General News Feminist tshirts made via exploitation of women

If you didn't see the news last week, the UK Priminister David Cameron was widely branded a misogynist and anti-feminist by the media for declining to wear a "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" for a photoshoot for a UK fashion magazine. A member of the opposition (Harriet Harmen) even breached the parliamentary dress code to mock the PM (see here).

Ironically it turns out today that the tshirts are actually being made in sweatshops where female workers are allegedly being paid just 62 pence an hour (99cents) Feminist t-shirts worn by Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg allegedly made by women in poverty - Telegraph

Now its true a sizeable amount of clothes are produced in these methods, but you would expect a group like the Fawcett Society to do their research on this. It is extremely hypocritical and in rather bad taste to have that slogan on a tshirt made in such a manner. Personally I think its time to move away from these rather vapid social media publicity stunts and focus on real action. Simply putting on a tshirt does not make you a feminist, and as proved above it may be doing more harm than good.

 

Just something more concrete than vapid social media campaigning and slogan tees. I could go out on the streets and tell 1000 people that "this is what a feminist looks like" - would it in any way shape or form have helped better the life of a single woman out there be it in the developed or developing world? Not at all. At best I might have a few people think "fair enough", at worst I'd have a lot of people thinking "what a prick, I'm not a feminist then!" (more likely).

It reminds me of the Kony 2012 and the #bringbackourgirls campaign. On one hand its great that some people (I'll come onto this in a bit) are being made aware of the crap that happens out there, but on the otherhand just liking a post or sharing a tweet or whatever does absolutely zero to resolve these things. On awareness, I think its safe to say half the people who get involved in these "hashtag campaigns" are doing it more for themselves (in raising their own profile or to conform to peer pressure) than out of genuine interest. I'd question exactly how much awareness it spreads and whether people are fully engaged with the issues being discussed.

OK then, in terms of what I see as positive action. Examples include: 1. petitioning people in power who can make a change on specific issues (trying to just get the PM to wear a feminist tshirt is not specific enough) you need to highlight problems and identify solutions. 2. Volunteering (domestically or overseas) in an area related to the cause. 3. Making an informed monetary donation to a charity related to the cause.

Yes and no. I think raising awareness of specific issues is great and can be beneficial, but I would say raising awareness for a rather vague cause is well-meaning but doomed to fail.

Let us not forget that amongst "feminists" there are different opinions on what is wanted or what needs to be done. For e.g. some feminists are vehemently against transgender rights (particularly MTF rights), others fully support trans people. Some feminists believe strongly believe feminism is a movement solely for women and about women, others welcome men and their own issues to the table. As such there is no single ideology as "feminism" anymore that can promoted universally (be it in tshirt or facebook page form!).

I think "first-wave" feminism was so successful because it focussed precisely on specific issues like suffrage and equal employment. I think third-wave feminism struggles in that it really is a mishmash of ideas and desires (some conflicting) being pursued in all manner of ways. I also think the strategy of many modern feminists (originating from the likes of Valerie Solanas in the "second wave") is often counter-productive in antagonizing men and turning them away from being allies to the cause.

I feel I'm being a bit doom and gloom here so I'll post a twitter post I saw which did make me laugh: