See the Village Aunties Pinterest Board (hashtag #unnecessaryunionjacks) for our ever-growing collection of #unnecessaryunionjacks in Scotland, including a mankini, babies’ nappies, and Scottish shortbread.

Join in by Tweeting, Facebook-linking, emailing, commenting here, with pictures of Union Jacks in Scotland.

Read on to see some ideas for resisting the scourge of Union Jacks in Scotland.

What we’ve been doing

Village Aunties have been collecting Union Jacks from around Scotland for nearly six weeks now, mostly on Twitter (using the hashtag #unnecessaryunionjacks) and Facebook, with some folk texting and emailing examples. Thanks everyone who has sent them. With ca. 150 collected already, it is starting to feel like one is never more than five feet from a Union Jack (in Glasgow anyway; thanks to Auntie @CSbungo for this observation and for many of the ideas in this post).

Let’s keep collecting them between now and the Scottish independence referendum: the Pinterest Board will remain live. I can confirm that snapping these pics and collecting them on the Web is pretty good therapy for the range of feelings they evoke. Village Aunties would also like to spark a note of resistance: I’ll come to that further down this post, with ideas from me and from Auntie Mhairi.

Bella Caledonia Jack*** Collection

Note that the independence blog Bella Caledonia has also now started its own collection of Union Jacks, with a witty title, and a competition for the best submission. Let many flowers bloom and all that: I’d be happy if every pro-indy site in Scotland starts their own collection. Then it would be great to use some kind of aggregation system to pull them all together. By the way Bella, I see your man in a Union Jack suit and raise you a man in a Union Jack mankini – linked rather than embedded because it’s neither safe for work, nor safe for your very eyes: brace yourself before clicking.

Union Jacks & Saltires on Pinterest

All relevant #unnecessaryunionjacks are being collected on my Pinterest Village Aunties Board - click the link to see them, and feel free to comment on individual entries. I’ve also had some help from Emma Nicol and Sheila MacNeill, intrepid Aunties both, who have been out and about snapping Union Jacks and pinning them straight to the board. If you are a Pinterest user and would like to contribute directly, let me know.

I’ve also been collecting a very paltry number of Saltires, which seem to have all but disappeared from shelves of tat and shop windows, and had a contribution from a Village Auntie in Newcastle of some St. George’s Cross knickers in John Lewis, which apparently didn’t sell very well (but at least they had the choice of their own national flag, dammit!).

Criteria for submitting photos

The general criteria for #unnecessaryunionjacks are: they should be found in Scotland, and they should be in the public eye-line (i.e. not the Union Jack inside your shoe indicating it was made in the UK). This includes advertisements (e.g. catalogues that come through your letter-box) and actual products that appear in Scotland. Just appearing on the Internet with no specific Scottish presence or connection doesn’t count.

The Jubilympics and why that’s no excuse

Any Union Jacks specifically appearing as part of either London Olympics or Royal Jubilee promotions should also be tagged #jubilympics. A few people have suggested that the imminence of these two events somehow negates what we are doing here, or skews the sample, or something, but for me it is more than pertinent that this is happening at this exact juncture in Scottish history. See this picture from Berlin in the run-up to the 1936 Olympics compared to a recent picture of Oxford Road in London. Just sayin’, don’t Godwinate me.

A Counter-Propaganda Campaign

Some ideas for a counter-Union Jack campaign:

(1) Let’s keep collecting (and mocking) these Unnecessary Union Jacks right up until the Independence Referendum. More and more people have been joining in and I would love to keep the momentum going. Send them to me any way you can.

(2) Let’s start a counter-propaganda movement. Here’s my idea [Morag Eyrie]: stickers. Let’s get some stickers made and start putting them on public Unnecessary Union Jacks wherever we see them. My first idea was that the stickers should just be wee Saltires. But I wonder if some words would be appropriate. I’m happy to get some stickers made up and send them out to folk who want to do this. But let’s see what we can come up with: please add your suggestions in the Comments.

(3) Village Auntie Mhairi is feeling a lot more militant than me: she has been travelling all over Europe meeting up with comrades in various European hot-spots, including Athens and Paris, and Union Jacks are all over the continent too – its the new Stars and Stripes.

[From Mhairi]

Of course it depends on your level of bravery…

Level 1: A wee feartie:
Gather together a large collection of Union Jack crappery. Take it all to the counter, once there “discover” the British imperial symbolism in all of your potential purchases and murmur embarrassedly that you just thought that it was a nice design, and that you didnt realise that you were supporting the mass murder of innocent civilians across the globe.

Level 2: Not John Bull in a China-shop:
Union Jack crappery is absolutely everywhere, and it is just so easy to bump it or accidentally spill irn-bru on it. It’s continually in your way, making you blind with anti-Brit-nationalist hatred that its hardly surprising that you can’t see where you are going when you are blinded by the Brits everywhere you look and accidentally crash into the display stands.

Level 3: De-colonisation:
Gather together all the Union Jack crappery you can possibly find in the shop. You will need several baskets, trollies, and possibly a truck if your target is Marks and Spencers. Carry/wheel it over to the till and announce how fed up you are of having British imperialism rammed down your throat every time you venture into their store. Yes, the shop assistants will most probably be the ones to have to put it back, but you only see it for the duration of your visit. They are surrounded by it every single minute of the day. Do this everytime you enter a shop with Union Jack crappery. They will soon get the message.

Level 4: Braveheart:
This one requires a claymore. On your way back from the dole office frantically searching for princes (hint: you’ll actually find them reading the weather on the state propaganda organ these days), take your claymore and simply charge into the display cases. There is a possible danger of arrest of this one, so choose your target carefully to maximise Union Jack crappery destruction with the amount of time that you will spend at her majesty’s pleasure

[Mhairi has left the building, for another European radical hotspot]
 

Saltires and Union Jacks

I was asked by someone on Twitter if the Saltires I snapped in a Govanhill barber shop were “unnecessary Saltires”.

Two Saltires in Nisa’s Turkish Barber, Glasgow

I’m not sure if he was a Brit Nat troll, or someone who thinks all flags are equally bad (a position I have a lot of sympathy for). But the point I wanted to make was that this rather amazing display of Saltires in a tiny barber shop represents one kind of business in my neighbourhood in Govanhill: a gathering place for working class and immigrant (and descendants of immigrants) residents.

Across the road is Sainsbury, a supermarket frequented by your more middle class Govanhill resident (including middle class folk of Asian, African and Middle Eastern descent), and it is festooned inside and out with a ludicrous array of Union Jacks.

I don’t have a picture of it yet, but further down Victoria Road is a much larger Lidl supermarket which serves the poorer people in Govanhill, although the odd middle class person ventures in from time to time looking for weird foreign bargains. Lidl has Saltires as part of its main marketing design. I found this picture on the Round Britain by Bike blog, hope Anna Hughes doesn’t mind me using it!:

Lidl sign with Saltire and “Proud to Serve Scotland” text – by Anna Hughes from her Round Britain by Bike blog

It’s also worth noting that the specifically middle class greenie enclave of Queen’s Park Farmers’ Market (also multi-ethnic in character) flies a Saltire on its fortnightly sojourn. I would love to know the story behind that; isn’t it funny that I want to ask everyone who flies a Saltire why they choose to do so? I imagine some interesting and varied responses. I don’t imagine interesting and varied responses for Union Jacks.

Saltire at Queen’s Park Farmers’ Market, Govanhill, Glasgow. Flies fortnightly.

Flag Iconography: Nationalist Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

The conservative forces for the Union must be very pleased to have the Olympic Games and the Queen’s Jubilee this year as an excuse to ramp up the invasion of public space with icons of British nationhood. In fact, the practice of bombarding Scots (and Brits in general) with Union Jacks and other pro-British iconography has been slowly increasing for a while (yes, I’m looking at you Doctor Who, with your funny, funny jokes about Scotland); I wish we’d thought to start collecting examples a few years ago.

Rose from Doctor Who in Union Jack t-shirt.

The Royal Wedding last year was another leap forward for the visual fervour. I recall my shudder as, in Cambridge for work that day, I saw my train arrive to take me to Stansted festooned with Union Jacks. I only started to feel comfortable again when Twitter informed me at the airport that Glasgow was having an old school drunken riot in Kelvingrove Park, complete with chants of “stick your Royal Wedding up your arse”. I know what happened at Kelvingrove was upsetting for some and wasn’t exactly a planned political action, but for me, the relief of any kind of resistance being shown to what felt like creeping fascism down south was a balm.

The Political Geography of Flags

So, are we just being paranoid about the increasing incursion of Union Jacks, and the decreasing visibility of signs of Scottish nationhood? I think not. There is plenty of evidence for the effectiveness of this approach for Unionists across numerous academic disciplines about crowd psychology, the use of symbols, and the art of propaganda. If you think those with vested interests in keeping the United Kingdom together don’t know this, you are kidding yourself. I can’t write an academic paper here, but I did find one interesting resource from the discipline of political geography that gives an interesting and easy to digest slant on all this:

“States employ iconography to build a sense of commonality, or “nation.” Conceptually developed by renowned French geographer Jean Gottmann [...], a state’s iconography includes emotive symbols used to define a state’s identity and image. A state’s political coherence and even stability may be improved through the effective use of such symbols. Among these may be the state’s name, flag, buildings and monuments, notable heroic personalities, historical events and sites, symbols of national identity as portrayed on coins, stamps and official documents, athletic teams and primary cultural attributes such as religion and language. For example, many countries include in their names words such as “Democratic,” “Republic,” “People’s,” “Commonwealth,” “Popular,” and “United” to convey a positive image both inside and outside the country. And clearly the populations of some states view their national flags with near-religious reverence, and take great pride in the accomplishments of athletic teams representing the country. [...] The elements of a state’s iconography constitute the symbolic “glue” around which a population develops a sense of common identity, a particularly important effort in multinational states [blog author's emphasis] [...].” – Webster, G. and Luna Garcia, A. 2010. National Identity case study: How is nationalism symbolized? In Solem, M., Klein, P., Muñiz-Solari, O., and Ray, W., eds., AAG Center for Global Geography Education. Available from http://globalgeography.aag.org.

Resonates doesn’t it, especially with the Jubilympics looming? As Scottish Nationalist sympathies have grown over the past few years, the efforts of the UK establishment towards increasing a feeling of British Nationalism have also grown. How delighted they must have been that the Olympic Games were given to London, for the same year as the Jubilee. I won’t go all conspiracy-theory about that, at least not in public!

“Another prominent political geographer, Richard Hartshorne [...], argued that the integration of a state’s territory involves two competing types of forces: centrifugal forces that pull populations apart, and centripetal forces that pull populations together. Centrifugal forces can include physical features such as water bodies, mountain ranges or sheer areal size and distances that limit interaction by the state’s population. Human dimensions such as differences in religious belief, culture, and economic activity can also act as centrifugal forces. These forces can limit interaction, producing regionalism and creating dissimilarity among groups of citizens within a state. Under such circumstances, what stops a state from falling apart? If a state is to exist in a stable form, there must be centripetal forces of greater magnitude than the existing centrifugal forces. A well-developed national iconography can be a central element of these centripetal forces. [blog author's emphasis]

“Hartshorne also suggested that the preeminent centripetal force a state must develop is a “reason for existing,” or a raison d’ etre. The raison d’ etre for a particular state might be to create a homeland for its nation. Other such foundations might be religious or political freedom. A state without a raison d’ etre may lose its relevancy to the population, which in turn may lead some in the groups to seek political or geographic changes to the state.” — Ibid.

Irvine Welsh, denying his feelings on independence are due to nationalism, makes some valid points in this interview with Jeremy Paxman about the apparent rationality of breaking up the Union; i.e. the lack of relevant forces binding us together (thanks to Mary Vanhelsing for the link):

Union Jacks: Centripetal in England, Centrifugal in Scotland

We are living through a time of great centrifugal forces driving Scotland away from the United Kingdom: our values have never seemed further apart (those who lived through Thatcher here may disagree, but I see those not decimated by the privations of that era adding their voices to those of younger folk discovering it all anew: we are doubling down). The current Westminster government and UK-wide mainstream media daily spew forth ideas and actions deemed repulsive by many Scots.

And within Scotland we have the centripetal force of a shared desire for independence from a decades-long position of extreme democratic deficit. More than a shared desire actually: a shared sense that we might actually do it this time. We might be able to dig out from under Tory rule and the class system and endless wars and colonial servitude and poverty. I can barely express to my friends overseas how rare the hope of making real change is in these islands.

The Unionists and Brit Nats, whatever their reasons for believing such, flail about almost comically, trying to get a grasp on any argument that might turn the tide. And bolstering these arguments, the propaganda: in words of fictional stories and of news reporting, and in pictures and icons. Like flags.

Woman draped Union Jacks with police at Orange Order March in Larkhall, Scotland. Photo by Ross Goodman, available on Flickr under a CC-By Licence.

In Scotland, the Union Jack, known to some as the Butcher’s Apron, is a largely centrifugal force. Beyond the more distant representation of brutal colonialism abroad, it represents one of the great destructive fractures in Scottish cultural life: sectarianism. Until recently we have most often seen Union Jacks flying during Orange Marches or Old Firm games.

As well as being a reactionary centripetal symbol, the Union Jack seems to be a potentially centripetal symbol of inclusive Britishness to some left-leaning English folk. See the example above of British Asian boxer Amir Khan positioned in front of a Union Jack in a shop window; it is unusual in its reaching out for a different kind of iconography than the blatant White-ness inherent in most of the images we have found.

The Union Jack feels very different in Scotland, and the English-based big brands that are doing most of the work in invading Scotland with Union Jacks seem to have missed that point.

A Note on After Independence: What Will the Union Flag Become?

And it’s also hard to escape the fact that the Saltire is embedded in the Union Jack. Nick Groom, author of ‘Union Jack’, in Prospect argues that, even if Scotland should become independent, the Union Jack should stay the same:

“The Union Jack is not a simplistic statement about the territories that form the United Kingdom—not least because it appears to overlook Wales. Rather it is a complex symbol that describes the history and compromises over centuries of international relations.”

That the English, Welsh and Northern Irish would hold onto the Scottish flag within their joint flag after Scottish independence feels like a horrible, desperate, pathetic final slap of contempt. I would hope that Scotland would say “No” and be heard. And I hope for our friends in Wales that, as long as they choose to stay in union with England, they demand a symbol that includes them this time!

On to Some Pictures

In this section I’m just going to show you some of the pictures we’ve gathered of Union Jacks in Scotland. And I’m going to make some off-the-cuff remarks about them. Feel free to join in, in the comments section here or on Pinterest.

UK-Wide Chains

Apart from Lidl (which is actually a German chain), UK-wide chains seem oblivious to the fact that Scotland even exists. Although someone (thanks @belic!) did find this interesting article for me about Asda resisting using Union Jacks in Scotland. Not that they ended up avoiding them completely:

A couple of years ago (possibly during preparations for the last Royal Wedding), The Body Shop was festooned with Union Jack decorations and packaging (not actually on products; it was bags and such). I won’t say which one in Scotland, but the first time I saw it I recall the visceral shock and offense I felt. Which shows how not ubiquitous they were, even that recently. I asked one of the staff about it and she was embarrassed; she said she’d tried to tell the London management that this would not go down well with a large segment of their customers in Scotland, and she was pretty much ignored. And patronised, the way she told it.

Now they are all at it. To date we have an unbelievable number of images from Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, who are going to town over this in an almost embarrassing manner, alongside Next, Dwell, Schuh, Sainsbury, Primark, WH Smith, Paperchase and many others. Now, the shops are dressing us and decorating our entire houses in Union Jacks, from bras to shoes, to furniture, to decorations, to kitchenware … you name it.

WH Smith has greeting cards from English Heritage and The National Trust without anything from the equivalent Scottish organisations.

They even greet you as you walk in the door, in Glasgow, with “Keep the Flag Flying”! I must emphasise that there are no Saltires to be seen anywhere in WH Smith.

Product Lines

Then there are products like Dairy Milk chocolate and these Original Source sauces.

The ones that made me laugh the most (bitterly) were the M&S Scottish shortbread in Union Jack tins and the Waitrose porridge oats (although the latter are grown in Cheshire)!

A Step Further: BritKats

Deserving of a section of their own, (and hilariously rhyming well with the new pejorative term for lefty Unionists “BritNats”), I give you BritKats:

Subliminal Advertising

Then there are examples like the one that sparked this whole thing for me: the use of Union Jacks as background decoration. I showed the Pepperberry catalogue that the following image is from to a pretty radical, switched on friend, and he didn’t even notice them until I pointed them out. There were about seven such images in the catalogue (they are all on the Pinterest Board).

Check out the Union Jacks embedded in the font in this big screen advertisement for Expedia from Edinburgh Waverley Station.

Political Parties

It is a matter of some acrimony in Scotland that the Scottish Labour Party is being so recalcitrantly unionist. Check out the UK-wide Labour party billboard: if you didn’t know this was a Labour Party advertisement, what party would you guess it represented?

Union Jacks for Women

I don’t want to make too much of this, because I think the underlying reason is that there are way more products in general aimed at women for the purposes of taking up their time and money and enforcing their performance of femininity. But woah: there are a lot of Union Jack products aimed at women. Literally Union Jacks for every part of our bodies (including a bullet vibrator for inside our vaginas), and for every occasion imaginable.

Source: bravissimo.com via Morag on Pinterest

Source: annsummers.com via Morag on Pinterest

But don’t worry ladies…

The Union Jacks are looking out for your breasts, with some breast cancer research (although they are not clear on any details of this research):

In Conclusion

I started this exercise for my own sanity. If we can’t directly fight it we can record it, and discuss it, and mock it, and perhaps resist it by culture jamming with stickers or smashing it with claymores, or whatever. Later on, we can use visualisation tools with social media to map the ebb and flow of Union Jacks: what will happen after the Jubilympics but before the Independence Referendum? Will the SNP use the Commonwealth Games to ramp up the Saltires in public spaces, and if so, how will that feel?

Keep ‘em coming!

In Indian society, auntie is used as a term of respect by a young person for an older woman of social aquaintance.  A more formal equivalent in the UK would probably be “madam”, a term which is also sexualised through its association with brothel keepers. The sexualisation of older women is not entirely new – most teen boys develop a crush on a particularly attractive teacher with the assertions of Miss Jean Brodie and latent sensuality of Mrs Robinson exploring it in popular culture, but the recent popularity of the terms “Cougar” annd “MILF” (Mother I’d Like to Fuck) tell of an increased sexualisation.

The traditional three ages of woman are that of maiden, matron and crone.

The maiden, associated with the waxing moon and springtime, speaks of awakenings, new beginnings and fresh ideas and but also of nievity and a lack of knowledge. Traditionally revered as the virgin, she is not only valued by her male age-mates, but also older men seeking to reclaim their lost youth. A common theme in literature, particularly of the renaissance era is that of the “rake” – an older man who seduces a young girl, leaving her “ruined”. The matron, associated with the full moon and summer, is fertility and fulfillment. Middle age sees a respect being given to women as they fulfill their roles of childbearing and rearing and are usually seen as sexually off-limits as offspring denote sexual experience. The desire expressed in “Mother I’d like to Fuck” suggests an unavailability, and an appreciation that its probably not reciprocated. Older women, the crones, who pass through the autumn of life before ending at its winter, are associated with barrenness, but also wisdom and independence. A common theme in Celtic literature is that of the crone who seduces a young prince sometimes then transforming into a maiden. The modern day “Cougar” echos this implied predatory approach and sexual confidence..

Traditionally women over thirty have not been seen as particularly sexually attractive, with the maiden being the archetype of sexual attractiveness. In ye olden days, most women married in their twenties, stayed married until widowhood, with the remainder classified as the Kate Dalrymples of the sexual sphere. But recent increases in divorce rates, trends towards later marriage, serial monogamy and increased childlessness have seen more older women become sexually available. The attraction of the older woman previously relegated to fantasy has become accessible.

In India, sex selection procedures including gendered abortion and female infanticide have led to deep gender imbalances, with only 91 girls being born to every hundred boys. Faced with a decreased choice of mate, particularly in a society which practices polygamy, young men struggle to find a partner their own age. Futhermore young women within Indian society are expected to defer to older women within the home, frequently exploited and abused. The auntie then, within a strongly patriarchial culture speaks of female power and confidence.

Pornography featuring young desi women is not particularly popular within India, its primary production is for the West to cater for a demand of “exoticism” and a playing into racist cultural narratives of third world women as playthings for Western men. While porn featuring western women is popular, indigenous porn tends to feature “desi aunties” – older women from the Indian sub-continent. Older women also have a special place within Indian Hindu culture with Radha, the lover of Krishna. Identified as many years older than the young Krishna which she first seduces in a wood when asked to accompany him safely home, Radha provides an liberatory icon for older women in a society where women are owned and widowhood is shameful, while lauding the man whose primary union is with an older woman as the quintessential devine lover.

What then to make of this trend. In the West, “raunch culture” has seen both a new sexual assertiveness in young women, but also an increased vulnerability to sexual pressure and demand. In India the patriarchial codes strip young women of autonomy while many older women take out their frustrations at the repression of their youth on the young wives their sons bring to live with them. At one level it can been seen as an attempt to diminish the values that older women are usually revered for, replacing it with worth based on their sexuality; alternatively it can be seen as a rejection of the superficiality of raunch culture and the cult of the virgin.

These two strains have clashed violently particularly over issues such as the nature of the sex industry, the power and agency of women in a sexual context and the relationship between gendering, sexualisation and objectification.  Sex-pos fems accuse sex-neg fems of aligning themselves with the moralistic agenda which seeks to control and limit female sexual agency, while sex-neg fems accuse sex-pos fems of aligning themselves with raunch culture which seeks to objectify and sexually exploit women.

Millbank suggest that there are two discourses which shape women’s sexuality – although on the surface they appear in contradiction, they are actually two sides of the same coin.  Compulsory sexuality acts to maintain the sexual purpose of women as to be fucked, while sexual moralism acts to maintain the shamefulness of being fucked.  Women and their sexuality exist in a dualism under patriarchy which asserts that the purpose of women is for fucking, however being fucked is shameful and humiliating.

Overseeing every heterosexual interaction are the “eyes, laws and codes” of patriarchy.  The eyes of society gaze upon women reflecting back to them their purpose and their degredation; the judicial system re-asserts their patriarchial purpose any time a man uses a consent defence for rape, ensuring their humilation through the legal process while the codes of lad culture maintain a hegemony which values women for their sexual availability while openly denigrating those who make themselves available.

In addition to providing a theoretical basis for articulating sex-neg feminism, Millbank suggests that sex-pos and sex-neg feminism should see themselves as different but complimentary, but the issue remains that they they are still different approaches to what is ultimately a unified problem: that a woman’s purpose as a sexual being is to be humiliated.  Sex-negative feminism challenges this purpose, but agrees that penetrative sex-acts are humiliation, while sex-positive feminism challenges the humiliation but agrees with the purpose.  If compulsory sexuality and sexual moralism exist in a step-dance which maintains patriarchial hegemony, sex-pos and sex-neg feminism are merely different approaches to tackling what is in essence the same problem.

What we have here is a binary dualism established to snare female sexuality.  Sexual moralism demonises the slut, reinforces the humiliation of being fucked, denies women’s agency and is challenged by sex-pos feminism; compulsory sexuality demonises the prude, reinforces the purpose of women as to be fucked, denies consent,  and is challenged by sex-neg feminism. Taking a step back tho, it is quite possible to see that how sexual moralism and compulsory sexuality work together to deny female autonomy.

Sexual moralism – in denying female agency, works to encourage males to pick up women while compulsory sexuality – in denying consent works to encourage women to respond positively to their advances; sexual moralism – in denying female agency encourages men to initiate sexual behaviour while compulsory sexuality – in denying consent encourages women to accept this sexial initiation; sexual moralism –  in denying female agency, encourages men to dominate; compulsory sexuality in denying consent encourages women to submit.   We live under patriarchy, so such discourses shape all interactions, but it is perfectly possible to switch from one feminism to another as challenging the patriarchial norms throughout an encounter.

Agency is generally seen on a continuum – you have more or less agency within an encounter, while consent is often seen as binary: either you consent or you dont, but as Millbank points out in an earlier post it is more useful to see that too as a continuum.  That consent is obtained on the basis of “I choose to say yes on the basis of understanding the consequences of saying no”  As you increase agency and consent you lessen the effect of patriarchy and the eyes, laws and codes which sustain it.

A sex-neutral feminism which acknowledges the role of patriarchy in shaping individual interactions, pledging to challenge both the moralism and compulsion which seeks to contain female sexuality, continually seeing to increase both agency and consent at the same time is the most positive way forward.  Acknowledging that sexual behaviour is not a universal “good thing” to be promoted; nor a universal “bad thing” to be avoided, but becomes good or bad dependent on the context and the level of consent and agency present.  There is no such thing as “sex-positive” or “sex-negative” feminism, only contexual challenges.

First published on Second Council House of Virgo on 23rd March 2012

I found it utterly appalling for a variety of reasons: the objectification of women; the sex industry imagery used; the fact the top image especially resembles the kind of cards you find in phoneboxes (right down to the mobile phone number after the words ‘Booty call us’); the fact that ‘girls go free’ means that women are essentially the product rather than the customer; the terrible fonts… I could go on.

So we kicked up a huge fuss about it on Facebook, Twitter and through emailing them and the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Advertising Standards Authority. They deleted our posts on Facebook (but were happy to leave awful homophobic posts up, just not criticism) and someone was blocked on Twitter (though we don’t know who did that).

I got a couple of weird emails about it, which to be honest encouraged me because they sounded scared. It was time to up the ante even further.

Under immense pressure, the next day they released a new flyer and a (half-hearted apology).

The new flyer is by no means perfect but it’s a hell of a lot better:

To see their apology and the press release, the email I sent and the full apology from the club, go to my blog.

Thanks to everyone who got involved in any way – thank you. Sometimes we win.

Here’s a feminist review of Booty Call…

I really want to do more campaigns around nightclubs, particularly sexual harassment and assault in nightclubs, which is disgustingly common. Any thoughts?

In sisterhood, Kate

P.S. This is my first post for Village Aunties – excited!

Just as a starter for 10: the actual development of this post was sparked by the latest Pepperberry women’s clothing catalogue which arrived on my mat a couple of weeks ago. I’ve started off the collection of #unnecessaryunionjacks images on the Village Aunties Pinterest board with pictures from that catalogue. For example (and yes, every model in the entire catalogue is white and thin, surprise surprise), see the picture below. I’d like your help to gather more examples; read on!

So. The ramping up of British nationalism over the past few years has been palpable across the UK, and a flood of Union Jacks and related imagery has been evident. Clearly it serves a number of conservative, capitalist and reactionary purposes, not just that of trying to convince Scottish people not to vote for independence. However, the ubiquity of Union Jacks in Scotland feels extra intrusive now that we have an independence referendum coming.

Anyway, so sick am I of seeing Union Jacks popping up in all kinds of ridiculous and unnecessary places in Scotland, I figured I would address this with a blog post simply observing and collecting images of where they are found. I’ve engaged Twitter (with the hashtag #unnecessaryunionjacks), Facebook, and my Pinterest account’s Village Aunties board to start gathering images and links. And now I’m putting this blog post up as a holding space to be filled in later as new pics and stories come in, for the sake of you who only engage here. Just a bit of Easter weekend fun, and hopefully a more colourful, less wordy blog post than usual.

So start sending me pics, or stories of things you couldn’t snap photies of, including instances where you’ve seen an unnecessary Union Jack in a TV programme that broadcasts to the whole UK, or even one that is Scotland-only. What do I mean by unnecessary? I will leave that up to you but I may end up exercising some editorial control; for instance, a news story on an Orange March should probably include images of Union Jacks!

Thanks to Alexander Belic on Twitter for alerting me to this news story about Asda asking its suppliers not to use Union Jack packaging for fear of “offending” Scottish and Northern Irish customers. It’s the Daily Mail, so who knows how accurate it is, but interesting nonetheless. Links and stories like this welcome to round out this post.

Feminism and the Scottish Radical Left

Scottish national identity will crystallise and develop in the run up to the referendum. The left are well aware of this, and will likely revive some old Scottish left ghosts, playing on some political anti-establishment nationalism, and on the existing political identity which holds to the mantra that Scotland is more left wing than England.

Indeed, there are already talks of a broad left party, from various sectors, and several movements might spring up in the next two years, which may be creative and original. Yet I’m wary of the left, and especially of left movements in Scotland, because of what I believe to be its structural misogyny.

I am wary of the potential for a left movement to carry on a trend which not only ignores feminism, but actively represses women in the movement. I don’t want to stand by and watch the next generation of strong, committed women pour all their energy and strength into a left movement which systematically ignores them, which is run by misogynists, and which, in conjuring up spirits of the past relies on the historical basis of a patriarchal movement.

If a left movement in Scotland is not explicitly feminist, if it is not driven by women as well as men, and if it does not have a clear vision and structure involving feminism, it will be misogynist, it will be patriarchal. This is a reflection of the Scottish left, and of society.

Further, I do not believe in Scotland bringing forward its militant left tradition, or its broad social-democratic consensus, without a fundamental consideration of the ways in which we might merely re-enact a patriarchal history. In the light of a referendum and different types of nationalism, Scottish identity has to be reconsidered, and this reconsideration must not only be critical, but must allow space for women to build their own identity.

Of course, there are ways in which Scotland’s identity is salient to left ideals in a manner which can further the movement, but we must be wary of indiscriminately invoking left traditions which we believe might be broadly identified with in Scotland. The Scottish public has a consciousness of left history that is fairly unique, and it is often tempting to ignore the fact that as one ventures further from the politically engaged, popular political sentiments such as anti-Thatcherism become more and more misogynist, and awareness of Scotland’s trade union culture becomes more male-dominated, to the point where women cannot engage in left culture without casting aside a part of our identity.

This type of image shapes and is shaped by the identity of the left itself: any female activist can testify to the male-dominated nature of the movement, the difficulty of making one’s voice heard, and the dismissal of feminism as a legitimate left concern by men. Women, it seems, can not be revolutionaries, or really be workers. The left had been stuck in this position more or less since it began, and has remained fairly static in terms of feminism, from Scotland to Russia to Palestine.

The left has not shown itself to be trustworthy to women. It is not our job to come into left movements and fight tooth and nail to be accepted, to be the advocates of feminism within left movements, and to put up with the odd display of misogyny for the good of the movement, or for the good of the public image of the movement.

But there is also a positive side to all this. Women, as an oppressed group have a lot to offer to left movements, in terms of theory and lived experience and commitment, as activists, writers, as parts of the electorate. A truly inclusive left movement in Scotland would be historic, and covering ground never covered before. It would, essentially, be truly radical (indeed, I believe it cannot be radical without feminism). It could also act as an effective vehicle for feminism in Scotland.

The presence of a new group, Glasgow Women’s Activist Forum, and its sister group in Edinburgh, is perhaps the first step in a re-evaluation of the left. A step long overdue. As the left reforms, women need to be actively involved in this process, ensuring we have a voice. We must not merely attempt to accommodate ourselves within male structures, but actively form this new movement.

And we must discover and create a new left Scottish identity, a female identity, which will make us strong.

In the coming months feminists across Scotland will be working on this to ensure that Scotland’s future is a feminist one. If you want to get involved please do get in touch with Amy.

A Feminist Call to Arms

Scottish national identity will be shaped, created and clarified in the run up to the referendum. The next two years will be a fundamentally important time for Scottish political and cultural consciousness: the time for radical change is not after the referendum, but here and now. At times, even those who don’t admit to a “tartan messiah” mentality seem to believe that the path is already marked out, and that we must merely win the referendum, then set about changing Scotland. Even if this were to be true for left-wing politics, I cannot conceive that it is true for feminism.

Scotland’s culture is extremely patriarchal. This is true in many countries, and in many different cultures. But what makes this a burning issue is that Scottish culture will have a tendency to be glorified in the next two years. Whether this is Scottish left culture (Red Clydeside, strong Trade Unions), or Scottish social democratic culture (public services and free education), or particularly Scottish patriarchal culture (Football supporters, Masculinity), nationalism is hardly ever genuinely framed in terms of women.

I am committed to Scotland, especially to women in Scotland. I cannot and will not, however, connect with the nationalist myth, that Scotland’s political culture is superior to England’s, because I think that to focus on this obscures the extreme levels of gender, race, LGBT and class oppression in Scottish society. What is special about the independence referendum is not that self-determination will allow us to live the dream, but that the debate around national determination can become a vehicle for the self-determination of oppressed groups. This requires genuine political engagement on the part of the Scottish population.

I think that feminists should question the significance of self-determination for Scotland if the political consciousness created in the next two years has no feminist elements, if there is not some kind of Scottish consciousness of feminism which is expressed politically or culturally, and seems to be creative or developing. We need to be moving towards a referendum with a clear and steady view of Scotland’s problems: Scotland’s existing poverty and inequality, and Scotland’s misogyny.

How can we create a feminist consciousness in Scotland in the next two years and beyond?

Where we can fight for change

The timing of same-sex marriage becoming a political issue was near-perfect. There are now few people in Scotland who are not aware that Scotland is politically active in terms of LGBT* equality, and many who feel a strong sense of pride that we are progressive in this sphere. This is not to say that Scottishness is now equated with LGBT* liberation, but that this is the first step along a long road, where previously there had been consistent connection of Scottish national identity with hostility towards LGBT* folk.

This model is useful for considering the potential impact of feminist being high on the political agenda in the next two years.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of possible high-profile, probably parliament-based, campaigns:

• Funding for Scottish Women’s Organisations, such as Women’s Aid, and Rape Crisis Scotland.

• Promoting affordable childcare.

• Promoting pay-equality

• Abortion in Scotland is currently under the same restrictions as in England. We could run a movement for women’s self-determination. Why would we want Scotland’s Right to Choose without a woman’s Right to Choose?

• Changing the law on rape, to challenge ideas that women exist in a permanent state of consent. Changing courtroom and police procedure on rape, such as the use of sexual history and character evidence. These kind of campaigns are already being promoted, but could be embodied in a much less disparate way.

• The End Prostitution Now campaign intends to promote the introduction of laws analogous to Swedish prostitution laws.

These more specific issues would be the starting point for much more radical and broad change. These campaigns could take the form of:

• Challenging domestic abuse

• Challenging “sex-object culture” in the media and in our society.

• Challenging rape culture

Where we stand

Organisations

We have a multitude of committed feminist organisations in Scotland, the most well-known being perhaps Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland.

More can be done to make these organisations identified with and related to by Scots. There are also many committed feminists in Scotland who identify with these organisations, but do not feel empowered to act.

We also have a highly committed network of Student Feminist Societies willing to put time and effort into campaigning for change.

Politics

We have two female party leaders, and one particularly strong deputy leader. 34% of MSPs are women.

We have trade unions fighting for the rights of public sector workers, many of whom are women. We have higher female leadership in unions than we have had before.

The SNP wants to avoid perpetuating its patriarchal nationalist stereotype.

Culture

We have a proud history of Scottish women. This should be promoted as a normative Scottish history of Scotland, to negate the Scottish male myth. We also have a proud history of feminism.

We have a female makar. We have other strong female cultural figures: Elaine C. Smith, Jackie Kay.

National Identity

As the referendum approaches: there is much consideration of Scottish national identity. There is a tendency to idealise this identity, to talk of Scottish communitarian spirit, Scottish egalitarianism, or more demonstrably Scottish pride in free university education and free prescriptions.

These elements necessarily coincide with the Scottish identity that revolves around football, drinking, and other male-dominated spheres. And as with any nationalism with a historic basis, the Scottish national stereotype favoured by political movements from the socialist left to the SNP is male: it has elements of Burns, Scott, Macdiarmid, Maclean, but hardly ever a woman.

It is not merely that women are conspicuously absent in this national identity, but actively repressed. The stereotypical Scottish male is strong, aggressive, and it is no longer necessary to argue that there is a strong link between football and domestic violence.

We need to actively create a Scottish women’s national identity. This can draw on the past, but I believe that fundamentally, it should be a creative and liberating national identity, stemming from women in Scotland today. Scottish male identity must also be recreated.

And where to start

Firstly, I’m calling for a broad feminist debate in Scotland. This could be online, or in newspapers, or at conferences. We need to be writing, and thereby dominating the Scottish political sphere.

I’d like feminists from across Scotland to be brought together to discuss ideas.

I’d like organisations to be brought together in a coherent network. This could perhaps start with a national student feminist movement.

I’d like different generations to be brought together to discuss their vision of a feminist Scotland. We have a huge number of feminists who set up local Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis groups, but little interaction with younger generations.

I’ll be fighting for a feminist Scotland.

I fell in love with Scotland all over again, and was proud as punch of this country, which is both an adopted and ancestral homeland for me. My connection to this patch of earth and its people runs deep in my blood and bones, and it teaches me about how to approach other places and peoples with appropriate respect and openness.

So, yeah. Proud as punch. Except for one moment of embarrassment. Deep embarrassment.

My sister Elaine and I at the Bridge of Orchy.

We encountered a spot on the third day of the 95 mile walk, in Strath Fillan, between Crianlarich and Tyndrum, which is rich in Scotland’s indigenous spiritual history. There is the ruin of a monastery originally built by St. Fillan, patron of the mentally ill, that was rebuilt by Robert the Bruce in the 1300s, and, nearby, an ancient holy well used in St. Fillan’s name for healing, that no doubt goes back to pre-Christian times.

St. Fillan's Priory, Strathfillan. © AlMu2. Follow link on photo to see original on Flickr and view Creative Commons licence. Uploaded via RCAHMS website. Click to see more or seek permission to use: http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/23842/contribution/

A bit of information is provided to passers-by, but otherwise these two sites are mercifully free of touristy baggage or intervention. You are free to meditate on our past and present utilising whatever spiritual or intellectual tradition you prefer. The only information I could find online was on Wikipedia (skip this bit if you’re not into ancient history, abbots, holy relics and the like; go straight to the ARGHHHH section):

“Life

“St. Fillan of Munster, the son of Feriach, grandson of Cellach Cualann, King of Leinster, received the monastic habit in the Abbey of Saint Fintan Munnu and came to Scotland from Ireland in 717AD as a hermit along with his Irish princess-mother St. Kentigerna, his Irish prince-uncle St. Comgan, and his siblings. They settled at Loch Duich. Fillan later moved south and is said to have been a monk at Taghmon in Wexford before eventually settling in Pittenweem (‘the Place of the Cave’), Fife, in the east of Scotland later in the 8th century.

“St. Fillan was the abbot of a monastery in Fife before retiring to Glen Dochart and Strathfillan near Tyndrum in Perthshire. At an Augustinian priory at Kirkton Farm along to the West Highland Way, the priory’s lay abbot, who was its superior in the reign of William the Lion, held high rank in the Scottish kingdom. This monastery was restored in the reign of Robert I of Scotland (Robert the Bruce), and became a cell of the abbey of canons regular at Inchaffray Abbey. The new foundation received a grant from King Robert, in gratitude for the aid which he was supposed to have obtained from a relic of the saint (an arm-bone) on the eve of the great victory over King Edward II’s English soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn. The saint’s original chapel was up river, slightly northwest of the abbey and adjacent to a deep body of water which became known as St. Fillan’s Pool.

“Folklore

“St. Fillan was credited with powers such as the healing of the sick and also possessed a luminous glow from his left arm which he used to study and write Sacred Scriptures in the dark.

“St. Fillan is the patron saint of the mentally ill. As late as the 19th century, such people were dunked in St. Fillan’s Pool, bound and left overnight tied to the font, or possibly to a pew, in the ruined chapel. If the bonds were loosed by morning it was taken as a sign that a cure had taken place.

“A story is told that while St. Fillan was ploughing the fields near Killin, a wolf took the life of the ox and thus Fillan could not continue. A geis was put on the ox, which meant the wolf had to take the place of the ox and do the its work.[2] The story may be considered more of a parable than historical truth, but the connection with the origins of Fillan’s name remains obvious.

“Relics

“The Mayne was an arm bone, now lost, enclosed in a silver reliquary or casket. Legend has it that King Robert the Bruce requested the bone be brought to the Bannockburn battle site. The deoir, or hereditary keeper of the relic, and the Abbot of Inchaffray Abbey left the bone behind and brought only the reliquary because they didn’t want the relic to fall into English possession. Deoir became Anglecized to the name Dewar, the phonetic pronunciation of the Gaidhlig. On the eve of the Bannockburn battle, as the deoir, the abbot and Robert knelt in prayer, a noise came from the reliquary. They looked at the reliquary as the door opened and the bone fell to the floor. The Bruce won the battle the next day and he established a monastery to thank St. Fillan for the victory.” — Wikipedia.

ARGHHHH….

In this place of beauty and contemplation, there is also this. And, finding that link is the first time I’ve seen their website: OH MY EYES! It’s even worse than I thought. Previous to Googling for that link, I thought it was just the hideous, tacky, appropriative “Native American” tat in the shop, and the fact that they’ve called their cooking and ablutions block the “Apache Cookhouse”.

But no, they have to compound the offence with, with… oh just go look and ask yourself if you would feel happy sending this link to an actual Native American friend planning to visit Scotland. Or anyone with a semblance of understanding of the historical plight and current status of indigenous peoples around the world.

OK, I need to take a breath.

Where I’m coming from on this

I’ve been involved for my whole adult life in earth-based shamanic traditions. And I have been damn political about that from day one; hell, I got my first anarchist tattoo at the age of 18, and I’m 46 now. I’ve spent a lot of time in the past arguing with White “shamans” who claim to hold the Peace Pipe, or whatever other excuse they have for appropriating traditions not their own. Dig deep into your own ancestry and history first, I say. That’s what the Maori of Aotearoa taught us when I was young.

People avoid doing that because it HURTS. It hurts not only to sift through the agonies of what happened to your own ancestors and how that affects your family and society today; but also it hurts to find out about all the perpetration of abuse your ancestors did. If you’re the descendant of rape victims you’re the descendant of rapists. It’s possible that you are related to slavers and colonisers and people who ambushed whole tribes and slaughtered them. This is true whatever the colour of your skin.

But digging deeply into your own ancestral traditions is also educational, and intellectually, emotionally, spiritually nourishing. Confronting these legacies is the least White people can do. And I do mean THE LEAST: it’s only a starting point, and it should inform our actions in the world.

Yo, is Wigwam Holidays Racist?

Anyway, back to that website, with its racist cartoon of a Native American in a feather headdress. Yeah, I said it. I’ve been enjoying and taking inspiration lately from the brilliant Tumblr blog Yo Is This Racist? If something is racist, just say it. Believe me, I’m going to send the Wigwam Holidays website to be blogged on another excellent Tumblr: Native American Tag Hall of Shame.

And it’s not just the website: the shop there sells, as noted above, tacky “dreamcatchers” and other “Native American” tat. All of it racist. Using the name Apache in naming their facilities ain’t cool either.

I grew up in a former colony of Great Britain where folk of my age group had many opportunities to learn about Maori culture and about the colonisation of Aotearoa and the subsequent oppression of the Maori. And as previously mentioned, I’ve also spent a fair amount of my adult life in and around spiritual groups, some of whom take cultural appopriation to embarrassing, dangerous and offensive extremes. So I had to do a lot of research to be able to argue with them, natch.

From Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns into Cultural Theft, a wonderful paper written by Myke Johnson, a feminist, raised White in Canada, with some Innu ancestry:

“We live in a colonialist society. It was built upon the European theft of land. It was built by conquering and destroying the nations of people already here, and it continues its assault on Native lands and culture. This isn’t something we chose, but something we inherited, and thus have to reckon with.

“It is in this context that Native Americans identify the use of Native symbols and ceremonies as cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is a form of racism. Cultural appropriation is a weapon in the process of colonization. Cultural appropriation is when a dominating or colonizing people take over the cultural and religious ceremonies and articles of a people experiencing domination or colonization. When Euro-Americans take Native American symbols and ceremonies and use them for our own purposes, we are participating in the process of colonization and the destruction of Native culture.”

Then there’s this (ibid.):

“When we put Indians into the stereotype of spiritual gurus, or “utopic other”, we use them like spiritual surrogates. When we use someone as a surrogate, we occupy them in a way which prevents them from bearing their own children. Native spiritualities have a purpose in the communities in which they originate. They are fundamental for the Native cultural struggle against genocide. They are not empty symbols into which we can put our struggles, use them, for example, for the empowerment of women, or an affirmation of male bonding.”

Angles on my anger

Firstly, I don’t even think they are trying to use any kind of indigenous spirituality for anything other than making money from the tourist trade. So there’s no point lecturing them with such beautifully written and erudite prose.

Secondly, the irony of how closely they are located to two sites of genuine historical and spiritual (if that’s your bag) significance to the indigenous peoples of Scotland (see above). They’d dumped their surrogacy right on top of our baby.

And, I have a mixed bag of emotion, mostly anger, due to with Scotland’s very mixed relationship with colonialsim and racism. We should know better but we very often don’t. Scots have travelled the world for centuries as part of the British Emprie, doing much of the dirty work of colonialism. Within that shameful history there are also examples of Scots identifying with, becoming allies to, marrying, and assisting the colonised.

Within Scotland, we were participants and beneficiaries of the Atlantic slave trade, and we sparked some of the first Western philosophical resistance to slavery.

We are the recipients of long standing colonisation ourselves with all its attendant ills: loss of language and indigenous culture; loss of traditional homelands; self-loathing, drug and alcohol abuse, loss of confidence; mental ill health, violence, and premature death from numurous causes. Yet still we colonise within our own borders (ask the people of the Gàidhealtachd), and we take part in illegal foreign wars at the behest of Westminster governments we didn’t vote for.

I’m not sure which strand this Wigwam Holidays is an example of. Because I don’t know if someone from outwith Scotland came in and plonked this on top of one of our own sacred sites with nary a thought, or whether it’s a purely Scottish initiative borne out of our own racism, or a combination. There do appear to be outlets all over the UK.

Doesn’t matter. It needs to go. By all means keep the cute pointy-shaped holiday huts and the rest, I’m sure it’s a nice place to take a break, and they do make something of how environmentally friendly they are (although I always take that with a grain of salt until someone more knowledgeable than I breaks it down for me: anyone?). But lose the racist, colonialist, embarrassing as shit, faux native American overlay. Please. I beg of you.

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/handmade-weddings-depression-era-hobo/

managed to get the internet up in arms after over their cultural appropriation of depression era poverty as their wedding theme.

This reminds me of something that happened when I was planning my own wedding.

Kenwood House: Dream Venue

Hampstead Heath is a beautiful big park in London, which I just adore. At the top of the park is Kenwood House, an old manor house which is now run as museum and restaurant.

Kenwood House is licensed to perform marriages and I loved the idea of having my wedding there. I could picture myself coming out of this big white building, family and friends around me and looking out over rolling parkland at all the families picnicking and the kids running around. I just thought it would be perfect.

Hiring a manor house does not come cheap but I was encouraged to see that they also do a reception package in the kitchen, which is a good sized room, and can be decorated in something called “shabby chic”: which seems to involve a lot of meadowy flowers in mismatched vintage milk jugs and oldie worldie style table cloths and doiles and so on.

Her own mother however (my grandmother), was “in service” from the age of 12 and clearly, the experience has cast a long enough shadow that the idea of celebrating anything “below stairs” still carries with it a sense of horror and shame. Even for the next generation. Even 70 years later. And yet this response had not, for a second occurred to me.

In case you were wondering: here's how it turned out

I am genuinely pleased to hear that the experiences of women are seriously being included in mainstream dialogue, and I am pleased to hear that people are looking for tangible solutions to sexual assault, harassment and rape. I fear, however, that positing CCTV as the answer takes a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to crime, and ignores the very nature of sexual crimes themselves.

The first, and possibly most important thing to note, is that the effectiveness of CCTV is controversial. The effectiveness of CCTV varies wildly, depending on location, number of cameras in place and the types of crimes being filmed. CCTV tends to be successful, for example, in car parks, and does reduce the rate of vehicle related crimes. Where CCTV is dramatically less effective, and why I take such issue with CCTV, is in relation to sexual assault.

If CCTV is installed as a reaction to the concerns of women, should we not be looking to women for the kinds of solutions they’d like to see? If so, CCTV is definitely not the answer. Before serious research was done into the impact of CCTV, many researchers claimed that they expected young women to be the class of people who would most see the benefits of CCTV, but this has been completely disproved by a huge body of literature.

In fact, the highest rate of dissatisfaction with CCTV is among young women who feel that their civil liberties are being breached, and the ‘advantages’ do not outweigh this breach. Many doubt the effectiveness of CCTV as a deterrent, and stated that they thought other methods of prevention would be better (increased lighting, for example). Many women also said that CCTV doesn’t even make them feel safer because they are aware that it is not preventative, and will have no impact if they are attacked.

Another major problem with CCTV is how much it costs to install and maintain. I recently read through Edinburgh City Council’s response to a Freedom of Information request to find out exactly how much CCTV costs. Dependent on where the camera is installed (factors such as proximity to utilities need to be taken into consideration), the average cost is £26,000 PER CAMERA (I will provide this email, if anyone wants it). To be installed in The Meadows, the cost is likely to be considerably higher. Plus the cameras, once installed, need to be maintained, and, according to ECC, this costs around £114,000. (£114, 000 is the price of Edinburgh’s camera maintenance team).That’s an incredibly large and potentially useful amount of money, and I thought I’d outline other things that you could do with the price of one camera:

1 counsellor’s wage for a year who could then provide therapy to 20 women per week.
£30,000 in the hands of Women’s Aid could support 5000 women.
In fact, just £100 could allow Women’s Aid to support up to 16 women…

If we go by NUS’s statistics, 1 in 7 women will be the victim of a sexual attack during their time at university. A body such as The University of Edinburgh has around 16,800 women, meaning approximately 2400 women will experience rape, harassment or violence. If we then accept the oft-cited statistic that only 1 in 10 attacks are ‘stranger’ attacks, we can estimate around 240 women at The University of Edinburgh have been attacked by someone they didn’t know. I don’t think cameras on The Meadows are the best way to protect/support these 240 women. We also run the threat of ignoring the other 2,160 women at our university who are victims.

So why are we spending this money on cameras?
The money that we have should be directed into more successful preventative methods, but it should also be directed into supporting women who have already been abused and who are living with the consequences.

Practically speaking, that is why I am against CCTV. Women don’t want it, it is costly and it is not effective. But I think there are far more deep-rooted problems with CCTV, and it is indicative of a very patriarchal way of dealing with these issues.

Firstly, CCTV is voyeuristic and controlling. It treats women like children, incapable beings there to be protected. This has historically been the condition of woman. Passed from Father to Husband (a very physical manifestation of this is the weird ritual of being ‘walked down the aisle’), women are always under surveillance and CCTV is just a form of modern day paternalism.

It’s part of the culture that says women need to learn to ‘look after themselves’, and, whilst being street-savvy might be useful, it’s not the cure to the violent misogyny of sexual abuse. It’s this kind of ‘only walk on paths with good lighting, near roads, and preferably take a taxi’ that I find riddled with victim-blaming. I want to walk home without fear of being attacked, but I also want to walk home whenever I want without being watched. Not only do I want these things, I have the right to them.

There is a whole literature on women’s mistrust of CCTV (for a particularly good example, read ‘The Gaze Without Eyes’, Koskela (2000), Progress in Human Geography). Some of it is down to the way women perceive surveillance, and the perception of surveillance as gendered. Women more frequently inhabit places likely to be monitored with CCTV (shopping malls, public transport), and men are more likely to be the voyeur (the security guard watching, for example). When women are aware that their attacker is a male, they are obviously going to be mistrusting of a ‘male’ solution.

A further problem women often see with CCTV is the power imbalance it represents. Koskela makes this point succinctly in her aforementioned paper:

As used by an abuser, a ‘look’ can be as effective a weapon as physical violence: ‘[p]ower and the gaze are always linked in the mind of the intimidated’ (MacCannell and MacCannell, 1993: 215). Looking connotates power, and being looked at powerlessness. Harassment makes the gaze reproduce the embodiment and sexualization of women.

CCTV is a perfect example of unwanted voyeurism. Women, according to Koskela, are brought up to fear ‘Peeping Toms’, and surveillance cameras are the same kind of voyeurism. I go further than Koskela, I think they’re worse than this, I think that they are state-legitimised Peeping Toms that only serve to perpetuate fear culture. It’s as dystopian as 1984, only with the added offensiveness of being gendered. In fact, research shows that people’s motivations for using CCTV are 5 times more likely to be down to voyeurism than protectionism. We do not want these eyes watching us.

So, some practical solutions. How would I best tackle sexual assault, specifically on campus?

I firstly think we need good campaigns, ones that don’t victim blame. For example, the campaign launched by Liverpool Council earlier this year, in which they distributed beer mats around the city showing a girl passed out at a party carrying the tagline “Can’t answer? Can’t Consent. Sex without consent is rape.” or the www.notever.co.uk campaign. People need to know where they stand in terms of the law. Over 50% of people according to those NUS statistics said they didn’t come forward because they thought their attacker didn’t ‘do anything wrong’. They very clearly did, and we need men and women to be aware of this.

I also think we need strong support for existing survivors. In a slut-shaming and naming, victim-blaming world it’s often very difficult for women to come forward in the first place. We need good counselling services, we need to liase with successful charities that can provide help (Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis etc) so that women know there is absolutely no shame in coming forward.

We need successful preventative measures- better lighting always makes women feel more confident and safe.

But, most importantly, we need to create social change. Women are not there to be abused or dominated. We are not subservient and we are not weak. We are human beings with rights, and they need to be respected. We need to create a society that respects women and challenge sexist and misogynistic views wherever we see them.