On October 2nd 2021 the 5th annual Women Shall Overcome event was held at The Studio Widnes. This is an annual event in which the Fortuna Female Society and The Studio spotlight and celebrate women. This years event was curated by Meg DeMar and was a mixture of film, music, poetry and soapbox speeches. There were films from Fortuna Female Society about the impact of covid on women and a Drag King film from Mooncup Theatre, a womxn led collec�ve. Music from local female-iden�fying ar�sts Mondegreen, Seagoth (find her interview in this issue!) and Meg DeMar joined by Serial Culture writer Ben Cooper. Poet Emily McChrystal shared work from her new book Soul Notes poetry and some of the audience also had a go at sharing poetry, speeches and shou�ng about what they are passionate about!
WOMEN SHALL OVERCOME Liv Eren was approached prior to the event and asked if she could share a speech on the Soapbox that night. Here is her speech. When I was invited to come and speak at this event tonight, I was quite torn on what I wanted to speak about, there really is so many topical issues that I could address, but I really just wanted to focus on a subject which I think is o�en overlooked and targeted by those who claim to be within our movement. It also comes to mind because I was recently targeted by the terf mum mafia on twi�er for visibly suppor�ng this. If you’ve not already caught on, I’ll be discussing trans-inclusive feminism.
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It might be difficult to believe that there is even a need for these conversa�ons, we live in a society which claims to be inclusive, diverse and accep�ng, we live in a �me where trans people are flourishing, wri�ng books, appearing in film and media, ge�ng married, having kids, the list really does go on. But in reality, we have so much further to go un�l there is true equality, true acceptance and true understanding.
