An arti­cle from The Guardian tells us that the num­ber of grass­roots fem­i­nist groups in the UK have dou­bled in the last two years. Yay! These groups are bat­tling the objec­ti­fi­ca­tion of and dis­crim­i­na­tion against women, and appar­ently fill­ing their ranks with young men as well. Well done ladies and gentlemen.

The arti­cle in high­lights a few orga­ni­za­tions that led a protest against sell­ing pornog­ra­phy at eye-level, some of which ended in shop own­ers agree­ing to cover up the images on the mag­a­zines on display.

As 17-year-old Nina Mega from Edin­burgh put it: “Some­times you get the idea that the world is a pretty misog­y­nis­tic place and fem­i­nists are few and far between, but when you see all those like-minded peo­ple together – men and women – you just think: ‘Wow.’”

Nudey mag­a­zines aren’t the only things spurring a call for change in the UK. Also par­tic­u­larly upset­ting to young fem­i­nists is the debate over poten­tial com­pul­sory lessons on absti­nence (only for teenage girls of course) as well as the grow­ing anti-abortion move­ment and the num­ber of women los­ing their jobs (there are twice as many women expected to lose their jobs as men).

A note to Nina: The world is full of misog­yny, but it’s impor­tant that we keep orga­niz­ing and fight­ing, espe­cially as the going gets tough. Right on.

By rachel on April 12, 2012 | Posted in Feminism No comments yet