Category: Unit 2

Intro:The reason why I always want to study feminism is that I believe women have great power and potential ,but they have not been fully accepted and utilized, the world is controlled  by man, they set the rules and tell woman what is right what is wrong ,what is beauty and what is ugly, after many years of women movement ,feminism are gradually growing in some countries and achieved success to some extent ,but it is not enough, we still have a long way to go.

At the beginning of my project ,my research is more about the male’s bullying in aesthetic area ,but during a journey in the independent study time , some personal experience (rob, sexual harassment)had totally changed the direction of research. I have realized that because of the physical disparity between men and women ,we can hardly be equal ,even we work hard ,study hard ,we can be a financially independent ,spiritual independent modern women ,but when a man’s fist hits us, woman can only suffer . safety is the basic right as human being , but women is still facing gender-based violence today which has been a global crisis in the world since the pandemic(2021),and i believe that is the most urgent thing we should cope with immediately.

Question:After a series of investigations ,I redefined my research question as -How can i help to ensure women’s safety based on the physical disparity between man and woman?I wish I can do something to improve the terrible situation.

Research Methodology :Then I used a range of research approaches to gather data and test ideas ,including observation ,internet research ,social media research ,archive research ,online survey, interview ,and experimental .First of all ,i went to many museums or art galleries to see different artworks related to feminism and observed peoples reaction,for example ,Feminine power-the divine to the demonic in the British Museum.Secondly ,i did a lot of recommended reading,like The second sex ,A room of one’s own and read many articles on the internet which give me a more comprehensive understanding of feminism and the state of Woman’s safety issue .Thirdly ,an online survey was design to ascertain the participants,More than 185 people involved to this survey, and 11 peoples shared that they experienced the similar gender-based violence,at the same time, i also did an offline interview in Wembley which located in the northwest of London and been considered a dangerous area.Last but not least ,I emailed to two women organizations(UK Woman and Forward)to apply to be a volunteer ,this could be a good chance for me to go deeper into the research.

Intervention: In addition ,two interventions was created to test my idea.The first one is an offline performance art ,a short , delicate,young Asian girl took a luggage and worn a black coat with poster and slogan(Please don’t hurt me when I walk alone) pined on it ,walking alone on the street in the outside of St.Pancras International station in London which have a mix of people. The results shows that male’s curiosity about a young girl are more than females,many man noticed my coat and two of them are even got very close to watch it，by contrast ,women always keep a proper distance.

The second one is an online campaign ,i registered an account on two influential platforms, the one is Redbook(Chinese Instagram and 80% user are educated females), another one is Weibo(Chinese Twitter),I also updated two blogs about feminism and woman’s safety issue, stakeholders could share their experience or advice in this place .The reason  I created this intervention is that when I collected data on the internet ,I found that we don’t even have a unofficially ,non-profit women organization in China ,and which proved the underdeveloped of feminism in my country.

Audience: My stakeholder are mainly related to Chinese females who also are the user of the two platforms, as well as the man ,woman charities ,woman organizations in London.

Strengths and weakness:The strengths of my project is that I have abundant resources to use in London,like different woman charities and organizations ,the development of Feminism in Western countries is far ahead of the east countries , i can learn a lot from them ,what more ,the free and open atmosphere is good for launching campaigns,by comparison,feminism in China is still a relatively sensitive topic and not welcome by man,unfamiliar to woman ,that is the biggest challenge for me ,i might face a lot of incomprehension and criticize.

Concluding: As for me ,with the in-depth study f project, Ido learned a lot from it ,firstly ,i gained a lot of knowledge about different female culture and history .Secondly ,i contacted many related people and initially established a network of relationships, their experience and suggestions is really helpful to my research . The most important is that I am getting to know myself better as a woman, my desire ,my passion, my power, and I am so happy to be able to make a little change to this world.

Reference:

1.Woolf, V. (1929). A Room Of One’s Own. Hogarth Press.

2.De Beauvoir, S. (1949). The Second Sex. Vintage Classics.

3.Hannam, J. (2016). Feminism. Taylor & Francis.

4.Tong, R. and Fernandes, T. (2017). Feminist thought : a more comprehensive introduction. New York, Ny: Westview Press.

5.上野千鶴子, 1948- Author. Chizuko Ueno, Zou, Y. and Xue, M. (2020b). 父权制与资本主义 / Fu quan zhi yu zi ben zhu yi. 浙江大学出版社, Hang Zhou: Zhe Jiang Da Xue Chu Ban She.

6.Caroline Criado Perez (2019). Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. S.L.: Vintage.

7.Frith, H. (2001). Young Women, Feminism and the Future: Dialogues and Discoveries. Feminism & Psychology, 11(2), pp.147–151.

8.Andrews, M. (2006). I. Breaking Down Barriers: Feminism, Politics and Psychology. Feminism & Psychology, 16(1), pp.13–17. doi:10.1177/0959-353506060814.

9.Feminisms and Social Media A Special Issue of Feminism & Psychology. (2016). Feminism & Psychology, 26(1), pp.128–129. doi:10.1177/0959353516631672.

10.Calder-Dawe, O. and Gavey, N. (2016). Jekyll and Hyde revisited: Young people’s constructions of feminism, feminists and the practice of ‘reasonable feminism’. Feminism & Psychology, 26(4), pp.487–507. doi:10.1177/0959353516660993.

11.Duggan, M. (2019). Reflections on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (England and Wales). Journal of Gender-Based Violence. doi:10.1332/239868019×1553858480933.

12.London City Hall. (2018). Women’s Night Safety Charter. [online] Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/24-hour-london/womens-night-safety-charter.

13.Sky News. (n.d.). The Great Debate: Are women safe on our streets? The key facts. [online] Available at: https://news.sky.com/story/the-great-debate-are-women-safe-on-our-streets-the-key-facts-12423256.

14.SafetyDetectives. (2021). Research: Women’s Safety Around the World. [online] Available at: https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/womens-safety-research/#review-1 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].

15.Birmingham City University. (n.d.). Women’s Safety Movement. [online] Available at: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/english/news/blog/womens-safety-movement [Accessed 31 Aug. 2022].

i registered an account on two influential platforms, the one is Redbook(Chinese Instagram and 80% user are educated females), another one is Weibo(Chinese Twitter),I also updated two blogs about feminism and woman’s safety issue, stakeholders could share their experience or advice in this place .The reason  I created this intervention is that when I collected data on the internet ,I found that we don’t even have a unofficially ,non-profit women organization in China ,and which proved the underdeveloped of feminism in my country.

Intervention: a small campaign

Photographer:KK

Location:Kings cross

Date:25/08/2022

i design this intervention to test if this form of campaign could attract peoples attention and raise their awareness about woman’s safety ,especially when woman walk alone or travel alone in a different country ,so i took a luggage to pretend i was traveling here, and my coat is just like a signal to keep me safe.

Reflection: i do got a lot of attention from this campaign, whenever i walk or sit down ,people will noticed my poster and even got close to see it ,but i not sure of their truly feeling ,Is this behavior work ?positive or negative?

With the help of Yu Kong ,i designed a poster with slogan ,and the purpose of the slogan is raise people’s awareness about woman’s safety ,especially the male , , and pin it on my coat.

I went to a exhibition about feminine in The British Museum, it shows that how the feminine could be explained and understood by different culture, which give me more new perspective .

This artwork challenge a longstanding tradition in Christina art of depicting a male deity creating life, this vibrant print ,which related to a large-scale embroidery, reimagines the creation of the word from an overtly Western feminist perspective.it depicts a female deity in a birthing position.her body erupts with life as primordial creature flow and evolve from her vulva.

Jewish mystical texts identify Lilith as the first wife of Adam, created by god at the same time from the same earth,Asserting equality with her husband, she refused to lie beneath him during sex and fled Eden rather than subordinate herself to him.this is an image about transgression, about a woman putting two fingers up to male power.

Woman are relate to the nature and creation, passion and desire, magic and malice, justice and defence, compassion and salvation, we must believe we have the power to change the world .

interviewer: Shuangshuang luo

Interviewee:Gibeleen ,African ,working in pharmaceutical drugs development.

Photographer:KK

Date :23/08/2022

Address: Wembley park

In order to know other people ‘s opinions and their experience about woman’s safety in London, i interviewed Gibeleen, who is from Africa and lives in London for many years, she talked about the different culture and background people in London, especially the immigration and international workers ,it’s hard to find a way to regulate them all ,as well as the current situation of juvenile offenders, the lack of family education ,some of them are raised by single mother. there are many complex reason leads to the criminal.

And she shared with me the change in Africa, woman are starting to fight for their right in some big cities ,but for the remote regions and villages, woman are still not been treated equally, they are been treated by safety issues and conservative culture.

Ref:

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/24-hour-london/womens-night-safety-charter

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/travelwatch-survey-women-travel-night-safety-concerns-sarah-everard-sabrina-nessa-b978649.html

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/we-need-to-change-the-way-we-talk-about-womens-safety-in-london-101221

I contact two organizations (UN WOMEN and FORWARD)which are committed to woman’s issues.For a deeper research and hoping to be helpful ,I applied to be a volunteer.

There is a blog about giving girls a hand on the Action Aid website, then i shared my advice for young girls.Doing project from the smallest change that i can do ~

I posted my travel story on a Chinese platform (Chinese Instagram),which sparked  a heated discussion.

More than 185 people involved to this topic, and 11 peoples said they had the similar experience, most of them are girls and had been work ,study ,or travel to Europe. all the complain is not only about the robber but also the police, As a government department ,ensuring people’s safety and punishing criminals is clearly their duty, but they don’t take it seriously ,that’s might the main reason why criminals are so rampant ,and many kind people suggest that if girls go to the Europe ,they should:

• Do not wear revealing clothes
• Do not carry luxury bags
• Do not talk to strangers
• Back home before sunset.
• it’s better to go with males friends

This is so ridiculous ,safety is the most basically right for human being ,But today ,in such a highly civilized era, we still be threats by violence, in particularly ,the gender-based violence.

What can i do to make a small change ?

I shared with Geogeos my unlucky experience and told him that i want to change the direction of my research at the tutorial in July, he gave me all his support and some useful advice, The first step is that i need to redefine my research question.

So i did a lot second research on the internet about the issue of Women safety .Finding that gender-based violence has been a global crisis in the world since the pandemic. There are many  charities or organizations ,like Woman’s Aid,UN Women, they arranged a series of woman movements to protect woman from criminal(those criminal are mainly include murder, rape, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and domestic violence), provide training service for young girls, or try to improve the law system.

UN Woman  suggests that what government can do to protect woman from gender-based violence:

• Increase resources for shelters, hotlines and other services so that they can meet heightened demand.
• Protect elected and non-elected women leaders from gender-based violence. Any efforts to protect and combat violence against women in politics must consider women in all their public roles, including women civil servants and experts.
• Consider the communication needs of older women and women with limited access to ICT –– e.g. by setting up emergency warning systems in pharmacies and grocery stores.
• Make information and communication channels accessible for women with disabilities.
• Scale up public awareness campaigns, particularly those targeted at men and boys.
• Develop and implement measures to address online and ICT facilitated violence.
• Increase funding to women’s organizations. Evidence shows that the strength of women’s organizations is one of the biggest factors in driving positive EVAW policy changes.
• Ensure women’s economic independence by enabling access to and control over regular, secure and long-term income.

Men, particularly in London and other large cities, shared suggestions of things they could do to make women feel safer on the streets on social media.

They include:

• Don’t walk behind women in the street and cross the road if you are
• Keep your distance and give space if overtaking
• Don’t stare
• Don’t make comments
• Remove your face mask, hat or hoodie if wearing one
• Don’t be a passive bystander if you see inappropriate behavior or a woman looking uncomfortable
• Walk your female friends and relatives home

Collaborate with woman artist to arouse social awareness

 

I do believe scale up public awareness campaigns, educate man and young boy are more urgent and important than to ask girls to stay at home ,don’t walk alone or learn some defense skills.

I do wish my project could be helpful for those woman safety issue ,even it is a small change .

My new research question will be : How can I help to ensure woman’s safety .

and my stakeholders will be the relate charities ,woman groups and organization, woman who were been attacked by man.

Reference:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/26/when-will-women-feel-safe-on-uk-streets

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/english/news/blog/womens-safety-movement

https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/womens-safety-research/#review-1

https://news.sky.com/story/the-great-debate-are-women-safe-on-our-streets-the-key-facts-12423256

https://www.unwomen.org/en/hq-complex-page/covid-19-rebuilding-for-resilience/gender-based-violence?gclid=CjwKCAjw3qGYBhBSEiwAcnTRLgmAvqt-w9N3JQVyFt4vRd3lggL2XGSo0EoSxUI0x5Rny9N2jtMYSxoCMbIQAvD_BwE

The reason why I always want to research  feminism is that I believe woman are still disadvantage groups in the world , especially the physical disparity between men and woman ,we can never be equal ,even woman work hard ,study hard ,we can be a financially independent ,spiritual independent modern woman ,but when a man’s fist  hits us, we can do nothing but suffer .

I used to work on feminism about Aesthetic bullying ,man control the aesthetic area ,they create beauty what they think is beauty . I think it’s time for us  to create beauty with female’s  own consciousness and aesthetic.

During this independent study ,I traveled to some countries and want to find some new inspiration for my project, but i experienced some very bad things that changes me a lot ,I realized that woman’s safety is really a big problem in today ,and it is a  more urgent matter than aesthetic bullying that I should work for.

When I traveled to France with my friend ,one day night ,we were been robbed by more than 6 masked black man ,they stole my friend’s bag and phone and beat her ,at that time ,a local man happened pass by, i cried out to him for help ,but he refused to help us and just run away ,we were terribly scared and had a strong feeling of helpless,then  just watch those  criminal do what they want (all of our carry-on belongings and commit violence ),even we call the police, they don’t take it  seriously, because it happens a lot .

After this accident ,besides  physical injured ,the mental damage is more seriously ,when i travel alone to some other country ,even at the daytime walking on the street ,i will be very scared if i meet some tall ,strong, weird man, not to mention going to the bar for a drink at night.

I can not help to think about that night, if we were man ,i think we might not been robbed ,or even we are been robbed, we can fight against them ,but we are woman ,short and delicate, we can do nothing but cry in such a dangerous situation, and if i were a man ,i can go anywhere without worries, this is a manifestation of gender inequality, we have to admit that male innate physical strength is a threaten to woman to some extent.So ,how can we insurance the woman’s safety based on the gender physical disparity?