Activists & Innovators: Dr Sadhbh Lee

Activists & Innovators: Dr Sadhbh Lee

Activists & Innovators: Dr Sadhbh Lee 

Interview with Dr Sadhbh Lee

1st March 2022

Sadhbh Lee is a doctor specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, co-founder of Irish Doctors for Environment and board member of Irish Global Health Network. She is passionate about global health, planetary health and gender equality, and is particularly interested in the relationship between climate issues and sexual and reproductive health.

We got to talk to her during our #ImagineEquality campaign about the intersection of climate, health, and gender. When Sadhbh imagines an equal world she “sees one where everyone has access to care and women’s health takes a leading role in our health systems”.

You can learn more about the #ImagineEquality campaign, take the pledge, and register for our upcoming events here.

Visit our Instagram @stand.ie to keep up to date with all things #ImagineEquality

Imagine Equality Campaign Link

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(Re)Visiting Miss Potter

(Re)Visiting Miss Potter

(Re)Visiting Miss Potter
Woman carrying a butterfly net with a bouquet in it
Parisa Zangeneh initials
31st of January 2022

Today, I visited with Miss Potter, the Miss Potter of Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, and Jemima Puddleduck fame. This visit took place over the internet, via the medium of the 2006, film, a film entitled “Miss Potter” starring Renee Zellweger of Bridget Jones fame. This visit was a bit unexpected and came about because I needed some inspiration to work on my thesis, and stories about female writers struggling and prevailing always serve as a source of inspiration for me. Thinking back to the impeccable Winona Ryder version of Little Women, and the more recent 2019 adaptation, these stories have mirrored the lived experiences of those who created them: Louisa May Alcott and Miss Beatrix Potter herself. 

 

Miss Potter is not about a fictionalized depiction of the struggles of a heroine, as was the case of Little Women, but it portrays the story of an actual living being, Miss Potter herself. The stories in both focus on the lives of educated, imaginative, talented, and ambitious young women who do not neatly conform to the gender expectations imposed on their sex. The film makes a point of portraying Miss Potter as somewhat different, unusual even, from other women and girls over the different stages of her life. She went from an imaginative young girl with great literary and artistic talent to a young woman who had few social contacts, possibly due to an overbearing mother and overly watchful (unusually present) minder. As a young woman, she envisions that the characters are her friends. As an adult, her behavior does not fit into the social constructs of the day, which is reflected in the slights and comments she receives at various junctures, such as when she visits publishers, hoping to convince them to publish her book.

 

Miss Potter also automatically conjured memories of the 1994 and 2019 versions of Little Women, in which the main character, Jo March, visits a publisher and is treated less than she is worth and with great condescension due to being a female. These moments in film make my blood boil when I think of comments and constrains women and girls have faced throughout history and still face every second of every day. The publishers also treat Jo March and Miss Potter with dripping misogyny due to their status as unmarried women. 

 

Today, women are not forced, or encouraged, to marry as a means of securing a stable, comfortable material existence, as they are allowed to enter the workforce and to participate in public life. But there are clear social remnants of these expectations that plague many of our behaviors and perceptions of unmarried women, even those who choose to remain single or childless, such as unmarried working women being afforded less respect and fewer social and professional opportunities than married women. I reflect on this with dismay.

 

The great value is revisiting old friends like Miss Potter lies is part is reminding us how we have evolved in the way we regard women, and how far we have to go.

 

 

​Featured photo by Cottonbro on Pexels.

 

This article was supported by: Arts and Culture Editor Deepthi and Engagement Coordinator Aislin

 

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Gender-based terrorism: Inside the secrecy and violence of incel culture

Gender-based terrorism: Inside the secrecy and violence of incel culture

Gender-based terrorism: Inside the secrecy and violence of incel culture 

Cartoon men surrounded by red virus cells
Sibéal Devilly initials

17th of December 2021

 

This article is the first in a series that explores some of the lesser known forms of violence against women and the contexts in which they emerged.

 

From Toronto to Plymouth to Hanau, a new type of crime is being seen around the world, one that devastates communities and leaves people feeling unsafe. When I sat down to write this article, there were a number of soft approaches I considered taking. It’s something I have seen spoken about on social media from accounts based in Britain, but it feels like the subject hasn’t quite filtered into Irish conversations regarding gender-based violence. A sensitive topic and not one to be taken lightly, it’s hard to know how to broach the world of incels appropriately. In truth, the more I researched for this article, the less I wanted to know – and I think that’s part of the problem. Incels thrive in secrecy. In order to counteract the movement, understanding incels is the first step.

Incel is an abbreviated term for “involuntary celibate”. The term (and movement) began as a support website started by a woman who was struggling in the dating world, but after she found love and left the community, it became co-opted – and the meaning (and purpose) of the community changed. It became a place where men went in search of support and compassion for their loneliness and anger at being involuntarily celibate. These men allow themselves to be defined by their virginities and place the blame on society around them. 

Part of a larger culture, the ‘manosphere’ (a collection of websites dedicated to men’s rights) includes Pick Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists, less extreme symptoms of the same disease. 

 

Within incel culture there are certain phrases used, some of these include: 

  • Normies – people who are not members of the incel community 
  • Foid – abbreviated from the term ‘female humanoid’, this refers to women generally; however, incels use it in order to remove the humanity from those they are discussing
  • Chads – men who are conventionally attractive and with whom women have sex 
  • Stacys – women who are conventionally attractive and who have sex (with Chads) 
  • Lookism – the discrimination that incels believe leads to their lack of sexual experience with women, whereby a genetic lottery allows women and attractive men hold the power to decide who gets to have sex and who doesn’t 

It should be noted that many of the theories incels believe, such as “lookism”, are co-opted from real theories in sociology. An example of this is the 80:20 rule (also known as the Pareto rule), which in layman’s turns predicts that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Thus, incel culture dictates that 80% of women sleep with only the ‘top’ 20% of men, leaving the odds stacked heavily against the non-Chads of the world. 

The incel community, according to Laura Bates, author of Men Who Hate Women is “devoted to violent hatred of women”. This hatred is more than the everyday sexism women already tolerate. It is, as Bates says, violent. These men are not simply looking for compassion and understanding; many of them are looking for what they believe is retribution for the unfair hand they have been dealt. 

Bates, in her book, investigates the forums and Subreddits* on which these conversations take place. Incels are often indoctrinated at a young age, mere teenagers on the internet coming across forums within the “Manosphere”. These young men are left vulnerable to feelings of insufficiency and unworthiness in a society that champions traditional masculinity in males. Many members are lonely and often isolated from those around them in the offline world, seeking understanding online.  

The violent aspect of the incel community leads men from feeling dejected and lonely to reclaiming their sense of self through rage. Through encouragement by fellow members and examples set by other members of the movement before them, this rage becomes directed at “Chads” to some extent, but largely at women – and not just the “Stacys” of the world, but all women – for existing, for emasculating men, for having the audacity to choose who they sleep with. This comes out on incel forums in terrifying tyrannies of rage. Men talking about reclaiming their power through acts of rape or violence against women to induce shame and fear, “teaching women lessons”: Bates finds, is a common topic too.  

This violence doesn’t just exist in online platforms within the manosphere. It is filtering through to the rest of the internet too. For example, I myself had heard the term “Chad” before researching incels. Bates points out that this infiltration is not incels co-opting these words from common language, but rather the use of these terms being seen by so many that they filter into our rhetoric outside the manosphere. And before you think these people exist in the fringe part of the internet, it is worth noting that there are incel groups, pages and forums online with over 200,000 members. This is not a fringe issue. This is not a few angsty teenagers. This is a large movement of men, who believe enacting violence over women is a rational and honourable thing to do. 

A connection has been made between incels and the Alt Right movement. The Alt Right, defined by white supremacist ideology, nourishes the idea that modern society offers little to white men. This ideology coincides with that of the Manosphere, allowing the contents of its dark crevices to trickle into political rhetoric, normalising the concept.  

The connection between the Alt Right movement and the manosphere also operates as a racial issue. Although Bates found a few platforms “friendly” (for lack of a better word) to ethnic minority incels throughout her research for Men Who Hate Women, for the most part, even within these spheres, racism goes unchecked. White incels often use reductive terminology for ethnic minorities, blaming the race of fellow incels for their failure with women, rather than the attributes that white incels relate to. 

After a deadly attack in Toronto in which an incel killed 10 people and them himself, the perpetrator’s actions were glorified and even revered in online communities. His initials turned into an abbreviation with positive connotations, and was described as a “warrior” by fellow incels. In the media, the coverage of these killing sprees is often vague, or chalked up to other factors, such as race, or an assumption that the murders were mentally deranged. Until recently, there has been little thought put into how the murders came about, and what inspired or encouraged these young men to take the lives of others and in some cases themselves. 

A 2018 attack which took place in a Toronto erotic massage parlour, fatally stabbing one woman and injuring others, was updated from a murder charge to one of incel terrorism, marking the first charge of its kind in the world. The precedent has been set: incel terrorism has been recognised by law enforcement in Canada. This begs the question – why are the media still so slow to call other attacks incel terrorism? Or to identify incels as terrorists at all? Incels thrive in secrecy. They have created their own vocabulary to avoid being revealed, so comfortable are incels in their online privacy, manifestos have been found published online preceding attacks containing plans for the tragic events before they happen. 

We need to stop letting this community fester and grow in darkness. Not only do we need judicial and media-based recognition of the danger posed by incels, but we also need to dismantle a society which places so much pressure on boys and men to be masculine that failure feels worthy of rape and murder. We need to talk to the boys and men around us and let them know that they are seen and heard, and that how many women they “succeed” with is no metric of their identity. We need to rethink masculinity, femininity and what it means to be a success in our society. And we need to do it now, before even more lives are lost to the lonely, violent manosphere. 

 

* Reddit has since moved to ban incels from the platform  

 

Additional Resources: 

‘Men Who Hate Women’ by Laura Bates 

@vulgadrawings on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSuVizIU_q/?utm_medium=share_sheet 

Podcasts:  

Glow West Episode 104: https://tortoiseshack.ie/incels-and-the-internet-ep-104/ 

Close Friends The Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4X0jgyd8wpby9dSJI8vEu1?si=57281d7eec4449cb 

 

This article was supported by: Opinion Editor Olivia and STAND Engagement Coordinator Aislin

 

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‘Period justice is gender justice’: DCU’s Ross Boyd on period poverty

‘Period justice is gender justice’: DCU’s Ross Boyd on period poverty

‘Period justice is gender justice’: DCU’s Ross Boyd on period poverty

Two women in a bathroom share period products
Ellen McVeigh

12th of December 2021

Across the world, 800 million people menstruate daily, but the topic still remains generally undiscussed. The lack of conversation around the issue feeds into a cycle of stigma and silence, which serves to create a sense of shame for people who menstruate, an important bodily function which is completely natural and experienced by about half the global population. Difficulty in raising awareness about the issue allows these these challenges to go unnoticed and unchecked which perpetuates a cycle of stigma and the proliferation of harmful myths. These social stigmas, when coupled with other financial and cultural barriers, mean that the fight for global menstrual justice requires an intersectional approach. 

A new campaign from STAND and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), #FreeTheFlow, aims to break this cycle of stigma and inaccessibility. Partnering with a number of activists and experts, the campaign explains the barriers to menstrual justice and explores the ways we can break them down. According to Aishah Akorede, founder of Recrowned Ireland: “#FreetheFlow means breaking the cycle of stigma attached to menstruation, which is the first step towards addressing the problem of menstrual poverty…you cannot solve something that you cannot speak about.” With panel discussions and workshops, the campaign hopes to encourage both those who menstruate, and those who don’t, to take action to tackle menstrual inequality together. Students can sign the #FreeTheFlow pledge to receive an action pack filled with ideas about how to support the fight for menstrual equity on university campuses and around the world.

 

#FreetheFlow means breaking the cycle of stigma attached to menstruation, which is the first step towards addressing the problem of menstrual poverty…you cannot solve something that you cannot speak about.

There are several different angles through which menstrual inequity can be tackled; social, cultural, economic, environmental. In terms of social and cultural change, dispelling myths around the world that menstruation is ‘unclean’ or ‘unhygienic’ is key. For example, myths around cleanliness prevent young girls on their period from entering the classroom, robbing them of vital education. In terms of economics, tackling period poverty is a huge aspect of menstrual justice. In Ireland, the average annual costs of period products per person who menstruates is estimated to be €96.72, rising to €121 per year when pain relief is taken into account. ​​National data suggested that approximately 53,000 to 85,000 women and girls in Ireland may be at risk of period poverty; while globally, 12.8% of people with periods struggle to access the resources they need to manage their periods. 

One aspect of menstrual justice which is often overlooked is the issue of sustainability. Period products generate huge amounts of plastic waste, with the average person who menstruates throwing away 200kg of menstrual products in their lifetime. These barriers to access add to social stigmas around menstruation, stigma which then leads to misinformation, myths and mistreatment and prevents people from accessing basic human rights. This then feeds back into a lack of action into tackling these original barriers to access, and the cycle of shame and disempowerment continues.

 

Period products generate huge amounts of plastic waste, with the average person who menstruates throwing away 200kg of menstrual products in their lifetime.

Zoom call with Ellen McVeigh and Ross Boyd

STAND spoke to Ross Boyd, Vice-President of DCU Students Union and member of #FreeTheFlow partner PLAN International Ireland’s Youth Advisory Panel, about how tackling period stigma will benefit everyone, not just people who menstruate. 

As part of PLAN International Ireland, a charity with a strong focus on gender equality, Ross’ eyes were opened to the realities of gender inequality both in Ireland and in the Global South. “You think you know a lot when you go into a space like that,” Ross said, “but then you realise you actually don’t know anything.” For Ross, once he had been exposed to many gender inequality issues which he had previously been unaware of, the next step was “very much about listening,” and then taking that information on board to inform your allyship. Ross, like many men, was nervous at first about entering into the conversations around gender issues such as period justice, but says that what changed for him was “realising that men are just as important to gender equality than women and other marginalised genders are.” 

One major aspect of breaking the stigma around menstruation involves welcoming those who don’t menstruate into the conversation as a way of normalising and removing shame from the process. “The best way to combat that stigma is to have conversations that make it more normalised,” says Ross, “but not making jokes like ‘oh they’re just on their period’, because those kinds of things just dismiss the issue.” According to research done by PLAN International Ireland, around 50% of secondary school girls feel shame around their periods, exacerbated by a culture of silence and taboo around the topic. For Ross, especially as someone involved in a leadership position in a university, “removing the stigma is the first thing, but then also removing those financial barriers.”

 

“…men are just as important to gender equality than women and other marginalised genders are”

Another issue which is important to deal with in terms of increasing accessibility and reducing stigma is to adjust the language used when speaking about menstruation and menstrual inequity. For Ross, this is often just as simple as remembering that “it’s not just women and girls involved in this issue, but all people who menstruate.” But this is also impossible to separate from other barriers, such as economic ones. Having period products discreetly available in all public spaces allows those who menstruate but don’t identify as women to access period products which stigma or other social barriers might prevent them from accessing otherwise. In DCU, when the campaign for free period products on campus was launched it was important to the team for the products to be free and available, “in all bathrooms, in gender neutral bathrooms as well, so people don’t need to experience the stigma associated with entering a women’s bathroom.” In DCU they also provided a postal service of period products in order to provide people with even more privacy.

In the end, period inequity, like all other forms of inequity, will not only be solved by those who directly experience it. It requires everyone to lift their voice into the conversation to break the stigma and increase accessibility. The DCU free period products initiative garnered such a massive demand that they had to scale back. “It really just showed how many people really did need it,” says Ross, highlighting how the lack of conversation around the topic can shelter people from the realities of how widespread it is. When a topic is not talked about, it is easy to turn a blind eye or to distance yourself from the problem. But Ross implores those who think they have no place in the menstruation justice movement to reconsider; “Your friends or people you know definitely face these issues – either from financial barriers, stigma, or mental health barriers – whether they disclose this to you or not.” While menstruation inequality is just one aspect of gender inequality, it is one that is often overlooked. Ross summed up the importance of this campaign; “period justice is gender justice.”

Learn more about the campaign and take the pledge to #FreetheFlow by visiting 1000students.ie

 

Featured photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash

 

This article was supported by: STAND Women’s Editor Ellen and Engagement Coordinator Aislin

 

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Activists & Innovators: Candice Chirwa

Activists & Innovators: Candice Chirwa

Activists & Innovators: Candice Chirwa

STAND interviews Candice Chirwa as part of the Free the Flow Campaign

2nd December 2021

Candice Chirwa is a South African speaker, academic and menstruation activist on a mission to end period poverty and change the disempowering narratives around menstruation.

We talk to her during our #FreeTheFlow campaign about the ‘taboo topic’ of periods what steps people can take to demand menstruation justice now!

Learn more about the campaign and take action by visiting 1000students.ie!

#FreeTheFlow 🩸

Visit our Instagram @stand.ie to keep up to date with all things #FreeTheFlow

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Sexism wins gold at the 2020 Olympic Games

Sexism wins gold at the 2020 Olympic Games

Sexism wins gold at the 2020 Olympic Games

female olympic athletes
Ciara Phelan

27th August 2021

 

After a year-long delay, the ever-raging coronavirus pandemic, and the lack of spectators in stadiums, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were far from normal. However, this year has also seen a shift in the attitudes of the Olympians, and for the first time ever, female athletes have made it clear that they have not been happy with what was once considered the norm, and are taking a stand to change the Olympics, and international sports, forever. 

 

One of the ways in which sporting federations have failed to address inequalities in sports is through the continued sexualisation of women’s uniforms. The Olympics are not the only villains in this story, with almost every national and international sporting organisation holding questionable rules surrounding the uniforms worn by both male and female competitors. All of these discrepancies surrounding the tightness and shortness of women’s uniforms combine to make these athletes as sexually marketable as possible.  

 

In 2004, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested women soccer players wear “tighter shorts” than their male counterparts in order to attract more viewers. Similarly, the Badminton World Federation tried to pass a new rule in which women could only wear skirts or dresses to play at an elite level, with no regard for the actual functionality for this new uniform. The reasoning was “to ensure attractive presentation” and increase interest.  

 

Arbitrary rules like this are still commonplace in sports, with the Norwegian women’s beach handball team being fined €1,500 by the European Handball Association’s Disciplinary Commission for “improper clothing” as they refused to wear bikini bottoms to compete in the Euro 2021 tournament. The team instead wore thigh-length elastic shorts, which are still several inches shorter than the looser fitting shorts worn by their male counterparts. This news caused such a stir internationally that singer P!NK has since offered to pay the fine for the team, and has also spoken out about the sexist rules within the sport. 

 

Similarly, the German women’s gymnastics team took a stand and wore full-length unitards, covering their thighs and lower legs, as opposed to the usual unitards worn by competitors. These full-length suits are customary for men to wear, but these women were outliers in their field as they chose to let their athleticism shine through and not their body shape. Sarah Voss, a member of the German gymnastics team, explained the decision when she said that “when puberty began, when my period came, I began feeling increasingly uncomfortable [wearing the tight gym outfits]” and that she hopes that her decision will encourage other gymnasts to wear what they feel comfortable in. The sexualisation of women’s gymnastics uniforms also has a severely negative impact on the perceived intensity of their sport. Sports writer and author Kavitha Davidson, put it perfectly when she said that “At least in the [United] States, the most prominent faces [in gymnastics] like Simone Biles are women who wear leotards, who wear makeup, and that defies what people might want to point to as toughness or as a dangerous sport.”  

 

Similarly, gymnast Suni Lee amazed the world when she won the all-around gold medal with lash extensions and a set of acrylic nails applied. The fact that she completed a gold-medal routine without even so much as breaking a nail is insanely impressive in itself, but we must think critically about the society we live in, in which a world class athlete felt it necessary to compete with these additional obstacles in the name of appealing to the unattainable beauty standard expected of women. 

 

Jaime Schultz, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies the intersection of sex, gender, and sexuality in women’s sports epitomises the overlying issue when she said “Women athletes—we can’t win for losing … You’re either too sexy or you’re not sexy enough or you should cover up or you should show more or you should talk about mental health or you shouldn’t talk about it. You should be superhuman but don’t be too human. It’s just a range of issues that I think women athletes have to deal with, and especially women athletes of colour, that mere mortals like us can’t understand.” 

 

Another way in which women are diminished in the sporting world is the questioning of their femininity.”

Another way in which women are diminished in the sporting world is the questioning of their femininity. There are many ways in which athletes can have a biological advantage over their competitors, such as genetics, levels of various hormones, mentality, training, nutrition, recovery times, and even factors as simple as how the athlete feels in the morning, compared to their competitors. There is a fixation on testosterone levels by the regulatory bodies, and an indifference towards other characteristics that could be equally as unfair. 

 

Take for example, Michael Phelps. Phelps is a swimmer and is currently the most decorated Olympian in history, winning a total of 28 medals during his career. Phelps has exceptionally long arms, giving him a longer wingspan. He also has double-jointed elbows and large hands, which act like paddles. Phelps also has double-jointed ankles, giving him 15 per cent more ankle bend than his rivals, and large size-14 feet, which act as flippers. He also has an extremely high lung capacity – almost twice that of an average human – and produces half the lactic acid of his competitors, meaning that he recovers from gruelling training sessions far faster than others. In a nutshell, Phelps won the genetic motherlode, and this has been celebrated throughout his incredible career. 

 

In contrast, let’s take a look at Caster Semenya. Although she does not speak about it publicly, it is believed that Semenya has an intersex condition, meaning that her body allegedly produces testosterone at a higher level than most women. In 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that if Semenya wanted to continue to compete, she would be required to take medications to lower it.  

 

Similarly, two other South African runners, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, were forced to withdraw from the 400-meter race in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, after a medical examination showed that the two women have high testosterone levels. This overemphasis on the powers of testosterone is outdated, and only serves to fuel stereotypes regarding the levels at which men and women compete. Phelps’ natural biological variation is celebrated rather than regulated, while Semenya’s, Mboma’s and Masiling’s are all vilified. 

 

The irony of the unfolding situation is the progress that the International Olympic Committee released a statement on International Women’s Day, stating that this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games will be landmarks in gender equality, and will be strides towards a more inclusive society. It will be the most gender balanced games in history, with 49 per cent of the participants being women. They have also edited the scheduling, in order to ensure equal visibility of men’s and women’s events, and also includes more mixed events than ever before. However, this potential is undermined when gendered microaggressions present these athletes with hurdles to overcome, that ultimately have nothing to do with their athletic abilities. The point of the Olympics should not be to see who can most successfully navigate the toxic rules of a regulation that out of step with the modern world, but rather to award the passion, dedication, and strength of these humans.  

 

 

 

Featured photo by Nicolas Hoizey

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex

 

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Portraying women in the media

Portraying women in the media

Portraying women in the media

pile of women's magazines
charlotte waldron

26th August 2021

 

It’s difficult to define Britney Spears. Despite this, the media have tried to in the past and continue to do so.  Innocent, virginal, slutty, an unfit mother, crazy! Before the Free Britney Movement came to the fore, very few questioned the labels that were placed upon her.  After her public breakdown in 2007, she was deemed unstable and was never really redefined in our eyes.  To say Britney is crazy is uncomplicated and requires little reflection. Yet, this view allowed Britney’s conservator to take control of her life, despite her early protestations, while the world stood idly by. The New York Times’ Free Britney documentary and its incredible account of the role of the media in her life left me wondering how women are defined by the media today and if anything has changed in the years since Britney’s “breakdown”. 

 

Even in 2021, many women continue to be defined by the media in a one-dimensional way. Some are sexualised to sell papers with recent headlines such as “Demi forgot her clothes” or “Kendall Jenner sizzles in barely-there thong” coming to mind. While these women are undoubtedly consenting to this exposure and at times benefitting from it, society at large suffers negative consequences as a result of this portrayal of women purely as sex objects. As people like the Kardashians are over-sexualised, some women are vilified, creating a narrative that can be used time and time again. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift have been portrayed as slutty, while men who have had many relationships never get associated with this term. Meghan Markle is constantly portrayed by the British media as difficult and manipulative. This simplistic, one-dimensional portrayal of women in tabloid media makes it easier for us to consume but it has real world consequences.  

 

The effects of the one-dimensional coverage of women are profound. Sometimes similar stories are handled differently. Undoubtedly, society at large suffers from women being so singularly defined by the media. 

 

The contrasting ways newspapers covered abuse allegations against Caroline Flack and Ryan Giggs highlights how similar stories can be handled differently by the mass media. Flack was vilified from the outset, with headlines such as “Flack’s bedroom blood bath” appearing in media coverage. She was made out as a deranged, violent woman who beat her boyfriend with a lamp, allegations he expressly denied. The “blood bath” referred to was from Flack herself engaging in self harm, yet tabloids still sensationalised the event, casting doubt over whether the blood was hers and likening it to a scene from a horror movie. Her boyfriend, clearly perplexed at the misleading nature of the coverage was quoted at the time as saying “Can everyone stop now?”. He, more than anyone, saw the devastating effect the sensationalised coverage was having on her mental health and its role in her subsequent suicide.  

 

Ryan Giggs has been treated differently in the aftermath of the allegations of abuse that surfaced against him, with the BBC running the headline “Ryan Giggs denies assault allegations after arrest.” This appeared to highlight his proclamation of innocence and not the allegedly violent abuse suffered by his partner. When Giggs could no longer fulfil his role as Wales manager owing to the charges against him, the Sun declared that he still planned to help Wales in their Euro soccer bid on an informal basis. The level and nature of the coverage received by Giggs was incomparable to that of Caroline Flack. While Caroline was vilified again and again by the British press labelled a violent abuser despite protestations from her partner that what had happened was being mischaracterised, the coverage of Giggs highlights his willingness to “clear his name” despite ample evidence of his guilt.  

 

“When the media furthers the perception of women as sex objects, that has knockon consequences throughout the society.”

So why does one-dimensional coverage of women in media matter? Newspapers and magazines inform people’s views and opinions. It affects how we as society see women unconsciously. When the media furthers the perception of women as sex objects, that has knock-on consequences throughout society. In Women Aid’s recent project ‘It’s time to flip the sexist script,’ they highlight how the sexual objectification of women “underpins domestic abuse” and furthers the belief in some men that they own their partner. While this is an extreme consequence of objectification, it is not the only one. Defining women so narrowly in news and entertainment media perpetuates stereotypes that continue to permeate throughout society with women more frequently defined as crazy or diva-like, while these terms are not commonly associated with men.   

 

Women can be sexy, slutty, demanding and difficult – but so can men. Defining female celebrities so singularly in tabloid media is dangerous. For Britney, it inflicted untold pain, as the narrative around her was changed and sensationalised by the press. The coverage around women should reflect all of the nuances and imperfections that come with being a person, not caricatures solely defined by a characteristic from which it is easy to create a narrative. Britney cannot be defined so singularly, just like women all over the world cannot be defined by one or two labels. It’s time all media coverage starts reflecting this, and women start demanding it. 

 

 

 

Featured photo by Charisse Kenion

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex

 

Empowering women through female rap music

Empowering women through female rap music

Empowering women through female rap music

smiling woman taking notes and listening to music
Kate Bisogno

4th August 2021

 

Since its inception in the 1970s, the hip-hop industry has been inarguably male-dominated, yet women have consistently played a significant role in the development of its culture. Icons Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliot paved the way for contemporary artists such as Nicki Minaj and Doja Cat, who have changed the narrative surrounding women in rap today. Figures like these are beginning to shift a culture that for decades has been criticised for its over-sexualisation of women. The recent increase in the popularity of female rap through platforms such as Tiktok has led listeners to view the music as both empowering and progressive. However, many still argue that the sexual and arguably aggressive lyrics of women in the industry further perpetuate the misogynistic connotations of hip-hop. Regardless of the stance that one may take on the topic, it seems as though there is an undeniable depth to our beloved hot girl summer anthems.

 

Men within the hip-hop industry have fuelled misogyny through lyrics which both objectify and over-sexualise women, facing little backlash. Yet when female artists discuss similar topics, they receive rather extreme reactions. These double standards were evident when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion joined forces to create the unforgettable anthem WAP. The internet exploded with both criticism and praise for the duo. In response to the backlash, Megan stated that “some people just don’t know what to do when a woman is in control and taking ownership of her own body.” Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion had completely reversed the narrative. Not only were they speaking about sexuality in a manner that had, for the most part, been exclusively associated with men, it was even said that the lyrics ‘objectified men’, causing many to acknowledge how it may feel for women to listen to the degrading lyrics of many male artists. 

 

The empowering hits continued with the release of Megan Thee Stallion’s debut studio album Good News in late 2020, featuring icons such as Beyoncé and SZA. Saweetie and Doja Cat kicked off 2021 by promoting female independence with their single Best Friend, highlighting the importance of women supporting one another, rather than falling victim to the toxicity of comparison – another ideology that is intrinsically linked to the male portrayal of women through media.

 

“The notion that there can only be one woman at the top is beginning to dissolve as we witness new female faces rise to stardom in the industry.”

Although women within the hip-hop scene are no strangers to public abuse, their overwhelming success and praise is indisputable. The notion that there can only be one woman at the top is beginning to dissolve as we witness new female faces rise to stardom in the industry. Long-time favourites such as Nicki Minaj and newcomers like City Girls receive similar levels of success to their male counterparts which speaks volumes to the growing female presence within the industry.

 

Instead of condemning male rappers, these artists are turning the tables and using the sexualisation of women to their advantage. Through female rap, women are given the option to reclaim power over their sexuality and obtain a new sense of confidence. To denounce this fact would be to silence one of a woman’s innate powers. Why should women be shamed for expressing their sexuality in a way that men have been doing for decades? A woman is a multifaceted being. Female rap incorporates both a woman’s female and masculine energies simultaneously. Yes, women can listen to Taylor Swift and feel all their feelings, but we can also channel a healthy inner aggression that resides in many of us by aligning ourselves with the shameless energies of Flo Milli or Rico Nasty. The women of the hip-hop industry are reversing the narrative. Instead of being silenced while men profit off of female sexuality, they are using it to empower both themselves and others.

 

 

 

Featured photo by Soundtrap

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex

 

How domestic abuse scares its victims into silence

How domestic abuse scares its victims into silence

How domestic abuse scares its victims into silence

woman in darkness with hands on her face
anastasiya stand news

27th July 2021

 

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people and families have been confined to their homes for extended periods of time as part of government-mandated lockdowns. Across the globe, this has worsened conditions within volatile households and relationships. Aoibhneas, an Irish support group for women and children victimised by domestic abuse, recorded an increase of 125% in calls to their national helpline from March to August 2020. An Garda Síochána also confirmed to the Irish Examiner in March 2021 that domestic assaults had increased by almost a quarter over the last 12 months. Behind all of these figures lies a face, a life, a story – a woman.

 

Irene is a Ukrainian-born Zumba instructor, nutritionist, and fitness model. She is a single mother of two, who emigrated to Ireland with her then-husband in 2005. Irene bravely came forward to speak about her experience with domestic abuse, as she would like to serve as an inspiration to women suffering in similar situations.

 

Irene is very open about her story, although it is evident that the memory still affects her greatly. Her story began in 1997 when she met her ex-husband. The pair had only dated for a year before they decided to tie the knot. Irene was 18 and her ex was 21 at the time of their wedding. Irene recollects the wedding with a heartbreaking expression.

 

On the day of their wedding, her father-in-law came to speak with her. Irene described the experience as a strange and rather unsettling memory. Her father-in-law warned her and begged her not to marry his son. Although Irene was confused and caught off guard, she didn’t think much of his warnings and proceeded with the wedding. Irene sighs while thinking about their wedding day: “It was really embarrassing to apologize to our guests for all the times my husband swore and acted irrationally. I expected this to be the happiest moment of my life and there he was, cursing at his mother, sister, and anyone who ticked him off that day.”

 

“The truth is you can’t change people. I don’t regret marrying him. The only thing I can thank him for is my two daughters. I just wish I noticed the signs sooner and left before things got worse.”

Irene sits back for a while and looks at the ground before she speaks about the time her husband smashed their wedding photograph. “It was hurtful… Like, that was our wedding photograph! I knew for certain things wouldn’t work out; it was a sign! Crawling around the corridor picking up the pieces of broken glass was almost symbolic. For twelve years, I was trying my best to keep the marriage together, for the kids at least… I thought I could change him. The truth is you can’t change people. I don’t regret marrying him. The only thing I can thank him for is my two daughters. I just wish I noticed the signs sooner and left before things got worse.”

 

Irene shrugs at being asked why she stayed in this violent marriage for so long: “It’s hard to leave a person who is so controlling. I was scared. The other factor is that when we came to Ireland, all I had was him. I didn’t know that there were helplines I could contact; my English was very bad which also hindered my confidence. I was a bit embarrassed to leave him, divorce isn’t something my family supported. Their concern was how the children would grow up in a broken home. It’s not that easy to just up and leave!” 

 

Irene says, “he had really angry eyes. The first time he hit me I didn’t know what to do. When we went back to Ukraine for a vacation, I told his mother that he started physically abusing me and then showed her my fresh bruises. She just shrugged and said there was nothing she could do. For the longest time, I was too afraid to tell my own mother. I was embarrassed and ashamed of the fact that I let him treat me like that. He would often take away our Wi-Fi so that I couldn’t communicate with my mother and sister back in Ukraine. I was getting desperate and depressed. I started hating myself every time I looked in the mirror. I didn’t like the weak woman I saw before me. I started planning on how I would leave him. I contacted a woman’s shelter and my close friend. I was ready to leave.”

 

“I contacted the Cuan Saor Women’s Refuge & Support Service,” she says. They were suggested to me by my friend who knew about my situation.” Cuan Saor is also responsible for the #toointoyou campaign which was shared around NUI Galway last semester. Their core belief is that: “abuse against women and children must become unacceptable at every level of Irish society.”

 

“I no longer hate the woman looking back at me in the mirror. I know she is strong,” says Irene. “I became a Zumba instructor. I travelled half of Europe with my kids. My daughters are free to live without a verbally and physically abusive father. All I can say is that I am grateful to Ireland and the people who supported me through that difficult time.” Irene’s living room is decorated with various diplomas certifying her achievements as an instructor, as well as the many “Thank you” cards she has received from her students who are mainly women struggling with self-image and personal difficulties. 

 

Irene smirks, “they’re not just my students. I don’t just forget about them once I get home. They’re my Zumba family. The progress these women have made is amazing. The enthusiasm I get from my students and the progress they make during my classes make me feel like I’ve done something with my life. I was once like some of the women in my classes; unsure of myself and wanting to improve. I only hope that I continue to inspire these women and push them to reach their personal goals.” Irene became a Zumba instructor close to five years ago and throughout those years, she has had many ups and downs. Irene describes those challenges as the building blocks for the growth of her career.

 

“My struggles with domestic abuse and the difficulties of living in a foreign country so far from family failed to break me and my spirit,” says Irene. “Never ever submit to abuse! Never allow anybody to walk all over you! You are strong and you will get through anything, you just got to make that first step.”  

 

Names in this article have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

 

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, the following organisations may be able to help:

 

Cuan Saor Women’s Refuge & Support Service

Phone: 1800 576757 (24-hour helpline)

 

Women’s Aid

Phone: 1800 341 900 (24 hour helpline)

 

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre

Phone: 1800 77 8888 (24 hour helpline)

 

Aoibhneas

Phone: 01 867 0701 (24 hour helpline)

 

 

 

Featured photo by Melanie Wasser

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex

 

The power of small

The power of small

The power of small

two hands with intertwined little fingers
Orla Leahy

26th July 2021

 

There are numerous publications around the world titled “The Power of Small.” While it may have developed into somewhat of a cliché, the power of small should not be overlooked. Completing a university certified Bystander Intervention programme has illustrated to me that every day, there are millions of small but life-changing decisions made across the globe, whether or not to safely intervene.

 

In 2018, in the United States alone, it was estimated that 734,630 people were victims of rape according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Of those, only 25 per cent were reported to the police. The average lifetime cost for each of those victims in the US falls at just above $122,000.  It is undeniable that sexual assault and rape are seriously pressing and important global issues. In the search for solutions, we tend to jump to the biggest problem solver – how can the law be reformed to better protect victims? Sometimes, however, smaller actions can have a very worthwhile and instrumental effect.

 

To highlight the significance of simple actions, an advertisement was released in New Zealand in 2011, titled “Who Are You?” Although the advertisement was released 10 years ago, it is still of great relevance today.

 

“The flatmate ignores her clear discomfort and allows her to be led into her room by her fellow party-goer. He shuts her bedroom door with a resounding thud. But, what if the protagonist’s story didn’t end this way?”

The video begins by labelling the various characters that feature; best friend, employee, flatmate, and stranger, before depicting typical party scenes: drinking, playing games, music, and dancing. Quickly, the party group descends on a nightclub. The protagonist (and victim), a woman, begins to dance with another of the party-goers, a man. Her best friend returns from the toilets to see the protagonist looking decisively uncomfortable in his arms but leaves him to guide her to the bar for more drinks. The employee at the bar realises the protagonist’s obvious discomfort, but ignores it and serves the drinks. Eventually, the protagonist is led away by her fellow party-goer, past the stranger who notices that something is amiss but keeps to himself. Back at the protagonist’s apartment, another person, this time the protagonist’s flatmate ignores her clear discomfort and allows her to be led into her room by her fellow party-goer. He shuts her bedroom door with a resounding thud. But, what if the protagonist’s story didn’t end this way?

 

Suddenly, the video pauses and rewinds…the flatmate no longer stands by and watches, but thanks the protagonist’s fellow party-goer for bringing her home and offers him a blanket on the couch. The video continues to rewind, and this time the stranger outside the club does not keep to himself but alerts the bouncer who stops the party-goer from leading the protagonist any further away from the club, and offers her a taxi. Upon further rewinding, the employee asks the protagonist about her night and calls her best friend over to help her, rather than merely serve the drinks. Finally, upon returning from the toilets, the protagonist’s best friend takes her home.

 

This advertisement may have been released 10 years ago but its message remains the same. Simple and safe intervention can have life-changing positive consequences for victims. Positive change need not always come from the top, in the form of new and improved legislation, but it can be initiated and flourish from the small but powerful actions of every citizen.

 

Recently, universities around Ireland have backed the promotion of bystander intervention programmes and consent training to highlight the importance of small actions taken by citizens as I have illustrated with the advertisement above. For example, University College Cork were the first to implement a programme in 2017, in the form of a digital badge upon completion of four pre-recorded workshops, one live workshop, a number of quizzes and an assignment. University College Dublin has since implemented a compulsory anti-harassment 90 minute workshop for all incoming first year students. In 2020, Young Fine Gael called for the development of bystander intervention training in all Irish third-level institutions.

 

The New Zealand advertisement asks us who we are, and I ask what we can become? Well, we can become active bystanders and we can utilise the power of small as we have seen, with further development and implementation of bystander training. The only question remains, shall we?

 

Please note that one should only intervene where it is safe to do so.

 

If you have been affected by any of the content in this article, please see the following national services for support:

 

Women’s Aid

Phone: 1800 341 900

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.womensaid.ie

 

Men’s Aid

Phone: 01 5543811

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.mensaid.ie/

 

BeLonGTo

Website: https://www.belongto.org/

Contact Form: https://www.belongto.org/contact-us/

Find a Youth Group: https://www.belongto.org/youngpeople/youth-groups/find-a-youth-group/

Phone: 01 670 6223 (this is not a helpline, so if you need to urgently speak with someone, you can find a list of helpful numbers here)

 

SpunOut.ie

Website: https://spunout.ie/

Online Chat Service: https://spunout.ie/news/youth-information-chat/

Email: question@spunout. ie

 

 

Featured photo by Womanizer WOW Tech

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex

 

We need to do better if we are to protect girls

We need to do better if we are to protect girls

We need to do better if we are to protect girls

two girls with arms around each others waists
alex mulhare

22nd July 2021

 

There’s no simple way to put this: I fear for the current generation of girls, teenagers, and young women who are growing up in an always-online world.  

 

As I scroll through social media, advertisements for cosmetic surgery pop up on my feed, and a heavily-edited selfie is posted with a casual caption; at first glance, I don’t even recognise it as someone whom I have known for years. When did this become normal?  

 

The era of uploading unflattering albums to our Facebook accounts feels very distant these days, even though it was only ten years ago. Backcombed hair and questionable fashion choices ruled the roost – the idea of lip fillers and contouring your face would likely be laughed at. There was no pressure to be picture-perfect – because let’s be honest, digital cameras in the hands of teenagers take terrible pictures. 

 

The real conversation lies in asking ourselves why altering our appearance has become so normalised and readily-available as a cosmetic service.”

I think that, in most cases, it’s counterproductive to shame anyone who has decided to undergo cosmetic treatments or who enjoys using Facetune. It’s their body, and their choice to do what they like with it. The real conversation lies in asking ourselves why altering our appearance has become so normalised and readily-available as a cosmetic service. When and why did our natural faces with textured skin and varied features become undesirable and “ugly”? Our Patriarchal society is probably the fastest and most simple answer (even though it isn’t simple at all, really). Essentially, a patriarchy is a system in which men are the dominant figures in all areas of power within society.  

 

Already, within the short period of time from 2008 to 2021, our online landscape has changed rapidly. Social media used to mean booting up your family’s personal computer and checking your Facebook notifications – a far cry from tapping an application on your phone and receiving instant validation from friends and strangers alike at any and all stages throughout the day. The Myspace and early Facebook era of the internet may not have been an inherently better place, but it was certainly more innocent.  

 

As many researchers have pointed out, the “always-on” mentality is where the current danger of being online lies, and this is especially true for young people. Let’s say you have Instagram notifications turned on and each time you open the app, there’s a good chance that you’ll have a quick look through your timeline. There’s another good chance that altered photos will appear on your newsfeed, either from friends or as suggested posts. It is inevitable that regular consumption of edited photographs will result in a detachment from what real people look like, eventually taking a toll upon how you view yourself and others. This process is so subtle though, that teenagers in particular may not even notice their own perception of beauty standards shifting.  

 

The reality-television series, Love Island, provided food (or rather, a large meal) for thought in this vein during an episode of the seventh season which aired last week. The show’s contestants were challenged to answer sensitive questions about each other, and one particular question asked the men to guess which types of cosmetic surgery that all of the women on the show had undergone. This immediately provoked an online discussion about how commonplace surgically altering your appearance has become, if it can just be assumed that each female contestant has opted for at least one cosmetic treatment. Nonetheless, almost all of the men guessed correctly, with each one writing down some variation of “lips, boobs, botox.” All except one woman on the show could admit to having gone under the knife for some reason or another. Interestingly though, in another round of the same challenge, the contestants were asked to list their turn-offs. Most of the male contestants listed personality traits but one said that “hairy arms” were his biggest turn-off. Unlike bad manners or being too loud, hairy arms are a completely natural trait that many girls and women have no control over. Not to mention the fact that women are naturally hairy; we’re just told that hair is dirty or unhygienic because it’s a convenient excuse for the patriarchy to get the hairless women that it desires (let’s not forget that a core aim of a patriarchal society is to exert control over women as much as is possible).  

 

As the show cut to an ad break, it was difficult to think about anything other than how a girl or teenager might have consumed this content. Would she feel pressured to look in the mirror and re-evaluate her own appearance? Would she question the fullness of her natural lips, or the natural movement of a forehead wrinkle when she raises her eyebrows? Would she feel self-conscious about the hair on her arms, and find a new insecurity to wax away on a regular basis? I left the television that night with a sense of dread and frankly, fear, about how a person younger than myself might fall victim to the ever-expanding trap of surgeries to fix each “‘insecurity”’ that the beauty industry and patriarchy both profit from.  

 

TikTok trends have begun to evoke the same anxiety from me in recent months – why do they so often focus upon creating imagined flaws in the predominantly young female audience who partake in these challenges? The trend which struck me the most was a filter that mirrors each side of your face to create two new faces. The idea was that one side of your face would be “ugly” and the other one “pretty” – unless of course, you were so symmetrical that both faces looked very similar. Showing off your symmetrical face or laughing at the expense of others who looked “ugly” with this filter was the primary goal of this challenge. Immature as it was, I can’t help but wonder how many girls tried the challenge for themselves and were too afraid to even upload the end result because they felt that they looked “ugly.” Many of us can attest to the fact that if our teenage peers perceive us as bad looking in any way, shape, or form, it has a long-lasting effect upon our self-esteem and overall confidence. 

 

There are many places to point an accusatory finger as the source of these problems: the make-up and beauty industries, social media apps, a general disregard for the safety of children online or the content that they consume – the list could truly be endless. The internet and its culture as a whole is a good place to begin looking for answers. Gone are the days of pre-teen girls watching actors their own age dressed like the kids that they are on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. Now, this same age group has instant access to social media where they are encouraged to wear make-up and dress with sex appeal, despite the fact that they are literal children. If this is hard to believe, then why has Millie Bobby Brown, the star of Stranger Things, been rolled out onto red carpet events dressed like a fully-grown woman for years? Why was Billie Eilish harassed for refusing to wear revealing clothing as a teenager – why was she expected to show off her body, and why did it become offensive to grown men online when she didn’t play into this expectation?  

 

“They were guinea pigs. They are the first group of young people to grow up with the world at their fingertips, and the first to go through our school systems under the shadow of social media.”

The deeper you delve into this subject, the more it feels as though we have let the upcoming generation of girls down. To be frank, they were guinea pigs. They are the first group of young people to grow up with the world at their fingertips, and the first to go through our school systems under the shadow of social media. As someone who went to secondary school during the more innocent, pre-influencer age of social media, I still feel like having access to a smart phone at the age of sixteen fundamentally altered the school experience for me. It’s difficult to even imagine the vastly different adolescent landscape that would be created by handing a child a smartphone while they are still in primary school – their lives have never existed offline, or without Snapchat stories, or without YouTube celebrities.  

 

The internet itself is not to blame, however; the problem lies in the unrestricted access to online content that young people with malleable minds and opinions have been given. We, as adults, and especially Millennial adults with a deep understanding of social media and the darker facets of the internet, could have prevented the mentally-damaging rise of beauty filters and influencers who aggressively peddle dangerous, “weight-loss” teas. While society in the 1990s was actively telling girls who weren’t malnourished that they were ‘fat’, post-Noughties society revels in forcing girls to believe that their natural faces can be ‘fixed’ with plastic surgery, Botox, or filler injections. While Norway’s new law which will forbid influencers from posting photos without labelling the edits, filters, or alterations contained within is not a solution to this vast problem, it would appear to be a good start at tackling it.  

 

As a general takeaway from this surface-level discussion, it would appear that there exists a pattern that needs to be broken. Consistently, each generation of girls and young women have been led to believe that some aspect of their physical appearance is inherently flawed. Why are we, as a society, so obsessed with convincing girls that they are broken and that they must drastically alter their body in order to be considered beautiful, or even just pretty? Why do they even need to be objectified and considered good-looking in the first place? The short answer, of course, is patriarchy – there’s a reason why those with the most privilege in society (men) don’t feel the need to view themselves as objects and alter their personhood accordingly. There are always exceptions to rules though, such as men who endanger their health to achieve the perfect, toned body, but this doesn’t discount the fact that it is other men who make them feel pressured to physically appear a certain way. They are victims of the same system.  

 

From the onset of pre-teen years, we are teaching girls to objectify themselves, and social media appears to have intensified this process by flooding each app with ads and beauty filters. There is nothing wrong with filters as a concept but they quickly evolved from giving users cute dog ears into a more sinister feature that completely changes the shape of your face, usually granting the appearance of an altered jaw, blue eyes, and a smaller nose. For obvious reasons, this has sparked conversations about beauty filters and race. What if a girl of colour was playing with these filters on Snapchat or Instagram and in each one, saw her skin and eyes lightened, along with a new, Eurocentric nose. Research has already shown that when used consistently, beauty filters alter our perception of our own appearance over time.  

 

The question that I consistently walk away from this train of thought with is, why are some features seen as undesirable? Our features carry family history, ethnic history, and the beauty of individuality all in one package, but then society turns around and tells us that unless we all look uniform, we are flawed. Perhaps most sickeningly is that what is deemed to be “desirable” changes at the flick of a switch – think of beauty standards shifting from Marilyn Monroe, to Kate Moss, to Kim Kardashian. All of these women possess vastly different physical appearances but at one point or another, everyday women were told that these body types were the most desirable: “you should look like this too.”

 

Perhaps older women find these societal pressures easier to deal with, as they have watched uncontrollable body ‘trends’ come and go with the decades. Needless to say, the pressure for women to look perfect is not confined to any age group, although the youngest girls and women among us are inevitably the most fragile and at risk of being mentally-impacted by society’s harmful messaging. Rather than the fixation upon weight and being “fat” that was prevalent in the 1990s, the current generation are made to feel as though they must always be social media ready. What if you’re out with a friend who wants to post a story on Instagram or Snapchat, but you don’t look your best because your face is bare (see: “natural”) and filters are too obvious? This situation is a nightmare scenario for anyone who feels pressured into curating a perfect image of themselves online. The solution to this, apparently, is to ensure that your appearance is always ready to be posted online, usually by means of seeking cosmetic procedures or semi-permanent treatments.  

 

It may sound like there’s no real escape from the pressure to look a specific way and to have a “trendy” body feature or type. The truth is that women’s bodies are individual and unique, and for most of us, it’s entirely impossible to achieve the coveted “snatched waist.” Oh, and girls aren’t women, they are children. Children who are being institutionalised into viewing themselves as women so that adult beauty standards can be imposed upon them and enforced throughout their lifetime. In the words of Kate Winslet, referring to her own acclaimed role in Mare of Easttown, “There are clearly no filters. She’s a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”

 

 

Featured photo by Priscilla Du Preez

This article was supported by: STAND Opinion Editor Olivia + Programme Assistant Alex

 

Abortion in Europe – is it really accessible?

Abortion in Europe – is it really accessible?

Abortion in Europe – is it really accessible?

female doctor dressed in medical gear
ellen mcveigh

15th July 2021

On 9th June, an open letter calling for the removal of all legal barriers to abortion access from the charity SheDecides was signed by 29 politicians, healthcare and women’s rights activists. The signatories included Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander de Croo, gender and equality ministers from France, Canada and Norway, and international development ministers from Sweden and the Netherlands. The letter called for a push to secure abortion access around the world as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affect women. “Lockdowns and pressures on health services have made it more challenging for women and girls to access essential healthcare services such as contraception, resulting in increased pregnancies and reduced access to abortion – even in countries where the procedure is safe and legal”, the letter stated. As access to abortion service is now superficially available across the island of Ireland, how do these issues play out a bit closer to home?

 

The letter highlighted the fact that even once abortion has been made legal, this does not always translate to it becoming freely accessible. Even when abortion appears accessible on a surface level, unnecessary obstacles can force people into a situation in which abortion is no longer an option. This includes mandatory counselling and waiting periods, lack of access to information and to telemedicine. The letter highlights the added barrier in many countries of anti-choice protestors who harass people seeking abortion services and the fact that many anti-choice groups are also powerful political lobbyists. As well as these more concrete barriers, many people seeking abortions also face huge stigma and discrimination, often exacerbated by ‘chilling effects’ caused by legal obstacles or by lack of accurate information. This idea of stigma and discrimination highlights the core of the SheDecides movement, which is that everyone should have the ability to make their own decisions about their body, and be empowered in these choices. The letter concludes with this statement: “we need a global campaign of factual and unbiased information so women and girls know their rights and have access to accurate information about their healthcare options”.

 

Despite the celebration this May of 3 years since we voted to repeal the 8th Amendment, people are still being forced to travel across the Irish Sea to access services that should be available at home.”

Pregnant people in Ireland know that this is the case. Despite the celebration this May of 3 years since we voted to repeal the 8th Amendment, people are still being forced to travel across the Irish Sea to access services that should be available at home. The Irish Times reported that in 2019 when abortion services became available in Ireland, 375 people travelled to the UK for an abortion. In 2021, even while a global pandemic made travel incredibly difficult, people have been forced to make this terrible journey. Claire Cullen Delsol of Terminations for Medical Reason Ireland (TFMR) told The Irish Times in May 2021 that “we have come across at least 30 people who have been forced to travel during the pandemic. They have to show that letter to strangers, who scrutinise it, asking if their reason for travelling is really essential. There have been women turned away who have had to reschedule and turn back”. Just as the SheDecides letter describes, the travel restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic have compounded the stigma and shame associated with travelling for an abortion, and added extra barriers to the access to abortion in Ireland.

 

In 2021, the promises of accessible abortion in Ireland have still not been fulfilled, and the pandemic has simply highlighted these inequities. The continued criminalisation of medical professionals who provide abortions creates a chilling effect on people who require a termination after 12 weeks, with the majority of those affected being people whose babies have been diagnosed with a severe foetal anomaly. TFMR are calling for the decriminalisation of abortion for medical practitioners, who they suspect are avoiding diagnosing these foetal anomalies for fear of reprisals in this grey legal area. Those who require abortions after the first 12 weeks are subjected to very strict grounds. While many of these are those requiring terminations for medical reasons, these regulations also affect those already most disadvantaged in society already. This could include those with poor access to healthcare, those unable to travel to their nearest abortion provider, younger people, often the very vulnerable people who the repeal campaign had aimed to protect. Geographical access is also spotty, with many maternity units still failing to provide abortion services. In the whole of Sligo, there are no GPs that offer abortion services.

 

According to a recent report sponsored by the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organisation (WHO), “there is an uneven or incomplete geographic coverage of abortion services both in the community and in hospitals, particularly in rural regions and in the west and north of Ireland.” The issue is exacerbated by the current mandatory 3-day waiting period, which for those who find it difficult to travel to access these services, or who did not realise they were pregnant until 10 or 11 weeks, this can sometimes push people over the 12-week limit.

 

North of the border, similar issues persist. Despite abortion services in Northern Ireland being available for just over a year, the lack of an effective strategy from the Department of Health has led to an uneven spread of services across the country. As separate health and social care trusts in NI are currently being forced to regulate their own abortion services, the South Eastern Trust were forced to withdraw these services due to lack of funding. As local abortion services are unavailable for a large proportion of people in Northern Ireland, pressure is being put on health minister Robin Swann to commission abortion services across all HSC trusts.

 

The possibility of accessible abortion services across Ireland was won by years of hard work and passion by grassroots activists, as well as the swathes of people who were forced to tell their difficult personal stories. As we begin to lift out of the pandemic, we cannot ignore the inequalities which this year has made so clear, and we cannot let another year go by without accessible abortion in Ireland.

 

 

Featured photo by JESHOOTS

This article was supported by: STAND Women Editor Ellen + Programme Assistant Alex