The annual Women of the World (WoW) Festival in London’s Southbank Centre is definitely one of the highlights of my year. WoW is an eclectic festival of talks, debates, music, film and comedy celebrating women (you can view all the talks online here). I was blessed to attend Saturday and Sunday with a great bunch of GB 18-30s women.
A weekend that celebrates women is great and necessary; in many countries and cultures around the world, it is damn hard to be a girl (you can read more here). I was inspired, impassioned and challenged by what I heard. I came home with tired feet and a hope-filled heart and a swirling mind. I know that not everyone can have the privilege to go to WoW so I was determined to blog about it and share some thoughts with you so we can grow together. Here’s the first post in my WoW reflections (come back tomorrow for the next one):
1. Age is irrelevant to changing your world
Two of the most inspiring speakers at WoW were a teenager and a group of woman in their 80s. 16 year old Malala Yousafzai blew the 2,500 people in the Royal Festival Hall away on Saturday morning sharing her thoughts about equality and the struggle that she has been through. Malala urged us to play our part: ‘Our words are powerful… We must raise our voice for the girls who are silenced. If we don’t speak, we won’t see a change.’
Malala’s incredible example has always inspired me as someone who is passionate about equipping and enabling the emerging generation to speak God’s hope and truth into dark situations. Sometimes this generation does not feel that it can make a difference. Sometimes the older generation can unintentionally tell it that it’s not their time yet. Malala shows us all that we are never too young to stand up for what we believe in.
On the other side of the spectrum, I attended the Fabulous Fashionistas session on Saturday afternoon by accident (the panel I wanted to attend was full up!) With an average age of 80, the stars of Channel 4’s Fabulous Fashionistas redefine old age and defy expectations of the ageing process, determined to have fun and keep going. And they were AMAZING! One of my favourite quotes was by Sue: ‘Of course I think about death, but I choose life!’
I wonder do you ever think about the ageing process? Turning 30 last year, I started to notice the number of grey hears appearing and the crow’s feet emerging around my eyes. It’s not something I dwell on but I’m aware of it. There is definitely a prejudice in our society about older women and their value and worth. It was inspiring to see these women subverting the social norm and refusing to be limited or confined by societal expectations. They were in their 80s and still following their dreams… now that makes me go WoW!
2. Objectification leads to violence
One of the issues which came up again and again at WoW was the objectification of women. Objectification measures a person’s worth and value solely on their sexual attractiveness and ignores their personality, talents and giftings. Sexual objectification is the process of representing or treating a person like a sex object or a commodity – one that serves another’s sexual pleasure. One of the most prevalent examples of objectification in UK culture is having a naked young girl on Page 3 of one of our national newspapers every weekday morning.
Research has demonstrated the link between portraying women as sex objects and violence. The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that viewing media which portrays women as sex objects leads people to become significantly more accepting of gender stereotyping, sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, and rape myths. The UK Government-commissioned Sexualisation of Young People Review found lads’ mags ‘…promote an idea of male sexuality as based on power and aggression, depicting women as sex objects and including articles that feature strategies for manipulating women.’
This discourse was reiterated through a range of different talks and panels at WoW; from discussions around FGM to online bullying. At a debate on Page 3, London-based teacher and writer Lola Okolosie shared her experiences of working with teenage boys. She was disturbed when one boy said speaking of Page 3 models: ‘Miss, they’re not like real people. It’s not like they have real feelings.’ Her pupils also used increasingly aggressive language when asked if they would date the models – ‘I would just smash and dash it. Bang it and ditch it.’ It is very troubling to hear young men speak of women like this; but this is the reality of reducing women to a sum of their body parts – boobs and ass – in a national newspaper.
The objectification culture which surrounds us has a strong link to the increase in violence against women.
This is why Page 3 is not just harmless fun…
3. Martin Daubney and Page 3
The most heated debate which I attended was ‘Does Page 3 make the world a better place?‘ It featured a fantastic line-up including glamour model Katie Price and founder of The Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates. For the first 30 minutes, the debate was positive but then the former editor of Loaded Martin Daubney spoke in defence of Page 3.
I found it very interesting that the only male voice on the panel make the debate aggressive and retaliatory. Without answering the actual question, Martin was mudslinging at the No More Page 3 HQers about the online bullying that has taken place (no excuse for this) and there was no surprise that they felt the need to speak back, shouting from the audience.
I felt disappointed and perplexed by Martin’s views. After investigating the effect of porn on young men in C4’s Porn in the Brain, Martin concluded ‘porn is the most pernicious threat facing children today.’ Reflecting on his time as the editor of Loaded, Martin asserted: ‘We were normalising soft porn, and in so doing we must have made it more acceptable for young men to dive into the murky waters of harder stuff on the internet. And, for that, I have a haunting sense of regret.’ So how can he believe that Page 3 is not porn?
Like many times in the debate surrounding Page 3, Martin also argued that it was the case of the educated middle-class telling the working-class what to do. I loved the retort from Lola Okolosie: ‘Don’t you think that it is condescending to say that working-class men can’t go through the day without looking at a pair of boobs?’
Just. Brilliant.
4. A happy person is not a great consumer
As you know, I work and speak about cultural reproduction in today’s society; the messages that our culture is perpetuating about femininity and masculinity from one generation to the next. In The Beauty Factory blog post earlier this year, I wrote about how the ideal of beauty is manufactured. This idea was reiterated in one of my favourite workshops of the weekend – The Personal is Political – hosted by the amazing AnyBody UK. (This workshop deserves a blog post all to itself so look out for it near the end of the week). In our understanding of beauty and body image, it is important to remember that there are wider structures which seek to oppress and limit us and ultimately manipulate us for their own gain.
It was really interesting to explore this from the lens of the beauty industry and the neo-liberalist capitalist agenda. We live in a capitalist society. Capitalism relies on putting in labour to get profit and it leads to overproduction with a wide range of products and services to choose from. To get profit, companies and corporations needs to create a need for their products; products that are not really necessities.
I really do think it’s time for us to realise that companies related to the beauty industry (aka the merchants of body hatred) are actively seeking to cultivate a sense of body anxiety in women and more worryingly, girls – just to make ££££s.
After all, a happy person is not going to be a great consumer. Remember that!
5. We can all shape our culture
Sometimes when you come home from an incredible event like WoW which is jam-packed with incredible people, you can feel overwhelmed and even redundant. I mean, what can ‘little old me’ really do?
Quite a lot actually.
Find an issue which you are passionate about it and learn more about it. Then try and meet people who share your heart. What are the positive and realistic things that you can do collectively to transform this injustice?
On the other hand, not all of us are called or suited to this activist campaigning. In fact, in many ways it is important to start by looking at our daily habits. What are the little things that we can change?
In The Personal is Political workshop I was introduced to the concept of everyday acts of resistance and the power that we have to shape our culture.
What are the everyday habits that we can introduce (or change) which will free us (and others) and transform the world we live in?
It starts with us!
You can read ‘4 [more] thoughts on WoW 2014’ here – would love to hear your thoughts as we learn and grow together.
Dr Claire Rush 