A MANIFESTO FOR MODERN FEMINISM
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Ten Things We Can All Do for Equality
Image by Growler
By Stephanie Lord
The world is at war with women, and our bodies are battlefields. We are targeted from the moment we’re born until our last breath with adverts telling us what we should or shouldn’t look like; how and where to feed your baby; how much makeup to wear; how to wear your hair. We are battling this garbage 24 hours a day so when asked to write a rallying call for feminism, my immediate inclination was to open with ‘let’s burn everything to the ground and start again.’
It’s 2016, and we still live in a world where many women don’t have full control over their reproductive choices, the gender-pay gap lives, and women and gender-queer folk are being sexually assaulted at unnervingly high rates. Women of colour are still fighting discrimination and oppression and ending up dead in police custody. Working-class women are struggling to put food on the table and are regularly exploited by bosses who are free to have them at their beck and call using zero-hour contracts, the only socially acceptable form of modern indentured servitude.
We’ve come a long way since Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but not far enough.
- ACKNOWLEDGE CLASS STRUCTURES AND FIGHT THEM
There is a big difference between the likes of Hillary Clinton and the rest of us. On top of gender oppression, we face class exploitation, while some have the additional obstacle of racism to overcome. Women work in the shops, offices, schools and governments of the world, we are underrepresented at the higher levels and then we go home to take care of children and do the laundry. Working-class and migrant women manage the homes and take care of the children of wealthy women, and are very often underpaid and exploited while they’re doing it. Let’s fight class and racial oppression too. And if men really want to be allies, they should take on more care-focused labour.
- STOP MAKING LITTLE GIRLS INTO PRINCESSES AND DOMESTIC LABOURERS
What do we think is going to happen when girls are far more likely to be given a pink toy hoover, pink cooking utensils, dolls or a tea-set as children? These social stereotypes start in the aisles of Toys ‘r’ us and spill into our adult lives and relationships and are a direct factor in why women end up doing more housework and childcare. Let’s just give kids some lego and if a little girl wants a doll, fine. Just don’t only give her dolls and pink hairbrushes.
- STOP TELLING WOMEN TO BE SAFE AT NIGHT
So many rape prevention strategies are based on telling women to go home by a certain route, use a reputable taxi company, and never leave your drink unattended. Let’s have some new strategies based on teaching men a really basic lesson about how not to rape women.
- RESPECT HER RIGHT TO CHOOSE
Whether that’s two abortions or an IUD or emergency contraception at the weekend, respect that it is no one’s business but hers. Remember that it’s the pregnant person who ultimately bears responsibility for the pregnancy–no one else. If you see anti-choice activists outside an abortion clinic, as an act of solidarity, kindly help escort them from the area.
- GET BEYOND “LEAN IN” FEMINISM
Women getting bonuses and having women in the boardroom is all very well, but that doesn’t do much for women whose circumstances are radically different. Having more women at cabinet tables isn’t inherently a bad thing but it certainly doesn’t guarantee a lift out of poverty for women who are homeless and living in hostels with their children. More corporate feminists negotiating for individual maternity rights packages in the US isn’t going to help women in low-paid, zero-hour contracts who don’t have that same capacity for negotiation, and it won’t help women in other countries with maternity rights structures who are working “cash in hand” outside of the traditional tax system in low pay arrangements. There needs to be a much bigger response to this that goes beyond the individual alone. We need to stop labour becoming more precarious and ultimately, take down the capitalist system.
- ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR PRIVILEGE
Privilege is the unearned advantage we have compared to others. We all have it to some degree or another and acknowledging that, or even having it, doesn’t make us bad people. It doesn’t mean that you didn’t struggle or that you aren’t a good ally. It just means that you should reflect on the ways that you might have more advantage than other people so that you can have a better understanding of the real world and act on it.
- FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF OUR TRANS SISTERS
Stand up for trans people and speak up for them where their voices might otherwise be ignored.
When you see an article by Julie Bindel or Germaine Greer saying “trans women aren’t women,” complain to the publication. If you hear someone making inappropriate jokes or comments, call them out on it.
- FIGHT MISOGYNY WHERE WE SEE IT AND DON’T TEAR OTHER WOMEN DOWN
This is different from saying “don’t criticise other women.” Everyone is open for criticism, just remember that her success is not your failure. Also saying you’re just not the type of woman who can be friends with other women isn’t really doing anything for the sisterhood. Don’t force girls to wear skirts to school. They aren’t practical for climbing trees.
- ALLOW WOMEN TO CONTROL THEIR OWN LIVES AND SEXUALITY–AND THAT INCLUDES SEX WORKERS.
Bear with me while I quote a man, but it was the famous Irish Republican Socialist James Connolly who said in 1914, “None so fitted to break their chains as those who wear them, none so well equipped to decide what is a fetter.” Feminists need to respect sex workers’ decision to engage in sex work, and recognise the ability to consent while simultaneously fighting to end trafficking in all industries whether they are engaged in domestic labour or sex work. Laws that purport to help women and end up criminalising them should not be the go-to option for lawmakers. Evidence shows that violence against women has not decreased. Don’t accept policies that are more about keeping migrants out than actually protecting women. We wouldn’t stand for a women’s movement that didn’t actually listen to women, so let’s not stand for a feminist movement that doesn’t listen to sex workers.
- FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
Don’t give up. Keep our concerns at the forefront of the struggle and don’t leave leading roles to men. Be part of a new world without gender, race and class oppression.
Stephanie Lord is a writer, feminist activist and speaker based in Ireland. She campaigns for abortion rights and is spokesperson for Choice Ireland and blogs at FeministIre.com
Growler lives, works and plays in Berlin. She is a mama, a lover and a teacher. She has had a life long fascination with vaginas and their ability to hold so much. She has recently discovered that she is like a vagina in her own abilities, juggling many things in her life. She is learning that the vagina dentata is a symbol for her own emotional and physical boundaries.
Above image is called ‘Cosmic Cunts’.
