WUNRN
DENMARK - LAUNCH OF EVERYDAY SEXISM
PROJECT
11 September 2013 - The Danish branch of The Everyday Sexism Project was launched on August 08 2013. Already over 300 women have contributed to the site with their s,tories. The site serves a catalogue of documenting the ways women experience sexism on daily basis.
(10 September) The spokeswomen behind the site, journalist Irene Manteufel and Ulla Tornemand, Vice-President of the Danish Women’s Society, say: “Basically, everyday sexism is anything from personal experiences with rape, rape threats, objectification, sexualization or just misogynistic comments in a discussion, to feeling humiliated when facing yet another newspaper story with a misogynistic angle or looking at yet another commercial with stereotypes of objectified women”.
The Everyday Sexism Project Denmark (E.S.P) consists of the website danmark.everydaysexism.com, where you can tell your experience on sexism anonymously, and a Facebook group. It’s a closed Facebook group, where all potential members are screened to make sure that this Facebook group is a safe and secure place to share experiences with sexism.
Irene Manteufel says on some of the impact the project has: ‘The Everyday Sexism Project Denmark has already lead to changes for some of the participants from the Danish Facebook group because the members encourage each other to challenge the sexist behaviour they meet. For example: a woman has confronted a co-worker at her workplace with good result. Another has written a letter to her trade journal about the gender stereotyping that is reproduced by the journal. Others confront friends about sexist behaviour react to gender-stereotyping in schools or sexist commercials. All with ongoing support from the group”’
The intentions and hopes for the site
“We hope to reach a point where we can publicly present such a big and wide range of the documentation that no one will ever try to deny the existence of sexism, or the impact it has on women’s lives and feelings every day from a very early age. We hope this documentation will open people’s eyes and create a movement toward a cultural change" says Ulla Tornemand, and she continues: “If women complain about incidents of sexism, they often face comments like “It’s just you being sensitive”, “Well, get over it” or “You sound like an angry, boring old feminist”, “It was a joke, don’t you have a sense of humour?” With E.S.P., everyone can see it’s not about individual “problems.” We figured the project would be just as needed in Denmark, and so far that seems correct: The Facebook group is a very lively base for continuous discussions and reflections among the 336 members, and on the website we already gathered 45 full pages of contributions in only one month”.
Irene Manteufel elaborates: “We hope that everyone who has something to contribute, will be aware that the site exists, and find the courage that it often takes to contribute. Furthermore it is our hope that this project will result in change. That it’ll change the way we treat each other and that, in time, it’ll lead to a higher degree of gender equality.
Facts The Everyday Sexism Project (E.S.P.) was started in Britain in April 2012 by Laura Bates [1], and during the first year was able to present 30.000 contributions from women about all sorts of experiences with sexism. 16 other countries have launched their own branches of E.S.P. in cooperation with the British headquarters, and working with the same goals, guidelines and definitions of sexism. Danish Women’s Society is a member of the Women’s Council Denmark, member of the European Women’s Lobby.
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Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
ListServe
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 6:13 PM
Subject: Everyday Sexism Project
WUNRN
EVERYDAY SEXISM PROJECT
Welcome to the everyday sexism project. It seems to be increasingly difficult to talk about sexism, equality and women’s rights in a modern society that perceives itself to have achieved gender equality. In this ‘liberal’, ‘modern’ age, to complain about everyday sexism or suggest that you are unhappy about the way in which women are portrayed and perceived renders you likely to be labelled ‘uptight’, ‘prudish’, a ‘militant feminist’, or a ‘bra burner’.
The Everyday Sexism project aims to take a step towards gender equality, by proving wrong those who tell women that they can’t complain because we are equal. It is a place to record stories of sexism faced on a daily basis, by ordinary women, in ordinary places. To show that sexism exists in abundance in the UK workplace and that it is very far from being a problem we no longer need to discuss. To provoke responses so numerous and wide-ranging that the problem becomes impossible to ignore. To report the way you have been treated, even if it has not been taken seriously elsewhere. To stand up and say ‘this isn’t right’, even if it isn’t big or outrageous or shocking. Even if you’ve got used to thinking that it is ‘just the way things are’.
Women who complain about disrespectful comments being made to female members in the House of Commons are accused of ‘overreacting’, yet only 22% of MPs are female. Those who object to the sexist portrayal of women in the media are branded ‘killjoys’, yet nearly 70% of speaking parts in Hollywood films are taken by men, (though female characters are five times more likely to strip down to sexy clothing.) Women who object to the over-sexualisation of female celebrities are told ‘it’s a choice’, yet it is almost impossible to think of a modern female singer who hasn’t bared all. Women are told that modern ‘equality’ means career girls can have their cake and eat it, yet only around 13% of FTSE 100 corporate board members are female.
We are encouraged to celebrate the advance of women into the cockpit, yet Ryanair still releases an all-female nude calendar and Virgin flight attendants go to work every day on a plane emblazoned with a cleavage baring, swimsuit clad caricature. We simply aren’t living in an equal society, but we are blasted for ‘whining’ or ‘not knowing how lucky we are’ if we try to point it out.
So please, send me your stories. Send other people to send me their stories. Send me your Nan’s story, your sister’s story or your best friend’s. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you believe in. If you have experienced sexism, just everyday, small, so-used-to-it-you-almost-just-accept-it sexism, please share your story so we can prove how widespread the problem really is. And nobody will be able to say we can’t talk about it anymore.
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European Women's Lobby
Website Link Includes Video.
Everyday Sexism
Project
(Brussels
4 June 2013) The Everyday sexism project, started by Laura Bates after her
experience of sexual assault, has exploded online. By inviting women to share
their stories of sexual assault, harassment, she is reversing the trend of
women staying silent about these events. Speaking out, shouting back, women
from across the world are sharing the ‘little’ stories that they previously
have kept to themselves. Shouting about the injustices, the indignities and the
lack of support from people when these women and girls first spoke out, the
everyday sexism project is gathering all of these stories. They’re not isolated
random incidents. They are the expression of sexism and are things we must
speak out against and stop.
A true social media phenomenon, messages recounting tales come in every second from across the globe. To follow, please go to Twitter and use the hashtag #everydaysexism
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