REVIEW: UK Feminista Summer School

So like every other feminist around, well the ones who managed to get tickets, I headed down to the UK Feminista Summer School last weekend for a couple of feminist filled days.

Tired and grumpy on Saturday morning I questioned whether I should bother going to another feminist event. Will there be anything new? Don't I know it all already? Won't it be better to stay in my bed all day?

I brushed away my negative thoughts and made my way to the event held in Amnesty International's flash looking centre.

Walking through the stalls of leaflets, sign up sheets, merchandise and books (I tried to resist but I had to pick up the Equality Illusion by UK Feminista creator Kat Banyard) I wasn't entirely sure what kind of weekend this would be turn out to be.

The weekend started off with a panel discussion on the importance of feminist organising and why we are still not as equal as society would have us believe. The summer school was set up as a way to teach feminist groups and individuals how to set up their own campaigns or groups. The idea being that they will go back to their towns creating feminist activism in every corner of the UK. It's ambitious but possible if enthusiasm, numbers and how re-politicised people are anything to go by.

The days were split up into workshops and big panel discussion in which we were treated to a talk on campaigning from a key member of Barack Obama's team, taught how to run a Ladyfest, taught how to fundraise and learnt how to use stand up comedy to be confident in business amongst many other things.

The weekend ended with a Feminist Question Time style discussion featuring Julie Bindel, Dr Aisha Gill, Sunder Katwala and Karon Monaghon QC which was chaired by Bidisha. The discussion became slightly heated on a few occasions, feminist gatherings are like family reunions someone's going to get drunk and tell grandma to piss off but you don't who, when Julie Bindel complained about the treatment of sex workers by anthropologists and when someone in the crowd shouted out that men must feel left out from this discussion.

UK Feminista have done a lot in a short space of time to help raise the profile of feminist activism, create a link between the dislocated feminist groups in the UK and also raise the profile of feminist concerns. We still have a long way to go and to quote one passionate feminist at the summer school "We need a tsunami of feminism not another wave."

London Zine Symposium

I'm hoping to head down to the London Zine Symposium on May 29th.

I've always liked the idea of zines but never really got into them before.

Now that I want to make a Don't Dance Her Down Boys zine my interest in the scene has grown.

I'm hoping to pick up some really cool music zines as well as a few crafty ones.

www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk

Art Star

I want to do a lot of things in my youth.

I want to make music purely for myself, selfish I know

I want to make a zine

I want to write poetry

I want to make my own clothes

I want to have fun.

I always feel like I lack creativity even though I'm a writer by trade

I want to be myself

I want to be someone else

I want to travel the world

I want to never want for anything

I want to be an art star .... but where to start.

The Feminist Rapper

I just think this is immensely cool.

UK Feminista Launch

Originally posted at Uplift Magazine

Up to a week prior to the UK Feminista launch party I felt a tad overwhelmed by what it could be. The site aims to become a bridge for the myriad of feminist organisations in the UK and, if they succeed in their mission, UK Feminista could become a vital part in re-establishing the new feminist wave in the 21st Century. That’s a lot to be a part of, but nevertheless I picked up my overwhelmed self and headed down to The Women’s Library to see what was going on.

The day started out with a cup of tea in The Women’s Library cafe and a chance to peruse the variety of stalls promoting different organisations. As I walked through the crowd I kept getting that feeling that I knew pretty much half of the people I was walking by. I guess I go to too many of these events!

The conference started off downstairs in a small seminar room that struggled to contain the hundreds of feminists within. Acting as Chair was the Guardian’s Hannah Pool, who described her disappointment at the answers of celebrities when she asked them the simple question ‘are you a feminist?’ (The answers were mostly “No”, by the way). UK Feminista creator, Kat Banyard, then came to the podium to discuss the organisation and what they hope to achieve.

A number of speakers then came along to talk about their various organisations including Object, Abortion Rights, Birmingham Fems, Anti-Porn London, Latin American Women’s Rights and Unite the Union. While interesting, the speakers took up a lot of time – which I personally thought would have been allocated to focusing on the smaller feminist groups and individual activists who came.

The whole room then dispersed into three groups; grassroots feminists groups, individual activists and the ‘reclaim feminism’ campaign. Here we were meant to be sharing the problems we had and how to resolve them. I joined the grassroots feminists group, as part of Ladyfest Ten. There was a very short amount of time allocated to this section and, while we tried to make the best of it, there was just too much to do.

After the focus groups everyone congregated in the seminar room to give feedback on what they had talked about and direct questions to the creators of UK Feminista. It all got a bit tense, as it always seems to when groups meet up. An older woman at the back claimed that UK Feminista had alienated less technically able women as their website only works on the newest browser. Another woman took issue with a statement Elizabeth Carola, of Anti Porn London, had made earlier about pro-sex groups claiming she had ‘dissed’ them.

This, it has to be said, put a downer on my day… but looking back what did I really expect? It will not take one website and one idea to unite the feminist movement. It is an unrealistic idea to think that feminism will – or ever has been – entirely united. Someone will always disagree and someone will always feel left out. It is, unfortunately, how the world works. This will probably be one of the main obstacles in UK Feminista’s way. They need to remain as a bridge for feminists to connect with each other and nothing more. If one group seems to have more promotion or special treatment than the other then UK Feminista will never take off the ground.

The day ended with a short performance by The Muffia, two scantily dressed woman revealing their lady gardens to the world and doing, spot on, impressions of the caricatures of Loose Women. While we may not always be able to get along, at least we can all find humour in a good muff joke!

My Life List

Feminism and Friends Don't Always Mix

I've held feminist beliefs probably since I was about fourteen but I don't talk about feminism with my uni friends because they just don't care about it and have basically concluded from my beliefs, and my never ending single status, that I must be a man hater.

The funny thing is that I think girls that sympathise with misogny and put down feminism are generally the ones who really spout some hateful things about feminism but I digress.

I love my friends but I want more feminist friends. I want to have more in common with those closest to me and be able to go to more feminist events. I want to be able to discuss different theories without people thinking I'm weird. I want to be able to call out misogyny when I see it without getting called out for I don't know what myself. I want to speak out more and not care what other people say or think.

I'm a calm person so while someone may not agree with me or get angry when I try to tell them the truth I know I wouldn't lose my cool or make a fool out of myself like they usually do.

I guess becoming a feminist is a life long learning curve, I learnt that on The View of all places, and i'm more than willing to stick along for the ride.