By Shayan Gilmore
The day I have been looking forward to for months finally arrived and departed on Saturday 12th November 2011. I woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning thinking to myself that I hadn’t thought things through properly before volunteering to start the day’s work at 8 o’clock. It was so out of the ordinary for me to be up so early (even before my parents who are early risers) that my mother told me she didn’t think I would manage waking up at that time.
I was quite surprised but thankful at the many people who were outside so early in the morning on a Saturday; I was even greeted with a smile from the bus driver which never happens! Amazingly, my train left on time and I managed to arrive at my destination, Euston station, at either 8 am or a bit after. I’ve only been to that station a few times in my life and each time I seem to have to actually work out how to exit it!
Moving on, I reached Friends House which is right opposite the station with only a few minutes of walking to it and met one of the most popular feminist and authors, Kat Banyard and her colleague Alison Dear. I got to meet the few other feminists who, like me, had volunteered to meet at 8 am sharp. We were given a small talk, our t-shirts for the day and our timetable after which the day shooted off to a busy start where I welcomed thousands of people to the event and directed them to their desired destination.
As much as I am aware that London is filled with all sorts of people with their own personalities, I was still amazed at just how unique each individual was, especially considering a lot of them had arrived from the outskirts of London just for this day.
We were even entertained by two human sized chickens handing out leaflets questioning Boris Johnson’s absence!
Several stalls were set up advertising their own organisations or charities such as Women for Women International, Fawcett Society and the Feminist Library where you could ask questions, sign up as a member or for their newspapers, buy all sorts of souvenirs and pick up leaflets on all things connected to that particular group. Small and big workshops and talks went on throughout the day which were so popular that many rooms were full to the brim with interested feminists. Time was clearly of the essence considering eight seminars were taking place from the early morning until lunchtime. The morning seminars were allocated to End Violence Against Women, Southall Black Sisters, Women’s Resource Centre, Abortion Rights, Fawcett Society, London Feminist Network, Rights of Women and Endangered Bodies.
Later on in the afternoon seminars were continued for OBJECT, who challenge this culture where women are seen as sex objects, Platform 51 based on teenager mothers, Women for Refugee Women, White Ribbon Campaign, Centre for Women and Democracy, NUS LGBT Campaign, Imkaan and Women for Women International.
As the day slowly drew to an end, the much looked forward to Feminist Question Time approached with a panellist consisting of the director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, Bea Campbell, the Guardian’s Zoe Williams, Carlene Firmin, Anti-Porn Men Project’s Matt McCormack Evans and was chaired by the councillor of Tower Hamlets, Rania Khan. Thankfully this discussion took place in the big lecture hall however some attendants still had to find themselves a place to sit either on the floor or steps once all the seats were taken!
The excitement of the day still continued with a pre-election debate for the Mayor of London with Brain Paddick of the Liberal Democrats, Natalie Bennett of Green Part Women, Ken Livingston of the Labour Party and a missing Boris Johnson who had claimed to have a diary clash but ignored a request to have his representative sent in his place. The debate went along being chaired by the famous broadcaster Samira Ahmed who did a very good job.
Clearly the day had gone very well with a few comments from people leaving hoping that the next event would be held in a bigger place. It was my first experience of a feminist event and it definitely will not be my last! I got to meet Kat Banyard and get to know other feminists and went home with two t-shirts (my volunteering UK Feminista t-shirt and my ‘this is what a feminist looks like’ t-shirt from the Fawcett society), two badges, an inspired self and a big smile on my face! Ok, so the smile wasn’t that big due to my exhaustion and aching feet but I did not regret my decision to volunteer. I even returned to work the next day to colleagues who were intrigued to know how my day went and what took place!
Clearly our society is a much better place for a woman than it was years ago. Women now have a louder voice and making sure that they are heard comes naturally which would have been different in the past. Everyone knows that this would not have been possible if it were not for feminists such as the Suffragettes and many others, some who even risked and lost their lives for the right to be free as a woman. This remains to be a fighting battle amongst certain groups where women are killed for falling in love with the wrong man or are sent back to their homelands to be married off.
On the other hand, the fight to try and avoid children being colour coded from a young age continues. Baby girls are dressed in pink ‘girly’ clothing and given mothering toys while boys have blue thrown at them and it is insinuated to them that liking pink or other ‘girly’ things is wrong and not for them. Society and the media encourage this and set the trend by advertising games specified for each gender.
I recently finished reading Natasha Walter’s ‘The Return of Sexism’ and ‘The New Feminism’ which showed me that in the majority of cases we are trained to be a particular way from birth. In many cases we have a choice but when we are only aware of doing things one way, we are completely oblivious to the fact that other ways are possible. That a girl does have the freedom to choose to play football or wrestle if she wishes without wondering if it’s the right thing to do considering her gender and that a boy can choose to be a househusband or play with Barbie and Ken if he wishes without worrying about being seen as gay.
Clearly, things are slowly changing. More men are seen wearing skinny jeans (I’m still unsure if it’s healthy for them), pink clothes and make up. Many of my female friends can be seen wearing male clothes, or clothes from the men’s department and perfume. I guess that people are not afraid to be different, which is great!
You advocate men wearing pink, playing with Barbies and being househusbands.
You advocate women wearing men’s clothes, avoiding pink, taking up wrestling and playing football.
And you insist that you believe in treating both sexes equally?!?
If we want to treat both sexes equally, feminists should be as opposed to men being househusbands as they are opposed to women being housewives. They should be as opposed to boys playing Barbies as they are opposed to girls playing Barbies. They would be as opposed to boys wearing pinks as they are opposed to girls.
They would be as critical of females engaging in wrestling and football and other much maligned “macho” as they are critical of males who do so.
I will advocate that boys play with Barbies and plan to be househusbands, and wear pink, the same day that feminists advocate that girls play with Barbies and plan to be housewives,and wear pink.
I will advocate that girls who don’t wrestle or play football, should start. the same day that you advocate that boys who don’t wrestle or play football should start.