After a fantastic event at the Watershed on 6th March, we asked attendees to fill out a short form, committing to carrying out up to three actions to continue the momentum and energy created at the meeting.
We had 63 responses from an audience of 112 which was absolutely fantastic, and the day after the event, there were over 100 hits on the www.rowitm.org website. To break down the results, 17 people said they would look at the website - obviously far more did that than had promised to! Nine people said they would join BFN, and nine people said they would come to a meeting. This was borne out at the first meeting after 6th March on Feminism and Capitalism where the group had to find extra chairs in our venue to accomodate the people who wanted to be there. Ten people said they would do the Bechdel test, and we have already had some submissions on this blog. Twenty people said they would take more notice, or speak to people about what had been discussed at the meeting, and this is what we want - a real buzz about this issue which will force things to change.
Other commitments included: "challenging my boss when he makes remarks about my female colleagues", "try to find a way to bring more women onto local radio", "talking to groups of young women so that they know what they can do", "count the presenters on children's television", "write to Radio 4" and "continue to strive to be equal in my relationship and teach my two sons."
Please carry on with this activity, and carry on sending in your findings, whatever they may be about women in the media. We will be in touch in due course about a follow up meeting.
In solidarity
Bristol Feminist Network
Monday 21 March 2011
Tuesday 8 March 2011
A few useful resources from Marina S
There are a few websites I visit regularly that could be good links as resources from the ROWITM site, for ideas on the type of research we could be doing if nothing else. Apologies if you're already aware of them and are not plannign to link to external sites from the ROWITM homepage, but I thought I'd rather share than not anyway:
One is the Sociological images blog - it's run by a pair of sociologists and has a pretty wide remit, but gender issues & representation are high n the list and they often address how women are portrayed in the press/media. It's an excellent resource to go to if one wants to get a large amount of evidence without trawling the web for days, because they have tags you can look at for various issues (e.g. gendered toys, representations of Asian women as passive/submissive etc). http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/
The Bechdel Test Movie List is what it sounds like - a bunch of movies and whether or not they pass the test, with rankings, comments & discussion.
Disney Princess Recovery is a blog chronicling the process of one woman (who's a social sciences academic, so there's good insight there) to wean her young daughter off Disney's narrow representations of women. She's more or less finished the journey now, but the back story is fascinating and she still updates the blog with other relevant articles.
Photoshop of Horrors doesn't focus exclusively on ROW, more on dreadful photoshop; but it's a good introduction to just how widely manipulated our visual environment is.
The #photoshopofhorrors tag on Jezebel is also a rich seam to mine, for example: http://jezebel.com/#!5762189/models-real-faces-before-the-photoshop-magic
Bechdel Test - memento
Name of film
Memento
Were there two or more named women in the film?
Yes
Did the women talk to each other?
No
... about something other than a man?
No
Was the director male or female?
Male - Christopher Nolan
Comments
Women arent protrayed very well in this movie at all! The wife of Leonard is portrayed as a helpless but beautiful lady who is raped and murdered. Leonard as a result loses his short term memory storing capabilities and proceeds on a rampage to find the second killer and have his revenge. The second female character Natalie is portrayed as being spiteful and uses his condition to get him to kill people she dislikes. Then at the end is turns out his wife didnt actually get killed but she couldnt cope with his condition. So all in all not great!
Memento
Were there two or more named women in the film?
Yes
Did the women talk to each other?
No
... about something other than a man?
No
Was the director male or female?
Male - Christopher Nolan
Comments
Women arent protrayed very well in this movie at all! The wife of Leonard is portrayed as a helpless but beautiful lady who is raped and murdered. Leonard as a result loses his short term memory storing capabilities and proceeds on a rampage to find the second killer and have his revenge. The second female character Natalie is portrayed as being spiteful and uses his condition to get him to kill people she dislikes. Then at the end is turns out his wife didnt actually get killed but she couldnt cope with his condition. So all in all not great!
Bechdel Test - Animal Kingdom
Name of film
Animal Kingdom
Were there two or more named women in the film?
No
Did the women talk to each other?
No
... about something other than a man?
Yes
Was the director male or female?
Male
(ed note - assuming whoever sent this in meant the 3rd question as a no, otherwise it doesn't make sense?)
Animal Kingdom
Were there two or more named women in the film?
No
Did the women talk to each other?
No
... about something other than a man?
Yes
Was the director male or female?
Male
(ed note - assuming whoever sent this in meant the 3rd question as a no, otherwise it doesn't make sense?)
Bechdel Test - Archipelego
Name of film
Archipelago
Were there two or more named women in the film?
Yes
Did the women talk to each other?
Yes
... about something other than a man?
Yes
Was the director male or female?
female
Comments
Film touching on class issues and middle class discontent. Featuring three main female characters, one in a subordinate position as a chef to the family which featured a mother, troubled daughter and 'lost' (trying to find his way in the world) son, as well as a 'thoughtful' older male family friend character. Interesting portrayal of awkward everyday interactions, of adult sibling rivalry between brother and sister in the context of a family holiday as well as of a mother awaiting the arrival of her husband in vain.
Archipelago
Were there two or more named women in the film?
Yes
Did the women talk to each other?
Yes
... about something other than a man?
Yes
Was the director male or female?
female
Comments
Film touching on class issues and middle class discontent. Featuring three main female characters, one in a subordinate position as a chef to the family which featured a mother, troubled daughter and 'lost' (trying to find his way in the world) son, as well as a 'thoughtful' older male family friend character. Interesting portrayal of awkward everyday interactions, of adult sibling rivalry between brother and sister in the context of a family holiday as well as of a mother awaiting the arrival of her husband in vain.
Monday 7 March 2011
My Bechdel test
A couple of weekends ago I watched 4 movies, 2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday.
They were:
Napoleon Dynamite
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Social Network
Due Date
None of them passed.
Where are the women?
Sian, Bristol, UK
They were:
Napoleon Dynamite
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Social Network
Due Date
None of them passed.
Where are the women?
Sian, Bristol, UK
Saturday 5 March 2011
Where are the women?
Where are the women?
The Watershed, Sunday 6th March, 2pm
Panel discussion with journalist and broadcaster Bidisha. Hear the evidenced, debate what is to be done
Brought to you by the Bristol Fawcett Society, Bristol Feminist Network, The Festival of Ideas and The Watershed
If you thought the battle for gender equality had been won, this event will make you think again. A quick glance at the current state of women’s representation in the media clearly illustrates how far we have to go before men and women have equal status in the media and the arts. Whether it’s the shocking statistic that 71% of the artists who performed at Glastonbury in 2010 were men, to the fact that only 7% of mainstream film directors are women, it isn’t hard to see that there is a troubling absence of women in our culture.
Over the past four years, the Bristol Fawcett Society and Bristol Feminist Network have investigated how women are represented in the media. They found that except as idealised, narrowly-defined beauties, women were disturbingly absent:
• there were no women comedians performing on the Bristol comedy circuit in November 2008.
• during November 2009 154 films were shown in Bristol – but only 14 were directed by women
• A detailed sampling of terrestrial TV found that at weekends a man would appear on the screen 64% of the time, women only 13% (23% of the time a man and a woman were present)
• Over one month the Guardian sports pages carried 1048 images – of which a mere 28 were of women (and they included shots of wags and a cartoon!)
• magazine covers provided a tsunami of by images of young, white, smiling women, celebrated for their youth, good looks and glossy hair. Older women? Women with power? No-where to be seen.
In May 2010, we went to the polls to vote for our new coalition government. Whilst the newspapers reported on Sarah Brown’s pedicure and Sam Cam’s pregnancy bump, women politicians were out of the spotlight. And when the votes were finally in, women were out. The Cabinet is now home to more graduates of Magdalen College than it is to women.
Why does this matter? Who cares if men are more visible in the public eye than women?
It matters because any sense of what is possible for women is shockingly limited when they are only visible as idealised, young and narrowly-defined beauties. Women’s confidence is undermined and young women are deprived of strong role models: a recent survey found that 68% of 16 year old girls wanted to be glamour models. It reinforces a message that the wider world of creativity, politics and power are for men and men alone.
If women lack political power, then women’s issues don’t get political attention. If women’s stories aren’t told and celebrated in film and literature, then women’s history and culture are not heard and male history and culture remain ‘the norm’, and set as the default.
Where are the women of intelligence and political clout, the sports women, the women who ‘do’ and create? We know that they are out there, but far too rarely represented in the media – and this matters.
Join writer, critic and commentator Bidisha, Dr Sue Tate, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture at UWE, Philippa Diedrichs from the Centre of Appearance Research and Sian Norris from BFN at the Watershed on the 6th March to discuss the absence of women in the media and what can be done to combat it.
When: Sunday 6th March, 2pm-4pm
Where: The Watershed
Cost: £4.60/£3.60
http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/2807/
The Watershed, Sunday 6th March, 2pm
Panel discussion with journalist and broadcaster Bidisha. Hear the evidenced, debate what is to be done
Brought to you by the Bristol Fawcett Society, Bristol Feminist Network, The Festival of Ideas and The Watershed
If you thought the battle for gender equality had been won, this event will make you think again. A quick glance at the current state of women’s representation in the media clearly illustrates how far we have to go before men and women have equal status in the media and the arts. Whether it’s the shocking statistic that 71% of the artists who performed at Glastonbury in 2010 were men, to the fact that only 7% of mainstream film directors are women, it isn’t hard to see that there is a troubling absence of women in our culture.
Over the past four years, the Bristol Fawcett Society and Bristol Feminist Network have investigated how women are represented in the media. They found that except as idealised, narrowly-defined beauties, women were disturbingly absent:
• there were no women comedians performing on the Bristol comedy circuit in November 2008.
• during November 2009 154 films were shown in Bristol – but only 14 were directed by women
• A detailed sampling of terrestrial TV found that at weekends a man would appear on the screen 64% of the time, women only 13% (23% of the time a man and a woman were present)
• Over one month the Guardian sports pages carried 1048 images – of which a mere 28 were of women (and they included shots of wags and a cartoon!)
• magazine covers provided a tsunami of by images of young, white, smiling women, celebrated for their youth, good looks and glossy hair. Older women? Women with power? No-where to be seen.
In May 2010, we went to the polls to vote for our new coalition government. Whilst the newspapers reported on Sarah Brown’s pedicure and Sam Cam’s pregnancy bump, women politicians were out of the spotlight. And when the votes were finally in, women were out. The Cabinet is now home to more graduates of Magdalen College than it is to women.
Why does this matter? Who cares if men are more visible in the public eye than women?
It matters because any sense of what is possible for women is shockingly limited when they are only visible as idealised, young and narrowly-defined beauties. Women’s confidence is undermined and young women are deprived of strong role models: a recent survey found that 68% of 16 year old girls wanted to be glamour models. It reinforces a message that the wider world of creativity, politics and power are for men and men alone.
If women lack political power, then women’s issues don’t get political attention. If women’s stories aren’t told and celebrated in film and literature, then women’s history and culture are not heard and male history and culture remain ‘the norm’, and set as the default.
Where are the women of intelligence and political clout, the sports women, the women who ‘do’ and create? We know that they are out there, but far too rarely represented in the media – and this matters.
Join writer, critic and commentator Bidisha, Dr Sue Tate, Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture at UWE, Philippa Diedrichs from the Centre of Appearance Research and Sian Norris from BFN at the Watershed on the 6th March to discuss the absence of women in the media and what can be done to combat it.
When: Sunday 6th March, 2pm-4pm
Where: The Watershed
Cost: £4.60/£3.60
http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/2807/
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