ARTEMIS
GlObal FEminism
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contents 2.Editor’s note 3.Reclaim page 3 4.Re-branding the Woman’s Network 5-6.Is Boots Racist? 7-8.poems 9-10.repeal the Eighth 11-12.western beauty standards and asian beauty 13-14.artwork 15-16. Women’s Rights in Central and South America 17.women doing wonderful things 18. Matriarchal Societies
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Editor’s note Hello and welcome to our new issue of the Zine! Occasionally, it’s easy to forget about feminism when it doesn’t just affect us. That’s why in this issue we decided to take a look at global feminism and forward movement of women’s rights on a global scale. Taking women’s stories and issues from all over the world and closer to home, the team have put together a varied and pretty stunning issue. This issue’s winners of our page 3 campaigns as voted by you are the Chinese Feminist 5. Read more about them on—you guessed it—page 3. We’ve got creative this issue and alongside varied and brilliant articles, we’re lucky enough to have some poems written about what it means to be a woman on page 7 and 8 and some fun artwork about solidarity. Additionally, we held a creative zine cover creation session. Congratulations to our winner who is featured in this issue! Thank you again to everyone who got involved and made this possible. A special thanks goes to Philippa our designer who has spent time to put this issue together and creating some really lovely artwork. You can find out contact details on the back cover, and keep your eyes peeled for further information about International Women’s Week as run by The Women’s Network and UoN Feminists. If you want to get involved in our next issue get in touch! Enjoy!
- Rachel
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Reclaim Page 3
feminist 5
This issue’s Reclaiming Page 3 girl(s) are the Chinese Feminist Five. In February, on the eve of International Women’s Day, these young Chinese women were arrested. for women, as well as donning blood splattered wedding dresses to raise awareness of domestic violence against Chinese women. When the Chinese Feminist Five were arrested, the world became aware of the countries intolerance towards activism, in the months that followed the Chinese authorities arrested a large number of activists and scholars. Women from across the globe donned masks of these women’s faces in solidarity for their unjust arrest.
By Fiona Roberts
The Chinese authorities feared that these women, who had planned on handing out leaflets highlighting sexism in their country, would provoke trouble. Despite their release in April, many worry that these women still aren’t safe. Their arrest sparked outrage across the world. The group had been using social media as a platform to raise awareness and create a new wave of feminism in China. In the last three years they have successfully run campaigns to increase the number of public toilets available
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Re-branding the Women’s Network We are happy to announce that the Women’s Network is undergoing a process of re-branding and transformation. In the past, the Network has only welcomed so-called ‘self-defining women’, but in addition to the definition often being perceived as sometimes patronising, this was deemed not inclusive enough by our electorate - we listened and agreed. In addition to welcoming all women, the new description of the Network now follows:
‘We are trans & intersex inclusive & also include people with complex gender identities that include ‘woman’ and/ or who experience oppression as women, if they so wish.’
Furthermore, we are working towards focusing the Network more on welfare
and support whilst retaining our campaigning duties. We have created a new email address where anyone can email us anonymously if in need of support, advice, or help from the Network committee. The email is: Nottinghamwomensanon@gmail.com
Obviously, this is an ongoing process of change and we will provide further information and updates as the process goes on. Keep your eyes open! We are very happy with the new direction of the Network, and we hope you are too. If you have any opinions, please let us know.
Much Love,
The Women’s Network Committee
is Boots Racist? The Eurocentric Beauty Ideal has been proliferated since colonial times. With the expansion of cheap travel to all corners of the globe and the rollout of American mass media and advertising to non-Western countries, the airbrushed image of the slender, rosy-cheeked White woman has become a staple the world over. In particular, the most aesthetically desirable skin colour is indisputably some shade of ‘white’. Indian television is rife with adverts depicting skin lightening creams, Black celebrities are whitewashed on magazine covers, and the Portland Building Boots makeup counter still only sells foundation that makes BME students look like ashenfaced ghouls. The complicity of the media in the underrepresentation of darker skinned people has undoubtedly contributed to the boom in allure of Caucasian features and the perpetuation of harmful racial stereotypes, such as the idea that BME people are inherently less aesthetically pleasing. The real surprise is that on University Park campus, in the heart of the Portland building the makeup options for BME students are so poor.
Just this term I ran out of the foundation that I am used to only slathering on when my under-eye-bags are particularly prominent because of last minute all-nighters and my face is a pimply due to overindulgence in the refined sugar-based food group. It happened to be a day on which I was running a meeting for the UoN Feminists Campaign Group, and I knew I would feel more confident if I looked less like I’d slept with my face on my laptop keyboard (regardless of how true that was), so I ran down to Boots to search for the closest
foundation replacement. When I eventually gave up in despair I was heartened to find that the Portland makeup sale was happening that same day. I popped upstairs to find something, anything, that I could use. Unfortunately the only thing they sold that was even vaguely close to my skin tone was a bronzing powder which I promptly bought. That evening I was a ringer for the Oscar’s trophy. It seems ridiculous that in 2015 there is still no hope for the deadline-driven, makeup-wearing person of colour, unless they trek all the way to the city centre or to *gasp* Beeston to find a foundation, blusher, or concealer that matches their skin tone.
The real surprise is that on University Park campus, in the heart of the Portland building the makeup options for BME students are so poor. You would think, then, that a simple request sent in to the Boots management team to stock a more diverse selection of shades of makeup would have been successful because it would appeal to Boots as a brand that would presumably want to cater for as wide a range of customers as possible, in or-
by Anjuli Shere
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der to generate as many sales as possible. However, this was far from the truth. Boots anticipated a loss, as they assumed that not enough students would be interested in the darker shades to make stocking them on campus worthwhile. Unfortunately, despite all evidence to the contrary, this is a trend that can be seen across all of the UK. According to the Office of National Statistics, currently 1 in every 10 adults in the UK is of “ethnic origin”. Yet tonight, whilst researching for this piece, I found a Guardian article stating that statistics from a recent Mintel report indicate that the cosmetics market for non-Caucasian skin tones is worth only roughly £65 million, which accounts for less than 2% of the £3.7 billion UK beauty industry. I took advantage of social media to ask some of my BME friends about their favourite makeup brands, and the same names kept coming up: mainly MAC, Bobbi Brown and Max Factor. My friends reported that most high-street labels left them looking chalky and sickly, so they often had to ration their expensive lotions, creams
and powders or *gasp again* combine them with cheaper, less effective products.
So why is it that there are so few options for BME people? And why are the most reliable options also the least affordable? Most importantly, what can we, as students, do to fix this absurd situation? The answer to the first question is simple. The lack of options is, although not as serious as most other forms of oppression, still rooted in the racist assumption that BME people are a silent and unprotesting minority, rather than a legitimately profitable demographic. To the second question, I give the same answer. Until there is widespread recognition that people of colour also demand representation by the cosmetic industry, good quality dark shades of makeup will continue to have a niche existence. However, we can help with this. The third question is less tricky. Look out for the results of a petition from the 26th November, calling for the Boots in Portland building to cater to the makeup-related needs of all students.
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Drops and plummets like cantankerous catharsis A delivery room to bring forth a placenta of longed for paradise Scorned. A tarnished girl, man-handled in photographs via prodding fingers of surgical surveillance, wallowing in all that could ever be euro-centric in a half formed flower. A baby’s breath. Sugar daddies. Blow away their cotton wool extensions on continental winds and hope that the wind will arrange your hair to replicate an experimental, white-washed Pocahontas I bathed in the colours the day my hair stopped swaying freely and held its tight coils in a circular fashion, I gave birth to myself during my exile from the basement and washed my wounds in the light of burnt out candles. Today, she was reborn. I arrived A woman. written by Charlotte Maxwell
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21st c
entur y wom
an
Judgement is an everyday occurrence, From the moment we wake till the sun avoids its own critique, Perfection can’t be bought or taught, It is a façade that allows the industry to carry on, Greedy from our insecurities that were bred from the pictures they created. Advertisements constantly shoved down our throats, Buy this, buy that, there is no choice, And yet we are thought to believe we do, This skirt wasn’t designed for us to decide, It was fate of course.
Patriarchy exists because we purchase the pill, The cream, the diet, or worse still, The acceptance desired by all is what truly ruins us, And those who don’t give a damn are ostracised and defy the rules of ‘God’, Because the wars of religion pale in comparison to the fashion world. Instilled within us is regret for what we have lost, Or not achieved even though it wasn’t achievable, Hypnotised, Lost to reality. Who are you? Who are we? We are the closeted people, We are the ones you avoid, We are everyone, Yet no one, Because who would admit truly to their crime? Wear a mask, doll yourself up love, Because today we are not ourselves, We are a 21st century woman. That no one knows. written by Katie Cash
Repeal The Eighth In theory the Republic of Ireland should stand proud of the year they have had. Samesex marriage was legalised by a staggering public vote, and people across the world rejoiced. On the 30th October the bill passed its final hurdle, and marriage equality was finally achieved. Unfortunately something darker lurks in the shadows. A darkness that the women of Britain do not face. As a woman in Britain we’re given the luxury of a choice that, unless needed, remains unnoticed. If a woman is pregnant in Britain she is legally allowed to have a termination, within the Republic of Ireland this is illegal. In 1983 an amendment to the Irish constitution further cemented the countries antiabortion laws. The law equated the life on an embryo to that of its mother, permanently portraying abortion as an act of murder no matter the circumstance. A crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
pital Galway with excruciatingly severe back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant, the doctors concluded that she was having a miscarriage. Ms. Halappanarva begged the doctors for an abortion, but since she ‘appeared’ in good health, and the foetus still had a heartbeat, the abortion was denied. The lead midwife Ann Maria Burke is said to have claimed that the termination could not happen because Ireland is a Catholic country. Eight days later Ms Halappanarva was dead. In the weeks after her death her husband very publicly declared that had she received an abortion when requested, she would still be alive. In 2013 an official report concurred that it was a misinterpretation of the law which led to Ms Halappanarva’s untimely death.
It is estimated that since 1980 over 150,000 women have left Ireland to seek an abortion
Ireland’s abortion laws are deeply rooted and until 2013 there were no exceptions. If a woman was raped, be that by a stranger or by a member of her own family, an abortion was never an option. If the circumstances of her pregnancy resulted in serious physical or mental health issues, an abortion was never an option. The law was undiscriminating and brutal. On the 21st of October 2012, Savita Halappanarva was admitted to University Hos-
Church and State dance dangerously close in the Republic of Ireland. Ms Halappanarva’s abortion was denied because Ireland is a Catholic country. In June 2013 Prime Minister Enda Kenny defied his staunchly Catholic beliefs and passed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy bill. This made it legal to carry out a termination if a woman’s life was in danger. Kenny reported receiving countless amounts of hate mail; letters written in blood, plastic foetuses and abusive telephone calls. It is harrowing to consider that even a tiny step towards progress caused such protest. Despite the new classifications the risks
by Fiona Roberts
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taken with women’s lives is haunting. On the 3rd of this month the case of Ms Y dominated the media. Ms Y is an unnamed refugee who sought asylum in Ireland. When she arrived in 2014 she discovered she was pregnant. She had been raped in her home country. Ms Y sought an abortion on the grounds that she was suicidal. Her abortion was denied. The events that followed saw Ms Y going on hunger strike to induce her own miscarriage, being force fed and her baby being delivered by caesarean section at 25 weeks and taken into care. Ms Y has since protested that her human rights were breached, and she has been too ill to actively participate in the case against her doctors. Ms Y was an asylum seeker and thus she was denied the right to leave Ireland and seek an abortion elsewhere. It is estimated that since 1980 over 150,000 women have left Ireland to seek an abortion, this trail to other countries is believed to have begun as early as 1938. For women who can’t leave Ireland they seek out other means, in 2009 almost 1200 abortion pills were siezed at customs and this is believed to be merely the tip of the ice burg. Amnesty International have called this a tragedy. Ireland is a developed Western country and its laws are entirely backwards. It joins a devastating list of 70 countries worldwide who do not allow women the power to control their own bodies.
$ If you wish to help this cause then please sign Amnesty International’s petition to the Irish Government and help Ireland and many other countries end their archaic abortion laws.
Western Beauty Standards and Asian Beauty Over the summer I was lucky enough to spend a few days exploring Penang, an island off the coast of Malaysia. Wandering the streets, we stumbled across a shop selling beautifully crafted beaded slippers, displayed on shelves or in glass cabinets. My sister drew my attention to a cabinet against the back wall that had a small sign on it stating that the contents of the cabinet were not for sale. Inside were about 8, perfectly aligned, pairs of lotus shoes. Lotus shoes were the shoes used for the practice of foot binding, which began in the upper classes in Imperial China and spread across to all social classes until people finally began contesting the practice of it in the 19th century. It started as a way of displaying status, as rich women who did not need to move around to work could afford to have their feet bound and rendered essentially useless.It quickly became accepted as a common beauty standard for Asian women at the time. The process of foot binding would begin between the ages of 4 to 9, when young girls would be given a pair of these lotus shoes – usually only around 4 inches long
– which would ‘bind’ their feet; breaking the bones in the foot, having them heal distortedly and preventing them from growing any further, resulting in tiny feet that could hardly sustain the rest of the body’s weight.
This idea of disfiguring one’s body to uphold a, frankly questionable, beauty standard seems pretty primeval, which was my initial thought when I saw the lotus shoes up close. But when you think about it, these kinds of practises happen every day. And not just in ~exotic~ places far away from home, but probably within a short drive from your front door. British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons reported more than 50,000 cosmetic surgery procedures in 2013, with expectations for this number to rise in future years. And back in Asia, it’s no different. South Korea, recently referred to as the ‘world’s plastic-surgery capital’, sees 50% or more women going under the knife. Coming in as the most popular are eyelid and nose surgeries but why?
Western standards have heavily influenced not just Asian but other standards of beauty across the world. Nose surgeries, with some exceptions, shape the typically more flat Asian nose in order to heighten and define it, essentially modelling it off Caucasians noses. In this case, the Western influence is pretty evident, but there is some controversy surrounding the eyelid surgeries. Asians typically have what is known as a monolid, which is when there is no visible crease to the
by Ashleigh John
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12 eyelid. The surgery creates this crease, so those who undergo it can now have a double eyelid line, making the eyes look deeper and bigger.
Some who have had the surgery deny the Western influence, saying that having bigger eyes is universally attractive. And this may be true, but why is it universally attractive? Because, though some would still continue to dispute this, the ideals of Western beauty are so ingrained across the world that we believe bigger eyes to equate to greater beauty. And we don’t just see this influence in regards to Asians but across most races. Black women are constantly whitewashed in magazines, particularly in beauty campaigns, and their natural hair is seen as ‘unkempt’ or ‘unprofessional’.
As a feminist the last thing I want is to make it seem like I am shaming those women who do opt for these surgeries. If women aren’t happy with aspects of themselves and want to change it to build more confidence and body-positivity in themselves then it’s really no one else’s business. Reflecting on why we consider certain features more ‘beautiful’ than others doesn’t need to lead to condoing other peoples’ decisions. If anything, it provokes a consideration and discussion about the other intersectionalities between race, gender and societal norms which is the real feminist agenda.
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artwork by Philippa Stazicker
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Women’s Rights in Central and South America Whilst Central and South America can be seen as an intriguing and dynamic culture with its festivities and popular tourist destinations such as Salvador and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the complexity of this culture presents major problems to its women. Guatemala, with its machismo culture (a strong and sometimes aggressive masculine pride) and its ranking as the third country in the world for ‘femicide’ (the murdering of women because of their gender) can be considered one of the worst countries for gender equality and women’s rights.
The abject poverty of these American countries means that work is very difficult to find for both genders. However, this is increasingly so for women - many are forced to drop out of school due to pregnancies or to fulfil other domestic responsibilities. Women are therefore relegated to the private sphere of the home whereas men (if work is available) occupy the public sphere of work. The severe backwardness of this patriarchal society is shocking by our Western standards. The lack of work brings about a pressure for women to make money and many are forced into prostitution and sex trafficking. Despite its misogynistic society, Brazil seems to be a Westernised and progressive country when compared to Guatemala. Not only were women granted the right to vote in 1932 (only 4 years after Britain), this country currently has a female President, Dilam Rousseff other-
wise known as Brazil’s “Iron Lady” for her formidable reputation. Whilst she has not claimed herself as a feminist, she is positioning herself as spokesperson for Brazilian women who have previously been silent and unrepresented. Not only this, but she has passed a law against ‘femicide’ which determines longer jail times and also punishes domestic violence, discrimination and contempt against women. We can also see a change in women’s attitudes. This year, the traditional Carnival held in Rio where the locals parade the streets, dancing the Brazilian samba to blocos and bandas, involved small groups of women taking a feminist stance. In February, the BBC interviewed some of these women who believe that the “machismo needs to be deconstructed”. The subversive aspect of the carnival possibly encouraged these women to take this controversial stance against traditional attitudes as they embraced and demanded “gender equality, less prejudice and stereotyping”. The hope is that this change in perspective will influence others and will result in a more progressive society where women have a stance.
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Malala Yousafzai
A Pakistani teenager, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2014 for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people, and the right of all children to an education
Rigoberta Menchú Tum Design by Philippa Stazicker
An indigenous Guatemalan woman; winner of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1992 and the Princess of Asturias Award in 1998, for her efforts to promote the rights of the indigenous people of Guatemala. She remains a prominent figure in Guatemalan public life today and has run for office twice.
Youyou Tu
Created by the UoN feminists and Woman’s Network
A Chinese woman; winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, her work in discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin for treating malaria has saved millions of lives across the world. She was the first Chinese Nobel Laureate in medicine and the first citizen of the People’s Republic of China to receive the Nobel Prize.
Mary-Claire King
An American woman whose pioneering work in identifying breast cancer genes, as well as applying genomic sequencing to identify victims of human rights abuses. In 2014 she won the LaskerKoshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science for her contributions to medical science and human rights.
Khadija Ryadi
A Moroccan woman who has worked for the majority of her adult life championing human rights. In 2013 she was awarded the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for her work as the president of the Morocco Association for Human Rights.
by Fiona Roberts
Women Doing Wonderful Things
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Matriarchal Societies
by Fiona Roberts
What is a matriarchy?
The standard definition of a matriarchal society is a ‘family, group or state governed by a matriarch’. This definition has since been expanded by anthropologists and feminists alike who seek to define the different elements of these societies, such as matrilineal inheritance, which traces both property and title entirely through the mother’s line. Whilst the Amazons remain the most famous, and largely mythological, matriarchy there are examples of female-led societies across the world.
Within the tribe, lineage is dealt with in a matrilineal manor. The women of the tribe handle the major business decisions and men the politics.
For the Mosuo there is no concept of marriage, women choose their partners by a concept called ‘walking marriages’. The women quite literally choose their partner by walking up to the man’s home. Couples never live together and any children always take their mother’s name and are raised in their mother’s household.
Nagovsi
The Nagovsi tribe can be found in South Bouganville, an island west of New Guinea.
In Nagovisi society each household owns a garden, which produces food for the household and products that are sold. The husband and wife work equally on the garden and it is often represented as a symbol of their marriage.
Mosuo
The Mosuo tribe are situated near the border of Tibet, the tribe is often called ‘the Kingdom of Women’, and are considered to be the last Chinese matriarchal society.
All property is passed through the mother and the husbands are merely facilitators who clean the land. Similarly to the Mosuo, they have no concept of formal marriage, but if a couple spends a significant amount of time together, sleeps together, and the man assists the women in her garden, then they are considered by their community to be married.
Edited by Rachel Angeli Design by Philippa Stazicker
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