World AIDS Day

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Just recently I finished reading a biography of Elizabeth Taylor.  A fascinating woman no matter how you look at it.  But more than her jewels, her marriages, her violet eyes… the biggest thing about Elizabeth Taylorthat should always be remembered, is the work she did to raise money and awareness for HIV/AIDS.

When AIDS first came to public, it was shunned and unmentionable: even the President of the USA refused to mention it in public, and when Elizabeth Taylor first tried to organise a fundraiser she had to beat down the doors of Hollywood to get people to attend.  She worked tirelessly throughout the latter part of her life – despite her own terrible health problems – to raise awareness of AIDS and reduce its stigma.  She also raised millions of dollars for research and, through the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, gave money directly to people with AIDS and HIV to buy food, medicine, and medical treatment.

~~~~~

Today is World AIDS Day, and according to a recent article in The Guardian, we could do with having Elizabeth Taylor around now, too.  On the one hand, massive steps forward have been made in the treatment of AIDS, and it is now possible to prevent contamination using the same medicines that are used to suppress the symptoms of AIDS.

On the other hand, to keep these drugs and progress coming, to keep people receiving the drugs they need, and to keep mothers from passing AIDS on to their babies, or people passing it on to their partners, one thing is needed: Money.

Without money, the research won’t continue; progress won’t be made; and people with AIDS won’t get the already-existing treatments they need.  The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has cancelled its next round of funding.  Without this money, developing countries have no hope of affording the drugs which are widely available in first world countries.  This means that contamination will increase, and people already on the medication will stop taking it, letting AIDS run rampant through their bodies again: a stronger, resistant strain that will in turn require much stronger drugs to be managed, assuming they could be afforded.

AIDS now straddles a startling fault-line: one side has no money, no research, no drugs, no prevention.  The other side has progress so huge that Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, has spoken about the possibility of an ‘AIDS-free generation.’

Money is the one thing that stops a U-turn in the progress of AIDS treatment and prevention.  When the Global Fund asked for US$20 billion last year, they received only US$11.7 billion.  The truth is, AIDS isn’t as popular as it used to be.  When such progress has been made that levels of contamination in developed countries fall low, the cash stops flowing.

People argue that AIDS has had too much of the money allocated for World Health.  And people argue that in times of economic crisis, everything takes a hit and health funds are no different.  But AIDS has taken so much money because that’s what it needs to be beaten.  People in the world don’t stop having AIDS or lower their risk of infection because they can’t afford the drugs any more.

Now is the time to give one final push – and yes, a big cash injection – to the Global Fund. The endline could be in sight, and to falter at the last fence could be to reverse all that has been achieved so far.  Putting up the funds now could make all the money and work of the last 40 years worth it.  Stopping the money now could mean everything that’s been spent so far was just money down the drain.

16 Days

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November is a busy time for feminists.  It is, of course, 16 Days For The Elimination Of Violence Against Women, when more events than you can shake a (non-phallic?) stick at are on across the country.

This year, GFN kicked off the 16 Days of Action with a planned candle-lit vigil in the city centre.  Sex crime in Glasgow has now reached a 5 year high, and over the period 2010-11, more than 910 sex-related crimes were reported.  The rape conviction rate remains at a horrifyingly low 3% (which, in itself is less that half the UK average).

Unfortunately, turn-out at this vigil (our second) was very low and I think we didn’t make anywhere near as much of an impact as we would have liked.  We did have a speech made by the lovely Sandy Brindley of Rape Crisis Scotland (you can watch it here, on our official YouTube channel), and then we handed out flyers and info cards.

Following our event, there was the annual Reclaim The Night walk, organised by Rape Crisis.  This got a good turn-out and we walked to the sound of Sheboom and then gathered to hear some from Rape Crisis talk and then a short feminist sing-along with the Rape Crisis choir!

Today, of course, is the strike and picket-line action, so good luck to all of you who’re out there.  The cuts that are being brought in, and those that have already been implemented, routinely hit women hardest, so if you can go along and show some support, please do it.  And if you can’t make it, then respect any picket lines you come across!

 

You can find a full list of Glasgow’s 16 Days events here.

 

Fem 11 Conference

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This weekend was UK Feminista’s annual conference. This is not the first time that I have spent a weekend away at a UK Feminista event: in the summer I attended Summer School in Birmingham (www.glasgowfeministnetwork.org.uk/blog/summer-school-take-two/) and I hoped that the conference would be more of the same.

Held in central London the proceedings started with UK Feminista’s founder Kat Banyard giving a rallying opening speech about feminism today, which included urging us to support local occupy movements. Also giving opening remarks was Sandi Toksvig, who followed proudly declaring that she was a feminist by doing a very funny turn on the invisibility of women throughout history and literature. My only small complaint, which I think was shared amongst other conference goers, was the emphasis on pop science to explain the biological differences between women and men. Although sometimes amusing the hints of biological reductivism and old school gender stereotyping sat uncomfortably with a conference full of feminists.

I attended the morning workshop on body image by Endangered. This was a great (and completely packed workshop) on their new campaign ‘Ditch the Dieting’. The workshop was short on campaign details but huge on participation in the form of an audience ‘speak out’ about their own experiences of body image especially in relation to dieting. Most of these stories were similar; some were funny but others were shocking and upsetting, including testimonies from women suffering eating disorders. Most women seemed to feel damaged by the diet industry and the constant negative messages about weight and their looks. It was moving to see what was a slow workshop to begin with become a harmony of outrage at the diet industry and media.  The important message from this session was that the negativity we all seemed to have internalised about our bodies is harmful, hateful and needs to be ignored. As a representative from Endangered said this wasn’t some flimsy issue about girl’s magazines this is a serious concern that harms women. Endangered has some great videos and resources on their website and I urge you to have a look: http://www.endangeredspecieswomen.org.uk/

After lunch (of Krispy Kremes – making full use of being in London!) I attended White Ribbon’s session on engaging men in feminism. This was an interesting session although it was short on input from the White Ribbon representative and focused more on (much too large) discussion groups. White Ribbon has an annual day of Activism on the 25th of November. For more information see their website:  http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/

The most overwhelming thing about UK Feminista’s conference, as with their Summer School, is the opportunity to meet so many other feminists. Sometime being a feminist can be isolating as I regularly come into contact with people who subscribe to negative myths and stereotypes. However, this conference has a feeling of a safe space where everyone broadly thinks along similar lines. Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti used this bravely during the panel session by being willing to air her doubts and unanswered questions to push the boundaries of agreement in the room.

The panel session was followed by a London Mayoral hustings (with the notably absence of Boris). As a Scot on my 4th visit to London, who is still confused by where the tube goes never mind the transport policies behind it, I didn’t think I would be too interested in this session. However I stuck around for the big names of Ken, Brian and the impeccable chair Samira Ahmed and found it quite interesting to see political big hitters questioned on important feminist issues. Another interesting experience for me was adventures on twitter (ScotFeminista). I’m a total Twitter novice but it’s fantastically addictive. It was great to see when a comment particularly hit home by the number of re-tweets. For instance ‘The problem with the government isn’t that they’re not women, it’s that they’re Tories” (damn straight Zoe Williams).

UK Feminista’s conference was less practically minded than Summer School which left me with a fantastic tool kit of ideas to take back to Glasgow. Nonetheless, having open and important feminist discussions with 1000 similarly minded women is always worth the train ride!

Hazel xx

Hallowe’en

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The older I get, the more excited I seem to get by Hallowe’en rolling around.  I don’t remember being this excited when I was wee – I always preferred Guy Fawkes Night – but I suppose with at least three people I know throwing a party every year, the anticipation builds, and this year I’ve been planning my costume for ages!

I’m going as a pirate.  A swash-buckling, rum-drinking, boot-stompin’, androgynous pirate.  I fully intend to rock hefty amounts of kohl, dangling earrings, and a beard.  A bit like Jonny Depp, only not as rich.  Or like Patti Smith in the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean film, as I’ve just discovered.

I decided to look for a bit of inspiration using Google images, but the pictures and costumes that came up where the antithesis of what I was looking for: essentially costumes for ‘Slutoween’ as Jezebel have named it.  Here’s an example of what you could expect to look like if you went on the Internet’s recommendations on how to be a woman pirate:

Erm, no thanks.  For a start, how are you meant to run across a slippery deck in spike heels?  Wouldn’t you be cold with nothing covering your midriff and shoulders?  And, frankly, fishnets are just impractical when there are so many swords, hooks, and sharp objects lying around!

It turns out that pirates aren’t the only costumes that are sexed up for a woman’s Hallowe’en costume. I did a quick, random search for what I thought would be standard Hallowe’en costumes, and here’s what I came up with:

witch costume

skeleton

 

pumkin

 

zombie

These aren’t even the most extreme pictures that I’ve chosen to illustrate my point; they all came up in the top five search results and were one of hundreds of broadly similar outfits.  You know things are bad when even on Hallowe’en – a celebration of all things scary, gory, creepy and ghouly – you can’t throw a filthy, blood-stained, dirt-encrusted outfit without being expected to look sexy!  You can’t be a pirate, just a ‘sexy pirate’.  You can’t be a demon of death, you have to be a ‘fallen angel.’  No big, fat, round pumpkins, please, but a short orange puff-ball skirt and orange bows in your hair will be OK.

To which I say: NO!  Down with the ‘girly’ outfits!  Who wants to look sexy when you’re sticking your face in a bowl full of goo to retrieve an apple?  (Am I the only one who still wants to do this?)

Be whatever you want to be this Hallowe’en: scary, funny, weird, or mad.  Just don’t be sexy.

Film viewing (Glasgow Film Theatre)

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We’ve been thinking about having a film night as a small, regular  fundraiser and while we haven’t sorted out a venue yet, I did notice that We Need To Talk About Kevin will be screening at the GFT from 18th October.

Directed by a woman (and a Glaswegian at that!) this is the adaptation of the book of the same name by Lionel Shriver.

The viewing on the 18th October is the Scottish premiere and will be followed by a Q&A with director Lynne Ramsay and actor Ezra Miller (Kevin) – this sounds like a great event, how many of you would be up for coming along?

You don’t have to be a member of GFN to join us, we’ll put details of meeting times/points up on the events page of our website, so feel free to come along!

Beware The Tropes (Not The Feminists)

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This is a concise and interesting video about the way women are portrayed in the media, and how characters are frequently scripted as extreme, ridiculous, over-the-top… in order to paint feminism as an unnecessary and absurd movement.  This was posted on our Facebook page, too – I found it really interesting, and I hope you all do too!

Tropes vs. Women: The Straw Feminists

 

Rally To Support Workers At Stowe College

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This is a message forwarded on from our Facebook page:

Anyone in Glasgow, please come down and support Stow UNISON strikers. The college are trying to privatise the cleaning and catering staff – overwhelmingly low paid women – and they are fighting back, to stay as public sector workers and for the Scottish living wage. Tues, Weds & Thurs there are picket lines from around 8am – lunchtime, with a rally 12.30pm Weds at the main campus. Main campus is few mins walk from Cowcaddens Underground, Stow West campus is Hotspur St, off Queen Margaret Drive.