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?

[teawamutu]

Filled in the EHRC consultation yesterday.

Today's act was digging for the Bristol Uni action.

[WhatyoutalkingaboutWillis]

Let's try not to let this thread fade away again. It's been empowering wading through it today (for the first time). Have also dug for the Bristol Uni action.

[JamMakingWannaBe]

I emailed a signwriting company and asked if they had a sign "women at work" rather than "men at work".

The answer was "no", but they did say they'd consider it.

[JamMakingWannaBe]

I always cross through "gender" on a paper form and change the question to "sex".

[BelleOfTheProvince]

I wonder if anybody could point me in the direction of an organisation that would benefit from a few hours a week voluntary work for helping women's rights and spaces.I Perhaps someone has a list of local movements that can be posted. I don't have spare money for digging but have time I could work on things, particularly remotely.

Thanks.

[SnoopyLights]

@Beamur

Reading more. I've started Invisible Women. Have the next edition of the Radical Notion too.

I'm doing this as well. Also leaving reviews of those books and authors.

So many are targeted by fake or unverified reviewers who clearly haven't read beyond the title (or the authors name) so a verified purchase review helps to counteract them.

I'm making a point of buying cancelled books or authors at the moment, and leaving a positive review. Also uploading them to Good Reads or LibraryThing, or anywhere else you can is good for the author. I've even started Pinterest boards for books I've bought and books I've read and Feminist books, anything that gets these books uploaded as often as possible to as many different websites and Pinterst boards really.

[SnoopyLights]

I'm not sure if this counts but I've noticed I'm wearing a lot more purple, white, and green just lately.

Not just the things I've bought on purpose such as my suffragette striped lanyard for work (eBay), and suffragette striped scarves (one silky one that I bought and another one I knitted for colder weather) but most things I'm buying now seem to be in one or more of those colours together.

[EyesOpening]

I’m looking for a suffragette coloured lanyard holder thingy, does anyone know of any GC sources that I can give my money to, for one?

[teawamutu]

@EyesOpening

I’m looking for a suffragette coloured lanyard holder thingy, does anyone know of any GC sources that I can give my money to, for one?

www.adulthumanfemale.store/product-page/suffragette-2-0-lanyard

[EyesOpening]

Thank you

[MrsWombat]

Bumping this as I'm generally a lurker on this board. I found this thread yesterday, started reading and nearly lost it again. Thank you!

[SnoopyLights]

I have been asked by a manager to complete a survey relating to a service which works with people who have experienced a sexual assault or abuse. The police are involved in this survey.

It asked me if I identify as female or male or preferred not to say or preferred to self-describe.

That last option was the only one that allowed you to write a comment, so that's the one I chose. And I wrote Woman: Adult Human Female in the box and said that sex is not something you can identify into or out of.

The next question asked if I identified as the gender I was assigned at birth and that only had yes, no, or prefer not to say as options, so I had to go back to the other box and add that I couldn't answer the next question as nobody gets assigned a gender at birth, they have their biological sex observed, and that I found these questions isolating and I would expect a survey about sexual violence to understand sex and respect single sex provisions for anyone who needs to use the services.

It says the survey is anonymous but I never quite believe it. So we'll see.

[CriticalCondition]

My act for today, two acts actually, was to email R4 and thank Nick Robinson and Emma Barnett for asking the right questions of David Lammy and Alison McGovern and not letting them off the hook. Some news journalists have finally found their voice and I am very, very thankful.

[teawamutu]

Yesterday: dug for Jo Phoenix and emailed the BBC to thank them for Nolan Investigates.

Today: emailed ACAS to enquire which half of the population is likely to suffer from menopause and to kindly stop being twats (slight paraphrase): www.acas.org.uk/menopause-at-work

[teawamutu]

Also just responded to the FCA consultation to point out they're going to class a 100% male board 'diverse' if enough of 'em say the magic words.

[FeministM]

The Family Court in the UK is the most misogynistic institution we have.

That which oppresses women cannot protect children. As a standard, the Court records all their hearings, for accountability as well as its own records. But in practice these audio recordings often go missing when the judiciary is being held to account. I have experienced these dangerous corruptions as a mother and I am issuing a Call to Action to reform this oppressive Court.

I am represented by Charlotte Proudman, Ms Proudman is at the forefront of changing legislation and she bravely holds the state to account on violence against girls and women. The judiciary have long and well documented history of minimising and dismissing male violence against children and women, commonly called domestic terrorism.

Ms Proudman’s work switches a light on in this hidden world. Violence and child abuse is the most serious issue facing women and children who appeal to the Family Court. The pandemic of violence committed by men against children in their care and against the women in their lives is directly enabled by the Family Court ethos of maintaining parental contact at all costs. These costs all too frequently include a woman’s or a child’s life, or years of continued abuse.

The present failings of the Family Court are directly responsible for “exposing another generation to emotional and physical harm.” So says author Rachel Watson. “By denying domestic abuse, failing to address behavioural problems and awarding equal or sometimes sole parenting roles to unsafe parents, the family courts are conditioning children to believe it's ok for one parent to be in control and hurt others without consequence.”

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 acknowledged in law that children are victims of domestic abuse in their own right. The Act legislated that abuse victims are entitled to special measures to protect their privacy and to minimise the retraumatisation that is nearly inevitable in reliving violent events in court. These measures include screens, so that the perpetrator cannot see the victim; the perpetrator also can no longer intimidate and manipulate his victims by cross-examining them in court.

In my case these provisions were not followed. My Appeal is a call to action. We must reform this unsafe Court system. My Appeal will particularly highlight the judiciary’s failure to carry out the requirements of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Early feminists the Suffragettes were pioneers for child safety. Suffragette action brought about the 1925 Guardianship of Infants Act which gave married women rights to their own children for the first time. We all intuitively know that the child is usually safest with its mother. Yet Mr Justice Lawrence called this basic fairness and common sense “an insult to God”. And although in law women now have rights to their children, in reality men’s rights usually trump the right to safety for women and children.

Enough is enough. It’s not ok for women’s and particularly for children’s safety to be betrayed by the Courts. To contribute to the cost of this Appeal or simply to be kept up to date on its progress please send your email address to [email protected]
All funds are sent directly from Crowd Justice to the barrister Charlotte Proudman.