Hello feminists! Welcome to UEA Feminist Society 2015/16. We have lots of exciting things planned for you. There’ll be a regular twice a week discussion group that meets from 5-7pm. The room for the first semester is 01.20, look out for the room change after the winter break. Each week will have a different theme which will be advertised on our Facebook discussion group, Facebook page, Tumblr, and Twitter. We do our very best to make sure that the discussion groups and related content are as accessible as possible, but if you have any suggestions that you think would help, please don’t hesitate to contact us via the contact details on the last page! We will also hold various campaigns and fundraising events. Out Who needs feminism? whiteboard campaign has always proved a favourite amongst our members. If you have any ideas for fundraising or activism, once again, do not hesitate to contact us using the contact details, or have a chat with one of the com-
mittee members. We also hold an International Women’s Day event every year in March, which usually has an evening of celebrating your talents. Look out for more details later in the year. We have the Facebook Discussion group in which members of the group (but not necessarily the society) are able to talk about various feminist issues. As with most internet spaces, the online discussion group is prone to trolls and heated arguments. We’ve therefore created some guidance located at the end of our constitution as Appendices. There’s also some useful guidance on trigger warnings. Finally, welcome to RIOT!, our monthly zine. It is a collection of submissions from our members, usually following a feminismrelated theme. There will usually be a call for submissions, but do not hesitate to send us something if you would like to get involved! All of our old zines can be located here. NB: both links are available in the discussion group description.
FEMINIST JARGON BUSTER CISGENDER: Someone whose gender and sex ‘match’ according to society e.g. a male man. FEMINISM: The movement for gender equality. GENDER BINARY: The belief in only two genders. INTERSECTIONALITY: A way of addressing other forms of oppression (e.g. homophobia, racism) and their relation to feminism. PRIVILEGE: Anyone possessing traits which society favours is said to be ‘privileged’. PATRIARCHY: The societal system that favours men that feminism believes this society operates under.
SWERF: Sex-Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminism. Feminists who do not believe that feminism also covers sex-workers. TROLLING: Often found in internet spaces, the posting of deliberately inflammatory comments to provoke a reaction. TRANSGENDER: Someone whose gender and sex do not match e.g. a female man. TERF: Trans-exclusionary radical feminism. Feminists who do not believe that feminism includes trans women.
OPPRESSION: The suffering that marginalised groups face.
TW/CW: Trigger Warning/ Content Warning. Often used in internet spaces to warn the readers of potentially distressing cotent (see Appendix 2. of the constitution)
MALE GAZE: A concept referring to media being aimed at a masculine audience.
For more information: http:// geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/ Geek_Feminism_Wiki
MISOGYNY: Prejudice against women.
MEET THE COMMITTEE CHARLOTTE EARNEY: PRESIDENT
charlotte is currently studying a part time MA in Media, Culture and Society, 70% because she loves uni so much and 30% because the real world terrifies her. She’s going to try her hand at YouTube videos this year, partly to help make FemSoc even more accessible and partly to chronicle her ridiculous love of shopping on her own channel. In her spare time she is continuing a passionate like affair with Netflix, and she is on a year long quest to befriend all the local cats. LAUREN SALVAGE: VICE PRESIDENT Lauren is a fourth year American History and Politics student who loves Britpop, reality TV, the entire creative output of the late, great Whitney Houston and most importantly, feminism. She is the Vice President of the society this year and amongst other things, will be heading up an attempt to begin a volunteer programme for all interested students. Society members are encouraged to contact Lauren if they would like to know more about volunteering, if they have a question about some of the finer plot points in television drama The L word, or simply if they need help with anything that falls within the scope of her capabilities (not included: computer skills, competitive sports and cooking).
BECKY SMITH: TREASURER Becky Smith is a third year History student about to embark on a year of essentially living in the library. She is an avid space nerd, spends most of her student loans on books she reads in a day or two, drinks old lady decaf earl grey tea and is a self-professed social justice warrior. She will be your treasurer for the following year, and promises not to spend club money on her extensive jumper collection. Whilst her talents include writing, illustration and falling over at inappropriate moments, they do JULIET DONAGHY: SOCIAL SEC not include maths. She plans to Juliet is a Biomedicine graduate starting a Nursing course this year. It’s unclear whether she will ever leave UEA. Besides organising socials, this year Juliet will be helping to run the UEA tumblr and wordpress blogs as “Koala Admin” and working on some videos for the UEA Femsoc youtube account. She loves folk music and long talks about Harry Potter. Friends describe her as “the kindest and the sleepiest”.
ASIA PATEL: UNION COUNCIL REP
HANNAH SINTON: GENERAL
Hannah is a second year psychology student hoping for a future in mental health. She’s very interested in animal rights and the environment, as well as promoting sex education and LGBT+ rights. Like a fussy cat, she turns her nose up at any feminism that isn’t intersectional. In her spare time, Hannah likes to practice yoga, teach herself sign language, and make her own beauty products (despite already being flawless). She has a passionate love for rats and has a rat tattoo on her arm, and dreams of one day petting every rat in the world. Falling somewhere under the trans umbrella, she has no preferred pronouns.
Asia is a final year pharmacy student with a knack for doodling. She puts together the monthly zine, RIOT! and often draws the covers. She also draws for the online publication, The Norwich Radical, as well as various other campaigns and movements who ask her for help. Her role on the committee is to represent the society at Union Council meetings, making decisions on policies to be passed and sometimes even suggesting them. You’ll usually find her in the library or the pub having a giggle at a raccoon on her phone, so feel free to interrupt her and say hello.
BEE BISHOP: GENERAL Bee is a final year English and American Literature student and in her second year on committee. She is a fulltime professional bisexual, providing her expertise for NUS women's campaign, UEA union of student, and tumblr. She is heavily involved in lgbt, women's, consent and mental health campaigns. When not liberating the world from the cishet white ablebodied neurotypical capitalist kyriarchy usually be found pulling pints with her dazzling smile or throwing shapes in the lcr. She enjoys watching endless films and tv (especially documentaries, which you will hear all about) and wasting her life on the internet. She runs the femsoc twitter and is your equality and diversity rep. If you she any access needs, suggestions, ideas or just a want a chat she is very friendly and tiny so not at all intimidating.
CHARLOTTE STEBBING-BOULET: GENERAL Charlotte is studying Culture, Literature and Politics which apparently is a degree much to her indecisive delight. When Charlotte is not talking about her bowels (hi fellow IBS sufferers) you can find her loudly discussing everything she loves about Nicki Minaj. She’s an intersectional feminist and a strong supporter of Corbyn. Charlotte’s always available for a chat so if you see her on campus don’t hesitate go over and talk to her!
UEAFEMINISM.TUMBLR.COM Our wordpress account posts original content by our members – any format is welcome, but it’s usually long-ish written articles. Our twitter posts short updates and links. In that case, what does our tumblr do? UEA Feminist Society has had a tumblr blog since 2012. We use it to share feminist art, videos and writing. It’s also nice to connect with other feminist organisations and bloggers. You don’t need an
account to see our blog – anyone can view it at ueafeminism.tumblr.com. However, if you do have a tumblr account, tag us somewhere so we can follow you! Under the navigation tag you can find our “ask box” where you can chat to us anonymously (or not). We know you can’t always make it to discussion groups, and we don’t want to miss out on your voice. One way we’re trying to help is by nurturing
more online discussion. For this reason we’ve started a project called #UEAFEMTALKS. We post discussion prompts online, and monitor the hashtag #ueafemtalks across as many social media platforms
as possible to see what responses we get. We then share the responses on our tumblr. So far we’ve had two #UEAFEMTALKS discussion prompts, which you can see below. There’s no deadline, so get going!
SURVIVING UNI WITH A CHRONIC ILLNESS By Juliet Donaghy I developed chronic fatigue syndrome in my first year at UEA. It sucked, and it still kind of sucks, especially now that the Nap Room on Campus seems to have disappeared. Nonetheless I survived my first degree and I’m dead set on surviving my second, so I hope I can depart some wisdom to you young things to help it suck a bit less. Special thanks to the members of UEA Chronic for their suggestions. Prepare for the worst The stress of University deadlines have an uncanny knack for causing chronic illness to flare up. If you prepare as much as possible in your first few weeks, you’ll have less to worry about if and when you do need support. Register with the UEA Medical Centre ASAP and sign up for their online
appointment service, which allows you to pre-book or cancel appointments and request repeat prescriptions without the need to phone up. Once you’ve done that, book an appointment at with the Dean of Students office (found on the walkway near to Waterstones) to discuss what support is available to you. It’s also a good idea to make a note of useful contacts for when you’re feeling brain -fogged or in the middle of a crisis. For example, the Union Advice Service [Open 9-5 in Union house, advicecentre@uea.ac.uk, 01603 593463] and the Nightline listening service [Open 8pm-8am in Suffolk Terrace Block A Roadway Level, listening@norwichnightline.org.uk, 01603 503504]. Your story belongs to you
Some people choose to talk to their lecturers and friends about the details of their condition. This can be helpful in getting the practical and emotional support you need. However, it’s also your right to keep your medical history confidential. Remember that “for medical reasons” is a complete answer. If someone pushes you further than that, they are being rude, and it’s completely appropriate for you to say something like “this is very personal and making me uncomfortable, let’s change the subject now”. In a professional or academic context, you can offer to bring in a doctor’s note – it still shouldn’t be necessary for you to explain your life story to get reasonable adjustments made. Study Comes First Whatever course you’re on, University will involve a lot of independent study. When you have limited energy, prioritising your coursework and exam preparation is hard. You will often find you have a long time to complete assignments, until suddenly every-
thing is due at once. Try to get to know your lecturers a bit. If you miss a lecture or seminar, use the absence reporting page on e:Vision and email the teacher, letting them know that you’re aware of the material you need to catch up on and asking if there’s anything else you can do. Buy or make a good planner and work out your own deadlines, leaving breathing room for things to go wrong. Factor in time for your hobbies, seeing friends and rewards for working hard. Then, do your best to stick to it. I found on days when getting out of bed/ showering/clothes might not happen, I could still get a decent amount of work done. You can get little fold-out breakfast tables that will stop your laptop from overheating when you’re working in bed. Focusing on work can give you a sense of satisfaction on those nothing-days. Even if you only manage a sentence, that’s one sentence closer to handing your work in and getting a great mark.
Look after your flesh vessel
Remember you’re not alone
I really don’t want to sound like your doctor. But we all know that eating something with a vitamin in it and moving your body in a way that feels good will probably help with your illness. I’m not an exercise person. At all. But you know how many societies this place has? Neither do I because there are TOO MANY TO COUNT! There’s something there that you will find fun. I swear it. For me, it was Quidditch, which I liked because it was nerdy and full of fun people and didn’t require that much athleticism. I’m thinking of trying out some kind of dancing this year too, and the new wheelchair basketball team looks great. Food is harder, but if you can budget for it Campus Kitchen will cook you something nourishing. We have a branch-off facebook group called Feminist Fit Club where feminists can chat about exercise, cheap easy eats and general health tips without diet talk or body shame.
You’re not the first or last person to attend university with health issues. You can do this! If you’re feeling alone, try searching the “spoonie” tag on tumblr or look up CHRONIC, UEA’s peer support group for students with chronic illness, mobility issues and disabilities. There’s also a group called Student Minds who aim to support students’ mental health. In fact, there’s a whole community out there that has your back and is ready to fight with you.
WHAT IS THE UNION? The Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) is the body that covers all of the societies and campaigns that students can be involved in. It is separate from the university itself. Within UUEAS, there are a vast range of student officers—people who have taken up the role of representing students in different ways to ensure a great university experience. There are five full time officers and thirteen part time officers. The part time officers still work on their studies as well as being officers (impressive stuff, right?). Please see overleaf for more details on the officers. In addition to the officers, each society of UUEAS have an elected representative who attends a meeting every 3 weeks with all of the other representatives, officers, and some of the full time staff who work at the Union. At these meetings, policies are suggested and discussed. These policies cover pretty much everything that con-
cerns UEA students. Anyone can come to the meetings but only representatives and officers are able to vote on whether to pass motions or not. Please contact Asia (FemSoc Council Rep) via the FemSoc email address, Facebook, or Twitter (@TheTerminasia) if you would like more details about Union Council. Around Easter time, you will wake up and go to the square to find that it is covered in posters. This is the day that people start running for officer positions for the next academic year. All students are able to vote for their favourite candidates, usually based on manifestos and promises of what they will bring to the Union. The only limitation are the liberation groups in which only students self-identifying as each of the oppressed groups can vote. For more details and information, please see http:// www.ueastudent.com/.
MEET THE OFFICERS
Hi there! I’m your Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer here at UEA. This year I’m focusing on making campus and Norwich safer, fighting for the rights and wellbeing of our most marginalised students and raising awareness about mental health. We’ve achieved a lot over the last few years, with our Never OK campaign against sexual harassment which involved training all our bar staff, so you feel safer, and building over 40 gender neutral toilets in the Union House! But there’s always more to do! If you
Hey there! I am Yinbo Yu, your Activities and Opportunities Officer at UEA Student Union. Some people say I am the Minister of Fun – I help develop all clubs and societies and ensure equal opportunities for you to participate in extra and cocurricular activities. Even better, I can help you to start a new society! Come to the office and grab me if you fancy a chat, or email me (yinbo.yu@uea.ac.uk) whenever you need help regarding societies issues. Hope you fully enjoy yourselves in Feminist Society!
FULL TIME OFFICERS
My name's Chris and I'm the Campaigns & Democracy officer at the Student Union. Essentially that means that I'm paid to help students organise campaigns on the issues they care about and ensure that the Union is democratic. As part of that, I've supported a variety of student led campaigns over the last year, such as Fossil Free, Defend Education and the Living Wage Campaign. I've also introduced liberation caucuses within the Student Union for women, LGBT+ students, ethnic minority students and students with disabilities, so that we ensure we're taking their views fully into account into our decision making. Get in touch about any of this at christopher.jarvis@uea.ac.uk
Hi everyone! My name is Liam and I am your Postgraduate Education Officer, so if you studying on a Postgraduate Taught or Research programme then I am the elected representative for you. My role is to represent and campaign on key postgrad issues, as well as co-ordinating activities and events that are bespoke and recognise the different needs of our students. One of my priorities this year is running the ‘Honesty Project’ – shining a light on key mental health issues for postgrads in academia. This year is also exciting, as we will be launching the UK’s first student-run Graduate Centre. If you have any questions or just want to chat, come and find me
FULL TIME OFFICERS
PART TIME OFFICERS BETH SMITH: WOMEN’S B.Smith3@uea.ac.uk THEO ANTONIOUPHILLIPS: LGBT+ t.atoniou-phillips@uea.ac.uk HUSSAM HUSSEIN: ETHNIC MINORITIES h.hussein@uea.ac.uk PAUL ERASMUS: MATURE STUDENTS Hi my name is Connor Rand and I’m the Undergraduate Ed- p.erasmus@uea.ac.uk ucation Officer at UEA. I repre- AARON HOOD: STUDENTS sent all undergraduate stu- WITH DISABILITIES dents on issues affecting them a.hood@uea.ac.uk and lobby the University to TING NI: INTERNATIONAL make your course and your academic student experience SAM JONES: ENVIRONbetter. This can take lots of MENTAL forms, such as encouraging S.jones11@uea.ac.uk them to keep course costs ALEX MCCLOSKEY: ETHIdown, campaigning for a more CAL ISSUES diverse curriculum or making A.mccloskey@uea.ac.uk them get their act together on assessment and feedback! If JACK ROBINSON: NONyou’ve got any ideas as you go PORTFOLIO through your degree on how it jack.robinson@uea.c.uk could be better or any prob- CAMERON MELLOWS: lems drop me a line NON-PORTFOLIO c.rand@uea.ac.uk TOM ETHERIDGE: NONPORTFOLIO tom.etheridge@uea.ac.uk
FULL TIME OFFICERS
PHILIPPA COSTELLO: NONPROTFOLIO Philipa.costello@uea.ac.uk
ADVICE FROM OLDER STUDENTS The security Lodge give you unclaimed and wiped USB memory sticks for a £1 charity donation.
Be yourself. There’s enough people at UEA to find a group that’ll like you for you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or speak up for what you believe in.
Just have fun!
The number 25 and 26 buses go regularly from campus to the city until fairly late at night.
Taxi numbers: 01603 446644 (Courtesy), 01603 666333 (ABC), 01603 744747 (Green frog, more environmentally friendly).
Please eat a vegetable every now and again.
Decorate your room. It feels too sad when it’s just accommodation with essential belongings in it.
It’s okay to not want to go out to a club or to not drink.
Remember, first year doesn’t count!
USEFUL CONTACTS DEAN OF STUDENTS:
01603 592761
University support system for Dos.Reception@uea.ac.uk students. They can provide things such as (but not limited to) counselling, support for students with disabilities, and exam support. SECURITY:
01603 592352 (general enLocated at the Lodge on cam- quiries) pus, can get anywhere on 01603 592222 (emergency) UEA grounds within 3 minutes. HOMERUN:
http:// The system that is set up by www.homerunstudentpad.co the Union to help students .uk/ find non-university housing for homerun@uea.ac.uk the following year. 01603 592505 Located in Union House NORWICH NIGHTLINE:
01603 503504
Confidential listening service 07794924366 (text) that is run by students for stulistendents. Operates 8pm-8am ins@norwichnightline.org.uk every night during term. http:// norwich.nightline.ac.uk/ online-listening/ norwichnightline (skype)
THE HARBOUR CENTRE:
0845 4564810
Support for all genders who http:// have experiences sexual as- www.theharbourcentre.co.uk sault/sexual violence. /contactus.html contact@theharbourcentre.co.uk UEA PRIDE:
UeaPride (facebook)
Great for all your LGBT+ @UeaPride (twitter) needs. prideuea@gmail.com CHRONIC:
UeaChronic (facebook)
Peer support group for stu- @UeaChronic (twitter) dents with chronic health conueachronic@gmail.com ditions, mobility problems, and other disabilities. STUDENT MINDS:
UeaStudentMinds (facebook)
Peer support group and chari- Studentminds.org.uk ty aiming to help those with ueamentalhealth@gmail.com Mental Illnesses. WOMEN IN BUSINESS:
UEA Women In Business A society that aims to help (facebook) women who pursue a career @uea_wib (twitter) in business and entrepreneurUea.wib@live.co.uk ship. SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARE- Saac.uea@gmail.com NESS CAMPAIGN (SAAC): They also work with Never OK, Aim to increase awareness the Union’s campaign against and start conversations about sexual harassment. consent.
Discussion group Tuesdays and Thursdays 5pm-7pm Congregation Hall 01.20 uea.feminism@gmail.com @UEA_Feminism http://www.ueafeminism.wordpress.com/ http://www.ueafeminism.tumblr.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/ uea.feminism/ Front cover and borders by Asia Patel. If you would also like to submit a piece for next month’s zine, please contact us using the details above!