Feminist interviews in Stylist magazine

[MillyR]

There is a feature on feminism in Stylist magazine. They have interviewed Finn Mackay, Cath Redfern, Anna Van Heeswick and Sabrina Qureshi. The magazine has asked them a range of questions which cover some of the topics we have been talking about on here, and includes some excellent answers.

Stylist magazine is free and distributed in cafes in the North. I am assuming that it is distirbuted nationwide. You can read it online www.stylist.co.uk/.

It also has feminism on the front cover, but this has been covered up with an additional advertising front cover. Some of the content of the feminist feature is nonsense - the rebranding bit. But the interviews are worth reading.

It also has almost a whole page with the words 'I am a feminist because I believe in women's rights' - Lady Gaga, May 2010, written on it. That is useful if like me you have Gaga obsessed young family members.

As well as the feminism feature, there is also a rather dubious feature on the murder of women who work in the sex industry, which while having a rather problematic commentary does discuss the high rates of murders and how the treatment of wider society contributes to that.

[elportodelgato]

They also hand out Stylist at tube stations in London and (I believe) in branches of French Connection (?!)

Thanks for highlighting, I picked one up this morning but haven't had chance to read it yet

[sethstarkaddersmum]

Wow!
I've never heard of this magazine, but that's great. Have read it (not the murders feature) and honestly, it just feels like many of the conversations on this topic here on MN!
I found it interesting how much consistency there was between the 4 feminists they interviewed. Which was great - it made feminism come across as firm, clear and united.

this is cheering me up almost enough to counteract the ASA's shameful response to the complaints about that Pepsi ad....

[sethstarkaddersmum]

the rebranding feminism was terrible! obviously done by people with no interest in or natural sympathy for it.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Ha ha ha ha ha haha ha.. Sorry just finished the "rebranding feminism" bit - those ideas are truly crapola. Love the little thing at the end where it says "Think you can do better? Send your ideas to us" - bloody right I can do better.

Let's summarise those ideas shall we?

• Feminism needs a new word! It's the word that magically makes people dislike it, not the scariness of removing male privilege at all!

• Let's make feminism "sexy" (and rip off the Fawcett society's ideas) with supermodels wearing t-shirts with totally unscary slogans like "feminists get laid more". Because if there's one thing feminism promotes, it's the constant sexual availability of women!

• Feminists have hairy legs haw haw haw! Or what about comparing feminism to an STD? Genius.

(of the three, the STD idea was my favourite, which says a lot about the others)

[RamblingRosa]

I read this too and was surprised so many pages being given over to discuss feminism in a mag like Stylist. The advertising bit was atrocious. I noticed the rip off of the Fawcett Society t-shirt too.

I didn't think it was the most insightful article ever but good on them for giving column inches to a subject that a lot of people seem to think has had its day.

[sethstarkaddersmum]

ha ha, fab post Elephants.
Are you going to send them your ideas? Would love to know what they are

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Sorry I should have said that the rest of the coverage was good, I just got stuck at the rebrand bit - as many on here have long suspected, ads are still being made in the culture of mad men (but with more naked ladies). In fact, I'm surprised they didn't suggest a naked woman draped with a sash that said "Feminist" - no, wait they almost did. Between "Miss Feminist" and "Hello, boys, I'm a feminist" - FGS.

Now that's a challenge SSM (always loved your name btw) How about a split screen with left side - person's face - bubble or caption saying "feminist", right side - picture of doormat - "not a feminist"?

Or just "Women - being brilliant for 200,000 years"

[sethstarkaddersmum]

that doormat one is genius!

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

THat's not dodging the question - she's resisting the trap of saying "no, it's awful. Naughty women, urgh!". She's not blaming women.

Instead she's pointing out that something that's often seen as a "benefit" to women in the workplace (sex appeal), is actually a demeaning thing that women are often "expected to do [or rather perform] in order to get on".

For example woman works for a boss who will only allow women to take on that account or whatever if he thinks they're hot, because he's a sexist who doesn't value women for their brains, just for his hard on. Whose fault is it if she has to "flirt" to get on? Hers? Sabrina thinks his - I agree with her.

[sethstarkaddersmum]

I don't think she's dodging a question politician-style, she's refusing to sit in judgement on other women. That's fair enough. If you said to me, 'Am I a good mother or not?' I would not be inappropriately dodging the question if I refused to answer yes or no - I would be quite reasonably refusing to judge someone I don't even know against values that aren't even clear. Political question-dodging, in contrast, is usually where there is a factual question being asked and the politician is refusing to answer because it will make them look bad, not because it's not a sensible question - examples would be 'Did the cleaner show you her passport?' 'Did the government have a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland?'