Introduction to Feminism: Blog Tasks :)

Everyday Sexism

Watch the Everyday Sexism TED talk from Laura Bates and answer the following questions:

1) Why did Laura Bates start the Everyday Sexism project?

She started this project in order to raise awareness for people who have been sexually assaulted in some way but have been too scared to speak up as well as talk about their experiences and let other women know that they are not alone. Laura Bates found that these incidents are actually extremely common but not many people spoke up about it and this site provided them with a place to share their experiences without judgement

2) How does the Everyday Sexism project link to the concept of post-feminism? Is feminism still required in western societies?

This project links to post-feminism because it gives women the opportunity to talk about their experiences without men 'silencing' them (when it is likely that women were silenced when they tried to talk about issues like this before the digital age). The digital age has helped feminism progress a lot and this is because it gives women a platform to express their feelings on this subject and find comfort in the fact that they aren't alone. Although this is progress in helping women speak about their experiences, the fact that incidents like the ones Laura Bates was speaking about are still occurring shows that there is still plenty of progress to be made when it comes to feminism in Western societies 

3) Why was new technology essential to the success of the Everyday Sexism project?

Because it gives people all over the world the opportunity to talk about their experiences- in her TED talk, Laura Bates talks about how she had people from all over the world sharing what happened to them and perhaps this can raise awareness in different countries about what happens to women all over the world. Before technology, women didn't have a way of sharing their stories so the new technology has helped this because people can share their stories to people from different countries just by using technology 

4) Will there be a point in the future when the Everyday Sexism project is not required? What is YOUR view on the future of feminism?

I believe that feminism has progressed a lot since the Suffragette movement but it will be extremely hard to entirely overcome sexism due to people's existing opinions but we are able to educate young people as they are growing and educate them about what has happened to women in the past and what can be done to prevent or reduce it so that women don't have to experience sexism as extreme as before again. The Everyday Sexism project may not be as necessary as it currently is but it should still be around for women to share their experiences on a site that won't judge and gives them the freedom to talk about their experiences 

Media Magazine: The fourth wave?

Read the article: The Fourth Wave? Feminism in the Digital Age in MM55 (p64) 

1) Summarise the questions in the first two sub-headings: What is networked feminism? Why is it a problem?

The fourth wave of feminism is known as networked feminism as it aims to tackle social inequalities in modern technology. Thousands of campaigns, blogs, and hashtags have been used as a way to advocate for feminism and some social media sites (especially Twitter) are well known for their representation for modern feminism. In 2015, feminists still had to deal with misconceptions and prejudice- but in the eyes of the law, women should be equal to men so many people in 2015 believed that women had achieved what they had been fighting for nut many high-profile women strongly disagreed. This shows that the essence of feminism is still misunderstood so the freedom on the internet had blurred the true intention behind feminism 

2) What are the four waves of feminism? Do you agree that we are in a fourth wave of ‘networked feminism’? 

• First wave: late 19th century-early 20th century --> the main focus was on the women's right to vote (suffrage)
• Second wave: 1960s --> campaigning for the growth of equal rights and leading to the Equal Pay Act of 1970 as well as other laws (such as reproductive rights)
• Third wave: (also referred to as post-feminism) late 1990s --> the empowerment and reclaiming of femininity
• Fourth wave: (referred to as networked feminism) present day --> aims to tackle social inequality due to modern technology 

I do agree that we are in a fourth wave of 'networked feminism' because the rapid growth of technology has given many people the chance to voice their opinions- although this can be positive because of women sharing their experiences and raising awareness for gender inequalities, it can also be negative because people have large platforms in which they can share sexist and misogynistic opinions which proves that gender inequalities still exist and feminism needs to continue progressing 

3) Focus on the examples in the article. Write a short summary of EACH of the following: Everyday Sexism, HeForShe, FCKH8 campaign, This Girl Can.

• Everyday Sexism: this is a website started by Laura Bates in 2012 in order for people to share experiences of sexism in a safe place because talking about sexual harassment can be very hard to talk about to people in person- she received positive feedback and ended up getting over 50,000 entries 
• HeForShe: this campaign is a global movement that was set up by Emma Watson and focuses on male support for gender equality because she believes that feminism isn't about supporting the matriarchy, but just wanting solidarity. However, this campaign has been criticised because it makes feminism reliant on men which is what they are trying to move away from 
• FCKH8 Campaign: this is a digital campaign that focuses on the modern representation of girls and the huge social inequalities that they are faced with as they grown up- this is a for-profit company so their videos were attempting to sell t-shirts so there has been backlash for this campaign because it was suggested that they were exploiting feminism 
• This Girl Can: this is a fitness campaign that doesn't shame or exclude women- they share photos, videos, and quotes of women without the sexual exploitation that usually coincides with other adverts of this nature. This campaign is used as a technique to ensure women aren't body shamed but this has been too heavily criticised by feminist activists 

4) What is your opinion with regards to feminism and new/digital media? Do you agree with the concept of a 'fourth wave' of feminism post-2010 or are recent developments like the Everyday Sexism project merely an extension of the third wave of feminism from the 1990s?

I believe that the original intention of feminism is being lost and people began to misunderstand feminism as wanting revenge on men instead of the original intention of just wanting equality for men and women. The media has created a negative view of feminists as they have begun labelling them as "man-haters" so although this was a campaign to promote more equality for women, people have misunderstood and are now portraying feminism in a negative light. Perhaps the media is to blame because it doesn't present feminism in an accurate way and disregards all of the work that women for years have been working for. The concept of fourth wave feminism makes sense to me because the growth of modern technology allows for lots of people to share their opinions and this can be negative as misogynists have large platforms to share their opinions and undo all the progress that feminists have made