There is a lot of debate on Twitter as to whether or not the New Statesman debate at Conway Hall was representative of feminist. Most are shouting no.
And, they are right. You see, I wasn't there and therefore it simply can NOT be representative of feminism or feminists. At least, that seems to be the main criticism by rather a lot of complainers. (In my case, it's clearly true. Without me, it clearly sucked. Well, it may have. I was following via @TheWomensRoomUK who got stuck in Twitter jail for the temerity of having opinions and stuff. I could be wrong but, really, that's just me being modest.)
So, obviously, Helen's number one mistake was not inviting me. You see, my voice is important AND lots of people would pay way more than £5 to hear me speak; certainly enough to cover my expenses. (Helen, for future reference I travel first class by train and prefer to stay at Claridges. I could use a plane but they are such a waste of time standing about in queues at security and arguing with the lost luggage people. Trains are far more civilised.)*
Obviously, having me there would massively increase the representation of feminists. How many Canadian born feminists are there running about Twitter?** Technically I'm middle class due to an unfortunate tendency to have hung out at uni as long as my student loans held out and because of my parents but they grew up WC. Does that change things? I do live in a council flat which must count for something too. We only got central heating last year for Pete's sake.
Helen is being castigated for not representing a full spectrum of feminists which seems a bit odd since I'm fairly sure it was advertised as being a panel of only New Statesman writers and bloggers, which immediately narrows the field. I mean, Helen could have invited me since I've been published in the New Statesman. Probably most people on twitter have not but that could be my ego talking again. It likes to make an appearance every so often. (Between, having a smartphone / laptop with Internet does narrow the number of people you can claim to represent but we all know that. Right?). *** See, Helen's biggest mistake was not inviting Twitter to chose the panel for her. If she had, the event would have been perfect and there would be NO complaints whatsoever. Obviously.
Well, except for those who don't live in London and who wanted to be there. Helen should have personally paid the train fares and hotel bills of everyone who wanted to be there. Heck, she should have offered to put people up in her home. Or, her office. Probably a lot of people could bunk there. Except me, because I would have been at Claridges and I wouldn't have shared. How often do I get to sleep in a bed which isn't invaded by small children or snoring cats? No way would I share. Obviously, though, Helen should have offered to sleep in her own bathtub so another feminist could have her bed.
But, I digress.
Let's be completely honest here: no feminist event could ever represent all of feminism. Most feminist and conferences are London-centric which ignores pretty much the rest of the country. And, London hotels are expensive and train fares exorbitant. A £5 entrance fee does exclude a lot of women but so too does subway fare . Child care precludes other women. Women who work shifts are screwed every which way. These are problems every feminist event has to consider and no one can get it perfect. My biggest problem is that it wasn't live-streamed. I would have loved to have seen it (you know, if Helen selfishly refused to put me up in Claridges for the weekend). I've said this before but frequently it isn't the feminist event itself which is important but the conversation it creates afterwards. NSFem did raise some interesting issues and others were omitted (at least I'm assuming so. Its hard to tell when Twitter keeps putting @TheWomensRoomUK in jail for tweeting, which I had thought was the whole point of twitter. Clearly, I was wrong.)
Instead of trashing #NSFem, how about we engage critically with the event so that The New Statesman makes this an annual event. After all, there can never be too many feminist events.
Or, those trashing could organise their own instead.
*Technically when I pay for myself to attend feminist events in London, I stay at the Travelodge in Slough. It should go without saying that no one should mention this to Helen. I want to stay at Claridges.
** Do feel free not to count the number actually on twitter.
*** In the interests of full disclosure, I have technically only had one blog post cross-posted on the New Statesman website. It was about Megan Fox. They didn't pay me. (Helen, if you're reading this I do accept payment in curly-wurlys.
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