Daily acts of feminism - a thread for ideas

[teawamutu]

Pinched the idea shamelessly from another thread after an hour of speechless rage reading the papers and Twatter. I need to DO something.

I pledge to do something positive every day to stand up for women. Deeds not words.

Today was taken care of for me - a subscription to The Radical Notion for Mother's Day. I'm also going to fill out the VAWG consultation.

Thought might be good to share anything else we come across here, so anyone in need of ideas could check?

This is a brilliant thread, thanks Tea and PPs.

Today I have given evidence to www.noconflicttheysaid.org. This is an international website collecting women's stories of how laws replacing sex with gender identity have impacted their lives -- as we're always being told that there's "no conflict" between trans demands and women's rights.

I was pleased to see that noconflicttheysaid.org is moderated by members of the LGB Alliance. Feminism and gay rights always used to be friends before Stonewall turned against women. It's good to have the LGB Alliance on our side now.

Following a recommendation from another MNer last week I got a new face mask in suffragette colours and a set of suffragette button badges from Radical Tea Towel.

The masks are designed and manufactured in the uk and £1 for every one sold is donated to food banks. The quality is lovely and they arrived next day.

I've a code for free delivery if anybody wants to use it -

FREERAD

Oh and they're a small family business too.

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz

Following a recommendation from another MNer last week I got a new face mask in suffragette colours and a set of suffragette button badges from Radical Tea Towel.

The masks are designed and manufactured in the uk and £1 for every one sold is donated to food banks. The quality is lovely and they arrived next day.

I've a code for free delivery if anybody wants to use it -

FREERAD

Damn, this board is costing me a sodding FORTUNE.

thank you

Sign the women's declaration: womensdeclaration.com
If you speak foreign languages you can help them translate it.
They also have a weekly webinar that's usually very interesting.

Thanks tellmewhen

insisting trans men are included in your feminism as they're either females or women who want to call themselves men, by default not just makes it pointedly obvious you don't and won't listen to trans men, but you're also transphobic?

Everything but total capitulation to TRA ideology is transphobic, apparently, so that accusation has lost all meaning.

Can someone help me with how to approach a school about slut shaming around uniform. I don't need to spell it out I don't think...you know the 'your skirt is too short' type comments.

Any tips, please share.

Well you lovely people have given me the push I needed to stop just reading and frowning, and actually do something, no matter how small.

I've ordered some ribbon and also a 50 pack of thank you cards, once there hear I'll have no excuse and can send one out every time I hear of politicians sticking up for women (instead of meaning to pick one up, then losing impetus).

I've also shared a pro woman post on Facebook, nothing to blatant (I'm not that brave (yet)), but might be notice amongst my carefully non political post history.

Can someone help me with how to approach a school about slut shaming around uniform. I don't need to spell it out I don't think...you know the 'your skirt is too short' type comments.

I had a student spend a day in isolation because her uniform was, "too sexual" a male teacher was so embarrassed he got a female teacher to say this to the student and issue the sanction.

The student had added over the knee socks to her uniform.

I'm supply and my contract was finishing so although I was furious the student didn't want me to take up her cause, I did however let the head know, "If a girl puts socks on and her uniform becomes 'too sexual' then there is something wrong with the uniform or there is something wrong with the teacher, there is nothing wrong with the child".

I may also have had quite a long conversation with the head where I pointed out the sexism in the school, he started by saying I was insulting him, I said it wasn't him it was the school eg that girls have curves and that means their trousers will be tighter than boys, if you look at a bunch of squaddies they are all in clothing that fits but the females trousers look tight over the bum.

And the posters around the school eg one for sport where the pics and 'encouraging words' for females were about watching sport and the ones from men were about taking part, this also included a quote from Lance Armstrong.

This was a frank discussion but I can also do the, I'm sure this is not intentional but and please don't be upset ...'

I sent that kind of email to the sports co ordinator at an FE college, he wrote a news letter every month, I gently pointed out that the language used about the men's team that they had 'battled through to the quarter finals and were looking to be in the final' but the 'girls' team' had been disappointed to not make it to the final. I pointed out they had both got to the same stage in the competition.

Oh and a poster put up advertising a boxing class for exercise, had photos of three men, even though the poster's small print said it had both men's and women's classes, I asked if he had considered a photo Nicola Adams, who at the time had just become and will always be the first Women gold medalist in boxing?

He actually sent a lovely reply saying he hadn't considered the points but could see them now.

Damn, this board is costing me a sodding FORTUNE.

thank you

That's so true

Do you remember the recent Lidl/Aldi (?) thread?

An AHF tote bag in the wild.

It brought such joy to the OP.

I remember a day out along the Thames southbank and seeing an Irish woman with friends in a "Repeal" t-shirt and it made me smile. I wanted to say something, but I didn't. I was hesitant and under the weather (turns out I was very ill, and not 1/2 an hour later had to be helped to walk over Blackfriars bridge).

Two things I remember from that time. A great day out. A shocking virus. The Irish woman in her T-shirt.

Well. That's three things

Toys, when you buy toys, unless you have a child who is mad about certain things, get gender neutral or not particularly gendered toys.

I bought a small boy a rag doll that I thought looked like him. He and his parents loved it.

Things didn't go quite as planned with my nieces and nephew, my nephew was obsessed with wheels, tractors, helicopters etc so he did get 'boys toys' He now has a degree in physics.

@sashh thanks for that. The problem with comments like your skirt is too short or your shirt is too tight is that if Challenged they fall behind the 'uniform is good, this school has a uniform, you chose this school etc ... It's hard to get them to understand that slut shaming (which is what it is) leads to girls feeling responsible for male behaviour.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4193378-Black-Mothers-Matter-Non-profit-supporting-black-women-during-pregnancy

Contact women in positions of power and influence, to ask them if they will help lift up, and support women.

Women in the House of Lords.
Women in the House of Commons.

Send thank you postcards to women such as Baroness Nicolson who have helped immensely.

To men in the House of Commons who have provided time, and rooms, for women to ask questions and debate.

I've become conscious from PP's comments that a lot of these suggestions (including my own) have involved spending money. I'd like to say that I really, really don't think it is necessary or even desirable to spend anything to make a difference to our society. Sending emails, completing consultations and surveys, subscribing to free newsletters and sharing the information in them, spreading awareness are all feminist acts in themselves and all contribute to a better world for girls and women.

Of course, contributing financially is fantastic, whether that is giving to fundraisers, buying tee shirts and badges, buying ribbons for railings or paint for decorating stones, or making deliberate choices about toys, clothes, tampons. But let's face it, we're not all in a position to do that, or not as much as we'd like, and no woman should feel that their feminism is of lower value because of that.

Feministing is a state of mind 💚🤍💜

sashh
Such good points. I think the language used is really important and something I hadn't seen so clearly until quite recently.
I raised a small issue with my DD's primary school a few years ago. It was around how the kids had been arranged for a photograph. Girls kneeling boys standing behind them. My DD came home incandescent with rage about it. I was on good terms with the Head but he was hugely defensive when I pointed out that this arrangement was inherently sexist. His reply was that it was a female teacher who had been responsible, hence it couldn't be sexist. Female teacher also replied to say that the children had arranged themselves like that, which wasn't true and if it was true, begs a question surely about why...
I wasn't impressed but didn't press any further.

jewel1968
I have noticed that schools that police girls' skirts also put them in tiny skorts for PE.

One school I worked at had the usual uniform but girls also had the option of a blouse rather than a shirt, it had a sort of, roll over, on the bottom so it was designed to sit over the skirt.

The blouse also was designed to be worn with an open neck and a cravat instead of the school tie.

I think the problem with most school uniforms is that they have been designed for male students and then extended to girls so they don't fit properly.

Way back in my day we had a summer uniform that was a dress, there is no way to roll up a dress. You also cannot roll up culottes. But what do schools do? They have skirts. They have the boys uniform and add a skirt.

@ForeverBubblegum

Well you lovely people have given me the push I needed to stop just reading and frowning, and actually do something, no matter how small.

I've ordered some ribbon and also a 50 pack of thank you cards, once there hear I'll have no excuse and can send one out every time I hear of politicians sticking up for women (instead of meaning to pick one up, then losing impetus).

I've also shared a pro woman post on Facebook, nothing to blatant (I'm not that brave (yet)), but might be notice amongst my carefully non political post history.

brilliant idea about the thank you cards

Well said Maud

Emailing MPs, councillors etc when appropriate doesn't cost anything other than time. I think I might take inspiration from the thread on Spaces For Girls and keep an eye on local public planning applications and check that they are taking women and children's safety into account.

Although that Suffragette mask is tempting

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4181054-Teenage-girls-and-public-space-facilities-an-update
Link to very interesting thread

Today I did a bit of digging for Raquel Rosario Sanchez.

On tomorrow's list are notes thanking Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch for their measured and sensible approach.

Sending emails, completing consultations and surveys, subscribing to free newsletters and sharing the information in them, spreading awareness are all feminist acts in themselves and all contribute to a better world for girls and women.

Absolutely. Lockdown is leaving a bit of extra money in my account, which I'd usually spend on going out, so I'm sending it to various crowdfunders instead. But all those other actions are essential. I'm also trying, not quite successfully to keep up with all the consultations.

Writing that has made me realise how much more pressure there will be on all this feminist work when we don't keep having lockdowns. Most of us will have less free time and less money. How are we going to keep this up?

Something to think about, because we have to keep going. Gynephobia is massively well-funded and well-staffed.