East London Feminists

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Have been looking for feminist groups in East London, but not come up with anything, so was thinking of (possibly) starting one instead.

Does anyone know of a group? Or would anyone like to come to one? Would probably be quite relaxed, chatty (think MN in real life) and aiming to be a source of inspiration, moral support and wine ideas for activism etc.

:)

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

I was thinking to lure to the pub... But if people don't like pubs then our house perhaps. Would be better for everyone to meet in public place first though!

[steamedtreaclesponge]

Who, us?

[steamedtreaclesponge]

And yes, we won't be luring everybody up to our attic! Pub much better anyway as it has much bigger stocks of wine than our house

[DaisyHayes]

Is this still happening / has it hapened already?

I'd like to come, please.

I get plastered easily like pubs and hot chocolate both. I also make nice banana bread....

[MooncupGoddess]

Sounds very tempting! How would we recognise each other? Is there a feminist symbol a la the rainbow flag that we could fly from the pub table? :)

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

I think someone has an MN logo with one of the women wielding a feminist symbol!

Otherwise we will be the ones withallthewineshoutingaboutthepatriarchy talking in a learned fashion.

Hi Daisy! Not happened yet but want to try and set a date

Especially if there's going to be cake

So I'll do a list of who's interested:

SteamedTreacleSponge
Prolesworth
BelleCurve
Ephiny
UnrulySun
DaisyHayes
MooncupGoddess

Any other takers? How is everyone with weeknights? A weds or thurs perhaps?

[MooncupGoddess]

Weds or Thurs would be great. Although I have just realised that this will involve me walking into a pub, approaching a table of women I've never met before in my life and saying, 'Hello, I'm MooncupGoddess'

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Yes, this is the beauty of it :o

I was going to suggest wearing an outfit that suggests your MN name but, er, maybe not.

Leave that for the second meeting, at least.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

okay so - 25th/26th May, or 1st/2nd June?

[DaisyHayes]

25th of May is good for me... Obviously happy to go with majority though.

What about venue? Sadly my house was designed for midgets with agoraphobia and in any case is covered with a thin layer of jam and fluff (the result of basic slovenliness living with two pre-schoolers) so afraid I cannot offer to host. Will happily bring baked goods though.

Perhaps a pub better for the first meeting though? One near a tube maybe?

[steamedtreaclesponge]

I can't do Wednesdays... but the 26th or 2nd would be fine for me

Not to be difficult or anything

[MooncupGoddess]

I can do Wed 25, Wed 1 or Thurs 2

gets to work on knitting giant identifying mooncup

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

hmm so 2nd is looking good so far - everyone else?



Actually I do have a lovely felt elephant brooch that PrinceHumperdink made me for this very purpose...

[DaisyHayes]

Ok.... Shall we do this via Facebook for privacy?

Not sure we want date time and venue all over t'internet for any loon to see.

I'm going to try to set up a group (East London MN Feminists). If you PM me, I can invite you.... I think

[DaisyHayes]

OK, I've set it up.

It's 'secret' so only members can see the group, who's in it and what has been posted.

Which means you'll have to get me to 'invite' you by PMing me your email address (is it really this complicated?!)

[cloudyweather]

its a bit of a trek for me but can i come please?
im not on facebook!

[DaisyHayes]

Ah, I'd assumed everyone was on FB, like a fool. Mooncupgoddess isn't either but she's sent me her email and preferred dates - do you want to do that too?

[cloudyweather]

yep-thankyou.
pm on its way!

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Bump for anyone else who'se interested (not everyone is coming from London AFAIK, let alone East London!) - we've organised a first meeting and everything. PM me if you want to come.

[Unrulysun]

I am so very excited about all the getting together. If it's OK I am going to bring a friend who is a proper old school feminist person but isn't an MNer. So please can we respect her nonMNness and not talk about nice ham and pram huns

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Yes yes yes I've invited non-MNers as well (on facebook) - my original idea was to just start a RL group and then invite MNers along too but it's so much more fun planning things on here :)

[steamedtreaclesponge]

I've invited some RL people too - we shall have to try not to relapse into MN-speak and start saying things like YABU and IMHO

[Unrulysun]

I agree. And you have less 'ownership' iyswim. Like if it was you and your mates and then random people from t'internet it might end up not being very diverse.

[Unrulysun]

Oops - X posts. I'm agreeing with Elephants - but I agree with you too Treacle :)

We probably need a chair really and maybe some kind of agenda to start us off (how often are we going to meet, what do we want to get out of it etc) plus plenty of time for taking down the patricarchy one prick at a time obv.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Exactly, Unruly. I can sit around with my friends and talk about feminism any old time. I want to sit around with lots of other people and talk about it too :)

It might be nice to start off with no chair and just have the first meet-up a sort of general discussion of why we want to go to a feminist meeting, what we want out of it etc. If we need a chair and agendas etc later then so be it [goes to too many meetings emoticon]