Chapter 9
Focussing on the controversies within feminism, like those outlined in the previous chapter, could suggest that such conflict is the main feature of this movement; but that is far from the case. In fact, even with such lively disputes going on, activists actually noted that RTN was a fairly easy banner to unite under, and that one of the good things about this protest was that it could bring together the Feminist Movement and feminist individuals. This in turn added to the feelings of solidarity which activists valued and which inspired them not only to attend the marches, but to stay involved in feminist activism all year round. In this chapter, I shall look at what motivated activists to attend and organise RTN marches and what they felt they got from such events.
Firstly, the activists noted that even with all the lively debates going on under the broad label of feminism, the RTN march could actually serve as an important shared space or common ground on which feminists of differing stances could work together as well as walk together.
RTN is a pretty easy banner to unite under, everyone feels comfortable opposing rape. When an RTN is organised in your city, it acts as a platform for collaborating, networking, awareness raising, relationship building.
(Carrie)
As well as serving as a common cause, Carrie points out that an RTN march is a good route into feminism itself. Some activists actually found volunteering and job opportunities through their local RTN marches for example, and through meeting organisations and individuals who were speaking or running stalls at the rally. Christabel for example volunteered to help set up a Rape Crisis service in her city through meeting other activists at monthly RTN planning meetings, and a year later was on the board of a new successful service which is still running today.
I reckon that I wouldn’t be the person I am if it wasn’t for RTN, and I wouldn’t be doing the things I am. Because you get the solidarity, but you get aware of all the organisations as well, like Rape Crisis, and it’s great, motivating and inspiring.
(Christabel)
Through these sorts of introductions, RTN operates as a sort of easy access point or recruitment site for feminism generally and for other feminist campaigns and groups. Activists pointed out that after all, it does not require much commitment or feminist knowledge to go along on a local march. An interested person could go on their own and would not need to worry if they did not know about the issues in great detail, as a march is very different from a meeting or group where they may be asked questions or expected to contribute. Here all they have to do is take part and march along. Bridie, an activist in her twenties who identified her feminism as Christian feminism, said that for her, this was one of the really nice things about RTN and a feature which made it accessible, welcoming and important in terms of bringing new people into the movement.
It’s a place for women to gather and meet that doesn’t demand such a large commitment as joining a group. It’s a good way to introduce women to the movement.
(Bridie)
RTN then serves several purposes. It can recruit new women and men into feminism, it can act as a morale boost for those already involved and encourages their sustained involvement, it fosters a sense of solidarity within the movement and it acts as a living, walking, marching example of the continued existence of a large, eclectic and powerful Feminist Movement. The march then speaks to those both within and without the movement, bringing benefits for those on the march as well as those watching it go by. Indeed some of those watching may next year be on their own local march or even organising one.
It can often be the first entry point into activism for young women coming to feminism for the first time.
(Bette)
Clearly then, there is much common ground on the routes of RTN and activists with sometimes differing or conflicting views end up marching together under one banner. Indeed, in many cases, feminism has more in common than in conflict, and this emerged when I asked activists about what kind of feminist future they envisioned and where they saw the movement going. Many similar motivations for marching were put forward, as well as many similar feminist destinations identified; this was regardless of any or which particular school of feminism someone was signed up to. In addition, similar milestones or short-term goals were often identified and these served as possible indicators of success on the way to ultimate feminist revolution.
Where are we marching to?
For many activists, the ultimate aim of RTN is of course to end all forms of male violence against women, and while none of the activists I spoke to expressed a concrete belief that this would happen any time soon, they felt that the march could contribute to this ideal in the future. In a way, the means of this protest are as important as the ends themselves, especially when the end, being the aim or goal, is correctly identified as being a long way off. The positive features or effects that activists noted about RTN are benefits that can empower individual women and empower the Feminist Movement as a whole through maintaining and building the collective feminist identity that is necessary if the movement is to continue. RTN walks the walk as well as talks the talk, it provides an opportunity for women’s leadership, for women’s skill sharing and education, it practically engages women in politics and political activism. While these outcomes in themselves do not end male violence against women, they are necessary ingredients if we are ever to do so. This is what I mean when I argue that the means are as important as the ends, as the anarchist theorist Bookchin has pointed out, ‘there can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal’ (1974:45).
Maintaining RTN, keeping the march marching and being part of organising this event in your own town or city is therefore an important and significant contribution to feminism as a whole. There are also plenty of other campaigns to keep busy with during the rest of the year. All of the activists I spoke to were engaged with other feminist groups and events, including other protest marches such as Million Women Rise and also other movements for social justice. In an effort to come up with some sort of current snapshot of feminist concerns as well as practical pointers for feminist action, I asked all the activists what their priorities were and what they thought were the most important areas feminists should focus on now. Importantly, I was interested in their practical ideas for feminist revolution. Our sisters of the past formulated their own Seven Demands and this gave them some sort of road map; I wanted to know what our direction of travel is today and whether we too can come up with some sort of wo-manifesto of our own.
The grand aim of feminism, identified by all the activists I spoke to, no matter their political tendencies, was to demolish the current system of social governance, which they identified as patriarchal and capitalist. Ultimately, they wanted to replace this exploitative system with a more sustainable and egalitarian model which would create a fairer and more peaceful future not just for women but for our planet and all life. Fortunately, they were also realistic about interim or temporary goals which might actually be achievable in their lifetime and which could build a legacy for future feminists. It is important that we in the movement discuss and identify such goals. We need to come up with our own political theory and strategies so we know where we are headed. Too often feminist events or feminist publications of the current resurgence just outline and highlight how awful everything is, provide statistics on unequal pay, on the numbers lost to male violence, on the rollback of equal rights for example; but they do not then say what on earth we can do about it all. I asked RTN activists what they would do about it.
Their signs of progress or feminist success were all remarkably similar. They included for example the demise of the beauty industry; a decline of pornography and the sex industry; the achievement of equal pay; cheaper childcare; quicker and easier access to abortion for all; longer, equal and paid maternity and paternity or parental leave; equal representation of women in politics, business and culture; a drastic reduction in male violence against women; and a sea change in how these crimes are treated by the criminal justice system and reported on in the media. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these aspirations bear striking resemblance to the Seven Demands of the Second Wave.
How would we know then when we were nearer to finally winning these demands? Twenty-four-year-old feminist Lucy said that for her, it would be when the beauty industry was no longer so severe and when young women in particular did not feel so pressured to live up to very narrow standards.
The cosmetic and beauty industry, I just really hate it. When you go on a night out now you can tell that women have spent hours getting ready. My friend said her little sister is only 16, and she spends two hours getting ready for school every morning. I just think it’s so horrible that the value of women’s worth is so tied up with how they look. I think when we no longer have that, then we’ll know we’ve had a big breakthrough.
(Lucy)
When I met Lucy in the North of England in the University where she worked and studied, she was not exactly wearing dungarees (not that there is anything wrong with dungarees and they are very practical attire we may all want to consider as revolutionary dress), nor did she seem to eschew cosmetics or jewellery for example. She was not suggesting that people should no longer enjoy fashion or have fun expressing themselves through their clothing and appearance. I do not think that feminism is fighting for that, for a world where we all wear the same things and all look the same. The irony is of course that this particular myth is one of the many that still surrounds feminism, yet meanwhile today we have a society where young women do indeed already all look the same and do already all wear the same things. In contrast to this reality, feminism is actually striving for a world where we are no longer prisoners of advertising, fast fashion and the big global brands. We have to imagine what increased options for expression we may have if we were not held to ransom like we are, and what creativity and individuality that might make space for. At the moment, it is very difficult for people to be different in any way. Take as one example the fundraising phenomenon of the ‘no make-up selfie’ which took the social media site Twitter by storm in early 2014 and raised tens of thousands of pounds for a cancer research charity. While I support creative awareness raising and of course applaud the generosity of those who donated to this cause, if we look a little further into this craze, it perhaps has some less than pretty things to say about our culture. Why is it that one of the bravest things a woman can do in our society is to be seen without make-up? Why are women’s faces not seen as acceptable to the outside world without make-up, while men’s faces are seen as generally fine just as they are? Why is that women feel exposed, or worse, at risk of ridicule or attack if they express themselves through their body unadulterated and natural?
These are not trivial questions; they are of great importance. They are questions that every feminist should ask of themselves and each other, not to judge, but to explore the chains that bind us at every level including in our personal lives. Feminism has to be more than a meeting we attend on a Wednesday night; it has to be more than a single-issue campaign we supported once at school or college. We can take a lesson from the Second Wave in the mantra that the personal is political, or rather, should be. Too often today, it seems the reverse, people’s politics are seen as private but also as completely removed from their personal lives, with both being seen as realms of ‘choice’ and ‘agency’ therefore out of bounds for question or critique. Politics are not for life it seems, and they are not about lifestyles any more. Rarely do politics actually seem to influence our lives in the way that used to be the case during the Second Wave – for better or worse. Few feminist activists now live in shared housing or communes with other feminists or other progressive political people for example. Few feminists would take seriously the idea from the Leeds Revolutionary Feminists that they should analyse their own heterosexuality and seriously consider removing their focus from men in order to commit fully to the feminist cause. Few feminists analyse their own lifestyles by talking with one another in CR groups for example. Few feminists see a link between feminism and environmentalism, feminism and anti-capitalism or feminism and animal rights. Few feminists make decisions to be vegan or vegetarian following ecofeminist analysis of ‘othering’ and the masculinist logic which places only monetary value on all life. Few feminists today would consider getting arrested in NVDA or living full-time at an anti-war or environmentalist protest. These points were not agreed in the 1970s either, but importantly, they were at least on the agenda and feminists were aware of these questions. Of course, I am sure I am guilty of romanticising that period, like many other younger feminists. I am also sure that not everything about that period was quite as it seems from my trips through the archives and from the trips down memory lane which Second Wave activists recounted to me. However, it does appear that the feminists of that time seemed to believe, even if it did not always work out in practice, that feminism was and should be about their whole life, how they lived it, and how they lived up to it.
We do need to question our choices and actions today too, especially when those choices all look remarkably similar and especially when they have the effect of propping up current machinations of patriarchy. This was articulated by Mary, a charity director working in the South of England and an activist of many years.
Far be it for me to talk about such old-fashioned ideas as false consciousness, but if you find that your voices are what the patriarchy would like you to say and do anyway, then surely that is up for debate. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, I’m just saying, surely, it’s up for challenge.
(Mary)
Mary was careful to explain that she was not suggesting that women who follow mainstream heterosexualised hyper-feminised fashions for example are suffering from false consciousness. Gone are the days like those in 1969 when feminists suggested such women were ‘sheep’ in their famous demonstration outside the Miss World Pageant in America. Today you will see feminists of all kinds on RTN marches and at conferences and other events. There are feminists who march in high heels, just as there are those who march in steel toe-capped boots. Politics of all kinds, not just feminism, is about looking into what ‘choices’ are available to us and just how much of a choice they really are. We also need to look at who or what benefits from those choices. That is not the same as saying that women cannot be feminists if they dress a certain way or do not dress a certain way. There is no feminist uniform; any woman can be a feminist.
How could we begin to interrogate these kinds of choices though, or begin to try something different? Rather than no make-up selfies, how about no make-up weeks, how about no make-up months? Think of the time and money that women could save. How about women supporting one another to try out not shaving their body hair for a while? After all, men’s legs and armpits are considered normal when covered in hair, likewise their genitalia. Body hair is of course a sign of an adult human body, which has passed puberty; considering the statistics on child sexual abuse, it surely is a little bit creepy that hairless bodies are so sexualised, for women in particular, but increasingly for men too. Rejecting, reducing or temporarily giving up these types of individual actions would also have a wider effect as they would make the world easier for people who reject such beauty practices and often receive unwanted attention due to the rarity of that choice. Such personal political actions would also help to make the world a less judgemental and dangerous place for people with physical disabilities, people with scars or disfigurement or just all those of us, the majority of people, who do not look like a model in a magazine, whether male or female. Because being different is so hard in our culture, many people will not want to or will feel they cannot take part in such lifestyle changes to their appearance, but they can still be aware of what forces lie behind their choices to conform. Like Mary said in the quote above, such everyday personal choices and actions should still be up for debate because that is part of raising our consciousness about all the myriad of ways that women are treated differently to men and the ways that the hierarchy between women and men is imposed.
Linked to this, many of the activists I met, though not all, felt that the decline of mainstream pornography would be a sign of feminist success and a step on the way to a more feminist future. Even when activists agreed with this stance though, only a few said that they would welcome an actual ban on mainstream pornography. The difficulty of controls and bans in the world of the internet was well understood by all the activists who raised this issue. However, the idea that porn is so widespread that it will never go away was a passive approach not supported by those I spoke to. It was felt that as feminist awareness raised and as more women became engaged in feminist activism and theory, the numbers of young men regularly accessing or using porn may decrease naturally.
I think it’s always interesting when you talk to people about pornography and they say, well you can’t get rid of it. But I think if we lived in a post-patriarchy I don’t think we’d have porn, because there’d be no desire to treat women as lesser, or as objects, and there’d be no presumed male right to do that.
(Kira)
It is important, with this issue and many others, that we remember not to give up on tackling things that seem so widespread and irreversible. Pornography depends on consumers desiring to see certain images of women and of sexuality and sexual acts. In turn, it influences what viewers or users think is sexy, sexual or desirable in the first place. The circularity of this relationship is debatable, by which I mean that it is unclear how much influence consumers actually have in this relationship; perhaps more power is invested in the multibillion-dollar porn industry than in consumer demand, and if that is the case, then that industry shapes consumers more than the reverse. Much mainstream porn is purely and simply about the sexual objectification of women. It is often about men subjecting women to violent or degrading sexual acts; it is about eroticising men’s power and women’s submission. Such representations are meant to boost men’s sense of power and entitlement and extend that sense of power and entitlement over women’s bodies and women’s sexuality. Much of mainstream pornography is misogynistic, much of it contains narratives which bear similarity to rape; and there is of course a vast and undeniable market in so-called extreme or violent pornography, in so-called revengepornography and in the growing amateur market.
Of course, people will point out that such a summary does not represent all pornography, and of course, there are women and men who are trying to make pornography outside of the mainstream that I speak of. There is so-called queer, alternative, amateur or feminist porn for example. However, sometimes such apples seem not to fall so far away from the mainstream tree, and copying tired old stereotypes or misogynistic violent fantasies with the only differences being all-women actors or actors with a few more tattoos and piercings than usual does not a revolution make in my opinion. To those people genuinely trying to explore and express sexual pleasure in pornography which is nonsexist, non-racist and non-exploitative, I say good luck. This is no easy task in a culture so influenced by plastic fantastic mainstream images, imagery which is often about the gendered sexualisation of violence, dominance and aggression and too often simply about men bringing women down a peg or two and putting them in their place – that place being a malleable and responsive sex object. Even McDonalds can make a salad so to speak, but that does not redeem the fast food industry as a whole. Ultimately, I believe we should indeed be part of a feminist struggle against the mainstream pornography industry and we should try to take that industry apart however we can. We cannot sit back and accept that this industry is freedom of speech, or irony or liberating, cool or modern, when it is of course one of the oldest, most predictable oppressions of women, and one of the most base. The porn industry is a gendered industry; as a rule, men are not portrayed in pornography in the way that women are, and the great majority of porn is aimed at male consumers – we cannot overlook that fact. It is not sexy, modern, fun or cool to reduce women to sexual objects and sexualise dominance, aggression and harm to women’s bodies, not least in a world where male violence is far from fantasy, but a brutal reality for far too many.
In pursuit of this grand, and admittedly idealistic aim, we could start small, we could start with the so-called soft porn that surrounds us, the everyday sexist images of women as sex objects, of women as prey to men’s male gaze. We can complain about sexist advertising for example, whether on billboards, bus stops or in the media. There are ombudsmen or governing bodies which regulate advertising. In the UK, it is the Advertising Standards Agency. Individual television or radio channels also usually have options for feedback and complaints. Complaining to the company itself is important, especially as women represent such a large group of consumers. Telling companies you will not shop with them unless they raise their game can be very successful and consumer power has already made changes to clothing ranges and to children’s toys for example. Students are already uniting in the fantastic No More Page 3 campaign to ban the British newspaper The Sun from campus shops for example. Businesses could do the same, as could charities, schools, colleges, local councils. Such institutions could make all their workplaces and public buildings places that are free of sexist imagery, free of the tired old sexism in newspapers like The Sun and in magazines like so-called lads’ mags. Parents could pressure their local schools to take such a stand. Nurses and doctors could ask that their hospital adopt such rules. This action could also be taken against other everyday sexist imagery, such as sexist slogans on clothing. Schools for example should not be a place where female pupils are allowed to wear tops with statements such as ‘future footballer’s wife’ or ‘affordable’. Likewise, boys should not be allowed to wear tops with prints of naked women or supposedly funny lines like ‘future porn star’. It may seem like a drop in the ocean to prohibit such styles in the classroom, but many drops eventually fill an ocean. Even if children and young people receive messages about equality and anti-sexism nowhere else, they should certainly receive them in school. We all talk about changing the world, but that has to begin with changing minds and that takes education. For too long our children have been un-educated the other way, they have been indoctrinated with gender stereotypes and clichéd sexism presented as humour or irony. It is time we started turning that tide and made schools the safe and equal places they are supposed to be, but usually are not.
Likewise, that means that sex and relationships education should be on the curriculum in our schools. Here in the UK, the coalition government rejected an opportunity to make this compulsory. They must be made to change their minds on that and this is an important feminist campaign. There already exist copious amounts of excellent resources for schools to teach pupils about resisting sexism and gender stereotyping. Long-standing feminist organisations such as Rape Crisis, White Ribbon Campaign and Women’s Aid provide lesson plans, pupil resources and whole curriculums for children and young people of all ages. Parents, teachers and school governors could bring these resources into their schools, even while we wait for leadership at government level in the Department of Education. At the end of this book, you will find a useful list of websites, including for the organisations above, and you can download examples of lesson plans. You could even use these yourself if you are part of a youth group or if you volunteer at a local youth club for example.
For young people gaining qualifications and leaving school, the workplace remains another site of unequal opportunities. Equal pay is yet another demand from the 1970s that is still yet to be won, as is the equal representation of women in mainstream positions of power and influence.
I think in terms of indicators, you know, can we try equal pay for a start; can we try equal numbers of women in power for a start. Maybe sometimes even more than 50 per cent, that would be normal.
(Shulamith)
For a law to exist on statute for over 40 years and still not be enforced is of course quite disheartening. It is testimony to the tight hold of patriarchy, to the grip that this system has on men and also on women themselves. Regularly we are fed stories in the media about how women do not put themselves forward, do not ‘lean in’, do not ask for pay rises or promotions as if this is a biological fact of female nature. It is sexism which stops women from believing in themselves, because eventually, we begin to believe in the hype about us instead of believing in ourselves. We begin to believe that we really cannot do maths, that we are not as good at science, that we do not have spatial awareness, that we are not as physical as men, that we lack leadership, that we are not as good as men, that we do not deserve to be paid the same as men, that our work is not of value.
Women should not have to present a special case to get paid what men get paid for doing the same or similar jobs, nor should they have to be twice as good as the next man or work extra hard to get noticed. If average men can get on in their careers, gain promotions and pay rises, then average women should be able to get on too. I refuse to believe that all the men in powerful or senior jobs really are super humans; I suspect a fair amount of ‘affirmative action’, ‘positive discrimination’, sexism and sex discrimination got them where they are. Let me be clear, I am saying that the men who rule the world are not necessarily the most skilled, experienced or suited to those jobs. I am suggesting that they got their jobs in part because they are men, because they benefited from male privilege and male nepotism which looks after its own. For every one of those men, I am arguing that there is a woman who could do the job just as well, so long as structural and institutional sexist barriers were removed from her career path. This is all women are asking for after all, not an easy route, not unfair advantage, not patronising help, just the same opportunities that men enjoy.
If the balance was redressed then capable women could move on and up, a skills addition which would have revolutionary benefits. The time has come to actually make this happen rather than just talk about it though, and governments should immediately enforce all women quotas, positive discrimination in favour of women and transparent pay reviews in workplaces so everybody knows who is being paid what and for what responsibilities. We can all take action on these steps, for example by joining our trade unions and getting active, by pressuring our elected parliamentary representatives, by joining political parties and keeping this issue on the agenda. There are also many feminist campaigns on equal pay, such as that from the long-standing organisation Fawcett, in the UK. There are campaigns for equal political representation too, like the 50:50 Parliament group founded by Frances Scott and working for equal representation in Westminster. Sometimes people misunderstand campaigns or demands such as those in favour of positive action or affirmative action, women-only shortlists or women-only quotas, and too often people wrongly assume that this means just promoting any woman to a job whether she is suitably qualified or not. That is a ridiculous assumption and is not what any feminist campaign or demand is suggesting. If two people apply for a job and they are both equally qualified and the employer feels both would fit in well to the organisation, but one is a woman and the organisation is underrepresented in terms of women, then of course the employer should consider the merits to the organisation of recruiting the female candidate. That, in fact, is what fairness would look like; though it is often seen and denounced as precisely the opposite. To many people, such a situation is read as unfair to the male candidate, but what is forgotten is the centuries of sexism that have gone the other way. Notice that nobody complains so much about, or even notices positive action when it operates in favour of men. If people do not like the idea of positive action, then they should stop doing it and supporting it to privilege and advance men, then there would be no need to redress the balance for women in the first place.
Equal representation is not just an issue for big business, positions of power and politics either, though we certainly should have representative governments which look like the people they dare to govern. The activists I spoke to also wanted to see a change in cultural representation. Cordelia, a 63-year-old activist with over 30 years of experience in the WLM was tired of seeing a White, male monologue on the television.
It will be a sign of feminist success when I turn on the telly and I don’t see identical middle-aged White men in suits in every organisation that is portrayed; whether it’s journalists or politicians, or academics or University Challenge.
(Cordelia)
At the moment, perhaps the best way to change this situation is to try and get into the mainstream, including into mainstream positions of power. Join political parties, stand for election, and not just in the main parties, but the smaller ones that are trying to do things differently, and in the parliaments of the Celtic nations that are also trying to do things differently. They too need feminist input, vision and direction. Wherever your heart leans, let your voice follow; the important thing after all, is to be heard. Apply to become local councillors, put yourself forward to speak in the media, write to local papers, call in to local and national radio talk shows, become school governors, magistrates or sit on local health or education boards. This will not be easy. It is never easy to get on inside institutions that were built to keep women outside. The old institutions of power were established in times when women were never allowed or expected to be part of them, only subject to them. In her classic feminist text Against Our Will (1975), Susan Brownmiller takes her last chapter to give some advice on how we can further the feminist revolution. Her advice is well worth revisiting and reiterating. Just like the modern activists I spoke to, one of the key goals Brownmiller emphasises is equal representation in power. She states that the goal of 50 per cent representation is of utmost importance for women’s rights. It is worth noting that she does not see any divide here between so-called insider or outsider feminism, nor does she demean insider state feminism, as some people call it. She does not set up a hierarchy between these standpoints nor afford the moral high ground to those on the ‘outside’ of the system, to those who refuse to work within the state and within mainstream positions of power, because we need both insider and outsider activists. All forms of resistance are good after all, and we need all the resistance we can get, from all sides. We need to be in the town halls writing policy, and outside them with placards too when refuges are threatened or children’s centres closed down. We need to be in the Courts of Appeal, in dusty wigs and gowns if necessary, being legal representatives for women who have killed violent partners in self-defence, just as we need to be outside the courts too, waving banners emblazoned with those women’s names and calling for justice for women.
While many of us would hope one day not to have armies, nor police, nor prisons or any of these trappings of the imperialist state, that is what we have now. We have to ask ourselves who we want to ‘man’ these institutions, these sites of power, until the revolution commeth. Do we want rows of faceless bureaucrats and yes-men? Or, as long as these systems exist, should we not be in them? Should political, feminist, socialist and justice minded people not be in these very institutions working with people in our society who have usually been failed all their lives by those very institutions, which they then ironically have to depend upon? Of course, these are imperfect systems, because we live in an imperfect world. But while those systems are there, we need to be in them: lawyers, police, judges, academics, social workers, journalists, politicians, policy makers, teachers, business leaders, prison governors. We need to be in those institutions. So do not lean in – get in; get in, play patriarchy at its own game, and win for women.
Another step on the way to feminist success is of course the number of women involved in feminist campaigns and also involved in politics generally. All the activists I spoke to emphasised the importance of growing feminist activism, and of increasing spaces where women can get politicised at all, and this was seen as an aim of feminism generally. To this end, raising the participation of women in other social justice movements was also seen as key. Too often of course, women are actually already in other social justice movements, though not so often in positions of leadership within them, for the same sexist reasons activists identified at the start of the Second Wave in the 1960s. Women have long made up the backbone of organisations working for peace, for animals, for the environment, against racism, against poverty; the movement they are not so often in is their own – the WLM. Nevertheless, it is true that our movement will only march forward on the bridges we build between complimentary social justice movements and there is no competition there because being together makes us all stronger. Feminist activists gain useful skills in the Anti-War Movement or the Anti-Racist Movement for example, which they can then also use in any feminist campaigns they are involved in. Likewise, women who have felt supported and empowered to become leaders, organisers or media spokeswomen in feminist spaces, and especially in women-only spaces, can take that political experience into other campaigns they are part of and enrich all social justice movements.
The number of women proud to call themselves feminist also stands as a barometer of feminist success. Many of the activists I met were actually positive about progress towards this particular goal, and they felt that there was more feminist awareness generally than they had seen previously. Kristen, a 63-year-old retired nurse has been involved in feminism in the North of England for over 30 years. She described her feminism as radical and also as socialist. She was active politically in her city, against austerity cuts and threats to the National Health Service, which she was part of for many years. She saw many young, political, powerful women in the campaign groups she worked for and was pleased to find out that they usually did not shy away from feminism nor the label of feminist.
A sign of success will be when women regularly show that feminism is an important thing to them; and I think that is the most hopeful sign really nowadays.
(Kristen)
Despite our resurgence and growth however, our movement is still a niche movement. We have to accept that, even though it will not seem it to those activists for whom it is their life, for those Amazon activists who are immersed in the feminist scene. That is why it remains so important that we are vocal, visible and ‘out’ about our feminism and that we use the label proudly. This is a key awareness-raising tool and helps to build up and recruit to our movement. Feminism always was a niche movement after all, even during the Second Wave, which so many young women look back on now as if it was some sort of golden time. In reality, activists should take heart at the statistics I have presented here in this book, such as the fact that there are more RTN marches today than ever before and more people on them than ever before. Feminist commentary is in the media today in a way it never was just a few years ago; our movement has influenced not only laws and policies but the very language we use to discuss issues such as domestic abuse or female genital mutilation. Politicians, even right-wing politicians use our language, they use feminist theory developed in the 1970s and 1980s; though they are probably unaware they are doing so. What has actually happened here is that radical feminist theory on male violence in particular, which was so contested in the Second Wave when it was first developed, has become mainstream, has, in many ways, been proved right all along. The journey to the mainstream, the insider drift, has of course not gone without hitch or drawback however, and we should remain alert to the way our language of liberation is too often turned on its head by the patriarchal status quo and used to further entrench our repression. Likewise, the fact that our terminology and theory is being used does not mean it is understood or acted upon and so there I add a note of caution.
While we still face many challenges, some of which are complex and hard to untangle, and while our movement is certainly not perfect, it is undeniably a profoundly successful, grounded, reflexive and forward thinking social movement. It is one of the oldest and most powerful justice movements. Feminism, and the political identity of feminist, is nothing to be ashamed of, quite the contrary. All of us can take action in our daily lives and further the revolution by just calling ourselves feminist, by discussing feminism regularly and by acting like it is the most normal thing in the world that one would of course be a feminist. So be proud of your feminism and shout it loudly from the rooftops. When people ask you why you are a feminist, ask them why they are not. Ask them why they disagree so strongly with the right to wear whatever clothes we like, the right to own property, to have a bank account, to get into university, to drive, to vote, to stand for political office, to travel alone, to have maternity leave, to have a safe and legal abortion if needed, to prosecute rapists and abusers. Many people think that these sorts of rights were just given to us by the state, that refuges and abuse helplines just fell out of the sky or grew on trees. Everything that we take advantage of today, everything that we see as basic are in fact rights that were hard won, and they were won for us by the feminists who have gone before; they were never freely given and they remain under threat. This is especially true in a climate of so-called austerity, where ideological right-wing cutbacks target essential services for the most vulnerable. This is a legacy we have to protect, not be embarrassed about nor turn away from. Your movement needs you now more than ever.
Violence was of course another area where activists wanted to see and make change. As I mentioned earlier, they were not naïve enough to think that one march or protest in their city was going to stop all rape or stop all domestic abuse. In fact, activists were not even sure that male violence would be wholly eradicated in a feminist future; but they hoped that such crimes would be drastically reduced and the societal response to them altered.
I’d like to say no rape, but you know, like with murder, it probably would still happen, but it would be seen as the serious crime that it is and it would be seen that the perpetrator was to blame.
(Christabel)
A feminist goal then, on the way to revolution, is to aim to prevent and reduce male violence against women of course, and also change the way it is treated when it does happen. Feminists want an end to victim-blaming, an issue which arose with so many of the activists I met. It was this issue that motivated them to march every year and why they personally were so committed to the continuation of RTN. We may not be able to end male violence in one night, or tomorrow, or next year or even in our lifetime. What we can do is ensure that all those affected by it have quick and transparent access to quality, local, women-only services run by the specialist services grounded in the WLM. We can try to influence policing and laws, so that women are believed when they report male violence, so that jurors, magistrates and judges are aware of how these crimes, often perpetrated over many years, come to affect and change the victims. We can support feminist organisations already in place to help women affected by violence and abuse, such as Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis, Justice for Women and Women in Prison.
We can also challenge the reporting of male violence in the media, critiquing the sort of coverage which perpetuates those ideas of spatial provocation which I mentioned earlier in this book. If you see victim-blaming headlines in local papers focussing on the clothing of a rape victim, or the time she was out or whether she had been drinking for example, you can complain about that and you can write a public letter for the next issue. We can all point out that the only people to blame for rape are rapists themselves. You can also educate yourself on local and national crime statistics so you can challenge anti-feminist myths which try to suggest that most rapes are false reports or which grossly exaggerate the numbers of false reports. Incidentally, here in the UK, these are estimated to be no higher than for false reports of any other crime, they stand at around 2 per cent; in fact, they are significantly lower than false reports of crimes against property for example or car crime. Another immediate action we can take is to make sure that as many women as possible know about all the services and campaigns in place for survivors of male violence. I remember attending a survivor’s breakfast once, in very formal surroundings in the Houses of Parliament. It was organised to launch some policy or manifesto, one in a long line which I have now forgotten; however, at this event, a brave survivor spoke, a man who had lost his sister to the man she married, to a husband and father who became fatally controlling, violent and abusive. I remember this survivor saying that before he was forced so brutally into this matter, into the issues of police responses, the lack of cultural belief, woman-blaming media reporting and the cutbacks of women’s services, he had no idea that a whole movement of women existed to protect women affected by male violence and end these crimes. That is something we certainly can change.
We can make sure, right now, that every woman knows what services exist, and also knows that a global movement exists to make sure she never needs them. You can memorise the telephone help line numbers of national services for example, such as those run in the UK by Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis, or you could order or print off wallet-sized cards with this information and carry them with you at all times. When friends or colleagues raise concerns for themselves or others, you can then make sure they access the right support quickly, rather than being passed from service to service and having to tell their story so many times. This really could be the difference between someone living with abuse for months or years, between someone surviving or thriving, between life and death. Make sure the organisation you work for, whatever area you are in, has a policy on domestic abuse and on what support it offers to employees affected, such as time off to attend housing or legal appointments, such as emergency loans or pay advances to move into temporary accommodation. Likewise, organisations and institutions also need policies on how to respond to employees who are perpetrators, to men who may represent a danger to women in the workplace or women they come into contact with through their work.
All these sorts of practical steps which activists identified were in pursuit of that much grander ultimate aim of feminism of course – dismantling patriarchy and ending the male supremacy which has brought us to the brink of planetary crisis. For many feminists, our movement is always about more than women and it is about way more than equality for women in our unequal world. Feminism is about anti-capitalism, it is about anti-racism and anti-imperialism, it is anti-militarisation and anti-war, it is for non-human animals and for the environment.
Feminism is everything that patriarchy destroys. It’s not just about gender and sex. All the violence, greed, the wars, nuclear weapons, poverty – all of that is linked to patriarchy and to a patriarchal world view. Feminism is beyond that.
(Bronwyn)
It often seemed that whatever the revolutionary question, feminism was the answer. As Catherine said,
feminism makes everyone a winner.
(Catherine)
To win then, to get us to where we want to be, some activists felt it was time for a return to the Seven Demands, time for some sort of badge or sign-up pledge for feminists so that our movement can have clear meaning and clear direction. Mary felt that, while we may want to add to them in light of our changed environment, the Seven Demands could still stand as a useful benchmark, a useful beginning or basic wo-manifesto for feminism.
I’m kind of fascinated by whether we do actually need a card-carrying feminist, you know, back to the Seven Demands. So, this is what it means to be a feminist, and if you don’t agree with these, you’re not a fucking feminist.
(Mary)
Of course, there are contentious issues in there, not least the right to abortion on demand. This is another area of conflict within the Women’s Movement globally, although it is one I have not touched on here, but some people may feel uncomfortable having to sign up to that demand. However, this is a good example of the difference between personal values for oneself and political goals for society. A woman could personally reject abortion and never seek one for herself; but she should surely not dictate bodily integrity or reproductive rights to another woman who may not share her values or may be put in a position, by violence or poverty, where she cannot share them. The right to safe, non-stigmatised and legal abortions is of course still another demand yet to be won. Organisations like Abortion Rights in the UK are working hard to protect what rights we do have and ensure access for others around the world; their details can also be found in the resources section at the back of this book. For those longer standing or more aware activists who knew of the Seven Demands, all these demands were seen as important personal as well as political goals. They were goals they wanted for their own lives as well as for the lives of others and they saw their activism individually and collectively as a way to speed up the securing of these demands. Perhaps they are as good a place to start as any. Perhaps in your feminist group, collective or CR meeting you could have a think about it more, you could add to and enrich this famous statement. Perhaps we could reinstate the tradition of National WLM Conferences, where we could put forward and interrogate such new ideas for times that are in so many ways changed, yet which in other ways remain so depressingly the same.