The Ugly Girls Club is out of your league, lads
Have you see the Ugly Girls’ Club? Members convene at the Royal Holloway’s feminist society.
Natasha Barrett, president of the society and a second-year English Literature student, said:
“It started very small, as a joke between society members that was a bit tongue-in cheek.” With hundreds of selfies posted on Twitter in under two weeks and 4,000 Facebook fans, the campaign is blossoming into more than they could ever have imagined.
“We’ve had a lot of support from Exeter University and their feminist society there. They showed a massive amount of enthusiasm for it and we realised we should get in touch with more feminist societies. It’s becoming the case that there aren’t very many university feminist societies left that we haven’t heard from. We’ve had support from America, Canada and Australia as well. It’s really cool – even people from Oklahoma!”
Even them.
“We’re challenging conventional roles, sexist traditions and speech, which judge people for their appearance rather than their substance, traits, policies or achievements.”
Which is why, erm, you’re all women in the Ugly Girls’ Club?
The Independent then adds:
A survey carried out by NUS has highlighted the dangers of lad culture on campuses.
Lad culture is what used to be called being male. The idea is that lads have no idea about female sexual consent. Can these face-pulling anti-lads save human kind from jokey, banterising men? Can sensitivity training rescue the nice boy from his inner lad? Or will males resent to being continually censored and pilloried as rapists-in-waiting just kick back harder?
In the Indy, Anna Cafolla notes:
Of 2,000 male and female students surveyed, a third has had sexual comments directed at them that made them feel uncomfortable. It also found two thirds had heard rape jokes while on campus.
The rest of us hear them on the telly.
The survey showed a further 60 per cent of students who said they were not aware of any policies or action undertaken by their universities to tackle sexual harassment, unwanted advances or intimidation.
Unwanted advances? Does that include approaching women whilst being a socially awkward Asian?
How does a man on the pull / looking for love know his advances will be unwelcome until he’s tried to chat a woman up. This is all deeply complicated.
Natasha is here to help:
“A lot of the time societies come to us when they have something happening that has a feminist perspective. We’re also going to be doing a video campaign on the definition of feminism. We’ve found a lot of people on campus who don’t know what it means and we get wrongly judged.”
Thank goodness. What does it mean?
“My brand of feminism may not be like yours, or Beyonce’s, Emma Watson’s or any political figures or whoever. It’s about having that conversation and finding what you’re comfortable with.”
So. It could be anything?
“I grew up in Cheshire, where it was difficult to have access to information about feminism. I guess I heard the word at 13 or 14, but I never had any idea what it meant. Then I found this group of people and I realised that I found the movement where my opinions were a part of something important.”
Cheshire is not yet twinned with Oklahoma.
“Maybe it makes people feel better, maybe people won’t wear makeup today because the campaign inspires them to feel okay with their appearance. Or maybe they will because they can do what they want. I think we want to create a safe space, inspire and empower people.”
Clear?
Posted: 9th, December 2014 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
