April 9th, 2006
The F-word and the future
In today’s Observer woman magazine Louise France uses an interview with Periel Aschenbrand as a springboard to a debate on the future of feminism. Aschenbrand is more agit-prop sloganeer than academic feminist and uses fashion, popular culture and her own body as a vehicle for her ideas. Most famous for her ‘The only bush I trust is my own’ t-shirts, she attempts to get the attention of apathetic young women who she feels should be more politicised.
It’s an extensive article featuring plenty of Aschenbrand’s soundbytes but it also references Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan and Erica Jong with comment from Natasha Walters, Joan Smith and Catherine Redfern, who is behind the feminist website The F-word (which has a a blog). Redfern makes a simple, yet spot-on observation: “There are many ways to be a feminist and you can claim it for yourself” and estimates that there are “thousands” of feminist bloggers.
There are plenty of food-for-thought quotes in the piece, including one by Cosmopolitan editor Sam Baker who says of her readers “The new feminists are the old feminists. It’s the word feminism that is the problem. They [women] think it means anti-fun, anti-men, anti-sex. They find it censorious. No one is willing to stand up and take a lead.”
And it has the obligatory scary statistic: In the UK there were 65 per cent more cosmetic surgery procedures in 2005 than the year before - 92 per cent of them performed on women.
April 9th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
F word. Them’s fighting initials!
April 10th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
I read this article myself and felt that rather than using Periel Aschenbrand as, as you say a ’springboard’ to discuss the present and future of feminism it would have been more relevant to discuss her in relation to the political awarness and activities; the ‘politicalisation’ of ‘youf’ and not your teenages either but us in our twenties and thirties. Aschenbrand’s sloganeering had more to do with polical awareness as a whole even if it was the quick fix buy a t-shirt and look cool variety rather than any deep seated philosophy on feminism.
April 10th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
I have to say that I’m not sure what I think of Aschenbrand, especially as she seems so enamoured of publicity to the point of being selective about what she reveals publicly (see later in the article). She is very happy to call herself a feminist - so if she’s so interested in politicising young women, why not build on the initial attention received for the t-shirts and speak to these women about issues? Why not have a deep-seated feminist philosophy AND sell t-shirts?
That said, I’m inclined to agree about awareness and how you communicate to different demographics. If a t-shirt rather than watching Prime Time or Newsnight alerts people to an important issue they weren’t aware of, surely it’s all good?
Neva, I know you’ve worked with text in your art - do you consider Aschenbrand an artist?
April 11th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Oh that old chestnut! I think it comes back to intention of course if Aschenbrand counted herself as an artist using t-shirts to raise political awareness i wouldnt say she wasnt yet i would still have my criticisms. Artists have always worked in the are of politics and will continue to do so.
However i dont see Aschenbrand as one, but then neither do i see her as a leading young feminist - she seems wishy washy at best (she her comments re strip clubs). I think she just accidentally hit on a commercial idea and is running with it. Id have to read the book to say more.
But what is feminism today? Personally im confused. So its not about burning my bra anymore but is it about the right to hoist myself into a wonderbra and sleep with whoever i want or watch pneumatic lovelies display their wares while a slip another fiver into their thong along with the rest of the lads or is it the right to stay at home with your children wearing a pinny and getting the dinner ready for your breadwinner hubby? I dont know?