Who broke feminism? The obligation of privilege by Emma Rees

Women Being Conference in Edinburgh starts in only 5 days and we couldn’t be more excited! With speakers from 28 different countries and all the continents, Women Being Project is happy to present our opening speaker – Emma Rees.

Emma Rees was born in Birmingham and went to UEA to get a BA and PhD. Emma Rees is Professor of Literature and Gender Studies at the University of Chester, and Director of the Institute of Gender Studies. She has written extensively in the field of gender and representation, and her most recent book, The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History (Bloomsbury) came out in paperback early in 2015. She is currently finishing her third book, due to be published in 2018, which has the working title of That is a Feminist Issue.

In anticipation of her new book, and on the back of her successful ‘Vulvanomics’ speaking tour (30+ dates in Europe and the US), Emma Rees brings to Edinburgh her thoughts on: ‘Who broke feminism?’

“Is feminism broken? And how might we mend it? The term itself has an image problem at a time when the idea is needed more than ever. Why do people denounce the word while swearing by the very same phrases that so often follow the claim: ‘I’m not a feminist, but…’? This talk shatters some of the myths about feminism and answers the crucial question: ‘Why “feminism” and not “equality”?’ Professor Rees explores how women are systematically exploited and abused, from Kensington to Kigali, because they are women. She discusses ideas of ‘choice feminism’, and ‘feminism lite’, and considers the feminist continuum, demonstrating how the ‘personal’ is, in fact, decidedly ‘political’. This is an at times humorous talk with a serious message. It’s about the virtues of feminist anger; of acknowledging economic and cultural privilege; and of thinking globally, acting locally, and agitating politically”

We couldn’t be more excited! Do not miss this Conference on Gender Studies and the Status of Women by Women Being Project on our contemporary world on the 10th and 11th of October.