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“New islands of feminism are emerging everywhere”

On Saturday I went to the long awaited Fem11 conference in London. I was happy and excited at seeing the queue to register stretching outside the building. It didn’t take as long as I thought and once registered I went into the large meeting room where a thousand women and men were ready to start the day-long feminist experience.

To introduce the day there were two well-known persons of the 21^st C feminist movement in the UK: conference organiser Kat Banyard and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig.

Kat – who was nominated as one of One World Action’s 100 Unseen Powerful Women – gave us her positive message: “new islands of feminism are emerging everywhere.” And although violence against women has reached an endemic level, we are here; ready to create a better world.

After having watched Sandi Toksvig so many times in Womankind’s video about Ghana I felt like it was someone I knew well taking the mic. Sandi was absolutely fantastic, funny, and informative at once. She delighted us with a feminist interpretation of popular fairy tales showing how they create perfect, patient and beautiful future housewives. She also showed how a version of history which meets patriarchal approval is frequently the one that is passed on. For example, Florence Nightingale may now be famous as ‘the Lady with the Lamp’ but in her time she was called the ‘Lady with the Hammer’ because she smashed the cabinet where the medicines were kept to distribute them to the patients.

She ended with “Be bold when you declare: I am a feminist,” followed by a long and intense applause. I felt like she gave me something to research about and I surely will.

The day followed smoothly with women and men giving me inspirational thoughts and ideas such as objectification, the importance of creating women only groups, and how to educate youngsters toward equality.

A panel of feminist writers and activists led the Q&A in the afternoon. I liked the intervention of author Carlene Firmin who offered an insight into the way much teenage pop culture is outside the mainstream sex industry yet highly chauvinist and dominated by the objectification of women.

The day ended with a panel of three candidates for the role of Mayor of London (apparently Boris Johnson didn’t reply to the invitation…) The time for speeches ran out fast and there were many questions from the audience. Natalie Bennett, Chair of Green Party Women said that she believed Rape Crisis Centres deserved core government funding. She also spoke of the need to help NGOs tackling Female Genital Mutilation; I felt proud of the work Womankind is doing in Ethiopia. I was finally horrified at hearing that for lack of sexual education an 11 year old girl in the UK thought she was dying after her first period.

Kat concluded with a speech. By the length and the intensity of the applause I think that among the candidates, the real winner should be her.

When I came home I discovered that President Berlusconi had resigned, to me a symbol of chauvinism and patriarchal society. Obviously, he didn’t resign because of Fem11, but for me the two things are now linked and I see them together as steps toward equality and justice.

 Post by Giuliana Barbaro