Women's Views on News |
| Feminist perspective law project starts Posted: 08 Oct 2014 06:36 AM PDT
A collective of academics and practitioners based both in Ireland and abroad have set up a project to rewrite 30 important legal judgments, which they believe would have been decided differently if a feminist perspective had been brought to bear on the case. The Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project cases selected will cover constitutional law, child and family law, reproductive rights, property law, criminal law, immigration law and religious freedom. The idea is that by rethinking the process of judgment, the project will demonstrate the influence which judges have had on women’s lives, and on the politics of identity in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Feminist judging provides a means of re-imagining the role of the judge. It requires us to adhere to the rules of precedent and custom which typically bind judges, while demonstrating that it is possible to decide even very difficult cases in ways which take proper account of feminist concerns. For example, a feminist judgment, in reciting the facts of the case, might provide more detail on a woman litigant's experience. It might take judicial notice of feminist "common knowledge". Or it might aim to give legal meaning to feminist conceptions of equality, autonomy or selfhood. Click here for further discussion of the principles of feminist judging and their significance for Irish and Northern Irish legal studies. The project is led by Dr Aoife O’Donoghue, from the University of Durham, Dr Julie McCandless, at the London School of Economics and Mairead Enrigh, at the University of Kent, and will run from October 2014 to September 2015. The Project's initial four events will be held at the University of Ulster, University College Dublin and Griffith College Dublin, Queen's University Belfast and University College Cork. A series of workshops will be held throughout Ireland in the autumn and in the spring, at which draft judgments will be presented for discussion by academics, practitioners and activists. To accompany the workshops, there will be a series of interdisciplinary panels, which will facilitate broader reflection on aspects of gender, identity and the law in Ireland and Northern Ireland. And a book, collating the feminist judgments produced during the project, will be published by Hart in 2016. As the Project progresses, scholars and graduate students from all disciplines, activists, practitioners, artists, poets, writers and others will be invited to reflect on the intersections of judging, gender and identity in Ireland and Northern Ireland. They will be invited to participate both as contributors to the website, and as participants in the Project's Drafting Workshops. The Drafting Workshops will have space for discussants, who will comment on judgments still in draft, and for papers reflecting on broader themes allied to the project If you would like to participate in this way, or if you have another idea for collaboration, please email. For further details email, look on the website, or the Facebook page. Or on twitter at @irishfjp. |
| UK-USA films low on gender balance Posted: 08 Oct 2014 04:10 AM PDT
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media launched its first global study on female characters in popular films recently. It showed that in most crowd and group scenes in films, only 17 per cent of the characters shown are women. Yet audiences generally believe that gender representation is fairly equal. And the ratio of women to men in film has remained basically unchanged since 1946. ‘Gender Bias Without Borders: An Investigation of Female Characters in Popular Films Across 11 Countries’ was released by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation. The research was led by Stacy L. Smith at the University of Southern California's Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The results simply reiterate what is seen in public life around the world. Although women make up half of the world's population, less than one third of all speaking characters in films are female, and less than a quarter of all fictional on-screen workforces are women. And when women in a film are employed, they are unlikely to be shown in positions of power. Geena Davis, founder and chair of her eponymous organisation, said, 'In the time it takes to make a movie, we can change what the future looks like. 'There are woefully few women CEOs in the world, but there can be lots of them in films. 'How do we encourage a lot more girls to pursue science, technology and engineering careers? By casting droves of women in STEM, politics, law and other professions in movies.' Media is an incredibly powerful shaper of ideas and beliefs, so the lack of women in substantial and powerful public roles combined with the hypersexualisation of female characters – including young girl characters from 13 to 20 years of age – is a potent indicator of the repetitive and deeply ingrained nature of the discrimination against women in all sectors of life. The study examined the film outputs of 11 countries – the UK, the USA, China, India, Japan, Russia, Australia, France, Germany, South Korea and Brazil – as well as UK-USA collaborations. Less than a quarter of all the films surveyed had a female lead or co-lead. And the UK-USA collaborations and Indian films were in the bottom third for gender-balance. One of Davis' simplest recommendations for redressing the gender imbalance in films is to change 'he' to 'she' at the earliest stages of planning. When women direct, there are 6.8 per cent more women in the film. When women screen write, there are 7.5 per cent more women in the film. While positive, there is the potential for gender bias to find yet another way to discriminate against women if female writers and directors are given jobs because of the numbers of female characters in the story. More obviously needs to be done at every level of the industry, especially following the 1995 signing of the Beijing Platform for Action that called for the media to avoid stereotypical and degrading depictions of women. 'With influence comes responsibility,' Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women’s Executive Director said; ' The industry cannot afford to wait another 20 years to make the right decisions.' |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2014 01:09 AM PDT
What's worse than being street harassed? Being street harassed while surrounded by a bunch of strangers who could have done something, but didn't. You've read the stories, you know who we're talking about: the "it's none of my business" guy, the "he doesn't mean anything by it" guy, or the woman who approaches you not to ask if you need help, but to compliment you on your hair. But what if it didn't have to be that way? Hollaback is working with the award-winning bystander programme Green Dot to help you intervene when you see street harassment happen – and to celebrate and document your success using our website and apps. Green Dot is a violence prevention strategy that gives everyone the skills needed to stop rape, partner violence and stalking, while also imparting how we can promote safety our own communities. And the Green Dot organisers are just now collaborating with Hollaback! to show how bystander intervention can be used to end street harassment. What is a green dot, and how do I make one happen? A green dot is just a moment in time when you make a choice to be actively and visibly intolerant of street harassment. A green dot is your chance to show that street harassment sucks and isn't ok with you, to show targets of street harassment that you've got their back, and to show everyone in your life that you expect them to do their part to make the community safer. Two things are necessary for street harassment to happen: one is a person or group who chooses to harass someone and two is a community of bystanders willing to let it happen. But when we start replacing moments of bystander inaction with moments when we have each other's backs, we will make our vision of a daily life without street harassment a reality. Because thinking really hard about how awful street harassment is isn't going to make it go away. Action is the only thing that will. Here are three steps to move from bystander inaction to a bystander in action: Notice what street harassment looks like. Notice what keeps you from acting. Pick a Green Dot that works for you. What you might notice that is street harassment: comments about someone's appearance, gender, sexual orientation, etc.; vulgar gestures; sexually explicit comments (e.g., "Hey baby, I'd like a piece of that"); leering; whistling; barking; kissing noises; following someone; flashing someone or exposing oneself; blocking someone's path; sexual touching or grabbing (e.g., touching someone's legs, breasts or butt) or public masturbation. But… That's awful… I've got to do something… but…. I'm shy I don't know what to do I don't want that dude to touch me What if no one else has my back? What if I'm calling it wrong? I don't want to get my butt kicked I'm late Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that's rude, maybe the target is into it My friends would think I was a freak for saying anything That super cutie sitting across from me definitely won't ask me out if I make a scene on the subway No one else is doing anything There are a lot of them and only one of me If I tell the cops, they may not help I have to walk this way every day – if I call them out I may see them again Am I over reacting? That's my friend saying those lewd things… It can be really hard to have someone's back, even when we really want to. The good news is, that doesn't make you a crappy person – it only makes you human! More good news (that's right, there's more) – no matter what makes it hard, there is almost always something you can do that will feel manageable to you. There are Badass Bystander Moves. Green Dots. In the moment… Direct Green Dots: "Hey knock it off"; Tell the person you will call the cops if they don't put that thing away; "Are you ok?"; Go stand next to the person being targeted so they know they are not alone; Ask the target, "Are they bothering you?"; Take a picture with your phone; Look disapprovingly at the person doing the harassing behaviour; Offer to get off at the next stop with the target and catch the next train together; "Get away from her/him"; Don't join in or laugh; Loudly say "ugh, that is so gross"; Talk to your friend later about why you thought what they did or said was uncool; Ask the target if there is anything you can do to help; Tell the harasser you saw some cops on the corner and you are worried they will get in trouble if they don't stop; Tell the target that the harassing behavior wasn't ok and you are sorry it happened. Delegate Green Dots: Find the foreman on the construction site; Call the police; Tell a transit authority worker; Yell "Somebody do something!!!!!"; Get a group together to intervene; Text a friend who is on the subway with you and ask them to HELP!; Make eye contact with some other bystanders and ask, "What should we do to help?" Distract Green Dots: Ask for directions; Offer the target your seat; Start a flash mob; Act like you know the target and say "I've been looking everywhere for you – we have to hurry to meet our other friends"; Drop your bags to create a commotion; "Accidentally" spill your coffee. And here maybe a note about safety: we don't ever want you to get hurt trying to help someone out. Always think about safety and consider possibilities that are unlikely to put you in harm's way e.g., calling 999, getting a group together, soething like that. In my daily life… Only got five minutes? Here's what you can do to help: Hollaback! and share your story of harassment on ihollaback.org. Have people's backs, virtually. Read some of the Hollaback! blog posts and let folks know you've got their back. Educate your networks! Tell your facebook friends why you think street harassment is a problem. Give your twitter followers suggestions on how they can intervene. Share the love on social media. The more people out there that know we exist, the faster we can work to end street harassment. Invite your facebook friends to our facebook page, give @HollabackBelf a shout-out on your twitter feed, or just shoot an email out to all your besties to tell them about Hollaback! Make a personal pledge to do your part to have people's back if you ever see street harassment. And any time you see someone doing a green dot tell them you think they're awesome. If you ever witnessed street harassment and tried to help, please tell us your story at ihollaback.org. When you click the "I tried to help" button your story will be mapped with a green dot. Each story told shows victims and bystanders alike that they are not alone. And that’s really important too. |
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