So, had Dave on on mute last night as I was reading the marvellous 'Possession' by AS Byatt, one of the few women to have won the Booker.
QI XL was on at 9pm. Panellists:
Hugh Dennis
Phil Jupitus
Andy Hamilton
Alan Davies
with host Stephen Fry.
In the ad breaks, none of the ads for up-coming Dave programmes featured women.
Next up was Mock The Week.
Man hosting, five male panellists and one woman.
Not only is it offensive that the 'comedy' channel is so marketed at men, to the point where it is called 'Dave', but actually seeing any women on the channel is more difficult than spotting a needle in a haystack.
HIGNFY, QI, Mock the Week, Red Dwarf, Alan Partridge, Men Behaving Badly, Top Gear - where are the women?
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Monday, 18 April 2011
Have i got news for you
I caught the end of Have I got a bit more news for you on Saturday.
All men.
Surely, BBC, you can find a woman comedian who is funnier, more engaging and more interesting than Bob Ainsworth?
All men.
Surely, BBC, you can find a woman comedian who is funnier, more engaging and more interesting than Bob Ainsworth?
Bechdel Test round up
So, have been on a bit of a film mission these last few weeks!
Here's the update:
Kickass - no. although did have strong, witty, exciting and engaging female character
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - no. although did have more than one named female character
There will be blood - no. only 1 named female character and she was a child
Ghost World - yes! and yes again. what a great film.
Here's the update:
Kickass - no. although did have strong, witty, exciting and engaging female character
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - no. although did have more than one named female character
There will be blood - no. only 1 named female character and she was a child
Ghost World - yes! and yes again. what a great film.
Monday, 21 March 2011
An update from us
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
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
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?)
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