Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:09 AM PST
By Dwysan Rowena. I re-read this fabulous article on casual sexism by Natascha McElhone recently. This was my response at the time: For someone like me who is a bit obsessed with equality and feminism it was even a bit of a surprise to me that her day consisted of so much casual sexism. I even thought perhaps the writer was a bit unlucky. So I thought – tomorrow I'm going to try and spot 'casual sexism' and if I've got anything to write about I'll write about it. So here I am. I'm going to cheat a bit and cast my mind back to last night. I was on Twitter, I'd watched the X Factor and then Downton. As I do, I'm sitting in bed flicking through Twitter and Lady Gaga comes up quite a lot on my timeline, I think I might follow her, I hadn't realised. I was wondering what her 'monsters' thought of her routine on the X Factor, she was dancing around in a nude coloured bikini to a song called 'Venus' in which she sings about her body and that you can 'do what you want' with it. I think I'm a bit odd as a feminist as I don't tend to have the same issues as many feminists have about that/Miley Cyrus etc – I often wonder has anyone asked them what they think, instead of making assumptions. But that is a different article. Anyway back to Ga Ga and Twitter – so I thought, wonder what her fans tweeted about it as it was quite a bizarre, eccentric performance. There was the usual 'love you so much', 'retweet me', 'you're my world' but also there was stuff like 'hoar' and 'all your fans are faggots'. In the world of Twitter I think we became so desenstised to this kind of language. Homophobia. Sexism. Some had even tweeted #hopeyoudieofcancer. Not just sexism. Vile. Awful. All driven by her wearing a nude coloured bikini. This morning when I woke up at 6.20am to feed my yappy Jacakpoo, I made a cuppa and got back to bed for ten minutes. The first article I read was about rape and how the reports had gone up but the referrals by the police to the CPS had gone down. Sexism? Why are allegations of rape going up but the referrals to the CPS going down? I know I've repeated myself. But. Why? Back to my day. As I leave for work I bumped into a guy with his little dog, we talked about the weather, he looked at my breasts a couple of times while talking to me, I'm not sure if I'd have noticed that much had I not been thinking about writing this. On the way to work I listened to the radio, male presenter of course. I listened to the radio then the sports news, all relating to the male football matches over the weekend. There was a Britney video of her 'riding' a broomstick apparently. As I was driving I was behind a lorry, from Poland I think. On the back of it, on the right side it had a provocative naked quite nicely drawn woman with her finger in her mouth. On the other side there was a drawing of what looked like a young boy pissing on a lamppost. Smiling. Looking at me. Weird. As I was driving to work, I was thinking about equality, I often think of how we could make the world a more equal place for women. We are doing better in school than our male counterparts but all the statistics tell you after that after school and university, our place shifts. Women made up 19 per cent of FTSE 100 directors on 1st October 2013, and that is viewed as a good thing! The government wants 25 per cent of FTSE 100 directors to be female by 2015. And that is supposed to be a good thing!! Women make 22.5 per cent of MPs. 22.5 per cent – and this is a good thing?! 5 per cent of editors of national newspapers are women. 5 per cent!! I think, I do think that this is because men obviously (as the statistics show) still rule, well – everything and predominantly. I think many men don't want equality. Some do, I know they do, but I don't think most do – so if they are making the decisions, if they are predominantly making the laws, is there any surprise that things don't change dramatically, that equality is still such a long way off. Back to my day. I get to work, all of the staff apart from the 3 partners are female, all of the admin team, all of the nurses, the manager (me). I really get on well with my 'bosses', they are three great GPs, however they are 3 male GPs, where are all the female GPs??! I start work and I'm called down within a few minutes to see Mr X, the content of this conversation of course is not relevant but he greets me with 'hi love' and then he touched my arm as he was talking to me. I remember speaking to him previously on the telephone, he had made comments about my bum. He then asked me, which man was 'high up' in order that he could address a letter to. Actually, I replied, her name is… Later on I have a technical issue and have to ring an IT company to solve it as there is a software conflict with the server. During the call I'm told that perhaps the information would be 'too complicated' for me to follow. I do wonder whether a man would have said this to another man. Actually I found it rather easy to point to start, programs blah blah and blah. Sometimes I think it is so easy, even as a feminist, to be drawn into the world of accepting casual sexism. Some of the things that happened I had to think about because they pass me by. It's half term and my son needs 'looking after' of sorts this week. Who makes these arrangements? Mum of course. Why? Because it is actually easier for me to work flexibly, to alter my days and hours than his dad. Why is that? Why can't employers offer the same flexibility to dads as to mums. I'm not talking about the 'law'. I'm talking about common sense – if all employers had some common sense when it came to parenting it would make it so much easier. I don't take the p*ss in work. Monday I might work until 7, tomorrow I might go in at 11. OK – that might not work for every job but with some forward planning, it probably could. During the day I have conversations with other women. They mainly are about food (whether to eat that chocolate or not), diets (how much weight has been lost/gained), marriage, babies, new kitchens, being a mum, becoming a granny. I wonder to myself how many men have talked about those subjects today, with their colleagues and friends. I drive home to the radio and I hear the presenter talking about how he likes Katy Perry and he apologies for not being 'laddy' enough. The pressure is on both sexes it seems, to fit in. Maybe I'm being picky today to *see* sexism and inequality. Thing is, it hasn't seemed that difficult.  |
| Posted: 10 Feb 2014 04:03 AM PST
14 February: One Billion Rising for Justice events are going on all around the UK; check here for details. One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That is one billion women. In 2013, one billion women and men shook the earth through dance to end violence against women and girls. This year, on 14 February 2014 we are calling on women and men everywhere to harness their power and imagination to rise for justice. Imagine One Billion women releasing their stories, dancing and speaking out at the places where they need justice, where they need an end to violence against women and girls. Edinburgh: 10 February: Save EWRASAC Bake Sale at Edinburgh University Central Library, 30 George Square, Edinburgh, from 11am – 5pm. ‘Save EWRASAC’ are putting on a bake sale to raise money for Edinburgh Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, providing hungry students with tasty treats and baked goods. There will be loads of yummy gluten-free and vegan options also, so not to worry if you have special dietary requirements. Help support a great cause! 10 February: Save EWRASAC Pub Quiz at The Southsider, 3 – 7 West Richmond St, EH8 9EF, at 8pm. Come along and test your knowledge in a pub quiz fundraiser for Edinburgh Women’s Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Centre. Only £2 entry and all money goes towards EWRASAC. Please bring friends, flatmates, family or even come by yourself and you’ll be matched with a team. London: 14 February: Feminist Fightback Film Club: Valentine's Day Edition at The Common House, Unit 5E, 5 Pundersons Gardens, London E2, from 7pm. Feminist Fightback invite you to a film screening of She’s a Punk Rocker UK by Zillah Minx, so celebrate your love of mohawks, badass women, the 80s, swearing, neon, drums and so forth. Zillah Minx ( from the band Rubella Ballet) tells the story with the women of the UK’s budding punk scene – the women before the Sex Pistols appeared on TV and revealed an underground punk world to the public. It is an insight into female punk rock – a culture that has been greatly misunderstood and misrepresented in the media. Their stories explore the experiences of being a punk rocker, life stores, gigs, fashion, music, Politics, friends, relationships and events. The present media interest in punk rock is a male dominated vision of the era. This documentary specifically reassesses women's roles in a dynamic movement that irreversibly changed the face of society, politics, art and music. Featuring women punk rockers from bands of the era including Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, Vi Subversa of Poison Girls, Eve Libertine & Gee of Crass, Gaye Black of The Adverts, Michelle of Brigandage,Ruth & Janet of Hagar The Womb and journalists, authors and photographers Julie Burchill and Caroline Comb and more. Tickets: waged/£4.50 unwaged/£2.50. Until 27 February: UCL Equalities University College London. Throughout February, an exciting programme of events has been organised by UCL Equalities to celebrate diversity and examine the ongoing and evolving challenges some groups face in education, work and the wider society. This year's theme is time, history and generation. The events will look at the historical context of equalities and diversity and the way different experiences of diversity are found within and between generations. A full programme, which includes events that do not require registration, can be found here. Events going on this week, include: Historicising Slavery and Engaging the Younger Generation: The 'ownership' of enslaved men and women in the Caribbean by people living in Britain is still not widely known. And the extent to which Britain's wealth derives from slavery is even less well understood. The Legacies of British Slave-ownership project has developed an online database which uses the compensation records, a listing of all of those who received money when slavery was abolished in the 1830s, to highlight Britons' connection to slave-ownership. The research team are especially interested in engaging with young people and are now working along with Hackney Museum to develop a programme for secondary school students concerning slavery and slave-ownership in their borough. Slavery can be a difficult subject to raise, especially with young people. Yet the LBS team believes that explaining the ways in which Britain was enriched by the labour of enslaved people can demonstrate that British heritage has been shaped by and therefore belongs to many people. Queen of the Desert film screening: Not only has she got pink extensions, painted-on eyebrows, glitter stockings and superman hotpants, Starlady is a youth worker in some of Australia's most remote and challenging places. Her tools are unique - scissors, bleach and hair colour. Like a real life Priscilla, Starlady takes us on a Queen of the Desert journey to Areyonga, an indigenous community in Central Australia, where she'll work with a group of curious and cheeky young people. Until 22 February: Blurred Lines by Nick Payne and Carrie Cracknell at The Shed, National Theatre, South Bank, SE1. Blurred Lines is a blistering journey through contemporary gender politics. An all-female cast dissect what it means to be a woman today: in the workplace, in cyberspace, on screen, on stage and in relationships. This new piece explores the reality of equality in Britain today, where feminism is a dirty word and pornography is inescapable. Blurred Lines is a fast-paced, razor sharp glimpse of a culture which promised liberation and delivered Robin Thicke. Nick Payne’s plays include Constellations, Wanderlust (Royal Court) and The Same Deep Water As Me (Donmar Warehouse). Carrie Cracknell is Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre. She was previously Artistic Director of the Gate. Recent work includes A Doll’s House (Young Vic and West End) and Wozzeck (ENO). Suitable for 15 years and above. Please note: The production contains references to sexual assault. Until 22 March: The Mistress Contract by Abi Morgan, at Jerwood Theatre downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square SW1W. She and He are the pseudonyms of a real-life couple who live in separate houses in the same city on the west coast of America. She is 88. He is 93. For 30 years he has provided her with a home and an income, while she provides 'mistress services' – 'All sexual acts as requested, with suspension of historical, emotional, psychological disclaimers.' They first met at university and then lost touch. When they met again twenty years later, they began an affair when She – a highly educated, intelligent woman with a history of involvement in the feminist movement – asked her wealthy lover to sign the remarkable document that outlines their unconventional lifestyle: The Mistress Contract. Was her suggestion a betrayal of all that she and the women of her generation had fought for? Or was it brave, honest, and radical? Then — on a small recorder that fit in her purse — this extraordinary couple began to tape their conversations about their relationship, conversations that took place while travelling, over dinner at home and in restaurants, on the phone, even in bed. Based on reams of tape recordings made over their 30-year relationship, The Mistress Contract is a remarkable document of this unconventional couple, and the contract that kept them bound together to this day. The Mistress Contract is Abi Morgan's Royal Court Theatre debut. Her theatre credits include most recently 27 for National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly's Lovesong. Her previous plays for the stage include Skinned, Splendour and Tiny Dynamite. A BAFTA award-winning writer, she wrote the screenplay for the film The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep and Shame, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and on television, her credits include The Hour, Birdsong, White Girl and Sex Traffic. Tickets £32, £22, £16, £12. Until 23 March: Hannah Höch exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1. Hannah Höch was an artistic and cultural pioneer. A member of Berlin's Dada movement in the 1920s, she was a driving force in the development of 20th century collage. Splicing together images taken from fashion magazines and illustrated journals, she created a humorous and moving commentary on society during a time of tremendous social change. Höch was admired by contemporaries such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters, yet was often overlooked by traditional art history. As the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, the show puts this inspiring figure in the spotlight. A determined believer in artistic freedom, Höch questioned conventional concepts of relationships, beauty and the making of art. Höch's collages explore the concept of the 'New Woman' in Germany following World War I and capture the style of the 1920s avant-garde theatre. The important series 'From an Ethnographic Museum' combines images of female bodies with traditional masks and objects, questioning traditional gender and racial stereotypes. Astute and funny, this exhibition reveals how Höch established collage as a key medium for satire while being a master of its poetic beauty. Tickets £9.95/ £7.95. Nottingham: 10 – 13 February: After Tiller at Broadway Cinema, 14 – 18 Broad Street, Nottingham, at 7.30pm. Directed by Martha Shane & Lana Wilson, After Tiller shines a light on a topic that polarises America more than any other. After Tiller is a sobering and sombre account of the few doctors in the US who, after the murder of Dr George Tiller in 2009, continue to provide late term abortions. Death threats, fire-bombings and personal abuse are common, debate all but impossible. Kerry Abel from Abortion Rights said: "I think we should thank Lana Wilson and Martha Shane for making a sensitive and extremely moving documentary, is a story of people who risk their lives every day for their work, many of whom were close colleagues of Dr. Tiller and now battle to maintain this service in the face of increasing provocation and harassment from the pro-life movement. It shines a light on the real situations faced by real people. This is something we at Abortion Rights have to highlight constantly, that whatever the situation or whatever our own views, we should trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies and their own circumstances. I read that the directors wanted to make this documentary to take heat out of the debate but shine more of a light on the real situations and that the people shown in the film agreed to take part because 'it would be easier to go through the experience with [people who were helping them understand the process they were going through]'. I think we need more of that." Oxford: 15 February: No Ifs! No Buts! No County Council Cuts! Rally meeting at Manzil Way, Oxford, from 12 noon. March – against Oxfordshire County Council Cuts – from Manzil Way to Bonn Square. Oxfordshire County Council is proposing to make £64m of cuts to its services. As well as 38 per cent reductions in Housing Related Support, this will mean huge reduction in provision of adult social care (£7.1 m), environmental services – including public transport (£11.2 m) and children's services (£6m). They say the children's centres and early intervention service will be protected, but are taking £3m from their budget. The final vote will be on Tuesday 18 February. Oxford People's Assembly calls on the people of Oxfordshire to demonstrate together against the cuts on Saturday 15 February.  |
| Rising up around the world for justice Posted: 10 Feb 2014 01:09 AM PST
The refusal to hold perpetrators to account is a ‘global plague’ – and this year the one billion rising campaign will focus on justice and is calling for justice for survivors of gender violence On 14 February 2013, one billion people in 207 countries rose and danced to demand an end to violence against women and girls. For 14 February this year the One Billion Rising campaign is calling on women and men around the world to rise up and demand an end to violence against women – and demand justice. One Billion Rising For Justice is a global call to women survivors of violence and those who love them to gather safely in community outside places where they are entitled to justice. This might be courthouses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not. It is a call to survivors to break the silence and release their stories – politically, spiritually, outrageously – through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, testimonies and whatever way feels right. Stories that have been buried, denied, erased, altered, and minimised by patriarchal systems that allow impunity to reign. Justice begins when we speak, release, and acknowledge the truth in solidarity and community. One Billion Rising For Justice is an invitation to break free from confinement, obligation, shame, guilt, grief, pain, humiliation, rage, and bondage. The campaign is also a recognition that we cannot end violence against women without looking at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Justice can take many forms. It can be an apology or reparations. Taking legal action. It can be about making the truth visible. It can be prosecuting, or pushing to create change, or implementing policies and laws that ensure the protection of women's rights. It can be calling for an end to all forms of inequality, discrimination, misogyny and patriarchy. It can be naming or shaming perpetrators – whether they be individuals, groups, corporations or the state. Demanding accountability. It can be rising for justice, be it personal, social, economic, cultural, environmental or political. It can be a revolutionary call to restore dignity and respect for all women. It can be about transformation. We want to bring this global discussion to the forefront, and we want to hear from you what justice looks like. Join thousands of activists from around the world, and share your vision of justice The Guardian is covering events connected to One Billion Rising and would like to build a global picture of violence against women. Is it something you've experienced? Or do you know someone – either a woman or a man – who has? Why do you think it happens? What do you think are the underlying causes of violence against women, globally or in your community? What about the solutions. Have you been involved in a campaign or initiative to prevent violence against women? Say why it worked. Do you have an idea for a campaign you'd like to get off the ground? Will you take part in One Billion Rising? The Guardian does recognise that these stories might be painful or sensitive, so if you'd like to submit something anonymously, we suggest setting up an account with a username that is different from your own, and make sure you turn your location data off. If you have any problems with your submission, or you would like to discuss your submission before posting, please get in touch with the Guardian’s Maeve Shearlaw at this email address. One billion rising for justice is about envisioning justice for all survivors of gender violence. Go for it.  |
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