Following on from the Feminism in London Conference at the Friends’ Meeting House on Saturday, Josef and I came away full to bursting with ideas on how to make the world a better place – exhilaration doesn’t cover it. So we were quite disappointed when immediate reactions to our ideas have been met with such missed-point angst. The women at the conference did touch on the vitriolic nature of gender equality opposition, but because I was shaking with positive energy, I didn’t quite understand the theory, until...
Facebook status updates. Plan One was to add a serious fact that marginalises women on my status every day for a month - a social experiement logging the reactions of horror from my male and female comrades. Not trying to use shock tactics and controversy, but it is a challenge when we’re talking sexism – the subtle brutality of which is both seamlessly related to every part of our lives, yet apparently invisible or “harmless” to the majority of us.
From my tiny amount of feminist activism I have only been confronted (aside from two mates and my mother) with defensive statements as counter-arguments to the simple fight for a just society. I am not sure why this ideology is so feared/controversial – I guess I have a lot to learn, and a long road ahead, but as advised, I will chose my battles carefully. The global injustice is simply too big for me to grapple with, but here in the UK I think my research will contribute well to the fight– so nothing’s going to put me off no matter what challenges are out there. Utopia would be an equal socio-economic standpoint – a fair playing field – it’s not that weird a concept... is it?!
This morning I contacted Amazon and asked why the book Men Are Better Than Women was on sale via their website – I knew the answer, but logging my outrage was the exercise. They explained that they had to remain a political-free zone and they would only not sell a book if it's genre were illegal in the country that hosted their website. I thought – yeah, good point, why on earth are books like this not banned here? Free Speech.. . No, sexism in the same league as racism, holocaust denying, hate crime – yet it’s free from legislation and so, so far from it with the ingrained nature of misogyny here, there and every-bloody-where – in our families, relationships, schools, the Cabinet, workplaces – I would welcome examples of areas of life where it doesn’t exist, yet it’s all but invisible to the regular naked eye – not for long!
Get your complain-hats on, Comrades – don’t let a single thing go by without questioning it – doing nothing achieves nothing.
KB OUT.
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