Saturday, October 27, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

No More Page 3: join the boycott

Posted: 26 Oct 2012 04:53 AM PDT

Buy the T-shirt, sign the petition, and get bare boobs out of the the news.

The No More Page 3 campaign has been 'very nicely' asking the Sun newspaper’s editor Dominic Mohan to drop the bare breasts from The Sun newspaper for several weeks now.

Its supporters point out that the pictures on page 3, of women in little but their knickers, were introduced in 1970, ‘an incredibly sexist era’ and they do not think they should remain there in 2012.

They also feel that children should not, when faced with this newspaper, see pictures of men, in clothes, doing various activities -like running the country for example – and then see one huge image of a woman in no clothes, doing nothing.

As the petition asking The Sun to drop page 3 says:

‘George Alagiah doesn't say, 'And now let's look at Courtney, 21, from Warrington's bare breasts,' in the middle of the 6 O'Clock News, does he?

Philip and Holly don't flash up pictures of Danni, 19, from Plymouth, in just her pants and a necklace, on This Morning, do they?

No, they don't. There would be an outcry.’

As it is, it sends out an unacceptable message about a woman's place in society.

Consider this the long overdue outcry.

And consider this: some young women say, ‘oh, we’ve never thought about it before’ – which is, as the campaigners point out, a bit sad.

Because, as they rightly say, when the largest picture of a woman in the most widely read paper in Britain is that of a young woman showing her bare boobs every day the message it gives is 'Just shut up girls, and get your tops off for the boys'.

Enough is enough.

No More Page 3.

What to do?

Apart from 'like' the facebook page (over 4000 this week), going to the demo outside the Sun HQ, buying the T-shirt, signing the petition (over 48,000 to date), sharing the petition on your facebook page, not buying The Sun and not clicking on the Sun's website?

Talk about the issue.

Join campaign supporters on the campaign song video.

And prepare for the boycott.

Because the campaigners think Dominic Mohan will start paying attention to the way his newspaper conditions people to view women as sex objects when we boycott his major advertisers.

So for one week, the last week in October, 29 October – 4 November, the No More Page 3 campaigners are encouraging their supporters to boycott Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Asda, Argos, Tesco, and DFS.

It is, they point out, doable.

If those supermarkets are the only food suppliers in your area, do a big shop at the start of the week.

If there is a choice, go to Waitrose or Iceland. Or explore your local grocer…

It's doable. Please do it.

And if there isn’t one nearby for you to boycott, you can always write and tell them you would if you could.

Why linked liberation is integral to feminism

Posted: 26 Oct 2012 04:30 AM PDT

By Chitra Nagarajan from Black Feminists.

We live in a world in which patriarchy combines with racism, neo-colonialism and global capitalism to create a fundamentally unjust world in which, no matter where you are or who you are, life is not the same for women as it for men. What is feminism if not providing space to resist this? Women's rights ideas and activism are seen everywhere in the world because every single community and country on this planet has profoundly entrenched inequalities between women and men, and hierarchies of power and dominance based on difference – be it gender, ethnicity, economic class, caste or regional difference.

However, despite their strength and purpose of activism, black women are often automatically construed as weak, defenceless and faceless, amalgamated into a mass of vulnerability. In reality, black women have been part of feminist ideology and organising throughout the ages. 'Patriarchy' is not a term many in the UK use with ease, but women I know in other countries know what it is, know what militarised and fundamentalist forms of masculinity do and in many ways, have a more nuanced and deeper understanding of gender relations than most long-standing feminist activists in the UK. We need to get rid of the idea of the 'liberated' white women and the oppressed black women. Neither is true. The horrors of forced marriage, female genital mutilation and 'honour based' killing are very real, but violence against women is not limited to black communities and countries . Let us not forget only 6 percent of reported rapes end in a successful prosecution and that 2009 showed a dramatic increase in the numbers of women killed by violent partners in the UK. This includes all women. White women are not living in some feminist fantasy utopia of equality and opportunity and black women are not all oppressed. Let us stop the discussion of whether feminism is just for white, middle class women. White women do not own feminism: the feminist story belongs to all women, everywhere.

We need to shift and broaden our gaze to reconfigure the terrain of what consists of feminist and activist, to look up and see the interconnectedness of our world. For feminism to have meaning for all women, it needs to be concerned with more than just oppression on the basis of gender. Women from all backgrounds and communities identify with feminist beliefs but the movement needs to take into account their needs and realities in terms of representation and analysis. Who are the women writing about feminism in the media? What issues and which feminists are getting media coverage? Which women are speaking at feminist events? What are they speaking about? Over the past couple of years, I've started to consciously do what I've been subconsciously doing for years at events: a count of the numbers of black women, black men, white women, white men and if there is anyone living with a disability or openly gay. The numbers are not good. I have lost count of the number of feminist events that I have attended where the women speaking are all white and there is very little analysis of race, class, sexuality and how they interrelate with gender. Feminism is not just a movement for white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual women but if most of the women who are speaking for feminism fit this, then it becomes very difficult for women who do not to think of it as a movement for them.

Working towards a linked liberation is integral to my feminism. Black Feminists was set up in 2010 due to the frustrations many of us felt with the male dominated anti-racist and white dominated feminist movements. Although providing the tools and the friends with which to articulate and challenge the expressions of dominant hierarchies of race, gender, class, heteronormativity and ableism (to varying degrees), the lack of a space where our experiences as black women were at the centre of all thinking, discussion and action only became clear to me the first time black feminists met. It was supposed to be a one-off meeting. Almost two years later, I am proud to be a member of a group that has become part of the long tradition of women organising by using the terms 'black' and 'feminist' politically. We have a listserv with black women feminists all over the UK and there are women meeting in London and Manchester. Please do get in touch if you are interested: blackfeminists.org.

We live in a world of interlocking hierarchies and oppressions. It must be part of our feminist mission to dismantle this and take ableism, class privilege, heterenormativity and homophobia, racism, sexism, transmisogyny and all other forms of discrimination and prejudice as seriously as each other.

[This piece was produced by Black Feminists in response to a request to contribute a piece to the programme of the INTERSECT conference which was held in Bristol on May 19, 2012]

Chitra Nagarajan has worked to promote and protect the human rights of women in China, the United Kingdom, the United States and West Africa. She is an active member of Go Feminist and Black Feminists. She is an aspiring surfer and triathlete and spends far too little time dancing and singing. She writes in her own capacity and tweets @chitranagarajan.

Women Worldwide setting up for launch

Posted: 26 Oct 2012 01:17 AM PDT

New forum-based organisation hopes to raise awareness and find effective solutions.

Women Worldwide is a new up-and-coming organisation created to host experiential conferences to empower and inspire women.

Founder Susan Ma left her full-time job as a Specialist Investigator to work as a freelancer and set up the organisation which she hopes will "join people together to create solutions for global gender issues".

Like many similar organisations, Women Worldwide aims to raise awareness of 21st century gender-related issues such as sex slavery, maternal mortality, domestic violence, honour killings, pornography and reproductive health.

However, Women Worldwide hopes to provide an additional layer for the women attending these conferences by tailoring the focus towards a more forum-based format.

The conferences will create an experiential experience so that women at all levels can collaborate by creating solutions together where everyone can contribute from the key inspirational speakers and organisations to those simply wishing to donate their spare time.

The type of solutions supporting individuals and organisations may create can be as basic as "volunteering their time and donating" to looking at how their own particular specialism could be transferred to supporting these causes.

The conferences will be focusing on combining their audiences with brilliant thought leaders to create an environment where solutions can take a real effect by directly helping women at home and abroad.

The first of Women Worldwide's conferences will be a full one-day conference launching, appropriately, on International Women’s Day next year – 8 March 2013.

Speaking to Women's Views on News Susan Ma said: "Our first conference will map the key issues, identify and highlight good current initiatives with a view to actively promoting projects that are actually effective in the field (the amazing grassroots charities).

“The conference will also provide a format which every person attending may say how they might become actively involved.

“In short, it will be an inspirational event that calls for action."

Women Worldwide is currently recruiting speakers and sponsors for the event.

If you want to get involved, or would like more information, you can email them directly and sign up for the Women Worldwide newsletter.