Feminism in London 2009

Written by Cordula Bieri

On the 17th of October women from all over the UK, from various backgrounds and of all ages came together at the Feminism in London Conference 2009 to celebrate feminism and womanhood. It was a wonderful day with inspiring speeches and empowering workshops. I am writing about some of my impressions of the day.

The opening speeches were held by Susie Orbach and Beatrix Campell. Both held very powerful speeches.

Susie Orbach talked about how women’s bodies are under ongoing pressure to be beautiful. The pictures we see every day on the billboards, in the magazines and on TV influence the image we have of ourselves. But the pictures we see every day are so thoroughly airbrushed that these bodies have no connection to reality. But still women aspire to have those bodies. In the US it is getting normal that girls from the age of 16 are getting breast implants. Women and even girls are trying to change every part of their bodies. Inspired by pornography they even choose to do surgeries like labiaplasty. (If someone is interested to read more about this issue, I can recommend Susie Orbach’s book “Bodies” or Sheila Jeffreys “Beauty and Misogyny”.)

After this inspiring start there was a wide range of workshops to choose from. There was self-defence training, a panel on racism, an anti-porn slideshow and even a workshop for pro-feminist men. I went to the anti-porn workshop, which was really interesting, but also extremely shocking. As a lot of women (me included) don’t watch porn, we’ve been showed some pictures to realise how women are presented in porn. It was really disgusting. Most porn didn’t seem to be about sex at all, but just about naked brutal violence against women and girls.

The workshop showed how porn is trickling in every part of our life. How fashion is adapting to porn and even the appearance of Disney’s female characters changed over the years to look more “sexy”.

During the lunch break I visited some of the many stalls. Many different women organisations were present. Some were campaigning against objectification, others against violence against women and there was also WILPF along other women’s peace groups. It was great to see how many women fight day by day to improve women’s rights and lives around the world.

In the afternoon I went to a panel on “what’s wrong with prostitution”. There Denise Marshall, a campaigner from Eaves and Rebecca Motts and Anna Travers two survivors of prostitution who talked about their experiences. This was one of the most moving talks I have ever been to. Women in the audience were crying while listening to these strong women’s speeches. You just had to listen to them talking about their life out there as prostitutes without any protection to know how totally wrong prostitution is. When the last speaker finished her speech, all the women in the audience rose from their seats to give them a standing applause. That was a very touching moment.

There were many more interesting workshops and speeches. In the evening they was a fabulous fundraiser event with the funniest comedians and the most magical magicians I have ever seen. But I can’t go on forever, so if you would like to know more about the conference visit their website http://www.fil.btik.com/home.ikml and make sure that you don’t miss next year’s conference. It’s going to be even bigger than and as great as this year’s.