Bristol Women's Literature Festival: Or, Where Stewie Would Rather Be this Weekend.

(Image from here)

Anyone who is familiar with this blog will know why I'd rather be at the Women's Literature Festival this weekend. A whole weekend dedicated to celebrating women writers and combatting cultural femicide: what's not to love? Unfortunately, and after consulting several maps, I am led to believe that Bristol is located not only nowhere near my house but also not on a single non-environmentally destructive form of public transport. (sulks)

Anyway, for those of you lucky enough to live in Bristol or within traveling distance, do check it out. The whole weekend looks fabulous.

The information below is taken directly from the Women's Literature Festival website:

Bristol Women’s Literature Festival brings together the country’s best women writers, academics and feminist commentators to the Watershed for a weekend of thought-provoking discussion, debate and activity.

Buy your tickets for the festival today.

The festival has three aims:

1. To celebrate the diversity and creativity of women writers
2. To counter the male dominance of literature and cultural festival line-ups
3. To promote women’s writing and literary history

Across the weekend of 16th-17th March, we’ll be hosting three panel discussions at the Watershed, along with a talk and film screening:

Out of the Ivory Tower: writing feminism for a non-academic audience

Women’s Writing today: contemporary women writers discuss their fiction

Bluestockings and Muses: a history of women’s writing

Bringing women’s issues to a mainstream TV audience + film

The Bristol Women’s Literature festival is entirely unfunded. If you would like to support this event, then please donate to us via the PayPal donate button.

Tickets still available!

Tickets have been going as fast as hot cakes and as a result Watershed has moved Saturday’s talks to a bigger room. Isn’t that great news? So if you’ve been worrying about getting tickets worry no more. We advise booking in advance to avoid disappointment but you are still probably fine to buy on the door. 

You can book your tickets by calling 0117 927 5100 or going online to Watershed. 

Book for Feminism on the Small Screen

Book for Women Writing Today

Book for Bluestockings and Muses

Book for Out of the Ivory Tower

So, what will you be booking?

A weekend ticket is available if you want to catch all four fascinating talks – to order yours just call  Watershed on 0117 927 5100 or go directly to the Box Office.

If you would like to hear renowned screenwriter Emilia di Girolamo talk about her career writing for Law and Order:UK and dramas like The Poison Tree, and how she brings women’s issues to a primetime audience you can book online now. Her talk takes place on 16 March, 11am along with a screening of Line Up.

To hear Stella Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Beatrice Hitchman and Selma Dabbagh read from their work and talk about Women Writing Today with Bidisha, you can book online now. They’ll be on at 3.30pm on Saturday 16th March.

Then, there’s Sunday. To book your tickets to discover the fascinating and often hidden history of women’s literature with Kate Williams, Dr Charlotte Crofts, Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts, Professor Joan Adim-Addo and Professor Helen Taylor, you can go online now. This talk is happening at 2pm on Sunday 17 March.

And the festival finishes with a discussion on how writers today are bringing feminism to a new audience with Kristin Aune, Debi Withers and Josephine Tsui. Book your ticket now for 4pm on Sunday 17 March.

Individual tickets are £7/£6 and weekend tickets are £25/20. You can book via Watershed website or by calling the Box Office on 0117 927 5100

Book for Feminism on the Small Screen

Book for Women Writing Today

Book for Bluestockings and Muses

Book for Out of the Ivory Tower

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A Bunch of Men Were Asked to Leave A Movie.

UPDATE: There appears to have been some quite serious inaccurate representations in the Comment is Free article written by Marta Owczarek. I wrote this post based on the information in the article, as such, there are some inaccurate statements within my post concerning what actually happened after the premier of Myriam Fougere's Lesbiana - A Parallel Revolution. I was going to take down the entire blog post but I've decided to leave it up because it provoked some interesting discussion about the inclusion of men in women-only spaces. As such, this should be treated as a theoretical piece and not a representation or summation of what occurred at the London Feminist Film Festival.

UPDATE TWO: What Julia Long Actually Said:“I just wonder if there are any men that would like to show their solidarity and leave at this point, out of respect for autonomous women’s space. It’s a polite invitation, but I just thought you might like to consider it, as political allies. Thank you.” 
[Cheers and applause.] 

Julia Long's response in the Guardian Cif.

I offer my sincere apologies to Julia Long for misrepresenting what happened in the blog post below. I am sorry.

The London Feminist Film Festival took place last weekend at the Hackney Picture House. By all accounts, it was incredibly successful event with the premier of Myriam Fougere's Lesbiana - A Parallel Revolution selling out. Considering the amount of press the death of feminism has garnered recently, the success of the London Feminist Film Festival is something to celebrate. Not that feminism is actually dying; 10 minutes on google would be evidence enough of the strength and sisterhood within the feminist movement, but it is an accusation frequently thrown at feminists.

After the premier of Myriam Fougere's Lesbiana - A Parallel Revolution, panel member and feminist activist Julia Long asked all the men in the audience to leave so that women could discuss the movie, a film about the lesbian separatist movement, without men. Now, I wasn't there but I can imagine the uproar this caused. Excluding men from feminist events always causes an uproar. But, no one ever seems to ask why feminists are excluding men from *some* feminist events. No one asks why feminists are moving back to women-only organising or why feminists are increasingly identifying as political lesbians or lesbian separatists. Why are women-only spaces, once again, becoming so important? No one asks why there is such a backlash to the thought of women-only organising. When people do ask, they don't appear to be hearing the answer.

Marta Owczarek, in her Comment is Free article, claims that Julia Long derailed feminist debate about the film by asking men to leave. I would argue the exact opposite. Julia Long used a public platform to make a specific political point. She raised the issue of women-only spaces for organising and debating feminism at the premier of a film which is specifically about lesbian women choosing to live amongst only women. I can't think of a more appropriate place to push the debate back into the public sphere and, make no mistake, this debate has always been a part of feminism. It has never gone away. It has only reemerged in the press due to the backlash to the RadFem 2012 conference in London in June. It has never stopped being a contentious issue amongst feminists. It has never stopped being something for feminists are routinely ridiculed and belittled. 

I support women-only spaces. I think they remain fundamental to the success of feminism as a political movement dedicated to the liberation of women. Whilst the inclusion of men within the movement is necessary, they do not need to be involved at every meeting and conference. There are thousands of ways that men can be, and are, involved with feminist activism that doesn't require them encroaching on women-only spaces. They can help financially support women's organisations like Rape Crisis, Shakti Women's Aid, Women's Aid, Nia, or Southall Black Sisters. Men can join activist groups like Object, UK Feminista, Fawcett Society, and Abortion Rights. Men can fundraise by holding car washes and bake sales. They can join the White Ribbon Campaign and help to raise awareness about male violence against women and children.

The most important thing men can do to help the feminist movement is to challenge sexism every time they witness it. They have to challenge every rape joke. They have to challenge every man who minimises domestic violence. They have to step up every time; not just once in a while but every time they witness sexism. Sometimes this means they have to challenge themselves and recognise that their own behaviour is sexist. Sometimes it means accepting that they won't be allowed into every feminist space. As a white, heterosexual feminist it would be hypocritical of me to demand to be allowed into feminist spaces for Black, Ethnic and Minority Women. It would be equally hypocritical for me to demand entry into a feminist space for lesbians-only; just as it would be hypocritical for me to demand entry into a room of male survivors of sexual violence or testicular cancer. Campaigning for women's liberation to bring about the destruction of the capitalist-patriarchy and the creation of true equality does not mean every person deserves equal access. It means hearing the specific needs of specific groups and taking those into account. Like kindergarten, it's about learning fairness.

We need men in the feminist movement. We need men like the teenage boy I met at a UK Feminista conference in London two years ago who entered into a group on women's poverty and listened; a young man who asked thoughtful questions and then heard the answers. He participated as an equal instead of dominating the discussion. Male domination of public speech has been well proven in research for thirty years now. Dale Spender wrote about it in The Writing of the Sex? in 1989. Margaret Atwood wrote about men dominating classrooms in early 1980s. There have been countless studies in education and within the workplace that demonstrate the silencing of women's voices within the presence of men. The largest global study on violence against women found that it  was the feminist movement which had the biggest impact on tackling the issue; much of this was accomplished with women-only spaces. 

Would have I done what Julia Long did? No, but not because I disagree with her, rather because I would have been too afraid to speak up; too afraid of the inevitable backlash. And, that's the main reason why I believe women-only spaces are integral to the feminist movement. The silencing of women's voices never stops. Sometimes the only way to stop the silencing is to uninvite men and that's the lesson men need to take from this. If they insist on attending, whose voices are they really  silencing?

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