Earlier today I broke my Facebook fast to post the article by 18-year-old Jinan Younis about what happened when she tried to start a feminist society at school.
"We were told that our "militant vaginas" were "as dry as the Sahara desert", girls who complained of sexual objectification in their photos were given ratings out of 10, details of the sex lives of some of the girls were posted beside their photos, and others were sent threatening messages warning them that things would soon "get personal".
We, a group of 16-, 17- and 18-year-old girls, have made ourselves vulnerable by talking about our experiences of sexual and gender oppression only to elicit the wrath of our male peer group. Instead of our school taking action against such intimidating behaviour, it insisted that we remove the pictures. Without the support from our school, girls who had participated in the campaign were isolated, facing a great deal of verbal abuse with the full knowledge that there would be no repercussions for the perpetrators.
It's been over a century since the birth of the suffragette movement and boys are still not being brought up to believe that women are their equals. Instead we have a whole new battleground opening up online where boys can attack, humiliate, belittle us and do everything in their power to destroy our confidence before we even leave high school."
Please join me in my outrage by both condemning the school and supporting these young women with gifts of feminist books. I am putting together a package of some Girl God books. I am asking other feminist authors to do the same with their books.
In fact, probably most of us have a few feminist books at home we could donate - or purchase and have sent directly to the girls.
These young women need - and deserve - our full support right now. Please join me in supporting a full-fledged feminist society at their school.
My hope is that one day, every community around the world will have their own feminist society - and it will be both a refuge and center of hope for those who participate.
The address for the school is:
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls
ATTN: Jinan Younis
Cavendish Road,
Bowdon, Altrincham
Cheshire UK
WA14 2NL
If you email me @ tristahendren@gmail.com, I will add your name/book to the list of donors.
Let's overwhelm Jinan and her friends with our love & generosity.
You can read Jinan's full article here.
Brilliant! I am absolutely on board with this. It's appalling that the school has not stood behind these young ladies. They are brave enough to have a voice in a world that still tells young women that it's not cool to be smart, in a world where makeup companies tell them that they need x product to be better looking, where "women's magazines" offer advice on how to pick up men, be themselves, and at the same time tell them that they need a bikini body in time for summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm 29 years old, and i'm so confused by the world. I can only imagine what it's like to be a teen right now.
Thank you so much for your support Erin!
ReplyDelete