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British Feminism Is Totally Effed, Says UK Observer
Gender Trouble
New York, 7:04 AM
Fri Nov 27
2 posts in the last 24 hours
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British Feminism Is Totally Effed, Says UK Observer |
Gender Trouble |
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12/08/08
1. The Observer is NOT the Guardian's Sunday magazine, it is the oldest Sunday newspaper in the UK which although it happens to now be owned by the Guardian has an entirely separate staff and editor and has always followed its own agenda independent of the Guardian (although admittedly this might change soon). Can you tell I used to work for The Observer, not the Guardian...
2. While I agree there should have been more voices under 35, it is disingenous to say there are none given there is a pretty prominent column written by Anushka Asthana, the paper's deputy news editor who is both under 30 and happy to call herself a feminist.
12/08/08
It becomes more and more relevant as you get older and want to be paid more, to have kids and have a pension.
12/08/08
Oh, and can I please strip the "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" shirt or totebag off the next haggard, belligerent woman I see screaming at a Starbucks barista? She's doing no one any favors...
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"Well, I'm NOT a feminist," she said indignantly. "Unless that means one day becoming a crazy old cat lady."
My response, "Like hell you aren't a feminist!" And then I had a minor aneurysm; I don't know, I blacked out for a bit.
The problem is that the term "feminist" holds such negative connotations that many women are afraid of self-identifying as such.
Most disturbingly, however, is the subtle implication that if a woman considers herself a feminist, she will drive men away (possibly in droves). The problems with that concept are too many to list!
12/08/08
She was touring TV stations a few weeks ago ranting about how oppressed the insects on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here are and how disappointing it was that Gordon Ramsay used commercial marmalade in a recipe...
When this is what the most famous feminist in your country is talking it may make the movement seem a tad irrelevant to you?
12/08/08
The ever widening rich-poor gap in the UK isn't helping the feminists of differing views and backgrounds become more cohesive...
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p.s. I'm 26.
12/08/08
Unfortunately, many men have abused this status and many treat women like shit. But when women are done wrong, they're forced to believe that it's THEIR fault for getting the brunt of it.
12/08/08
Abortion is legal, contraception is free, maternity leave is paid and available, there is childcare, we had a female Prime Minister etc etc...it isn't til you scratch the surface you realise how tricky it really is. And that hasn't happened for a lot of young women yet...so they don't connect to any concept of feminism til something comes along and is personal enough to spur them into action.
And then they encounter people telling them what level or type of feminist you are or aren't when they just think they are doing a good thing by declaring themself a feminist at all. It can be a bit intimidating and possibly off-putting...(it certainly discouraged me from embracing the term feminist for a long time)
12/08/08
What drives me crazy is research like this [www.guardian.co.uk] (25% of 14 yr old girls who answered a teen mag's sex survey said they had been forced into having sex) and this is not judged in the wider context of the inferior status of women.
Is it because we (society in general)expect 14 yr old girls to have these experiences? Is it because we condone it? Is it because teenage girls condone it?
(I actually found it hard to type inferior status of women then...)
So many young people are active in the anti-poverty debate around globalisation, it's so sad that they can't apply the same level of analysis to the situation between men and women in their own countries, and, as importantly in other countries where just mentioning equal rights can land you in jail.
12/08/08
[www.guardian.co.uk]
12/08/08
The parents are thinking 'I'll inform him of the importance of using condoms when he's 14'. Too late - the youngest boy to be involved in a gang rape in the UK was 11. There is a male role-model (or lack of) issue here too.
12/08/08
I agree with your points. I lived in the UK for 15 years, and was shocked by the way women are objectified and portrayed in male culture (Lad's Mags, for example).
There is so much pressure on young women to be 'up for it', and I cannot count the number of times I heard women I know say that, basically, boys will be boys, and it's the job of women to keep them in check.
But I was regarded as a bitter man hating dyke (although I'm partnered with a man), so what do I know?
12/08/08
[www.dailymail.co.uk]
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@rmj12345: I understand your point but many feminists of color have called themselves something other than "feminists" because white feminists failed to acknowledge their plight e.g. Womanists. Feminists evoke a particular time period and struggle--to me, at least--and not one of global struggle for equality.
12/08/08
Feminists evoke a particular time period and struggle--to me, at least--and not one of global struggle for equality.
is neither necessarily true nor at all helpful. when you abandon the term feminism, you also abandon all sorts of women - including women of colour! - who have written under its mantle. and I think it's just internalizing a right wing critique if we do that.
12/08/08
I guess it's like when people of African descent in America quibble over being called "Black" or "African American" or even "Person of African Descent." So long as your politics don't resemble Clarence Thomas or Alan Keyes, call yourself whatever you want.
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I think the motivation behind Womanist was to change the lable to something more palatable to women of color re: non-whites. I get that there's a lot of good history behind the feminist label but I can't fault women who work for feminist ideals under a differently named banner because 2nd Wave feminists showed their asses while proudly waving the feminist flag.
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Anyway. What's a womanist? I've never heard it used with a specific meaning. And I have a degree in Women's Studies.
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I've spent more time arguing against this notion than I can quantify. But I suppose it's useless to argue for an equal playing field when people cannot acknowledge that the current playing field is not, in fact, equal. Why can't people get it that feminists respect all people enough to hope they'll act with a modicum of integrity?
12/08/08
I think the problem is, a lot of effort is devoted to defining feminism rather than fighting for the causes that make feminism what it is. It's that diversion of energy that is letting the feminist agenda slip.
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*I* don't want looking after, and I'm just a nerdy grad student.
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But why not? Nerdy student I may be but I love it when my boyfriend looks after me. Likewise, I love looking after him. If it wasn't equal I wouldn't be interested, but since it is I don't see any problem with it. Everyone needs a little looking after sometimes.
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It felt more like an obituary without this.
12/08/08
Newspapers want readers and they don't mind how they get them.
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12/08/08
[www.guardian.co.uk]
As I understand it (from comments on the short-lived but sweet 'Observer Woman makes me spit' blog), the women involved had no idea that the interviews were going to be presented in this way.
Bear in mind that in a similar supplement, several pages were given to openly douchebag-y men in the name of social research. (I can'tbe arse to look for the link to that.)
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It also means that "women's stories" - articles about girly things like rape and domestic abuse - get filed under Life & Style along with recipes and gift guides.
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And the reason the observer had a woman's mag is because like or loathe it the Observer has never been leftie or actually particularly enlightened about anything other than foreign reporting.
The Guardian on the other hand has a woman's section, not magazine, and that generally tackles harder subjects.
Plus actually what does Jezebel do but filed celebrity posts and fashion and gossip alongside more serious political and domestic abuse posts?