Monday, 30 September 2013

NOTES: Feminism


Feminism
Historical perspective
·         First wave- mid 19th – early 20th century
    They are concerned about gaining political equality and fought for the right to vote for women.

Suffrage movement
The term Suffragette is derived from the word suffrage, meaning the right to vote. The group was composed of women in the United Kingdom who wanted to be involved in the running of the country (most pressing issue at the time was voting) and they wanted to be treated as equals to men.

The Suffragettes movement is a group of women who wanted the right for women to vote in the late 19th and 20th century. The movement was started by Millicent Fawcett who founded the National union of Women's Suffrage. The suffragettes refused to bow to violence and would sometimes chain themselves to railings and burn mailboxes in a fight for this right to vote.
http://www.ask.com/question/what-was-the-suffragette-movement

Pankhurst
Pankhurst was a leading British women's rights activist, who led the movement to win the right for women to vote.

In 1889, Emmeline founded the Women's Franchise League, which fought to allow married women to vote in local elections. In October 1903, she helped found the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) - an organisation that gained much notoriety for its activities and whose members were the first to be christened 'suffragettes'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml

Sylvia Pankhurst
In June 1914, she famously took a delegation of working class women to lobby Prime Minister Asquith who did not think that working class women were intelligent enough to have the vote. This proved to Asquith that working class women were intelligent enough to vote.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/votesforwomenrev_print.shtml

When did women get the vote?
Women were not given the vote before the war. At the end of the war, in 1918, however, the Representation of the People Act gave women over 30 the vote, and in 1928 this was extended to all women over the age of 21.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/votesforwomenrev_print.shtml

Why did the suffragettes resort to hunger strikes?
To get the attention of the media for the government to notice them. They went on a hunger strike when they were sent in prison.

·         Second wave Feminism – 1960’s – 1970s

What can you find about the feminist movement of the sixties and the seventies?
Feminism changed many women's lives and created new worlds of possibility for education, empowerment, working women, feminist art and feminist theory. For some, the goals of the feminist movement were simple: let women have freedom, equal opportunity and control over their lives. Here are some specific feminist movement goals from the “second wave” of feminism.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/feminist_movement_goals_in_the_60s_and_70s.htm

What did they achieve in terms of changes in law?  

1960s

·         1964 The Married Women’s Property Act entitles a woman to keep half of any savings she has made from the allowance she is given by her husband. (www.bbc.co.uk)

·         1965 Barbara Castle is appointed Minister of Transport, becoming the first female minister of state. (www.bbc.co.uk)

·         1967 Labour MP David Steel sponsors an Abortion Law Reform Bill, which becomes the Abortion Act. The Act decriminalises abortion in Britain on certain grounds. Originally, abortion was entirely illegal, but was changed to make it legal when the woman was in danger of dying. However, in 1938, Dr. Alex Bourne deliberately challenged the law to clarify what constituted legal practice in relation to abortions. He performed an abortion on a 14-year-old rape victim, though her life was not in danger. The doctor won and the ‘Bourne Judgement’ opened the way for other doctors to interpret the law more flexibly. (www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk)  

The Women’s Abortion and Contraception Campaign played a significant role in the passage of the act. (www.prochoiceforum.org.uk) 

The contraceptive pill becomes available through Family Planning Clinics. (Greater London Authority (2003) capitalwoman, GLA: London) The NHS (Family Planning) Act permits health authorities to give contraceptive advice regardless of marital status and the Family Planning Association (FPA) follows suit. (www.fpa.org.uk)

·         1968 Women at the Ford car factory in Dagenham strike over equal pay, almost stopping production at all Ford UK plants. Their protest led directly to the passing of the Equal Pay Act. (www.bbc.co.uk)

1970s

·         1970 Working women were refused mortgages in their own right as few women worked continuously. They were only granted mortgages if they could secure the signature of a male guarantor. (www.eoc.org.uk).

Britain’s first national Women’s Liberation Conference is held at Ruskin College. This is the first time women’s groups from across Britain have met in a single place. The Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM), influential throughout the 1970s, develops from the conference. (www.channel4.com)

The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to pay women lower rates than men for the same work. (Greater London Authority (2002) capitalwoman, GLA: London) The act covers indirect as well as direct sex discrimination. It is a direct result of women’s strike action of Ford machinists and pressure from the women’s movement. (www.eoc.org)

The Miss World Competition is interrupted by feminist protestors claiming the contest is a cattle market. They throw flour and smoke bombs, inaugurating the first protest event organised by the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

·         1971 Over 4,000 women take part in the first Women’s Liberation march in London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1972 Erin Pizzey sets up the first women’s refuge in Chiswick, London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1974 The National Women’s Aid Federation is set up to bring together nearly 40 refuge services across the country. (www.woyla.co.uk) 

Contraception becomes available through the NHS. (Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)  This is also a direct result of pressure from the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

·         1975 The Sex Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against women in work, education and training. This is another act pushed through by the women’s movement. (www.channel4.com)

 The Employment Protection Act introduces statutory maternity provision and makes it illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The National Abortion Campaign is formed in response to James White's Abortion (Amendment) Bill. It organises 20,000 people to create the largest women’s rights demonstration since the suffragettes. (www.prochoiceforum.org.uk)

Welsh women drive to Brussels to deliver the first ever petition to the European Parliament calling for women’s rights. (www.eoc.org.uk)

·         1976 The Equal Opportunities Commission comes into effect to oversee the Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The Race Relations Act makes it illegal to discriminate on grounds of race in employment and education.(Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)

Lobbying by women’s organisations ushers in the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act is introduced to protect women and children from domestic violence. The Act gives new rights to those at risk of violence through civil protection orders. (Women’s Aid (2004) Celebrating 30 years of Women’s Aid, Women’s Aid: Bristol)

·         1977 Women’s Aid lobbies government to acknowledge women and children at risk of violence as homeless and introduce their right to state help with temporary accommodation. (Women’s Aid (2004) Celebrating 30 years of Women’s Aid, Women’s Aid: Bristol)

Mainly Asian women workers mount a yearlong strike at Grunwicks in London for equal pay and conditions. (Greater London Authority (2002) capital woman, GLA: London)

International Women’s Day is formalised as an annual event by the UN General Assembly. (www.woyla.co.uk)

The first Rape Crisis Centre opens in London. (www.woyla.co.uk)

·         1978 The Women’s Aid Federation of Northern Ireland established. It went on to become the lead in the voluntary organisation challenging domestic violence in Northern Ireland and currently provides support to over 10,000 women every year. (www.niwaf.org)

The Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent is set up. It is the first black women’s organisation in Britain to organise at a national level, bringing black women from across the country to from an umbrella group for black women’s organisations. (Mama, Amina (1996) The Hidden Struggle, Whiting & Birch: London)

·         1979 The feminist journal ‘Feminist Review’ is founded. It went on to play a crucial role in promoting contemporary feminist debate in the UK. (www.feminist-review.com)
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female prime minister. (www.timeline.info) Six women are acquitted in the ‘Reclaim the Night trials’ in London. (Spare Rib, No. 83, June 1979)
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/humanresources/equalities/doc/gender-equality-timeline.pdf

What did they achieve in terms of changes in ideology?
The decades of the 60s and 70s were in fact characterized by enormous change in the range of behaviour and choices open to women in our society. Consciousness was raised, and attitudes of both men and women underwent significant change concerning women's capabilities and rights, while the notion of equality between the sexes gained increased legitimacy.
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/identity_pol.html

·         Third Wave Feminism – 1980s - present.

Third Wave Feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study, whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but are often marked as beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to the present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism

What are their aims?
Purpose
·         Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which often assumed a universal female identity and over-emphasized the experiences of upper-middle-class white women.

·         They believed there needed to be further changes in stereotypes of women and in the media portrayals of women as well as in the language that has been used to define women. Therefore, third-wave ideology focuses on a more post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality

Who are some of key thinkers/writers?
Some third wave feminists
·         Naomi Wolf  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Wolf
·         Tavi Gevinson (founder and editor-in-chief of the online Rookie Magazine aimed at teenagers) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavi_Gevinson
·         Joan Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Smith_(novelist_and_journalist)

Friday, 27 September 2013

VIDEOS

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball



Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell



Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines [Feminist Parody] "Defined Lines"


ARTICLE: Sexism, Feminism and Taylor Swift

It appears that everyone hates Taylor Swift. Often, this is rationalized because she dates too many boys, writes songs about them and is supposedly "anti-feminist." There are so many things wrong with this that I don't even know where to begin.

Disliking Swift because of her dating habits is all kinds of awful. No one deserves to be looked down upon for who and how often they choose to date, not Swift and not that girl in your chemistry class. Furthermore, Swift hasn't even been with very many guys: the last time I checked, there have been six of them since 2008. Six! In five years! That doesn't sound bad to me; I know girls who've dated more than that in high school alone, and there is nothing wrong with that. Harry Styles, who Swift dated from October to January, has been linked to at least seven girls in the three years he's been in the spotlight, and no one is calling him a slut or a whore because when guys date multiple girls they're a "player" or a "stud." This may not seem like a big deal, but it perpetuates the idea that girls do not deserve the same respect as boys.

And then there are Swift's songs, primarily about relationships, breakups and falling in love.

Why is this considered bad? Other artists write about love, and it's hardly surprising: love is a powerful emotion. People say that her songs are immature because she always blames the boy, but are you really going to tell me that during your last breakup, you said to yourself, "This was MY fault"? You probably didn't, because it is a natural reaction to blame the other person. And for those of you who claim that Swift is stuck at age 14, she was 14 when she began her career, and middle and high school students remain her largest audience. Writing to her audience is an intelligent thing to do and a big part of the reason she has remained so successful.

The anti-feminism argument is another issue entirely. Swift is a perfect model of a feminist: she's one of the most successful artists in history in an industry in which it is notoriously difficult to find success. When her album Red came out in October, it had opening sales of 1.2 million, the highest recorded in a decade. She is the only female artist to have had two opening weeks with more than a million album sales each. Over her career spanning seven years, she has sold over 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads. Plus, she writes or co-writes all of her songs. She has worked for her success.

The whole point of feminism is that women should be able to make choices about their lives without an centuries-old stigma hanging over them. If Swift wants to write songs about love and date six boys in five years and has an idea that she will one day fall in love with a boy and they will live happily ever after, why is this a bad thing? She should be able to make these choices without facing criticism from an inherently sexist society that still does not have a lot of respect for women.

Whether you like Swift or not, this is something we should be paying attention to. Disliking Swift because she dates "too many boys" may not seem like a big deal, but this kind of sexism is the same sexism shown in the Steubenville, Ohio rape case, where an intoxicated 16-year-old girl was raped, photographed nude and assaulted. When the teen football players were found guilty, CNN broadcaster Poppy Harlow said it was "incredibly difficult" to watch as their lives "fell apart," even though these boys committed a horrible crime that probably will haunt this girl for the rest of her life.

So, if you dislike Swift because her music's not your thing or you think her voice is thin, by all means, continue. But if you dislike her for any of the reasons mentioned above, I encourage you to reconsider your ideals.

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Articles/links: Feminism

FEMINISM
2011 documentary ‘MissRepresentation’ by Jennifer Siebel

This video contains discussion on how females are represented in the media. They think that media distorts people's perspective mainly male on women. Media is the message and the messenger. 

Sarah Silverman
"Women everyday are naked around each other everyday but it's just taboos in movies, it's jolting to see" - Sarah Silverman. The media exaggerates everything when it comes to females and the things that they do for example showing off their bodies, they think that only males can show off their bodies, and in our society today it is okay for males to strip while females can't.


Naomi Wolf discussing Third Wave feminism
She thinks that women voices and opinions are slowly sinking and that they don't get enough recognition and attention (media attention wise). Naomi Wolf says third wave feminism is far more pluralistic about sexuality and personal expression. She believes that third wave feminist uses the media to their opinions out there. Third wave feminism is about evolution not revolution. 

Cinderella ate my Daughter
The video talks about how female characters in movies are portrayed can have an affect on how little kids will look at life and their choices in life. The messages that they send to little kids are being nice and pretty are the most important things not being smart or being strong. 

The Simpsons / Malibu Stacey

Toys such as Barbies, can affect how little girls will look at life, how they will act, dress or present themselves in front of people. Somehow shows such as the Simpsons proves it.

Power Rangers Advert

Target market - boys, the advert promotes violence through they things they said (voice over) for example: battle and drive evil away. This can affect how little boys will treat other people in the future especially females. 

Bratz Advert

The advert promotes growing up to little girls when they are not supposed be yet. They evoke little girls that make up is good and changing their appearance will get them more attention. Little girls might carry this doing when they grow up and become an adult. Stereotype.