It's Just Banter... by WN and UoN Fem Zine

It’s just

Banter...

Brought to you by the Women’s Network and UoN Feminists 1

O N

Women’s Officers’ Blog - Page 4 Lad Culture: The Misogynist’s Alibi - Page 6 Fem News - Page 8 Fuck Men (but also, fuck men) - Page 10

The Lad Culture Pledge - Page 12

Untitled - Page 16

N T S

Lad Culture Collage - Page 14

It’s Okay to go Slow - Page 17 A Glimpse into UoN’s HeForShe Campaign - Page 18 Don’t Touch me W/O Consent - Page 20 It’s Just Banter: Unsolicited Messages Collage - Page 22 The Party - Page 24 If I were not Me - Page 25

elcome to the third zine of the academic year, and first of 2015! In this issue, the focus is on sexism at university, which has yielded some truly fantastic submissions. Alongside an array of articles which deconstruct ‘lad culture’ and discuss UoN’s current campaigns for tackling sexism, there are several poems, illustrations, and collages for you to peruse. This zine is both informative and an expression of the contributors’ experiences with sexism at university, made with the aim of challenging perceptions of lad culture in Nottingham. Sexist behaviour at university should not be accepted as the norm, and needs to be (safely) challenged. This zine is a form of challenge with its submissions demonstrating a strong defiance of such a pervasive culture. Trigger warning: this zine discusses sensitive topics and personal experiences. Please be aware of this when reading the poetry submissions in particular. This term, the zine ran its first creative workshop, which produced some of the art in this issue. We hope to run another next term, so keep your eyes out for that and do come along! Thanks to everyone who got involved in our screenshot collage (see p.18), and the (reclaiming) Page 3 election, the winner of which was the brilliant, Jessica Ennis-Hill! I’d also like to thank the contributors and everybody on the Zine Team (Kayleigh, Steph, Lexi, Charlotte, Zoë, and Bruce), whose creative and technical input has been immensely valued. Enjoy, 2

Cover image: Jean Beraud - Au Café (Absinthe).

Amelia Bauer Editor.

reclaiming

Page 3 Voted for by you, the (reclaiming) Page 3 Girl of this zine is Jessica Ennis-Hill! As current British national record holder for the Heptathlon and Olympic gold medallist, Jessica Ennis-Hill is an inspiration for women everywhere and is extremely vocal in encouraging young girls to get involved in sport. She recently made the headlines for publicly opposing Sheffield United's decision to allow convicted rapist Ched Evans to re-train with them following his release from prison, arguing that, as “a role model to young people”, Evan’s signing would contradict her beliefs. After receiving a barrage of twitter abuse she maintained that “you kind of have to keep focused on who you are and what you believe in”, remaining strong in the face of threats of rape and violence. In speaking out against rape culture she shows she is unafraid to use her influential position to call out the sexist injustices she experiences in her male-dominated profession. She is therefore a great inspiration for women tackling sexism at university, and a perfect choice for the zine’s (reclaiming) Page 3!

"I believe being a role model to young people is a huge honour and those in positions of influence in communities should respect the role they play in young people's lives and set a good example...If [Ched] Evans was to be re-signed by the club it would completely contradict these beliefs."

Women’s Officers’ blog: Last Friday I was re-elected SU Women’s Officer for 2015/16 together with my dear friend Emma Quaedvlieg. This is somewhat bittersweet as it means I will no longer work as an officer together with Beth. Nevertheless, it offers a rare and golden opportunity. It means that Emma and myself can continue and finish the work Beth and I started as we bring new ideas to the table. Last term, Beth and I created our University’s first Body Confidence Week, a campaign aiming to boost positive body-feelings. We intend to continue this campaign next year and make it an annual event. Furthermore, we plan to continue the work on ‘Women in Leadership’. This will be done through more workshops for girls planning on running in various SU elections and more events about women in leadership with a special focus on different academic departments, such as LawSoc’s and the Women’s Network’s upcoming event ‘Women in Law’.

Finally, to bring something new to the role, we have decided to lobby for more lighting on University Park campus. This was one of the most common concerns voiced when we talked to students during the campaign. Many students, especially girls, feel unsafe and scared while walking around campus in the dark. This campus is simply too big and too badly lit for students to feel comfortable walking around it without the company of someone else. This needs to change, and will, therefore, be one of our main concerns for next year. 4

Emma

As some of you may remember, the start of the spring term hailed a new campaign for the Women’s Network which we introduced at Welcome Back Fayre. Inspired by the University of East Anglia’s Students’ Union and their success in removing the 5% VAT on sanitary items in their union shop, we decided it was time to open up a dialogue within the Network on the issue. After just a couple of hours we’d covered our stand with all your written responses to the ‘luxury’ of menstruation. Many of you found out for the first time that day that we have to fork out an extra 5% for tampons and towels, especially when men’s razor’s enjoy 0% taxation. The luxury of menstruation can mean infection, pain, and the need to be ‘discrete’. And what with supermarkets now selling scented ‘daily’ pantyliners (taxed, naturally) you might ask if it has ever been a more shaming time to have a vagina. It’s high time menstruation was recognised not as a “luxury”, but a health issue. After taking your views to the SU shop, the manager was instantly happy to sell sanitary products free of VAT. We should see the price decrease in due course. It’s elating to have such allies in our union, providing a great example to set to other institutions and, indeed, the rest of the country. So what’s next? The fight against tampon tax is by no means over. Of course, removal of tax in the union doesn’t include Boots (yet) and nationally the VAT is still in play. The Change.org petition “Stop taxing periods. Period.” has over 207,000 signatures, but so far this hasn’t been enough. However, if unions can keep effecting microcosmic changes like this, this can only strengthen the case for tax free periods, especially if thousands of students are buying more fairly priced tampons. We made this change at UoN because we raised our voices. Imagine what could be done5 if women did collectively.

Beth

LAD culture: the MISOGYNIST’S ALIBI 6

Lad Culture: this term has been flung around a lot recently, particularly in the past few years in regards to its rising prevalence in universities. But what is ‘lad culture’?

But every time we do go along with this, we give those engaging with lad culture a free pass to get away with taking part in what is undeniably sexist behaviour. The fact of the matter is that lad culture is intrinsically misogynistic; how can you deny that a Originally formed back in the 1990s, lad culture subculture for men that was created with the marked a backlash against the second-wave purpose of ‘taking back the power’ they already feminists and became a subculture for the working possessed and saw threatened to be taken away by class ‘new lad’ whose aim was to assert hegemonic feminists in the 90s,is anything but? The irony is that masculine values towards sexuality and we can identify the characteristics of lad culture as homosociality. A decade later and ‘lad culture’ has sexist and recognise that much of the ‘banter’ that been adopted by the privileged university male and is occurs within is at the expense of women, yet we still defined by NUS as a group or pack mentality refuse to call it out as such. expressed through activities such as sports or heavy drinking plus the engagement with ‘banter’ which is Maybe it’s because we don’t want to admit that the often misogynistic and homophobic. While many of us males we sit next to in seminars with, share houses pass off ‘lad culture’ as harmless laddish fun, it with, go out on nights with, who take part in ‘lad actually reveals the cultural acceptance of sexism culture’ are misogynists or sexists. Hell, maybe we and misogyny within our universities and society too. don’t want to admit that we ourselves have taken Lad culture is a free pass for men to get away with part in something that is sexist and misogynistic and this behaviour: they aren’t to blame for it- after all, damaging. It’s easy to dismiss these actions and boys will be boys. claim they’re harmlessness, but where do we draw the line? When does a case of ‘harmless lad banter’ And lad culture is on the rise, particularly in become realised as a genuine act of sexual prestigious universities such as our own. Take the harassment? Lad culture is sexism’s alibi. It’s a way infamous chant incident which occurred at our of being misogynistic, being able to degrade women, university in last year’s Fresher’s week which without getting called out on it. Every time you sparked outrage because of its sexist message. dismiss a sexist joke or catcalling as lad culture you Incidents such as this one, symptomatic of lad are dismissing ALL sexual harassment, all violent and culture, aren’t confined to the University of misogynistic acts against women. There is no line Nottingham alone as incidents of sexism are between them- sexism is not sometimes a joke and occurring in universities all over the country but then sometimes a crime. There is never a time when are not as frequently called out as such. Instead, sexism is ‘okay’. And lad culture should not be your they are brushed under the carpet as acts of ‘lad ‘get out of jail free’ card. culture banter’. If you don’t approve, then you’re the one in the wrong; a feminist bore probably, unable to handle a little sexist bantz. 7

By Zoë Williamson

FEM NEWS: The Women’s Network does:

V-day

Vday is a global campaign movement affiliated with the One Billion Rising campaign, aiming to finally end violence against women. Each year on Valentine’s Day, campaigners hold events to protest and educate people about the systemic violence faced globally by women. In February this year, the Women’s Network produced their annual Vday performance in aid of violence against women. Building on the success of last year’s production of The Vagina Monologues, Vday Coordinator, Rachel Angeli, opted to direct A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, which made for a poignant and harrowing performance. Supported by a fantastic cast of actresses, the Women’s Network’s production was acclaimed, receiving positive reviews. Proceeds of £141.42 from the tickets and cakes on sale were donated to Nottingham’s Women’s Centre. 8

FEM NEWS: The Sun’s

PAGE 3 fiasco Campaigners nationwide thought that their dreams had come true when for two days in January the Sun did not publish its outdated and sexist tradition of presenting nude female models on Page 3. No More Page 3 activists, campaigners who have garnered over 240,000 signatures, thought they could hang up their boots when The Times reported that this was indeed the end of Page 3, but were bitterly disappointed when editor of the Sun, David Dinsmore, instigated the return of the feature under the sarcastic title, ‘Clarifications and Corrections’.

While campaigners are not against female sex ‘Dirty Dave’: Voted 2014’s Sexist of the Year. workers, they refute the relevance of soft porn in a family newspaper that sees the achievements of women disproportionately represented on-page. The campaigners continue to lobby Dinsmore and owner Rupert Murdoch to scrap the objectifying tradition, as activists hope 2015 will be the year that finally sees the back of Page 3.

You can sign the NoMorePage3 petition here: https://www.change.org/p/daviddinsmore-take-the-bare-boobs-out-of-the-sun-nomorepage3

Fuck Men (but also, fuck men)

by Anon.

My vagina’s Just tryin’ ta Have some fun. (Men are not the only ones.) A slut, a whore, Pathetic, freak, Simply for The pleasure I seek. Underpaid and underfed, A ‘teenage phase’ Of wishing I’m dead. Dirty looks and cat calls, Don’t complain, Just ‘grow some balls’. 10

By Anon

By Charlotte Clare

“LAD CULTURE; a group or ‘pack’ mentality residing in activities such as sport and heavy alcohol consumption, and ‘banter’ which was often sexist, misogynist and homophobic.” 12

- NUS

The Lad Culture Pledge is a collaborative effort from UoN Feminists with all JCR and Society Presidents and sports team captains to call out â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lad cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in their respective spaces. Lad culture is defined as group mentality which is sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, racist or ableist. It is a sexualised culture both endorsing and encouraging the objectification of women and rape-supportive attitudes, and sometimes even sexual harassment and violence. Lad culture is a set of values and behaviours that individual people may dip in and out of. People may participate in and subscribe to its values at some points and not others. Lad culture can be harmful to students by making them feel alienated, discriminated against or even unsafe. This behaviour will not be tolerated.

The UoN Feminists are committed to working with students of the University of Nottingham to eliminate lad culture. We believe the Lad Culture Pledge will be an effective and positive step to achieving this. The UoN Feminists will run a number of workshops with all JCR, society and sports team presidents, and sports team captains. These workshops will include activities aimingto highlight what lad culture is and why it can be so harmful to those on the receiving end. We aim to draw attention to situations in which student groups participate in lad culture, even unintentionally. We hope that these workshops will make presidents and captains confident in calling out lad culture when they see it, and confident in encouraging their teammates to do the same.

After these workshops the UoN Feminists will ask presidents and captains to sign the pledge and thus ensure that neither they nor their teammates or peers, will partake in or promote lad culture. We hope that through this productive and educational process, the University of Nottingham can become a space in which all students can feel comfortable taking part in all aspects of university life without the threat of alienation or discrimination. Anyone who is interested in getting involved with any aspect of the Lad Culture Pledge campaign, please email me (Georgia Durham) at lgygd1@nottingham.ac.uk! 13

By Georgia Durham

By Kayleigh Hardy

Sometimes it sounds like chaos And the music’s too loud And your head is pounding from the alcohol And you don’t know where your friends are, There’s no steady constant hand in yours leading you Away to safety. And it’s too loud to think, Is that The wall or his hand? You close your eyes to try to block out more confusion But you’re just blind and deaf and you wait until whatever Is wrong has stopped. Sometimes it is deathly quiet, like you Could hear a pin drop, Or even a faint whisper. But there is screaming in your head. You don’t let it out, you listen to the cold press of silence Which he ignores, You wait to be asked or noticed, and when no words are spoken You finally move to turn your head away, and you count. Sometimes it’s the sound of quiet pleading, begging to be Let go, But your body doesn’t follow your voice and you’re not Sure why. You ask to be set free and you’re fairly sure no other Noise is drowning you out, but the voice inside his head Telling him this is right must be, because he looks right at Your face as he takes you. Later, after you’ve given up begging you are finally allowed To turn away and you make a ball of your body to keep Yourself safe. You feel like you might break apart if not for his heavy arm Across your body. Later you connect the dots, Sometimes it’s at this point, to the sound of soothing Words as if spoken by a friend, Because your breathing is too fast and your body doesn’t Trust him enough to relax. Sometimes it’s two months later and you get too drunk Again, And you finally admit to yourself why that night wasn’t Okay, 16 Why nothing has felt right since.

Untitled, by G.B.

By Louisa Huntington

A Glimpse into UoNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

HeForShe

Campaign

UoN HeForShe is campaign being led by UoN Feminists designed to address some of the issues that surround the role of men in feminism. As a group we recognise that the nature of this role can be quite a divisive and contentious issue within the feminist movement. It is, however, part of our group ethos to be gender inclusionary, accepting people of all genders to join our efforts for greater gender equality. In wanting to launch a campaign specifically focusing on men in feminism we soon realised that the wider HeForShe movement led by UN Women reflected our own beliefs. Feminism as a whole carries certain connotations and myths which, to men in particular, present it as hostile, confrontational and generally something to be avoided. The fight against male privilege is all too often interpreted as male oppression. Much like the wider movement, UoN HeForShe carries an educational message at its heart. The campaign wants to actively challenge these myths and encourage men to engage in discussion. We want to highlight that everyone stands to benefit from dismantling gender stereotypes and empowering women. Men too will find themselves liberated from patriarchal norms, no longer having to subscribe to toxic masculinity. Women, however, remain at the core of the campaign, something reflected in the title. As a man, being a UoN HeForShe means standing up and breaking the silence that pervades all male spaces when it comes to feminist issues. It means actively working to break the stereotype surrounding the word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;feminismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Ultimately, it means working with women, not against them.

Emma Watson, an advocate of the HeForShe campaign.

The three main aims of the campaign are to facilitate discussion, investigate the thoughts of men at university surrounding these issues and ultimately raise awareness of them. It is the hope of UoN Feminists that this campaign can help us achieve greater gender solidarity. Once everyone is on the same page perhaps then we can begin a new chapter of greater gender equality.

By Mike Bench

HeForShe at

Refreshersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Fair 19

By Louisa Huntington

By Steph Sewell

If I were not me If I were not me Would it be the same? Would you still gawk If you knew me, knew my name? If I were your sister, would you whistle and stare? If I were your mother, would you, thoughts of my body, still want to share? If I were your love, would your comments follow me as I go? If I were your friend, would you listen to my “no”? I am not your sister, mother, love or friend. If I were, you would probably step up and defend. But I am someone’s sister, friend, love. Someone’s, I am. I would remember that, if I were a man.

By Hannah Higgins

Congratulations

IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS

YOU HAVE HARRASSED OR DONE SOMETHING INAPPROPRIATE TO THE PERSON WHO GAVE THIS TO YOU.

STOP AND CHECK YOURSELF.

Congratulations