08/03/2020 It's International Women's Day!

Feminism is something that it feels like I’m always writing or reading about; to the extent that, both as a movement and as a literary genre, it has become a primary focus of my day-to-day life. However, incredibly, ridiculously and inexplicably, feminism still remains something that I don’t think is written about or taught about nearly enough. Certainly the fact that we can study courses such as ‘Women’s Studies’ is definitely a step in the right direction but the fact that it is mostly women who choose this as an option seems to me a clear example of how feminism needs to be expanded to a wider audience I.e not just young women who already know a fair bit about women’s basic rights. In a way, despite the different mediums in which feminism exists these days, sometimes it seems like feminist texts such as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman exist in their own sort of exclusive field which is only available to all if only they knew where to look. Perhaps one of the reasons why feminism appears to be so readily available to me is because I’ve subconsciously made it so. Therefore, it seems obvious that we need to push feminism further into the mainstream by actively seeking out resources for people who are still unaware of them – in a socialist and inclusive sense rather than radically. 

Myself and women whom I love and respect still experience sexism on a day to day basis. It seems ludicrous to me that someone aware of the misogynist prejudices against women could still partake in the concept of the patriarchy by victimising or non consensually sexualising women. Hence once again the importance of feminist resources and education in the fight for female empowerment and equal rights. I think it’s great that feminism is genuinely becoming a field of study regarded by so many people already as having the same sort of political legitimacy as general elections (it did all start with the suffragettes after all) and immigration laws.

As well as feminist literature, a lot of feminist inspiration now comes from social media and public figures, such as @rubyrare or @neutralfleur on Instagram. There is a wide discussion around the use of online platforms like Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness of recent news stories or current political events. Social media has become the main source of news online which not only proves that it’s serving as a positive teaching tool to reach more people who wouldn’t necessarily be as aware of current events otherwise, but also that there’s no reason why more of us shouldn’t use these platforms to educate each other and express our views about certain things such as the importance of gender equality.  I agree that it’s a great way to teach people about feminism and important values such as equal pay and general respect so that women shouldn’t feel under appreciated for doing the same job as a man or unsafe if they go out at night. 

 As well as serving as a public space for feminists to support feminists. In this way, not only can feminism be promoted as what I consider to be an essential movement not only for gender equality but also for women’s inclusion and safety in society in general, but also we can begin to align feminist values with other important principles such as the acknowledgement of the working class struggle. The Suffragettes were perhaps what the world needed to get the ball rolling back in the beginning of the 20th century, but of course as times have moved on, the movement ought to have done. It’s actually appalling that women felt they had to use violence in the form of burning post boxes in order to raise awareness of the importance of votes for women at the same time that women were being force fed in prison. In my opinion we ought to be grateful to women like Emily Davison who died after running in front of the king’s horse for making the sacrifices that they did, but equally it’s important that we modernise feminism to avoid ignorance of issues such as racism and homophobia. Gone are the days of Emmeline Pankhurst idolising first-wave middle-class feminists. Through the modernisation of feminism itself as a movement, it has become much more accessible to learn about and be exposed to important current issues from transgender rights to intersectional feminism, especially for those who might not otherwise tackle Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ (disclaimer: I gave up half way through).  

 In my family, reading has always been considered pretty fundamental, be it the newspaper on a Saturday morning or William Blake’s poetry. Ever since I could read, my parents were surreptitiously leaving feminist books around the house in hopes that it was something I would latch on to. Some may see it as ironic that my white male father is teaching me about women’s rights at the same time he’s talking to my black step mum about intersectional feminist organisation ‘Gal dem’. Maybe it is, a little. However I see this is an opposition to the argument that only women ought to be interested in feminism because it’s somehow an issue that only affects them. My dad being so vehement and forthright in both his belief in feminism and education of important social movements to myself and my other family members (and actually anyone that will listen, he’s a teacher of politics at a sixth form college) just proves that if sexism can appear as such a problematic issue to a white middle class man, then why are more people who could be placed in minority categories not talking about it? His interest in social issues such as feminism has definitely had a positive impacted on how I view my privileges as well as my activism in terms of how I can make others aware of inequality in multiple forms. This I did very much so – to the extent of spending my angsty pre-teen years drunkenly lecturing some poor, dazed teenage boy about smashing the glass ceiling and quoting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 'We Should All Be Feminists' at parties. Not much has really changed. 

However, not all feminists or indeed feminism is abrasive or combative or "agressive". We are lucky enough to live in an age now where most of the fire-lighting of postboxes has been done. Feminism is much more accessible and, dare I say, celebrated. Podcasts such as Deborah Francis White’s ‘The Guilty Feminist’ satirise feminism; we can laugh about shared female experiences, like wearing a certain pair of underwear in hopes of ending up back at a certain guy’s place after a night out.  

Meanwhile, I’m very aware that I’ve had it easy in terms of my experiences with sexism. I am a privileged, white, relatively middle-class cis-woman, who hasn’t faced the domestic abuse or familial ostracism that other women have because their lives don’t correspond with traditional values. I’m not blind to the security I have compared to other women, having the freedom to not feel threatened when I walk home at night or wear a short skirt to class. But the fact that ‘other women have it worse’ does not mean that I, and others in my position, do not get to speak up when we fall victim to the injustices of entrenched gender prejudices. Perhaps one of my favourite aspects of the modern approach to feminism (largely driven by social media) is that it’s not seen as a strict doctrine which we must all adhere to out of self-respect. Rather, we as women are given the opportunity to explore feminism both as individuals and with each other as we see fit, making it a movement that we can autonomously adapt to ourselves. To me, feminism should be about people supporting other people together, ensuring that we all have the same rights and liberations that we are entitled to. Asking for gender equality is not asking too much, and it’s time to speak louder, through every form of modern media, because apparently some still can’t hear us.