] are happily married with children”. "People say, ‘Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?’ I’m like, ‘Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I’ve never gotten to do that before.” he said. Charming.<br />
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'Defined Lines' is the parody video created by three young women from New Zealand as their own creative response to Thicke's offering. The video switches the gender roles, and the lyrics point out what the reality of the harassment means to women - "Just don't harass me, You can't just grab me, That's a sex crime."<br />
I was able to speak to Adelaide, one of the three who created 'Defined Lines.' We discussed how she feels about how much publicity the video has had, and her thoughts on modern day feminism. I started by asking if she and the other girls ever expected their video would receive such a reaction. "We had no idea the video would make such waves - it was made to be screened in a theatre as part of a skit show and we just put it on YouTube to share around to some people who couldn't make it. If I knew that millions around the world would be watching it I might not have included that castration joke, ha-ha!"<br />
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The castration joke she is referring to is 'We’re feelin’ the frustration, From all the exploitation, Prepare for your castration' - though as later lyrics in the parody point out, 'I apologise if you think my lines are crass, Tell me how it feels, to get verbally harassed?'<br />
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For this reason, Adelaide says she understands some of the negative comments that the video has received. "I remember during filming realising that what we were creating wasn't strictly feminist in that it showed females dominating males - but that gender flipping was where the humour and the parody value lay, so we continued. I haven't taken much time to read the YouTube comments but from the kind of horrific ones I have seen I understand that the world still has quite a way to go in terms of gender equality. I think that a lot of YouTube commenters feel safe hiding behind the veils of anonymity, so people feel free to write offensive and discriminatory comments. I think those responses also convey how much we need feminism still. On the other hand, the positive responses have been quite inspiring - people have shared their personal stories with us and given us so much support that I have been inspired to fight harder for equality. We're thinking about what steps we can take from here - we've set up a Twitter account (@LawRevueGirls) as a starting point but I'd be keen to get involved in some feminist blogging. This whole thing is still new to us though."<br />
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The 'new thing' that she and the other girls are experiencing is being held up as an example of 21st century feminism, the latest wave of the womens' movement that takes advantage of the platform social media offers us all in today's world. Keen not to pigeon hole the group, I asked if she and the other girls actually define themselves as feminists, and if so, why they embrace the term. "All three of us call ourselves feminists but this video is our first (albeit accidental) foray into publicly addressing women's rights issues. New Zealand is quite a liberal and progressive society, particularly in terms of gender equality - we were the first country to give women the vote. In that sense, when we made this video we didn't think what we were saying was too radical (for our originally intended local audience) - it's interesting that when people overseas view it, they call us heroes and role models, thinking we were making an incredibly brave statement. That's a really positive outcome though - if we can give women a voice through our video and lyrics, albeit unintentionally."<br />
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I asked if there had been personal moments in her life that had inspired her to address sexism. "I spent my final two years [of school] in a predominantly male private school (it was historically an all-boys school which has recently started to allow girls to attend). When I was there I experienced enough casual misogyny from both male students and teachers to know that there are some real problems with ingrained sexism in society. I think it was then that I discovered what feminism was and decided to call myself a feminist. Since then I've become increasingly interested in the movement - I recently had quite an emotional reaction to a famous feminist art installation, 'The Dinner Party' by Judy Chicago when I was visiting the Brooklyn Museum. Personal moments like that have inspired me to speak out about women's rights and I hope that I can continue!"<br />
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Hearing from Adelaide echoed many of my own feelings on the subject. As president of my university's Feminism Society, I sometimes feel backed into a corner and that I need to defend my choice to define as a feminist. She summed up her own thoughts on the definition and reaction it often receives from people. "We are not man-haters, sexually confused, bra-burners as some people might think. I think it's a pity that feminism has gained these negative connotations so that both males and females sometimes cringe when they hear the term. We're happy with the effect the video has had in promoting feminism and sending out the message that you can be a feminist in your own individual way - if this means wearing red lipstick and high heels and rapping about equality then so be it. Feminism should be for everyone."<br />
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It is because of the accessibility of YouTube and other social media that their video has been shared so widely and received such a response. This is 21st century feminism's most powerful tool, and needs to be recognised and embraced as such. One can hardly sneer at online activism when it produces such staggering results. Laura Bates set up the Everyday Sexism Project last year, and its Twitter account collates and publishes hundreds of tweets about women's experiences of sexism every week. Elizabeth Plank took notice of the International Boxing Federation's (AIBA) decision to force female boxers to wear skirts at the Olympics, and "did what any committed and dedicated activist of the 21st century does: I Tweeted it." Her tweet led to the creation of an online petition, which led to a community of almost 50,000 supporters, and to the head of the AIBA overturning his decision. An online petition on UltraViolet collected 50,000 signatures in only two hours, persuading Reebok to drop Rick Ross when his new single included rape-promoting lyrics.<br />
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Perhaps understandably, many women and men feel that bringing up sexual harassment, or any other feminist issue whilst at the pub is a little too out there. Spending 30 seconds tweeting though, seems more casual. Some may say more lazy, but I would whole-heartedly refute that. As nasty as online spaces can be (we all know that trolls no longer lurk underneath bridges, but in corners of forums and comment threads) the opportunity to engage with like-minded people you may never meet in real life is extraordinary. Feminist outrage has been around for a long time. Perhaps the general population has forgotten that it has continued to simmer, no longer chained to parliament and hurled under horses. But with the surge in this utilisation of social media, this passionate and intense online activism, the anger can no longer be ignored. Women, younger women especially, are finding a new sense of self-empowerment. Society would be foolish to ignore the influence that they command.<br />
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You can check out 'Defined Lines' here:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM</a><br />
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Rose Walker, 2013-2014 PresidentUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-17366553745069380012013-08-09T16:28:00.000+01:002013-08-09T16:48:43.191+01:002013/14 President Says Hello <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey, everyone. I figured I should do a little 'Hello' spiel to any new faces and to anyone already involved who isn't familiar with me. I'm also going to tie in a little introduction to what the Feminism Society does and how it operates. Please note, anything I'm about to say does not necessarily represent the views of this society or any of its committee or members.<br />
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So. My name is Rose and I'm the 2013/14 FemSoc President. I study English and Classical Studies here at Royal Holloway, and I'm about to re-take my second year. Things I like: cake (you'll learn more about that during any events that require refreshments) photography, peppermint tea, writing, positive attitudes to mental health and gender equality. I also like trying to make a difference in areas of society I feel are problematic (mainly the last two. I don't worry too much about the representation about cake. Although... <a href="http://rhul-fem-soc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/food-guilt-societys-tool-to-make-you.html">http://rhul-fem-soc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/food-guilt-societys-tool-to-make-you.html</a>) <br />
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So, it was a bit of a no-brainer when I started here to try and get involved with things I thought were important within our SU (that's Student's Union.) I won't go into the inner dealings of GMs (General Meetings) Sabbs (Sabbatical Officers) and heated debates by way of microphone, because I don't want to overload you.<br />
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I got involved in second year, because I was too busy thinking I was a super awesome fresher in my first. At the beginning of my second year, I soon realised there were quite a few like-minded people within our union, and I started learning about some really important issues that hadn't really crossed my mind - trans* people's representation, BME representation and LGBT issues. Getting involved with the Feminism Society made me realise that every minorities representation in society interlinks, and it's important for us all to realise that.<br />
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For a while, like anything new, I was a little nervous about turning up to FemSoc events as I went by myself, but I can honestly say that now there are at least 6 members who are close friends. And I mean the kind of friends you Skype, not the ones you wave at awkwardly in Crosslands every now and again. So, FemSoc is friendly, and really welcoming. There were loads of great social events last year - we went out for meals, for drinks, hosted Come Dine With FemSoc (that also turned into an impromptu birthday celebration for me) went to SU club nights together and travelled into London for events, amongst others. There was a huge variation, and that's something we're going to continue doing next year - if you don't like clubbing or you don't drink alcohol, totally not an issue. We try to make sure every event is accessible, both in terms of disability and also atmosphere.<br />
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As well as social events, most of our sessions are designed to get our members thinking about Feminism as a whole, and also individual issues and how Feminism looks at them. Last year we talked about politics, diets, body hair, sex, porn, mental health, the representation of BME women in the media, Islam and Feminism amongst plenty more. Some sessions the society invited speakers to visit us and lead them, and others we would set up ourselves and just chat about. We also linked up and put on joint sessions with other societies, including the Islamic Society, the Afro-Caribbean Society, the Debating Society and the LGBT society. Like I said before, we work hard at being intersectional.<br />
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As well as discussions / presentation events, the society has also worked on campaigns that directly affect our University and its members. It's proposed and passed many motions at GMs (sorry if I've lost you here. I'll post a crib-sheet on Student's Union language at some point to ensure everyone understands why Twitter goes berserk every few weeks) that support other student women. For example, the society wrote to and offered our support to students at a University which was being targeted and harassed by anti-abortion activists, and did the same to a university finding it difficult to set up their own Feminist Society. On campus, we've worked with Sabbatical Officers and Students Union staff to ensure our SU is a zero tolerance union - put simply, it and its staff have a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a huge issue within society, and university campuses don't escape that. We've helped implement an atmosphere that means there are ways of dealing with and reducing the occurrences of these issues, and that students feel comfortable reporting anything.<br />
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I plan on writing another post within the next couple of weeks about why I think Feminism is still so important in our world today; there's way too much to include within this. I hope this has been an interesting overview about the society and the kind of things it does - if you have any other questions relating to the society, feel free to send me or any of the committee a message or post in our Facebook group. It would be great to see a lot of new faces in September - I hope this post has sufficiently piqued your interest.<br />
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Oodles of feminist love,<br />
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Rose Walker<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-63749795563190106672013-07-01T10:15:00.000+01:002013-11-26T14:02:24.338+00:00#FEMLOVE <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Susuana Antubam - Feminism Society President 12-13</td></tr>
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Hey there, Its been a fantastic year at Femsoc and I would love to take this opportunity in my last post as president to thank all 40 members of the Royal Holloway Feminism Society for being so brilliant!<br />
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FemSoc Thursdays was the best part of my week for so long and hopefully it was an important part of yours. Check out our end of year photo project where we asked some of our members to tell us why they loved feminism. You can also check out these on facebook if you type in the tag #FemLove. Click on the images below for bigger versions :)</div>
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FemLove xxUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-28925158658720564722013-06-08T17:54:00.000+01:002013-06-08T23:02:00.111+01:00100TH POST - Emily Wilding Davison: So much more than a martyr<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 4th June 2013 marked the 100th anniversary of the accident at Epsom Derby where Emily Wilding Davison was hit by a horse, resulting in the loss of </span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">her life four days later</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In dedication to the sacrifice she made to champion the women's right's movement, I (Susuana Antubam) submitted a motion at the Annual General Meeting calling for the Students' Union at Royal Holloway University of London (SURHUL) to lobby college to make a plaque to commemorate Emily Wilding Davison's death. This motion was unanimously passed by SURHUL. As the outgoing President of Royal Holloway Feminism Society and ULU Women's Officer, I am proud to have dedicated my final motion to Emily Wilding Davison. To remember the sacrifices she gave to the Women's Right's Movement, Vicky Iglikowski, a Royal Holloway Feminism Society Alumna has written an article about the great woman herself. This is also the 100th post on our blog :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">**Trigger Warning: state violence against women**</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DKQ5ULH_zuo/UbJYt9oqoNI/AAAAAAAAApM/rU2Y5KZimk0/s1600/Emily_Davison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DKQ5ULH_zuo/UbJYt9oqoNI/AAAAAAAAApM/rU2Y5KZimk0/s1600/Emily_Davison.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Emily Wilding Davison died 100 years ago today. She is a woman whose life has been defined by her death; a figure whose history has largely been constructed by people outside the last event of her life and whose image has developed in the popular imagination.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Often portrayed as hysteric and irrational the real woman contributed much more to the suffrage movement than the history books would have us believe; much more than one divisive act on Epsom Derby course. Emily held a unique position in the suffrage movement, aligned with the Women’s Social and Political Union but known as a militant ‘freelancer’ who worked outside the restrictions of what the authoritarian WSPU sanctioned. It was ‘freelancers’ that first instigated the hunger-strikes and window smashing later adopted as official WSPU policy. Emily rejected the Pankhursts’ authoritarian structures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emily was a complex figure, not merely a martyr. However, she is but one individual who has been singled out by history. In many ways her story is that of many militant suffragettes; each story unique but showing equal dedication to fighting for the vote. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Emily was born in Blackheath, London, with northern roots. She was raised with a sense of social responsibility, going with her sister and mother to deliver food parcels to the families of East End dockers when she was young. In 1891 she was granted a bursary for the study of literature at Royal Holloway College, where she studied for a short time between 1891-1893. In this period suffrage campaigns had been going for nearly half a century, however the most recognised and extensive part of the movement was just taking shape. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At RHC discussion and debate was encouraged amongst the all-female community. The lack of male students allowed freedoms and politicisation that would have been discouraged, or at least very male dominated, in a mixed college. The various debating societies were lively, and all girls had to be part of the mock parliament well into the twenitieth cnetury. Although no formal suffrage societies were formed at RHC until 1905 there were certainly many staff and students that were interested in gaining the vote before this. It is this climate in which Emily studied at RHC; one that actively encouraged women to think critically about society.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Upon the death of her father the family could no longer afford the £20 fees, and Emily had to leave the college, an issue still very relevant to the hierarchical education system today. She took a job as a governess on the strict conditions that she would have evenings free for her dedicated studies, and borrowed books from friends still attending the college. Through this determined effort she was able to gain a first class honours despite no longer attending the college, however it took over 10 years to gain her degree from the University of London when degrees were finally granted to women. Her degree emphasises two things; that to be able to study in higher education she had to be entirely dependent on a man, her father, for the funding. And even then when she completed her studies, gaining the highest level, she was not allowed a full degree due to her gender. It was possibly this that drove her into participating in the University Expansion movement and the Central Labour College, both which focused on working class education.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1906 Emily joined the WSPU in its early days of radicalism, and within 18 months had gained a paid position. However, her relationship with the leadership was always rocky. Along with other ‘freelance’ militants she challenged the WSPU, and pushed for more diverse, and often violent, methods. Her actions were habitually independent leading to her ostracisation within the WSPU, as </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vera Di Campli San Vito</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> notes this was ‘in keeping with her constant rejection of authority.’ The range of tactics she employed was varied and largely unauthorised, including arson, window smashing and even hiding in the House of Commons and humiliatingly entering as her address on the 1911 census.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, her suffrage work extended far beyond the prison sentences and militancy. Her obituary by the WSPU emphasises her written work that is so often overshadowed. Such as articles on women who were considered figures of inspiration for the suffrage cause, including Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry and Hannah More, and a poem entitled “L’Envoi” written during one of her stints in Holloway which was included in a volume by Suffragette prisoners “Holloway Jingles”. Emily also reportedly wrote acts for plays, following in the tradition of many other Suffragettes in the arts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ultimately Emily was imprisoned eight times, often electing for prison sentence rather than a fine. One </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">occasion lead Kier Hardy to object to the House of Commons when Emily decided to barricade her cell door to avoid force-feeding, and a hose pipe was put through the window dramatically filling the room with water to forcefully make the prisoner leave. Referring to this occasion Emily later wrote </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The thought in my mind was that the moment for the sacrifice, which we have all agreed was probably be demanded, was at hand and, strange to say, I had no fear”. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On another occasion in 1909 Emily was arrested with her associate Dora Marsden (founder of the Freewoman, a paper that campaigned for birth control and openly criticised the WSPU). Not only was Marsden force-fed but in refusing to wear the prison clothes she spent most of her time unclothed until she was forced into a strait jacket. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emily was repeatedly force feed. It was a fate suffered by many. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vast numbers of suffragettes participated in the campaign to be classed as political prisoners by hunger striking. It was often forced upon them by the establishment of the WSPU. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In her writings she described her first experience;</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While they held me flat, the elder doctor tried all round my mouth with a steel gag to find an opening. On the right side of my mouth two teeth are missing; this gap he found, pushed in the horrid instrument, and prised open my mouth to its widest extent. Then a wardress poured liquid down my throat out of a tin enamelled cup…As I would not swallow the stuff and jerked it out with my tongue, the doctor pinched my nose and somehow gripped my tongue with the gag. The torture was barbaric.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In protest of the force-feeding and after listening to the screams of her fellow suffragette sisters, Emily repeatedly attempted to throw herself down a set of prison stairs onto metal railings. Referring to this occasion Emily later wrote “The idea in my mind was "one big tragedy may save many others". </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the 4th June 1913 in a last act of defiance Emily notoriously ran out in front of the King’s horse Amner at the Epsom Derby, and died 4 days later from her injuries. Whether her confrontation with the King’s horse on the 4</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of June 1913 was planned, premeditated, intentional, spontaneous, or an act of suicide is irrelevant.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emily’s gesture at Epsom racecourse was not therefore an irrational act</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but the culmination of a life time of dedication that always suggested she would be ready for the ultimate sacrifice.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Emily’s funeral was a huge spectacle, uniting attendees from many suffrage societies and a variety of trade unions, including gas workers’, dockers’ and general labourers’. Her death proved to have mass appeal, being one of the largest of all suffrage demonstrations, and one of the final suffrage gatherings on such a scale before the war. The imagery of the suffragettes marching in their colours of white, green and purple (now the Holloway colours) has had a lasting impact on the suffrage movement as a whole in the popular imagination. The WSPU’s hijacking of Emily as their Joan of Arc martyr is ironic given they often disagreed with her independent militant actions for the vote. It is, however, sad to note that it proved very difficult to find a clergy man willing to perform the funeral despite her lifelong religious convictions. Shortly after Emily’s death Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen lit a “beacon” for her, setting alight the Grand Stand of Hurst Park racecourse in both retaliation and in memory of their suffragette friend.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emily was admirable for her activities but far from alone in taking direct action. The campaign for the suffrage encompassed hundreds of societies and amounted to a mass movement of women so vast it is beyond that which we can now comprehend. Over one thousand women were imprisoned, many like Emily on more than one occasion. She was the cause’s most explicit martyr but many others were willing to suffer great hardship. Many suffer medical difficulties derived from force-feeding. Thee suffragettes had already died from direct causes of state violence by the time of Emily’s death in 1913. Two of these deaths were direct consequences of Black Friday in which several hundred women were assaulted by Police when making a deputation to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, including the death of Henrietta H. Williams and Cecelia Wolseley-Haig. The third death, of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emmeline Pankhurst’s</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sister Mary Clark was due to force-feeding.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The actions of all these women and so many others show that to be involved in the campaign for the vote was a direct risk to their lives, and Emily was not the only one to understand that. Under the WSPU slogan “deeds not words” no one could deny there was great risk involved. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Emily Wilding Davison deserves to be admired, not purely as an individual, but part of a mass movement of women who reconstructed the role assigned to them by society, and smashed social expectations placed on women. It is a movement, that with hindsight, we should criticise, deconstruct and review; it was a movement plagued in fractions by classism, imperialism and pro-war attitudes. The women and men who fought for the suffrage teach us several lessons: the importance of organisation, the importance of diverse, creative tactics, and the retrospective need to be inclusive in our campaigning and strive for intersectionality unlike the majority of suffragettes. It was, however, a movement that not only gained the vote for women but challenged the archaic confines of gender identity.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Though we are now enfranchised we still lack a voice. The lesson we must learn from Emily’s life is that direct action is a vital aspect of political expression, and the best thing we could do in her memory is to learn how to use it.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-16913939556371057502013-06-03T19:44:00.000+01:002013-06-03T19:47:38.377+01:00MissRepresentation: Women in Cosplay and Anime <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Hayley Johnson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the most enjoyable things about being an anime fan is
cosplay. Cosplay, short for “costume play”, is essentially dressing up as your
favourite characters from your favourite anime series. When I was asked to talk
about women in anime, cosplay was one of the first things that came to mind,
tightly bound as it is with the anime community. With that in mind, I realised
something. I don't really cosplay girls that much. This was something that I'd
only really considered briefly before now and I hadn't really touched on why
this was. After some thought though, I figured something out: I would be
uncomfortable cosplaying a fair amount of the female characters from series
that I follow, or have followed in the past. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AaqQIgcmYIo/Uazi6jgOPsI/AAAAAAAAAos/5XPNy3iklxc/s1600/ok2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AaqQIgcmYIo/Uazi6jgOPsI/AAAAAAAAAos/5XPNy3iklxc/s1600/ok2.png" width="225" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Take, for instance, one of the more famous anime series out
there, <i>Ghost in the Shell</i>. Out of three films and two series, I watched
all but one of the movies. It's deep, thoughtful, political and all packaged in
the cyberpunk trappings that I have a fondness for. To top it all off, the main
protagonist is the female and utterly awesome Major Motoko Kusanagi. There are
few series or characters that I have gotten as much enjoyment and discussion
out of. But I couldn't ever cosplay her. Why? Because I could not wear her
default outfit with any kind of comfort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now I have no problem with female characters wearing skimpy
outfits, so long as it makes sense in the context of the scene or series. In
this case, I have no clue why a member of a counter-terrorist armed response
unit would think, “Yeah, a leotard and thigh high boots are perfect for my day
at work.” She does wear more sensible clothing elsewhere in the series, but I
can't but compare her to her in-show male colleagues, who never reach the same
level of undress. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunate outfit aside, she is resourceful, intelligent and
can hold her own in situations where she is ridiculously outnumbered and
outgunned; it honestly kills me to realise that I am sitting here and
critiquing one of my favourite female anime characters ever, but I can't not mention
this. At the very least, I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that she's
nowhere near as bad as the female characters in hentai. (I would comment
further on that genre, but I won't, because I'm not qualified to criticise what
I haven't watched and because I think the very existence of tentacle rape
speaks for itself.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qtPGiX_V8k4/UazjK6k15BI/AAAAAAAAAo0/8zjnSWeIo2Y/s1600/ok3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qtPGiX_V8k4/UazjK6k15BI/AAAAAAAAAo0/8zjnSWeIo2Y/s1600/ok3.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking of famous series, and characters that I would never
cosplay from them, I suppose that I would be remiss were I to neglect <i>Naruto</i>,
a series that has been running in comic form since 1999 and has currently
clocked in at over 500 episodes in anime form. Quite impressive for a series
about ninjas in inappropriately bright clothing. The first major female
character that you meet is a girl by the name of Sakura Haruno; she's been assigned
to the same squad as the title character and another boy named Sasuke. You
would think that since she's training to be a ninja, she would be a pretty cool
example of how female portrayal should go. Nope. She quickly gets relegated to
the sidelines as cheerleader while the boys have these epic, multi-episode
battles. This continues pretty much throughout the series until the two year
time skip in the middle of the series. After the series reconvenes, we're
introduced to an older, wiser Sakura. At first she seemed to have gone through
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe this was a sign that she would finally be pulled out of
the decorative cheerleader role, become so much more valuable as a team member.
Unfortunately that was a short-lived hope, as Naruto seemed to have improved to
levels of godhood while the fans weren't looking, so she sort of adopted the
medic role instead. Don't get me wrong: having played enough roleplaying games
for one lifetime, a medic is always appreciated. There was just such potential
for her to be awesome and self-reliant, someone who I would be happy to
cosplay. As it is, she's a disappointment in almost every sense. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LIlDzFZseoY/UazjaBw4wZI/AAAAAAAAAo8/axV7oW2PZ_8/s1600/ok4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LIlDzFZseoY/UazjaBw4wZI/AAAAAAAAAo8/axV7oW2PZ_8/s1600/ok4.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">I feel like I'm doing anime a disservice right now. I've
managed to be completely negative about a series I love and a series that I
used to follow religiously (before things got weird). And that's not what anime
is about. I'm going to talk about two anime, a film and a series, whose main
female characters encapsulate the best that a character can embody, regardless
of gender. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first is the Studio Ghibli film </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Laputa: Castle in the
Sky</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, a film in which the main character, a young girl Sheeta, is
relentlessly pursued by kidnappers and pirates because of a magic amulet
related to the title's castle in the sky.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5syGYXm9uIU/UazirVK_qXI/AAAAAAAAAok/zB799CO47IE/s1600/ok1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5syGYXm9uIU/UazirVK_qXI/AAAAAAAAAok/zB799CO47IE/s1600/ok1.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p>The second is a science-fiction anime series called <i>Noein:
To Your Other Self</i>, where the main character, another young girl (this time
by the name Haruka), is fought over by two warring alternate futures who
believe that she is the key to either save or destroy reality as we know it, as
well as all other possible realities. In both these anime, these characters are
pit against overwhelming odds that they are ill-equipped to handle by
themselves. In spite of these odds, they soldier on and manage to succeed
through determination and faith in their friends. Despite enemies with far
superior numbers and equipment. Despite having to navigate the confusing
experience that is growing up at the same time. Much as I currently love or
will love other series, these two anime will probably always be amongst my
favourites, with Sheeta and Haruka being just two of many many reasons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So to those who I perhaps scared off with my criticisms
earlier, I would say don't dismiss anime as a medium. It is, like any other
form of media, filled with good and bad points. If you're willing to try the
medium and dedicate yourself to finding the good things within it, then anime
can be a treasure trove. There's always the plus side that most of the really
bad stuff dies quite a quick death. I would perhaps suggest avoiding any anime
with either of the following words in the description: tentacles or harem. You
have been warned. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-20008104333278080802013-05-04T18:09:00.001+01:002013-05-04T18:15:01.958+01:00Royal Holloway FemSoc stand in Solidarity with York University Feminist Society York University FemSoc is not the first, and unfortunately may not be the the last <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/york-university-su-rejects-feminist-society-8602382.html">feminist society to be rejected ratification</a> by their students union for "being too similar to the women's network" (if that's the excuse the SU decides gives them). Another situation which also isn't exclusive to York SU - Last year, there was an attempt to replace the women's officers of York SU with "gender equality officers" via refferendum, though this failed, this attempt highlights the failure to understand the under-representation and institutionalised discrimination of women in social structures. While York FemSoc appears to be flourishing with a large Facebook group with diverse discussions, York SU appears to be continuing its attitude against feminist ideas.<br />
<br />
To the York SU's Activities Officer, (and any other Student's union activities Officers who think that Feminist societies are too similar to Women's Networks to be allowed to be affiliated to the SU) we have a few things to say. Firstly, not every woman is a feminist and not every feminist is a woman. Women's networks at universities exist to facilitate women's discussion and campaigns to improve things for women on campuses. Feminist societies are able branch out into other spaces to cover a range different issues, hold sessions and events on feminist and gender studies and organise feminist activism off-campus, reaching out to people of all genders. At RHUL we've oganised events that have included discussions on Victorian gender roles, Intersectionality, the diet industry and feminism in theatre. We've invited feminists from across the political spectrum to come and debate and have worked with lecturers and PHD students at our university to deliver sessions on gender studies. We won the best campaign at the NUS Women's Conference.<br />
<br />
There are feminist societies in London who have previously run under their women's officers when they were unaffiliated to their SU. This has had a negative effect - it increases the Women's officer's responsibility and workload while they try to ensure their own manifesto is fulfilled and get on with their own degrees. Some Student activities representatives do not take the time to try and understand the aims and objectives of feminist societies; luckily, at RHUL we have representatives who understand what we do and also respect autonomous liberation campaigns. We wish more universities would adopt this attitude, as student feminist activists have a habit of refusing to back down. Royal Holloway Feminism Society stand in solidarity with York University Feminist Society.<br />
<br />
Royal Holloway Feminism SocietyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-20738332391896702012013-04-03T00:31:00.001+01:002013-04-03T11:35:49.036+01:00Notes on a scandal: No Confidence in the London Student Editor.<br />
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by Susuana Antubam,<br />
<i>Outgoing President of Rhul Feminism Society </i><br />
<i>University of London Women's Officer Elect </i><br />
<br />
This blog post is about the motion of no confidence in the current London Student Editor, which you can read on the ULU website <a href="http://www.ulu.co.uk/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=368873">here</a>. There have been a lot of things said revolving this situation. Here are my two cents - as an intersectional feminist, a future liberation sabbatical officer, a disabled student and a blog and zine editor.<br />
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<br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">TRANSPHOBIA</span><br />
The first time <a href="http://rhul-fem-soc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/a-letter-to-london-student-re-gender.html">FemSoc ran into the London Student Editor </a>was when the London student published a debate section which included extremely transphobic comments. RHUL Fem Soc and LGBT+ Soc have worked very closely with our SU to educate people on gender, gender neutral toilets and send the message out that transphobia is not tolerated in our feminism or anywhere on campus. Instead of taking any responsibility for the upset and potential damage caused, the editor took to Twitter to defend the publishing of piece. When Trans* members of Femoc messaged the Editor expressing their concerns, these were met with hostility and it was a fight just to get an apology from the paper. We have zero tolerance for transphobia on our campus - the fact that the situation occurred in the first place and the way it was subsequently handled, I believe is a justifiable reason why many students on campus have no confidence in the London Student Editor.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">WE ARE ALL THE NCFAC (LOL) </span><br />
For all you non-student union hacks, the NCFAC stands for the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts. The article posted on the London Student website<a href="http://www.london-student.net/newspaper/news/editor-to-be-sacked-by-ulu-senate-for-copy-errors/"> "Editor to be sacked by ULU Senate for "copy errors""</a> claims that Joe Rayment, who proposed the motion and who is Royal Holloway's Representative at ULU Senate is a leading member of the NCFAC. Joe Rayment isn't a member of the NCFAC and has never been one; therefore this is a lie. Joe Rayment acts as a representative for Royal Holloway which, as I have already explained, has policy against transphobia. Therefore, if only for that reason alone, he is fully justified in proposing this motion. Also:<br />
1. Lies shouldn't be part of London-wide/World-wide-web news.<br />
2. If you are going to try and create this NCFAC master which hunt plan storyline, you shouldn't make up members of the NCFAC<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ulu.co.uk/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=367473"><span style="color: red;">LONDON STUDENT EDITOR ELECTIONS </span></a><br />
Although it is claimed that the current London Student Editor did not partake in this issue, she is the Editor of the London Student, the most official media platform for elections. Therefore it is her responsibility to make sure unbiased information is presented. (How a sabbatical officer is even allowed to take leave to campaign for someone else is beyond me, but that's another issue). The fact that the London Student took a clear position on which candidate they favoured is unfair, and it was this act that messed up the elections. The London Student's following issue sent a completely different message, claiming to be the voice of reason despite causing the mess that started it anyway.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">DISABILITY </span><br />
The London Student Editor contacted the ULU Part- time Disabled Officer Elect to get him to sign her petition on the ground that she was being sacked because of her disability. Whilst the draft motion may have included 'copy errors' as one of its many oppositions, the official motion of no confidence did not say that she was being sacked because of spelling mistakes - which is the message she is trying to portray. The Part- time Disabled Officer Elect wasn't updated with this information and when he saw the official motion, realised he was being manipulated and retracted his support. As a friend of the Disabled Officer (who I know is a dedicated and passionate campaigner for disabled students at Goldsmiths and will be excellent at ULU), I believe that how he was treated and made to feel in this ploy is disgraceful. Secondly, as a dyslexic student that manages a blog and edits a magazine, I know it can be hard to keep on top of things. But you know what helps? Proof readers! I have quite a few who are happy to read over things for free. You would think an editorial team could manage that. There are cases to be made involving discrimination against people with learning difficulties; trust me, I know. But this isn't one.<br />
<br />
<br />
Over the past year I have seen the London Student paper been used to destroy peoples credibility for the personal benefit of the London Student Editor. Just in case you are wondering, I am not a leading member of the NCFAC. I am a disabled media student who doesn't like to be screwed over. When I vote I like to think the person elected can be held accountable, and face criticism constructively. It is because of this that I have no confidence in the London Student Editor.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-15017919904571875182013-03-28T11:12:00.000+00:002013-03-28T13:39:39.938+00:00NUS Women's Campaign Conference: A Summary<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nus.org.uk//_Handlers/ImageGalleryHandler.ashx?imageId=7230&width=323&height=236&overlay=0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nus.org.uk//_Handlers/ImageGalleryHandler.ashx?imageId=7230&width=323&height=236&overlay=0" height="233" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Rose Walker</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Earlier this month, I attended NUS Women's Campaign conference for the first time. Within this piece, I will attempt to summarise two days that have had a huge impact on me; both personally, and as an activist. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">On 5 and 6 March 2013, delegates from students’ unions across the UK gathered in York to decide on the future of the NUS Women’s Campaign. Around 150 delegates decided policy for the Women’s Campaign, elected the NUS Women’s Officer and Women’s Committee, and explored key areas of the campaign’s work. From RHUL, myself, Victoria Butcher, Susuana Antubam and Hodan Elmo were all elected as delegates. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Fuelled by a fantastic complimentary buffet breakfast (I'm tempted to encourage you all to go just for the refreshments) we threw ourselves into the first days events. Women’s Officer Kelley Temple kicked off day one with a passionate opening speech about the context that we’re currently working in; she referred to the cuts to public services which are disproportionately affecting women, and how important it is for us to work within an intersectional campaign. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">After Kelley’s opening remarks, she introduced Ailsa Tweedie, who is a student carer. Ailsa recounted her own experiences as a carer in education, and reminded delegates how important it is for the Women’s Campaign to prioritise work on supporting student carers - the 'Fair to Care' campaign has been a key part of the Women’s Campaign’s work this year. Listening to Ailsa's experiences was extremely moving - I am in huge favour of using personal stories to emphasise the reality of general issues. Everybody knows that cuts affect members of society, but many people have no idea of the harsh reality they create. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Throughout the two days, delegates debated and voted on motions. When motions pass, they become policy, and inform the work of the campaign over the next year. Highlights of these motions for me included: 'Consent in the curriculum' - this motion calls for the Women’s Campaign to work with specialist groups to put together a comprehensive list of what should be included in education regarding consent and rape culture. 'Sanitary products' - there was an interesting discussion about the tax on sanitary products, and conference resolved to work with NUS Services to absorb (heh) the tax levied on these products. 'Importance of women’s officers' - delegates agreed on the importance of having women’s officers on campuses, and passed a motion to campaign for a women’s officer in every union. Even more exciting, was that SURHUL's 'Motion Against Anti-Choice Harassment outside Abortion Clinics and on Campuses' passed unanimously, after a brilliant proposing speech by Susuana. Conference also passed an emergency motion on tackling transmisogyny in our movement and the media - an issue that has become even more relavant in the past week, following the tragic death of Lucy Meadows as a result of the Daily Mails vilification of her.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">First day highlights also included the committee's report on what the campaign has worked on over the past year and election of next years committee. The evening also brought some hugely enjoyable moments (dinner was great) but the award ceremony that accompanied it was also fantastic - namely because our wonderful Susuana won Inspirational Woman Student of the Year, and Royal Holloway Students’ Union won Campaign of the Year for Miss Representation! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">As well as the elections and motions debates, day two was full of passionate plenary sessions and workshops. Three inspirational speakers addressed conference on women’s access to abortion, in a session on fighting for the right to choose. Darinka Aleksic from Abortion Rights referenced the case of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland who died after being denied access to an abortion, and went on to tell delegates that over 50,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions. Aisling Gallagher, the women’s officer from NUS-USI (the student movement in Northern Ireland) spoke next about the complete lack of support for the pro-choice movement in Ireland. Kelly McBride, the president of the University of Sussex Students’ Union finished by explaining how she fought to keep the anti-choice organisation, Abort 67 off her campus. She gave delegates advice about how to tackle similar problems on their own campuses - I felt extremely heartened to hear of a successful fight-back against these groups, and made careful note of the advice given. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">A diverse panel came together on day two to talk about the need for an intersectional feminism - Hannah Paterson, NUS disabled students’ officer spoke first. Hannah took the case of Oscar Pistorius, and the treatment of disabled people in the media, and linked it with the treatment of Reeva Steenkamp to give a perfect example for the need for Intersectionality. Sarah Kerton, LGBT committee (women’s place) rep talked about how the LGBT campaign is essentially already an intersectional campaign in itself. Maryam Saghir, black students’ committee (LGBT women’s place) rep explained how intersectionality should be instinctive for us. All forms of bigotry and intolerance are on a par with one another, as they’re all forms of injustice. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The feeling one experiences when amongst people who share similar ideas, values and dreams is unlike any other - the realisation that you are sharing the company and space with others who are passionate about the same issues as you is empowering, inspiring and comforting, all at once. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">For me, this feeling came as conference presented recent research on 'Lad Culture' and its detrimental impact on university campus life (the research can be found here: </span><span class="s2">http://www.nus.org.uk/thatswhatshesaid</span><span class="s1">) </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In 2010 NUS published the ‘Hidden Marks’ report which produced the staggering statistic that 68 per cent of respondents had been the victim of one or more kinds of sexual harassment on campus during their time as a student. ‘That’s What She Said’ builds on this revelation with an exploration of the depth of feeling surrounding the phenomenon of ‘lad culture’ and how this can facilitate negative student experiences. As such, the research contains analysis of data from interviews and focus groups with 40 women students from England and Scotland, exploring how ‘lad culture’ affects every area of student life to a greater or lesser degree.</span><span class="s3"><br />
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</span><span class="s1">When presented with specificities within the report such as horror stories about society's initiations, male students harassing women on nights out and lecturers not calling out sexist comments in classes, nearly every woman present in the room responded in the same way, and a resounding ripple of groans, rolled eyes and shaken heads reverberated throughout the room. Whilst the common knowledge that so many of us have been directly affected by this culture was sickening, it was also inspiring. It made me realise that however isolated incidents seem when a man grabs me or one of my friends when on nights out in Windsor, we are not alone. By attending these type of events, by listening to what NUS Women's Committee is doing about it, we realise that this pandemic of cultural flaws can be held up as unacceptable, and dealt with accordingly. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">For anyone unsure of whether they identify as a feminist, an activist, or even just someone who's fed up of being groped in clubs, I would urge you to get involved anyway you can. I would encourage any self-defining woman, whether a member of this society or not, to consider running for a delegation place at next years NUS Women's Conference. Attending conference was a fantastic way for me to reaffirm my feelings about activism, and the complimentary biscuits really were the icing on the fem-cake. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-43454002293392669402013-03-16T22:17:00.000+00:002013-03-16T22:17:57.747+00:00RHUL FEM SOC COMMITTEE ELECTIONS!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mfuV7jgGDww/UUTuUYn7tnI/AAAAAAAAAmA/yl3J_laoLP0/s1600/tumblr_mekndlIxtN1r09qs1o1_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mfuV7jgGDww/UUTuUYn7tnI/AAAAAAAAAmA/yl3J_laoLP0/s1600/tumblr_mekndlIxtN1r09qs1o1_1280.png" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">Hello folks!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">It is that time of the year again where we elect our new committee for 2013/2014! Now, if you feel you want to take your feminist activism further and get involved with our awesome society then LOOK NO FURTHER! On Thursday, we will be holding elections for the following positions:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">PRESIDENT- run the society, attend GMs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">SECRETARY- emails/ minutes/ socials </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">TREASURER- budget, claims<br />CAMPAIGNS OFFICER- organising and running campaigns<br />COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER- advertisement and communications<br />(See word document I will be uploading to the </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">event for a full description of the roles) </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">It's really important we start promptly in order to get elections </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">out the way so try and be there at 6 on the dot. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">Elections will be taking place on Thursday, in the Arts Building, First Floor Room 3 at SIX pm sharp! It's really important we start promptly in order to get elections out the way so try and be there at 6 on the dot. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br />Alrighty, feel free to message any of the current committee if you have any queries about the roles, that's Susuana Antubam (President) Josie Brinkman (secretary) Sarah Bougourd (Treasurer) Katie Craig (Campaigns) and Victoria Butcher (Communications). </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">Whether you feel you want to take a particular direction with the society, or maybe do even more, you must run! Not only is it a great opportunity to meet other feminists but it's a way you can bring change to our campus! </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;">Good luck everyone! </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br />See you Thursday! BRING YOUR COLLEGE CARD.</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><br /><b>IMPORTANT NOTICE - If you have not paid membership you can neither run nor vote or even be there so do not come if you have not, come later for our weekly session :)<br /><br />Pay membership <a href="http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/societies/Feminism/">here</a>.</b></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><b>If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate in contacting us at rhulfeminism@gmail.com</b></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 14.545454025268555px;"><b><br /></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-82870803725559275192013-03-07T11:17:00.001+00:002013-03-07T11:18:15.456+00:00 Part-time allies not required<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Matthew C</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I recognise the irony of a (trans) man writing about the role of men </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">in feminist spaces and welcome being called out on any mistakes I have </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">made or assumptions that are incorrect. I was asked by a woman within</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">FemSoc to write this, and hence have. Within this article I’ve spoken </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">or implied primarily about the experiences of cis men and women. I </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">chose to do this due to relevance to the wider movement, and the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">complexities of gendered socialisation in trans people, whether binary </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">or not. I realise that is a problem with this article.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Feminism societies are not necessarily women-only societies, many, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">like the one we have, welcome people who are not women as well. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">However, we’re there as allies, to support the movement. It is not </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ours. The fact that feminism benefits men too should be wholly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">irrelevant to our involvement– if we’re in it for some kind of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">self-gratification or benefit we’ve entirely missed the point. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In feminist spaces, as in any other spaces, we have male privilege. It </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">doesn’t dissolve just because we’re in a femsoc meeting, and equally </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">just because a space is a feminist space doesn’t mean the women within </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">it suddenly lose everything inherent within female socialisation.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Women have still been socialised to be quiet, to step back, not to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">disagree with or speak over men – and we have a responsibility to know </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that, to step back, to recognise that the amazing point, or </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">experience, that we’re desperate to share, may in fact be irrelevant. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That point may also be a part of a debate, and it’s easy to get</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">carried away within debates, but what we’re debating – for example </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">whether someone was actually misogynistic – is something most men are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">debating in the abstract, possibly against people who have actually </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">experienced their misogyny. We need to take care not to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">intellectualise debates and forget that what may only be academic to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">us may be a real threat faced by women.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On the other hand, there is nothing to say that you shouldn’t hold an </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">opinion different to that of a woman. Women are not a monolithic group </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">with a shared opinion and experience and it would be sexist to say </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">otherwise. There is no harm in disagreeing, but be careful that in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">doing so you’re not silencing the women you’re disagreeing with, when </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">women are socialised not to disagree with men. However, if you find </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">yourself being the only man espousing a certain point of view in a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">feminist space, take a long, hard look at why.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It’s easy to bring our wider politics into feminist spaces, to try to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">convince women to vote for a misogynistic candidate in an election </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">because the rest of his politics are just so good, or to try to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">convince women to join our organisation because we’re just so spot-on </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">on feminism. Feminism is not disengaged from wider politics, nor from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">life. It isn’t a tool you can pick up to convince people on the one </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">hand, then ignore when convenient on the other. It isn’t easy to be a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">feminist. You can’t just decide that a bit of misogyny is alright </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">sometimes, you have to stand up to it solidly.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That might cause problems with your other friendships. You might find </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">yourself having to lose friends because it’s not okay to come to a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">feminism society meeting once a week and be a good feminist, whilst </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">spending the rest of your time around friends making misogynistic </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">remarks, without calling them out or trying to prevent them.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Being a feminist activist as a man, whether identifying as a feminist </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">or as a feminist ally, has responsibilities. You can’t call yourself a </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">feminist if you aren’t completely committed to examining your every </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">behaviour to ensure that you’re not actually being misogynistic, to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ensure that you’re stepping back, to ensure that you’re aware of your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">privilege. You can’t call yourself a feminist if you’re not completely </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">aware that you’ll make mistakes and if you’re not open to being called </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">out on them – being told that behaviour was wrong, and committing to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">change it. There are no cookies that come with being a feminist. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You’re not going to get a reward for being a vaguely decent human </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">being. If you’re a feminist you’re doing it because it’s the right </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">thing to do.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What can I, as a man, practically do to help within feminist spaces?</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Always ensure that a space is intended to be mixed gender before </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">entering it – don’t presume because you’re welcome at one event you’ll </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">be welcome at everything</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Put your hand up and wait to be invited to speak by a woman – even </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">if the group doesn’t generally enforce that policy it means you’re </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">speaking only when wanted, rather than speaking over women</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Remain aware of your behaviour and if you get called out for making </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">a mistake stop and think about why, and how to correct it. Don’t get </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">overly upset or make the call-out about your feelings.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Take on roles nobody else wants to do – do the washing up, set the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">chairs out, ask the women in the space what needs doing, then do it. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Allow the women to be organisers of their own liberation and simply </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">support them in that, taking whichever parts of the burden are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">impeding their own work most</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Act respectfully. Remember you are a visitor, invited into their </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">spaces, and treat those spaces that way.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If all of this sounds too much – too big a commitment, then step back, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and acknowledge that you’re not a feminist, but don’t claim to be one </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">if you’re not willing to take on all the work that entails</span><ul>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-30056866799026336592013-02-25T16:02:00.001+00:002013-02-25T16:02:51.296+00:00SURHUL Love Your Body Campaign<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://spatterson3.blogs.plymouth.edu/files/2012/01/band.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://spatterson3.blogs.plymouth.edu/files/2012/01/band.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; line-height: 17px; text-align: start;">By </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: small; line-height: 17px;">Sidonie Bertrand-Shelton, <br />Equality & Liberation Officer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">What does it mean to be body positive?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I suppose it means being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about liking yourself for your character traits, your humour and kindness, and about liking your body regardless of its size or shape. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">When we look around us, we are bombarded with images of what a perfect person should look like. Turn on the TV and you’ll see what you should be driving, wearing, what you should smell like and the phone you should have. The perfect person has a slim but toned body and all of these accessories that compliment that: by buying this product, you’re one step closer to becoming them. But what’s so good about these perfect people anyway? I bet the models couldn’t care less about what they are advertising, it’s a job after all. I can tell you that this is the case, as I know people who have been models. They have insecurities, hopes and dreams, and are as clumsy as the rest of us! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How about feeling good about yourself, without feeling inadequate? This is why being body positive is so important, and it’s not just about the body. It’s about who and what you are as a person. It’s about encouraging people to tell us what you like about yourself, because everybody likes something. What makes us beautiful and engaging people are the imperfections. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true! What do you like most about your friends? Their flawless skin or their sense of humour? Their perfect hair or their spontaneous dance moves on the floor?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />This seems so obvious, but we need to be reminded sometimes. We don’t have to be modest all the time, we can be proud of ourselves just the way we are. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Members of the Inclusion & Representation Senate, including Hodan, Jess and myself worked on making a day to celebrate what’s good about you. Everything from your big heart to your generosity, from the beauty spot (not mole) on your tummy to your singing voice to your eyes. You can love all of that! Hodan and Jess filmed this incredible video to ask the students of Royal Holloway just what they love about themselves, and this video sneaks a smile onto my face every time. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">So be positive, be body positive and celebrate who you are, not who you want to be. By being who you are, you’re one step closer to happiness.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-56418684850787205662013-02-17T22:04:00.003+00:002013-02-17T22:58:00.772+00:00Next Week at FemSoc! (18th - 24th Feb)<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/3519_291474700982051_1418102690_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/3519_291474700982051_1418102690_n.jpg" width="226" /></a>First up is Monday evening with <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/313064318797046/">Lets talk about Liberation</a></b> hosted by our wonderful FemStar and <a href="http://liberation-station.blogspot.co.uk/">SURHUL Equality and Liberation Officer Sid</a>! Last year we succeeded in winning a motion to replace the role of the Equality and Liberation Officer with a four separate liberation officers - Disability Officer, LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and others) Officer, BME (Black and Minority Ethnicity) Officer and WMG (Women and Marginalised Genders) Officer. <b><a href="http://rhul-fem-soc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/liberatesurhul.html">You can read what happened here.</a> </b>This talk will hopefully answer some questions that many of you will have about the roles and to help the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SURHUL.Inclusion?fref=ts">Inclusion and Representation Senate</a> invited speakers from each Liberation group to talk about their experience and their advice. Guest speakers on the night include Susan Cook - London Met LGBT+ Office, Aaron Kiely - NUS Black Student's Officer and Hannah Paterson - Disabled Student's Officer. So come along and find out what it is like to be a liberation activist and officer and what liberation Officers do! It's almost election time and we've been building up to this moment for A VERY LONG TIME so if you are thinking about running to be a liberation officer next year you should really come to this!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/600087_377749088990115_1680894430_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/600087_377749088990115_1680894430_n.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
On Thursday we are very excited to be celebrating our second birthday! We've come very far from last year and since we came into existence so instead of the usual fem soc session we've decided to paint the town with feminism! We are partying through the waves of feminism with feminist wave-themed houses before a boogie down in Medicine (which is a bar on campus for non-Rhul peeps reading this lol) :). If you are coming (which we hope all our femstars are!) make sure you bring a White t-shirt and a pen and what ever you plan to consume and meet us on campus at Crosslands at 7pm for the start of the tour! (We'll be the ones in the White T-Shirts!). Can't wait to see you there!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zx-kqEjAVNc/USCr_7aJYCI/AAAAAAAAAlc/lCeUFQwI5Kg/s1600/ppckground.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zx-kqEjAVNc/USCr_7aJYCI/AAAAAAAAAlc/lCeUFQwI5Kg/s1600/ppckground.jpeg" height="198" width="200" /></a></div>
Last, but definitely not least, is the weekend's big event <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/117054245123166/?fref=ts">StudentFems 2013</a>. It's going to be a great event full of student lead feminist workshops. The conference has already had some coverage including a cheeky plug on the huge feminist online site <a href="http://community.feministing.com/2013/02/11/grassroots-feminist-activists-get-together-for-student-feminist-conference/">Feministing.com</a>. Rhul Fem Soc is going to be running three sessions across the weekend YES, A TRIPPLE WHAMMY OF FEM SOC! You only have up to the 20th to book your place at the conference so DO IT NOW! - by going to the website www.studentfems2013.co.uk Hope to see many of you there and you all better be ready for FULL FEMINISM NOW :)<br />
<br />
FemLove xx </div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-9160729731858686762013-02-15T17:07:00.000+00:002013-02-15T17:07:22.804+00:00The problem of ‘issue feminism’<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRmGK5AK5Tg/UR5oWcqz7lI/AAAAAAAAAlA/ma88VSFzgOY/s1600/images+(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRmGK5AK5Tg/UR5oWcqz7lI/AAAAAAAAAlA/ma88VSFzgOY/s1600/images+(4).jpg" height="138" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bell Hooks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As it’s nearly RHUL Fem Soc’s 2<sup>nd</sup> birthday, it
seems like a good time to look at what we do and how we can improve on it, not
just as a society, but as feminist activists. As a feminism society, we have
campaigned very well on various issues – trans* issues, body image, porn, women
in academia, and so on. We have fought hard and more importantly got great
results, such as gender-neutral pronouns in General Meetings.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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These issues are extremely important to discuss and organise
around, but they are just that: individual issues. They are not, in and of
themselves, the be-all and end-all of what feminism is and what feminism should
be about. They are symptoms, not causes. The cause is what we should <i>also</i> be looking at. All of the above
issues are not made in a vacuum: they are all connected. We need to look not
just at what is wrong with the world and how the world is sexist, transphobic,
homophobic, etc. but <i>why</i> it is that
way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Feminism, we all acknowledge, is not a uniform movement;
within it there are myriad strands: anarcha-feminism, socialist feminism,
liberal feminism, radical feminism. What we need to do is look at what these
different viewpoints say about the material circumstances which lead to
institutional discrimination in society. We need to look at society and ask the
very simple question ‘how did we get in this mess?’ <o:p></o:p></div>
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These different ideologies provide different answers to the
root of oppression and look at different aspects of patriarchy and oppression
and, therefore, have different definitions of the extent of patriarchal
oppressions. In order to progress and become better activists and better
feminist, we need to ask ourselves these questions. We need to look at
different theories and come to our conclusions about the root of oppression so
as to aide our activism and to direct our activism, whether that widens the
scope of what we think counts as a feminist issue or not. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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And so what we need to do is to discuss further the root of
oppressions within the society through a series of talks and discussions from
feminists of different traditions to help us to think more broadly about
oppression and its causes, not just its symptoms. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
By Jack Saffery-Rowe<br />
<br />
You can follow Jack on <a href="https://twitter.com/MahlerMad">Twitter</a>!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-40568938143913766492013-02-03T22:31:00.000+00:002013-02-03T22:31:51.133+00:00Check Your Feminist Label<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhqvsdIDZ31qeotllo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhqvsdIDZ31qeotllo1_500.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By Sidonie Bertrand-Shelton, <br />SURHUL Equality & Liberation Officer</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This post doesnʼt just apply to feminism, but to any label you define yourself with. This post is for those of us who have worn a label for so long, we almost ignore it, and feminism is my example.<br />
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Wearing a label for a long time, such as ʻfeministʼ or ʻfeminist allyʼ, we sometimes forget to challenge ourselves and the stories we hear. We forget to assess our language and our actions. We think ourselves untouchable, and we forget to question that too.<br />
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This is dangerous because it can close off the open minded from investigating the opinions we hold. When you were curious about feminism, when you were confused yet enthralled by the sheer majority of opinions and debates to be had, who did you turn to?<br />
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Amongst others, you turned to feminists. We turn to the people who define themselves by the label we are so curious of. This is normal, of course we would ask a self proclaimed expert! The danger lies in the assumption that we, as the expert and proud owners of this label, know it all. This experience can also be alienating for those labelled as feminists and who actively analyse the world around them, while the “experts” no longer question the world or their actions.<br />
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If weʼre supposed to be leading a movement or a new wave of thinking, how can we expect others to listen to our challenging ideas when we cannot challenge our own? We should question ourselves and each other more often. We should look at our actions, not only in our political lives but our work lives, our private lives and our relationships. Attitude shapes behaviour, and it should be an attitude worth being shaped by.<br />
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Nobody is perfect and we all slip up, but the important thing is to listen and to learn. We need to learn from every mistake, whether it be personal or political. We need to work hard to remain open-minded enough to listen at the time of criticism, which isnʼt easy. We are university students: we complete our education by ticking the right boxes and making the right choices - but we are also taught to analyse and question, to come up with our own ideas and to assess. So apply this analysis to yourself and your labels.<br />
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Stop. Assess. Question. Be curious. Dwell. Listen. Think, and question again.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-86421566912539733922013-01-25T13:04:00.000+00:002013-01-25T13:04:28.491+00:00F.I.A: Feminism & Disability<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/im-a-feminist-now-what-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/im-a-feminist-now-what-300x300.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span id="goog_1711652443" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span id="goog_1711652444" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a>F.I.A is our new series of posts on</span><b style="font-family: inherit;"> Feminism, Intersectionality, Allyship. </b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These posts intend to give feminists an insight on </span>intentional issues within feminism and give some ideas on how feminists can be better allies, both within feminist spaces and beyond. It's easy to say </span>"My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit."but it is a bit more difficult to implement that ideology for some.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">This first post is on </span><span style="color: #222222;">Disability</span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and has been written by our FemStar Matt, a </span>disabled<span style="font-family: inherit;"> student who is </span>currently<span style="font-family: inherit;"> studying </span></span><span style="color: #222222;">abroad</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> in Spain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being disabled and any sort of activist, and I include feminism in that, is hard work. There are so many important issues that affect disabled women – issues about </span><a href="http://reproductiverights.org/en/document/reproductive-rights-and-women-with-disabilities-a-human-rights-framework" style="font-family: inherit;">reproductive rights</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2083782/" style="font-family: inherit;">the right to grow up</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, experiences of </span><a href="http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-survivors-handbook.asp?section=000100010008000100350003" style="font-family: inherit;">domestic violence</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,</span><a href="http://kyasap.brinkster.net/Portals/0/pdfs/Disabilitiesandsexualassault.pdf" style="font-family: inherit;"> sexual assault</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the </span><a href="http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/facts.shtml" style="font-family: inherit;">global literacy rate</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, access to </span><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=4363&langId=en" style="font-family: inherit;">employment</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/" style="font-family: inherit;">mental health</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/enable/" style="font-family: inherit;">accessing housing</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.hrc.co.nz/report/chapters/chapter05/disabled03.html" style="font-family: inherit;">institutionalisation</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the list continues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Women in male dominated activist spaces (which is most of them), have to spend far too much of their time trying to make male activists listen. It is our responsibility as male activists to change that. Female activists shouldn’t be forced to spend their entire time within spaces trying to be heard in those spaces, instead of looking to change the outside world as a part of that space. In the same vein, disabled feminists shouldn’t be forced to spend their entire time making the feminist movement accessible, instead of working with the rest of it to change all the issues mentioned earlier, and more, that affect specifically women who are disabled.</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being disabled can alter your ability to be involved in spaces in many ways. They might not be accessible for people with mobility impairments, have documents in accessible formats, such as audio, or have sign language interpreters. They may communicate in ways people who are neuroatypical find difficult to understand, or may, as often happens, put too much pressure on people. As someone with energy level and mobility impairment, as well as mental health problems, I can’t commit in the same way other people can. I can’t come to every meeting, every demonstration, I can’t talk about every topic. If it is not self-indulgence, but a <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/437563-caring-for-myself-is-not-self-indulgence-it-is-self-preservation-and">political act</a>, to care for ourselves in this world, disabled feminists need to be able to do that as well at times, knowing women with disabilities won’t be thrown under the bus by able people within the movement if we’re not always present, reminding people of these issues.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If my activism isn’t intersectional, it will be bullshit, and if your movement isn’t accessible, it will be bullshit. Untold damage is being done to the rights of women with disabilities, while far too many disabled feminists are being forced to spend their time and energy changing the movement, before we can begin to focus on tackling these problems. Intersectionality in that form, as well as all others, is critical to my feminism. We need to fight for each other within an accessible movement.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-23204081466862374162013-01-20T23:05:00.001+00:002013-01-21T11:01:01.639+00:00Back to Uni with Rhul Fem Soc<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We kicked things off with our welcome back FemStars Social. Thank you to all who came, if you didn't make it there are more socials coming up this month so stay tuned though the email list. If you want to be put on the mailing list please email us at rhulfeminism@gmail.com. </div>
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One of the great things about FemSoc is the fact that many of us get involved in student activism at Royal Holloway. This fine tradition contiued at Tuesday's General Meeting where Susuana, Rose and Hodan were elected to represent Royal Holloway at NUS Women's Conference. Fem Soc member Jack Saffery-Rowe was also elected to be a delegate for the NUS LGBT Conference.<br />
<br />
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Our first session of the year was on Diets and the gendered marketing of dieting. It was a very interesting discussion, covering things from Thin Spo, body ideals in different cultures, to pushy family members, peer pressure and Gok Wan. Another thing we also talked about briefly was eating disorders and what can cause them and how people can recover from them. We didn't have the time or the resources to discuss this in depth, however if you'd like to discuss issues like this you maybe interested in getting involved in the upcoming <a href="http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/news/article/6001/Mental-Health-Awareness-Week-2013/">Mental Health Awareness Week 2013</a> and Let's Talk about Mental Health which is on Thurday straight after FemSoc at 730pm.<br />
It was good to also see some of our newest additions to Fem Soc and some completely new faces who we hope to see again :)<br />
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This coming Thursday at 6pm, Fem Soc will be lead by Those Pesky Dames and will be a discussion focused on "Judgement". The main talk here will be on issues surrounding slut-shaming and prude-shaming. It should be a really interesting evening and we hope you all come to join us as this is an issue that needs to be spoken about! Awareness is the only way one can change these judgements ingrained into society. <br />
All fem soc sessions are free to members and £1 for guests. If you would like to become a member of FemSoc please visit the <a href="http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/societies/Feminism/">SURHUL Website</a>.<br />
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Also, folks, please don't forget the socials that are coming up! This Wednesday is "Come in Your Socs" at the SU so that is exactly what you should be doing! Join us for an evening of drinks and debauchery. Plus, remember to buy your ticket for the Soc's Ball which is taking place on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/569126676450846/574598709236976/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity">February 9th</a>. The Ball will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Heathrow where we will all be getting our faces filled with a three course meal! Click <a href="http://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/ents/event/396/">here</a> to get your ticket now.<br />
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It is certainly going to be a busy few weeks ahead and we look forward to you joining us for Feminism and fun. <br />
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FemLove x</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-48211347620209593222013-01-16T11:00:00.000+00:002013-01-16T11:52:33.638+00:00The Feminist Library presents ‘Women’s Studies Without Walls’ weekendBy Ruth Nicholson<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhPSwwTHYlA/UPYFTEeE9gI/AAAAAAAAAkY/7SJ-GtiP-qU/s1600/Final+WSWW+flyer+A4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhPSwwTHYlA/UPYFTEeE9gI/AAAAAAAAAkY/7SJ-GtiP-qU/s640/Final+WSWW+flyer+A4.jpg" width="451" /></a></div>
<b>WHERE: </b>The Feminist Library, 5 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7XW<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>WHEN:</b> 19th January 2013 11am-11pm (inc. evening social); 20th January 2013 11am-5pm<br />
<br />
<b>WHO:</b> All self-defined women welcome<br />
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<b>COST: </b>Suggested donation on entry £2-£10<br />
<br />
<b>OTHER INFO: </b>Wheelchair accessible, kids’ space available, catering provided – volunteers needed!<br />
<br />
Women’s Studies Without Walls is an exciting new initiative launched by The Feminist Library in Autumn 2012. It aims to return Women’s Studies to its rightful place, informing and encouraging women to take radical feminist action through learning and sharing skills and information. Women’s Studies Without Walls (WSWW) will kick off on the weekend of 19th and 20th January with a gathering of assorted workshops, talks and skill-shares, the theme of which will be ‘The Personal is Political’. This will be followed by a regular series of WSWW evening events at the Feminist Library and, we hope, by sister events elsewhere.<br />
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<br />
The impetus for WSWW was a concern that much of what is now taught in universities as Gender Studies has lost touch with grassroots feminist activism, coupled with a fear that the neoliberal and cuts agenda across education will remove any possibility of radical education at any stage of learning. Everywhere we turn we are faced with barriers, or ‘walls’, preventing us from reaching beyond institutions and moving towards radical feminist change. We want to address the relationship between activism and academia and put meaning back into the phrase ‘the personal is political’.<br />
<br />
The weekend’s sessions will include creative workshops and skill-shares such as radio production, zine-making and flash-fiction-writing; reflections on issues such as abortion in Ireland, sex and relationships education and developing Women’s Studies; training in leadership skills, and understanding identity and intersectionality; a history of feminist photography and a radical feminist self defence session. There will be an evening film and social on the Saturday and an afternoon social
on the Sunday, and plenty of time to converse and network throughout the weekend. Make sure you register your place!
After the weekend event The Feminist Library will host a series of regular WSWW evening events. We invite your input and feedback, and will be broadening out to include a wide range of contacts and geographical areas. Possibilities for development are endless! There are so many topics of feminist interest to develop, so we will hold a session towards the end of the weekend to focus on future plans.
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<br />
See you there, sisters!<br />
<br />
Email wsww@feministlibrary.co.uk<br />
Website http://feministlibrary.co.uk/womens-studies-without-walls-2/<br />
Twitter @feministlibrary<br />
Phone 020 7261 0879Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-91333284330693354472013-01-09T10:24:00.001+00:002013-01-13T23:31:53.631+00:00Rhul FemSoc Miss-Rep Campaign: Black Women and Feminism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Last year we had our first Miss Representation collaboration and we teamed up with the Rhul Afro-Caribbean Society to discuss how women from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds are represented in the media, black female role models and Black Feminism.<br />
<br />
The event was a great success and we got a chance to hear the brilliant Reni Eddo-Lodge, Black feminist, former president of Lancaster SU, NUS National executive council member and Guardian columnist speak about her experiences of Black Feminism.<br />
<br />
It was also really interesting to able to hear what students at Royal Holloway thought about the representation of black women in the media and the great video that was made for the event really opened many people eyes about the under-representation and misrepresentation of black women in the media. Following this one of our members, Hodan Elmi, also wanted to share her thoughts on Black Feminism, but first, here is the fantastic video that was created for our event :)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JuXTM5qTb7g" width="640"></iframe>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Growing
up, I've had a strong connection to the subject of women and feminism
especially being a young woman with such an interest in history. Not for
a moment did I question the demographic of women I had seen within
these movements. Maybe I was just used to seeing these faces before
me. I couldn't help but wonder, why don't people on television,
magazines and even in literature look like me?</span></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />No
doubt the development of rights and the liberation of women in
the first and second wave of feminism were indeed successful. However
their conception of women's rights was not extended to women of
colour, especially with black women. In the plight of the civil
rights movement, many African Americans demanded their basic rights:
the right to vote, the right to freedom of movement, the right to an
education and overall parity with the white man in America. No
doubt the black women experienced a different and more
intensified form of sexism due to intersecting issues concerning
race and class. Needless to say black women felt left out of a
movement that didn't cater to their needs because they were a
different type of woman. Audre Lorde said, "I recognize that my
power as well as my primary oppressions come as a result of my
blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both
of these fronts are inseparable". Without the eradication of
racism, women's liberation is severely limited in who they intend to
liberate.<br />Black feminism does not seek to divide feminism
and its goal but, what it does do, is to celebrate our differences
and understand them adequately enough in order to promote equality
for ALL women, not a select privileged sector.<br /><br />Black
women and black feminism today still have a long way to go. Our fight
for representation in the media (don't get me started on politics) is
still sidelined. High profile feminists, still receiving praise and
admiration for their ideas still have shown a lack of solidarity with
the black woman (cough Caitlin Moran cough cough). The advent
of the U.S television series <i>Girls </i>is
unequivocally, a prime example of this sentiment. Believe it or not I
loved <i>Girls</i>.
I felt I related to the show, especially with the main
character Hannah. It was well written; witty, light-hearted and
refreshing. <i>Girls </i>is
definitely reminiscent of <i>Sex
and the City </i>but
instead, the characters aren't overly concerned with the
opposite sex in the same way that Carrie Bradshaw and co are. They
have yet to figure out themselves and the relationships they embark
upon which mean the audience grows just as much with the story as the
characters do. Somewhere along the line I realized
that <i>Girls </i>was
completely white washed, oddly there wasn't even an element of
tokenism which puzzled me further. Lena Duhnam's excuse for the lack
of representation of Girls was that as a writer she could only write
through her perspective: white women. All of this continues to
highlight an on-going theme of subtle racism which internally plagues
society and the feminist community. As a black woman watching
Girls, I'm sure I was not the only woman of colour who related
to the series. But it poses the question, why didn't Lena Duhnam have
the ability to relate women of colour? This only exemplifies the
degree of racism and separatism within this representation and
society at large. The white perspective and experience is universal
and the stories of the "others" are merely categorized for
a limited audience. It would have been befitting for the show to be
called <i>White
Girls. </i>The
main problem and criticism for the lack of representation of women
was not because the show mainly consisted of white people (still a
problem) but it was the upheaval of praise and recognition that
Dunham received as a feminist and advocate of women's liberation
despite her failure to represent women of colour. For Lena Duhnam to
be praised openly and her work to be perceived as "ground-breaking"
without adequate representation is shameful.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Dunham's
inability to relate or tell the stories of young black women is
reflected by the way white media treats and represents women of
colour on the whole. The white experience and the over representation
of white people is often taken to be an experience that is applied to
everyone and most people of colour who have their five minutes of
fame (or who happen to be one of the ten black people in Hollywood)
are often stereotyped in the roles they play.</span><br />
<br />
Furthermore, the black woman we see in mass media is overly sexualised,
“sassy”, angry and working class. A typical scenario in film starring a black
woman would include a loud, aggressive black woman with several children from a
husband that had probably left her, even the successful seem to be angry,
instead of just headstrong. The overplayed strong, independent black woman “who
don't need no man” is angry, but what for? Since when is the lack of reliance
on men necessarily a bad thing? The media would have you believe that black
women are lonely because of this inability to keep their mouths shut as a result of their subservience to men and to society because of colour. Although most
people would be quick to perceive the misrepresentation of women in the media
as being just of a hyper-sexualised and objectified form, the issues of
understanding racism and sexism collectively together is a discussion long
overdue. Society's aversion to the discussion of race- relations in the western
world, particularly in Britain and America has definitely left a bad taste. I
understand that for many people, particularly some white liberals, it is probably an
issue dealt with a great deal of shame and unease. But to make the assumption
that racism is a sentiment that has somehow withered away and is no longer a
problem is simply not addressing the big elephant in the room. If we are going
to move feminism forward, we must all discuss and try to understand
intersectionality.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
With a more intersectional definition of feminism emerging in the
feminist community,the future shows a lot of promise. Let's keep at it!<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-20159798161710796682013-01-06T12:00:00.000+00:002013-01-06T14:28:21.671+00:00Laughing in the Face of Sexism<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://vaginacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/comedy+mask-single.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://vaginacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/comedy+mask-single.jpg" height="200" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By David Bullen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Last year I gave a talk to FemSoc about the importance of feminism when it comes to reviving classic drama; I realised just the other day how much I (unfairly) focused on tragedy. Perhaps this reflects a wider bias in classic theatre towards the ‘great’ tragic stories of Lear, Macbeth, Oedipus and their peers. If it does, then it’s an unfair bias, certainly when it comes to the importance of feminism in theatre.<br />
Political theatre has a tendency to veer towards the tragic, or at least the serious; it usually requires you sit in your seat for longer as well. The National Theatre’s production of Brecht’s Mother Courage in 2009 is one of the finest shows I’ve seen, and very politically minded – but at three hours long and covering the grim fate of a mother and her children in war-torn Europe, it wasn’t something you’d perhaps opt to see again and again. It can be hard for such theatre to spread its message when it lacks the mass appeal of lighter stuff.<br />
<br />
So this article is in praise of the other side of the theatrical coin: comedy. It should never be underestimated how powerful it is to laugh; it bonds an audience and generates a sense of community –it is an affirmation of shared experiences. While political theatre, including feminist theatre, might seek to drive home necessary messages via tales of woe, there is also huge potential in parody, satire and the absurd. It is a type of performance that runs strong in Britain, whether it’s Have I Got News for You or the seasonal feast of pantomime.<br />
<br />
Now, panto isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s certainly not the first genre activists turn to in order to affect change. It thrives, however, on contemporary culture and there is no reason why that can’t be used for the purposes of political theatre. The theatre company I help run, By Jove, did exactly this before Christmas with a pantomime version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The source novel was perfect: it’s so central to our current conceptions of romance, marriage, courtship, and an entire historical period. While it may not be bang up to date, it’s a feminist text in its own way; all that remained for us was to add a good sprinkling of panto.<br />
<br />
We were often asked whether the show was a parody of Pride and Prejudice – we would always reply with a firm ‘no’. It was instead a parody of the gender values and societal norms that Austen herself was subtly mocking. The descendents of Mr Darcy are Edward Cullen and Christian Gray, extrapolations of a character archetype placed into a narrative context that is vehemently anti-feminist – Darcy himself, a creation of the early nineteenth century, is less of a damaging figure. The irony of this situation demonstrates how those ridiculous ideas about gender in relationships still exist, and it’s those ideas we were mocking. I don’t suspect that anyone left our show reassessing their opinions on gender, but the warm response it received indicates to me that all that community-building laughter underlies a recognition that yes, sexist values still exist in our society but we realise, whether we like it or not, that they’re ridiculous and archaic.<br />
<br />
I’ll conclude by saying that one of the most affective pieces of feminist theatre I’ve ever seen was a final year project in Royal Holloway’s own Drama Department. In just half an hour, a group of five women said volumes about misogyny in the advertising industry and the wider media through nothing more than simple comedy sketches. If the raucous applause and constant guffawing throughout was any indicator, the audience loved it.<br />
<br />
So I apologise for neglecting comedy in my talk, I’ll be sure to remedy it in the future. I’ve learned a lesson from it, though, furthered by working on Pride and Prejudice: The Panto. There is of course a place for tragedy in politically minded theatre, but its status in the canon shouldn’t distract from the powerful and affecting potential also offered by something that will make us cry with laughter and not tears.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6012567804471995366.post-87112961063591028092013-01-04T16:13:00.000+00:002013-01-04T17:00:22.753+00:00Food Guilt: Society's Tool to Make You Thin<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o-pTTGQkv2c/UObuPjGN8xI/AAAAAAAAAj4/ILNfPJtXG5M/s1600/maltesers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o-pTTGQkv2c/UObuPjGN8xI/AAAAAAAAAj4/ILNfPJtXG5M/s1600/maltesers.jpg" height="175" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">By Rose Walker</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of my
parent's favourite stories to tell about me is set in that long lost realm of
children's birthday parties - a magical land set in village halls, peppered with
party bags, pass the parcel and a trestle table containing a gigantic array of
finger food. I was an incredibly shy child (aged 12, I spent the entirety of a friend's Halloween
party in a room with her dogs to avoid social interaction) but, so I am told, I
was in my element at birthday parties. I have a severe allergy to nuts, so my
parents used to stick around for the party; presumably in case I was gripped by a sudden urge to shovel down the
nearest bowl of peanuts. This meant they got to observe my social skills, which
weren't great with the other party-goers, but set me down next to some cheese
and pineapple on sticks, and I would be content. My mother is very proud when
she says "you were always last to leave the food table", and the idea of
'greed' or other negative associations with food have never existed in my
household.<br />
<br />
It was quite a shock when I discovered that society as a whole takes
serious issue with women enjoying food.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Going to an
all-girls secondary school was my first experience of this, and it was a bitter
pill to swallow. Generally most flack I got from buying food from the canteen
at break-time was good-natured (my obsession with cheese and onion pasties was
disliked by my friends because of the smell, rather than the fat content) but
there were absolutely barbed comments from the less pleasant members of my
class. Perhaps it was because it genuinely baffled them that I could eat 2
sausage rolls and a doughnut and not immediately gain twenty stone - if this was
the impression their Laura Ashley bedecked mothers had given them, I was
certainly a mystery.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the
last three summers I've worked as a waitress, and this has given me another
interesting vantage point into a bigger demographic of how women treat food and
meals. It's a modest cafe, with a glass-fronted cake cabinet next to the
counter that I fold napkins on and try to be friendly across. My, that cake
cabinet. Full of deliciousness; chocolate, lemon, carrot, date and walnut,
coffee, toffee, fruit, scones and teacakes. Placed there because customers
cannot avoid looking at them (my boss is a smart cookie.) And, a lot of the time, the bit of orders
that I dread. The bit of an order where
the customer (always a woman, I have NEVER encountered this with a man) will
attempt to pull me on-side with her sickly sweet, 'girls together' vibe,
because the poor sod needs convincing it is okay for her to order a piece of
cake. The incredibly frustrating deliberation she goes through, usually
involving one or more of the following phrases:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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'They look
lovely, really tasty'<br />
'Quite big slices, though'<br />
'I might be naughty and have a piece of...'<br />
'Well, I have been good today'<br />
'No, I shouldn't'<br />
<br />
Now, I'm sort of patient and sort of not. This, I have no patience for. Lady,
there is a queue gathering behind you. Children are opening the ice cream
cabinet and attempting to climb into it. I just want to scream at you, 'IT IS
OKAY TO WANT THE CAKE! I WANT THE CAKE! I WANT ALL THE CAKE. JUST BECAUSE
SOCIETY TELLS YOU IT'S NOT OKAY TO HAVE THE CAKE, YOU SHOULD WANT TO HAVE AND
ENJOY THE CAKE.' But I can't do that, because my boss would be severely unimpressed.
What I do instead is attempt to paste a smile of encouragement on my face and
only allow myself to respond with 'Ha, well, I like the chocolate best.' I
cheer inside if they do order some, and hope they aren't internally justifying
it. I serve them their cake, and hope that the icing isn't left behind when I
clear away their plates later. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I am
still left angry, even if they rave about how delicious the chocolate cake was
when I bring them their tea. I am left angry because society leaves a very sour
taste in my mouth, that it's no doubt pleased with itself because it'll put me off
eating. I am angry because it is acceptable, no, encouraged in society for
women to be ashamed of their appetite, to only want stupid foods like a Cadbury's
'Crispello' bar, that are marketed directly at women. That Maltesers are 'the
lighter way' to enjoy chocolate, so that makes them okay for women. A man is allowed to enjoy food, because he is man. He is allowed to want steak and
burgers and cheese and Doritos and all the deliciousness that exists in our
world, simply because society says so. Women are reduced to bargaining with
themselves, "I can have this chocolate bar, if I go for a run later", and
engaging in bonding sessions over their GUILT 'Let's both get dessert and then
we can be naughty together!' Tee-fucking-hee. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I want
women to realise this. I want women to realise society manipulates them to such
an extent that they will deny themselves something they want because they <i>worry about what other people think of them.
</i>I want my friends to not refuse to walk past a table of guys with an
extra-large plate at Toby carvery, because they worry about what they will be
thinking. I want those women who I serve at work to turn down a piece of cake
because they are full, not because they feel guilty about it. I want women to
take pleasure in food, and not punish themselves for it. And I want society to
make it possible for women to do that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Follow Rose on <a href="https://twitter.com/rose_ophelia">Twitter</a>!</div>
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