I wrote this to submit to our college newsletter; it will probably need to be edited and shortened but I wanted to keep my first stab at it here.
I have a friend from home who went to another university, and
managed in her three years to fall into a particularly defined role. She
was an activist for many causes like Amnesty International, took action against
cuts for student funding and the NHS, occupied her university, has been on more marches than I can count, but perhaps most vocally of all, she’s a
feminist. A very loud feminist. She hosts events, writes for her feminist
society’s blog, and has made herself such an enemy in a man who has
particularly different views to her on feminist issues that she was sponsored hundreds of pounds to go on a date
with him. That’s quite a reputation to get.
So when she asked me about the feminist scene in Oxford, I
didn’t really know what to say. I shared a vague view that women and men should
be treated equally in society, have equal opportunities, equal pay for equal
work, and so on. I also agreed that it probably isn’t the case yet. But, I
thought, there’s not a lot I can do about that, I don’t see any immediate
problems I can fix, and I’ll probably be more useful to the world if I just
concentrate on getting my degree. That meant, in my mind, I definitely wasn’t a
feminist, thank goodness – because really, who would want to be associated with
an outdated stereotype of bra-burning, armpit hair and body odour?
Over the last couple of terms, a couple of things have woken
me up to the need for our generation of students and young adults to stake our
claim on feminism – not the stereotyped version, but the heart of it, to say
that the society we are part of and will increasingly shape should be one in
which everyone is valued equally. The first thing that woke me up to this was a
Facebook group, started last year, called “Misogyny Overheard at Oxford”. On
it, I found numerous examples of stories of women being patronised, mocked,
groped, and harassed, sometimes in the name of banter from their peers, and
often as a result of institutionalised sexism which is rife in an institution
as old as ours. From this, and similar communities on Facebook I came across
the website “Everyday Sexism”, which recounts thousands of examples of women’s
experiences in families, in workplaces and on the streets. The problems of
sexism are literally everywhere when you start looking for them. I began
reading more, from Caitlin Moran’s “How to be a Woman” to articles, news
stories and blogs. I’ve learned about
the huge problems of victim blaming, where as a society we excuse rapists
because women were “asking for it” by the way they dress or act. Depressing as
some of the statistics and stories are, what I’ve read is encouraging – there
ARE people, normal people, working to do something about this kind of
inequality. No, they can’t fix everything single handedly, but they’re taking
the time to do something, and to gather people onside.
Let me add a couple of qualifiers here – firstly, this is
nothing to do with “women against men.” Like with any umbrella term, the name
of feminism has been used by those with an anti-men agenda to push. That’s not
okay. But it doesn’t mean that everyone who wants equality is anti-men, and it
certainly doesn’t mean that men don’t have a very important part to play in
bringing it about. Secondly, this is not
meant to downplay the hurtful experiences of other groups who are subject to
discrimination and prejudice. It’s not to say that men are not subject to
gender discrimination either. It’s not to say that homophobia, transphobia and
racism are not serious and important issues. Trying to solve one problem doesn't mean we should ignore the rest, and most people would recognise that
any attempts to bring about a more equal society are going to beneficial for
all marginalised groups.
So qualifiers aside, what about us at Worcester? I've tried
floating the word “feminism” about with friends and the odd drunk person at
parties, to see the reactions I get. A couple of people have just walked off,
in jest or otherwise. While my friends might have been making a joke about
feminism being boring, the attitude is a real one: we don’t need that. It’s
irrelevant, boring, and most importantly might challenge some parts of
“lad-culture”. We couldn't have that. Some have seemed a little fearful of the
word, as if not confident enough to claim it themselves: “ I'm definitely not a
feminist but...” followed by some brilliant statement about the need to bridge
the pay gap, for instance. Others have looked tentatively excited and surprised
to find someone else using this word, sharing these concerns, trying to get people
to listen. Could it be that there are in fact a whole load of us, hidden
feminists at Worcester, both men and women who agree that actually, we’d like
to be part of a society in which people are treated equally, and that that
includes women? If that’s the case,
let’s come out of the woodwork and start talking. Start sharing those instances
of every day sexism wherever we find them, so they can’t be ignored as a one
off. Start calling people out on rape-jokes and find something funnier to say
instead. Let’s share ideas, stories and ambitions, let’s start doing those
little things that add up to bigger change. If you’re interested at all, if you
might want to get involved, or just to listen in on a few ideas, drop me an
email.
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”
There’s nothing to be scared of in that.
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