We are lucky enough to be able to host some amazing photos of Million Women Rise, taken by the very talented Rowan Fulton (who is also very lovely). Do enjoy the photos, and do also please consider writing to the major newspapers, who once again completely failed to highlight Million Women Rise. Whilst this does mean we get to host some excellent photos, I would much rather be seeing them in the paper, highlighting our cause!

All photos are Copyright of Rowan Fulton, Photographer

One of the constant bug bears of my feminist identity is how often I have received criticism for not only BEING a Feminist, but for being a YOUNG Feminist  and for how I ‘do’ my feminism. For years, I was afraid to identify myself as a feminist- I’d been told too many times I couldn’t be one- I was too young, too poor, too badly educated, too married (yes, married feminists in fact, do not exist /snark), I had children and horror of horrors, I had changed my name upon marriage.

It took a long time, reading The F Word and having a Feminist professor at college for me to ‘come out’ as a card carrying member of the sisterhood. So, it grates upon me even more now, when Second Wavers tell me I’m doing it all wrong and ‘that’s not what it’s about’ or my particular favourite- ” Speaking as the senior feminist” as if Feminism has some form of hierarchy and I’m a mere underling on the belly of the movement. Generally I get quite narked. And that is the polite version!

I’m all for recognizing and remembering the work of feminists who have gone before. I am all for celebrating the achievements of women who have been activists before myself and the generation of Third Wavers, to which I belong. I wouldn’t for a second want to undermine the hard work, and struggle that those women put in, or the things they achieved.

But in the same way that I wouldn’t be rude to Gloria Steinem for being older than me, or for having been part of the movement at a time that has a different political consciousness to the consciousness it has now, I don’t expect to have ‘Senior Feminists’ being rude to me because I’m only 25, or because I was married, or because I’m a mother, or because I like the idea of getting married again and taking his name. My feminism is not the same as anyone else’s feminism, but I do share with everyone from the most radical to the most liberal, a recognition that women are treated as second class citizens in this world, that this state of affairs is entirely wrong and I work alongside other women and pro feminist men, to put an end to that, just the same as every other feminist out there, regardless of hir age, gender, class, colour, orientation of religious beliefs.

Regardless, of the fact that I am a fellow feminist and activist, I am also a human being, as is every other young/third wave feminist and we don’t deserve to be patronised or spoken down to just because we aren’t second wavers, and we weren’t at Greenham Common/ Vietnam Peace Marches/ The Original Reclaim the Night Marches.

Bearing that in mind, I exhort, every Second Wave or ‘older’ feminist to think before she chastises a younger feminist for having a Pro Girlie attitude, or for being young, or getting married, or for choosing to change her name in an informed and thoughtful way. I ask Second Wavers to recognise that as technology and the world has moved forward and amalgamated new cultural expressions, so has the feminist movement. Women who are Third Wave activists will have a totally different cultural and political consciousness and experience to Second Wave activists. It doesn’t make us wrong, it makes us products of our time and experiences.

I would finally salute the women who have marched before us, who made zines, and boycotted goods, who held consciousness raising groups, who fought for a women’s right to choose, for us to not be raped or beaten by our husbands or partners and have it condoned in law. I recognise and celebrate your achievements. All I ask, is that you have the courtesy to do the same for us.

My history of utilising protest as a form of political action is quite frankly pants. It’s only in the last year that I’ve had the confidence to even contemplate going on marches and each time I’ve tried nothing has quite worked – RTN London 07 I was ill and couldn’t march, Million Women Rise 08 I injured my ankle two days before the event and couldn’t walk for three months never mind march, RTN Oxford 08 my friend and I got the date entirely wrong and took our kids to the fireworks display only to turn up the following evening and realise we had the date wrong.

So I was pretty determined to make RTN London 08. And make it I did, and so did the 1,999 other women who gathered in Whitehall Place yesterday evening to remind London that violence against women still happens and it’s still shouldn’t be.

The march was, in a word, amazing!! Everyone was really happy, the chanting was great, there was singing, the public seemed generally supportive and I got to meet some really nice people.The only downsides for me really was the random guy who accused us of ‘demonising gender’ and the conflict between the sex workers rights group and the rest of the marching body.

Whilst I am strongly in favour of sex workers rights and am pro porn I do think that a march which is highlighting the need for an end to VAW is not the place for this conflict to be played out. I don’t know though, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a sex worker and thus have no subjective understanding of the need for sex workers rights, but I am deeply conflicted about where I stand on the tension that occurred on Saturday night.

Ending VAW is a massively important issue. 8 out of 10 women will experience sexual violence in their lifetime¹  and in the UK 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes and on average 2 women are killed a week by their former/current partner. Internationally VAW accounts for between 40- 70% of female homicide victims. This is in comparison to the figure for men which is 4-8% ². These figures for me indicate that this is a serious problem – and it’s something we need to do something about, whether that be by taking part in marches to highlight the issue or by fundraising for women’s shelters, rape crisis centres or otherwise.

On a person al note I’d like to say thanks to Louise and her husband for helping me GET to the march. I have issues with agrophobia- whilst I’m generally quite comfortable travelling on ‘known’ routes around my hometown or with my partner/friends, going to London on my own to places I am unfamiliar with is a real issue for me. Thanks are definately due to Louise and Matt for being supportive by text and for meeting me in Trafalgar Square and showing me where the march was and then introducing me to people so I didnt feel quite so ‘ARGHHHHHHH’ about the whole thing.

I’ll definitely be going to RTN next year…. and other accounts of the march can be found here, here and here .

¹Taken from Liz Kelly’s book ‘Surviving Sexual Violence

²From the Womens Aid website

http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic_violence_topic.asp?section=0001000100220036&sectionTitle=Statistics