Screening of ‘Adult Human Female’
NOTE: Adult Human Female is now available to watch online for FREE! Please do consider making a donation to the filmmakers to help them cover their costs.
David attended the premiere of the film ‘Adult Human Female’ presented by Woman’s Place UK on 12 November. The film mainly consists of of interviews with various gender critical feminists, including Jo Phoenix, Jane Clare Jones, Karen Ingala Smith and Joan Smith among others, plus a few clips of politicians tying themselves in knots when asked to define what a woman is. The feminist interviewees discussed the issues raised for women’s rights by gender ideology and their own experiences in the midst of this storm. They spoke articulately and convincingly and the near-capacity audience responded with both cheers and laughter (at the politicians).
The film covers a broad range of subjects from gender identity theory, prisons & criminal records, GRA reform & the Scottish government to lesbian dating and much more. David recommends you watchthe film, as it covers a lot of ground. The film could definitely have covered even more ground by including the recent pushback against transgender identity as a result of the Keira Bell case, the Forstater trial, the rise of LGB Alliance and JK Rowling‘s continued activism and work.
House of Lords
On 15 November, Chris and David of MACS spoke at the House of Lords as part of the Universal Peace Federation‘s annual commemoration before the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Parliamentary security found the range of MACS postcards to be so subversive that they were confiscated and only returned upon leaving the building – apparently for fear of us changing the minds of some of the male parliamentarians who refuse to engage in the issue of challenging male violence against women. Chris felt that the fact he had brought plenty of copies of the ‘Having a dick doesn’t mean you’ve got to act like one’ postcards tipped the balance.
After listening to the powerful personal testimonies of six female abuse survivors in the committee room, MACS representatives spoke about men’s responsibility to take action to challenge ourselves and other men. The speeches also covered men’s feelings of entitlement and power imbalances, and made links between the equal division and sharing of work in the household to the achievement of respect, equality and justice.
The UK’s ratification (after a delay of seven years) of the Istanbul Convention was discussed, but it was clear that a lot of work has to be done before the ratification will count for anything in practice.
Talk at private boys’ school
On 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Chris and Björn from MACS gave a talk and held a discussion in a private boys’ school, which was attended by boys as well as some visitors from partner schools.
This was the third such event in two years and it was immediately obvious upon arrival that the boys had put in a lot of work since our previous visit. Their ‘feminism society’ has grown significantly to about 30 boys, partly due to increased awareness raising through posters etc and in the meantime had also had a visit from Everyone’s invited. For our visit on the 25th they had sourced a large number of white ribbons from White Ribbon UK, which they as well as the porter who was greeting us was wearing.
Unfortunately attendance that evening was somewhat limited by the fact that England men were playing football in the World Cup, however despite this we had a great discussion with the group of 20+ pupils and staff. Chris gave a talk about the importance of housework and childcare in creating equal relationships and the wider impact this has. We covered areas such as unequal pay, male entitlement, loss of career opportunities, financial dependence and more.
In the discussion following Chris’ talk, we covered a wide range of subjects, including how we could dismantle patriarchal institutions (like the Church) and their influence, the impact of language on equality and how language and history have been shaped by the men who wrote books and histories.
16 days of action
We completed the first week of actions for the 16 days of activism, which included signing petitions, educating ourselves and donating money to women’s charities. There is still a whole week to go, so join in with December’s remaining activities and complete the ones you missed out from November. You can find our suggested actions here.
