Programme about feminism on Radio 4 NOW

[HerBeatitude]

Following on from the teenagers and sex programme

Will listen to it later.

Bit about the title though - "why aren't feminists protesting" about the budget? What about why are the government such a bunch of sexist arsehole>?

Link here btw

Yes it's interesting taht they aired that programme immedaitely after the porn one.

As if to imply that just in case you were thinking feminism might be the answer to the pornification problem, think again.

I agree with most of what the three academics said in the program.

Professor Angela McRobbie was scathing in her criticism of third wave "choice feminism" when she said "individualism has been the most negative and damaging and pernicious force" in young women?s emancipation.

I was surprised to discover from the programme that the Fawcett Society's legal challenge against the Government over the 2010 Budget is the first legal challenge that the society has mounted in its 150 years of feminist campaigning.

dittany, I agree. It is frustrating and depressing to think that listeners could get the impression that the failings of third wave feminism are the fault of second wave feminism.

Second wave feminism is in the double bind of being blamed by some people for not defining limits on women's sexual freedom in the 1970s. I expect it is also blamed by others for doing so. Second wave feminism is being blamed for not foreseeing and preventing the pornification of our society. I don't think even the pornographers of the 1970s could have correctly predicted the cultural saturation of pornography in 2010.

Was that programme worth listening to? I was going to see if it's Listen Again but I don't want to end up getting annoyed!

It's surprising if they called feminism dead as it seems to be undergoing a massive resurgence in the last few years.

listening to this now. am wearing tight clothes to hold myself together if I explode.

I don't think the sisterhood is demoralised by pornification. I think we are bloody enraged and galvanised by it!

yes, overall too downbeat.

I wish the feminist grandmothers would come out of feminist retirement. Of course she should set up a group - it's what the young people are doing!

and fgs, it is not JUST on the internet. Jessinavalon & co for instance are using the internet to marshal support but they are out there doing real activism.
and these marches (MillionWomenRise, Reclaim the Streets) that are happening look pretty real-life to me.

Exactly dittany - seen it all before, heard the arguments against before, won the arguments before :o

OTOH I can't blame women in their sixties like my mother and her friends for feeling demoralised - they truly thought women's rights would have been "sorted" by the time their DDs were grown up and they really aren't.

SSM - I agree it was too downbeat. I did like the bit when the more rightwing woman suddenly started coming up with all the things she is angry about and wants to change, despite what she'd said earlier.

The "why aren't feminists doing anything?" line was just as annoying as I thought. Although I suspect it was a way to get the programme made, and to raise awareness of what is happening, it was a pretty backhanded way of doing so. Poor Fawcett Society - are they not "feminists" now? Million women rise - not feminist? Reclaim the Night - no longer feminist? Object? EAVES? Get a grip radio 4.