#7 WE DON'T DO "EMPOWERMENT".
International Women's Month, why we don't do "empowerment" + more updates on our latest goings-on.
Welcome to Visible Platform's newsletter, The Platform.
This newsletter was created as we thought it was important to keep you updated on our journey and share resources to help you recognise, cope with and heal from incidents of public harassment.
If you like what we’re doing, subscribe and share with your friends 📣
March Reflections:
Happy International Women’s Month!
Did we all attend, participate in, or host a talk this month centred on the topic of women? Good.
If you didn’t, hang your head in shame. We all know women’s rights can only be talked about in the month of March- and now you’ve missed it! Better luck next year.
We joke, we joke. Mostly.
We think it’s great more attention is being given to the plight of equality. We think it’s problematic female empowerment has become a marketing tool. We think it’s important to question initiatives, companies, organisations or people who say the right thing on one day of the year and do the opposite every other 364 days.
This month we’ll be talking about why we don’t do “empowerment”, and the cryptic messaging behind female “self-improvement”. We hope you enjoy!
Visible Platform
Platform Updates:
📣 We spoke to the Feminist Society at Fortismere School about reclaiming space and challenging the normalisation of harassment.
🙋♀️ We participated in the Department for Transport’s Gender Equality Network panel on breaking the bias and how the “just” narrative negatively impacts data collection.
👩🏫 We gave a presentation to Criminology students at the University of Plymouth discussing how accessibility and mobility are affected by male default standards.
🤳🤳 Different types of harassers. We wrote a blog post on the different types of harassers women may experience on public transport.
What empowers you?
Female empowerment is very “in”.
Its meaning has been taken to new lengths by late capitalism that tells women they can be empowered as long as they buy the right things and consume the right way.
At Visible Platform we have a hard time buying the whole “empowerment” thing. Firstly we have to question whose empowering you? Are you empowered when a man, a company, or a brand tells you you are?
Over the last few years it’s become quite trendy to market self improvement as the ultimate form of empowerment, telling women that if they want to be empowered they really need to work on themselves- inside and out. Women need to lean in, the way men do. They need to be mentored in how to speak up, mentored in how to stand up, mentored some more for multiple other areas they were falling short in. At the same time women are also told to undertake “self-care”, spending money on their hair, their bodies, their lifestyles, their diets. All apparently to express their own self-love, which should ultimately empower them.
We’re told to be a boss, but to be kind to ourselves; demand more, but also be mindful. We’re told to be hard at times, soft at different times, unyielding and unapologetic, but not uptight or unlikable. Everything we do should reflect our efforts, but also be effortless.
We’re told to be a lot of things.
Never mind empowering, it's bloody exhausting. 🤯
And are men being told the same? Where’s the male CEO's best selling book telling men to lean in to parental duties and household labour? Where are the courses asking men to pay £££ so they can learn to stride confidently into a baby yoga class despite being the only man? Where are the mentors telling men they need to visualise themselves being good listeners if they want to truly believe and achieve it?
Women are not empowered by remoulding themselves to fit a male standard. Nor are we empowered when the “ideal woman” setting holds us to such unattainable and all-consuming standards. Women are empowered when the structural and societal obstacles that prevent us from succeeding are identified, challenged, and eradicated.
When we’re not penalised for motherhood. When we’re not dismissed by doctors. When our chances in court are not miniscule. When we're paid for our contributions. When we’re not sexualised in childhood. When our unequal treatment is not normalised.
#GirlBoss empowerment gives women blunt tools with which to individually address the inequalities they face. If we truly care about furthering equality, we must seek out and take up the sharp tools to actually dismantle the problems. And if you already have these tools and this power, share them.
The Platform Recommends:
📝 Action of the month: Sign this petition to End The Adultification Of Black Girls And Policing In Schools
👀 Check this out: Milk & Honey 🐝
An expressive safe space that allows young women and girls flourish and take ownership of H.E.R (Healing, Empowerment and Resilience) through 1:1 sessions and creative group projects.
📹 Watch: The Mayor of London’s office rightfully focusing on what needs to change…
Visible Platform is all about creating a community, so if you want to talk to us please email us on: info@visibleplatform.org
You can also message us on social media:
Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook
P.S. You’re receiving this because you’ve previously expressed interest in our work. But if you’d rather not hear these updates, you can unsubscribe at any time!