Friday 23 December 2011

Sexist Breakfast Summary

It's time to end this little project. In a month, I've gone from the steaming mountain of sexist bullshit that is the lack of women's voices in Egypt to the small cowpat of tissue box design. It's been interesting. But, curiosity notwithstanding, this has been the least enjoyable blog I've written. Consequently, it didn't take me long to get from, "oh, for fuck's sake!" to "ah, fuck it."

Usually, I'd just roll my eyes at the sexist thing and get on with my life. But this project has forced me to think about each instance. Mainly, it's underlined again how small things are linked into networks of shittyness.

This wasn't ever going to be a well-balanced blog, apportioning equal time to all facets of feminism. But consuming the news as much as I do on an empty stomach means, I repeat their skew, over and above the one in my head, while I'm actually trying to stay well-informed. So disabled women are more likely to be left out, transgender women, etc.

So news is the one that worries me the most, out of this project. Although the word "children" jumps out of the tag cloud too. I've worked with children and hate these sexist messages are aimed at them, making their lives  unnecessarily difficult.

On the upside, this project has made me more aware of positive things. A photo accompanying an article about programming in schools, that just happens to have three girls and one boy in it. A boy who choses to sometimes play with "girly" toys and is supported in that. And yeah, that old Lego ad from 1981 of a proud girl with her beautiful construction.

I'm choosing to be hopeful. Thank you all for reading and for the conversations. Merry Christmas, everyone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing it. I wouldn't say I've enjoyed it as such(!), but it's been well worth reading.