smash miss contest!

Miss World is returning to London on Sunday 6th November.

The last time this event took place here was in 1970, and was disrupted by various feminist groups, announcing and inspiring the women movement for equal rights.

Now the contest is back, reframed as an empowering event, attempting to coopt and undermine the progress we have won as well as the continuing struggle to reach equality in the UK and all over the world.

If it’s back, we are back.

Come and join Smash Miss Contest for a fun happening at the Earl’s Court Arena!

send us an email for more details at smashmisscontest@gmail.com

Miss world originally started off as a one off contest called the, ‘Festival Bikini Vontest’, but the British press gave it the name Miss World. Eric Morley first came up with the idea in 1951, and in the 60’s Morley famously summed up what Miss World was looking for; ‘Girls between 17 and 25, ideally five foot seven, eight or nine stone, waist 22-24’’, hips 35-36’’, no more no less, a lovely face, good teeth, plenty of hair, and perfectly shaped legs front and back- carefully checked for defects such as slightly knocked knees’.

Perhaps this is the point women began to actually worry about their weight and what sparked the diet and health industry to gain in popularity. With Morley’s requirements public is it any wonder women started to question the reason for this procession of female bodies to  be leered at on TV and classed as family viewing?

(more info about the anti miss world riots in http://www.zani.co.uk/Articles.aspx?id=68)

Beauty contests are empowering. Eating a cupcake is empowering. Embracing cultural stereotypes is empowering. Wooo everything is empowering in the consequence-free happy land of postmodern gender relations. Hurrah!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/women_now_empowered_by_everything

Here at Smash towers, we have been eagerly following the 2010 edition of the backlash-fest that is the MISS UNIVERSITY LONDON BEAUTY PAGEANT.

Interestingly enough, this year there were NO LOCAL HEATS. For once those louts at 1-2-1 entertainment have made a good decision…after clocking the sheer volume of disgust and disapproval directed at every stage of the contest last year, I guess they thought such an extended contest was a  BAD IDEA, and they have reduced opportunities for protest/action/disruption by limiting the extravaganza to ONE NITE ONLY, at tackfest Movida, beloved of posh white kids all through SW london.

Anyway, us smashies are taking this as  A GLORIOUS TRIUMPH for us, and for all the awesome people who stood up and said, actually, no thanks! to this outdated pervy show that does the ladies NO FAVOURS.

So HOORAY!!!

Also, we missed this piece last year, turns out one of our ideas for the run up to the contest actually worked pretty well!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23648089-students-urged-to-smash-beauty-contest-with-flood-of-fake-entries.do

HA HA you gotta love the evening standard. Cheers for that christian, we hadn;t realised it was so effective!

xxxx

Hollaback is a collective which highlights and aims to combat the kind of daily street harassment that women have to deal with. This harassment (hey baby, nice tits, etc etc) is the sort of casual sexism which seems so ingrained in our culture due in no small part to the constant sexualisation of women and the standardising of the idea that women’s bodies are public property. This is the sort of thing that is fed into by beauty contests, lads mags etc, and has a daily and wearing effect on women’s psyches, constantly reminding us that our bodies can be judged/commented on at all times.

Sometimes, people don’t seem to understand hot tiring and cumulatively abusive this sort of interaction is. Sometimes men act like it’s a compliment, and that we should be grateful for the attention. Now we can direct doubters to the Hollaback UK site which has recently gone live, which provides a delightful compendium of the kind of war stories we collect from daring to walk down the street. 

Check it out: http://hollaback-uk.blogspot.com/

Shout out to the Edinburgh Anarcha-feminist Kolektiv who are putting on an exciting sounding project… check it out x x x x

Hello fellow feminists and cunts! We’d like to invite you to get involved with our first project as the Edinburgh Anarcha-Feminist Kolektiv – Femmestruation Week, held at tepooka. In short, this week will run from 13th – 20th February 2010 in Edinburgh; starting heaving and ending light, this week-long exploration of menstruation will involve gigs, comedy, spoken-word performances, workshops, zine stalls, talks, art installations, video displays and much more to be contributed. It would be fantastic if you – or any bands/performers/distros etc. that you know of – could contribute to this week. We are putting on a gig (with music, menstrual comedy & spoken word performances), which will be on the 13th of February 2010 to begin the week. If you would like to contribute art, zines, poetry, or put on workshops and talks, make fliers, offer advice, etc. then that would be equally as fantastic. We would love for you to be involved, and we are happy to provide spaces for you to crash during your stay. Thanks for your time, hope to hear from you soon, Anna Lucine and Becca

edinburghanarchafeminist.blogspot.com

feministanarchistedinburgh@googlemail.com