Women's Views on News |
- Six lessons Lisa Simpson taught me
- There is nothing like a good old mag
- Women still face discrimination at work
- UK insurance company’s sexist ad
| Six lessons Lisa Simpson taught me Posted: 17 Jan 2014 08:35 AM PST
Another of our regular cross-posts from Bitchflicks. By Lady T. The Simpsons, now in its record-breaking 25th season, is one of the most influential comedies of our time with its excellent pop culture parodies, whip-smart writing, and brilliant satire on American culture. But the show is influential in other ways. Lisa Simpson, permanent eight-year-old and the emotional heart of The Simpsons, is an excellent role model for young girls. Here are a few lessons she's taught me over the years. "Trust in yourself and you can achieve anything." This is the stated message of "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy," the famous episode where Lisa takes a stand against the sexism spouting from the mouth of the new talking Malibu Stacy doll. Frustrated with the doll's collection of sexist catchphrases that include "Let's bake some cookies for the boys," "Thinking too much gives you wrinkles," and "My name's Stacy, but you can call me *wolf whistle*," Lisa collaborates with the creator of Malibu Stacy to create their own talking doll, Lisa Lionheart. When Malibu Stacy outsells Lisa Lionheart, our creator feels temporarily dejected, until she hears her own voice speaking behind her: "Trust in yourself and you can achieve anything." She turns to see a girl her age hold a Lisa Lionheart doll in her hand and smile. Lisa realizes that, despite the seemingly impossible task of standing up to big businesses, she's made a big difference in the life of one person, and all of her efforts were worth it after all. And, not for nothing, she co-created a toy at the age of eight. "It's okay to be sad." "Moaning Lisa," one of the earliest episodes of The Simpsons, is surprisingly dark for an animated sitcom. Lisa spends most of the episode in a depressive state. She feels sad and no one knows how to deal with it. Her teachers mock her sadness or brush it off. Her brother, being ten and pretty selfish, doesn't want to deal with it. Her well-meaning but confused parents tell her to cheer up or repress her sadness so that she can fit in. Lisa doesn't start to feel better until she meets a jazz musician named Bleeding Gums Murphy. Finally, she has an outlet for her sadness and someone she can relate to. But it isn't until Marge, in a burst of passion, tells Lisa that she can be sad as she wants to be, and doesn't ever have to smile for the sake of another person, that Lisa finally feels happier and has a genuine smile on her face. The lesson here? It's okay to be sad sometimes, and girls shouldn't have to paste fake smiles on their faces. The simple message that people are entitled to their emotions is a powerful one that I'm glad I saw at such a young age. "Stand up for what you believe in, but respect others' beliefs as well." Lisa, like many a young activist, is passionate about many different causes. She's a feminist, an environmentalist, and a vegetarian, and nothing invokes her ire more than social injustice or lies. Most of the time, she is right to fight for her causes, and is often the only person to stand up for what's right. Every once in a while, though, Lisa becomes a bit shortsighted and forgets that everyone around her doesn't see the world the same way she does. She ruins her father's barbecue because she doesn't approve of his eating meat, but she gets a wake-up call when Apu, a vegan, advises her to "live and let live." Lisa learns an important lesson about tolerance while still remaining true to her beliefs. "There's no shame in being second." Because she doesn't have many friends, Lisa absorbs herself in her music and her academia. She becomes immediately threatened when a new girl shows up in her second-grade class and is a better student and better jazz musician. Lisa becomes jealous to the point where she collaborates with Bart to ruin Alison's diorama in the school's Diorama-Rama, admitting to her actions only when the guilt tortures her–and then they both lose to Ralph Wiggum. At the end of the episode, Lisa finally learns that being "second" to Alison is nothing to be ashamed about. Having overcome her jealousy of Alison, she extends a hand of friendship instead–because why be jealous when you've finally found a person your age who shares your passions and interests? "Follow your passions, even when you experience setbacks." One of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons is season three's "Separate Vocations," an experiment in role-reversal. After hearing their results from a national standardized test about career aptitude, Bart becomes interested in police work and becomes the school's tyrannical hall monitor. Lisa, meanwhile, discouraged by her test results and stubby fingers, quits the jazz band, stops playing saxophone, and acts out in class. She even pulls off one of the biggest pranks in school history and steals all of the teacher's edition textbooks from the school classrooms. When it seems like she's going to get caught, Bart, in a rare display of brotherly loyalty, tells Principal Skinner that he's the culprit. Later, he tells Lisa why he took the fall for her: "I didn't want you to wreck your life. You got the brains and the talent to go as far as you want. And when you do, I'll be right there to borrow money." He takes his punishment–600 days of detention–and Lisa plays her saxophone outside to keep him company, enjoying music again. With the help of her brother, Lisa realizes that the results of a standardized test don't matter in the great scheme of things. She has ambition, talent, intelligence, and passion, and she's going to go far in life as long as she keeps trying. "Have fun and be silly." If all Lisa Simpson did was moralize about the world and fight for causes she believes in, she'd be a pretty admirable but rather boring character, but fortunately, the show rarely forgets that she's still a kid and wants to act like one. She watches Krusty the Klown and Itchy and Scratchy with Bart and laughs just as hard at the cartoon violence. She fantasizes about boys named Cory and reads Non-Threatening Boys Magazine. She has sleepovers and reads The Baby-Sitter Twins, and even though she's concerned about the media portrayal of women and girls, she indulges in a princess fantasy from time to time and twirls around in fairy skirts. She's not the most fun-loving character on The Simpsons, but at her core, she's still an eight-year-old girl, and a fully realized human character, despite being a cartoon. Lady T is a feminist blogger, sketch comedy writer/performer, and author of Fanged, a young adult novel. A version of this article first appeared on the Bitchflicks site.  |
| There is nothing like a good old mag Posted: 17 Jan 2014 06:53 AM PST
The feminist journal Trouble and Strife (T&S) is a quirky, visual, yet delightful maze of a journal. Launched in 1983, T&S acknowledged its radical feminist outlook in the name: 'trouble and strife’ is Cockney rhyming slang for wife. The founders chose this name because it acknowledged ‘the reality of conflict in relations between men and women’. And the magazine’s politics came ‘directly from this tension between men's power and women's resistance'. As such its articles covered a wide range of themes, and features in the journal ranged from discussions of class in the women's liberation movement and exploring psychoanalysis and Freud (issue 1); from the black women's movement in Brazil (issue 29/30) to a special publication concerning feminist perspectives after 9/11 (issue 43). T&S was forced to cease printing for good in 2002 – citing high printing costs and the effort required to maintain its rigorous standards of journalism while still ensuring regular output – as the reasons for this decision. At a launch event for its online archive, the T&S founders expressed sadness at the move away from the journal’s printed, physical, quarterly form to a new, sporadic online forum. Initially it was suggested that feminist journals, a flurry of which emerged in the 1980s in the UK and elsewhere, arose out of the desire for new avenues of expression. Over their long history, feminist magazines or journals have allowed women to 'write their own history' – a history in which they are free to choose not only the language, but, importantly, the form and the means of expression too. This has been evident from pamphlets circulated by the suffragettes to Spare Rib magazine; these were created from the ground up to suit the purposes, agenda, personalities and the humour of the contributors. T&S emphasised the significance of cartoon strips and illustrations which were a heavy feature of its output. In this way it was able to combine journal-style pieces with quirky satirical chunks, and reflect the multiplicity of interest and intent that makes up the radical feminist agenda. The issues are presented in the archive in pdf form so as to maintain the look of the illustrative elements, but these are not as striking and provocative as they were when viewed in an actual physical copy of the publication. Additionally, just being able to access printed feminist magazines in bookshops and libraries allows for a potentially broader audience and the engagement of those who would not typically choose to look at such material Further, the printing of feminist journals and magazines allowed those with relatively modest experience in press and publishing to get involved in media – cutting and pasting pictures by hand, scanning items and editing multiple times without limit to ensure quality output. This is not only more liberating in that it explodes the clique, exclusive vision of the media sector but also in the proviso that feminists could create pieces that were more truly reflective of their experiences and creativity. It is arguably more difficult to come across such material online, unless you are searching for particular thematic elements or are already fostering an interest in these kinds of outputs or debates. Also, with online versions individuals are limited by the potential of web hosting and the ability to navigate website design when attempting to produce unique, bespoke platforms. By no means is this a slight on any feminist’s ability to exercise these skills and effectively use these tools; it is a comment on the requirements that online media demand. And, it should be noted, this argument is not to say that feminist online forums/websites/magazines are not valid ways of drawing attention to, and contributing considerably to, challenging gender inequality. To conclude, printed feminist journals and magazines allow for a physically evident, profound connection between modern feminists of all varieties and perspectives and the debates and campaigns of past feminisms. These tangible items also express that there is, contrary to the belief of some, a long history of feminism and activism within the feminist community and womankind at large. This is key in establishing the future of feminism, and maintaining momentum and progress. However, regardless of form, it is beneficial socially and politically to discuss issues with other feminists – even and especially when there are contrary opinions present – and produce materials that illustrate and provide motivation for change and – significantly to find a way to 'write your own history'. And if you are looking for physical reading material, the Feminist Library, with its extensive collections of women's magazines, journals, fiction and non-fiction is well worth a visit. Chaotic but pleasing. A digital collection of all 43 issues of the journal is available here.  |
| Women still face discrimination at work Posted: 17 Jan 2014 05:34 AM PST
The campaign group Opportunity Now, which was founded in 1991 to improve working conditions for women, launched Project 28–40 to investigate women's experience in the workplace. Opportunity Now invited women between 28 and 40 years of age to take part in their survey as the gap between men and women's progression in the workplace increases between these ages. They also invited men to take part so that their answers could be compared to those from women. The initial findings of the survey show that over a quarter of the women said a lack of promotion or training has stalled their career, and one in ten had faced sexual harassment at work. Daisy Sands, Policy and Campaigns Manager at the Fawcett Society, said: "Today's findings present a stark reminder of the raft of deep inequalities that women continue to face in the UK labour market, well into the 21st century. "Women continue to dominate in low-paid and undervalued work – two-thirds of those in minimum-wage jobs are women. "Conversely, women are sorely lacking at the top tables of power – only 25 per cent of senior managers in the UK are women." The initial findings of the survey also revealed that women struggle to balance work and having a family. Eighty-one per cent of women surveyed believed that having children would affect their career progression, with 66 per cent feeling that work needs to be their priority in order to advance in their career. Reflecting on this difficult child-career balancing act, Susan Himmelweit, Professor of Economics at the Open University, said: "Whenever there are pressures on people, as there are now – such as high unemployment – employers are in a better position to put more pressure on staff. "Women with caring responsibilities have more difficulty with this. Very often they've juggled things just to work and it's more difficult for them to respond to changes. "If it is a competitive environment then employers will think it's not worth bothering with them." Himmelweit believes that a solution lies in improving rights for women who work on a part-time or flexible basis. "The legislation on flexible working needs to become tougher so that those who have to use it are not discriminated against," Himmelweit said. The initial findings of the Project 28–40 survey agreed with Himmelweit's concerns about flexible working as 63 per cent of women believe that this kind of work still entails working long hours. Opportunity Now hopes that the survey will enable them to "more accurately diagnose why women are not being promoted at the same rate as men". They plan to use the focus groups to ‘explore themes that emerge, seeking the reactions of younger women, older women, men and business leaders’. The preliminary results also show that 89 per cent of women think that being a working mother makes them a good role model for their children, provides balance in their lives and enables them to provide a good life for their children. The full findings of the survey will be published later in the year.  |
| UK insurance company’s sexist ad Posted: 17 Jan 2014 01:09 AM PST
‘We understand that mistakes happen…!’ says the ad. The ‘mistake’ in question – a woman – is pictured seated at the foot of a man’s bed. Below this runs the text: ‘Car and Van Insurance for drivers with convictions’. Convictions, women; these ‘mistakes’ are one and the same according to Vine. To complain to Vine online or via a letter, see their contact details here. Alternatively, you can tweet the Daily Star at @Daily_Star.  |
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