Equality in an unequal world
“All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.”
Although Orwell was referring more directly to politics,
specifically communism, gender politics is still of huge importance for us
today. I wouldn’t count myself as a ‘burn
your bra’ feminist but I do believe EVERYONE regardless of race, religion,
sexual orientation or gender has the basic human right to be treated with respect
and shown love.
On my Facebook timeline this morning I was drawn to two
posts that both, in different ways, highlight the extreme inequality women
still face with today. One article was written by Ruby Tandoh (1), a
finalist on popular television show Great British Bake Off. She draws on the amount of criticism she and
the other female finalists received in the press and on social media networks. “…there's the broader
background of misogyny and gender politics against which this has all played
out. It's a culture of frilly baking versus macho Michelin stars, of real chefs
versus domestic goddesses. Food has become divided and gendered, torn between
the serious sport of haute cuisine and the supposedly antithetical world of
women pottering around in home kitchens.” Basically women can be home cooks but not
respected chefs. How many female chefs
do you see on cooking programmes? The
women who have been allowed to grace our TV screens with cooking knowledge target
directly at luxurious comfort food, think Nigella Lawson, or simple but showy
entertaining like Lorraine Pascal. I
have scoured the internet in search of any animosity towards last year’s 3 male
finalists and the only ‘negative’ spin I can find is an admission of putting on
4 stone between them while filming, and that was in the Daily Mail! This was
after all an interview and although it could be argued that social media moves
at such a pace that removes any sign of hatred towards last years’ contestants there
is no evidence I can find of the anger and propaganda that has reared its ugly
head this year. Now if a gentile baking
show can attract such feelings amongst the public then what are the real issues
and deep -rooted feelings that are at the heart of our society? Are women still
being treated from a place of patriarchal ideology that has governed history
for so long? Or is it that we are ‘beyond
liberated’ and now seen as fair game? I
wonder that last year’s GBBO contestants were not targeted with such vicious
comments is because 2 of the 3 of them are gay.
I’m not suggesting they should have been the source of abuse, of course no
one deserves such vicious treatment in the media, but it comes to something
when race and sexuality are ‘off-limits’ but gender, and more specifically
females, are exposed to such abuse without protection.
If
you disagree that the sweetness and light of a baking reality TV show can
really exhibit such misogyny then how about the second post I viewed this
morning? A UN ad campaign (2) has used
worrying Google searches to expose what the internet really things about women. And by internet I’m not talking about a
detached non-human form, I’m talking about the person on the train next to you
on your daily commute using Google to hide behind, or the person in the coffee
shop spending time on their smart phone while they wait for their friend. Everybody uses Google. Everybody uses it like an Encyclopaedia these
days. People like the anonymity of it
and sometimes this can be beneficial.
Cue Google search “strange lump on hand” and then follows the decision
about whether seeing a doctor is necessary!
But when Google shows that popular searches following the phrase ‘women
should’ end with “be seen and not heard”, “know their place”, “not wear
trousers” and “not work” we have a problem.
A worldwide problem. Because Google
is a worldwide search engine. It’s not
enough to say that I as a woman am liberated in the country where I live. It’s not enough that I have a right to
express my opinion, that I can wear trousers and that I am able to work. What about the countless women in the world
who can’t do all those things? What about
the women in my country who can’t do all those things? I count myself blessed that I live in a town
and community, supported by a loving husband and family who understand the
value of women. But if we look at the
article again about GBBO then we can see that anti-feminine beliefs and misogyny
are still rife in our country and not ‘just’ an abstract problem removed from
us by geographical location. It’s time
to decide what we, as women AND men of a freely democratic country, are going
to do about this on not just a worldwide scale, but a local one too.
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