Small feminist acts

@Lemoncakestrudel I don't know your specific preferences but try Badcop/Badcop, The Interruptors and The Bompops (possibly too entry-level for you, but I love them!)

With regards to Women authored books/directed films/written & performed music - I found accidentally that I prefer to read/watch/listen to art which has more relevance to me, my life, and my experiences.

Though many of these are made about women but by men, I find it difficult to accept the authenticity of it. If that makes sense.

So I think I mean that now I realise what I've been doing, I'll keep doing it more deliberately.

I subscribe to the "if I can see it, I can be it" idea, too. (And if I can be it, I want to see it, to reverse the idea).

Fair enough. I went off half-cocked, and I apologise for completely misreading you.

What BlahXXBlah actually said was: "Is there no sex based qualifier to join and if so doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

To which my answer is: "No, almost certainly not."

Thanks, KarBB, I've seen most of those but always looking for more!

But I'm nor am I going to allow idealogical purity to drive me from a project that's likely to be useful to women.
Spot on, PerkingFaintly. The amount of shouting down of women I like, such as Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer and Lena Durham annoys the tits off me. Fuck off! So they’ve done something wrong (in your opinion) and are not ideological pure. Fuck off! They are up there, living their feminism and are a rare breed for doing so and not conforming to gender stereotypes. I’m not going to minimise or apologise for or explain anything they’ve done wrong. I will continue to support them, admire them and laugh at their take on this bullshit world.
Feminism is a broad church and I’m fucked if anyone else is gonna dictate the terms to me aside from equal pay, opportunities and votes for women. And not bringing your kids up to be sexist dickheads.

I haven't called for a boycott of anything. Someone raised a query about 'self identifying women' because it gave them pause. You're the one who posted in response about Tories and anti abortion and whatever else. It seems like a good project, and I was very interested in it, and no, I don't think burning things to the ground is the way to go. But because some of the women here take a certain view of the BBC or whatever, you've decided that any questions about background stuff are a prelude to dismantling the BBC and other organisations. When actually, they might just be questions.

I continue to listen to woman's hour, complaining if needed. Where else is there a daily female programme that truly benefits women and girls by continuing to examine the issues of the day?

I don't count loose women

I have a few shares, whenever I am asked to vote on the board I always vote for the women and oppose the men. I think the men have probably never been opposed.

I have hedgehog s visit my garden, I always name them female, male, female. I don't know the sex of any of them.

Lemoncakestrudel we went to see Pussy Riot when they toured the U.K. fantastic live show.
My male teenager doesn’t talk trash about his femal cohorts and has plenty of female friends. He is 15 and his friend in the year below him has just given birth. After the initial opining with his mate and a philosical chat with him and his friend, there is no reference give to what the (teenage) father wants or what she should have done and she was texting my lad as a friend when she was in labour. He wants to help with the baby because the new mum is his friend.
I’m proud of him (he is not the father and has only been a platonic friend) for wanting to support women and girls.

I'm sorry, Jean, this was a nice thread.

I hope it continues to be a useful one.

I have to say, the recent thread suggesting we boycott Woman's Hour for, IIRC, some failure of idealogical purity has pushed me over the edge.

FGS. Stand back and DO bloody look at the big picture.

Nope, flinging shit at the idealogically impure is what BlahXXBlah just did.

Also, don't put words in my mouth.

I don't find it remotely fine or dandy if a percentage of dedicated women's support is taken by men. I'm actually quite annoyed by it.

But I'm nor am I going to allow idealogical purity to drive me from a project that's likely to be useful to women.

Can you not see the irony of your own words?

when women are putting women front and centre and using any available platform, thinking of the bigger picture

So.... like the 500 Women Scientists does then? Putting women front and centre, thinking of the bigger picture?

But if it's women nudging up to make space for gender non conforming men

Oh, no, 500 Women Scientists is All Wrong, because it started being entirely about women but might not be 100%. Burn it down and cede the ground.

Or, you know, grind your teeth and move on to dealing with both underlying problems: under-representation of female voices presenting science; and self-id allowing men to move painlessly into space dedicated to women.

I'm absolutely pissed off with this idealogical purity shit causing these cries for women to destroy their own spaces, because that's obviously so much better than nudging up.

@MotherForkinShirtBalls Hanna, Wonder Woman and Hunger Games also quite good. Also lots of kids animations like Moana, Brave, Coraline, Spirited Away...

@MotherForkinShirtBalls we also watched the series 'Glow' on Netflix recently which we both really enjoyed and has female lead and some really good female characters.

@MotherForkinShirtBalls Difficult to answer as we generally end up with 'lowest common denominator' films which while away a few hours rather than inspire - but we recently watched the latest tomb raider which was just about okay and I really enjoyed the female ghost busters film. Will try and post some others as I think of them...
Little Miss Sunshine and 'Wild' are pretty good ones..

Oh I see. Perking is here to educate and fling shit at the ideologically unpure. And say it's fine and dandy if only a very small percentage of dedicated women's support is taken by men.

Funny how when women are putting women front and centre and using any available platform, thinking of the bigger picture is totally wrong. But if it's women nudging up to make space for gender non conforming men, then we should roll over for the greater good.

The truly shocking thing about the Bechel Test is that any film fails it ever (unless set in an all male POW camp or the like).

The Bechdel Test Movie list might also be useful, Mother.

bechdeltest.com

The Bechdel Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

Actually one of my small feminist acts is that I mentally score films like this all the time now.

KarBB, would you mind sharing any of the films with female leads you've enjoyed?

Great thread - joining for more ideas. I have implemented a rule at home with DH where we alternate between watching films with male leads and then ones with female. It's incredibly hard to find female-led ones that he is prepared to watch, let alone enjoy. So many are 'chick flicks'. It's been a real eye opener but made me all the more determined to continue and do similar things such as read books, go to exhibitions etc by women.
I get invited to attend all sorts of events & conferences through my work. I make a point of responding to the organisers and complaining if there are significantly fewer women than men on the agenda (I work in a male dominated field). Always get a lame excuse back but I'm glad to have made the point!

Or we could we could shrug and say, if eg 5% of the people on scientists lists are transwomen, and 95% are natal women, then the lists can still provide significant improvement on where we were regarding female voices representing science.

And we can deal with other issues separately rather than allowing them to kill the project.

Strangely, this was pretty much what MN Tory voters said (the ones who bothered to reply) on a thread about whether trans issues would cause them to abandon their party – which was in power at the time and actively discussing passing self-id laws.

This of course being the standard required of Labour and Green voters.

Consensus seemed to be that posters weren't keen on self-id, but it wasn't important enough to make them not vote Tory, as they liked the rest of the package.

Well, as far as I can see, the rules are:

1. If it means joining forces with anti-abortionists or cheerleaders for men accused of rape, but can be anti-trans, then that's fine, we should definitely do that.

2. If it means promoting women's voices or promoting women themselves in immediate and practical ways, but there could be a trans person involved anywhere, then we should definitely kill it all with fire.

Also I did not renew my vogue subscription.

@PerkingFaintly

I really like the idea of 500womenscientists but on their page it says "Self-identifying Women Scientists — Sign up to be a resource" and I am afraid that gets my hackles up these days. Is there no sex based qualifier to join and if so doesn't that defeat the purpose?

500womenscientists.org/who-we-are

Is this a female organisation or a consumer of kool aid?

I no longer step aside for men, I also don't do small talk any longer for their ease and benefit - they don't like it. Happily I am switching from people pleaser and enabler to observer of entitlement, it worries me a lot less than I thought it would and my self esteem is increasing.