focus group 19th october dvd launch 24th...
TRANSCRIPT
October 2016
Edited by Ciara McGowan
STAMP has had a very busy summer. Recruitment of new members from both Holy
Cross school in Hamilton and from Calderglen school in East Kilbride has been ongoing.
A summer school was implemented with media co-op, where our own digital campaign-
ing materials were created, to share online. The documentary showcasing the work that
STAMP has completed since the beginning of the project demonstrates the improved
confidence and prospects of the members and the hopes and aspirations for how the
project will grow.
The members of STAMP are very proud of their achievements, and the documentary will
be launched at a special event in November, as part of the 16 Days of Action to Eliminate
Violence Against Women! Please follow our social media to find out more.
Members have also attended the Standing Safe Campaign, where they will be working
with the University of the West of Scotland to educate students about the issue of con-
sent. This is a mentorship programme where students will lead workshops on consent to
other students. Our members aim to have an input in this training.
STAMP is also currently conducting a survey to explore young people’s experiences of
gender stereotyping and harassment in schools, the findings of which will be published
before the end of this year (2016).
Results of the survey will be utilised to develop & deliver teacher training which high-
lights the issues experienced by school students. The link to this survey is on page 4.
There are some interesting and informative articles in this issue, including a review of
the Sims 4 game, discussion about compulsory heels in work for women and a member’s
article nominated for the Write to End VAW Awards named ‘Indebted women’.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Focus Group
19th October
DVD Launch
24th November
One of the digital campaigning imag-
es we created at summer school
This summer at STAMP, we had the exciting opportunity to attend a 4 day summer school with Media-Co-op where we learned that by utilising the power of social media alongside our own creativity we can help STAMP in evolving to a point in which can make our big hopes about the direction of the project become a reality. The main goal of the summer school was for us to learn as a group how to use social media effectively.
Before the summer school started, I was unsure what to expect. It sounded almost too good to be true in a sense – spending time with other members of the group and learning some really cool new skills for a few days. But it was exactly that – and more. On the first day of the summer school, we brainstormed our ideas and hopes for the project. We spoke about how we wanted to share our message of breaking gender stereotypes in a way that would hopefully attract some more like-minded people and help the campaign to continue growing. The following three days, we learned how to use the different technology to record our message in different ways. We used animation applications to create short animations about things like dress code and double standards. We thought these appli-cations would be a good tool to utilise in the future to deliver our message in a different way! We also created small, digital posters about important issues like gender
STAMP SUMMER SCHOOL
stereotypes, which we have began to share on our Facebook page. We thought these were a great, snappy way of raising awareness of some otherwise tough sub-jects. For a great majority of the summer school, we focused on filming a short documentary about the campaign and the work that we do. We learned how to work the recording equipment and had responsibility of the general ideas and script. The skills we learned in recording the documentary were amazing as they’re not just cool, but transferable and we know that we could use them in the future to widen our outreach. Recently the final edit of the documentary was shown to us and the sense of achieve-ment watching It back was unbelievable. I can’t wait for our social media followers and the world to see all the work that we did during that week, and the work we continue to do in combating gender ste-reotypes!
By Erin Slaven
Suzanne, Erin, Shelley
and Emma brain-
storm ideas for cam-
paigns
Morgan and Gabby
create digital shara-
ble material.
Erin and George get
to grips with the cam-
era equipment
SIMS 4 GENDER UPDATE
If you grew up in the past last two decades you probably already heard of The Sims. I always loved to explore a world beyond the computer screen and create a character who is a true sprawl of my imagination. Now with a new free update the fourth game in the series, Maxis developers have made the very positive amendment which means Sims are no longer restricted to gender norms.
The update allows a sim to be no longer bound to their social constructs, like it was-n’t in the first place. In fact, in The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff game designers allowed children to wear any outfit they wanted from a dress-up box, such as princess or a dinosaur. Since the dawn of The Sims in the year 2000 same-sex relationships have always been existent in game, it is almost like EA games just brushed this off with no fear of controversy.
The new update allowed gamers to make their Sims have a masculine or feminine body or clothing preference. There is also a chance to allow both men and women to choose to become pregnant and even the option to go to the toilet standing or sitting.
The new increment fell in line with the current debate of gender neutral bathrooms, revealing The Sims 4 developers at Maxis strongly support this cause. As well as this, pride month is taking place furthering support for those in the LGBTQIA+ commu-nity. The patch definitely gives those who are gender neutral/fluid, transgender or questioning a comforting impact to extend their lifestyle into gameplay. Most im-portantly it gives many others a better understanding of gender who are maybe una-ware towards this, especially the younger generation who the game is targeted for. The feature also just makes the game more enjoyable as it expands upon the “sandbox” idea the game is going for.
The game is very progressive as LGBT+ themes are often discarded. In popular games characters are often tied down to their stereotypes such as over-sexualised females and hyper-aggressive males found in games such as Grand Theft Auto, in-stead, The Sims offers gamers the option to make their own protagonist (or antago-nist seeing as how the game holds no boundaries). One other game that has explored LGBT+ themes is The Last of Us: Left Behind, where Ellie, a teenager in a post-apocalyptic zombie driven world, finds love with another girl. This can be truly re-freshing to see and really inspiring as it can reach a very large fan base.
However, there has been backlash towards this, Russia have chosen to give the game an 18+ rating, due to their anti-LGBT+ laws as they find this game is “harmful” to-wards the people in their country. Some YouTube gamers have also criticised the game by calling it a “stupid update” and others making a spoof/funny video of it which is rather triggering towards those in the community. Also some comments that have been deemed irre-sponsible have been removed from forums.
However, the games update has seen huge support overall from its fans, to ensure this The Sims developers consulted GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to see that this update was extremely respectful, it surely was as it has increased awareness of androgyny and gender, this move may truly be an autograph for the LGBT+ community in the gaming world
STAMP survey about gender
stereotypes and harassment
can be found here:
https://
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/
r/Q7CPKL2
Anyone attending school in
Lanarkshire can participate.
Double Crossed Clothing
created a fantastic fundrais-
ing t-shirt! You can pur-
chase yours for £15 here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/
listing/455420670/not-your
-gender-stereotype-t-shirt-
for?
ref=shop_home_active_2
St John Ogilvie School cre-
ated the ‘STAMP award’ for
students at the school par-
ticipating in our project!
Members collect their award from
MSP Mark McDonald
George Thorogood
Life’s too short to wear high heels
Nicola Thorp is a young woman from London who was delighted when she was employed as a receptionist at an accountancy firm. She turned up for her first day, reporting for a busy nine hour long shift in which she would be escorting clients to meeting rooms and would be on her feet for the entirety of the shift. However, when Ms Thorp turned up to her new workplace, she was told to go home without pay. That is unless she changed her flat, formal shoes for a pair of high heels between two and four inches high. Nicola Thorp told her new employers that she did not want to wear high heels, preferring the comfort and practicality of her smart, flat shoes. She was ridiculed for this remark. (1)
The insistence of employers for women to wear heels at work is immoral and unethical. There are real health hazards when it comes to wear-ing high heels for a long period of time. A bio-mechanics expert form Leeds University says: ‘the joints of the feet can be damaged by wear-ing high heels and this can cause some forms of arthritis’. He also states that the regular use of high heeled shoes can damage the knee joints, increasing the likelihood of developing osteoar-thritis which is the degeneration of joint carti-lage and the underlying bone. In addition, peo-ple who experience problems with their lower back are at increased risk of slipped vertebrae. The vertebrae are the series of small bones which make up the backbone so any damage to these would be excruciating. Furthermore, the College of Podiatry has issued a warning to em-ployers. This warning highlights that forcing women to wear high heels at work can result in the women facing back problems, ankle sprains, tight calves and bunions (a painful swelling on the joint of the big toe). (1) So with the vast selection of formal, elegant and work-appropriate flat shoes, how is it fair to subject women to the real dangers and life altering con-sequences of wearing high heels regularly at work?
Nicola Thorp is not the only woman who had been distressed by the oppressive uniform poli-cies for women in the workplace. Carla Baird was also told to wear high heels between two and four inches high at her reception job for a Leeds law firm. Ms Baird had a note from a medical professional excusing her from wearing heels due to her knee and ankle problems. She said that the firm now reluctantly allow her to wear flat shoes. Many other women also say they have been forced to wear high heeled shoes to work, including one woman who was nine months into her pregnancy. Ms Baird was also perturbed by the other uniform policies for women which state that ‘women must wear a minimum amount of makeup and wear their hair in a style deemed appropriate’. (3) Not only must women put up with high heels but now also have their decisions on whether or not to wear makeup and how to wear their hair tak-en away from them.
Over six in ten women wear cosmetics daily to work. This means UK women spend on average 474 days in their lifetime applying makeup and approximately £9,525 on cosmetics in their lifespan. However, 75% of women say they wear makeup for themselves, with only 3% say-ing they feel obliged to apply cosmetics. This is a positive statistic as the use of makeup should be entirely up to a woman’s preference and ‘slut-shaming’ for the use of cosmetics is completely unacceptable. Although, when one considers younger girls and women, over 30% feel pres-sured to wear makeup and the average age at which girls start to use beauty products is elev-en. This is disturbing as it illuminates the type of standards set by the media and also by em-ployers. Women are expected to wear cosmet-ics to work and young women hoping to enter into the job market feel the intense pressure to wear an ‘acceptable’ amount of makeup. Fur-thermore, 44% of women say they experienced negative emotions when going makeup free and admit that their main reason for wearing makeup is to feel more confident within them-selves. (2) This encapsulates society’s demand that a woman who is appropriately dressed for work has a Barbie doll complexion, teetering in high heels. This, quite frankly, is sickening.
It is a woman’s choice to wear high heels to work – it is not a policy. Some women say they feel empowered by high heels and some find a small heel on a shoe more comfortable than a shoe that is completely flat. This is understand-able and if a woman wishes to wear high heels to the workplace then that is completely her decision. However, by making high heeled shoes a compulsory piece of uniform, employers are oppressing women and violating their rights. They are hindering our struggle for gender equality. They are putting the health of female employees at risk and hinder-ing their ability to do their jobs by inflicting severe pain on them. Nicola Thorp refused to be subjected to wearing high heels and was sent home without pay. Ms Thorp then started a petition to end the obligatory wearing of high heels in the workplace after her ordeal. To date, Ms Thorp’s petition has garnered over 100,000 signatures. (4) This means that there is a strong chance that MPs will debate this issue in parliament. It is about time. After all, life’s just too short.
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36265545
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zx8rsg8
3.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36268705
4.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36278641
Katie Davies
Gender Equality
Achievements
The proposed abortion ban
in Poland was overturned
after women come in thou-
sands to protest.
Women have taken to Twit-
ter this week to highlight
how harmful Donald
Trump’s recent comments
are on sexual assault.
Oppression. What do women owe the world? It is in-
stilled into us from a young age that finding yourself
in financial debt is dangerous and scary. We are ad-
vised to avoid borrowing large sums of money, cau-
tioned about high interest rates and told to steer clear
of store credit cards. However, the real tragic debt is
the alleged debt of women. There is a growing per-
ception that the women of the world owe the world
something more than money. Their bodies, their
identities, their ideas. In a society were the man is
still often recognised as the “breadwinner” it still ap-
pears to be the women that find themselves trapped
in the red at the hand of the rest of the world.
Bodies. At which point in the cycle of life did our bod-
ies change from being ours to being objects owed out
to men? So our skirt might be short and our shoul-
ders might be bare so this means that we owe you
compensation. That we have to pay for revealing our
skin to men who can’t control their thoughts. Even in
schools we are cautioned about the clothes we should
wear, a place were you are meant to feel protected
and safe yet are warned to dress with care so to avoid
the distraction and tempting of the deluded who
think they have rights to your body.
Advertisement. Companies are tactical with the
presentation of their products making them seem ap-
pealing to the consumer. When did the body of the
female become a crucial component in the sales of
food and drink and clothing? These products are of
disposable use and to correlate this with the temple of
the female body is objectification. Food and drink are
easily accessed and can be consumed by all – our
body isn’t of the same nature and it isn’t owed to the
consumer, sucked in by advertisements covered in
the chests and legs of a female.
Identity. Women are slotted into categories. Straight/
Gay/Bisexual, Virgin/Slut. But why do we have to
confine ourselves into restrictive categories? So we
can be categorised based on appeal or fetish by the
society which so desires the capital of our autonomy?
It is ironic how we are quick to be slotted into these
labels by men who think they can be the one person
to change it all for say a virgin or a lesbian, but these
same people do not hesitate to use terms like slut as a
weapon against females who don’t comply with their
misguided ideas about what is owed to them by wom-
en.
Liberty. What does the world owe women? The world
owes women the right for all to vote equally in Brit-
ain. It owes the mothers, sisters, aunts and grand-
mothers to their children. It owes women many of the
engineers and mechanics in World War 1 and 2 and it
owes them their roles in conflicts not just on the bat-
tlefield but closer to home. The world should admire
with pride the strong role of the woman in the ac-
countability this damaging society. It should never be
forgotten that when the bailiffs of such an oppressive
and intimidating society come knocking, claiming a
tab has been run up for your body and your identity,
that the worth of your self is priceless and it is owed
to nobody but yourself.
Indebted Women
By Erin Slaven
Dita Von Teese advertising water. Google images.
GET INVOLVED
You can write articles or blog
pieces for us, you can help to
edit our newsletter or you can
come along and interview
role models fighting for
gender equality.
To learn more, or to attend
our latest focus group please
send an email to:
Follow us on our social
media pages
@lrccstamp
LRCC STAMP
Lanarkshire Rape Crisis
Centre
Hamilton
ML3 6DA
Office: 01698 3527006
Email:
If you have been affected by any form of gender
based violence and would like support, please
contact our helpline on 01698 527003, or the
national helpline on 08088 01 03 02, open every
day from 6pm - midnight