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Feminist protesters storm red carpet at London premiere of Suffragette

11 replies

blacksunday · 07/10/2015 21:04

More than a hundred protesters jumped the barriers onto the red carpet as green and purple smoke bombs filled the air outside the Odeon cinema

More than a hundred feminist protesters jumped the barriers onto the red carpet at the premiere of Suffragette in Leicester Square. Women were seen being physically carried and pushed back over barriers as green and purple smoke bombs filled the air outside the Odeon cinema in central London on Wednesday.

Activists from Sisters Uncut, who campaign against domestic violence, attended the red carpet event saying they wanted to bring attention to the cuts to domestic violence services and declaring “the battle isn’t over yet”.

Helena Bonham Carter, one of the stars of the film, was seen to mouth “Oh golly” as the protesters jumped the barrier as she was walking the red carpet. Undeterred she continued signing fans posters and posing for photographs. Interviewed by Sky News at the premiere, Bonham Carter said: “I’m glad our film has done something. That’s exactly what it’s there for,” adding that the protest was the “perfect” response to the film.

The actor Romala Garai, who also stars in the film, was giving interviews as the protest broke around her. She said: “I haven’t spoken to them [the protesters] or seen their demands but I’m happy to see the suffrage movement is alive and happening.”

New mother Carey Mulligan, who plays aspiring suffragette Maud Watts, said: “Hopefully this film will inspire everyone in the way they view the world. We are an unbalanced society – women and men – and films like this inspire conversations about how we can correct that imbalance.”

Anne Marie Duff, who has a young son, has also been educating her child about gender equality. She explained: “We are all the same. It doesn’t matter what bits of flesh we have – we are all equal. And if we have the same skills we should be paid equally for them.”

Presenter Lauren Laverne was forced to raise her voice to interview the directors on camera in front of the cinema as the activists chanted “Dead women can’t vote” and “We are suffragettes”. The premiere was running at least 15 minutes behind schedule as police joined the fray and extra barriers were brought in.
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Janelle Brown, from Sisters Uncut said: “We believe that all women facing domestic violence should be able to access support and safety. Clearly the government do not share this belief, as they are removing funding for life-saving support services.”

Shantha Masters, a support worker from a specialist refuge group for women of south Asian origin, said: “I am here because I am angry about cuts to specialist services. But I am also here to represent – to show that all women of all backgrounds have rights and if they are not met we will take action until they are.”

Domestic violence survivor and Sisters Uncut activist Angie Johnson said: “My life was saved by specialist services and we must fight every step of the way to make sure all women can access them.”

Latifa, who did not give her surname, added: “The struggle for women’s liberation isn’t over. At a time when two women a week are killed by violent men in the UK, we need to keep fighting because dead women can’t vote. This in the context of austerity. Access for women to social housing, benefits and legal aid have all been reduced and women are dying.

“These cuts disproportionately affect women of colour. Of the 32 services for women affected by domestic violence that have been closed since 2010, they were all specialist services which helped LGBQ and BAME women.

“It’s timely because the cast of the film is entirely white and they are running with this slogan, ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave’ which implies passivity or acceptance of being a slave. But it also ignores the fact that women of colour were completely involved in the suffragette struggle. This film isn’t representing them.”

Asked why the protesters chose to target a film seemingly supportive of their feminist stance, Latifa said: “This film is talking about women’s liberation in a very celebratory sense and there’s this argument that we’re in a post-feminist era so that means that our messages more than ever need to heard because there is this delusional element to it all.”

Suffragette opened the BFI London Film Festival, which runs until October 18.

www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/07/feminist-protesters-storm-red-carpet-at-london-premiere-of-suffragette?CMP=share_btn_fb

OP posts:
TheNewStatesman · 08/10/2015 05:05

"But it also ignores the fact that women of colour were completely involved in the suffragette struggle. This film isn’t representing them.”

...? The film is about the British suffragette movement, not the American one. I think there were a small number of Indian women supported the British movement and attended marches, but I don't think there were any prominent non-white women in this movement in the UK. That's a weird criticism to make of the film.

I agree that the cuts to legal aid are shitty, though.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 08/10/2015 16:37

Interesting. Thanks for posting blacksunday
I'm still looking forward to seeing this film though, as I was just saying to Meryl earlier! (MN chat today) Maybe they should change the slogan? - doesn't seem well considered

mollie123 · 08/10/2015 19:07

The 'slogan' is from a speech made by Emily Pankhurst and therefore is apt.
It is sad but probably not unexpected that some sections of society particularly in America have chosen to object on the grounds that whe word slave is only applicable to a certain time in history.
Do wish they could have found an English actress to play the part but it is made with |Hollywood money and a big name was needed.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 08/10/2015 19:26

Well that is also interesting that the slogan was something originally said by E Pankhurst - from what I'd heard I was thinking it was just a Hollywood thing. But still promoters of the film should be considerate of 21st century sensibilities
Sorry to hear Meryl only has a short part. Agree that finding big names seems to be a priority these days, and must make it frustrating for up and coming young actors. I've heard that MS plays it well though

TheNewStatesman · 09/10/2015 01:16

Oh, tell a lie--there was a somewhat well known Indian suffragette: Sophia Duleep Singh.

www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/books/review/sophia-princess-suffragette-revolutionary-by-anita-anand.html?_r=0

She might have been an interesting personto feature in the film at some level. Still, I don't know that the film was OBLIGED to portray her or be damned as racist. I don't think the British suffragette movement was quite the same as the US one, where non-white women were in fact involved on a very large scale and there was a kind of concerted effort to paint them out of the picture.

I don't think Americans get to "own" the word slave.

LaContessaDiPlump · 09/10/2015 14:45

I don't think Americans get to "own" the word slave.

I was thinking this earlier, NewStatesman. Women in England at the time had a low amount of control over their own lives, were subject to the whims of their men and were punished if they resisted the societal structure they lived in. It wasn't as obvious as slavery in the States (and I'm sure it was a damn sight more comfortable) but it was a form of servitude none the less. It's ongoing now in many places in the world, in fact.

Perhaps the slogan was insensitive to some degree but I think it has been misinterpreted. I'm pretty sure that if it had just said 'I'd rather be a rebel' then it would have been wildly popular.

DrDreReturns · 09/10/2015 14:58

But still promoters of the film should be considerate of 21st century sensibilities

I disagree - it's a historical film and that is a direct quote from one of the protagonists. Should we rewrite history to always remove bits we might find offensive now? imo that quote, in the context in which it was made, isn't offensive anyway.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 09/10/2015 15:16

History is always being re-written! It's always a story told through someone's eyes

TheNewStatesman · 11/10/2015 12:39

"History is always being re-written! It's always a story told through someone's eyes"

Oh, please drop the lame cultural relativism stuff. I could use the same logic to support Holocaust denial if I wanted to. The EVIDENCE tells us that the vast majority of British suffragettes were white, and it's pretty silly to pretend otherwise.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 11/10/2015 14:49

"History is always being re-written" - this was just an observation in relation to the choice to use the "slogan" from a suffragette ... "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave" to promote the film, which some people have objected to.
I'm simply saying that those telling the story should think of their audience as well as the consideration of being true to the facts as they see them.
I don't see why this observation about history and story-telling is especially lame NewStatesman
To me it's an interesting thing about history and stories too - they are always told by someone and have an audience

Bogeyface · 11/10/2015 22:46

I fully support what the protesters are angry about, they are absolutely right in what they say.

They are absolutely wrong in the way they chose to say it. As it is they, like all people who act before they think, will give all feminists and activists a bad name, like we dont already Hmm

Far better would have been to stage a peaceful awareness raising event at the premier, trying to get the film makes on side instead of making them out to be the enemy.

Its hard enough being a feminist and egalitarian, the attitude seems to be that because it is written in law that we are all equal we should be happy and ignore that those laws are inadequate and often completely ignored; why the hell are we still asking for more?! Surely the odd slap from the old man every so often shouldnt mean that taxes go to pay for specialist support for DV victims. FFS, if we were better wives and kept the kids quiet then we/they wouldnt get hit would we?!

Protests like this play into the hands of those who think like that, and makes it so much harder for us to win the war when women who claim to be part of the fight keep losing the battles for us.

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