rs21 IWD meeting: No More Blurred Lines

Watch the video from rs21’s event ‘No More Blurred Lines: sexism and exploitation in the neoliberal era’ organised for International Women’s Day 2014.

By Christmas 2013, Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines had become the best selling song of the year. The song (which was later banned at several universities for lyrics that seemed to legitimise, even celebrate, rape) summed up the vicious and relentless raunch culture that has emerged in recent years. Alongside this, women have been one of the worst groups affected by the Tories austerity agenda.

Despite this, the past five years has seen a steady resurgence in the women’s movement across the globe. Women have been at the forefront of fighting sexual assault on campus, striking in Egypt and struggling for abortion rights in Spain.

Speaking at the meeting – organised by rs21 for International Women’s Day – were:

• Tithi Bhattacharya, a professor of East Asian history at Purdue University in Indiana. She has written extensively on gender violence under neoliberalism and social reproduction theory.
• Sara, an Egyptian activist and revolutionary involved in Operation Anti-Sexual Harrassment. Read an interview with Sara about OpAntiSH.
• Mireia Gargallo, a Catalunyan trade unionist involved in the indignados in 2012 and most recently in the Spanish protests for abortion rights.
• Jen Wilkinson, an education worker, Unison activist and member of rs21 in east London.