Appendix A: Interviews Undertaken with Feminist Activists
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Appendix A: Interviews Undertaken with Feminist Activists The timing and the number of interviews undertaken with feminists are set out in the table below. Interviews were conducted in public spaces, such as coffee shops, or, less frequently, in the interviewee’s home or office. A few interviews were conducted via email and additional email questions were sometimes sent to participants in order to clarify or follow up on specific points. Semi-structured interviews were conducted which allowed for a degree of flexibility in the direction of the discussion. Full anonymity was guaranteed to the interviewees; hence, no further biographical data regarding age, sex, sexuality, or ethnicity, inter alia, is provided here, as participants (particularly from the smaller cities) might be easier to identify. Table A.1 Interview schedule City Number of interviews Dates Bristol 13 November 2012–March 2013 Glasgow 4 February–October 2012 London 22 January–May 2012 New York 17 July–August 2012 Portland 14 June–July 2013 Washington DC 3 March 2014 Total 73 January 2012–March 2014 204 Appendix B: Interview Guide How do you define feminism? How do you define your feminism? What do you think of when you think about third wave feminism? Do you identify as third wave? What are your thoughts on attempts to rebrand and reclaim feminism? What, if any, are your views on intersectionality and its place within feminism? How inclusive do you think that the movement is? What could the movement do to become more inclusive? (For those involved with organising events: what steps have you taken to become more inclusive)? What are your thoughts on the term ‘sisterhood’? Do you use it? What are your views on women-only organising? Women-born-women? What are your thoughts on the term ‘women’s/feminist issues’ for policy discussions? Which do you consider to be feminist priorities? Are you active within abortion rights campaigning? Do you identify with a political party? Are you active in that party? Do you think that feminism is well represented in mainstream poli- tics? How well do you think women are represented in Parliament/ Congress? Can you name any politicians that represent feminism? 205 Notes Introduction 1. I use the term ‘Britain’ rather than ‘the UK’ because my interview data and analysis of feminist groups does not include Northern Ireland. When referring to Parliament however, I use ‘UK’ rather than ‘British’. 2. Indeed, it is worth stressing that whilst calls for a third wave of feminism originated in the US amongst women of color (Orr, 1997); it quickly became synonymous with white, middle-class women (hooks, 1994; Hurdis, 2002). Despite scholars highlighting the coterminous rise of the third wave with black feminist jurisprudence, it is typically an area largely ignored by key third wave texts (Taylor, 1998), even whilst third wave texts have claimed to be more explicitly concerned with inclusion of all women. 3. The recently created online magazine the Feminist Times, which had attempted to attract financial support in order to move to a print-based model, announced in July 2014 that it had not generated sufficient income, see the statement on their website available online: http://www.feministtimes.com/ Date accessed: 1st August 2014. 4. The Equal Rights Amendment was written in 1923 in order to guarantee the equal application of the constitution to all people, regardless of their sex. It was passed by Congress in 1972 but has failed to gain the support of the required number of states (38) necessary in order to ratify the change to the constitution. 5. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (The Constitution of the United States of America: Amendment XlX) 6. The National Coalition for Men was formed in 1977 in order to provide a ‘unified voice’ for men and boys, their website is available online: http:// ncfm.org/lead-with-us/chapters/ Date accessed: 27th July 2014. Fathers 4 Justice was established in 2001 in order to change a perceived bias in the family court system that denied fathers access to their children, their website is available online: http://www.fathers-4-justice.org/our-campaign/ our-campaigns/#anti-male-discrimination Date accessed: 27th July 2014. 1 Understanding Third Wave Feminisms 1. There has been much coverage of the tension within contemporary feminism in the UK over the past couple of years; this has crystallised around 206 Notes 207 the implications of intersectionality and of trans inclusion in particular. There have been several conferences and online debates, organised by self-identified radical feminists, which have had a woman-born-woman- only policy. The debates between trans feminists and their allies who seek to promote full inclusion and the so-called trans exclusionary radi- cal feminists (TERFs) has come to dominate discussions of feminist praxis. See for instance: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/ 07/international-womens-day-defence-feminist-dissent-argued-priorities and http://www.newstatesman.com/helen-lewis/2014/02/uses-and-abuses-inter sectionality. 2. Throughout the book, when I refer to those who could be identified as being third wave I am referring to those who either answered yes or yes, but (N=38). 3. Here, liberal feminism as a comparable strand of feminism is understood as distinct from the different uses of the term ‘liberal’ in US and British political traditions; in the US, it signifies a leftist approach, whilst in Britain it can be viewed as a centrist position. The understanding here is that liberal feminism is a widely used frame in the US and Britain and refers to a similar approach and set of ideas. 4. The term ‘johns’ is used here to refer to the men who buy sex from prostitutes. 5. Throughout the book, the ‘third wave’ will be used to refer to feminism from the early 1990s onwards, whilst third wave feminisms (plural) will be used to discuss the various ideological strains and themes within the third wave. Reference is also made to ‘self-identified’ third wavers, which refers to those writers of popular feminist texts who described themselves as such. 2 Conceptual and Contextual Framework: Intersectionality and Neoliberalism 1. See Laurie Penny’s article for The Guardian which argued that David Cameron’s introduction of porn filters was a response to demands from government agencies and private companies to control and monitor the online activity of citizens, available online: http://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2014/jan/03/david-cameron-internet-porn-filter-censorship -creep Date accessed: 14th August 2014. 2. In 2013, Women’s Aid, Britain’s largest domestic violence charity, declared a ‘state of crisis’ in domestic violence services as a result of the cuts intro- duced since 2010. These included a loss of 112 specialist posts, with 48 per cent of services running with no funding at all, see its website for further details, available online: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence -press-information.asp?itemid=3194&itemTitle=Women%92s+Aid+warns+of +crisis+in+domestic+violence+services§ion=0001000100150001§ion Title=Press+releases Date accessed: 27th August 2014. 3. Equal Pay Day was established in 1996 and is marked around the world as a way of raising awareness about the continuing pay gap between men and women, the official website is available online: http://equal-pay-day.com/ Date accessed: 28th August 2014. 4. Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, published in 2013, encouraged women to pursue their ambitions and stop holding themselves back. 208 Notes 5. There have been reports of sexual harassment and rape at various Occupy camps including those held at Glasgow and New York. Subsequent accusa- tions of victim blaming, cover-ups, and attempts to present it as a means by which to undermine the credibility of the camps and the failure to take the issues seriously undermined the extent to which they constituted safe, let alone feminist, spaces. For further analysis see the blog post on the LSE website by MSc student Emily Miles, available online: http://blogs.lse .ac.uk/gender/2011/12/05/occupy-lsxual-harrassment/ Date accessed: 12th May 2012. 6. Gender mainstreaming refers to an approach that ensures that gender per- spectives are taken into account during policy creation, development, and implementation processes. 7. This is a relatively new phrase within the feminist lexicon, and refers to those who are not transgendered and who assume the privileges of those whose birth at sex matches their gendered identity. It is a highly con- tested term and has generated much debate amongst feminists online, with high-profile activists disclaiming the term as it is dismissive of the various ways in which female bodies are subjected to male scrutiny and violence on a daily basis, see the blog post by Caroline Criado Perez, available online: http://weekwoman.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/what-does -being-cis-mean-for-a-woman/ Date accessed: 2nd August 2014. 8. Standpoint theory refers to the fact that knowledge and understanding are socially positioned. In theory, it allows for the voices of more marginalised women to be heard. It starts from the premise that feminist research and understanding should begin with the lived experiences of women; it grew out of Marxist feminist scholarship that prioritised the importance of the social and historical.