We talked at length around our own passions and concerns as feminists and ranged over a broad selection of issues. A decision seemed to emerge that rather than selecting a limited range of issues to concentrate on, we would all start our own research into a variety of different actions that we were individually passionate about and that we would report back to the group on whether there was work that could be done in each area by us as a collective.
One of the first concerns raised came from a report from Radio 4s PM program in which a representative from SPUC (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child) had recently appeared in debate about a controversial leaflet they have distributed to 1,500 doctors' surgeries. The leaflet is called 'Abortion: Your right to know' and is completely untraceable, beyond its front page, on-line. However, Hannah, our resident webwizard, managed to find the notes provided by SPUC for doctors to accompany the leaflet which you can check out here. We spent some time discussing our own attitudes to abortion but were able to agree that an ideologically driven group, promoting risks about abortion that appear to have often very sketchy medical support, were not the best people to be advising women facing the difficult decision of whether an abortion is right for them. As a result Hannah and I are going to take the lead in contacting local surgeries, seeing if we can trace the leaflet there and opening debate with surgeries about whether this leaflet is appropriate for distribution.
Mel talked passionately about her own interest in trying to provide some kind of practical support for women who have suffered abuse or rape and are trying to work their way through the courts. Laura, with her professional knowledge of the problems facing homeless women, was able to bring new understanding to the issue and is going to work with Mel to find out how they can investigate the needs of these women and how we might be able to offer support. Mel spoke about the importance for women facing the court experience to have other impartial women alongside them and hopes to be able to find ways to fill the gaps for support that might exist in the system.
With the approach of the Olympics and the expectation that Ashford might become host to one of the teams we talked about the concerns around increased trafficking that can accompany the expanding demand for the sex industry during these kind of mega events. I'd found a group called Stop the Traffik who are looking for community groups to sign up and work against traffiking in their area. Jo was very interested in the work that we might be able to do alongside Stop the Traffik and has started to look in to how we can affiliate. She has already investigated whether our local Soroptimist group are already involved in this action and should be able to report back on this important issue at the next meeting.
One of the first concerns raised came from a report from Radio 4s PM program in which a representative from SPUC (the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child) had recently appeared in debate about a controversial leaflet they have distributed to 1,500 doctors' surgeries. The leaflet is called 'Abortion: Your right to know' and is completely untraceable, beyond its front page, on-line. However, Hannah, our resident webwizard, managed to find the notes provided by SPUC for doctors to accompany the leaflet which you can check out here. We spent some time discussing our own attitudes to abortion but were able to agree that an ideologically driven group, promoting risks about abortion that appear to have often very sketchy medical support, were not the best people to be advising women facing the difficult decision of whether an abortion is right for them. As a result Hannah and I are going to take the lead in contacting local surgeries, seeing if we can trace the leaflet there and opening debate with surgeries about whether this leaflet is appropriate for distribution.
Mel talked passionately about her own interest in trying to provide some kind of practical support for women who have suffered abuse or rape and are trying to work their way through the courts. Laura, with her professional knowledge of the problems facing homeless women, was able to bring new understanding to the issue and is going to work with Mel to find out how they can investigate the needs of these women and how we might be able to offer support. Mel spoke about the importance for women facing the court experience to have other impartial women alongside them and hopes to be able to find ways to fill the gaps for support that might exist in the system.
With the approach of the Olympics and the expectation that Ashford might become host to one of the teams we talked about the concerns around increased trafficking that can accompany the expanding demand for the sex industry during these kind of mega events. I'd found a group called Stop the Traffik who are looking for community groups to sign up and work against traffiking in their area. Jo was very interested in the work that we might be able to do alongside Stop the Traffik and has started to look in to how we can affiliate. She has already investigated whether our local Soroptimist group are already involved in this action and should be able to report back on this important issue at the next meeting.
Hannah also raised the point that her school is soon to host an 'Any Questions' program and asked whether anyone had any ideas for questions we'd like posed to the panel. Please contact us if you feel there are any questions you think we should be trying to put forward as a group.Laura also reminded us that within the community of Nepalese women who are making homes in Ashford there might be a group that we could look to support through offering conversation classes. I plan on contacting our local assosciation as most of us at the meeting felt we could offer time for conversation classes if this was a gap that might need filling. Please contact us if you are local and feel this is something you could offer support with.
We spoke again about the importance of standing in solidarity with the women who will be worst affected by the programs of cuts that we are still watching develop. Hannah and I are planning on attending the TUC organised mammoth protest against the cuts on the 26th March; any feministas who would like to accompany us on this one please get in touch. With the higher proportion of women who are pensioners, Jo reminded us that cuts to services to pensioners such as meals on wheels will be important issues for feminists that we should be watching carefully in our local communities. We are waiting to hear more about ho the cuts will affect us locally... watch this space.
Finally, we had a discussion about the increased pornification of society and discussed our concerns about the particular pressures on young women to adopt dress styles and cultural poses that are commensurate with the desires of the men they wish to attract. We talked about the 'Liquid' night club in Ashford and the 11-18 'club nights' they hold. While we all understood the exciting and important 'frisson' of these events we were concerned about whether this broad age categorising was potentially dangerous and whether it would be exposing younger girls to the potentially predatory advances of older boys. Hannah and I are going to look into how widespread they are and what controls, if any, are in place to protect young women at these events. We all felt that such events should be split into two age groups and want to look at how we can open discussion about whether this would be more appropriate and a possible alternative.
The meeting was invigorating and stimulating and provided a wonderful space in which a broad range of issues and perspectives were considered. We plan to meet again on Wed 30th March to feed back on any progress we've made in investigating these issues and, hopefully, to meet even more feministas. We really hope we might see you there!
I like being called a WebWizard! Really good summary of what happened. Reminded me of how much we discussed and achieved at the meeting.
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