It was five months ago when the government announced ‘Freedom Day’ in the UK. This meant that the majority of COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, such as the legal obligation to wear face masks, no limits on the amount of people you could meet indoors and outdoors, and all hospitality and leisure venues being fully open again. My last Keep Calm and Carry On post reflected on these changes, but five months on many restrictions have returned with the potential for tighter restrictions being reintroduced (i.e. a circuit breaker or lockdown).
While it feels devastating for restrictions to be reintroduced again, I think it was inevitable that COVID-19 would come back in full force again during the winter months. The colder season is the prime time for colds and flu to circulate, and Omicron is certainly spreading quickly across the UK. In fact, the new variant is causing concern for other countries. For example, France has banned UK citizens from travelling to France except for exceptional circumstances.
Despite the doom and gloom, the vaccine rollout has been effective and all adults in the UK are being urged to get their booster jab. I’ve booked myself in for a booster, although it’s not until the 6th January so I might see if there’s a walk in centre nearby where I can get my booster earlier. The vaccine is also providing effective in keeping hospital admissions at a lower level compared to the start of the pandemic, and the death rate is also much lower that it was at the peaks of the virus.
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience normality over the past five months, such as attending live shows and gigs (I saw Tom Jones a few weeks ago – he was fantastic!), going to Christmas markets and performing in concerts with choirs. A recent highlight was my work’s Christmas party last Friday, which was at the NEC. It was a fantastic experience with live performances by acrobats, fairground rides and plenty of dancing and drinking! It felt great being dressed up as well and enjoying a night out with my colleagues.
Christmas party ready!
All of these recent experiences required proof of vaccination or a negative result, which will probably be a part of daily life for a while now. To be honest I think a lot of people are at the point now where they want their lives back to normal with no restrictions. COVID will probably eventually become a seasonal virus which people will be offered yearly vaccines for, like the flu jab. However I can understand those who want restrictions to continue, especially if they’re in the at risk category or live with people who are vulnerable. The virus has caused devastation across the UK, including friends of my family and unfortunately for my other half’s family members.
Whilst the virus is here to stay with many people having to self-isolate over the Christmas period, it’s more vital than ever that we are all kind and considerate to one another. COVID is causing everyone to juggle their commitments and prioritise what’s important to them. As ever, remember to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’; we’re all in this together and will come out of this pandemic stronger and more resilient.
As with my previous update, I mostly focused on fitness on my blog since I was preparing myself for my first half marathon, which I successfully ran on Sunday 15th October at the Leicester Marathon.
After finishing my first half marathon
It has almost been three weeks since I completed my toughest physical challenge so far, and I’m still buzzing about it now! The atmosphere was electric and it was amazing to see so many people running for different causes and charities. I enjoyed the experience so much that I am tempted to sign up for another half marathon on Sunday 11th February 2018. Starting at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough, this will be the first ever Leicestershire Half Marathon, so it would be exciting to run at a new event.
After reflecting on my first half marathon, I have decided not to opt for the full 26 miles. I consider myself to be fit enough to run a half marathon but I would need to be much fitter to run the distance of a full marathon. I found 13 miles hard enough to do and the Leicester Marathon was certainly my hardest challenge yet. For the meantime I would like to focus on improving my time of 2 hours and 47 minutes, which is what it took me to run 13 miles almost three weeks ago.
I am also considering participating in shorter runs, such as the Charity Santa Fun Run in a village called Broughton Astley. Taking place on Sunday 3rd December, there is the option to run 3km or 5km dressed up as Santa Claus! I am very tempted to have a go at this for fun, as well as getting in the Christmas spirit (even though it’s before my birthday, which is on the 7th December!). I would opt for the 5km option, and it would be nice to have a run somewhere new.
It had been a while since I wrote a feminist blog, but I managed to post one last month about the negative stigmas associated with women, including periods and body hair. The blog explores how the negative impact of these issues affect women, and how we are also starting to gradually talk more about it.
I’d like to get back into parkruns, as it has been almost five months since I last ran a parkrun! Training for the half marathon means that I have been focusing on running longer distances, but 5km is a nice distance to run. Plus there are people I haven’t seen for a long time who make up the friendly community of the Braunstone parkrun.
You’ll be glad to know that I have fully recovered from running my first half marathon! I haven’t done any intense exercise or been to the gym since running the half marathon, but I will be aiming for a regular exercise routine soon and getting myself back down to the gym.
I haven’t written a feminist piece for a while, so I decided to write a piece about subjects which are traditionally taboo, after watching an advert for sanitary towels.
I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline and saw an advert from Bodyform, which is not unusual, although this advert was different from any I’ve ever seen for women’s menstrual products. Traditionally adverts demonstrate the absorbency of period pads and liners by using a blue liquid however, I saw a red liquid! The advert also shows a man buying a packet of Bodyform sanitary pads, and a woman in the shower with blood running down her thigh.
New Bodyform advert showing period blood
For an area which is a taboo and has a negative stigma, I think it’s a great step forward that Bodyform has produced the first ever advert to show the absorbency of its pads with a red liquid, rather than an unrealistic blue one. For something natural to happen which shows signs that a woman is fertile, society is just great at making women feel ashamed about it.
The notion of blood coming out of a woman’s vagina on a monthly occurrence seems to be uncomfortable for many people. I’ve seen men squirm when other people talk about periods, and yet we see blood on almost a daily basis, on the news, in TV series and films. We have become desensitized towards the presence of blood on screen, but some can’t stand the thought of a natural bodily function?
Another area which I myself have felt embarrassed to talk about is thigh chafing. I am thrilled that society is starting to become more accepting of different body shapes with less of a focus on women trying to be as thin as possible and have a thigh gap, but I feel that thigh chafing is not talked about much.
As a child I used to suffer from eczema quite badly between my legs, which made it difficult for me to walk comfortably. While I don’t suffer from this anymore, I do experience chafing between my thighs. I have large thighs which means no thigh gap, so if I wear dresses or skirts I always opt for tights or leggings. When I finally achieved the confidence to not wear tights or leggings (I used to feel ashamed if I had my legs on show), I would apply talcum powder between my legs but unfortunately the effects of this didn’t last for long, so I would end up with red raw thighs. The summer of course is the worst season for chafing.
However, I recently saw, also on Facebook, an advert for garter bands. These bands are worn around the upper thighs which help to prevent chafing. As soon as I saw them I thought to myself, that’s such a great idea! The advert shows women wearing them underneath their dresses and skirts. The bands are discrete and offer a comfortable solution for women who want to free their beautiful legs without the dreaded issue of chafing.
Cute garter bands to help prevent chafing
I became aware of gels and lotions earlier this year to help prevent chafing, but the garter bands look adorable and help to make women feel great! I don’t know how long they have been available for, but they will certainly open up the eyes of people who don’t talk about or avoid talking about thigh chafing.
While I’m on the subject of legs, another area which I feel is not talked about much, even though it’s advertised on a daily basis, is hair removal.
It has always irritated me that adverts for hair removal show women using a razor on a hairless leg or armpit… if you really want to show how effective a product is, have a woman shaving or waxing a leg with hair on. There are adverts of men removing facial hair which is actually on their faces; we don’t have adverts of men shaving a hairless face, so why don’t we have adverts of women removing leg hair? Is it because there are people who are disgusted at the thought of women having body hair in certain places, just like they are disgusted with periods, that they don’t want to see it on TV?
A classic meme about removing body hair
The issues I have focused on in this blog are associated with women’s bodies, since the female body has long been a controversy and subject to criticism, as well as denial. I know that there are issues men face which society doesn’t talk about, such as the issue of toxic masculinity and men’s mental health. Overall I believe that people are generally getting better at discussing issues related with both sexes, although I feel that the taboos are still ever looming. The more we talk about these issues, the more normal they will become and the more accepting people will be.
I’ve always been a supporter of positive body image. Everyone should embrace their own body without having to feel that they must conform to the masses. Everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin.
It’s quite a common occurrence now to see ‘plus size’ models being portrayed as loving their own bodies, especially on Instagram. When I was growing up all I saw in the media was, what I used to call, ‘stick thin’ women which most girls wanted to be like. Dieting was an important issue for young girls while I was at secondary school, when we were just aged between 10-14 years old.
I consider myself plus size and I had the confidence for the first time in my life to wear a bikini last year when I went to Spain for a short break. I felt fabulous and I plan to wear it again soon when I head over to France on holiday this Saturday.
In Spain last year
What initiated me to write this blog is when I read an interesting article the other day while I was browsing my Facebook feed. While the article supported body image, it was very frank about how the UK is facing an obesity crisis, and that people are not looking after their health how they should be.
We all know how to eat healthily, but it can be very challenging. It can be a struggle for me, as I have a sweet tooth and probably eat more food than I really need to. I am also on a never ending journey of trying to lose body weight, which I’m finding difficult for various reasons, but it’s probably mostly due to lack of motivation in this area.
The article then went on to suggest that even though it is good that people are becoming more body positive, they are doing so at the expense of their own health, e.g. models who are very/extremely overweight but are not attempting to lose weight.
We also all know that being overweight carries a lot of health issues, including high blood pressure, an increased risk of heart attacks and diabetes. It’s also a big cost for the NHS in the UK; medication to help with diabetes is on the rise as well as the amount of people having heart attacks due to being overweight.
However, there is still this increase in positivity towards larger people who are models or those who have the confidence to wear clothing which was once deemed only suitable for ‘thinner’ people.
After reading the article I must admit I found it hard to comprehend and get my head around at first. I support people who have the confidence to wear what they want, especially larger people since I class myself as ‘large’, but I also support those who are working hard to lose body weight. I guess it’s because I support people in how they want to embrace themselves and if they want to change their body to make themselves happier, then I support that too.
I am also a big supporter of the NHS and I think that a lot of money could be saved if people did look after themselves more, such as taking up exercise and eating healthily, since these would decrease the risk of heart attacks and other diseases related to being overweight/obese.
Another interesting point raised from the article is what constitutes being healthy. We are all different shapes and sizes. For example, there are some larger people who eat healthily and exercise, while on the other hand there are some thinner people who do not eat healthy food and rarely exercise. Of course I’m generalising here, but they serve as examples that we are diverse and everyone’s bodies are different.
Not all larger people are unhealthy and unfit. I know that I’m overweight, but I consider myself fitter than I ever have been in my life. I ran 18km the other day and then stuffed my face with birthday cake later on to satisfy my sweet tooth.
The article does raise some good points, I’m annoyed at myself that I can’t find it now as it was an interesting read. It certainly made me think about myself and my opinions on body image and health. I don’t really know how to conclude, but I do agree that while we all should be body positive, we need to look after our health as well.
As many of you know, I have a separate blog for my poetry. It’s been a while since I last posted on there, but the creative juices have been flowing again in my brain and I’m glad to have written a poem today!
The poem, You are what you eat, is about the societal pressures of seasonal treats and body image. It also incorporates how food shops and marketing play a big role in this ‘dog eat dog’ world of people being tempted to buy treats earlier than they really need to and how people should be looking after their body image by avoiding treats. It’s a double edged sword.
It’s just puppy fat- you’ll lose it as you get older. Chocolate eclair! You’re a bit podgy aren’t you? You fat bitch!
These are a small recollection of things that were said to me and what I was called while I was growing up. I tried not to let them bother me; I tried to ignore the horrible comments and remarks. I was bullied for plenty of other things too, but being ‘fat’ was one of the main things I was picked on for. There were only a few other children who were the same size or larger than me, so we were different, which was a great opportunity for bullies.
9 year old me: my legs were tanned, they just look very dark in the photo!
I don’t know what it’s like for young children now. It’s the same I guess, but since more children are becoming larger at an earlier age and Britain is having an obesity crisis, children are probably being bullied for other things, or the largest ones are being picked on.
Whatever the situation is now, my opinion of my own body image has changed. I love my body more than I ever have in my life. I’ll admit that having a go at losing body weight, which has changed my body shape and image, made me feel more confident about myself. However, even though I’ve put nearly all of the weight I’ve lost back on again, I still love my body and feel confident about my body image.
This may seem difficult to others to come to terms with, but I’ve proven to myself that it shouldn’t matter what shape or size you are. Everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin and how they want to look. Everyone should feel confident and fabulous about their own body image.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. We live in a world where on a daily basis, we see advertisements of thin people, idealistic expectations of beauty and ideologies of how we should all look, what we should aim for. This just doesn’t damage individuality, but can also greatly affect self-confidence and self-esteem. Even worse, photoshop is used constantly to make celebrities and other people look absolutely perfect on the front of magazines.
When I was 15 years old
I went through phases during my childhood where I wanted to lose body weight, mostly due to the bullying (despite trying to ignore it). I look back on these methods as dangerous; I’m lucky that I didn’t stick to them for the long-term, otherwise I could’ve been seriously ill. I would eat nothing at break time, eat very little for lunch and drink very little or nothing during the school day. I even attempted this at college during my GCSEs for a while, where an apple would suffice for my lunch.
These methods worked. I lost some body weight quickly, my clothing started to become baggy on me and my family were pleased that I was shifting some pounds. But I couldn’t keep doing it. These methods only worked temporarily. As soon as I started eating normally again and drinking plenty the weight went back on, but at least I was being sensible by realising that this wouldn’t work.
A few months before my 21st birthday
You’d probably think that I would’ve learnt my lesson by college and stopped attempting to fast. In my final year as an undergraduate when I really started pushing myself to lose some body weight by joining the gym, I decided to try out Slim Fast. Again I sacrificed my lunch by drinking a Slim Fast milkshake, which was powder mixed with semi-skimmed milk, and had a cereal bar or a piece of fruit as a snack alongside the diet shake. While it saved me a bit of time since I didn’t need to make myself lunch, this method, once again, only worked temporarily.
18 years old on the left vs. 21 years old on the right
I should’ve realised it wouldn’t work in the first place since you are supposed to use Slim Fast for a short period of time (hence the name) and there are products which replace your whole day of what you’d normally eat. I take caution in saying this, but Slim Fast is ok to use if you want to lose some body weight quickly for a special event so you can get into an outfit you may struggle to fit into, but once you stop using Slim Fast, the body weight will go back on.
As soon as I came back to live at home I stopped using Slim Fast, as I knew that my parents wouldn’t approve. I had enough of it by that point as well. On the other side of the coin, I was almost two stone lighter when I came back home. I lost that much body weight in the space of five months through changing my diet and taking regular exercise (plus Slim Fast). I received a lot of positive comments from friends and family and I started to fit into clothing sizes which I dreamed of fitting into when I was younger.
July 2014 in Spain where it was very windy!
Since being back at home from university for nearly two years a lot has changed. I was 13.12 stone in June 2014, and now I’m currently 15.9 stone. I ran my first 10km race non-stop in 1 hour and 11 minutes in July 2015, weighing about a stone lighter than I am now. I ran over 10km for the first time recently, running 14.5km in 1 hour and 37 minutes non stop. I have a lot more muscle in my thighs and my legs look great, even with a bit more body fat on them at the moment.
What I’ve learnt over the past few years is a very important message, especially for those who consider themselves as ‘fat’, ‘overweight’ or are considered to be this way:
You don’t have to be thin to be fit.
The human body is amazing, and you can train it to do anything, no matter your body weight. I’ve said this before, but I never thought I would be able to run a long distance race without having to stop or being unable to complete it from being too tired/worn out. Being called a ‘fat bitch’ at school made it difficult for me to confidently excel myself in P.E. lessons, when children (and sometimes teachers) would make you feel degraded if you did try to push yourself and you became puffy and out of breath, which was because you were a ‘fat bitch’.
I never took up regular exercise until recently in my life because I thought people would laugh at me for trying to improve my fitness and lose some weight. I even tried running in the back garden at home but that was just one Saturday morning many years ago. This proves that your childhood does have a profound effect on your adolescence and adulthood, but it’s important to overcome what you’ve experienced in the past because these don’t count now, and they don’t matter either.
Almost at the finish line in my first 10km race
Ever since I joined the gym and started running outside, I’ve never received a hateful comment or been bullied for excelling myself despite being overweight. Despite the fat on my arms and my bottom jiggling about while I’m running, I’ve never had a look of scorn or felt a sense of degradation. I’ve seen people much larger than myself at the gym and running outside, which is wonderful and great to see.
My weight life is complicated.
For most of my life I’ve had a love-hate relationship with my body and its weight. I’ve always been a large individual, and I’ve experienced what it’s like to be at different body weights, but now I’ve learnt just to love myself. I’m working on taking care of my body more, by opting for healthier options and working out more often. It may seem contradictory that I’m trying to lose body weight even though I love my body, but that is one of the reasons why I’m trying to lose some weight, because I love my body.
I’m learning to take care of it, while still enjoying the food pleasures in life (I’m a sucker for chocolate and sweet treats). I am embracing my body as it is, and I will still do in my weight loss journey, however long it takes.
I now feel confident enough to share this photo of when I was in Spain in July last year. I was putting on my tankini when it got raveled up at the back and it looked like I was wearing a bikini. I’ve never worn a bikini before and it will take me a long time before I muster up the courage to wear one, all because of the negativity associated with overweight and ‘fat’ people showing their flesh to the world. I’d like to wear a bikini one day, definitely.
Whatever choices you make and however you decide to live your life, everyone should feel free to be comfortable in their own skin and feel confident about their body image. Whatever journey you’re taking your body on, make sure your weight life is a good and happy one.
Women that don’t cook, clean or suck dick always ask “where are all the good men?” The good men just finished eating dinner and they’re relaxing in a clean house about to get their dick sucked
I was immediately repulsed by this, angered and annoyed that this post had been shared, and what was even worse, the sharer (a male) found it amusing. There are many connotations about both sexes in this short post, that main one being that women who do not fulfil these roles do not deserve to have a ‘good’ man. This implies that women who do not conform to their traditional gender roles are not considered worthy of having a decent male partner.
This post is a perfect example of everyday sexism, by which I mean sexism that happens on a daily basis according to our gender roles, constructed based on our sex and maintained for a long period of time, to the point where it has become natural in society.
Here’s a simple example to demonstrate. Women are biologically constructed to conceive children (whether they choose to use this ability or not is their choice), meaning that they are perceived as care givers. As a care giver, they will look after children by maintaining the home through, you guessed it, cooking and cleaning. These are often still perceived as jobs carried out mostly by women (you only have to look at television adverts, especially for cleaning products).
Or even this recent example of sexism!
Of course this notion of women was well-received during most of the 20th century (even for many centuries before that), where men would be the bread-winners of the family, going out to work everyday in order to support his wife and children financially. He would expect his home to be well-maintained, clean and for his dinner to always be ready when he got back from work. Advertisements (considered as vintage) helped in maintaining these gendered roles, especially during both World Wars.
I thought that we had moved on from this perception that women are the ones who have to, cook, clean, ‘please’ their partners and stay at home if they have children. I thought we were progressing towards a society where sex/gender should not dictate what jobs we do, where women can succeed and be more than just a ‘wife’ and where men can take paternal leave to look after the children at home.
I believe that we are slowly progressing in terms of sex/gender equality, but as I’ve just demonstrated, the fact that posts like this are being shared through social media for amusement indicates that it will take a long time before we really achieve better equality. It will take generation after generation before every single person truly believes that inequality and belittling the opposite sex is completely unacceptable.
This has to be one of the worst vintage adverts I’ve seen!
It is inevitable that both sexes experience divides between each other, due to how we are biologically constructed. But these should be celebrated, not undermined and used to uphold the binary oppositions between men and women.
Before I finish, what is considered a good man? (in the context of the post) It seems to me that a good man is a male who sits around, not willing to help out his female partner who is doing all of the hard work in keeping the house clean, presentable and habitable. In this day of age, most women work for a living, so they are having to do all of the housework and cooking in addition to working, while their ‘good’ man still sits around, complaining of his difficult day at the office and expecting a ‘stress reliever’ from his woman.
What about her? Is the cleaning, cooking and pleasing her partner her ‘stress reliever’? Is her man not capable of helping her out with the chores? Does he need looking after because he’s not capable of looking after himself, not able to do the simple but laboursome task of cleaning the house and preparing meals? Well then, if this is what a good man is, I certainly won’t be looking for one! I’d rather be with a male partner who recognises that jobs around the house should be shared and taken in turns, that chores are not gender specific. I’d rather be with someone who believes that it’s all about pleasing each other, not just one person receiving all the pleasure for doing nothing.
Language has a significant impact upon how we view sex and gender. There were certain phrases I never really questioned when I was younger, but I used them because everyone else did. It was considered the norm.
One phrase I used to say a lot, but now despise, is ‘man-up’. At primary and secondary school, more-so primary, I sometimes considered myself ‘tomboyish’. I used to enjoy arm wrestling against boys and when I beat them, I would say man-up. When I saw girls complain because of their hair getting wet in the rain or they broke a nail, I would say man-up.
On reflection, I believed I said man-up because of the negative connotations associated with being a woman, and somehow being a man or behaving like one meant that you were privileged. I had enough with being bullied for being ‘fat’, having what was (is) considered as excessive body hair and for being a ‘geek’ (i.e. working hard). I didn’t want to be seen as weak.
I love these posters!
Recently I have been very selective with how I say certain phrases and words as a way to show other people that I recognise sex and gender equality, which needs to be achieved through our use of language. In the English language, there are many examples of phrases which imply dominance to men. Here are some examples:
Green man
When approaching a pedestrian crossing, I often hear parents telling their children, ‘Wait for the green man’. These children, like I once did, will see the pedestrian lights as a ‘red man’ and a ‘green man’ and unconsciously refer to it that way in the future. But why is it a man? Why are the crossing lights referred to as men?
Simply put, the traffic light figures are representative of a male body. The red light in particular bears a resemblance to a man, like the figures you see on toilet doors to distinguish between male and female. People are accustomed to these figures, and a female is signified by wearing a dress or skirt.
The classic woman and man
I now refer to the pedestrian traffic lights as a ‘red person‘ and a ‘green person‘. Using the word person implies that it can be anyone of any sex or gender. Why does the ‘green person’ need to still be referred to as the ‘green man’ in the UK? It’s interesting to note in the photo below that there is no reference to ‘man’ anywhere in consideration of the traffic lights. The figure has been interpreted as a man.
Snowman
I’ve never heard anyone say a ‘snow-person’ or a ‘snow-woman’ before; it’s always ‘snowman’. I’ve seen plenty of photos on the internet of people having made a ‘snow-family’, where the ‘snow-mother’ of the family has breasts to distinguish between the ‘snow-father’ and their little ‘snow-children’. However, when someone suggests to play out in the snow, they are very likely to say ‘Do you want to build a snowman? ‘ (Frozen cue).
Or you can use clothes to distinguish between a snowman and a snow-woman…
This case is similar to the ‘green man’, in that most people seem to naturally say ‘snowman’. Again why can’t it be ‘snow-person’? Is it too much effort to say the extra syllables, or are they considered as a deficit, just like with the word ‘woman’?
Man up
Let’s return to my most detested phrase, ‘man-up’. To man-up is to give dominance to men (the patriarchy) and suggests that taking a situation like a ‘man’ is positive, the ideal, the norm. I haven’t yet watched the film Man-Up that was released last year with Simon Pegg and Lake Bell, but I’m deterred by it because of the title. I watched a trailer for the film and I remember a scene where Pegg appears to be arguing with Bell, and says ‘You’ve got to man-up’ in order to toughen up and deal with her problems. Since when have men been good with dealing with problems? (Side note: I fell in love with a lecturer yesterday at work when he said ‘Men cause wars, not women’).
After deciding to stop using the phrase man-up, I had considered ‘woman-up’. I absolutely loved it in the Pixar film Big Hero 6 when a female character called GoGo Tomago says ‘Stop whining, and woman-up’. I also liked it when I went to a restaurant once where there was an option to have a ‘woman-up’ ice cream sundae, as well as a ‘man-up option’.
While it is good that women are being recognised as stronger and empowering, the use of the phrase ‘woman-up’ implies the dominance of the female sex and gender, just as it works with the male equivalent of the phrase. While this may seem a good thing for women since we have been under male rule for such a long time in most societies, feminism sets out to achieve sex and gender equality.
Using either ‘man-up’ or ‘woman-up’ has negative connotations and attempts to downplay its opposite sex/gender. If we want to strive for equality between men and women, then these phrases need to stop being used. While my suggestions of ‘green person’ and ‘snow person’ may appear trivial to some people, it would help in eradicating sex and gender inequality, since neither gives dominance to either men or women.
On the evening of Wednesday 25th November, I went on my first demonstration through Leicester City Centre. Organised by the Feminist Society from the University of Leicester, a group of people (mostly women but a few men as well) were united to raise awareness of the issue of rape and sexual violence towards women, as part of an national event called ‘Reclaim the Night’.
While sexual assault does happen to both sexes, it is mostly women who suffer from this. It was heartbreaking to hear statistics when individuals gave short speeches about the issue. For example, 1 in 3 women will face some sort of sexual assault or violence in their lifetime.
Despite the saddening statistics, it was great to see the current President of the University of Leicester Student’s Union, who is the first female to take the role in this millennium! There were also female members of the Leicestershire Fawcett Society who proudly marched with their banner, and the rest of the people present were students from both universities within Leicester.
Courtesy of the Leicester Mercury
Starting at Bede Park, we peacefully marched our way through the De Montfort University campus, up a long street called New Walk and finished at the War Memorial in Victoria Park. The Leicestershire Fawcett Society sang a few feminist songs while others tried to encourage passers by to join in the march. I held up a placard which my friend wrote the words ‘Reclaim the Night’ on one side, and on the other a haunting message she found on social media: ‘Her dress provokes you? Your face provokes me!’
Half of the demonstration waiting to cross the road
When we reached the war memorial, everyone lit a candle and placed it by the gates of the memorial in front of some ‘Reclaim the Night’ placards. Blue ribbons were also tied on the gates. The candles represented those who have died as a result of sexual assault/violence, and the ribbons were for those who are survivors of it.
Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans, a research associate at the University of Leicester and a member of the Women’s Equality Party was invited as a guest speaker by the Feminist Society. Standing by the candles and ribbons, she read some parts of the Women’s Equality Party’s manifesto. She was unapologetic when she said that men are the ones who commit sexual violence against women; people are afraid to put it as clearly as she did.
Even though men can also be victims of sexual assault and violence and of course, not all men commit these heinous acts, Brunskell-Evans further explained that it is women who have always been told to stay indoors at night and avoid strangers and to not dress in such away to attract the ‘wrong sort of attention’. On the other hand, men have not been told to not approach women because of how they dress or how they behave; men are not told how to behave while women are.
Out of the entire period of the demonstration, there was one negative comment we received. As we approached the war memorial, there were people training at Victoria Park with a sports coach. The coach saw us processing towards the memorial and said to the trainees who can read what’s on the placards? When the coach saw that one of the placards read ‘How we dress does not mean yes’, he said something along the lines of ‘Of course dressing provocatively is going to attract attention’. Everyone in the march booed and a man from the group confronted the coach. I couldn’t hear what was being said between the two, but it made me hopeful when it was a man from the demonstration who went to retaliate against the comment from the coach!
I feel embarrassed that I didn’t know about Reclaim the Night until very recently, but I’m glad I know of it now. You feel a sense of empowerment when you march with others to fight against something that should not be happening. Everyone should feel safe walking on their own at night time and what you wear should not provoke someone to sexually assault you. A person’s choice of dress is never an excuse for rape.
Clare Bear 