That's What She Said #9

that’s what

SHE SAID

Contents Sarah Brodie is a part-time history student, full-time peruser of online feminist blogs. Acquaint yourself with her IRL bookshelf on page 4.

Do you know Clara Vlessing? She’s on the editorial team. So is Rachel May.

Megan Menzies is a second year art historian. Essex’s answer to High Renaissance Woman: read her musings on the nude on page 6.

Frankie Roe tells us that she is a first year PhD student working on marionettes and gender performance. She says that it sounds ridiculous, and kind of is. For this issue, she interviewed her boyfriend Chris: see the results on page 10.

Tamara Prenn is an editor of That’s What She Said,and agrees with Angela Carter when she wrote “I lay in bed alone. And I longed for Lillie Davidson likes chips. him. And he disgusted me.” Read Read her analysis of Tamara’s piece on the erotic, page Gone Girl, from page 14.

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Ella Hopkins is a third year historian who is described by friends as “aggressively politically correct.” Read her commentary on #BringBackOurGirls on page 16.

Joy Molan is a sassy first year, telling you how it is. She tells you exactly how it is in Hollywood on page 18.

Rupen Kalsi is a First Year Philosopher - read her piece on Lucy Stewart is an editor of That’s What ThisGirlCan on page 20.

She Said, and gently, gently nibbled on an avocado panini whilst talking with Sian Norris: read the resultant interview on page 22.

Rachel May

101 Reasons Why Feminism Will Totally Change Your Life In A Totally Unexpected Watch This Video Consume This Media So Unexpected You Won’t Believe The Results Of You Won’t Believe 95 Women Find Out Truly Unbelievable In 27 Ways You Can Really Expect You Can’t Expect What Happens Next You Won’t Know What To Think But We’ll Let You Know How To Think Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell This Feminist Listicle Will Answer All Your Questions All Your 63 Dreams You Won’t Believe 16 Reasons Why Feminism Is For You And Everyone Else You’ve Ever Met Without Mentioning Any Theory 18 GIFs Which Explain Feminism To A Micropig Cutest Micropig 59 Micropigs You Won’t Believe 73 Reasons To Integrate Feminism Into Your Avocado Toast Have You Ever You Have Never This Listicle Feminism Is All You’ll Ever Need

THE feminist BOOKSHELFBuilding up a respectable feminist bookshelf is tricky. For all those slightly confused bookworms out there, here’s a selection of my favourites.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I recognise the lack of books focusing on LGBT/BME issues, but space limitations prevented me including some excellent books. bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center In my opinion, a trail-blazing one; it is undeniable that the second wave of feminism in the USA in the 1960s were great and pioneering, but also completely racist and homophobic (Betty Friedan referred to homophobia as ‘that murky smog’ which actively kept lesbians out of the movement). bell hooks’ From Margin to Center is a masterpiece in confronting the role of black women in the movement. Written in 1984, but still very relevant today (far more so than The Feminine Mystique), it addresses the white-supremacist patriarchy in America, and how black women are chief victims of oppression and exploitation as a result. The simmering anger in bell hooks’ writing and elegant fluidity with which she addresses issues of gender, race, and class makes this an essential one for feminists passionate about intersectionality (which should be ALL of us!).

Susie Orbach, Fat is a Feminist Issue A life-changing one, I promise. Especially if you have ever eaten a whole loaf of bread when you’re upset and not really known why. Orbach published Fat is a Feminist Issue in 1978, but it is still extremely relevant today. She argues that gender oppression is at the root of women’s relationship with food; women use fat, and binge eating, to rebel against the powerlessness they feel in society generally. Technically, it is a self help book for binge eaters, but it has earned its place in the feminist canon for being far more than that. Her accounts of women’s groups, bingeing and dieting, and the tracing of eating habits to relationships (especially with mothers) and gendered oppression, will strike a chord with anyone who considers themselves an ‘abnormal eater’.

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale A winner on two counts, both on being an excellent, gripping read, and a stark dystopia of an extreme misogynistic society. In Gilead, a military dicta-

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torship, women act as handmaids, their only role to bear children for the military commanders they belong to.

The protagonist’s name is Offred, literally Of-Fred; she is the handmaid of her commander, a high-up military official. Atwood’s novel is beautifully written, fast moving and reveals details of the society it is set in at exactly the right pace. Its poignancy lies in the fact that while elements of the story are fantastical, others - Gilead’s homophobia, its banishment of sterile women, a painful portrayal of a woman being stoned for adultery - are rather close to the bone, and remind readers of the importance of the fight for equality.

Jung Chang, Wild Swans Chang’s twist on an autobiography follows her female ancestors through the turbulent Chinese 20th century. If you want an idea of how much changed in these three generations, Chang’s grandmother had her feet bound, pre-revolution, while Chang herself flew to a British university as draconian Communist laws were liberalised following Chairman’s Mao’s death. Wild Swans can be read as a history of Communist China, but it is also the story of three fearless, inspirational women fighting for their values and families against the odds (forced concubinage, horrendous treatment by the Communist Party while pregnant, and the Cultural Revolution all feature). You don’t need to know anything about Chinese history to enjoy, and be affected by, these women’s’ remarkable stories.

Natasha Walters, The Living Dolls Don’t be fooled by its frothy packaging: this is a fantastic study of two aspects of gendered oppression. The first half concentrates on the glamorisation of the sex industry, and questioning the celebration of women’s sexuality; while never judging women who work as lap dancers, glamour models or porn stars, Walters quietly queries how liberated they truly are.

The second attacks our current culture of assumed innate gender difference; girls like glittery pink dolls, boys like trucks and swords. It does an excellent job of attacking the media that writes from this sexist angle; the media which does young girls and women a disservice, turning them into the ‘Living Dolls’ of the title.

Sarah Brodie Illustrated by Billie Gavurin

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LET’S FREE THE NIPPLE AND BAN PAGE THREE:

AN EXPLORATION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ‘NAKED’ AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ‘NUDE’.

“To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognised for oneself.” John Berger Although initially there may not be a clear distinction, there is much difference between the two terms ‘naked’ and ‘nude’: their connotations hold extreme weight. In his 1972 study, Ways of Seeing, The Marxist-feminist art historian John Berger drew a distinct difference between the terms with regard to the female nude in European Oil Painting.

That analysis can be revived with reference to Page 3 photos and contemporary depictions of women in the media as ‘nude’.

If we consider that ‘nakedness reveals itself,’ ‘nudity is placed on display,’ then in this sense, ‘the nude is condemned to never being naked’ and thus ‘nudity is a form of dress.’ But how have artists created this fantasy of the ‘nude’ and eradicated the notion that the bodies they depict are simply naked?

we can begin to consider why she is ‘nude’, rather than simply naked, and what problems this inspired and continue to inspire today. The ‘nude’ is a passive spectacle; her body is clothed in a layer of nakedness for the enjoyment of the spectator, who welcomes her lack of control as their own. Similar techniques have been employed by Praxiteles and the photographers of Page 3 in order to enhance the experience of the viewer. Naked flesh is emphasised by the sense of reveal and disguise in the drapery of Aphrodite or the ripped pair of jeans worn by a model. Likewise, the contraposto (weighted on one leg) stance of Aphrodite corresponds to the relaxed pose of a reclining Page 3 model, reinforcing their sense of passivity.

Turning our attention to Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Cnidus 4th century BC (left), one of the first sculptural depictions of an unclothed woman, Image: WikiCommons

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This granting of power to the voyeuristic onlooker is problematic for many reasons, as recognised by supporters of the No More Page 3 (NMP3) campaign, who claim that eroticised, passive representations of women in Page 3 and the media are huge contributors to the culture surrounding rape, sexual abuse, harassment and domestic violence. Indeed, the Aphrodite of Cnidus gathered a huge

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Image: WikiCommons

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It cannot be denied that women have been, and continue to be, represented in a distinctly different way to men. Sylvia Sleigh’s Turkish Bath, 1976, is a brilliant indicator of why it would be difficult, given the context, for Page 3 to work if the gender of the subject were reversed. Sleigh’s painting is a direct reference to Ingres’ Turkish Bath, 1862 (top right). Sleigh’s work offers a commentary on the influence of visual culture in constructing gendered nude appearances. As a result, her depiction of naked men in similar poses to Ingres’ eroticised female nudes is rather comical.

It challenges the spectator’s perception of what the male nude should look like, and thus Sleigh opposes these gendered conventions.

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collection of admirers in her time and was coveted by sailors visiting the Island of Cnidus. As is described in Pseudo Lucian’s Affairs of the Heart, Makarios Perinthos, the young Athenian, was so moved by the sculpture that one night he broke into the sanctuary and attempted to have sex with it, leaving ‘marks of his amorous embraces’ on the marble of her thigh. Here, Makarios’ reaction to the naked body, put on display as the ‘nude’, warns of social problems presented by over- eroticised images of the passive female in Page 3 and the media today, with the potentiality of young men subconsciously absorbing derogatory messages of sexual culture.

Linda Nochlin inspired Sleigh ‘Why don’t you paint a Turkish bath of men?’ - thus drawing attention to the absence in Western art of passively erotic portraits of men. Whereas Ingres’ women revel in their nudity comfortably among each other, Sleigh’s men sit more awkwardly to the effect which may be quite disturbing. Sleigh’s painting epitomises just how stark the contrast is between representations of men and those of women. It thus emphasises the problems that this unequal representation has and continues to cause, infiltrating into social constructions of gendered identity: woman are presented as passive, man as active, As John Berger has stated: ‘men act, women appear, men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at’.

Moreover, Ingres further marginalises his nudes, situating them within the context of the ‘Other’, a concept discussed by Edward Said in his 1978 study Orientalism. An intersectional analysis of Ingres’ depiction of women is thus crucial here. Not only are they objectified within the framework of the ‘nude’, but

specifically the ‘oriental nude’, transporting his audience to the erotic fantasy of the East. Here, power has been granted on multiple levels; the ideological power of man over woman as well as the white man’s control over the Orient. As Linda Nochlin argues; ‘the male viewer was invited sexually to identify with, yet morally to distance himself from, his Oriental counterparts depicted within the objectively inviting yet racially distancing space of the painting.’

The crucial reason why these representations of women are problematic is that in their passive ‘nudity’ as opposed to nakedness, they invite a particular reaction, a reaction that is influenced by the expectation that women are displayed for visual pleasure. Indeed, even though Rupert Murdoch claims to be in support of NMP3, writing on Twitter, ‘Aren’t beautiful young women more attractive in at least some fashionable clothes?

Your opinions please’, his main concern is still that women are to be presented as ‘attractive’, with clothes on or off: the object of the male gaze.

The campaign has made some progress, but weekly online photographs continue to be available, with David Cameron’s refusal to back the campaign arguing that it is an issue for the consumers to decide. The fact is

that naked pictures of men for the sexual enjoyment of women are rarely, if ever, publicly displayed.

Lucy- Anne Holmes, founder of NMP3 points out that ‘none of us get the choice of whether we want to live in a society where newspapers are primarily there for men’s sexual pleasure. All we want to see is women represented with respect in the tabloid media, but everywhere we see female sexuality and the female body presented as being there for men.’

One may be compelled to argue that it is the choice of the model and therefore not a problem. One could even argue that the NMP3 campaign explicitly and literally contradicts the free the nipple campaign. However, what I hope to have proved, through an art historical analysis, is that there is a huge difference between being ‘nude’ and ‘naked’ and the NMP3 campaign is about the problems created by the nude.

The freedom of being naked on equal terms as men is a different more positive issue posed by the free the nipple campaign. In 1914, Mary Richardson took an axe to Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery. The suffragettes’ iconoclastic attack of the female nude can thus be interpreted as a precursor to the NMP3 campaign, both striving to slash the expected representations of women as the nude spectacle of the male gaze.

Megan Menzies

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A A Very Very Feminist Feminist Club Club Night Night Twice a year, Bristol University Feminist Society presents non-misogynistic music until you leave for chips

Basement 45 on 10tth March - Photography by Kate Knowles

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THE PLACE OF MEN WITHIN FEMINISM IS A SUBJECT THAT INEVITABLY ATTRACTS HEATED DEBATE, AND PERHAPS DOMINATES DISCUSSIONS MORE THAN IT SHOULD.

However, whilst feminism should remain primarily a movement for women, driven by women, the personal relationships between men and women demand mutual understanding, and with this in mind I decided to interview my boyfriend Chris on the subject.

F: So feminism has seen a recent surge in popularity, which is great. But sometimes I think this popularity has led to some people coming to feminism with false expectations: thinking feminism starts and ends with legal equality between men and women, a definition that becomes inadequate when you want to talk about structural inequality. And then there’s the whole question of how men relate to feminism, and how some men become hurt when they learn that feminism prioritises women’s issues. So why do those men feel so hurt? And should feminists be trying to engage with them?

terms. But whether we end up using ‘feminist’ or ‘feminist ally’, the same question applies - how far can men’s issues be accommodated? Because whilst patriarchy undoubtedly hurts men, women generally suffer more and feminism has to deal primarily with women’s concerns. So can men’s problems be brought up in feminist spaces without detracting from that, or should men be looking at other outlets?

C: Most men who come to feminism are well-meaning. But feminism has something of a monopoly when it comes to gender equality - it’s the obvious place to turn for men interested in criticising gender norms. When they find that they’re not a priority it becomes frustrating. This leads onto your second question - as a man, I can’t dictate how far men should be accommodated in a women’s movement. However, isn’t there an issue with wanting to dismantle a patriarchal society on the grounds that it damages both men and women, but dismissing legitimate issues that men might have because they have the apparent protection of that very society?

F: Or become MRAs.

F: I think the argument as to whether men can by definition be feminist just depends how broadly you define

C: Ideally other outlets - but where?

The danger is they become inward looking, and start to rely on individualism.

C: Pretty much.

F: The other point is that women aren’t best placed to lead discussions on men’s issues because we don’t experience them. I was reading an interview with a guy who works in allmale support groups saying that men need to organise in ways that aren’t anti-feminist, but not explicitly feminist either, and that seems spot on.

C: I’d agree - the ideal would be something that dovetails with feminism but exists independently of it.

The problem is how that starts - one of the factors behind the problems men typically experience - depression, suicide etc., is that men are told from the beginning that they shouldn’t admit

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their problems.

- there were so many things I wanted to say but didn’t because it wasn’t F: There are groups in Bristol like Men my place and I didn’t want to put my Against Patriarchy who have male-on- foot in it. Essentially, the role is to be ly sessions where they discuss the supportive. Actually believe victims, or impact of patriarchy on their lives. It engage with friends. would also be helpful to have typically ‘manly’ individuals talking about these F: I’d say be aware, but don’t be afraid things in public and to have ground-up to speak up. Though there’s a tension education in schools - but that’s a way in that women shouldn’t be expected off. to educate people who speak without thinking, but people sometimes have C: It’s starting to happen - there was to make ignorant comments to learn. that campaign about prostate cancer a little while back, and the other one - C: For me it’s not about being afraid #mankind is it? So there is progress. - it’s about considering whether your point is relevant.

F: What worries me is that instead of having men’s groups that aren’t F: But sometimes people don’t underantithetical to feminism, we get MRAs. stand the need to be considered - they But yes, there is progress. The next just aren’t there yet. It’s frustrating, question is easy - what attracted you but this might be the first time they’ve to feminism? articulated those thoughts. You have to judge who is a decent person trying C: Frankly, academic interest. I didn’t to figure things out, and who is just playing devil’s advocate. see it as something I’d get anything out of personally.

C: Ultimately men are responsible for their own education, but many peoF: Thinking about now, do you feel that there are any elements of it that ple, and especially men, are oblivious to the inequalities in front of us, so helped clarify aspects of your own there’s a need for them to be pointed behaviour? out in the first instance.

C: That’s a difficult one. I’m loathe to use the phrase ‘not all men’, but when F: You can show people inequalities you’re criticised the first reaction is to but you can’t force them to acknowledge them. I think that’s what it’s be defensive and say ‘hey, that’s not about: be welcoming, but know there me / my friends’, and then you start to see little things everywhere, so you are going to be some people who become more careful about what you aren’t worth your time. But to come say / do, to the point you almost over- full circle, I think that whilst some think it, and in time it becomes natural people will come to feminism and be disappointed or not fully understand (in theory). the nuances and perhaps come to oppose the movement, there will be F: What can you do practically as a man and a feminist/ ally to help things people who undergo a dramatic learning curve, including men - and that is along? something that I find heartening for both of us.

C: The most important thing to do is consider what you’re saying. I find myself thinking far more about what I Frankie Roe & Chris Doonan say than before. Like at that meeting1

1 A FemEd Coffee Morning, hosted by the University of Bristol Feminist Society. Founded in 2014 by Chloë Maughan.

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WOMEN, MEN, AND PRESENTATION OF THE EROTIC: A MUSING ON BEYONCÉ, RIHANNA, NICKI MINAJ AND ANAÏS NIN ‘IF EVERY TIME A WOMAN EXPRESSES HER SEXUALITY IT IS PERCEIVED AS BEING FOR THE MALE GAZE, WOMEN WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO EXPRESS THEIR SEXUALITY, EXCEPT IN THE SERVICE OF MEN’ Sharon Marcus Getting off, as a taste-conscious 21st century feminist with an unswerving sense of their own carefully styled aesthetic, and no wish to disrupt their social conscience, can be tricky. The profusion of differing variables that bar the quick route to mindless pleasure can be a buzz kill in its own right.

Ultimately, guilt should play no role in climax, unless invited into the fantasy itself. But unfortunately, no myth is being shattered when the incredible dearth of woman-centric erotica is discussed.

off its hinges. Rightly, this is hardly my discovery alone. Wrongly, it joins a collection of similar books by women that I could count on two hands and have thumbs spare.

And yet, literature that finds its foundations in explorations of sensuality should be, organically, second nature to women writers, as cited in The Laugh of Medusa, the seminal 1975 essay by Hélène Cixous. The essay is a call to arms, wherein Cixous urges the woman author of the future to ‘Write yourself.

Your body must be heard.’ If women must produce bodily writing, it must encompass all of the body, and all of the body’s functions.

If Nin chooses to write her body, the 21st century equivalent of this could be seen to have a greater emphasis on performance, and the use of the female body to further illuminate artistic process. In an era where celebrity is not just mulWorks by Anaïs Nin, therefore, seem as ti-faceted by engulfing, the performance rare as pearls in an oyster. Nin asserts isn’t just focused on the music and lyrics, but the persona constructed on the the power of female sexuality and the intertwined sensuality of the experienc- back of it. For artists such as Beyoncé, es within the short stories that make up Nicki Minaj and Rihanna the ‘art’ never stops, shape shifting to revolve around The Delta of Venus. Nowhere but their pages is a woman’s lust articulated with their sex lives to their predilection for crop tops, as representative of the such single-mindedness, married with woman as any of their EPs. In the 21st the high-style of European sensualist authors, such as Gabriele D’Annunzio, century, it remains to be seen whether a female celebrity’s body has its own and completely unselfconscious language. More than a breath of fresh air, autonomy, or whether that lies in the hands of the press, and the sexual conNin’s work seems more like the door of a stifled, decaying villa being broken tent of the music, married with so-called ‘raunchy’ performances, of female

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about Nicki asserting her power, not as a sexual object but a sexual subject.

Both the suggestive choreography and the song’s lyrics, which recount a series of sexual encounters double down on Manifest as what my friend dubs ‘putthe fact that Nicki has all the power a-cardi-on-feminism’ (a perfect smirk of a phrase, in that the only people still here, and that she can show as much calling them ‘cardis’ make up the bulk of of her body as she likes and retain all that power.’ However, despite this asmy mother’s social circle), this undersertion of power, not only over her own the-skin internalised misogyny - often what Moya Bailey dubbed ‘misogynoir’ body but over those who she directs it towards, it is still contentious to some - whereby the universal sexualisation as to whether Minaj deserves the right of women comes like a hit and run, robbing the victims of their subjectivity. to dictate what exists inside and outside It is all too easy to decry self-conscious the parameters of the male gaze – as if performances that undoubtedly rely on it was removed from the inherent nature an open discussion of sex as unneces- of being a living, breathing woman. sary and even counter-productive to the so-called feminist cause. This perpetu- And while Nin’s writing displays the body in a close up, with stories such as ates the idea that decisions regarding sexuality and sexualised performances Mathilde stunning the reader with frank are brainless vehicles for self-promoting and stylized descriptions of self-onanstars and that alone, further reiterating ism that respond to the female reader’s the problem society has with debating inner desire to acknowledge her sensuownership of the idea of female sensu- ality outside a male sphere. In this, Nin is allowed a sort of detachment, a creaality. tion of a female sphere where pleasure One of the ways in which the problem- can be unmolested by those critics atic dichotomy between performing for looking to manipulate the book’s expethe male gaze versus performing for the riences for its readers. By contrast, the sake of the self has been addressed by scrutiny and subsequent vitriol placed female artists is through the idea of the on these overtly sexual performancnuances between sexual objectivity and es, such as with Anaconda, interferes sexual subjectivity. Echoing Cixous, an with the intentions of the artist and can tarnish the work they create. Instead, understanding of the body influencing stripping off and sexually explicit lyrics her work, Nicki Minaj plays with these are cited as ‘dumbing down’ culture, as roles in the music video for Anaconif sex can only exist as a subject matter da, subverting pre-existing notions of the female form and its ownership. As in high art, where it can only disturb crumbling intellectuals.

Molly Lambert in an article for Grantland states: ‘Cutting up a metaphorical dick onscreen [in the form of a banana, Rather than seemingly denigrating culture, a heightened sense of the power in 1950s style kitchen] makes it even more clear that the Anaconda video is of female sexuality at the fore of the artists is attacked even within various chapters within the feminist movement as damaging to the cause.

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music industry can allow for the reclamation of the female sexual experience, as its demonisation only forces the idea of sexually active women for the sake of themselves, rather than men, back into the obscure and the repulsive.

One of the ways in which this can be examined is by looking to the target audiences of some of the artists. In the case of Beyoncé, most of the detractors are male, but Beyoncé seeks a female audience to relay to female experiences. Through this thought, we begin to see her ‘through the historical lens of feminist performance art, which is not staged for the male gaze, but rather attempts to explore the relationship between that gaze, female bodies and female fantasies’ (N. Berlatsky, Pacific Standard), suggesting that we can seek

Rosamund Pike’s coitus-stabbing is an unforgettable moment in modern cinema. Writhing in Neil Patrick Harris’s blood, she not only slices his neck with a box-cutter, but finishes. Now that’s multitasking.

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to find ourselves within the performances as a way of acting out our feminine fantasies through another, the ‘female gaze’ finding roots in understanding and discussion.

The degradation of female sensuality can be found on any current affairs or opinion websites, in the works of critics, and seeks to overtake any comment on the woman-authored work in any form it may take. By accepting discussion of sex and its relation to the woman’s body, perhaps the feminism of white privilege can accept the importance of a woman’s place in creating her own narrative.

Tamara Prenn Illustrated by Giselle Hyam

Gone Girl is one example of a truly chilling villain in contemporary cinema: performed by a woman. These parts are rare to come by when cinema in general is still a predominately masculine-misogynistic playing field, and ‘women’s films’ are geared towards the lighter genres. Gone Girl polarised audiences, being both celebrated for its unusual female roles, and abhorred as another damning piece of celluloid

misogyny. Rosamund Pike portrays the male nightmare, a product of the patriarchy that rebels in a calculated, intricate and psychopathic gesture.

Gone Girl subverts the typical thriller genre, transcending convention as it transforms from a classic abduction mystery into a marital combat. Typically, the female characters in this genre are narrative enablers, ensuring the plot is in motion and standing neatly in the periphery. Here, the male characters plod the story along, and it’s the female villain that gratifyingly takes centre stage.

almost in abundance. Under the Skin, although it is near to completely transcending genre categorization, is a surrealist, guerrilla masterpiece heavily reliant upon the masterful lead performance of Scarlett Johansson: the fact that Jonathan Glazer cast an actress heavily sexualised by the press as a sexual predator was a canny move.

Under the Skin transforms from a film about an outsider learning what it is to be human to a human learning what it is to be a woman. Her icy gaze, her mildly mechanical voice and her cool ethereal apathy sets this role apart as one of the most chilling performances demonstratRosamund Pike based her performance ed within contemporary cinema, regardof Amy Dunne on two other iconic less of gender. female villains of cinema. The obvious homage is to Sharon Stone’s sensual It was a similarly canny move which maniac in Basic Instinct; To Die For saw Rosamund Pike cast as a psychowas another influence, Nicole Kidman’s pathic villain. David Fincher, whose blinkered ambition to be a weathergirl casting method seems to involve resulting in adultery and murder. Neigoogling the actors and examining their ther of these characters are necessarily character via photographs, claims he likeable: but do we need all women on chose her because her image has a screen to be likeable? A misconception strange, ageless quality. The fact that in some strands of the feminist moveshe possesses the ability to look simulment within modern cinema is that all taneously older and younger than her female characters need to be strong, genuine age is an unsettling feature admirable role models. Of course, we of her character. She is both chilling in need to see these types of women on her cold superiority to her husband and screen. However, what is needed most, terrifying in her childish unpredictability. and what is still lacking, is variety. This Hopefully this performance will elevate is different from the call to see real Rosamund Pike into a new realm and women on screen. We do need to see wealth of roles that no longer pigeonreal women on screen, desperately, but hole her due to her gentle beauty, not all roles in cinema must necessarily adherent to Hollywood convention. In demonstrate characters inextricable light of this performance, I hope to see from reality. Catherine Tramell in Basic an abundance of multifaceted female Instinct is entertaining and fascinating roles dominate the genres regarded to watch, but I can hardly imagine meet- as masculine. The time has come for ing her at a dinner party. genre to evolve beyond archaic binary boundaries once and for all.

This variety of female roles is beginning Lillie Davidson to be established in the thriller genre, Illustrated by Mairead Finlay

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It’s been one year since TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY Nigerian girls were abducted from their school in Chibok by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram:

What Happened to Bringing Back Our Girls?

Despite the international social media campaign and protest, ‘Bring Back Our Girls’, two-hundred and nineteen of the children are still in captivity and most of the world appears to have forgotten.

Whilst the campaign in Nigeria itself continues, the rise and fall of #BringBackOurGirls in the West is striking.

What does this say about hashtag activism? Does this promote global feminist solidarity? Or does it undermine any meaningful change?

others to stand in solidarity with the girls through the social media campaign.

Organisations Girl Rising and Girl Up adopted the slogan. The campaign was shaped by a broader discussion about the education of girls and women in the developing world. Michelle Obama, giving the President’s weekly address, condemned the ‘grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.’ She stated that ‘what happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It’s a story we see every day Nigerian lawyer Ibrahim Abdullahi as girls around the world risk their lives came up with #BringBackOurGirls to pursue their ambitions.’ Similarly, after hearing the phrase in a speech Hillary Rodham Clinton tweeted ‘Access by the former World Bank Vice Presito education is a basic right & an undent Oby Ezekwesili on the 23rd April. conscionable reason to target innocent The campaign was initially based in girls.’ In the United Kingdom, women Nigeria, putting pressure on Goodluck MPs from all parties gathered outside of Jonathan’s government to find and the Houses of Parliament. Their mesreturn the schoolgirls safely. But by May sage was to stand with women world2014, #BringBackOurGirls had attracted wide and condemn attempts to restrict world-wide attention, with over one mil- girls’ education. lion mentions on social media. High-profile figures Michelle Obama and Malala Clearly, the social media campaign was Yousafzai and celebrities, from P. Diddy the fastest way of publicising the issue to Cara Delevingne, showed support. around the world and putting a spotlight Many Western feminists encouraged on the response of the Nigerian govern-

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ment. Before the campaign, there was criticism that the Western media did not take this story seriously because the kidnapping took place in Africa. #BringBackOurGirls forced governments to put this on the agenda, with world leaders from the US, France, China, Canada and the UK pledging assistance. It is unlikely that this would have happened without social media.

also problematic. In her book Feminism Without Borders, Chandra Talpade Mohanty discussed ambiguous statements and images of sisterhood as ‘identification with the other.’ This could divert attention away from racial inequalities and the broader structural causes of gender-based violence.

I wrote an article about feminism and the internet for this magazine in early But for some, #BringBackOurGirls was 2013. A lot has changed since then. The merely another form of ‘slacktivism’, ‘BringBackOurGirls’ campaign is testawhere the activist does not demonstrate ment to the power of the internet as a any real commitment and liking a page resource for spreading feminist human is the biggest form of protest. Compar- rights campaigns around the world. isons were drawn with #Kony2012, as Social media could be one of the only many argued that the hashtag reduced ways to show support for the original a complex conflict in Northern Nigeria to movement without interfering too much. a sound bite. Nigerian-American writer Western feminists could use hashtags Teju Cole tweeted ‘Remember: #bring- to celebrate the efforts of Nigerian backourgirls, a vital moment for Nigerian feminists fighting for women’s rights to democracy, is not the same as #bring- education. backourgirls, a wave of global sentimentality.’ The latter had little impact in any But the danger is that the global camtangible sense. Most of the girls are still paign ended as quickly as it started. missing and Western advocates for the Perhaps people lost interest once they cause simply gave up. As Jumoke Ba- realised that there was no quick fix. An logun wrote, ‘Dear world, your hashtags ITN report from February 2015 shows won’t #BringBackOurGirls.’ a handful of ‘BringBackOurGirls’ campaigners meeting every day in Abuja.

Western feminists were criticised for ap- They say that if they didn’t protest every propriating the Nigerian movement. One day, the missing girls would be forgotblog post described this as the ‘politics ten. Before the social media explosion, of pity’, with images displaying WestAnne Perkins of the Guardian wrote an erners with sad-faces rather than the article about the Chibok schoolgirls in actual mothers of the children in Nigeria which she asked ‘200 girls are missing fighting for action. The writer, Kasey, in Nigeria- so why doesn’t anybody argues that in this campaign the focus care?’ The same question could be shifted from the Nigerian schoolgirls asked one year later.

Ella Hopkins to ‘self-congratulatory’ celebrities. The use of ‘our girls’ outside of Nigeria was

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According to the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman, the 2015 Golden Globes was ‘the first feminist film awards ceremony.’ Tina Fey and Amy Poehler lampooned Bill Cosby and mocked the likes of George Clooney and Russell Crowe with great style and ease, whilst Maggie Gyllenhaal used her acceptance speech to praise the wealth of ‘actual women’ in television today.

WILL HOLLYWOOD EVER EMBRACE FEMINISM?

inane questions constantly repeated in every interview of a successful actress by using the same banal requests during their interview with Kevin Spacey, resulting in him ending the interview saying “Buzzfeed is so fucked up”. Reese Witherspoon tried to avoid being repeatedly asked “who are you wearing?” by posting an Instagram picture of her dress before this year’s Oscars with the caption ‘Show Unfortunately, despite the positive time! #Oscars (dress @Tom_Ford; steps towards gender equality at this jewels @TiffanyAndCo; styling @ year’s award ceremonies, the claim LeslieFremar; hair @hairbyadir; glow that Hollywood has finally embraced @mrsbymrs)’. Witherspoon, like feminism is a gross simplification many actresses, had a contractual and misinterpretation of the truth. obligation to mention all of the Hollywood is a strange bubble of above and whilst award ceremonies the western world where it remains provide a global stage for designers acceptable to take intelligent, to show off their work, the focus creative and successful women and should be on an actress’s talents reduce them to pageant contestants, rather than her ‘glow’. judging the quality of their manicures over the achievements of their Some may argue that the red carpet careers. Despite the #AskHerMore has been and always will be a twitter campaign and the ongoing bastion of Hollywood glamour and MissRepresentation project, the red style, however it is undeniable that it carpet continues to function as a has gradually become symptomatic stage for the praising or shaming of of a darker and more troubling truth Hollywood’s most talented women about gender equality in Hollywood. based purely on their appearances. Many of this year’s headlines focused on the blatant disregard for However, what did change this people of colour in the film industry, season was the surprising trend of as the Oscars was specifically celebrities calling out and criticising criticised for having the whitest the press on the red carpet. At the nominations since 1998. In contrast, 2014 SAG Awards, Cate Blanchett less noise was made about how responded to E!’s ‘mani cam’ request women fared this award season, or with: “Do you do that to the guys?” in Hollywood more generally, and to and Lena Dunham suggested put it bluntly, the answer is: not very asking actresses about the causes well. they support rather than their supporting underwear. Buzzfeed Not one film nominated for ‘Best highlighted the absurd tradition of Picture’ at the Oscars had a female

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protagonist. However, this is perhaps an unfair criticism when you look closer at which films were shortlisted.

The films included The Imitation Game, Selma, and The Theory of Everything, all historically based films set during periods in which women didn’t tend to be the ones making the headlines. But it is impossible to explain away a clear gender disparity with regards to the rest of 2014’s movie releases. According to a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film, women made up only 12 percent of protagonists it the top 100 grossing films of 2014, four percentage points lower than 2002, which is a pathetic and thoroughly depressing statistic.

Women of colour fared even worse, as the study points out that viewers were more likely to see an extraterrestrial female than a woman who is Asian or Latin American.

Another issue presented by the under-representation of women on our cinema screens is its effect on the gender values of young generations. For every one femalespeaking role in a family rated film of 2014, there were roughly three male characters. This statistic, when combined with the hyper-sexualisation of female characters even in family films and their lack of aspirations or

occupations, starts to make for a very worrying situation. As Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise) puts it, ‘surely in the 21st century kids should be seeing boys and girls share the sandbox equally?’

Perhaps the root of the problem can be traced back to the groups of decision makers behind the curtain. Oscar nominees and winners are chosen by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which, as the L.A. Times reported in 2012, is 94 percent white. The fact that only four percent of AMPAS members are African American or Latino has come under fierce scrutiny following the repeated under-representation of minorities in Hollywood.

Also, in 2012, 77 percent of AMPAS members were male and their average age was 62, little has changed since the L.A. Times’ report. The women being honoured at this year’s award ceremonies are the highest achievers in their field of work and should be treated as such. Focusing on the successes of actresses and female directors would make for a much more interesting discussion than working out who was the best dressed. But it doesn’t look like it’ll be happening anytime soon.

It’s going to take more than Fey’s and Poehler’s cutting wit to tackle the ugly issue of inequality in the world’s most glamorous industry.

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Joy Molan Illustrated by Miriam Cocker

This Girl Can, a national campaign created by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations, aims to create a call to arms for all womankind, urging us to put on our trainers and leave body hang ups at the starting line.

involved in sport; not models, but women of all ages and shapes working out as best they can, proving that fear of judgement from others shouldn’t stop us from taking part in exercise. This Girl Can isn’t an insipid homage to physical perfection already attained, but to progress and, most importantly, to jiggling and sweat.

Body image and body confidence make up a large part of the barrier to getting active for some women; it seems that women can never escape judgement about their body type and even world-class athletes such as

This Gi

I hate adverts, most of us do. They’re a distraction, a sideshow to the main event. I tend to mute them, my own rebellion against ear-worming jingles. Yet recently I’ve been seeing an ad that told me something new, something that I wanted to hear: that This Girl Can.

This Girl Can is part of a nationwide campaign run by Sport England to get rid of body-shaming and to address barriers to female participation. In their own words, the campaign is ‘a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.’ The campaign shows a montage of real women getting

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Jessica Ennis are railed against for being too ‘fat,’ in the case of Ennis, by a senior UK Athletics Official. It is no surprise then, that there is a growing level of self-consciousness amongst a lot of us for not being perfect. Comments such as these, which come at women from all angles, whether friends, enemies, or the media, do nothing to help issues of self-perception about the female physique. It is this that the This Girl Can campaign aims to argue against.

Take the case of triathlete Hollie Avil, a former World Junior Champion,

who also competed for Team GB in the Beijing Olympics. Avil was told by a coach who was not hers that she needed to ‘start thinking about her weight’. She acknowledges that it was this comment which laid down the foundations of a serious eating disorder, which consequently plagued her career and led to her early retirement of the sport. The cases of Ennis and Avil are not unique, and prove to the wider community that body image issues affect even the most fit

as I run. What’s more is that by the end of the workout I feel oddly proud about looking like I’ve been attacked by a sprinkler, instead of mildly horrified at my static hair and glistening face.

Persistent vitriol about the body shapes of women must stop, and campaigns such as This Girl Can must continue.

Yet it’s about more than just the campaign; we also need to remove the naysayer within us, that seems to exist within all women. The voice that nags us about how our body should be whilst not appreciating the way it is now. It’s this internalised misogyny telling us we must always look a different way.

and athletic women in the world, and this shouldn’t be the case. This Girl Can aims to change these negative perceptions of women doing exercise by saying ‘I jiggle therefore I am’; beauty standards may always be fickle, but that shouldn’t make women feel like they can’t be active.

Nobody’s perfect, I’m certainly not, but I won’t let my imperfections stop me from being active any longer and neither should you. If this girl can get her running shoes on and leave her hang-ups at the starting line then so

rl Can The power of This Girl Can is such that I take its message along with me to the gym. It’s 3pm, I’m at the gym and I’ve got an absolute sweat on.

My head’s surrounded by a halo of frizz yet I, unusually, don’t care about how I look. I even take the treadmill opposite the mirror to check my form

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can you. Go on, I dare you.

Rupen Kalsi Illustrated by Miriam Cocker

An Interview with

SIAN NORRIS

Sian Norris is a feminist, novelist, journalist and founder of the Bristol

Women’s Literary Festival. I spoke to her in the run up to the second biennial festival and picked her mind about all things feminism related.

It was at an event she organized with the Bristol Feminist Network and Bristol Fawcett society in 2011, Where Are the Women, that Sian Norris was first alerted to the term ‘cultural femicide’. It’s a term coined

by Bidisha, a journalist, writer and broadcaster, which she defines as ‘the erasure of women from public life’: in a world that gives priority to men, women are silenced from popular culture. The event looked at representations of women in the media and the absence of women on our cultural landscape - from the lack of female authors to the lack of female film directors. Four years later, it is clear how the idea has influenced Norris in her life and work.

I ask her what gave her the idea to start the literary festival. She immediately mentions the Where Are the Women event. Most notable about Norris’ explanation is her description of the energy in the room during the panel, questioning what they could do to change this ‘cultural femicide’. It’s an energy that is still there when I go to the packed literary festival the following Saturday; an acknowledgement of the absence of female voices in popular culture and a need to listen to these women and raise their voices.

“I think whenever you do events like this and you bring all these people together, people take something away with them. There’s loads of ripple effects,” Norris explains. She mentions one particular woman who

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left the festival in 2013 and set up a website to bring together creative women. Norris explains that it was being in the room full of women talking about their work that gave this woman her inspiration.

I ask what she’s hoping to achieve with the festival; it’s one thing to put it on, but is it working? Norris explains that the festival aims to counter the male dominance of literary and cultural festival line-ups.

But it is also to celebrate the work of female writers and their creativity.

The festival looks back to feminism’s earlier days; during the second wave of feminism there was an attempt to find the forgotten women across art and literary history and bring them back into the cannon. Norris’ festival continues this exploration of how to bring them back; a viewing of the film Paris Was a Woman highlights Norris’ own interest in Gertrude Stein, on whom her up and coming novel is based. Norris acknowledges the festival’s flaws. She recognises that an event like this attracts only an audience with the means and the time and mentions her aim to do more within communities such as working in local libraries. There are also those who accuse her of running a ‘sexist’ festival by only including women.

“I do think there’s an interesting question, which is not the sexist one, which is are you actually ghettoising women writers by giving them their own festival? But at the same time, we don’t live in a society yet where we’ve got to the point where women writers are treated equally and reviewed equally and given equal platforms. So it’s sort of a weird process you have to go through; you’re raising up women’s voices but not saying ‘you are the women writers’ because that perpetuates the idea that men are the normal and women aren’t.”

I question Norris about her work as a freelance journalist and blogger. There’s a criticism of ‘clicktivism’ that suggests feminist bloggers are not really doing anything to change the world we live in. But Norris is defensive, arguing that it’s not fair to dismiss other people’s work.

She explains that when she first started thinking about feminism it was hard to find others like her and now that has changed; the feminist blogosphere is a great way to make connections with activists around the world.

We discuss the big problems facing women in today. Norris immediately cites violence against women as the biggest problem we have, arguing that it underpins everything else. She reels off statistics of violence against women. As she points out, we hear these statistics every day and it’s got to the point where it’s hard to actually relate to them. She brings violence against women back to the idea of cultural femicide. “If you are being oppressed by violence you can’t do anything else. It links to the festival and having your voice silenced and not have a space.” Festivals like this may not be single-handedly solving the problem of violence against

women, but in giving other women the voice they need to be heard, it is women like Norris, who will slowly but surely encourage more people to join the force of feminism..

Alleviating ‘cultural femicide’ means that women’s voices can be heard, in a world when we are too regularly being silenced.

I ask Norris for some advice on what we should all be doing to help.

“Challenge attitudes that are sexist and sexually violent attitudes. It’s all about education,” she answers. “I can’t believe we live in a world where things like rape become jokes. We need to talk about this, we need to challenge it.”

Lucy Stewart Illustrated by Miriam Cocker

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ARE YOU THOROUGHLY CONVINCED THAT YOU WANT TO BE A CARD-CARRYING FEMINIST? JOIN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FEMINIST SOCIETY TODAY Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @twssmagazine Front and back cover illustrations by Rachel Tung