Sister Resisters!*

0 CommentsSunday • November 20, 2011 • by anna-marie

Friend of Pamflet Anna Fielding and I attended the Fawcett Society‘s Don’t Turn Back Time march and rally against The Cuts yesterday in a very sunny and gloriously autumnal London. Some had objected to Fawcett’s fancy dress suggestion of 1950s garb, but on the day a rabble of (mostly) ladies wearing natty tied headscarves, bright red lipstick and big skirts certainly made for a lot of extra attention and a jolly atmosphere on route. The mess we’re in right now isn’t much to celebrate, but it was reassuring to join a couple of thousand other people who want to support Fawcett’s work and there were smiles as marchers held wooden spoons, feather dusters and old cereal boxes repurposed as signs proudly aloft.

As we gathered for the rally on King Charles Street at the end of the march I was imagining what if Topshop ever did tryhardtrend protest chic with a pack including whistle, DIY sign, loudspeaker and facepaint :/ I was appalled when I saw evil V*ce’s utterly ridiculous ‘riot grrrls’ fashion shoot at the student demonstrations last year (and I definitely I won’t link to it here). Some things are just too precious to just be labelled ‘cool’ and packaged up as a trend in a crappy magazine. So even if everyone looked rather nice at yesterday’s march, there was a serious point being very well made by a lot of chanty, passionate attendees and an inspiring lineup of speakers invited along by the Fawcett Society.

The extremely cute and funny Josie Long came straight from her 6Music show to chat about why she’s a feminist and made everyone laugh, the occasionally disagreeable-in-print journalist Tanya Gold shouted us into cheering for her (she was very good!) and Chitra Nagarajan representing the Southall Black Sisters reminded everyone that ‘the only people these protests intimidate are the government’.

Right on sister resisters! Keep up-to-date with Fawcett’s Don’t Turn Back Time campaign by signing up to their newsletter here.

*This is how one of the speakers addressed us yesterday – it made Anna and I very happy.

Posted in: FEMINISM, LONDON, TRYHARDTREND

Tagged with: Fawcett Society, feminism, Josie Long, London, protest chic, Tanya Gold, tryhardtrend, UK Uncut