Category: Journal

So last night something amazing happened. This…

Standing-room only for a talk about feminism in Waterstones flagship store in London Piccadilly, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it.

Anna James, Holly Smale, CJ Daugherty and I spend a lot of our spare time bemoaning the patriarchy. So we thought we’d add in an audience and see if people were interested. You. Are. Interested. It was a magical, empowering, inspiring evening and I love how many kick-ass feminists came to listen. Here are my best bits.

• My left boob had a lot to say. Before we’d even started, we turned on the mikes and mine deafened the room with extremely loud interference. I didn’t know my left boob had so much to say about the patriarchy, or that it was so impatient to do so. But the evening started with me having to apologise to a room full of packed people for my angry boob and that basically set up the mood for the rest of the evening.
• Holly Smale’s feminism omelette. Holly S made some great points about how different authors are ‘breaking eggs into the feminism omelette’ in different ways. It was SUCH an important point to make on how we class a book ‘feminist’ or not. Yes, Geek Girl has modelling in it but it has SUCH a strong message of empowerment and being true to yourself. As Holly S said, female characters don’t have to “shoot a squirrel through an eye at 20 metres” to be feminist.
• When CJ kept giving me goosebumps, so much so that I had to clutch her. She talked about Allie’s journey in Night School and how she went from always being the girl who’s rescued, to rescuing herself. I got all emotional and just sort of grabbed at her and she was awfully nice about it.
• Anna’s insightful comments about pubic hair. And how she’s noticed it’s only ever male writers who write descriptions of women’s pubic hair in sex scenes. Particularly ‘the historical novels and the blossoming bushes’. You can NEVER UNSEE this now.
• The fact that I wasn’t politely asked to leave. I mean, I at one-point went ‘off-piste’ and started imagining aloud Katniss dripping period blood onto The Careers when she was stuck up that tree. And then I lost my temper and got…rather animated when a question came up about men who feel using the word ‘feminist’ emasculates them. I yelled the word “BALLS” a lot, and at some point screeched “I’M THE ANGRY FEMINIST MONSTER OF YOUR NIGHTMARES” and yet nobody told me to get in the sea, so thanks for that.

The amazing people who came. You asked insightful and challenging questions – about intersectional feminism and your concerns for the future of feminism. You told us of your own feminist battles. You were empowered and enlightened and just…ON-IT and I feel so positive about the future of feminism with a room full of people like you. So thank you so much for coming!

And one more thing – ONLY THREE DAYS UNTIL HOW HARD CAN LOVE BE? COMES OUT!!!!!