NEW-WAVE FEMINISTS
body is a huge ge g distraction,
you are being ng told that
if you look a certain way your
life will be perfect which is
totally false. We should ould stick
together and try to ta ttackle ckle real
oppression instead of looking
inwards and hating ourselves.
5
DO YOU
OU
CONSIDER IDER THE
SAMANTHA NTHA
JONES S
CHARACTER ACTER IN
SEX AND ND THE CITY
A FEMINIST? INIST? AS
A WOMAN WHO CHAMPIONED
HAMPIONED
SEXUAL LIBERATION, ON, DO
YOU THINK HER FICTIONAL
CTIONAL
BEHAVIOUR HELPED ED OR
HINDERED FEMINISM? SM? S
Finn: If her character r helped
to challenge the sexual ual double
standard that says men en who
have a lot of sex are studs but women
are ‘loose’ then that’s a good thing.
But the fact that we know her
character as ‘the promiscuous one’
shows that things are not equal,
it is not the norm.
“IN A RECENT SURVEY, 25% OF YOUNG WOMEN SAID
THAT LAP DANCING WAS THEIR IDEAL JOB. IT’S
BEEN NORMALISED AND IS ON EVERY HIGH STREET”
Anna: I think Samantha Jones broke
some taboos in terms of having a
woman who would openly talk about
sex, who would take the lead in her
sexual relationships but it’s a complex
issue, in our culture women are under
pressure to always be up for sex,
which is very different to feeling
empowered and wanting to have sex.
Cath: It’s good for women that we
show a diversity of different sex lives
on TV. It’s OK to want to have a lot
of sex, as long as it’s safe. If that
character is part of a broader
representation, then that’s helpful.
Sabrina: It’s every woman’s right
to be sexually liberated. But sadly
I don’t think that in our everyday
lives women who behave like
Samantha are as accepted as they
are on TV, I don’t know how much
of an impact it has had.
6
SHOULD WOMEN BE FREE
TO EXPERIMENT WITH
FASHION OR DOES DRESSING
PROVOCATIVELY INVITE
OBJECTIFICATION BY MEN –
MAKING IT ANTI-FEMINIST?
Anna: There is a feminist chant
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“Whatever we wea wear, a
wherever we go, yes y
means yes and no
means no”. No wo women o
should ever be bla blamed l
for the mistreatment
mistreatme
they encounter.
Finn: No one ‘invites’ ‘invites
objectification. We have hav
fought and died for the
right to be able to wea wear
what we want and wom women
should be able to wear wea what
they want to feel good
about themselves.
7
ARE
ARE
LAP-
DANCING
DANCIN
CLUBS
AN INSULT INSU
TO FEMINISM
OR ARE THESE
WOMEN, WHO
USE THEIR BODY TO
GET MONEY FROM MEN,
ACTUALLY CHAMPIONING
FEMINIST VALUES?
Anna: These clubs are
overwhelmingly owned by men and
DOES KATIE PRICE’S
BUSINESS SUCCESS
EQUAL BEING A FEMINIST?
they are making a lot of money by
exploiting women. Women who have
worked in these clubs have been
absolutely central to our campaign
in speaking out against the lies that
it is empowering and that it somehow
champions women.
Sabrina: It’s also a lie that women
make a lot of money from lap
dancing, the reality is that you often
have to pay to dance at a club and
many women end up in debt, they are
sexually harassed and treated badly.
Finn: In a recent survey, 25% of young
women said that lap dancing was
their ideal job. It’s been normalised,
you have clubs on every high street,
you can do it to keep fit, there’s
a huge PR campaign by the sex
industry to show it empowers
women, but it doesn’t.
Cath: A lot of women do it simply
because they need a job, it has
nothing to do with empowerment and
that’s more the case now because
you’ve got a huge gap between rich
and poor. It also represents a female
sexuality that is about exhibitionism
– it’s all about being desired rather
than actively desiring your other half.
8
WAGS HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED
AS ‘THE ULTIMATE ANTI-
FEMINISTS’. DISCUSS…
Cath: I think this is more about
the media’s representation of these
women. They often have jobs but
the only reason they are famous is
because they are married to a man.
These women can’t win, they’re given
attention but they’re denigrated at
the same time – WAG is not
a complimentary term.
Anna: I find it astonishing that in the
21st century women are still being
referred to as ‘wives and girlfriends’.
It’s such a common term. And these
are the aspirations that are being
held out to young women to the
extent that shops are selling ‘Future
WAG’ T-shirts for three-year-old girls.
That is what is anti-feminist, not the
women themselves.
Sabrina: A lot of women are defined
by who they are married to, it’s part
of a long history of not identifying
women as individuals. The way the
media portrays them is regressive.
The term is a put-down. The term
is anti-feminist, not the women.
Finn: It’s so old fashioned, like
something out of a Jane Austen novel
to be defined by your marriage! e! Again
I’m not about to blame these women
for doing what they have done, e, the
individuals are not anti-feminist. st.
9
DOES THE
SEXUALISATION N
OF WOMEN
IN THE MEDIA
DAMAGE
WOMEN AND
ULTIMATELY
PREVENT EQUALITY?
Anna: It is very damaging.
The fact we are bombarded
with images of women
being portrayed as sexual
objects sends out the
message that it’s acceptable
to view women just as a sum
of body parts – not in our
total complexity as intelligent
human beings. It serves to
dehumanise women and
legitimises this idea that
women are only of worth
for what they look like.
Finn: This isn’t about us
being prudish or being afraid
SAMANTHA CAMERON: A
MODERN FEMINIST OR
POLITICAL WAG?
of the naked body, it’s about the
eroticisation of the availability
of women, of women’s passivity,
which is so negative. They are almost
always photographed in submissive,
often porn-like poses.
Sabrina: These sexualised images
are also not balanced with other
images of women so I do think they
are damaging. And they are
overwhelmingly the way women
are portrayed in the media.
Cath: It’s all about how sex sells,
but it’s always women’s bodies and
that’s the problem, women’s bodies
are associated with sex and that is
totally unequal.
10 DO
YOU THINK
THAT THE RISE
OF THE ‘COUGAR’
WOMAN IS A
GOOD THING FOR THE
FEMINIST MOVEMENT?
Finn: No. The term is so animalistic,
its predatory – “I caught him, so
therefore I must be a successful,
desired woman.”
Cath: It’s good if people are now less
judgmental about older women
having sexual desires, being seen
as sexual – that tha is a positive thing.
Sabrina Sabrina: That older women are
often invisible says a lot
abou about how society treats
older
people. The word is
unhe unhelpful but talking about
oolder women is good.
Anna: Women like
Demi Moore are
celebrated for being
with younger men, it’s
as though we make
older women only of
interest when they fit
into a stereotype of a
‘sexy cougar’. I’m not
sure how good it is.
As Stylist left the
ddebate we were sure
oof two things: issues
th that provoke so much
disc discussion are obviously
high highly relevant, and
fem feminism is not about
judg judgment – it’s about
cho choice. And that’s
som something we should
all believe be in.
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