Mind the Gap

We’ve been cited in the Guardian this morning as proof that UK feminism still has a pulse after all.

A lot of our friends are mentioned as well. I’m sure we’re not one of the “the most popular blogs” (!?) but it’s still rather nice.

I’ll comment more on the actual article when I’ve got a moment.

I’m not going to go in heavy on the feminist, or indeed any other analysis on this one. surely everyone can see how wrong this is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4856508.stm

Another one of those news articles abut how european women just arn’t breeding quick enough.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4768644.stm

I’m really busy but thought I’d point out my highlight:

“Europe is still feeling its way in this area, and may, some say, have to come to terms with the fact that there are women remaining childless or having small families by choice.

Recent evidence from Germany suggests that women may actually want fewer children than the two so often seen as the desirable norm - indeed some are happy with none at all.”

You don’t say….

“To act from a place of guilt is not sincerity, its not true solidarity. Its self-centered activism that puts the individual White persyn as the main benefactor of such work. The goal becomes to relieve the guilt as opposed to create a world of justice. HEY HEY, HO HO, THAT WHITE GUILT SHIT HAS GOT TO GO!”
Vegan Kid commenting on Brownfemipower’s guilty bloggers post.

Reading some of the challenges to white privilege in the feminist blogging world from women of color bloggers has really got me thinking. Here at Mind the Gap we don’t really blog about racism. Why the hell not? We know about racism. We see racism in action every day of our lives. So why don’t we talk about more? Also, why do we often leave race and women of color issues out of our feminist analyses, especially when we know full well that we shouldn’t do this? What excuses have we got?

Lots of them: generally speaking, white people are pretty goood at thinking up excuses for not engaging with race issues and I’m no exception to this rule.

The excuses I’ve made to myself over the years are all classics:

a) I don’t know enough about it

But I have a responsibility to educate myself and, in any case, this is a bit of a lie. I’ve read Lorde and Davis and hooks, so what do I mean I don’t know anything about it? I certainly know enough to know I shouldn’t leave race out of feminist analysis.

b) I’m scared of saying something wrong and ignorant and getting called on it

What makes me so special? Why shouldn’t I be called on it when I say something ignorant? Isn’t this just another way for me to exercise my own white privilege – my privilege not to have to be called on something I don’t feel like being called on because it’s inconvenient and makes me feel uncomfortable?

For example, the other day when I was writing about the consent awareness posters I felt that the extreme whiteness of the model was significant. Instead of saying what I really thought, I dropped a couple of hints and left it at that. What I should have said was “I think this is yet another example of whiteness being allowed to represent everyone, of being set up as the norm and the default. And of course the potential rape victim is represented as white in the poster. People are expected to be more concerned about the possible rape of young skinny white women than anyone else.” I might be wrong. I might be saying something stupid, but I should have said it.

c) I’m scared of getting called a racist

Well doh! Of course white liberal people don’t like being called racist. But it’s crazy to imagine that we don’t hold any racist attitudes. We live in a society racist down to its bones and there’s no way we can position ourselves as completely pure of racist ideology. I have said racist things and had racist thoughts in my life and will do so again. People of color are absolutely right to call me on my racism when it manifests itself and I have a duty to analyse and challenge it in my life.

So all my excuses are crap! I’m not feeling guilty about it. I’m just stating a fact.

Perhaps white feminist bloggers don’t give racism and woc issues enough attention because we don’t have to. We’re white for goodness sakes. There’s a lot of stuff we don’t have to do and a lot of shit we don’t have to put with.

So, I will not leave race out of my analyses in the future. I will say what I’m thinking and if I get called on it, I get called on it, and I’ll listen. I will stop being scared of my own racism and I’ll make more of an effort to think about how it informs what I do, think and write.

By the by, Vegan Kid is setting up a new blog space to help white people fight white supremacy without getting too much in the way of everyone else: Ally Work.

Everyone should read this post from Brownfemipower on Guilty bloggers. The comments are also essential reading. I will have more to say about this when I get a moment, but lots of important issues raised here about the way blog feminist hierarchies illustrate racial and social hierarchies, as well as some serious challenges to the notion of the blogging world as a “democratizing” space.

Also read this post from Dark Daughta on privileged white male feminist bloggers.

And Lucky white Girl organises an impromptu privilege carnival.

Laura from I’m Not a Feminist, But has set up a Yahoo Group for feminists interested in doing direct action on issues of violence, rape and sexual abuse.

“This group is designed to bring together women who wish to organise protests and direct action to make our voices heard and speak out against society’s acceptance of r*pe and male violence. Let’s get out on the streets and demand our rights.”

Get activating.

This is one of the posters for the UK government’s much talked about consent awareness campaign. I’ll have more to say about the campaign itself soon, but right now I just want to have a close look at the material.

What’s wrong with this image?

Could it deal with the issue any more crudely or clumsily?

Did they hire the team at Nuts magazine to create this campaign? “Yeah, we’ll do a crotch shot of a “hot” white model with a no entry sign on her knickers, that’ll make people take rape seriously. No one will laugh at that.”

No doubt they wanted to do something eye catching, but this is eye catching for all the wrong reasons.

Then there’s the horrible association made in the text between entering the woman sexually and entering a prison. As other people have already pointed out, this campaign seems more concerned with protecting men from accusations of rape than protecting women. Why can’t we have a campaign which finds a way of saying don’t have sex with any woman without her consent because that’s called rape and rape is wrong, rape will hurt her physically and mentally, rape will mess up her life and for this reason rape is illegal.

Also, this image objectifies women. This woman here is not represented as a person. She is reduced to her crotch, a nameless, faceless cunt which exists to be penetrated. How can we fight the objectification of women with …. the objectification of women? We need a campaign which asserts the personhood of all women.

And she looks so helpless doesn’t she? So pale, so incredibly white, and so vulnerable with her slack hands dangling by her sides, nothing but a “stop” sign between her vagina and the (penetrative) gaze of the presumed male viewer.

So, has anyone got any ideas for a less icky, less lazy, and more intelligent campaign?

Stop press: Bookdrunk furthers this discussion.

And now for something a little more inspiring. Last night L and I went to a Broad Horizons film showing, also in honour of IWD.

“Broad Horizons is a new radical Women’s network bringing Women working in media together. Broad Horizons is a showcase for Women working with film, video, music, design, animation and culture jamming. Broad Horizons is a DVD compilation of animations, documentaries and short films made by women.”

If there’s a showing in your area, get along and support it. The films were great - really powerful. We’ve put our group on the mailing list and will hopefully be able to attend one of their training sessions. All the way home we talked about making a feminist film about our group activities.

So, on Tuesday night Mind the Gap attended the Student Unions’ event for International Women’s Day: “Ladies Night.” As I mentioned in the earlier post, on realizing that we were about to face a couple of hundred rich middle-class white kids, we thought we should go in “stealth feminist” mode. It’s a good phrase, but it didn’t really work out in the end, mainly because we were late as usual. As I rushed out of the house, I caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror: “Oh shit,” I thought, “I’m a stereotype.” Why am I always wearing jeans and black tops? Why is my hair unkempt? Why are my boots so big? Oh, because I’m a feminist, stupid. I got to the union nightclub where the event was to be held and started setting up the table. L and R arrived. Guess what? Both were wearing jeans, black tops and big boots. “I was going to put on some make up” said R, “But then my mother phoned.” At least, she had made one concession to femininity with a glittery scarf, but we all looked exactly like … feminists. It dawned upon me then that the sight of the three of us was simply not going to allay the fears of any young anti-feminist in the room. Not to be daunted, we laid out the leaflets to see what would happen. “I like the way we put mindthegapcardiff on the email address” observed L, “you know, to distinguish us form all our other offices in Cambridgshire, London and Birmingham.”

Interestingly, the first stall in the line was Ann Summers, complete with special International Women’s Day “Bunny girls”. We had the last stall. As people came along, they looked at the material and their faces underwent a manifest change. You could almost hear their thoughts, “What’s this, oh cute leaflets (we do have cute leaflets), what’s that word beginning with an F… Oh, look away, look away.” We smiled at them sweetly as they scuttled off, and went back to comparing leg hair growth and coming up with slogans for the T-shirts we want to make with the group. We’d photocopied an article about feminism from Marie Claire magazine, thinking maybe that brand of feminism wouldn’t be too terrifying and some people did take them, including one of the bunny girls.

The women’s officer did her best with the event, within the constraints of our union, and had obviously put a lot of work into it. One very good thing was the speech by the Welsh Woman of the Year who did speak very well. To be fair, the fashion show made an effort to use fair trade and alternative shops. We were very well behaved. Last year we (well, mainly me) almost got thrown out for talking and laughing during the speeches. I didn’t think they could really hear me down on the stage, but the lady bouncer seemed to think otherwise.

We did have some fun with Ann Summers looking at fluffy handcuffs, scary sex positions in the advice books and exclaiming at the price of vibrators (£53!). Everyone was presumed to be heterosexual of course: “For your bloke” they cried, pushing flavoured body oils in our direction. L made the mistake of trying the watermelon one – horrible. There was also a chocolate fountain, oh, and a body-piercing stall where I found out what it’s going to cost me to get my nose pierced. At the sexual health stall I won a little bag containing some strawberry flavor condoms and a pairs of “Chocolate tits.” I think this must be the only women’s event I’ve come across where it’s possible to come away with a bag of condoms and chocolate breasts. L and R cruelly refused to relieve me of them. Sometimes it’s hard being a feminist.

By yesterday morning we were emailing each other: “What the hell are we going to write about for Blog Against Sexism Day?” We were stuck. For some reason, the prospect of writing about sexism produced more than usually bank minds. Why? Because it’s just too BIG! Sexism, I mean SEXISM, is just such a vast topic. Sexist oppression and exploitation are everywhere, so where do we even begin?

After the “Ladies Night” at the Students’ Union, we sat in the pub and decided to write about what angers us most in our everyday lives. But first, it’s important to say that we’re very aware that our lives are white, western, and enormously privileged in comparison to most women in the world, so we would like to say that we don’t in any way feel that sexism effects us as hideously as it does most other women around the world. That said, here are some of the things that really get to us:

First, we hate that so many people in the rich west insist that sexism is no longer an issue or is, at most, a minimal issue. We’ve met supposedly, liberal, enlightened people, men and women, who claim that since we have all this legislation in place, there’s no longer a problem. As Siberian Falls observed, the situation has changed, but sexism has become more insidious rather than disappeared. Even more worryingly, the anti-political correctness backlash has managed to bestow certain “coolness” upon sexist attitudes. Siberian Falls told us the story of the consultant who refers to female colleagues as “chickie.” He knows he’s being offensive because he’s quick to say “It’s harmless,” “It’s just a bit of fun.” “Just a bit of fun.” Haven’t we all come to shudder at that phrase which has become the excuse for all manner of appalling behaviors. I’m sure it’s true that sexism is enormous fun for sexists, but not for the rest of us.

That’s something else that really gets to us – the way men use language to belittle women in a professional context. Calling a colleague “chickie,” “luv,” “sweetheart,” or “darlin” constantly reminds her that a power relationship exists (we tried to come up with male equivalents. We couldn’t come up with any, not a single one). These words remind her that, at the end of the day, she is a woman rather than a professional. Irrespective of how hard you’ve worked and what you’ve achieved, men are still ascribed the power to put you back in your female place, to reduce you to childlike status.

We hate that it doesn’t matter how much you legislate, women are still judged on their appearance wherever they work and if you don’t work to fit the norm, you are considered “different.”

We hate the constant media hysteria about barren wombs and birth shortages. We also hate the way this discourse masks an agenda which is as racist and classist as it is sexist. They do not mean women (in general) go forth and procreate. What they really mean is middle-class, university-educated white women please go forth and procreate. Otherwise, could you kindly keep your legs shut, we have teenage pregnancy targets to reach” and we’re worried that there won’t be enough “decent” people in the next generation.

We hate the fact that women’s sexual activity is still a cause for insult while for men it’s a cause of celebration and status.

We hate the fact that if something happens to us while we’re walking home at night, we will be blamed for it: “It’s terrible what happened, but what was she doing walking home on her own like that?” How can people say sexism doesn’t exist when women still don’t have the right to walk around at night on their own without being considered prey?

We hate the fact that we need consent awareness campaigns.

We hate “Extreme Makeover.” In the future will most women think they need radical cosmetic surgery just to achieve the norm?

We hate the fact that America seems to be backsliding in relation to women’s rights. If this can happen in the richest most powerful country in the world, what message does that send to the rest of the world where women are fighting to progress? We also hate that people seem to imagine that once something been achieved, it can never go back and you don’t have to guard your rights. Women, guard your rights with your life or you may well wake up one day to find you don’t have as many as you thought you did.

Of course that’s just for starters.

Naiades, Winter and Siberian Falls

*No men were hurt in the production of this post, but there was much raaaaaarrghing involved. Thanks to the cheap bottle of Jacob’s Creek wine for loosening the writer’s block.