Category: Politics

Jun 18

The Milk of Sorrow

This sad and strange Peruvian film is showing at the Stratford Picturehouse on Thursday. I’m miffed that I can’t go so I am sharing it with you, my tiny reading public.

The protagonist, a young woman called Fausta,  is ill with a disease contracted from her mother’s breast milk known as “the milk of sorrow”,  a condition that only affects those women in Peru who were abused or raped during the years of terrorist struggle.  This Grauniad review says “This Peruvian lament examining how distress passes down the generations is subtle and wonderfully moving.”

Here’s the trailer. Please go and support the screening of weird films at Stratford Picturehouse!*

* ‘Weird’ is intended to be entirely complimentary, btw

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Posted in Art, Feminism, Film, Folklore, Stories, Stratford

May 03

My post from The F Word: Why I love Education For Choice

Thought I would copy across the post I did as part of Education For Choice‘s stint as guest bloggers on super UK feminist site The F Word. It’s my first time speaking out officially on behalf of EFC and I hope it comes across how much I respect the staff and the organisation as a whole and how proud I am to be a part of it </ gush>

Farewell from Education For Choice

By Education For Choice | 30 April 2010, 17:30

I’ve lobbied my MP, I’ve waved placards, I’ve donated money. I’ve argued with my friends, my colleagues, with strangers. I’ve shouted into a megaphone. On one memorable occasion I carried a flaming torch around Bloomsbury. I’ll go a long way to defend the principle of a woman’s right to choose. But until I joined the trustee board of Education For Choice I confess I hadn’t given enough thought to exactly who was making the choice, and what the reality of their situation might be like.

One of the things that first appealed to me about EFC was the fact that all their work is grounded in the experiences of the young people they talk to. They speak with absolute authority when they say, as Kate did in her post a couple weeks ago, that much of the information young people receive about abortion is little better than anti-abortion propaganda. Not just partial, not just biased, not just alarming and distressing, but outright lies.

I didn’t know the extent of it. My school sex education was laughable, but we never had any outside visitors stop by to show us horrific photographs (and for that I am thankful as it would have made my job as the only feminist in the village even more difficult). Learning about EFC was the first time I really understood how hard it must be for young women to make choices about pregnancy and abortion, perhaps without support, and in many cases without the facts.

Education For Choice works to ensure that young people can access the information that is theirs by right, and make informed choices about pregnancy and abortion. By directly providing vital facts and resources to fight the frightening myths spread by the anti-abortion movement, they make a real difference to the lives of women and girls across the country.

And I mean ‘across the country’: EFC staff regularly trek around England providing training to equip teachers and other professionals with the practical advice and resources they need to have an open, balanced discussion about sex, pregnancy and abortion, and to allow young people to make up their own minds.

It would be nice if we didn’t have to fight for decent sex education, support for all pregnancy choices and free access to safe abortion every single decade, but that doesn’t look like changing any time soon. After recent talk of cutting the late term abortion time limit, we’ll be hearing a lot more about abortion during and possibly after the election. Rest assured you’ll be hearing a lot more from Education For Choice as well.

The EFC staff blogging here might not want to ask you for money, but a good trustee should also be a shameless fundraiser, so I *will* ask for your support. Education For Choice reaches thousands of young people every year on a shoestring budget, and anything you can give will help to make sure young people across the UK have the facts about abortion. You can make a donation online here.

This is the end of EFC’s month as guest bloggers. Thank you for having us – we’ve really enjoyed it, and we hope you’ll stay in touch. If you’d like more information about our work, or you’d like to get involved, please email Kate at kate [at] efc.org.uk. Also keep your eyes peeled for a notice about EFC’s brand new, very own blog, to be launched soon!

Sarah Jackson is a trustee of Education For Choice.

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Posted in Activism, Feminism, Human Rights, Politics, communications

Mar 24

Astronautrix, astronette, feminaut, space girl…

Jerrie Cobb and Mercury Capsule

Jerrie Cobb posing with the Mercury capsule. Note properly ladylike white gloves and high heels.

What *do* you call a female astronaut? These are some of the ingenious words that journalists invented in the early 1960s to avoid having to say ‘astronaut’ when describing Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass NASA tests and qualify as an astronaut, although she never had a chance to go into space.

I’ve been thinking about astronauts recently for two reasons. Firstly, a friend of mine lent me this absorbing book about the ‘Mercury 13′ – women including Cobb who were trained as astronauts but never went into space because America wasn’t brave enough. And secondly I discovered a pile of my old school reports in my mum’s flat the other day and was astonished to read that my stated career ambition at age 11 was ‘astronaut’.

I mean, I loved space and stars and rockets – are there any kids that don’t? And I do remember wanting to be an astronaut. But at 11? It makes me wonder how old I was when I gave up wanting to be a knight of the round table…

A dream for boys?

I’m not going to rant about how being an astronaut shouldn’t be a distant dream for a girl. Let’s face it, astronauting isn’t an easy line to get into, it’s a distant dream for most people. Apparently there have been 512 humans in space, of which 10% have been women (Wikipedia has a list of space travelers.) Unimpressive, I agree, but when you bear in mind that we can scarcely get women into the House of Commons (around 20% of MPs are women) getting them into space seems like less of a priority.

What really interests me is that women into space doesn’t really go even as a dream. Of course, there’s been an astronaut Barbie, but the gender stereotypes that so confused journalists back then are still very much in evidence in the aisles of toy shops today, as this post neatly shows. Being an astronaut is a childhood dream for boys only. No surprises there for my fellow Ada Lovelace Day bloggers.

A dream for men?

In fact, even in adult culture  it seems we’re not totally cool with the dream of female astronauts. Here’s a brief, interesting article by Marie Lathers from Times Higher Ed about women astronauts in films, which takes in Alien, Contact, Apollo 13 and even I Dream of Jeannie (astronaut husband). Lathers sees an identification of the feminine with mother earth and nature, setting them in opposition to space and even to science. Given this conflict she suggests that women in space are more frequently aligned with the alien (our old friend the Other) than with the human space adventurer. She sez:

Popular culture representations of women in space reveal a need to “ground” women by keeping them bound to Earth. Woman grounded is woman subjected to the weight of gravity; bodies in space defy gravity. Feminist theory needs to assess the possibilities that rethinking women in space affords. “Extraterrestrial” feminism may provide a way out of the essentialism that bottles us up.

It’s an interesting notion. And one that the arts student in me would like to pursue. However, I wanted to talk about some of the real female astronauts as well as the dream. I’ll just give a few examples from their stories, I couldn’t bear to pick just one of these incredible women.

‘A woman’s place is in the cockpit’

I mentioned poor Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13 who so narrowly missed being the first ‘feminauts’. Another fascinating woman is linked to the US Women in Space Program. Without beautician-turned-aviator Jackie Cochran – who held more speed, altitude and distance records than any other pilot in aviation history at the time of her death in 1980 – it may never have happened at all. Check out Right Stuff Wrong Sex for the story of a serious political operator at work.

Russian Valentina Tereshkova made it to first woman in space, in 1963 (beating the US by an appalling TWENTY YEARS) and launched skywards from a suitably proletarian background – she was a textile factory worker and an amateur parachutist who left school at 8 and continued her education through correspondence courses. She spent 3 days in space, and went round the earth 48 times.

Physicist Dr Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, in 1983, and one of our own (feminists, that is). Ride reportedly:

refused to be seen in television downlinks doing food preparation or toilet cleaning, even though these were shared crew responsibilities. She refused to accept a bouquet of flowers from NASA after completing her first space mission. She pasted a bumper sticker to the front of her desk: “A woman’s place is in the cockpit”

Ride went on to found science education organisation Sally Ride Science, which pleasingly promises to be “all science, all the time”. And encourages girls to learn about and enjoy science and maths.

Women to look up to

I think it’s particularly because I’m not from a tech or science background that female astronauts are like superheroes to me. That’s why I love this Flickr set of loosely inspired portraits Philip Bond has done. Obviously they’ve lovely things in themselves, but I like them because they look like collectible playing cards, or stickers. I want Tereshkova on a t-shirt. I want people to ask me who she is so I can tell them.

Valentina Tereshkova by Philip Bond, 2009

Valentina Tereshkova by Philip Bond, 2009

You know when I said earlier that getting women into space wasn’t really a priority? Not compared to getting women into Parliament, for example. Well, in a way that’s not true. It’s all a priority. Because real life role models give you the permission to have the dream. Every girl who dreams of being an astronaut won’t become one. But she may become an engineer, or a physicist, a mathematician, a pilot, an athlete. She might teach science to other girls. She may be a leader.

There are exceptional individuals who blaze a trail, like the women above. But I think I can safely speak for most of us when I say it’s nice to have someone to look up to.  Why was I so keen on being an astronaut? I think it was as much to do with Helen Sharman, who became the first British person in space when I was 8, as it was to do with my love of stars. You’ve probably deduced that I didn’t become an astronaut. But I did become a feminist, and it’s women like these that inspire me.

On a final point, I have no idea what to make of this merchandising opportunity. I sort of love it and it sort of makes me want to cry.

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Posted in Feminism, Politics, science

Feb 15

The Human Rights Act – what’s not to love?

Human rights heart graphic How many of your human rights can you name? Really? Before I started working at Liberty I reckon I would have got the right to life, maybe. Right to free elections. Right to an education. But that’s about it. Here’s a nifty interactive microsite we have made to help explain in plain English which freedoms the Human Rights Act protects, with links to more information about the individual rights and how they apply.

Liberty conducted a ComRes poll in December and found this startling result: the British public support human rights. 96% believe it is important that there is a law that protects rights and freedoms in Britain. However only 11% of respondents remember receiving or seeing any information from the Government about the law that does (source).

Our campaign aims to increase understanding and respect for human rights values, and to give people a chance to learn about the Human Rights Act and what it means for them. Please help us by sharing the link www.love.commonvalues.org.uk as widely as you can, with your friends, colleagues and networks, and share the love for our Human Rights Act.

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Posted in Activism, Human Rights, Politics

Feb 11

Human power: Oxfam and Christian Aid campaigns

Ask someone to describe a typical charity appeal and there’s a good chance they’ll describe what duckrabbit have christened the ‘Africa is f**ked, now give us your money’ approach. Misery. Guilt. Cash. Two campaigns have caught my eye for taking a different line, cutting out the pictures, the grimness and guilt and replacing them with a celebration of ‘human power’.

A positive call to action

Rather than dwelling on the problems, these campaigns assume we know them already, and focus on getting us involved in solving them.

This is exactly what Oxfam’s Be Humankind ad campaign launched with last year, through a series of colourful billboards featuring thought-provoking slogans like “Get rich quick. Give”, and a short animation that focused on the world-changing power of ordinary people. The warm and fuzzy message of the film was nicely balanced by a bit of creepy animation, although I wasn’t very keen on the oral Care Bear stare at the end. I get the symbolism, but I don’t want to vanquish injustice by vomiting freedom. Can I be empowered in a less gross way, please? Thanks.

Christian Aid’s current Poverty Over campaign makes a similar appeal based on our power to improve the world, a power which is rooted in our humanness. They add a compelling twist to the message – poverty is a problem we created, so we can end it. It does help to make their goal seem more achievable, but it’s also an unfortunate reminder that if humans weren’t so powerful there’d be a whole lot less mess to clean up now. The campaign challenges people to explain why ending poverty is impossible and then counters them with reasons why it isn’t. This is a deft bit of supporter engagement, drawing people into the debate, and radiating confidence.

Words not pictures

By using typography and simple graphics rather than photos, these campaigns can make a case for common humanity but bypass the sentimentality of the ‘holding hands around the globe’ photographic oeuvre. Watch this quietly inspiring little animation about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s simple, inclusive and positive, without being sickly. There’s not a human face in sight, and no soaring strings in the background – it lets the words do the work.

It is impossible to represent humankind with two or three faces, and as soon as a campaign includes an image of a person it becomes divisive: “But I’m not black / white / happy / hungry / fabulously attractive, what does this have to do with me?”

Celebrating human power

Oxfam and Christian Aid encourage participation by creating an appealing inclusive collective identity which goes deeper than asking people to become an activist – they want you to become a good human. Julie Wood, Oxfam’s director of corporate communications said about Be Humankind: “A lot of people want to see change but feel useless when faced with the issues, but we are all in this together.”

Those last six words are key to the success of this approach. By invoking a common identity that has respect and intolerance of injustice at its heart, these campaigns make change seem possible through the power of collective action. It also reaches a warm, glowing hand into our technologically insulated and community-starved 21stC lives. For anyone with a swollen social conscience like myself, it’s heady stuff.

This is a neat way of tapping into the support of people who are interested in the issues but who are apathetic, or turned off by obviously emotional charity appeals. But what about people who still need convincing that they should care about poverty or injustice? Aiming for the lowest-hanging fruit makes sense though, and I’d be very interested to know how these campaigns have performed. Go human power!

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Posted in Activism, Human Rights, Politics

Oct 20

Is sex trafficking a myth? No, but prostitution is the real problem

“Inquiry fails to find single trafficker who forced anybody into prostitution” (link). Well, that’s sorted then.

I won’t waste time attacking the article,  but I’ve a couple of points to make about the  debate. I did my Masters dissertation on this topic, so I am basically an expert. If they just listen to me everything will be fine.

So: Misleading media coverage and misguided policing has helped to establish a set of  criteria for ‘legitimate victimhood’ for women who have been trafficked, which excludes a huge number of serious cases and obscures the wider problems faced by women in the sex trade. You probably know the stereotype: virginal 15 year old Albanian blonde is promised a job as a waitress, or maybe even kidnapped, and when she arrives in the UK she is beaten and raped and forced to work as a prostitute. This is real. It does happen. And amazing but severely under-funded organisations like the Poppy Project can tell you about it, because they spend every day picking up the pieces.

But it doesn’t happen nearly as much as the tabloid press would have you believe. And – astonishingly enough – the lives of real women are more complicated than lurid Sun case studies. There are many different routes for migrant women into the UK sex trade, and coercion may or may not be involved at any point.

Because the media, the police, the government and – sadly – a number of campaigns have focused so narrowly on kidnap and involuntary prostitution, many migrant women working in the sex trade are unable to access services when their human rights have been abused. As an example, a woman who willingly enters the UK sex trade, but finds that she is forced to hand over all her earnings to her pimp, has no ability to refuse customers and is prevented from leaving. That is slavery, whether she comes from Thailand, Moldova or Bromley.

By conjuring a moral panic based on a discourse of innocence, border violations and kidnap, the media and the government fail to engage with the risks and problems surrounding ‘domestic’ prostitution. This means that many women working in prostitution continue to be failed by a State that does not offer them protection, but it also impedes progress in combating trafficking for sexual exploitation where it does occur.

Hope that makes a bit of sense. It’s been tricky trying to condense 15,000 words into 500 so if anyone wants to actually read the thing you can do so: Violating the Body Politic

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Posted in Feminism, Human Rights, Politics

Aug 03

London Poverty Profile online

Did anyone else end up in competitive ‘prolier than thou’ conversations at university? The need to establish your authority as as a REAL person who knew about HARDSHIP? I suspect it is probably just an Oxbridge thing, and a stupid and self-indulgent thing at that.

I grew up in Cornwall, which is a much poorer area than most people think, but it’s not exactly the ghetto, let’s face it. But a lot of London-born people I know still have a trace of that rivalry – ‘at *my* school the drug-dealers weren’t waiting at the school gates, they were in the staff room’ etc…

London’s Poverty Profile is a useful resource not for settling those arguments, but for reminding you that while there are certain areas that are clearly deprived, poverty in London nestles right alongside prosperity.  As the poverty indicator page about inequality says:  ”Haringey is London’s most divided borough. Its 19 wards contain four of the richest and five of the poorest wards in London.”

The site is the product of serious research and it’s a fascinating tool for studying patterns of disadvantage, I’m sure it will be useful for nipping outpoormanship conversations in the bud, but also for campaigners who want to make a fairer city.

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Posted in London, Politics

Apr 07

‘Trail of the Spider’: an East End Western?

This looks fantastic; a Western set firmly in East London. Here’s the East End Film Festival programme note:

Western genre motifs are transformed to the landscape of East London. Questioning and re-imagining the Western’s portrayal of the ‘Vanishing Frontier’, this film recreates the epic panoramas of the Western in Hackney Marshes, the Thames Gateway and Essex. Using landfills, wastelands and gravel pits linked to the construction of the 2012 Olympic Park, it questions volatile financial speculations, private interests and the spectre of the Olympic gold rush. Working with a large cast of actors and non-actors (many of whom are themselves residents of East London), the film explores the compromises of a population facing this new order.

Trail of the Spider Poster

Trail of the Spider Poster

The trailer manages to transform the scrubby patch down the road, where people walk their dogs and play frisbee, into something wild and strange. Even the hats and the accents don’t break the spell. You can also visit filmmaker Anja Kirschner’s site for more on the ideas behind it. It’s showing at Stratford Picturehouse on Monday 27 April, 8.30pm and followed by a Q&A. See you there?

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Posted in Film, Hackney, Newham, Olympics, Politics, Regeneration

Mar 09

Suffragettery in Bow

In honour of International Women’s Day yesterday, and the fact that 2008 marks 90 years since UK women won the vote, I thought I’d post a little bit about Sylvia Pankhurst and the suffragettes of East London. There is suffragettery all over the place around here. As you walk out of the station you’ll see a fairly unremarkable-looking corner shop on the other side of the road opposite you. There are in fact two special things here:

  1. They have racks of fruit and veg outside which they light up with strange, appetite-killing blue and violet light at night.
  2. Above the shop is a box-shaped clock attached to the building by some spindly bits of metal.

The clock is a memorial to one of the East London suffragettes, Minnie Lansbury, who was elected to Poplar’s first Labour council in 1919. Minnie, along with other council members, spent 6 weeks in prison for failing to collect the full rates owed by the people of Poplar (Poplarians?) Bow police station is a little way down the road, where lots of the suffragettes were held after being arrested at demonstrations for breaching the peace, often in nearby Victoria Park. At one protest in 1914, Sylvia Pankhurst and 20 other women were marching to the park, linked to each other with chains, when they were ambushed by police who dragged them to the boating enclosure and smashed the padlocks, twisting the arms and tearing the hair of any women who tried to stop them.

Sylvia Pankhurst was dispatched to Canning Town by her formidable mother, Emmeline Pankhurst, in 1906, to win the support of the working women in the East. She set up the East London Federation of the Suffragettes, working from No. 400 Old Ford Road. The group didn’t just campaign and protest (and support pro-women’s suffrage MP George Lansbury, Minnie’s father-in-law and grandfather of Angela, yes, that Angela, a.k.a Jessica Fletcher) they also ran a hall for meetings and lectures, a cost-price restaurant, a mother and baby clinic, a day nursery, and a toy factory, as an early sort of fairtrade initiative. I find this tremendously impressive.

Emmeline (and her other daughter, Christabel) eventually became estranged from Sylvia, her East London suffragettes and her socialist, pacifist ideals. She stayed in the East, moving to Essex where she continued to campaign on a number of issues for the rest of her long life, much to the discomfort of the rest of Woodford. My grandparents lived in Woodford, and I can imagine them disapproving thoroughly. But then, they were terribly good at it.

Here’s a bit more Sylvia-lore for interested folks. You can also read some excerpts from her own record of her time in Bow on Home Made Jam. I also recommend Rosemary Taylor’s book Walks Through History: Exploring the East End (Amazon) which has a walk dedicated to the suffragettes. The wonderful Women’s Library in Aldgate also has a lot of walks featuring many of the kickass women of East London.

And finally, if you feel like thanking the women that fought so hard to win the vote, you can join the Fawcett Society, which was founded by suffragist Millicent Fawcett, and has been working for women and equality since 1866.

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Posted in Activism, Bow, Feminism, History, Human Rights, London, Politics