Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to for work. Whatever your job is, teacher, PR, hitman (hitperson?) you're made to slightly adjust your own personal beliefs and realine them with what's useful for your job. Be it pretend to enjoy inoffensive but dull office banter, up your tea intake, or attend things you're not sure about but you aren't paying so it's not like the time you had the school chore of buying the Daily Mail every day for the school library because your BFF's mum was the school librarian and for some reason a subscription could not be arranged in Brussels where we attended school. Probably something to do with the EU and straight bananas. Also that situation might be a little...specific to me but you get the terms we are working on here.
This is what happened to me last week. The launch of Charlotte Raven's venture-formerly-known-as-Spare-Rib-until-Spare-Rib-got-cross Feminist Times has been covered in most newspapers and feminist blogs. Due to my boss being a founding member I attended the 'restitution ball' and here is why I wasn't in the ballin' mood.
The favourable story of it crashing soon after Woman's Hour ran an interview with Jenny Murray and Charlotte Raven was rather overshadowed by the site's attempt not to become the new feminist Private Eye so much as the new feminist Daily Mail with a taste for clickbait.
During her interview with Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour on Thursday morning Raven said she had been insired to begin a new feminist magazine because feminism: "feels as if it needs a voice for all the people who aren’t represented in mainstream media."
The favourable story of it crashing soon after Woman's Hour ran an interview with Jenny Murray and Charlotte Raven was rather overshadowed by the site's attempt not to become the new feminist Private Eye so much as the new feminist Daily Mail with a taste for clickbait.
During her interview with Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour on Thursday morning Raven said she had been insired to begin a new feminist magazine because feminism: "feels as if it needs a voice for all the people who aren’t represented in mainstream media."
| Unfortunately Raven misread the voice of those who aren't represented in mainstream media. Posting an anonymous piece in a new section (they're all new sections) of Feminist Times called Taboo Corner concerning the author's belief in forced sterilisation of women, entitled Sterilise Her. | The new thing seems to be the blameless feminist. Which sadly - unlike the humourless feminist stereotype - is increasingly well deserved |
As Jo onEverydayvictimblaming.com noted: "My first thought was this might be about a woman who didn’t want children, and was struggling with the medical profession taking this seriously. We know women find it difficult to be respected by medics when they choose sterilisation as a form of contraception, knowing that they don’t want to have children." It was not.
"Reading this article, I felt like I was playing 'woman-hating bingo' via a Daily Mail article, not an article in a magazine purporting to be supportive of women. This victim blaming, woman-hating nonsense has no place in a 'feminist' magazine, no matter how many clicks they are aiming for."
Subsequently the offending article was removed with the observation "We got it wrong." Unfortunately for Feminist Times, to publish will always be interpreted as to endorse and forced sterilisation is not a subject that some women do not have the luxury to debate over drinks.
Many feminists or people who have increasingly chosen to identify with queer over feminism will, having checked out the site, be feeling rather similarly to how Raven feels about the glossies and their recent realisation that feminism is...kinda zeitgeisty right now guys: "It feels like they've co-opted feminism."
To paraphrase Cher Horowitz, I don't want to be a traitor to my feminist wave and all but we have got to look beyond the female body. Specifically the white, cis female body. The restitution ball was clearly designed to be a little fun, the humourless feminist stereotype lives on but mostly in very small feminist groups.
However Feminist Fun had been interpreted as being served by men in male celebrity masks (I had this explained to me and it was such a confusing reason I instantly forgot, my mind actually rejected whatever it was), having a woman in a box made of lycra from which she would push parts of her body through, a giant vulva through which you could walk and a woman pulling a tiny plastic deer from her shaven vulva. I see a lot of performance art and I could not even begin to interpret that. I think you get the performance art you deserve.
The new thing seems to be the blameless feminist. Which sadly - unlike the humourless feminist stereotype - is increasingly well deserved. I realise that that ball was intended as a celebration, and even though I don't agree with the product entirely I respect a lot of work went into it from a team that contains hard-working feminists. Time will tell if the Feminist Times has started as it means to go on.
Squeamish Kate
"Reading this article, I felt like I was playing 'woman-hating bingo' via a Daily Mail article, not an article in a magazine purporting to be supportive of women. This victim blaming, woman-hating nonsense has no place in a 'feminist' magazine, no matter how many clicks they are aiming for."
Subsequently the offending article was removed with the observation "We got it wrong." Unfortunately for Feminist Times, to publish will always be interpreted as to endorse and forced sterilisation is not a subject that some women do not have the luxury to debate over drinks.
Many feminists or people who have increasingly chosen to identify with queer over feminism will, having checked out the site, be feeling rather similarly to how Raven feels about the glossies and their recent realisation that feminism is...kinda zeitgeisty right now guys: "It feels like they've co-opted feminism."
To paraphrase Cher Horowitz, I don't want to be a traitor to my feminist wave and all but we have got to look beyond the female body. Specifically the white, cis female body. The restitution ball was clearly designed to be a little fun, the humourless feminist stereotype lives on but mostly in very small feminist groups.
However Feminist Fun had been interpreted as being served by men in male celebrity masks (I had this explained to me and it was such a confusing reason I instantly forgot, my mind actually rejected whatever it was), having a woman in a box made of lycra from which she would push parts of her body through, a giant vulva through which you could walk and a woman pulling a tiny plastic deer from her shaven vulva. I see a lot of performance art and I could not even begin to interpret that. I think you get the performance art you deserve.
The new thing seems to be the blameless feminist. Which sadly - unlike the humourless feminist stereotype - is increasingly well deserved. I realise that that ball was intended as a celebration, and even though I don't agree with the product entirely I respect a lot of work went into it from a team that contains hard-working feminists. Time will tell if the Feminist Times has started as it means to go on.
Squeamish Kate
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