Wimbledon High School (girls' indie) headmistress 'you can't watch Love Island and be a feminist'

[adulthumanfemail]

Do you agree?

Do you?

Article in The Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/choose-love-island-or-metoo-head-tells-girls-v5tqmrg79?shareToken=53a06963f8c53f1903071e01aefec7ad

She didn't actually use the word 'feminist' in that.

She is focusing on the way the contestants looked and the social media response to that. However I think the majority of responses were about how the contestants behaved. I saw more written about Adam’s behaviour towards women than I did his looks. I though it gave a good window into what a good relationship looks like and what a bad relationship looks like and I hope young men and women take lessons from that. That’s my view anyhow.

I'm not sure whether I agree or not, on one hand they are making 'a career' for themselves and on the other hand they are essentially whoring themselves out for cash. Week minefield

Should have said 'Eeeeek! Minefield'

You can’t be the head of a girls’ independent school and be a feminist.

I would have thought the whole set up of Love Island was pretty much guaranteed to lead to a flood of #metoo moments in a decade or so's time, when the young women involved realise how coercive the whole premise of the programme was. I'm not sure that being on Love Island and having a me-too moment later are mutually exclusive; more likely to overlap, I would have thought.

She's not even really talking about Love Island, she's referring to being obsessed with appearance and spending a lot of time and mental energy on that.

You can’t be the head of a girls’ independent school and be a feminist.

Seriously? Some girls' schools seem to be very good at nurturing feminism and combatting sexism.

'Do you agree?'

What's that supposed to mean?

I agree with the head’s comments and the intention behind it. It’s good to hear a counter-message and I found this past summer’s obsession with Love Island a bit odd and regressive. I realise many people watched it to be ‘ironic’ but that’s also horrible as it’s basically mocking the women. The Love Island women seemed so sad, vulnerable and insecure to me, unable to embrace their natural appearance and so resorting to surgery to look like an exaggerated form of a normal women. The show seemed to celebrate ignorance and superficiality. They were the opposite of what I’d like my daughter to be, which is confident, strong, empowered, discerning and wise. It depressed me so much that I couldn’t watch more than a few eposides.

I understand where she is coming from but also believe it also focuses on the looks and images of both the men and the woman on the show. There is also a lot of pressure on boys and their looks.

@placemats It means what it looks like it fucking means! 😆

@ErrolTheDragon I agree Errol, I see no problem at all with having girls' schools. I'm glad it has a head mistress rather than a headmaster too

Seriously? Some girls' schools seem to be very good at nurturing feminism and combatting sexism

Only if you can afford to go there though... it’s still promoting inequality in society. Just a different kind of inequality based on money rather than sex.

@HopeClearwater why? I went to WHS and there was an excellent ethos of promoting we could achieve anything we wanted to achieve and to never limit ourselves because of the views others might put upon us.

@HopeClearwater There's nothing wrong with spending money on your child's education. Also, if people can afford education, why not use independent schools? It's one less person the state system has to educate.

I don’t agree they are whoring themselves What exactly does that mean? Does any person who promotes their looks ‘whore’ themselves? Are models whores? Actors?

Swearing again. Boring

Nethuns is that way ---->

She was just on channel 4 news, and impressive. Especially defending the existence and history of girls' schools in this country.
And the heroines who fought for their establishment.

Yes I saw her on the news and she was very good and justified what she had said

" There is also a lot of pressure on boys and their looks"

i dont agree ......................not until men are mocked for showing hairy legs in public. And told that this hair is dirty.

Not a fan of Independent Schools, but given the country is being royally screwed by men who went to them, I'm not going to object to there being girls' Schools. I agree that she was impressive on C4 news - would be interesting for someone in her kind of role, with that kind of awareness to have more of a platform. (Along with similarly vocal and clear state School heads.)

I didn’t go to an all girl’s school but from what I hear about them they seem to have disproportionate issues with anorexia, self harm and poor mental health. These have been problems for years and can’t be blamed on Love Island Perhaps these schools should look inwardly before blaming tv programmes?