In defence of the c-word
by Emma Byrne // 14 November 2017, 12:00 pm
Dr Emma Byrne is a scientist, journalist and public speaker. Her BBC Radio 4 ‘Four Thought’ episode was selected as one of the ‘Best of 2013’ by the programme’s editors. She has been selected as a British Science Association Media Fellow and for the BBC Expert Women Training, and is published in CIO, Forbes, the Financial Times and e-Health Insider. Swearing is Good For You is her first book
Content note: This article refers to Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump, and misogyny in general. It also contains strong language (including several uses of the c-word in its unexpurgated form)
While I was doing the research for my book Swearing is Good for You I read so many papers that asked (in one case, right in the title) why women swear. The news from the last few weeks might go some way to answering what we’ve known for a long time: we swear because there’s a fuck of a lot to swear about. But what galls me is that in the approximately 600 papers I read on the subject, not a single psychologist or neuroscientist thought to ask why men swear. When it comes to words, male power and female purity are the unexamined norms.
In English-speaking countries at least, this naive belief about women’s language dates back almost entirely to one particular arsehole with one particular book. In 1673, the chaplain to King Charles II, Richard Allestree, wrote the patronisingly titled (and it goes downhill from there, frankly) The Ladies’ Calling. Drawing on his entirely empty reserves of medical and scientific knowledge, he insisted that women who swear undergo “a metamorphosis, becoming decidedly masculine”. According to Allestree, “there is no noise on this side of Hell can be more amazingly odious [to God than] an oath out of a woman.” A hungry child may cry or a sick person may groan. What really pisses God off is a woman using a four letter word, though.
Since that time, women have lost the knack of inventive swearing, which is a damn shame. Swearing has a huge emotional impact. And we know through research that swearing is just as likely to be used as the result of a positive emotion as a negative one: we swear just as much in excitement, elation or sympathy as we do in anger or frustration. If women curb their tongues, we lose the most powerful linguistic tool there is. It makes no sense.
I was trying to digest the misogynist censorship of Allestree and his adherents in the humanities reading room of the British Library and, given that leaping up on my table and yelling “Fuck this utter shit!” would probably have got me barred, I ended up writing the following to my editor:
It’s not men going through the rigours of pregnancy and childbirth (which, by definition, involve fucking, shitting and bloody cunts!) but we’re supposed to know nothing about bodily functions?
The joys of having a supportive woman as an editor – that rant made it into the book practically unaltered.
But, as I continued with the research, I realised that the c-word had started to take on shades of its American meaning. I’ve used it intimately, when writing erotica, when bemoaning the bloody irritations of menstruation. But in the United States, the c-word is almost exclusively used as a misogynistic slur. And the more women I’ve spoken to in the UK, the more it seems that the gynophobic baggage of that usage is creeping into our understanding of it too.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the allegations from women in the film industry about the abusive behaviour of Harvey Weinstein. Kate Beckinsale, for example, relates how this petulant man, for all his power, would completely lose control when she said no to him: “[it] ended up with him screaming at me calling me a cunt.”
But it isn’t the c-word itself that is the problem. That arrangement of letters means what we, as a society, allow it to mean. And tellingly, that same meaning comes through even when the speaker can’t quite allow themselves to use the word. Like when Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “a nasty woman” during the presidential election debates.
Because that is exactly what the c-word means when it’s used as a slur: nasty woman. Women who have found the resources not to silently acquiesce to the demands of some man for power, sex or position. When it’s used like this, the c-word is meant to shame us. To remind us who is meant to have the power.
Used like that, the c-word is thrown around by mewling gynophobes in an attempt to intimidate and silence women; particularly women who want to live in a world where it’s the perpetrators of sexual assault who feel shame, instead of their victims. It’s hurled at women who will speak out rather than remain silent when they see injustice. In the minds of these men, a cunt is a woman who refuses to put the insatiable needs of an entitled man ahead of their own. If that is what it means to be a cunt, then I’m a cunt and proud.
Swearing Is Good For You by Emma Byrne is published by Profile and is available to purchase in both paperback and eBook format from a variety of book retailers and eBook platforms.
The image is the cover of the book Swearing Is Good for You by Emma Byrne, used with permission. It is a simple cover with bright yellow background and block capital text. The title appears in black font, punctuated with asterisks and exclamation marks. The sub-title ‘The Amazing Science of Bad Language’ appears the same way except in pink font. There is also a quote from Lucy Kellaway, who describes the book as ‘a gloriously uplifting read’.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 13 November 2017, 4:33 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
The sexualisation of the Stranger Things kids needs to stop (The Pool)
80 books no woman should read (Lit Hub)
Brave enough to be angry (The New York Times)
From the article: “I did not call myself a feminist until I was nearly 20 years old. My world had taught me that feminists were ugly and ridiculous, and I did not want to be ugly and ridiculous. I wanted to be cool and desired by men, because even as a teenager I knew implicitly that pandering for male approval was a woman’s most effective currency. It was my best shot at success, or at least safety, and I wasn’t sophisticated enough to see that success and safety, bestowed conditionally, aren’t success and safety at all. They are domestication and implied violence.
To put it another way, it took me two decades to become brave enough to be angry. Feminism is the collective manifestation of female anger.”
Mum dies alone in her cold house – wrapped up in a coat and scarf (Liverpool Echo)
Johnson under fresh pressure over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe error (The Guardian)
Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women (The New York Times)
Reading ‘Girl, Interrupted’ on the Psych Ward (Electric Literature, via Medium)
From the article: “Kaysen’s account of her years spent in a mental hospital may seem like a strange choice for someone actually facing time in one, but to me it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. If I’d been traveling to Greece I would have brought a Lonely Planet guide or whatever, something that would give me the lay of the land and help me understand the local customs. Since no one has seen fit yet to print a patients’ guidebook to psychiatric wards, Girl, Interrupted — the first chapter of which is titled Toward a Topography of the Parallel Universe — would have to do.”
Drag Priti Patel for trying to fund genocide, not for being ‘diversity hire’ (gal-dem)
The bigoted British media is actively endangering trans people (Huck Magazine)
From the article: “The idea that being trans is easier in society than being gay is a total canard; neither is a walk in the park, homophobic violence is still common and largely unpunished by police forces that dismiss homophobic and racist violence, and any form of sexual assault. Being trans is far harder: it’s far more acceptable to be transphobic in modern Britain, the risk of physical violence is far higher, and even the most self-avowedly polite members of society will happily question and dismiss your life choices, gender presentation and right to self define, whether in the work place or in newspaper columns.”
Diana Nyad: My Life After Sexual Assault (The New York Times)
When Sia shared her own naked picture she made a stand for women everywhere – but she shouldn’t have had to (Pip Williams, Independent, (via Women’s Media Center))
Keep Your TERF; We’ll Make Our Own Movement (Steph Farnsworth, Stand Up Mag)
From the article: “It is not lesbophobic to support trans women. Transphobic feminists have co-opted the identity and oppression of lesbian women, who are targeted because of their exclusive attraction to other women. Lesbianism is a sexuality. It is not an ideology of hate. It does not deserve to be corrupted by those seeking to oppress other queer people. It’s a disservice to all lesbians in the queer community who simply want all queer people to be supported.”
Modest Dressing, as a Virtue (Naomi Fry, New York Times)
From the article: “Modest fashion might come across as a humblebrag: You have to be a pretty stylish, pretty good-looking woman to claim ownership of such radical dowdiness. (The style seems especially popular among women in their 20s and 30s — trumping the received wisdom that one should flaunt one’s body before it is marked by the supposed scourges of childbearing or menopause.) It can also sometimes seem like an elitist project of sociocultural self-positioning: By embracing the covered-up look, you declare yourself part of a particular psychographic tribe, one whose members don’t just dress for other women, but for a particular subset of other women — those who get it, who are sophisticated enough to understand that opting out of conventional beauty standards makes for its own kind of conceptual, better-than-thou fashion. It also, however, has the feel of a real dare.
…
“Observing this version of feminist signaling, which conflates the rebel, haphazard spirit of a Bloomsbury Group-like smockishness with traces of early ’90s grunge and a dash of post-bellum Sunday best, we might begin to ask ourselves: What happens when women start dressing in ways that are less than conventionally flattering? Why are they doing it? And what does it look like when fashion choices that might have been linked to female oppression perform in the service of liberation?”
No, Giles Coren, being overweight isn’t the worst thing in life (The Pool)
From the article: “I’m really bored of fatphobia. It still hurts initially, but eventually I just get frustrated that we’re still doing this. I’m bored of the arguments with strangers who feel they have the right to comment on my body and whether I have the right to exist in the same way a thin person does. I’m bored of meeting a new person or watching a new TV show/film and being hit by a joke about how fat people are lazy or unattractive within the first five minutes. And I’m bored of tired, stale rent-a-gobs like Giles Coren and Katie Hopkins making fun of fat people when they want attention but can’t think of anything original to say.”
Gender pay gap widening for women in their 20s, data shows (The Guardian)
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Jill Bazeley on Flickr. It is a photograph of a beach scene, taken at sunset. The sun is hanging low in the sky and casting a yellowish-orange glow over the wet sand and rocks.
The F-Word stage blog: November 2017
by Lissy Lovett // 12 November 2017, 8:51 am
CN: Links to posts about sexual assault.
I suppose that I must start this month’s post by addressing some of the events in the comedy and theatre worlds that have followed on from the Harvey Weinstein horrors. I will admit to a certain amount of cynicism; the Old Vic signed this Joint Statement from the Theatre Industry and yet their old Artistic Director, Kevin Spacey, is one of first people to have accusations made against him. It is right that the Charity Commission are asking questions of the venue’s Board. And Spacey absolutely will not be the only Artistic Director of a major theatre or theatre company who has abused his power to abuse others.
However I am pleased about what Vicky Featherstone and her team are doing at the Royal Court. They have published a code of behaviour and a policy that won’t be perfect but are at least a start. What I particularly like about their suggestions are that they say there should be at least three structures for reporting behaviour and they recognise that for complainants “experiencing harassment can be complex and that thoughts and feelings around a particular incident may change during this process”. Both of these elements can be overlooked in company policies.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next.
Now let’s move on to the fun stuff, lots of which is happening this very week!
Damsel Develops is a new festival committed to helping emerging female directors develop work. It runs from Monday 13 until Sunday 19 November at the Bunker Theatre in London. Damsel Productions’ Artistic Director Hannah Hauer-King says: “The shift we’ve seen in the industry towards supporting female writers has been fantastic and we now want to see it opened up into all creative roles […] Our hope is that the pieces across the festival will have a future life and bring success and inspiration to the women involved.”
The Funny Women Awards are currently in process. There are still a fair few heats to come including this Monday 13, Wednesday 15, Monday 20, Wednesday 22 November at the Betsey Trotwood in London; Sunday 19 November at Phoenix Arts Club in London; Saturday 25 November at Komedia in Brighton and Saturday 2 December at the RADA Studios in London. They will be collecting for UN Women and the HeForShe movement on the night.
Diamond at Soho Theatre from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 November explores LGBT+ history spanning the 60-year period from 1957 to 2017 through the personal biography of David Hoyle. Mary Paterson wrote this cracking review for The F-Word of a previous show of Hoyle’s so this will definitely be worth a watch.
Also at Soho Theatre later in the month will be Wild Bore by Adrienne Truscott, Ursula Martinez and Zoe Coombs Marr. “Wickedly self-deprecating of their own avant-garde artistic practice and ready to throw some punches, the three have teamed up for the first time to delve into the torrent of critical fury that each have attracted throughout their careers, to prove they too are not afraid to talk out of their arses.” It runs from Tuesday 21 November until Saturday 16 December.
Marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Inside Pussy Riot, a new immersive production by Les Enfant Terribles at the Saatchi Gallery in London, encourages audiences to pull on the balaclava and stand up for what they believe in with themes including censorship, patriarchy and pollution. It runs from this Tuesday 14 November until Sunday 24 December.
HOME in Manchester has Hot Brown Honey from Tuesday 12 December to Monday 18 December. I cannot recommend this show highly enough; here’s what I had to say about it last August. They’re not wrong when they say: “this posse of phenomenal women smash stereotypes, remix the system and dare to celebrate our similarities and differences.”
And lastly, check out this episode, ‘Smile’, from Kate Jessop’s Tales From Pussy Willow, a satirical web series which combines animated cut outs with live actors. It really made me laugh.
There probably won’t be a blog post in December, but I’ll be writing again in early 2018. See you then!
Image one is Damsel Develops’ logo. The company’s name is in white capitals over an explosion of yellow powder.
Image two is the logo of Inside Pussy Riot. A stylised figure wearing a pink balaclava is on a yellow background. The words “Inside Pussy Riot” are overlaid in pink and black. Very faintly over the background the words “Hail Mary, Expel Putin”, the name of Pussy Riot’s punk prayer, can be seen. The whole image looks as if it has been crumpled.
Tarantino, your apology is inadequate
by Guest Blogger // 11 November 2017, 9:52 am
Constanze Wilson is an intersectional feminist based in Cambridge. As someone with chronic health issues her particular interests include health as a social issue, especially the relationship between systems of oppression, physical/mental health and the stigmatisation of certain health problems
Following the recent stream of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the producer of many Tarantino films, Quentin Tarantino relayed this message through actress Amber Tamblyn:
From Quentin Tarantino: pic.twitter.com/jv0VQNrI91
— Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) October 13, 2017
On reading this, I was incensed by the fact that Tarantino hadn’t automatically condemned what had been revealed as a decade-long affair involving more than 40 women. It also seemed problematic that his statement centralised his personal hurt over the issue itself.
I reminded myself that we didn’t yet know Tarantino’s position: part of me excused his statement on the premise that the idea of a close friend being a serial abuser must be highly distressing. But it turns out that this was not, in fact, new information to Tarantino.
In an hour long-interview with The New York Times, comments from which were published about a week after his by-proxy statement, he admitted to having been aware of Weinstein’s actions for decades. I expected the interview to serve as an public condemnation of Weinstein and an apology for Tarantino’s own lack of action, yet this didn’t happen. Rather than presenting himself as committed to improving the safety of women in Hollywood, he reveals the existence of a mindset underscored by the sexism he seeks to distance himself from.
From The New York Times’ article:
“I knew enough to do more than I did,” he said, citing several episodes involving prominent actresses. “There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things.”
The NYT then considers the true extent of this awareness and Tarantino’s willingness to confront it:
But Mr. Tarantino said he had failed to consider whether the women he knew were part of a larger pattern of abuse. Though he continued to hear alarming stories over the years, he proceeded to make film after film with Mr. Weinstein, his greatest champion — a decision he now regrets
I believe that this depiction of Tarantino as the unwilling bystander who failed to connect the dots somewhat obfuscates his complicity, taking away his responsibility for hearing story after story of abuse and refusing to see a pattern.
There were, however, some aspects of Weinstein’s conduct Tarantino was forced to engage with. Tarantino explains that he knew that his then-girlfriend Mira Sorvino had been a victim of Weinstein’s advances; he explains his shock but that he considered the problem “resolved” as he was dating her at the time: “I’m with her, he knows that, he won’t mess with her, he knows that she’s my girlfriend.”
As Sorvino was now “with” Tarantino, any further assault would be directly offensive to him as it would represent another man intruding on his property. He could see nothing wrong with her safety being directly dependent on the protection his power afforded as opposed to it being a function of the right to a safe existence.
Here, women are conceptualised only through their relationships to other men. Tarantino is himself guilty of perpetuating the systemic oppression that enabled and tolerated Weinstein’s actions.
At the end of the interview, Tarantino seems to ask the public to see his films as stand-alone entities, a privilege that has been granted to numerous other major players in Hollywood who have been involved in sexual assault allegations: Roman Polanski is still revered as a genius and Woody Allen’s films continue to attract well-known stars such as Elle Fanning. From the NYT:
Asked how the news about Mr. Weinstein would affect how the public views his own record and body of work, Mr. Tarantino paused. “I don’t know,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t”
If we, as a society, continue to give platforms to such individuals then we send the message that directorial vision can be placed above the bodily autonomy and safety of women.
However, hope may be gleaned from the fact the recent weeks have also been marked by collective social action. We’ve seen a clear backlash, especially in the #metoo campaign and in the vast numbers of individuals now empowered enough to speak out. The impunity granted to these men should not be inviolable. Tarantino and his colleagues would do well to take note.
Featured image from Wikipedia Commons, used under Creative Commons Zero licence.
Image is of Quentin Tarantino. He is looking slightly past the camera and appears to be laughing. He is wearing a green and black hooded sweatshirt
The F-Word November music playlist
by Cazz Blase // 9 November 2017, 7:00 am
In a (sort of) continuation of August’s playlist, this month’s playlist began with an idea to mark the anniversary of the election of the 45th US President by exploring the reinvigoration of the protest song if, for no other reason, than him having inspired a lot of its most recent output.
Somewhere along the line, however, a newer and equally vital musical story reared its head, namely the simultaneous bemoaning of the death of rock by a number of key (largely male) sections of the music industry, and the accompanying rebuttal of such sentiments by a number of (largely female) musicians and critics.
As such, it seemed a good opportunity to shine a light on the likes of Lola Pistols, Rews, Skating Polly, Honeyblood, Pale Honey, Gothic Tropic, Miya Folick, Vagabond and EERA, to name a few. In a nod to both the protest arm and the guitar rock arm of this playlist, you will also hear HAWK’s harrowing take on Irish abortion laws, and at the poppier end of the protest spectrum, MALKA’s ode to the NHS. It also needs to be added, as in August, that this is quite a sweary playlist. You have been warned…
We begin with Those Darlins ‘Oh God’, a sentiment much in my mind on 9 November 2016. The song that follows it, Aimee Mann’s ‘Can’t You Tell?’ should really have been subtitled ‘The resistible rise of Donald Trump’. It was released prior to that November and is a well observed satire of the whole campaign. Will Varley’s thought provoking ‘To Build A Wall’ was also released pre November 2016, whereas both Arcade Fire and Mavis Staples’ blistering ‘I Give You Power’ and Allred and Broderick’s ‘The Ways’ were released on 20 January 2017: Inauguration day. There followed a series of songs released to raise money for Planned Parenthood, including Estelle’s excellent ‘Woman’s World’, which I wanted to include in the playlist but couldn’t make fit. There was also, more generally, the angst, anger and despair of Grace Mitchell’s ‘Kids (Ain’t Alright)’, a song that should have been subtitled ‘WTF just happened?!?’ Most recently there has been the brooding sonic introspection of EMA’s Exile In The Outer Ring.
The question of political pop is a complex and contentious one, much discussed, most recently by Dave Randall’s excellent book Sound System: The Political Power of Music, an imaginative, innovative and inspiring book that thoroughly explores the relationship between music and politics (for good or for ill) from every possible angle. His final chapter, written from his viewpoint as a musician and activist, is the ‘Rebel Music Manifesto’ in which he speaks directly to musicians, and fans, about their roles and responsibilities in 2017.
“My contention throughout this book is that culture matters” he writes
more than many people realise. But it does not change the world on its own. The more removed an artist is from other sites of political struggle, the less relevant their artistic output will be.
Similarly, the historian Carol Dyhouse, in her history of the moral panic from a female perspective, Girl Trouble, wrote in 2013:
The historian bent on taking the long view may discern clear signs of progress, but this is not in any way the surrender to complacency. For history also demonstrates the ever-present possibilities of backlash, reaction and new oppressive forces. Young women need feminism as much as ever, if they are to see their lives in context and to live them fully.
Dyhouse’s words feel very timely in 2017, and relate to the latest twists and turns in the women and rock debate as much as they do to the lives of women in Trump’s US. The surging flood of new protest music also seems to reflect this hard learned lesson, and to heed Randall’s message to the musicians of today.
Image shows a pair of flowery Converse trainers flanked (on the right) by Dave Randall’s book Sound System and (on the left) by Carol Dyhouse’s book Girl Trouble. Image by Cazz Blase. All rights reserved
Video is the fanzine/lyric video made to accompany Grace Mitchell’s ‘Kids (Ain’t Alright)’. The video begins with a group of unidentified young adults making a fanzine in what looks like a bedroom. The fanzine is called ‘Kids Ain’t Alright’ and the lyrics to the song are shown in the video using pages from the fanzine. There’s also inserts of kids skateboarding at night, setting fire to things, breaking bottles and generally running amok. Grace’s picture appears at the very end of the video, on the contributors page at the end of the fanzine.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 6 November 2017, 4:21 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Tackling the ‘boys’ club’ of political cartoons (BBC)
Complicity in the sexual abuse of women is built in to the heart of our politics (The Guardian)
Women aren’t ruining food (Jaya Saxena, Taste)
From the article: “This isn’t the first time a pink beverage has been ruined, nor is it the first time a food or beverage has become so popular that it invites an inevitable backlash. This is how capitalism works: Consumers enjoy something, brands notice demand and turn the product into a lifestyle, and consumers dutifully recoil. But instead of being angry at the free market, the ire toward #rosé is directed at the population widely believed to be responsible for its downfall: women. It’s ‘lady petrol,’ according to BBC host Jeremy Clarkson. It’s ‘exhausting,’ according to Eater. It’s unsophisticated. It’s over.”
Speaker Bercow calls for zero tolerance of harassment (BBC)
This striking new zine is dedicated to normalising black art (Dazed)
Theresa May to crack down as sex harassment allegations grow (The Guardian)
Women don’t need to learn to take a joke – men need to stop acting like one (The Sydney Morning Herald)
From the article: “The reality of sexual harassment and abuse has also been absorbed into a cultural lexicon that has almost entirely allowed male creators to reflect their version of reality. We think women respond coquettishly and positively to the raffishness of these men because that’s what men’s stories have always told us. Where we are perhaps seeing the shift now is in how many women are taking back power when it comes to the portrayal of their own lives.”
19 Things Pop Culture Gets So, So Wrong About Depression (Buzzfeed)
Disability Should Be Integral to the #MeToo Conversation (Rewire)
Attitudes to same sex relationships around the world (The Economist)
From the article: “In the West, few civil-rights movements have prevailed so quickly and comprehensively as the campaign for gay rights. In America, support for same-sex marriage has shot up from 27% to 64% since 1996—faster than the rise in acceptance of interracial marriage beginning in the late 1960s. Ireland has gone from having few openly gay public figures to legalising gay marriage and having a gay prime minister. But what about the rest of the world? How do Chinese or Peruvian people feel about gay rights? For that matter, what about the inhabitants of Angola? The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) has released some numbers that provide a tantalising hint, if not much more than that.”
Teacher who took “upskirt” photos of his students at a London school *might* face a ban (The Pool)
From the article: “Andrew Corish, a teacher from an all-girls school in Croydon, admitted he used his phone to film up pupils’ skirts and stored the images and videos for sexual gratification. As a punishment for preying upon young girls and taking advantage of his position as an assistant headteacher, he potentially faces a classroom ban. That’s it. That’s all. That is the full extent of his punishment. He will not go to prison, because what he did technically, incomprehensibly, does not constitute a criminal offence.”
A glossary of sexual harassment cliches – what does ‘good-natured groping’ really mean? (Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian)
Women of color have always had a place in punk. Big Joanie is here to remind you of that (Owen Myers, The Fader)
Jo Brand silences all-male panel on Have I Got News for You with perfect explanation of why sexual harassment isn’t funny (Harriet Agerholm, Independent)
I Tried Out Being A Stock Image Model (Sara Yasin, Buzzfeed)
The Big Picture: Confronting Manhood After Trump (Lisa Wade, Public Books)
From the article: ” If we’re going to survive both President Trump and the kind of people he has emboldened, we need to attack masculinity directly. I don’t mean that we should recuperate masculinity—that is, press men to identify with a kinder, gentler version of it—I mean that we should reject the idea that men have a psychic need to distinguish themselves from women in order to feel good about themselves. This idea is sexist on its face and it’s unsettling that we so rarely think of it that way.
In fact, we should be as suspicious of males who strongly identify as men as we are of white people who strongly identify as white. We should understand, in hindsight, that one of the reasons women were so keen to embrace masculinity in the first place was because it feels good to feel superior. And we should recognize, as well, that it is men’s belief that they should be superior to women and other men that is the cause of so much of their rage, self-hatred, and suffering.”
Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel on turning a tragic childhood into a hit musical (Rachel Cooke, The Guardian)
Men behaving inappropriately (language: a feminist guide)
From the article: “Recent media reports have been full of expressions which trivialise the issue of sexual harassment and–let’s not mince our own words here–sexual violence. ‘Sleaze’, for example. And ‘lewd’. But to my mind, ‘inappropriate behaviour’ is the worst, most insidious offender. Because it isn’t just a tabloid cliché. In fact it’s more like the opposite– a formula that makes its user sound educated, serious, and free from the combined prurience and moralism with which the tabloids approach anything to do with sex.”
We bailed out the bankers. And yet we’re ready to throw care workers to the wolves (Sonia Sodha, The Guardian)
However You Identify We Must All Be Trans Allies (Ruth Hunt, Huffington Post)
From the article: “Dressing ‘like a boy’, wearing a suit, having short hair, is my way of being a woman. It does not mean that I’m trans. Most people who are trans have an innate sense that the sex they were assigned at birth does not match their gender identity – it’s not about dressing like how you would expect a boy or a girl to dress, and frankly it’s insulting to suggest it is. In fact, what clothes you wear has nothing to do with your gender identity.
In recent weeks and months, we’ve seen endless headlines about trans people. Headlines that make ludicrous statements about how more people than ever are ‘turning trans’.
You cannot make someone trans any more than you can make them a butch catholic lesbian with dyslexia (I didn’t mention that in the opening paragraph, did I?). Being trans is an innate part of who someone is and what they know to be true about themselves. This is exactly the same thing as me knowing I’m not trans, and frankly it’s exactly the same for sexual orientation. People used to ask me how I knew I was a lesbian. My answer: how do you know you’re straight?”
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to “>Or Hiltch on Flickr. It is a photograph of heart-shaped biscuits which are lightly dusted with icing sugar and are placed inside, what looks to be, a red tissue-paper lined basket or tin.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 30 October 2017, 2:53 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Following Channel 4’s My Week as a Muslim documentary, Sabeena Akhtar asks why we’ll go to such great lengths to avoid hearing from actual Muslim women (Media Diversified)
The Fashion Industry’s Complicity With Sexual Abuse Sucks (Refinery 29)
Men in the UK enjoy more leisure time than women, study shows (The Guardian)
British Theatre bosses condemn sexual harassment in the Industry (The Guardian)
Why you should give money directly & unconditionally to homeless people (New Statesman)
From the article: “The average life expectancy of a homeless man in London is 47. For women, it is 43. This is lower than the general life expectancy of any nation on the planet.”
If You’ve Ever Made a Fat Joke, Fattitude is the Documentary is For You (Observer)
Why Boko Haram uses female suicide-bombers (The Economist)
From the article: “The suicide-bombers sent by Boko Haram are, however, less lethal than those used by other groups, say Mr Warner and Ms Matfess. This is partly because around a fifth detonate their explosives when confronted by soldiers, killing only themselves. Yet still the group sends attackers to Maiduguri, the city where the insurgency began, to target the university, markets and camps for the displaced. It is no coincidence that its use of female bombers rose sharply after the kidnapping of the 276 “Chibok Girls” from their school in April 2014. Boko Haram realised the propaganda value of women: the use of supposed innocents as lethal weapons has a powerful shock factor. They arouse less suspicion (at least they did when the tactic was first deployed, if no longer) and can more easily hide bombs underneath voluminous hijab. And by sending women to blow themselves up, Boko Haram also saves its male fighters for more conventional guerrilla-style attacks.”
The Future Is Female: How ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Uses Gender (Collider)
Tom Hanks’s writing is yet another sad story of how men write women (The Guardian)
From the article: “Hanks is not a Harvey, but he’s from the same world. Just because objectifying women in fiction is at the less serious end of the sexist spectrum, doesn’t mean we have to put up with it. If Hanks wants to do better in his next collection, he would do well to put down the Hollywood scripts and read some women writers.”
The Women Who Designed Classic British Posters (Medium)
From the story: “Pick was a forward-thinking and enlightened manager who did not discriminate based on gender — he chose artists based purely on their talent and on their power to entice Londoners to use the Underground not just for business, but for pleasure, which became increasingly important for revenue.Pick commissioned the first female poster designer, Ellen Coates, in 1910 to create a poster for the Underground Group’s tram network. In 1922 the Central School won a commission to design posters for the LCC Tramways, which was a golden opportunity for budding designers like Freda Beard, who were often given their first commission under the scheme.”
‘Tear it down and start again’: playwright Elinor Cook on Sexism in British Theatre (The Guardian)
From the article: “I find it shocking that [the notion of a female playwright] can be seen as so out there. I’m white and privileged and straight, and if I’ve found it difficult to break through, how much harder is it if you’re not those three things?”
Why Brian Molko Was the 90s’ Ultimate Queer Icon (Another Man)
From the article: “Adamant that he was never out to invoke the kind of straight-up shock tactics that Marilyn Manson and other androgynous 90s stars relied on, Molko told Kerrang! this month that his cross-dressing was a largely political statement, aimed squarely at the homophobia that plagued in the music scene at the time. ‘Basically, I wanted anybody who was slightly homophobic in the audience to look at me and go, “ooh, she’s hot. I’d like to fuck her”,’ he explained, ‘before realising that “her” name was Brian, and then have to ask themselves a few questions about, shall we say, the fluidity of sexuality itself.’”
From tyranny to reality TV: Meet the celebrity defector women of North Korea (Medium)
From the article: “In recent years, North Koreans have populated a new wave of talk shows, reality TV programs and dramas — each of them promising viewers a thrilling glimpse of life north of the Demilitarized Zone. Often enlightening, sometimes tawdry (and occasionally both), these programs have proved highly popular. This is a media trend like none other. It wrings content from young women who’ve escaped the world’s most tyrannical regime. It sharply inverts the typical image of fly-nibbled refugees, replacing it with a new stereotype: celebrity defectors who are invariably young, female and attractive.”
How I learned to stop worrying and love Big Pimpin’—Amanda Barokh (Repeater Books)
From the article: “By way of explanation, I have to take you way back in time to my childhood in the late Eighties. Picture a little brown child with frizzy hair, a faint moustache and a monobrow sitting in the back of her dad’s (also brown) Ford Cortina, driving around the sterile streets of suburban north London. Her dad, an Iraqi, had a penchant for playing tunes from his homeland. The glove compartment of the Cortina was filled with tapes hand-labelled in a scrawly language the little brown child couldn’t understand. Her father would play the tapes loudly and sing along enthusiastically. The little brown child would cry, ‘Dad please turn that music off it sounds like a cat being strangled. I want to listen to Kylie.'”
Student target of online abuse over paper’s fake news fail (The Grio)
‘Hey dude, do this’: the last resort for female gamers escaping online abuse (Kate O’Halloran, Guardian)
Girl gangs and the “do-it-together” attitude in the DIY punk scene (Stephanie Phillips, Alternative Press)
How do women navigate sex and dating in the wake of #MeToo? (Joana Ramiro, Independent)
Toxic masculinity is everywhere. It’s up to us men to fix this (Jordan Stephens, Guardian)
Gitanjali Rao: Girl of 11 takes US young scientist prize (BBC)
When It Comes to Inclusivity in Publishing, Editors Also Play a Role (Jennifer Baker, Electric Lit)
From the article: “…The ultimate responsibility always falls on the creator, but the many people who see the book on its way to publication are culpable too. We’re here to aid writers, and in a sense that does mean protecting them. But protecting the writer also means ensuring the work works.
Understandably editors (and agents) are ‘worried about their clients.’ We’re worried about how things may be taken or dissected. I do wonder, though, if this concern stems more from the desire to protect the privileged masses over the marginalized ones. This can also be part of the inability (or unwillingness) to make the effort required to see inclusivity and parity come to fruition. It means that someone, possibly those of us in a position of power, will be uncomfortable and need to face that discomfort. Senior editor Kate Sullivan at Delacorte wrote about the need for editors to ‘check ourselves.’
Checking ourselves includes not prioritizing the white gaze; analyzing the prose at a micro not just macro level; and discerning why editors don’t connect with marginalized voices and do connect with white, socioeconomically well off, cishet ones. To not do any of these things under the guise of ‘protecting’ the writer or more so enhancing the work is a failure on our part.”
I lost my job due to mental health issues – and I’m far from the only one (Stylist)
The troubling ascent of the LGBT right wing (Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian)
From the article: “…Across the west there’s been a very calculated pink-washing of white nationalism. It’s OK to hate Muslims because Muslims hate gay people, we’re told by white people who also hate gay people – just not as much as they hate Muslims.”
How to Make Sense of the Radical Challenge to Sexual Harassment in Academia (Nehmat Kaur, The Wire)
[South Asia]
From the article: “Women have nothing to gain from naming powerful men who harmed them. In a culture of victim-blaming, they end up more emotionally, financially and professionally depleted after speaking up than they were before. They are also opened up to vindictive responses, so that making a complaint is often career suicide for women academics. If we choose to protect ourselves and not report, we feel guilty and cowardly for that too.”
Why I felt like I didn’t deserve to get involved with #MeToo (Independent Voices)
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Hernán Piñera on Flickr. It is a photograph of five people standing in a row on what appears to be a stage. They are all wearing similar clothing, including white tights or leggings with white pumps or bare feet. They all appear to be slightly stooped over with their eyes to the ground, but there is a blur in the photo, suggesting movement – as if they were all in the process of standing upright.
Why are men so worried about false allegations?
by D H Kelly // 25 October 2017, 3:06 pm
At this moment when many people are realising the sheer scale of sexual harassment for the first time, some men have written about how these events have shaken them up and caused them to reflect.
Giles Coren, however, is concerned that putting “xx” kisses at the bottom of e-mails might lead to false allegations of sexual harassment – a tragedy that has befallen precisely no-one, nowhere. Yet I think Coren’s article demonstrates one reason why some men are distracted from the real problem of sexual harassment by the fear that a culture that increasingly listens to women will somehow get them into trouble.
Of course, a man may fear sexual harassment allegations because he sexually harasses people and a journalist in this position might use his platform to remind victims of his power, pre-emptively reducing any subsequent accusations in the public mind to “a few misplaced kisses”. Assuming Coren is innocent of this, he is doing a tremendous favour to abusers within his profession.
However, Coren believes the problem to be about his diminishing sexual appeal, explaining,
“It is a mistake that many men make as they get older, not noticing that they have become unattractive and that gestures which might once have been seen as charming have gradually become revolting.”
Our culture does not equip us to cope with unrequited desire towards women. We have plenty of stories where the hero pursues a uninterested sexy woman, but in the end he is always rewarded with her love and attention. Then there’s the villain of the piece, who also lusts after the sexy woman, but whose desires – as well as being unrequited – inevitably manifest in bad behaviour. In our stories, men who experience unrequited sexual desire tend to be monstrous.
Thus some men have been led to believe that, being good men, they are entitled to female attention and that it’s just a matter of time and persistence. These men are the absolute worst.
Then there are men who, like Coren, notice they are not Han Solo and imagine they must be Jabba the Hutt, forgetting that Jabba the Hutt’s offences weren’t so much about being enormous, weird and green, but rather chaining someone up in a gold bikini. I’ve noticed how often, in recent weeks, Harvey Weinstein’s weight is referred to as if the same behaviour from a slimmer man would be more acceptable. Coren laments,
“No more jokes. And no more half-smiles across parties that used (I think) to look beguiling, but now look like Fagin, ogling an unguarded farthing.”
And oddly, I empathise. As a teenager, that’s pretty much how I felt about my same-sex attractions; any boy I fancied would simply laugh at me but any girl who thought I fancied her would feel violated. I would become Ming the Merciless, the Sheriff of Nottingham or Prince Humperdinck. Of course this was about homophobia too; I was made to feel there was something creepy about the way my heart lifted when a certain girl smiled, let alone if I noticed anything about her body.
However, the fear of provoking violent disgust is very different from imagining that someone would, over a period of time, fabricate crimes I didn’t commit in an attempt to ruin my life.
The reason that false accusation was never on my long list of soul-crushing fears was not because I was a girl but rather because I had a better opinion of women.
Reporting sexual harassment or violence (to the police, to employers, even telling friends) is immensely costly to victims. We fear being disbelieved and humiliated. We fear being believed and held responsible. We fear a sympathetic response that treats us as broken. We even fear causing harm to the heroes, friends, partners and family members who have hurt us. There’s rarely anything much to gain, except in sharing an experience and finding we are not alone.
I’ve argued all this with people who believe false-reporting is commonplace and they’ve responded, “But you credit such women with thinking logically!”
And I don’t – that’s my point. I do however credit the vast majority of people with not acting dramatically against their own interest and without possessing the extreme and sustained malice required to falsely accuse someone of sexual violence. The evidence suggests that sexual offences are falsely reported at about the same rate as other crime; so roughly speaking, for every invented rape the police heard about last year, two people pretended to have their bicycles stolen and another seven lied about burglaries. All of those are extraordinarily strange behaviours and while people do behave very strangely and innocent people are harmed, it happens so rarely the rest of us can afford to worry about more common problems. Such as sexual harassment, which almost every woman has experienced and most of us on multiple occasions.
Giles Coren must have read enough about Weinstein to understand that his crimes go beyond unattractive in possession of a libido. None of those #metoo stories last week involved being smiled at by an unsexy colleague. But I think Coren has tapped into a problem in our culture which allows men to be distracted by their personal self-image and to perpetuate myths about the ambiguity of sexual crimes.
The answer is and always has been to listen to women.
[Image is an illustration from the fairytale Beauty & the Beast. The beast, who is a figure with a human-ish body and the head of some kind of hog, is lying on the ground with a woman kneeling over him as if concerned for his welfare. The woman wears an elaborate dress, perhaps 18th century in style, and a hat with a feather in it. Two characters with monkey faces and paws but wearing human clothes look on with concern.
This image was found on Wikimedia, where the original artist appears uncertain. It is in the public domain.]
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 23 October 2017, 3:50 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Mayim Bialik, if you think modest clothing protects you from sexual harassment, you need to listen to these Muslim women (The Independent)
What is it like to be a teenage lesbian in rural Russia? (Dazed)
Finally, we have the first-ever ad that shows period blood (The Pool)
The ‘Me Too’ Campaign Was Created By A Black Woman 10 Years Ago (Huffington Post)
From the article:”In a Tuesday morning interview with Democracy Now, Burke discussed the origins of the “Me Too” movement and why it’s still so relevant today. As a survivor of sexual violence herself, Burke said she used the “me too” phrase as a way to connect with other survivors, specifically young women of color.
“[I was] trying to find a succinct way to show empathy,” Burke said. “Me too is so powerful because somebody had said it to me and it changed the trajectory of my healing process once I heard that. Me too was about reaching the places that other people wouldn’t go, bringing messages and words and encouragement to survivors of sexual violence where other people wouldn’t be talking about it.”
No place of safety: The inside story of how women fleeing domestic violence lost their refuge (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
From the article: “The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been following the stories of six of the seven women housed in that [domestic violence] shelter for the past three months as they have been buffeted around the social services system, from hotels, to council meetings, to lonely flats. The seventh woman has dropped off everyone’s radar.
We have also found that local authorities all over England have cut their funding for women’s refuges, by 24% on average. In Kensington and Chelsea, however, the cuts are even more stark, with refuge funding plummeting 45% over the same period.”
What can your period tell you about the state of your health? (The Guardian)
From the article: “Bodyform has broken convention: the feminine hygiene brand’s latest sanitary towel advert is the first to use red liquid. The fact that showing liquid that looks like blood to denote real blood counts as taboo-breaking is as ridiculous as the blue liquid inflicted on our fragile sensibilities for years. As Bodyform’s slogan declares: “Periods are normal. Showing them should be too.”
This is about more than advertising. Making periods visible – by using red liquid, but also in discourse – is good for your health. Women’s health is routinely underresearched, but you can learn a lot from the state of your period.”
Universal Credit Explained By The People On The Frontline Of It (Huffington Post)
Liberal men think they know feminism. They really don’t (The Guardian)
From the article: “Feminism should be a spiritual awakening for men; it should be a revelation of the ways they have participated in the oppression of women in both public and private spheres. It should show them the parts of themselves, their own feminine nature and their capacity for compassion and vulnerability, that they have dismissed as mere weakness, that need to be reclaimed. It is a psychological – even a spiritual – project, not merely a political one.”
FA apologises to Eniola Aluko over Mark Sampson’s racist remarks (The Week)
Ads featuring women in suits pictured beside naked men prompt fierce debate on gender roles (New York Times)
Jessicka Addams Of Jack Off Jill Accuses Twiggy Ramirez Of Rape (Bust)
From the article: “In 2015, while playing some reunion shows with the original line up of Jack Off Jill, Alternative Press Magazine asked me in an interview ‘What would older, wiser Jessicka tell her wilder, 19-year-old self?’ My reply was:
‘Don’t allow anybody—especially your current boyfriend—to verbally ridicule you, psychically abuse and rape you, fat-shame you, break your spirit, make you second-guess yourself and ultimately steal your identity. Don’t worry: He’ll get trapped in the green dress he stole. It becomes his curse rather than a gift, trust me.'”
Self-harm among girls aged 13 to 16 rose by 68% in three years, UK study finds (The Guardian)
From the article:”Self-harm reported to GPs among teenage girls under the age of 17 in the UK increased by 68% over just three years, research has revealed.
The study also found that self-harm among young people aged 10-19 was three times more common among girls than boys, with those who self-harmed at much greater risk of suicide than those who did not.”
Who am I supposed to tell when a man sexually harasses me in front of our friends? (The Pool)
From the article: “I always knew whatever shitty thing was happening to me was wrong, but I never had any idea who I could tell about it. Calling the police would have seemed over the top even if it had occurred to me and, most of the time, I had no clue whether what had happened was a matter for the law. All I could really do was try to make them stop – usually in vain – or wait until it was over, and then get out of there.”
It’s OK to be a “Messy” Bi Person (Damian Emba, bisexual.org)
From the article: “… I have to deal with the fact that by being as sexually open and free as I am, I can be perceived as reinforcing stereotypes about bi people. The best I can do is just remind folks that not all bi people are polyamorous or as sexually active as I am. You’d think it’d be obvious that bi people, just like gay and straight people, are a diverse group of people. We don’t all relate to people in the same way. Many bi people are monogamous. Some are even celibate. And, yes, some of us are polyamorous and sexually active. So what?”
Why I refuse to post “Me too” as my FB status, or: Why Harvey Weinstein is the least of my concerns (Heather Jo Flores, Medium)
Some victims stayed friends with Harvey Weinstein. I did the same with my rapist. Here’s why (Natalia Antonova, Vox)
Rose McGowan’s Controversial Tweet To Ellen DeGeneres Shows Exactly Why Intersectional Feminism Is So Necessary (Amy Roberts, Bustle)
The Disability Paradox (Philippa Willitts, Global Comment)
From the article: “Employers will say privately that they don’t want to hire people with mental health problems because they are unreliable, or people with physical health problems because they need too much time off; in the pub, the same people criticise those who are disabled or chronically ill for being scroungers and read tabloid newspapers that slate disability activists for being well enough to protest without being well enough to work.”
Them Too (Re-reading the second wave)
Why Do Women Point Fingers? The Rise of Victim-Blaming in a Country Under Assault (Caroline Orr, Playboy)
From the article: “Believing that sexual assault happens (at least in part) because of women’s choices provides a sense of security, albeit a false one, by conveying the notion that we’ll be safe as long as we don’t make those same “mistakes.” It tells us that sexual assault can be avoided by simply making better choices, as Bialik seemed to suggest in her NYT op-ed. It also lets us believe that the world is generally a safe place where bad things don’t happen to good people.”
A new film shows the heartbreaking reality of living with chronic fatigue syndrome (The Pool)
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to kryaaa_chet on Flickr. It is a black and white photograph of a table set for tea, with two cups and two teapots set on a floral table cloth. There are four chairs set round the table and light filtering through the window, casting shadows on the scene.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 16 October 2017, 10:53 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Why women are more likely than men to die in natural disasters (NY Times)
From the article: “According to a 2008 study drawn from 141 countries over 21 years, more women die during environmental disasters than men. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed four times as many women as men. In some cases, women had stayed behind to search for children and relatives. In others, women had never learned to swim. And disasters’ disproportionate impact on women is not limited to the global south.”
Intersectionality? Not while feminists participate in pile-ons (The Guardian)
From the article: “For all its talk of intersectionality, mainstream feminism still cannot comprehend that racism and sexism are not experienced separately but simultaneously.”
Make Misogyny A Hate Crime [PETITION] (Action – Green Party)
How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate Their Victims in Their Acts (The New Yorker)
From the article: “The allegations against Harvey Weinstein are a reminder that, when a young woman is treated like an object, she is placed within an old and sickening script, one that is incredibly difficult to escape.”
Rebecca Solnit on Harvey Weinstein and Extreme Masculinity… (The Guardian)
From the article: “…perhaps it’s an extreme version of masculinity that has always been with us in a culture that gives men more power and privilege than women; perhaps these acts are the result of taking that to its logical conclusion. There must be terrible loneliness in that failure to perceive or value the humanity of others, the failure of empathy and imagination, to consider oneself the only person who matters.”
The Party: how can gender affect autism spectrum disorders? – Science Weekly podcast (The Guardian)
Will 2017 be the year of Hollywood’s feminist reckoning? (Ms.)
As ‘the fathers of daughters,’ they were offended by harassment. But what did that really mean? (Washington Post)
Being fat is not a sign of mental illness (The Pool)
From the article: “Fat people are vulnerable in almost every situation they put themselves into, so to think that the professionals whose job it is to make them feel safe in the most vulnerable position a person can put themselves into is making a judgment before they open their mouths is horrifying. We are not temporary structures, we are human beings, and we deserve better.”
Today’s youth are caring, engaged political actors (Gayle Kimball, The Hill)
I’ve stopped saying ‘feminine hygiene products’. Here’s why you should too (Chella Quint, Independent)
Free Condoms Aren’t A Symbol of the Patriarchy (Liv Woodward, The Nopebook)
The age advantage (Sonia Zhuravlyova, Positive.News)
From the article: “When we use the term anti-ageing, we’re subtly reinforcing the message that ageing is a condition we need to battle.”
NZ grants residence to trans woman abused in UK (RNZ)
The secret pagan, pro-sex, feminine utopia hidden in France (Dazed Digital)
On Solidarity (Ami Rao)
From the article: “Without any meaningful explanation, I found myself shut out of the process, excluded almost entirely from the publicity and the PR surrounding the book. Instead Declan was sent forth “for the good of the book,” to do countless print and radio interviews where he spent large chunks of airtime expressing his disappointment that his partner in this collaboration was strikingly absent from it all.”
Ageing joyfully: meet the older people defying senior stereotypes (Sonia Zhuravlyova, Positive.News)
Hollywood and academia: is the problem the same? (The 1752 Group)
From the article: “Once you have chosen your research area then you will often be working with the same 50-100 people for the rest of your career and the perpetrator is often in a far more senior position from the get go. It doesn’t take much to destroy someone’s career in industries where junior members of the community are so expendable. After all there is no shortage of actresses desperate for a role and no end to the number of postdocs grasping for that all-important permanent position.”
Protected: an Open Letter to the UK Film Industry on Addressing Harassment and Discrimination (Raising Films)
Raising Films, a community and campaigning organisation working towards a more equal and inclusive creative industry in the UK, publishes an open letter calling for accountability of decision-makers and employers, and working towards elimination of unfair employment practices and harassment.
Why we shouldn’t accept James Corden’s weak, empty apology (Shortlist)
From the article: ““I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention” is outright passive-aggression. According to Corden: it is your fault that you were offended, not his, because you have misunderstood the nuance of his joke about luring impressionable young women into very dangerous situations. That his audience – affluent, connected, and very Los Angeles – could have easily contained such victims was clearly not something he was interested in.”
Rose McGowan & Unintersectional Feminism (Danielle Dash)
From the article: “Black women live at the intersection of race, gender and some of us disability. We cannot choose our vaginas over our skin because we have both all the motherfucking time. And I’m tired of being polite and explaining this over and over and over again.”
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Isabelle Gallino on Flickr. It is a black and white photograph of a person with long, dark hair. They have their hand pressed to their forehead in a gesture that would seem to suggest sadness or frustration. A pencil sticks up from between their fingers as if perhaps they had been in the middle of writing something.
Thoughts on #metoo
by Joanna Whitehead // , 2:03 pm
Content note: discussions of sexual abuse
You may have noticed the #metoo hashtag doing the rounds on social media in the last 24 hours.
The campaign has arisen in light of the recent Harvey Weinstein accusations to demonstrate the scale and extent of sexual abuse and harassment that women face.
To those people participating in this campaign: you have my respect. I believe you. However, it’s important to note that you are not required to disclose painful information about your life, least of all on social media.
The extent of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse is staggering and many survivors of violence are struggling to contend with the daily onslaught of disclosures and incessant coverage of this. While those survivors deserve to be believed, respected and supported, it’s important to note that bearing witness to this rolling 24/7 coverage can be traumatic for many who may have experienced similar abusive behaviour.
Reminder: you do not need to participate in this campaign to show your solidarity. You do not and should not have to recount or disclose your own experience(s) if this has negative implications for you. You are not being a bad ally or a bad feminist if you choose not to join in. Survivors of violence should not have to suffer further in order to get men to listen to them.
While most perpetrators of violence are cis men, it’s also important to note that it’s not exclusively cis women who are the victims of their violence. Men and, in particular, trans women and, more specifically, trans women of colour, are also targets.
Be kind to yourself. Take a social media or news break, if you need to. Talk to friends. Seek specialist and professional support if you need it. Undertake the self-care you need in order to stay well. Do what feels right for you.
The image at the top of the page is a close-up black and white shot of a sign reading ‘private’. The sign is attached to a brick wall and appears to be in a residential area; you can see buildings in the background. Picture by Jeremy Segrott and shared under a Creative Commons licence.
The F-Word team update
by Joanna Whitehead // , 10:05 am
I’m pleased to announce that we have three fabulous new editors joining the team: Nicholl Hardwick (guest posts), Christina Carè (features) and Kristel Tracey (features). Welcome! We were really impressed with the experience, knowledge and ideas for the site all three women had and I’m delighted they’re part of the team. Sophie Jackson, our existing features editor extraordinaire, will be taking a sabbatical, returning to the site in early February 2018.
In their own words:
Nicholl is an intersectional feminist with a particular focus on popular culture and specific interests in comedy, music, the media and literature. Until recently, Nicholl was a Masters student, but now you can find her either writing scripts, volunteering, teaching creative writing workshops, drawing, or with her head nested firmly in a book. Nicholl strongly believes that discussions, listening and solidarity have the power to create progressive change within our communities.
Christina Carè is a feminist, writer and editor based in London, originally from Sydney, Australia. Interested in relationships, art, language and class issues as they intersect with feminism, she will happily chat with you on anything from inequalities in aesthetic theories, to who is the best Marvel character. Furious collector of degrees, house plants, books and foreign languages, she reviews plays in her spare time but makes a living as a content strategist/writer for Spotlight. She tweets erratically at @christinacare
Queen Nefertiti in a past life, reborn in Luton as a plebeian and reinvented as a too-much-to-say-for-herself Londoner and lover of the written word. A communications manager by day, by night you’ll find Kristel on her soapbox (or tapping away loudly on her laptop) about intersectional feminism, race and class inequality. Or watching something trashy on TV, because sometimes shizzle gets too real. She loves nothing more than a good book, good people and a good belly-laugh. You can find her on Twitter at @the_vajabond
To contact Christina and Kristel regarding any features content, you can reach them at features@thefword.org.uk. For guest content and the blog, you can reach Nicholl at guestposts@thefword.org.uk
The image at the top of the page shows the word ‘edit’ in large, orange letters against a black, crumpled background. The picture was taken by David Bleasdale and shared under a Creative Commons licence.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 10 October 2017, 9:24 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
FA manages to divide the room with its plans to restructure women’s football (The Guardian)
A former all-women college presented an all-male team on University Challenge (The Pool)
The Lesbian Vloggers Teaching Queer Teens How to Have Better, Safer Sex (Vice)
From the article: “There are good reasons for queer girls to talk about safe sex, too. Contrary to popular myth, unprotected sex between two women can still pose the risk of STI transmission. HIV can still be spread through vaginal fluids, and infections like HPV (which can lead to genital warts and cervical cancer) and herpes can spread through intimate skin-to-skin contact.”
Diverse Stock Photos Have Ushered in a New Era of Memeing (Vice)
What men and women think about their partners’ careers and help at home (The Economist)
From the story: “A senior fire service officer told local press: “On the back of the Mumbai attacks [in 2008] it was recognised there was a need for firefighters in Greater Manchester who had advanced trauma skills, who could deal with gunshot wounds, and would be kitted out with body armour and trained in the rapid extraction of victims from dangerous locations.” In the aftermath of the attack, it emerged that not only were the specialist teams not deployed to the arena, normal fire crews were even held back from the scene for more than 90 minutes.”
Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein (The New York Times)
From the article: “Diversity is the biggest capitalist venture right now for businesses. And what that means – and what Munroe was a harsh reminder of – is that these companies will capitalise on our identities.”
These Women Made Their Own Stock Images To Dispel Myths Around Domestic Violence (BuzzFeed)
From the article: “‘Whilst physical violence can be part of an abusive relationship, emotional abuse is always part of an abusive relationship,’ Jessie said. ‘There are a number of different controlling, humiliating, degrading tactics, and all of that can take place without a person raising a fist.'”
How daughters change the behaviour of influential men (The Economist)
The White Privilege of the “Lone Wolf” Shooter (The Intercept_Shaun King)
Sex workers’ rights are about more than just “happy hookers” (Frankie Mullin, New Statesman)
I Tied My Tubes at Age 31. And It’s Not Up for Discussion (Lauren Himiak, Rewire)
“Not only do I fear straight white working class blokes, I also fear the gay white men who populate bars in Soho.” (Queer performer, Scottee, Gay Times)
From the article: “You’d be wrong to think that this is just a scene issue. Unfortunately femme shaming, fat shaming and gay misogyny is rife throughout white gay male cultures . Us femmes are continuously desexualised and demonised for something that is considered to be ‘put on’ or performed; if effeminacy is performed, this would surely mean their cherished masculinity was also an act, wouldn’t it?”
I Know What Boys Like, I Know What Guys Want (Dances with Fat)
From the article: “I’m suggesting that if we work to dismantle a society where all women are encouraged to believe that we should base their self-worth on how attractive men find us – and where the way that we are treated depends on it in many ways – then each of us gets to choose how we determine our value.”
Model Arvida Byström gets rape threats after an advert featured her hairy legs (BBC Newsbeat)
Byström on Twitter: “My photo from the @adidasoriginals superstar campaign got a lot of nasty comments last week. Me being such an abled, white, cis body with its only nonconforming feature being a lil leg hair. Literally I’ve been getting rape threats in my DM inbox. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to not posses all these privileges and try to exist in the world. Sending love and try to remember that not everybody has the same experiences being a person. Also thanks for all the love. Got a lot of that too.”
Meet the woman who takes selfies with street harassers (Independent)
The speculum finally gets a modern redesign (Wired)
From the article: “The current design of the speculum, fashioned by American physician James Marion Sims, dates back to the 1840s. Sims, sometimes called the “father of modern gynecology,” used the speculum to pioneer treatments for fistula and other complications from childbirth. But his experiments were often conducted on slave women, without the use of anesthesia. So to say that the speculum was not designed with patient comfort in mind would be an egregious understatement.”
Playing the Online Dating Game, in a Wheelchair (The New York Times)
From the article: “I started gradually, making references to my disability throughout my profile, then adding photos in which my wheelchair is clearly visible. I tried to keep things light and humorous. For instance, OKCupid asks users to list six things they can’t live without; one of mine is “the invention of the wheel.”
Mental health: why we’re all sick under neoliberalism (Ray Filar, Transformation, Open Democracy)
There may finally be a way to stop abuse by anti-abortion protesters (The Guardian)
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Sarah on Flickr. It shows person, with their back to the camera, standing in the middle of a barren landscape. There are mountains in the distance and the person is standing with their head to the side as if braced against the wind.
The F-Word stage blog: October 2017
by Lissy Lovett // 7 October 2017, 1:05 pm
I’m going to open this month’s blog post with a short rant about theatre captioning. I used to work for Stagetext, the national arts organisation that introduced captioning (or subtitling) for live performance to the UK. I believe theatre is for everyone and that organisations have an absolute moral and ethical duty to make their work accessible to the broadest range of people.
Last week the National Theatre announced that they were trialling new technology to make theatre captions available for every performance through special glasses. There are good things about this of course: new technology is always fun and having the choice of any performance is an option that’s not available at the moment. However I have a huge issue with the way that this project has been reported across many publications.
The BBC say that open captioning (showing the words on a screen to everyone) “can distract the audience”, the Stage reports that this scheme will remove the need for captioning screens in the auditorium as if that can only be a good thing and the National themselves described the glasses as “discreet”. All this is written from the assumption that showing captions to everyone is automatically a bad thing and isn’t it just lovely that we might be able to avoid it.
This is actually disgusting. The idea that it’s positive to hide the accommodation or adaptation that some audience members need so no one else is bothered is just dreadful. It shows a lack of imagination and empathy, and I don’t believe that such negative and selfish views are something that any of us should be indulging. I’ve never once been distracted by captions. Theatre should be inclusive.
And now let’s move on to the shows!
Ellie Taylor is taking her latest show This Guy on a 20 date, autumn UK tour which begins tonight in Sudbury. Married and in her 30s, Ellie has overcome the surprise of being in a dreadfully happy marriage only for society to test her with a new question – whether or not she wants to breed. If Ellie had been given a pound every time she’s been asked “Are you going to have a baby?” she could have bought a really expensive baby. The tour is also going to Brighton, Wenlock, Salford, Solihull, Bromsgrove, Maidenhead, Didcot, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Canterbury, Bordon, Crawley, London, Southend, Bristol, Newport and Norwich. Phew! Tickets can be bought here.
Next week a new production of Howard Barker’s The Castle opens at the Space in east London and runs until 28 October. It’s a rainy day in middle England and Stucley returns home from War to find his land untended, his sheep wild and his wife in bed with a witch. In the absence of men, a new way of life has emerged. No religion. No class. No hunger. The women are in charge now. They have their freedom and they’re not going to give it back.
Next week too is the start of a few performances of Strangers & Others, a new immersive and interactive piece from dance/theatre makers, H2 Dance. It will be in Woking on 10 October, Colchester on 18 October, Norwich on 24 October, Peterborough on 26 October and Nottingham on 2 December.
Major Labia are a Nottingham-based collective of witty women and will be performing a new sketch show at Curve in Leicester on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October.
Homotopia, Liverpool’s LGBT+ arts and culture festival, will be running from 26 October until 1 December. There are a lot of events, but of particular note are Butch Monologues, at the Unity Theatre and Rachael Young presenting OUT, a performance about shape shifting in a bid to fit in – to be black enough, straight enough, Jamaican enough.
Soho Theatre in London have a season of Edinburgh Comedy Award Winners and Nominees coming up. Best Show Hannah Gadsby: Nanette will be on from 30 October until 11 November and Best Newcomer Natalie Palamides: Laid will be on from 6 until 18 November and then 22 December until 13 January 2018.
Jonny Woo’s Un-Royal Variety, an alternative alternative to the Royal Variety Performance will be happening at the Hackney Empire on 3 and 4 November. Accompanied by a big, brassy rock band and a 30-strong dance troupe of gender-fluid club kids, Woo will MC, sing, dance, conduct and tether together an evening featuring US sensation Christeene, award-winning operatic comic Jayde Adams and fresh from the success of Triple Threat, Lucy McCormick.
A little while ago Holly Donovan wrote for us about the objectification she had experienced in the theatre industry. Her play, No Place Like Hope will be performed at the Old Red Lion theatre in London in November where they will be raising money for the charity, Victoria’s Promise.
And lastly next month OperaUpClose will be at the Arcola Theatre in London with a chamber production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The libretto is a new English version written by Artistic Director, Robin Norton-Hale, and has been approached from a feminist/political angle, transposing Tatyana’s sexual awakening to the 1960s, at the cusp of the women’s liberation moment. The creative team is female-led, and includes rising star Sonia Ben Santamaria as musical director. Here’s what reviewer Megan Stodel thought of their previous production, La Voix Humaine.
Until next month.
Image 1 is of Ellie Taylor. Taylor stands in front of a green background with her hands in the ‘thumbs-up’ position pointing to herself. She looks away from the camera. She has red lipstick and glossy long brown hair.
Image 2 is of Major Labia and is by Natalie Owen. Seven women stand in a row outside. They each have their hands in a triangle shape in front of themselves which is the British Sign Language sign for ‘cunt’ or ‘vagina’. They are all smiling broadly at the camera.
Image 3 is of Jayde Adams by Sian Stephanie Smith. Adams is wearing a black sparkly leotard and is looking thoughtfully away from the camera. She is in front of a blue background and there are a few light flares over the image. She has heavy makeup and blonde curly hair with dark roots.
Pelvic mesh scandal exposes misogyny in medicine
by Guest Blogger // 6 October 2017, 9:14 am
This is a guest post by Kate Harveston
When the Mesh Oversight Group report was released earlier this year it exposed what was called the “most serious medical scandal since thalidomide”: the painful complications of thousands of transvaginal mesh implant procedures.
Pelvic mesh is used as a treatment for pelvic floor disorders in women and, after childbirth, is said to reinforce the vaginal wall to prevent pelvic organ prolapse. Many women have suffered severe complications from the implantation of vaginal mesh, finding themselves experiencing severe chronic pain that leaves them unable to have sex or, in some cases, to even walk.
NHS records found that of the 75,000 women who have had vaginal mesh implanted in the past 10 years, roughly 1 in 15 of them has had to have additional surgery to remove the implant due to complications.
Several companies that produce these mesh products, such as Johnson & Johnson, have been sued by women who have suffered their side effects. Worldwide, 100,000 women are thought to be affected. Instead of addressing the pain and difficulties these women are feeling, some doctors have made other suggestions.
A series of emails between Australian doctors in reference to a current pelvic mesh class action lawsuit have infuriated patients. Instead of coming up with solutions to the side effects that these women are experiencing, these doctors suggested that they become a little more adventurous in the bedroom — specifically, switching to anal or oral sex instead of vaginal intercourse.
This misogyny in medicine isn’t a new thing. Have you ever tried to talk to your doctor about a sexual problem, only to have them dismiss the conversation as if the problem is all in your head? Even female doctors can fall into this trap, transferring their own internalised misogyny onto their patients. One woman describes talking to her female gynecologist about painful intercourse and receiving the advice to “toughen up” and that sometimes that was “just the way things were.”
Just Googling the topic of doctors ignoring women’s pain will bring up countless anecdotes of women having their complaints, both sex-related and otherwise, misdiagnosed or ignored altogether. Medical professionals who genuinely care about the issue have confirmed this medical bias. One doctor admitted to a female patient that female sexual disorders are “wildly under-discussed” within the medical community.
Women are conditioned, even in the modern age, to believe their sexual pleasure comes second to that of men — and that belief is only reinforced by the type of behaviour demonstrated by the doctors in Australia. Instead of focusing on these women’s medical problems, these doctors are discussing their patients as nothing more than sexual objects; any orifice will do.
We still live in a society where many people consider female sexuality to be shameful, and we’ve been trained to keep our sexuality and any concerns with our sexual or reproductive health to ourselves.
Misogyny in medicine is a problem that affects women’s access to healthcare and their sense of self-worth. If your doctor brushes you off or makes light of your pain remember that you are your own best advocate, know best what you’re feeling and that you are not alone. There may be options for you to see another doctor or, it can help to do your own research around your symptoms and prepare a focused list of questions for when you next visit. There are also some support and discussion groups online for women experiencing certain conditions and symptoms that could provide a brilliant support network.
Featured image by Jordan Bauer, from Unsplash. Used under Creative Commons Zero licence.
Image is taken from the perspective of someone peering into a room where a woman is lying on the bed. Her expression suggests that she is in pain or processing some difficult information. Only the tops of her arms and part of her face are visible. The shot has a soft, emotional feel.
Introducing October’s monthly blogger
by Monica Karpinski // 5 October 2017, 12:21 pm
It’s time to welcome Zamira Rahim as October’s monthly blogger.
In her own words:
“Zamira is a journalist based in London, who has written for TIME and CNN International. She’s reported on a range of feminist campaigns and is excited to write more about intersectional movements and on women’s equality in countries outside the UK. She’s particularly interested in how women can bridge divides in class and race and how feminism and religion can co-exist.
Zamira studied law at university, where a mix of feminist professors and the quirky world of student politics quickly shaped her interests.
Outside of writing she’s happiest with her nose in a book or when watching a play. She spends far too much time on Twitter and you can follow her at @ZamiraRahim.”
Image by Thought Catalog, from Unsplash. Used under Creative Commons Zero licence.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 3 October 2017, 6:51 am
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked. The beginning of October saw the start of Black History Month so any suggestions for topical reading material would be much appreciated!
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Free Porn Is Probably Not Feminist Porn—No Matter What It Looks Like (Glamour USA)
From the article: “It’s important to note that many feminist and other ethical porn makers who produce content with nonmale audiences in mind choose not to partner with free porn streaming sites, since many allow stolen content. The fact that Bellesa sold itself as a feminist entity while blatantly stealing the fruits of female labor and profiting from them made this free porn site a particularly gross offender.”
There is nothing radical or feminist about transphobia (NUS Connect)
Mother, may I? No (Bitch media)
‘Sexists need not apply’: publisher refuses to look at manuscripts addressed to ‘Dear sirs’ (The Guardian)
From the article: “‘Sexists need not apply’ to the ‘dreaded women’ who run Tramp Press, say the trail-blazing Irish independent publisher, which has announced it is closing its doors to ‘overtly sexist’ submissions from writers who address them as “Dear Sirs”, or list only male influences.”
Croydon mum sets up taxi company where all the drivers will be women (Croydon Advertiser)
Hugh Hefner: Abuser And Civil Rights Advocate (They Can Coexist) (Ravishly)
From the article: “Hugh Hefner is not a problematic fave; he was extremely problematic. Even in the days that Hugh Hefner and Playboy had their heyday, there were women exploring sexuality without relation to men. There were women and people in liberal discourse and left discourse bringing forward some of the journalistic and cultural content that Playboy is somewhat known for being quite positive and forward in. I understand why there are a lot of people recognizing that Hefner and Playboy have some cultural significance, but here on the left in the feminist movement, it’s more important for us to highlight those more marginalized voices in that era and today’s era than it is to celebrate Playboy.”
Hugh Hefner Didn’t Start the Sexual Revolution—He Profited from It (Marie Claire)
From the article: “Part of doing justice to someone’s legacy is telling the truth about them. So let’s be honest: Hefner didn’t start the sexual revolution—he profited from it.”
Can you see me now? The fragility of maternal transition (Bitch)
From the article: “It starts the minute a woman announces that she’s pregnant. Her body becomes something that belongs to everyone else but herself. Her belly is touched without even asking. Strangers and friends alike monitor what she eats, drinks, does: “Are you walking enough? Are you walking too much? Maybe you shouldn’t be eating that? Eat this, not that. Drink this, not that. Your feet are swollen, you’re doing too much. You need to sit.” The pregnant woman is rarely asked what it is she needs, or how she really feels.”
Hugh Hefner Damaged Countless Women’s Lives—Let’s Not Pretend Otherwise (Alternet)
Women aren’t nags-we’re just fed up (Harpers Bazaar)
From the article: “If I were to point out random emotional labor duties I carry out—reminding him of his family’s birthdays, carrying in my head the entire school handbook and dietary guidelines for lunches, updating the calendar to include everyone’s schedules, asking his mother to babysit the kids when we go out, keeping track of what food and household items we are running low on, tidying everyone’s strewn about belongings, the unending hell that is laundry—he would take it as me saying, ‘Look at everything I’m doing that you’re not. You’re a bad person for ignoring me and not pulling your weight.'”
British bobsleigh driver attacks decision to cut funding for women’s team (The Guardian)
From the article: “’I’ve asked why fund three men’s crews and no women’s and the answer I get is that the men are a medal focus,’ McNeill said. ‘You can use that excuse on one sled or even two but the
fact that it’s three and still calling it a medal focus is confusing for me.'”
Saudi Arabia lifting the driving ban is little more than a glitzy distraction from its continued geopolitical problems (Independent)
You Can’t Get Addicted to a Vibrator (Vice)
Ireland to hold abortion referendum weeks before pope’s visit (The Guardian)
Dads are super-cute while mums are simply discriminated against (Lynn Enright, The Pool)
Paraguay’s Sex Workers Demand Better Health Services (TeleSUR)
Feminist, lesbian, warrior, poet: rediscovering the work of Audre Lorde (Jackie Kay, New Statesman)
Sex Work: In praise of older women artists (Financial Times)
From the article: “All are women, none are young. Marilyn Minter, at 69, is the baby of the group; three are over 80. These artists are survivors. Kicking against the sometimes prudish aspects of sexual politics, they proved too raunchy for museum shows — thus, as the years went by, they were often left out of the narrative even of radical feminist art.
“This injustice is something curator Alison Gingeras aims to put right. She sees artists such as Renate Bertlmann, Penny Slinger, Betty Tompkins and the others as pioneers rather than outliers, unrecognised rather than marginal. And indeed they look especially relevant right now, when questions surrounding feminism’s relationship to pornography are being newly explored.”
New research: Millennials passionate about feminism (Women’s Media Center)
From the article: “Recent media takes of the feminist movement have criticized young women for their superficial attachment to the politics of the movement and their seemingly naive preoccupation with the identity—debating who is feminist—over substance.
“Yet new research suggests the opposite: that young women not only have a deep personal commitment to feminism as expressed and lived in their daily lives, they also have a profound intersectional understanding of feminism that is evident in their coalition work and broad dedication to social justice.”
A TV reporter in her 40s was twice passed over for younger applicants. So she sued (The Washington Post)
The Digital Human (BBC Radio 4)
The above is an episode of The Digital Human, which is concerned with people who have the job of being comment moderators/digital janitors for tech companies, removing illegal and offensive content. It’s about the long term psychological impact of doing the job of being a modern day ‘Sin Eater’.
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Usanto BDE on Flickr. It shows two people facing away from the camera. Both of them are wearing head scarves which are tied into knots at the top or round the back of their heads. The person closest to the camera is wearing hooped earrings. The background of the image suggests that they might be in a conference or meeting room of some kind and their expressions suggest they are listening intently to something.
Black History Month playlist
by Joanna Whitehead // 2 October 2017, 3:55 pm
Happy Black History Month! In the UK, October is a month to remember, reflect and celebrate the achievements and experiences of black people. With this in mind, I wanted to include a very small selection of the incredible black women who have made, and are continuing to create, a wealth of diverse and exceptional music. Never forget that it was a black woman – Sister Rosetta Tharpe – who created rock’n’roll, not Elvis.
I wanted to begin with someone who’s currently making waves for all the right reasons: Princess Nokia. Named “after the brand of cheap “Obamaphone” she was eligible for as a low-income earner”, she identifies as a queer, feminist tomboy, describing her music as “bringing punk energy to hip hop”. Her most recent album 1992 Deluxe, an extension of last year’s EP, is another paean to New York, her home city, and covers hair touching, blackness and identity. ‘Tomboy’ with its refrain of “with my little titties and my phat belly” is a glorious celebration of self-love and pride. The accompanying video is also a joy:
Princess Nokia also appeared in conversation at Brown University as part of their Women’s History series, the entirety of which you can watch here. Amongst other things, she discusses religion, identity, spirituality, gender, heritage and how feminism is “a birth right”. Credit to her for going into such a traditionally exclusive environment and being honest and real. Read more about her here.
Despite working primarily in the 1980s and 1990s, Whitney Houston remains one of the best selling musical artists of all time. At the beginning of her musical career, she was also one of the first women of colour to grace the cover of the popular American magazine Seventeen. Houston was the first African-American woman to secure heavy rotation on MTV, opening up her work, and black music more generally, to a wider audience and has been cited as a major influence on artists such as Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears and Ariana Grande. More recently, the renowned documentarian Nick Broomfield released Whitney: Can I Be Me, which uses archive footage to look at her life and tragic death at the age of 48 in 2012.
Trying to pick just one track from Santigold’s landmark self-titled 2008 debut is nigh on impossible. If you haven’t listened to it already, check it out ASAP. You’re in for a treat.
I was lucky enough to chat with Eno Williams from Ibibio Sound Machine last year about her musical influences and inspirations. Check out my interview here.
On a more serious note, I’ve included Billie Holiday’s classic ‘Strange Fruit’ who first sang and recorded it in 1939. The song was actually written by a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx named Abel Meeropol, who had written it “as a protest poem, exposing American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.” This song never fails to give me chills – and so it should.
While we celebrate the work and achievements of black people, we need to stay focused on how much work there is still to do. In the last few months alone, we’ve seen one person dead and many injured after white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, the first far-right party (AfD) winning a seat in German parliament in nearly 60 years, Piers Morgan arguing that white people should be able to say the “N-word” and Trump looking the other way while people of colour’s lives are decimated following a lack of funding and support following natural disasters. We cannot be complacent. These are issues affecting people 365 days a year.
I also wanted to draw attention to this short film made by Imkaan and End Violence Against Women which features young BAME women talking about their experiences of sexual harassment in public places and how it is often combined with racism.
Enjoy the music!
The image at the top of the page is the album cover for Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut album, released in 1985. The picture of Whitney is an upper-body shot of her wearing a a draped peach dress, a pearl necklace and her hair pulled back from her face. She appears to be in a garden and the photograph is surrounded by an orange border. She looks like an absolute goddess.
The first video – ‘Tomboy’ by Princess Nokia – shows Princess Nokia and her pals strutting around her local neighbourhood, such as the basketball court, what appears to be her living room and smoking in the stairway of her housing block. Nokia and her crew ride around in a car, kick a ball about, skateboard and generally have fun with each other. She has so much swagger, it’s amazing, and all her mates look like people you would definitely wanna be friends with.
The second image is the album cover of Santigold’s self-titled debut album. It shows Santigold seated at what appears to be a mirrored table. She wears a white vest and has her hands between her thighs. Her chin is slightly dropped, but she is looking up at the camera behind her thick black fringe and shoulder-length hair. From her mouth, a large area that resembles a speech bubble has been covered and filled with gold glitter.
The second video at the bottom of the page features interviews with a range of BAME women, who are talking about their experiences of sexual harassment and racism, interspersed with classic shots of London, such as Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben from across the Thames. It’s a powerful film.
All images shared under a Creative Commons licence.
Welcome Emily!
by Joanna Whitehead // 1 October 2017, 5:57 pm
I’m delighted to welcome Emily Zinkin to the team as our new comics editor! Emily is a real comics fan and has lots of exciting ideas and comics-related content planned that I’m looking forward to reading about on the site.
In her own words:
Emily first became an active feminist at university where she was on the leadership team of the UoN Feminists. The roots of her feminism can be traced back as early as primary school, where she indignantly asked why there were only three women to 25 men to choose from for the class science project (she chose Marie Curie). When Emily isn’t obsessing over media representation and superheroes (and talking about it at anyone who will listen), she can be found making truly exceptional cups of tea. Follow her on Twitter: @EmilyZinkin
Contact Emily with pitches for comics at comics@thefword.org.uk
The image at the top of the page is taken from the DC comics first ever edition of Catwoman. It shows a long, black-haired woman leaping out towards the reader, brandishing a long whip in her right hand and a menacing look on her face. This woman is not to be trifled with! She appears to be in a dimly lit museum and you can see dinosaur skeletons in the background. Images shared under a Creative Commons licence.
Weekly round-up and open thread
by Lusana Taylor // 28 September 2017, 12:52 pm
It’s time for another weekly round-up where we share (what we see as) the most interesting and important articles from the previous seven days. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the issues covered in the articles we’ve picked.
As always, linking to articles does not mean endorsement from the F-Word and certain links may be triggering. We welcome debate in the comments section and on Facebook/Twitter but remind readers that any comments containing sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or disablist language will be deleted immediately.
If you notice that we’ve missed out any important articles from the past week, feel free to let us know.
Uber Apologises For ‘Let Your Wife Take A Day Off From The Kitchen’ Promotion (Huff Post)
The grooming of girls in Newcastle is not an issue of race – it’s about misogyny (The Guardian)
From the article: “The idea that Muslim immigrants and their families have brought sexual abuse and violence against women to our shores is an insult to them, as well as to the generations of women and sexual abuse victims who have lived among us for centuries and whose suffering had no name or voice.
Nor does it help safeguard our children. In the north-east it would appear that the majority of those convicted of online grooming are white men. Should we be teaching our children to beware of white men online and Muslim men offline? Does that mean abuse by black Christian men is ignored? We know that the most likely perpetrators of child abuse are family members. Should we be attacking the family unit? Stereotyping does not safeguard the vulnerable, it merely makes them more vulnerable.”
We Are The 50%: The Truth Behind the Supposed Decline of the Guitar (She Shreds)
“For those of us guitar and bass players who identify as women, femme, or gender-conforming, the dearth of acknowledgment for the talent amongst us has been just as glaring as the intensely bro-centric representations of guitar culture that do permeate our society, from testosterone-soaked music festivals to glossy, misogynistic magazines. Some of the worst perpetrators have been guitar brands, with archaic marketing strategies ranging from companies like Gibson hiring booth babes to lure people who fall for that kind of thing at the annual National Association of Music Merchants conference to Dean Guitars posting a photo on social media of a naked model licking a new guitar.
“Fifty percent of all buyers of new guitars in the last five years have been female,” Jones tells She Shreds. That’s right: According to Fender’s research, the future of the guitar industry is gender-diverse, playing the instrument for fun rather than in pursuit of guitar herodom, and is less obsessed with specs.”
An Apology to Green Street (GAL-DEM)
From the article: “Implicitly, my issue was with the people who occupied the spaces, created the scents and existed visibly and vibrantly. People who were no different from me and my mother, both first generation immigrants from Bangladesh. Yet my egotistical snobbery wanted to separate myself from the very people whose relentless labour built up a safe community in which we could exist in a country that aggressively attempts to erase us.”
A short history of slutshaming, after a woman told my employers I was a ‘SLAG’ (i news)
From the article: “Ladies, if you attempt to shame and diminish another woman because of her sexuality, you are seriously letting the side down. (And if you find yourself hacking another woman’s photo album and stealing her photos, you’re really letting the side down.)”
Happy Bi-Visibility Day (Switchboard)
An Open Letter to Everyone I’ve Confused With My Bisexuality (Medium)
Andy Murray: Tennis women make the same sacrifices as men (BBC)
Being a Second Lover Means Loving Yourself First (Bitch Media)
From the article: “For some people, second can be an intimacy preference. I really enjoy being the other woman in a transparent scenario. I love doing my own work all week and having someone show up to romance and touch me and then go home. I love knowing my lovers have stability and support and home, that I am only responsible for my/our pleasure. I love having abundant nonstop sexy time for a few days and then not having to worry about anyone else’s needs until the next visit.”
Celebrating Bi Visibility Day: Eight novels with bisexual protagonists (The National Student)
Does Gay Porn Have Us Rethinking Masculinity? (Advocate)
Amsterdam ‘pee in public protest’ cancelled, too many women want to attend (Dutch News NL)
Are we OK? The performance of emotional labour in queer spaces (The Queerness)
From the article: “Consider the question “Is everything OK between us?,” said by someone who is masculine (and I am using terms like masculine and feminine in a very loose way here) to someone who is not. As a sidenote, part of who has privilege and is heard in our society is how close to, or far from, masculinity they are. The question might make the questioner feel like a good feminist man, or a good ally; they are open, and checking out their behaviour. However, if we consider it deeply, it shows the refusal to reflect, to do the emotional labour. If you ask someone else to explain to you whether things are OK, you have already sensed things are not OK, but are unwilling to do the work involved with finding out why. Instead, you are putting the burden of the labour onto someone else, expecting them to expend the energy, not only in working on their “not okness” but then in reflecting back to you how it is not OK, and usually how it can be fixed.”
Laura Kuenssberg hiring a bodyguard was depressing. Then it got worse (The Guardian)
Why Aren’t Mothers Worth Anything to Venture Capitalists? (The New Yorker)
The way we speak about Meghan Markle is demeaning – and sadly unsurprising (The Pool)
Roxane Gay Made Me Realize My Body Image Issues Are Kind Of Bullsh*t (Ravishly)
From the article: “I don’t have a so-called “unruly body,” as Gay calls it. Therefore, my body still plays by the societal rules and meets the expectations of what a woman “should” look like. I’m not saying women who look like me (or who are thinner than me) should not be part of the body positive movement. We’re all invited, and there’s enough room for everyone. But we need to be mindful of the messages we put out there.
Are we being honest about our privileges? Are we being authentic? Are we being inclusive? Are we buying into the commercializing and trending of “body positivity”? Are we doing more damage when we pretend our “healthy” lifestyle is anything other than dieting? I mean, c’mon. Yes, kale quinoa bowls are healthy, but for many people, kale quinoa bowls are barfy and indeed dieting. If given the choice based solely on taste buds, who the fuck is honestly choosing kale quinoa anything over a slice of pizza or a taco?”
Esme Allman And The Failure To Protect Black Female Students In UK Universities (Black Ballad)
Let’s Stop This Offensive Term From Making A Comeback (Refinery 29)
From the article: “The word ‘caste’ has multiple meanings, none of which is good. The ‘caste’ with which we’re probably most familiar in the UK is the stratified class system of India that created segregation and disadvantage for centuries. But the root of ‘half-caste’ is the Latin word ‘castus’, meaning pure, and its Spanish and Portuguese derivative ‘casta’, meaning race. So ‘half-caste’ means impure, it means white is pure and anything else just muddies the blood.
I explained that calling anybody half of anything was dehumanising and derogatory. If we are half, then is everyone else whole? And when us halves have kids, what will they be?”
The image is used under a creative commons license with thanks to Alex de Haas on Flickr. It shows somebody with long, curly hair stood on stage in a spotlight with their back to the camera. They appear to be singing into a microphone and playing a guitar.
Celebrating LGBT+ film with the Iris Prize Festival
by Guest Blogger // 27 September 2017, 12:30 pm
Suryatapa Mukherjee is a freelance writer originally from Kolkata. She is now based in Cardiff and a graduate of Cardiff University’s School of Journalism
The Iris Prize Festival is a six-day celebration of LGBT+ filmmaking in Cardiff, often described as the “Academy Awards of queer cinema”. This year, between 10 and 15 October, 35 international short films will compete for the prize — the world’s largest for a short film — which allows the winning filmmaker to produce another short film here in the UK.
I first heard about the Iris Prize Festival five years ago while still in university and I sincerely thought everyone was talking about an Irish film festival. I went along to this ‘Irish’ film festival and you can imagine my surprise when it turned out to be something completely different!
This happened at a crucial point when I was coming out, so it was surreal seeing stories and experiences I recognised up there on the screen. I came out properly some months later when I published an article on one of India’s leading LGBT+ websites, but looking back I realise that the festival was one of the many things that helped me make that leap into the unknown. It creates a platform for LGBT+ experiences to be articulated in various languages and across various cultures, and this year the programme seems particularly diverse in terms of representation. There is even a film from Ireland!
As well as the 35 shorts competing for the main prize, there are 10 feature films and a separate category of 15 short films competing for Best British Short. Among the features, I’m really looking forward to the Israeli film In Between, directed by Maysaloun Hamoud; the story of three very different Palestinian women sharing a flat in present-day Tel Aviv.
There’s also Signature Move, co-written by its star, the Pakistani-Canadian comic Fawzia Mirza. Mirza’s character is a Muslim lesbian struggling to come out to her desi mum while falling in love with a Mexican-American woman and the art of lucha libre wrestling.
The Book of Gabrielle
Then there’s The Book of Gabrielle, written and directed by Lisa Gornick, about a lesbian who strikes up a curious professional relationship with a straight man. It’s Gornick’s response to Philip Roth’s controversial novel The Humbling, in which a lesbian falls in love with an older man – a book Gornick found infuriating.
Gornick is also an artist and a performer, and will be performing her ‘live drawing’ show What is Lesbian Film? during the festival and signing copies of her book, How to do it, which is featured as a plot device in The Book of Gabrielle.
Sununu
This year’s Best British category is dominated by female filmmakers (a first, so I’m told). Olivia Crellin’s documentary Sununu: The Revolution of Love follows Ecuadorian transgender couple Fernando Machado and Diane Rodriguez as they balance parenting and political activism. Another favourite is Dionne Edwards’s We Love Moses, about a teenage girl’s first crush. Edwards says that the lack of stories featuring young, black, female protagonists inspired her to make the film.
We Love Moses
I’ve not yet seen all of the international short films (there are 35 of them, after all) but I’m especially looking forward to Manly Stanley Takes New York, Shelby Cole’s documentary about Edith Woolley, aka “drag king” Manly Stanley. There are a number of great documentary shorts this year, and Jari Osborne’s Picture This follows self-described “queer cripple” Andrew Gurza as he organises a sex-positive play party, which the international media all-too-predictably label a “handicapped orgy”.
Leandro Goddinho’s film Pool is a captivating story that follows a young woman, Claudia, as she researches her grandmother’s past. During her investigation she meets Marlene, an older woman who has transformed an empty swimming pool into a place of memories. Goddinho wrote this film for the LGBT+ victims of the Holocaust.
This year’s festival also includes four panel discussions on various topics relating to queer cinema, including a talk chaired by Carrie Lyell, editor of DIVA magazine, on sexism in the film and media industries. Cornish filmmaker Joan Beveridge, herself shortlisted for the inaugural Iris Prize in 2007, has been conducting research into why a greater number of female filmmakers don’t make the jump from short films to features, and her findings will play an important part in the discussion.
This year’s festival ends with a one-day carnival of food and live music (including an appearance by M People’s Heather Small!), and let’s not forget the awards show where we’ll find out who has won the all-important Iris Prize itself. I can’t wait!
Visit the Iris Prize website for more information about this year’s festival
All images courtesy of Iris Prize Festival. Image descriptions:
Featured: Image is a still from the film Signature Move. Two women sitting opposite each other rest their foreheads together, sharing an intimate moment. They are sitting outside in front of a beautiful city skyline at night. One woman cradles the other’s face in her hands.
1. Image is a still from the film The Book of Gabrielle. Two women face each other, the one on the left grabbing the other’s chin affectionately. They appear to be mid-conversation.
2. Image is a still from the film Sununu. A transgender couple smile while looking over a small baby they are holding between them. The shot is framed as if they are a happy family.
3. Image is a still from the film We Love Moses. The camera is positioned as if facing a door that is slightly ajar. A black woman peers straight through the opening and into the camera. Her face is partially obscured but her right eye is the focal point of the picture.
Annie, you’re an icon, but quotas don’t have to mean compromising on quality
by Joanna Whitehead // 26 September 2017, 1:00 pm
Annie Nightingale is a true musical legend. Starting out as BBC Radio 1’s first woman DJ back in 1969, she has been at the forefront of new music ever since and has continually championed new artists and emerging genres. She used to hang out with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who and is now affectionately known as the Queen of Breaks, due to her love and promotion of breakbeat. She is Radio 1’s longest serving broadcaster and the only woman DJ in the world to have been awarded an MBE. In addition to her many achievements and accolades, the one she is most proud of is the ‘Caner of the Year’ gong awarded to her by the now defunct dance music magazine Muzik in 2001. She presented the Old Grey Whistle Test, the classic and influential music show from the 1970s and 80s. The radio critic Gillian Reynolds described her as, “the first on the floor and the last to slide under the table”. Her life has been one of progression, parties and pioneering graft. In addition to her 3-5am Friday morning show on Radio 1, she began a four-week takeover of BBC 6 Music last Sunday. The woman is 77-years-old.
Nightingale was a patron of Sound Women, a collective set up in 2011 with the mission to, “build the confidence, networking and leadership skills of women in radio and audio”. A Sound Women report found that women made up only 10 per cent of studio operators, one per cent of editors, that only 16 per cent of women working in radio were living with dependent children and that after the age of 35, women left the radio industry “in droves”, while 60 per cent of men working in the field were over 35-years-old. Sadly, Sound Women folded last year, but its impact is still being felt within the industry.
To mark 50 years of Radio 1, Nightingale has been talking recently about her experiences of life at the station and in music, more generally. She has spoken about the rampant sexism she experienced at Radio 1 in the early days, such as being told that women’s voices lacked the “required authority” and being initially rejected for a job because male DJs existed as “husband substitutes for housewives at home”. Despite these hurdles, she has not only survived, but thrived.
Which is why it’s so disheartening to read the following comment she recently made to i newspaper:
I’m really pleased now we have Clara Amfo, Lauren Laverne and may [sic] brilliant female DJs. But I’m not for a 50/50 gender quota. I want to be judged on my ability to do the job. I don’t think I was taken on because I was a woman or just to tick boxes
Based on the opposition she faced back in the 1960s and her incredible musical talent and knowledge, I agree that it seems unlikely that she was taken on simply because she was a woman. Nightingale has proved her worth tenfold. What I disagree with is the suggestion that quotas have to necessarily mean a drop in quality.
Disclosure: I am in support of quotas. Our government, public bodies and entertainment industry need to be representative, which means embracing diversity. In almost every sector, with the exception of fashion modelling and sex work, women are underrepresented in either pay or visibility. We continue to be judged on our appearances in a way that men are not, subject to sexual harassment, discriminated against or even sacked for becoming pregnant and still bear the dual burden of paid work, housework and childcare. If you are a BAME woman, lesbian, bisexual, trans, disabled or older, the challenges you face are likely to be even more acute.
When people state that they are opposed to quotas, it seems that what they’re really saying is that there is insufficient talent within a particular group and that recruiters will invariably have to compromise on skills in order to ‘tick a box’. Either people need to look around, broaden their horizons and explore the many gifted people out there, or they need to seriously reflect on their own internalised misogyny, racism, transphobia, ageism, homophobia, biphobia and ableism.
Nightingale also stated that she wants to be, “judged on my ability to do the job”, a commendable view that I think many people would share. In order for this to happen, however, we need to get that foot in the door. At the current rate of play, full equality remains a long way off.
The image at the top of the page is a black and white shot of a record deck and a mixer. I searched far and wide for an image of Annie Nightingale that we could use under a Creative Commons licence, to no avail. Sad face. Picture taken by D. Sinclair Terrasidius and shared under a Creative Commons licence.
How reading the comments can help the women’s movement
by Guest Blogger // 23 September 2017, 1:43 pm
Tilly Grove is September’s monthly blogger
Everyone knows you’re not supposed to read the comments. It’s my job, so I don’t have much choice, but I can at least say with certainty that the adage is correct. Society’s most hateful certainly seem to reside below the line where content ends and comments begin: where those viewpoints you thought were outdated or completely out of line seem alive and well.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International reported that in the run-up to the June 2017 election, Diane Abbott received more than half of all abuse aimed at female MPs. Abbott has detailed the kinds of messages she receives online, and having moderated countless political discussion boards, I’d say it’s really the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, no one is moderating the tweets she is sent but I can at least delete comments calling her a variety of racist slurs, insulting her appearance and generally dehumanising her.
Some people who dislike Abbott, like Mark Wallace of the ConservativeHome website, have dismissed the idea that racism is why she receives so much criticism, instead branding her “incompetent”. It’s not untrue that she did make some mistakes in the run-up to the election, for example, giving an interview where she got figures relating to Labour’s proposed increase in police numbers wrong and appearing unfamiliar with a report being discussed with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News.
Abbott has since said that her performance in the election campaign was affected by her health — Abbott lives with type 2 diabetes and faced six or seven consecutive interviews without having eaten enough food.
These slip-ups could certainly be considered embarrassing and she should be held accountable for them like every other politician. However, the vitriol she received for relatively minor infractions just doesn’t add up. A white male politician like Boris Johnson is well-known for his “gaffes“, even though in practice they have sometimes been examples of racism.
Even a white woman like Theresa May doesn’t seem to receive the same levels of hatred, when she has been under fire for wrongly deporting thousands of overseas students and gay asylum seekers, and allowing wide-scale abuse of women in Yarl’s Wood to continue. It is not a reach to suggest that the same people who despise Diane Abbott don’t hurl the same levels or same type of abuse to such politicians with far worse records.
Women of colour have been telling us about the rampant bigotry they face both online and off for years so if white people are shocked, we just haven’t been listening. And as much as you should avoid reading the comments, they can teach us a lot about the kinds of views that still persist.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has caused outrage recently by discussing his staunchly anti-abortion views on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. His belief that abortion is never acceptable, even in instances of rape, has been branded unacceptable and archaic, and anyone who believes in the right to bodily autonomy will agree with that. But spending any time in comments sections makes it apparent that, to some, this isn’t actually all that controversial an opinion to hold.
I’ve seen countless comments calling abortion murder and insisting that women should just keep their legs closed if they don’t want children. More than that, though, abortion is still criminalised under the circumstances of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities in Northern Ireland. In England, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks under the Abortion Act 1967, but many women around the UK still face barriers in being able to get one.
We don’t live in anywhere near the kind of progressive society that we might like to think we do. Though online commenters might be just one type of person and from one section of that society, and though some of them may just be trolls, the people who think using racist slurs or that women should be imprisoned for getting abortions are still very much there.
It’s tempting to just ignore them and carry on avoiding the comments but, ultimately, that doesn’t make them go away. Comment boards are a breeding ground for hate and without people wading in to battle those abhorrent views, they go unchecked.
Even if just one person thought these opinions and behaviours were acceptable, we should still be challenging them rather than brushing these instances aside as extremist views.
Unless we acknowledge and address these viewpoints as part of the society we’re trying to make better, our plan of action will always be fraught and unfinished.
Image by Sergey Zolkin, from Unsplash. Used under Creative Commons Zero licence.
Image is of a woman using a laptop. Only her hands and forearms are visible in the picture and the laptop appears to be resting on her legs. The picture is in black and white.
The F-Word stage blog: September 2017
by Lissy Lovett // 22 September 2017, 8:00 am
Nasty Women UK is an intersectional movement that aims to bring together people of all genders, races, faiths and LGBTQIA identities through the platform of the arts. This coming weekend they will be running an art exhibition and weekend of events that celebrate the diverse artistic achievements of creatives from across the UK in support of gender equality. The exhibition can be found at Stour Space at 7 Roach Road, Hackney Wick E3 2PA and is open from 6.30pm until late today, Friday 22 September, and from 9am until late tomorrow and Sunday.
This Saturday 23 September will be the final performance of Siân and Zoë’s Sugar Coma Fever Nightmare at the Aces & Eights in Tufnell Park in London. Their show will be at 9pm following anther alt-sketch group Sam and Tom. They say that they will immerse you in a series of darkly sweet sketches: a Scrabble board haunted by an inadequate demon, a pair of mariners fishing with dreamcatchers, a toddler’s trip to the abattoir, and why you should always put your gumshield under your pillow for the gum fairy. You can read our review of Siân Docksey’s Edinburgh show here.
At Trafalgar Studios in London is Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Apologia which passes the Bechdel Test and raises topical issues surrounding the second and current waves of feminism. The play centres on Kristin (Stockard Channing) an eminent art historian and 1960s political activist who has recently published a memoir causing tensions within the family which comes to a head at her birthday dinner. The production runs until 18 November.
2Faced Dance Company presents Outlands which will tour in autumn 2017. This brand new triple bill of contemporary dance showcases and celebrates some of the best up and coming female choreographers from India and the UK. Outlands features three world premiere works by choreographers Hemabharathy Palani and Ronita Mookerji from India and Emma Jayne Park from the UK. It can be seen at DEDA in Derby on 27 September, Kala Sangam Arts Centre in Bradford on 28 September, mac birmingham on 29 September, Salisbury Arts Centre on 30 September, The Place in London on 3 October, The Lowry in Salford on 4 October, Swindon Dance on 6 October and The Courtyard in Hereford on 10 October.
The Fierce Festival in Birmingham is committed to showcasing the best international live art across Birmingham city centre. This year’s festival will explore topics such as clubbing, mental health, fandom and queer culture through live art, theatre, dance, music, art installations, activism, digital practices and parties. The festival runs from 16 to 22 October 2017. Ahead of the festival Fierce will also be presenting Boner Killer by alt-cabaret star Erin Markey in a double bill with GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN’s Frankenshowat at The Yard in London from 3 to 14 October. They say: “Driven by Whitney Houston’s lesbian mythologies, Europe™, and a Pretty Woman accident, Markey sacrifices her own life to transform humiliations into feminist hope.”
The Secret Keeper by Angela Clerkin opens in October in London before going on tour. It’s a Gothic fairy-tale for adults with a political heart, about secrets, collusion, whistle-blowing and collective responsibility. It’s at Ovalhouse in London from 11 to 21 October followed by Milton Keynes, Coventry, Greenwich, Oxford, Plymouth, Leicester, Sheringham and Newbury up until 10 November.
And lastly, a group of female theatre-makers are in the middle of making a new piece of feminist theatre, Unsung, exploring the untold stories of four inspirational and pioneering women from UK history. Its development began in March 2017 at the Holbeck Underground Ballroom in Leeds and it will undergo further development this autumn at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax before touring regionally in 2018. Check out their (subtitled) trailer here:
Image one is of Erin Markey in Boner Killer. Markey leans in to an audience member with an intense expression on her face which could be a smile or a grimace; you can see a lot of her teeth. She holds a microphone up to her mouth with one hand and holds a baby doll with the other. Her hair is in a high ponytail.
Image two is of 2Faced Dance’s Outlands and is courtesy of Hemabharathy Palani. It shows a dancer lying on the floor with her back arched and twisted and her arms held aloft. Her face is turned upwards. She wears a delicate brown and green/yellow costume.
Image three is of The Secret Keeper. A woman wearing a old-fashioned dress with lace around the neck holds a dollhouse. She is lifting the roof of the dollhouse and looking in. Light is shining out of the dollhouse windows while smoke comes out of the chimney. A darkening sky and trees can be seen behind her.
The video is a trailer for Unsung. Vox pops with the actors are interspersed with footage from an early performance and post-show discussion shot in a theatre and outside.
What sex workers want should be a vital part of feminist politics
by Guest Blogger // 20 September 2017, 6:52 pm
Tilly Grove is September’s monthly blogger
At the 2017 Trades Union Congress (TUC), a motion was presented in support of the decriminalisation of sex work.
For sex worker rights activists, many of whom are sex workers themselves, this issue is at the crux of their movement.
Whether or not sex work should be considered a job or a form of violence against women is a question that has featured in feminist debates for decades. Those who fully advocate decriminalising sex work do so because they believe that granting sex workers the support, labour rights and legal protections of any other type of employment is the best way to help them stay safe.
As the TUC, the Labour Party and left-wing movements more generally seem to be more attentive to the needs of marginalised groups and those that have experienced discrimination, you would think that supporting a policy of decriminalisation — which is advocated by many organisations such as UNAIDs and the World Health Organization, to name a few — would follow. Indeed, when asked about his stance at a talk, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn did voice support for decriminalisation.
However, Corbyn’s comments were met with criticism from other MPs in his party, who argued that his views were not official Labour policy. In fact, neither Labour nor the Conservatives have a stance regarding sex work in their manifestos. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have both committed to full decriminalisation in theirs.
Unsurprisingly, then, the motion at the TUC conference was rejected. In response, Harriet Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, tweeted that only “pimps and punters” benefit from sex work.
Well done #tuc defeating motion to institutionalise exploitation of women & men. Who benefits from prostitution? Pimps & punters.
— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) September 13, 2017
Harman is an advocate of abolishing sex work, alongside some women’s rights groups like Equality Now and feminist writers including Julie Burchill and Kat Banyard. Those on this side of the argument feel that no woman would ever choose to have sex in return for money. They believe that sex work is violence against women, both individually and by promoting the subordination of women, and as such dispute calling it work at all.
Others support policies like the Nordic model, commonly used in Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway, which decriminalises sex workers but makes paying for sex a crime.
Sex workers and decriminalisation activists argue that criminalising any part of the industry necessarily causes harm to workers, whatever the intention. As in the case of criminalising abortion, it simply forces the work further underground, as well as inviting police surveillance of vulnerable women and leading to increased violence against workers: since the Nordic model was passed in Northern Ireland, there have been increased reports of attacks on sex workers. In Norway, Amnesty International reports that sex workers who are immigrants have faced deportation.
Even in England, where sex work itself is not a crime, sex workers are raided and arrested for working together — which is often done for safety. This is classed as brothel-keeping, which is considered a crime, even though the workers are simply operating from the same building. If the sex workers are migrants and found to be guilty of these crimes the consequence could be deportation.
When Banyard wrote an article claiming that legalising prostitution — which is not what is being advocated — requires accepting “industrialised sexual exploitation”, Labour MPs including Harman, Diane Abbott and Naz Shah retweeted it. A legalisation model of sex work, as seen in the Netherlands, makes sex work legal only in specific conditions controlled by the state. These conditions may include registering yourself with the police, undergoing weekly health checks and only operating in designated areas. If a worker fails to do this, they could be arrested. Decriminalisation is favoured by sex workers because although sex workers and businesses must comply with the law, they cannot be prosecuted for being sex workers in any circumstance. This distinction is vitally important.
Abuse may occur within the sex industry, but it occurs in every industry, and it’s widely accepted that employment rights and protections are the most effective way to tackle this. Just because a sex worker is being paid doesn’t mean they automatically lose their right to consent to carrying out the work. If sex workers aren’t ever believed to have consented to doing their job, it can become trickier to identify actual abuse and coercion.
Support for the decriminalisation of sex work and listening to what sex workers want is directly aligned with the beliefs of left-wing and feminist ideology. Sex workers want better working conditions and protection from abuse and violence. To support them, we must accept that they know what they need to achieve that better than anyone.
Image Nicolas Ladino Silva, from Unsplash.
Image is of a woman sitting with her legs crossed on a bench, against a brick wall. The photo is in black and white. Only her bare legs are visible in the frame and they are the focal point of the shot.
