Women's Views on News |
- International Women’s Week: Coventry events
- “Unfeminine” comment unhelpful
- Women and work by women artists
- Sun, sexism and suspicious parents
| International Women’s Week: Coventry events Posted: 26 Feb 2014 09:02 AM PST This year there is a great programme of events. Kicking off with a Reclaim the Night March, all events are free, and everyone is welcome. Details below.
RECLAIM THE NIGHT: Meet outside Coventry City Council House.
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY: WARWICK UNIVERSITY:  |
| “Unfeminine” comment unhelpful Posted: 26 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST
The UK’s Sports Minister Helen Grant has denied saying that girls should try cheerleading if they do not want to play "unfeminine" sports. Grant was criticised after she gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph recently in which she appeared to say girls who did not want to take part in "traditional sports" should consider cheerleading and that there were sports where girls could be "radiant and feminine". After the interview was published, Grant told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that the newspaper had taken her comments "out of context" and that it would be "naïve" to claim all women wanted to play traditional team or individual sports. Speaking later at the Winter Olympics, she said: "I was specifically asked the question about what I, as the minister, was going to do about the girls who say they don't want to do sport because they see it as 'unfeminine'. "Those were not my words. My response then, and my response now, is very much that sport is for everyone." Referring to her achievements as a junior judo champion and the number of injuries she sustained, Grant went on to comment: "You have to recognise that is not what every girl might want." "As the minister, I have to look at – and will look at – what everyone wants. It really is a matter of saying 'Well, if you don't want to do that, then what might you like?'" In her interview with the Telegraph, Grant had said it was essential to ask women what they want, find what works for them and then "give it to them". "It's having a good spread on offer. "For example, some girls may well not like doing very traditional hockey, tennis or athletics, others might, so for those who don't want to, how about considering maybe gym, ballet, cheerleading? "It's not just schools, it's clubs, it's being innovative. Actually looking at our women and our girls and asking, 'What do they want?'" The Sports Minister added: "There are some wonderful sports which you can do and perform to a very high level, and I think those participating look absolutely radiant and very feminine, such as ballet, gymnastics, cheerleading and even rollerskating." Laura Bates of the Everday Sexism Project called Grant's comments "unhelpful", while Labour MP Angela Eagle said: "I was really disappointed to see her saying what she said about cheerleading or women's sports." Eagle continued: "She's an equality minister, she's the sports minister and she really should be championing women getting involved in sport, not repeating lazy stereotypes about women in sports feeling unfeminine." Reducing the participation gap between men and women in sport has been a key mission of Grant's. However, 1.8 million more men than women play sport at least once a week. From the age of eight girls start to do less exercise than boys and the numbers continue to drop during teenage years. A survey conducted by Sport England between April 2012 and April 2013 found that only 30.5 per cent of women were participating in sport once a week. In a further survey conducted by BBC Sport in the wake of the London Olympics, just 10 per cent of women said they had been inspired by the Games to become more active. An inquiry that began in 2013 into women's participation in sport is due to produce its final report and recommendations later this year.  |
| Women and work by women artists Posted: 26 Feb 2014 04:10 AM PST
A ‘spotlight display’ in the TATE Britain on Millbank, called Women and Work, looks at the industrial issues of the 1970s from an overtly feminist perspective. Between 1973 and 1975 artists Margaret Harrison (born 1940), Kay Hunt (1933–2001) and Mary Kelly (born 1941) conducted a detailed study of women who worked in a metal box factory in Bermondsey. Their investigation was timed to coincide with the implementation of the Equal Pay Act, which had been passed in 1970. They collected a vast amount of data through interviews, archival research and observation. ‘Women and Work’ was one of the earliest projects to tackle political and industrial issues from an overtly feminist perspective. The use of sociological method as a conceptual strategy is emphasised by the minimalist look of the work itself, where black and white photographs and films sit alongside simple typewritten texts and photocopied charts and documents. Punch cards and rates of pay record the gap in wages between men and women, and films of life in the factory show women confined to repetitive, stationary and low-skilled tasks while men perform more physical and supervisory roles. ‘Women and Work’ was one of the earliest projects to tackle political and industrial issues from an overtly feminist perspective. Objective and subjective points of view coexist, and the points of contact between the personal and the political, the public and the private are themes that run throughout. The named portraits of women employees put human faces to the facts and figures and invite the viewer to engage with the issues on more personal terms. On Level 4: The Schmidheiny Gallery at the TATE Modern, artwork by four women and made over four decades, subverts materials traditionally associated with feminine craft and the domestic sphere to address gender division and political themes. Markedly different in tone and technique, these works share an interest in textile production, a heavily gendered activity which has played a huge part in the construction of women's identities as housekeepers, family carers, makers and workers. Margaret Harrison made ‘Homeworkers‘ in 1977 to denounce the working conditions of women in Britain, who were often treated as second-rate labour and encouraged to perform low-pay manufacturing jobs from home. At once a political banner, a symbolic painting and a social study, it represents the everyday life of a working woman alongside advertisements for make-up and data on the history of workers' movements. Rosemarie Trockel's knitted works resist associations with ideas of female craft by becoming standardised industrial products. Her machine-made patterned fabrics, mounted on stretchers to resemble geometric canvases, turn symbols of power into decoration, and geometric motifs into subliminal propaganda. In Annette Messager's The Pikes, soft figures and little drawings mounted on sticks initially suggest a parade of makeshift toys. On closer inspection, however, they reveal a darker nature, with severed heads and limbs alongside images of traumatic events from history and the mass media. Tracey Emin's quilts create a dissonance between their explicit content – in this case a rebuke of Margaret Thatcher's involvement in the Falklands war – and the homely values associated with quilting. Women at Work, a spotlight display in the Tate Britain, runs until 23 March.  |
| Sun, sexism and suspicious parents Posted: 26 Feb 2014 01:09 AM PST
Like many of my friends, a recent spoof article from the Onion really resonated and made me laugh. As a feminist, it can sometimes feel like I have to switch of what I often refer to as my 'feminist radar' in order to sit back and enjoy certain aspects of popular culture, without my brain firing off ideas for feminist critical analysis essays. One of the things I watch for a bit of light relief after a long day at work is the incredibly trashy 'Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents' on BBC Three. The premise is that young people between the ages of around 18-24 fly off into the sun for a week's holiday of, well, sun and sex, whilst unbeknownst to them they are being secretly watched by their parents. Embarrassment, dismay and equal amounts of horror ensue. However, watching this programme recently, I've just not been able to turn off my 'feminist radar'. In the latest series, set in Thailand, what my radar picked up was a running theme: mothers feeling absolutely mortified at how their sons were seen talking about and treating young women. This happened in almost every episode I watched. One mother described the experience as "harrowing", admitting how her son demonstrated a "total lack of respect" for the young women he encountered. In almost all cases this dismay seemed in only small part due to the mother's naivety, although admittedly that was often a feature; many of the women on the programme exhibited a resolute unwillingness to admit their sons were anything other than little cherubs. However, for the main part, what the young men got up to was genuinely alarming. For instance a young man called Pat said of the "birds" he slept with, "it's all about a numbers game", but also discussed how he "didn't really have time for condoms". Well that bodes well doesn't it? He went on to justify his decision to purchase the services of a local Thai sex worker with the explanation that he "wants to sleep with every race going". He laughed at how cheap the exchange was when converted back into English money. Another young man could be seen screaming from a rickshaw "we want pussy!" at passing local women, before going on to thrust hundreds of pounds down the underwear of local women performing in a strip club for boozed up tourists. In another episode, a young man named Billy can be seen repeatedly trying to chat women up with the choice phrase "I can see your nipples". Another group of young men were more forthright in their 'pulling' tactics, choosing to go up to young women and simply lift their tops or skirts up before they could realise what was happening, or surrounding a young woman on her own, one friend in front and one behind, grinding up against her so she was effectively trapped. This in particular was really alarming to watch. The same group were also seemingly obsessed with getting their penises out and waving them in front of unsuspecting passersby – mostly women – something that as the bewildered mother of one of the young men attempted to explain to him, would be classed as indecent exposure or even sexual assault in most countries. Clearly there is a element of 'letting go' on holiday and both the levels of alcohol and young male rivalry and 'one-upmanship' clearly had a part to play in the behaviour showcased. I realise that many people would level that the young women also go there for a 'good time', and that certain behaviour is to be expected in that context; it's all just a 'bit of fun'. However, for me it was the broader attitudes on show that got to me. I was genuinely shocked at just how poorly the young men spoke of and treated their female peers. You often hear the argument "young women are just as bad as young men these days" when it comes to drinking and having sex – but though the young women on the programme got drunk and talked about 'pulling' too, there was absolutely not the same fundamental lack of respect for their male counterparts. There just wasn't.  |
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