Thursday, January 22, 2015

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Fifty shades and consent

Posted: 21 Jan 2015 05:17 AM PST

fifty shades of grey, film, violence against women, consent, Think about what you already assume about sexual consent.

Fifty Shades of Grey won the 2012 Specsavers National Book Awards for the most popular book of the year, and it is estimated that as many as a third of British women have read at least one of E L James’s erotic ‘Fifty Shades’ trilogy.

With less than a month to go until the film adaptation hits British screens, women's groups across the UK are now mobilising.

Their concerns have been neatly summed up by Gail Dines, writing in the Guardian recently: ‘Fifty Shades glamourised and eroticised violence against women and rebranded it as romance.

‘…Films that tell the truth about sexual sadists like [the protaginist] Christian Grey – films where we see broken bones, black eyes, funerals and motherless, traumatised children – don’t seem to generate the same profits.

‘One of the last things Stella says to serial killer Paul, [in BBC's The Fall] should be said to all those who have already profited from Fifty Shades, the book, and who stand to profit from the film: “You try to dignify what you do, but it is misogyny. Age-old male violence against women”.’

In Sussex, two organisations which specialise in providing services for women and girls who have been faced with domestic abuse, Rise and Survivors Network, have created a consent campaign which focuses on developing critical thinking skills and encourages people to think about what they already assume about sexual consent.

Called ‘Consent in the City’, this campaign seeks to ask whether cultural representations of good or bad sex have an impact on how we individually and collectively understand sexual consent.

With the help of City Reads, a Brighton-based organisation specialising in shared reading projects, the campaign has developed an "alternative reading list" of seven novels about or including a range of sexual encounters. Residents are being asked to consider these different representations of sex and post reviews and comments on the Consent in the City blog.

The campaign will culminate on 14 February with a live debate at the Old Court House with a panel of leading feminist thinkers and writers.

This debate will coincide with the UK release of the film of Fifty Shades of Grey, and aims to give a platform to speakers from across the spectrum of opinion.

Zac Jane Keir, erotic writer and part of the Feminist Against Censorship movement will join consent researcher and campaigner Fiona Elvines of South London Rape Crisis. The debate will be chaired by Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW).

Gail Gray, CEO of RISE, said: “This campaign will offer the chance to think about our attitudes to sexual consent, without any blame.

“Too often public awareness campaigns belittle or berate people for their views or what they read – we want to encourage thinking and understanding.

“I hope,” she added, “that as many people as possible will get involved.”

You can join this debate by following the Twitter conversations @BtnConsent and checking out the blog.

Or follow other campaigns on this issue, such as @50shadesisabuse.

Call for ‘news media’ to look at their role

Posted: 21 Jan 2015 04:22 AM PST

Object, porn, red tops, The Sun, Page 3, objectification of women‘None of these publications are age-restricted and they are all displayed at child’s eye level next to ordinary newspapers.’

With the promising reports that the Sun may be changing its policy of showing topless models on Page Three, feminist campaigns movement Object is calling on the other ‘Red Tops‘ to follow suit and for News Corp to review its wider role as a major distributer of online pornography.

Object is concerned that there are significant links between sexual objectification, pornography and violence against women and girls.

Object's Chief Executive Officer, Roz Hardie, said: “We welcome this development but it is just a start.

“Although differing in level and varying in extent, a common theme found to run through the Sun, the Daily Star and the Sport is portrayal of women as sex objects – a sum of body parts which exist for the sole purpose of sexual titillation.

“This has been exemplified by the ‘Page 3‘ feature shared by all three of these publications. These images depict young women as topless, and sometimes entirely nude, in sexualised and provocative poses.

“Such images stem from what would usually be considered pornographic material.

“These sexualised images are not always restricted to the third page of publications and in the case of the Daily Star and The Sport they are often on the front covers.

“Our evidence to Leveson demonstrated other common themes including a trivialisation and eroticisation of sexual violence and links to the sex industry through numerous adverts for sex web cams, pornographic DVDs and ‘escort agencies’,” Hardie continued.

“It is important to note that NONE of these publications are age-restricted and that they are all displayed at child’s eye level next to ordinary newspapers.

“This undermines Government efforts to reduce the sexualisation of young people through its current endorsement of the Bailey Review.”