Freshers Edition 2015 by WN and UoN Fem Zine

ARTEMIS

freshers edition

contents 2.Editor’s note 3.Reclaim page 3 4.Why Artemis? 5-8.Who are they? 9.#The Power of the Hashtag 10.Consent 11.Ugh, As If: Catcalling 12.Feminism: Making Room For Men 13.what we’ve been up to 14.Timetable

Editor’s note Hello everyone and welcome to the Freshers special of ARTEMIS- the Women’s Network and UoN Feminist’s Zine. This Women’s Network and UoN Feminist’s Zine is a bite size response to the feminist landscape of Nottingham and beyond. This October issue will help you get to grips with hashtags, consent, men in feminism and your representatives at the University of Nottingham. Moving on from last year, we have aimed to keep the ethos of the previous issues but have updated the design. We hope you like it! Our aim is to provide a creative and safe space for you to share your work—whether that be poetry, articles, artwork or photography. We always love to hear from new contributors (no experience necessary!) so if you want to get involved see our contact details on the back cover. For our first issue, Viola Davis was voted by you to be our (Reclaim) Page 3 girl. We think she is a fantastic choice, and you can find out a little bit more about her exactly where you’d expect.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who was involved in our first issue. We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from Fresher’s and experienced writers alike. A special thank you goes out to our dedicated editing team who have been insatiably enthusiastic and a pleasure to collaborate with. I thoroughly look forward to working with you all again. Enjoy!

- Rachel

Reclaim Page 3

Viola Davis Do not live someone else’s life, and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you, womanhood is everything that is inside of you. By Fiona Roberts

She highlighted how important this issue is for all of us; ‘the stain of racism and sexism, is not just for people of colour or women, it’s all of our burden, all of us, and we absolutely, I don’t care how ordinary you may feel, we, all of us can inspire change, every single one of us.’

his year’s first Reclaiming Page 3 woman is African-American producer and actress Viola Davis. Throughout her career Viola has been praised for her outstanding performances on television and in the theatre, over the last 15 years she has won a Tony award and a SAG award. In 2012 she was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential women. This September, Viola became the first African-American woman to win the ‘Outstanding Leading Actress’ Emmy award. She used this opportunity to criticise the lack of diversity in Hollywood, and the importance of intersectional feminism.

why Artemis? I

Artwork by Tilly Bickle

By Emily Vasquez

t might seem odd to suppose that an antiquated deity has any bearing on twenty-first century university life, so it’s worth taking a moment to consider what the Greek goddess Artemis meant to the ancients, and to us today. In Ancient Greece (and Rome, under the name Diana) Artemis was assimilated with the moon, and as such she was an embodiment of protection for night-time sailors and huntsmen alike, but for this protection she demanded respect, and had no qualms reprimanding those men whose reverence wasn’t up to scratch. Mythology is filled with Artemis’ punishments to these men (most famously, one unlucky hero met the goddess’ wrath after he caught her bathing starkers and was promptly turned into a stag and torn apart by his own hounds, and I can’t be the only one thinking it would be pretty cool to have this aptitude for transfiguration when there are a fair few blokes on Tinder who could definitely do with some good old canine corrective treatment).

Artemis was a symbol of female strength, of female power. She embodied womanly independence from men, and in both mythology and the real world she had a loyal following of

young, virginal girls who also represented these traits; stories tell us about the band of water nymphs who worshipped her as leader, and history tells us of the real ancient cult to Artemis, in which pre-pubescent girls would become like dedicated priestesses to the goddess, and these girls became known as arktoi – translating as ‘little she bears’. Her temple was also a sanctuary and safe space for women in strife. Despite Artemis’ steadfast commitment to women both mortal and immortal, she definitely preferred the company of animals to people, spending her time romping in the woods taming stags and other wild beasts (everyone must understand the feeling when you come downstairs on a Thursday morning suffering through a Crisis-induced migraine and all you want is some toast but the stacks of washing up have once again almost reached the height of the earth’s atmosphere and honestly it would just be easier to withdraw yourself from this hollow human shell of existence and begin your true life of living and frolicking among the deer in Wollaton Park. Right?). Thus, this zine is called Artemis because she basically reiterates some pretty cool values: independence, strength, and loyalty to other women, and those are three undeniable elements at the heart of feminism.

Who Are

e interviewed both the womens network, and the UoN feminists to find out their aims and roles within the university. Both groups offer support and organise campaigns to voice issues of the students in the university. The womens network offer a womens only space whereas UoN feminists try to engage likeminded individuals of any gender. Both groups aim to make Women’s experiences at the University more fulfilling and better, without misogyny. Interview with the women’s network officers; Emma Quaedvlieg and Emma Ehrenberg

How would you two describe your roles within the network? We relay the issues that we get from the network to the Student’s Union and we’re involved in SU wide campaigns. If we feel like the SU’s doing certain campaigns that aren’t nuanced enough or can be harmful to women that’s where we come in. We are the women’s students own chosen representatives to voice their concerns. We’re answerable to the students and what they want goes through us. What has been your most successful campaign in the last two years? Body confidence week proved to be very popular and successful – it was

nice to see how it interested the students. We tried to do more with women in leadership, and had a great event called ‘women in law’. We want to continue with this and take it further with more speakers and faculties. We hope for women’s safety to be the most successful this year - people recognise that this is a big issue. It’s also a campaign which has a clear and achievable goal. This is something with a deadline and we want it done by the end of the year. What will this safety campaign involve? We have self-defence classes set up, but our main goal is adding more street lighting to campus. We have started co-operating with some

they? By Emma Branston

full time officers and different student networks as it affects all the students – not just women. We also want to set up safety workshops and have spoken to the security team on campus who said they’d be happy to advise women on how to be the safest around Nottingham, and on campus. For us this is the most achievable campaign in the near future.

people know that we exist.

Is the HeforShe campaign a new initiative in the University, or something you are revisiting? It’s new this year, but that is both the network and the Student union. We’re working with the other officers, especially Angharad the President, Sarah Pickup the Welfare Officer and We are the women’s What challenges Rob Jennings students own chohave you faced (Activities) to as a group? sen representatives to launch this globUnfortunately campaign for voice their concerns. al we face chalthe students at We’re answerable lenges from UoN. With the several different publicity that to the students and fronts, especialthe campaign what they want goes has, it’s a lot ly when running a controversial easier to talk to through us. campaign. The people around SU can’t be too campus as most supportive because they have their people would have heard of the camsponsorships. We also face some chal- paign, or recall Emma Watson’s speech. lenges from within our own network because we can’t say that all women are Although Emma’s feminism is a young ‘for’ this, that is one problem with run- feminism in the sense that it is not inning campaigns within a network that tersectional, she has the opportunity to is supposed to speak for everybody’s shape a generation and this is invaluneeds. able for the gender equality fight at the I would say that one of our main issues moment. We are giving our own twist is our visibility on campus - very few to the Heforshe campaign on campus people know about the network - we we are definitely trying to make it more have very few members and no direct intersectional to what it has previously way to contact the women of the Uni- been. versity. This is something that we want to work on. The networks are meant to support the students and currently we’re not able to do that because so few

Who Are

hat do you think the biggest achievement of UoN Feminists at the university is yet

to date? Its not really a campaign but it’s the way we’ve managed to engage students on a really personal level. None of our campaigns are ever fully completed because they are ongoing situations so I think it’s the membership and providing a better student experience for our members. What are the key issues that affect students at the UoN at the moment? The biggest issue that affects the everyday student regardless of gender is lad culture. Lad culture is an all-en-

By Shona Smith

compassing pack mentality, associated with drinking and sports societies in particular, but not exclusively. That can umbrella over xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, sexist, ableistic, transphobic and trans-misogynistic behaviour that affects everyone negatively. The “lads” perpetuating this behaviour also experience toxic masculinity which can be very negative for mental health and general happiness. That is I think always the crux of any issue we try to tackle at the university to do with sexism. Do you have any key issues or campaigns that you’ll be focusing on this year?

they? We’ve got the lad culture pledge, a document we created with members and other societies giving a basic definition of lad culture. It’s an agreement that you’re going to acknowledge this kind of behaviour, noticing when you, or someone else is doing it, in an attempt to stamp it out. This workshops and joint events with societies to get a dialogue going. Finger pointing’s not really going to help unless we create a dialogue and an educating system. Secondly, educating our members as well on intersectionality because we want to better ourselves. We consider ourselves an intersectional feminist group being open to anyone because that’s what we believe feminism is, but we want to push out white feminism that concerns itself with the needs and wants of white middle-class women, ignoring the struggles of, for example women of colour or trans-women. Making our feminism more accepting of all people will lead to a better feminism for everyone. Do you still think that ‘feminism’ is a taboo word and has negative stereotypes? It’s almost getting to the point where it’s fashionable to be a feminist. Feminism is not a taboo word in my opinion, but we have to question the kind of feminism that is popularised at the moment because I don’t think it’s really the best feminism that we can have. Having a feminism which is popularised has created white feminism I think. Take Lena Dunham, Caitlyn Moran, Taylor Swift, all feminist icons of the moment but all

not very aware of situations of women other than themselves. It creates a kind of feminism less self-aware than traditional feminism which has always been quite self-critical just so that it is valid. I think it’s important for a better feminism to be created.

It’s almOst getting to the pOint where it’s fashiOnable tO be a feminist

So how did you become an active feminist? Across my life women have been a main influence. But becoming an active feminist started at university where I joined UoN Feminists and started campaigning rather than being an online feminist. Working within the university community is really rewarding and a good way of fulfilling your need to be political, and my need definitely.

How can people get in contact or get involved with UoN feminists? Go online; come to meetings; campaign with us. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. Weekly meetings at 5pm on Wednesdays in Portland. We have a topic, or a campaign or a workshop - you can come and be involved in what you want. We also have socials in which you can meet more feminists, a good platform for learning about feminism. It’s easier than it sounds and it’s very rewarding when you see changes.

n 2015 the hashtag is impossible to ignore. On social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram, ‘hashtagging’ is essential. What better way to summarise exactly how you are feeling, place your posts into a worldwide conversation and maybe even gain some more followers? If you have ever wondered, or fantasized, or speculated about something; there is probably a hashtag for it. Everything from food to fitness, to feminism have hashtags. ‘Hashtivism’ may sound like a made up word, but activists across the globe are utilising the hashtag to generate awareness, gain momentum and begin a worldwide conversation about their campaigns.

edition of New York Magazine, entitled Cosby: The Women, thirty-five of the women who have accused Bill Cosby of assault appeared next to an empty chair, representing the eleven women who couldn’t be present. #TheEmptyChair is symbolic of the countless women who are too afraid to report sexual assault.

By Fiona Roberts

It is not only sexual violence which Twitter users have voiced their anger over. This year has seen numerous headlines concerning police brutality in America, particularly focusing on the injustice towards men of colour. On July 13th Sandra Bland died in her prison cell, what followed was a social media outcry about this terrible injustice. #SayHerName works alongside #BlackLivesMatter to address the issue of police brutality toward women of colour, whose stories often get lost. Feminist hashtags have taken the internet by storm. More people than ever before are making their voices heard, and more than ever before is being done. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder ‘What does this mean for me?’ If you, as a UoN student have ever wondered or worried about sexual harassment on the streets or in nightclubs, or felt distaste towards lad culture and the objectification of women, then this is relevant to you. All you need to do is search #nottssexism to find reasons why the UK, Nottingham and UoN need feminism It may seem frivolous to simply voice your opinion on social media, but the power of the hashtag goes far beyond words. It links people with important ideas and can even spark a revolution!

#power of the hashtag

The objectification and critique of women’s bodies is everywhere, and women are fighting back online. In April, Protein World plastered ‘ARE YOU BEACH BODY READY?’ adverts across London. Many took to social media in outrage. Some branded the adverts with #eachbodysready. The social media outcry inspired 40,000 people to sign a petition to have these adverts removed. In July, Instagram banned #curvy on the grounds that users were violating their nudity rules. This gave a new impetus to the body confidence hashtag; #EffYourBeautyStandards. As well as celebrating all body types, the hashtag has allowed feminists to unite in protecting their bodies. When Oxford student Ione Wells launched the #notguilty campaign, she gave up her legal right to anonymity to voice the important message that victims of sexual assault are never to blame. In the July

Consent L

by Louise Wright

et’s talk sex. If most people were asked, what is the one thing you cannot have sex without; most answers would probably be a condom or some other form of birth control, perhaps a reference to genitals, maybe an orgasm has to be involved, some may even think it’s a trick question. So which of these is the correct answer? None. The one thing you cannot have sex without? Consent. Without consent, sex is not sex, it becomes rape.

“blurred lines” Don’t exist.

A recent ICM survey interviewed a random sample of 1,095 adults aged 18+ : 30% said the woman was either totally or partially responsible if she was drunk, 34% said she was either totally or partially responsible if behaving in a flirtatious manner, 26% totally or partially responsible for wearing sexy or revealing clothing, 37% totally or partially responsible if she failed to say ‘no’ clearly... the list goes on, however these are all incidents of rape. Even more surprisingly, these views were not just held by the males surveyed – although a slightly greater proportion of males expressed these views. 5% of the females interviewed believed

the woman to be totally responsible for being raped when intoxicated compared to 3% of the males. This stigma surrounding rape, as Robin Thicke and Pharell so artfully described through the medium of song, has created a culture of ‘blurred lines’ and as a result, victim blaming. The Oxford English Dictionary defines consent as ‘Permission for something to happen or agreement to do something’, here are a few examples of what consent is not (this, of course, applies to both men and women). Consent is not ‘sexy or revealing clothing’, consent is not the amount of alcohol consumed or even a drunken ‘yes’, consent is not flirting, consent is not a location, consent is not ‘being known to have had many sexual partners’, consent is not ‘failure to say no clearly’, consent is not being in

a relationship with the person. Consent is a sober, vocal, unpressurised agreement from both participants

it’s nOt that cOmplicated.

Ugh, as if There has been no better time in recent history for women in Britain than now. We have the right to vote, laws enforcing equal pay, almost everything the original feminists such as the Suffragettes demanded a century ago. But we’re still not entirely equal, and there’s been a lot of discussion recently over the socially-ingrained sexism that remains so prevalent in the UK. This ranges from using gender as an insult to hidden forms of gender-based promotion in the workplace (even when the promoter doesn’t realise they’re doing it). However, this article is on catcalling.

catcalling

atcalling is often defended or dismissed by many people, particularly men, as nothing to worry about or not intended as offensive. But just because you don’t intend something to be offensive, doesn’t mean it isn’t. Catcalling is degrading, almost exclusively sexist, and should be removed from our culture. Here are a few reasons why. It makes us feel objectified Catcalling is the direct address of a person’s looks from a distance, usually yelled across a street or from a car window. It is based entirely on the physical, objectifying the person it is directed at, and is offensive. Objectification is important in gender equality discussions, because it involves the removal of power from the victim (usually female) and the assertion of power by the catcaller (usually male), which when common in a community can lead to (or is the product of) prejudices or preconceptions about the gender and their role in society.

It can seem threatening Even if this is not intended, or it is not explicit in the catcall, often such one-sided interactions as catcalling can seem threatening, especially if the person it is directed towards is travelling alone, as they may therefore feel vulnerable or unprotected, or if they have suffered sexual abuse in the past (something the catcaller would not know about them). It is therefore vital that catcalling should be reduced to protect the safety – in practice or in the mentality of society – of vulnerable individuals. It’s not a true compliment Some people argue catcalling should be seen as a compliment, saying it is a way of showing you like someone’s looks, whether it’s their body, clothes, tattoos or hair. However, a catcall is very different from a polite, personal, direct compliment in person – catcalling is distant, loud, publicised, impersonal, and an irritating interruption in a person’s life, and is therefore unlikely to be met favourably. If you admire someone’s appearance, you don’t have to tell them. Especially not in a rude, public, objectifying manner. Do not expect a reply, a thank you, or to initiate a conversation or relationship from a catcall. You are much more likely to get a response, particularly a positive one, by offering a true compliment, in person, and politely. But if they don’t want to talk, accept that, too – remember you are a stranger, and they don’t owe you anything. We are not objects, we are not here for your pleasure, we are human beings. Just don’t catcall.

Feminism: making room for men

By A Hasnain

t is without a doubt that feminism is a revolutionary movement making waves across the country, but an issue that needs to be addressed is the false reputation it carries of being an exclusive woman-only zone. The actual meaning of the word in itself tends to be dismissed and focus placed on the spelling of the word, taking it to mean an ideology only women can adopt. And this is how ignorance begins. Feminism is defined by advocating equal rights for all sexes, genders, and -this perhaps the most striking feature of this revolutionthe belief that everyone is welcome and everyone is equal. Everyone including men. There is a certain shame and embarrassment in the male population of identifying themselves as feminists, and I wonder now if those same males would still identify feminism as ‘girly’ if they knew that it was actually one of their own who helped to begin this influential movement. Parker Pillsbury openly held feminist views and helped to draft the constitution of the feminist American Equal Rights Association in 1865. The bill aimed ‘“to secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color or sex, [sic]” acknowledging that human beings deserved to be treated equally by law. He, amongst many, recognised the desperate and universal need of feminism.

Why is feminism needed amongst the group in society which is generally thought to be quite privileged? Simply because the social pressures of complying with gender roles affects both men and women. Perhaps men need feminism the same way women do to breakdown this stereotypical image of masculinity. The principle of feminism is collective equality- in other words you are no less masculine just because your body type, job, preferences, habits or sexuality does not correspond with society’s expected image of males.

Feminism is needed amongst the male population to liberate and free everybody from social constraints, and to be both male and feminist should not be a label which causes humiliation. It should create pride in the knowledge that humans have not given up in the fight for equality.

What we have been up to...

Edited by Rachel Angeli Design by Philippa Stazicker

Created by the UoN feminists and Woman’s Network

@WNUoNFems_Zine uonfeminists Women’s Network and Uon Feminists Zine