This morning I picked up a women’s magazine (I won’t say which because I’m about to be a little uncomplimentary and it’s my life’s ambition to remain un-sued for as long as possible)

80 Pages·1885·1.25 MB·English

by  Eve

The Brilliant Women Collection
Eve Merrier
Illustrated by Rebecca Bagley
www.bagleybooks.com
Copyright 2012 Eve Merrier
Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved
ISBN: 9781301831456
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Contents
Introduction
Women are:

Strong
Inventive
Cooperative
Political
Genuine
Determined
Conclusion
Introduction
This morning I picked up a women’s magazine (I
won’t say which because I’m about to be a little
uncomplimentary and it’s my life’s ambition to remain
un-sued for as long as possible). I bought it because
on the front cover it proudly announced that it was a
‘Love Your Body Special!’ and I was pleased to see
that they had tried to break out of the prevailing
culture of thin, tanned, air-brushed models to show a
wider variety of normal womanhood. For the first few
pages, they succeeded.
Unfortunately, by page 20 my head was in my hands:
it suggested that I should wear what looked to me like
an Elizabethan ruff to draw the eye away from larger
hips; that I should use a certain tanning product to
make my body look like that of a mannequin and that,
in order to gain the implausible abdominal toning of a
certain ex-‘Friends’ star, I should drink some sort of
kale and slime smoothie whilst holding myself in the
plank position until I can no longer feel my toes. If
looking like Jennifer Aniston was enough to make a
life truly fulfilling, the proliferation of ‘The Rachel’
haircut in the 1990s would have seen a concurrent
wave of euphoria that ended all our troubles. ( In
order for this text to remain relevant to a wider
audience and readers of the future, I ought to explain
my cultural references so, ‘Friends’ is a sitcom that
dominated TV scheduling in the nineties and noughties
to the extent that several channels seemed to show
only this on a perpetual loop. The premise was that six
nice looking New Yorkers all lived in implausibly
large apartments with only three walls and supported
each other through what appeared to be a mutual
chronic caffeine addiction which caused them to be
incapable of leaving a certain coffee shop.)
Back to the magazine, I then noticed they had
airbrushed smooth a certain celebrity’s knees! Are we
not even allowed to have knees any more? Much is
said about the media propagation of a very specific,
prescriptive ideal for women to aspire to: it simply
seems beyond unrealistic for us to spend all that time
toning, bronzing, waxing, plucking, moisturising,
conditioning and so on, as well as having to hide the
fact that we have functioning joints! A study found that
90% of girls agree that magazines and TV focus too
much on what women look like, rather than what they
achieve. I put down that magazine and went to my
bookshelves. I picked up the folder that is my own
personal antidote to the restrictive ideals of
womanhood I see too often. For a few years now I
have been collecting women. Not in a creepy keep-
them-in-my-cupboard sort of way. Every time I find
out about a truly inspirational woman, she gets a
section in the folder. Gradually it has grown and now I
can barely lift it. I call it my ‘Brilliant Women
Collection’.
It’s okay to read about fashion, health, celebrity and
beauty (in between the feminist rages I do find it all a
good laugh!) but do make sure that you don’t let
popular culture dictate who you should aspire to be
like or how you should look. I found out today that
32% of young women model themselves on Paris
Hilton (future people- she’s a hotel heiress, often seen
clutching tiny Chihuahuas dressed as people). Again,
if I didn’t have a fear of being sued I might mention
the many things she has done, (that span the spectrum
of ‘wow, really?’ to morally questionable to
incarceration-level illegal), that I believe make her a
far from ideal choice. But aside from that, I just think
that female achievement is far more wonderful and
multi-faceted than a good shoe-handbag coupling. A
recent study showed that girls aged 7-11 cited people
like Hannah Montana (pink and sparkly Disney
singer) and Lady Gaga (wife of Lord Gaga of Oxford.
I kid, she’s another flamboyantly dressed singer) as
role models. Inspired by their idols, when they grow
up they want to be ‘mums, teachers, nurses,
hairdressers, movie stars, singers, writers and artists’,
all of which are fine, but all of which conform to
gender expectations. At this young age, when a career
is purely hypothetical, they have already limited the
scope of their aspirations. Where are our future
scientists, politicians, astronauts, builders, business
people, lawyers, engineers or any of the huge range of
available professions? 60% of older teenage girls felt
that they could not be an engineer because it is a
‘male job’ and noted the lack of female role models as
a key factor that puts them off.
The fact is that these were traditionally male roles, but
feminism has brought us some of the way towards
equality and young women need to know that they are
capable of much more than the limited life-choices
women were stuck with in the past. New role models
give us the idea that perhaps we too can achieve
something in that sector. The problem is, we’re shown
a lot of a certain type of women in a limited number of
professions in popular culture and we don’t get to
hear about the brilliant women succeeding in other
sectors. I believe there should be a balance and that
all sorts of remarkable women should be lauded for all
sorts of achievements beyond appearance and
celebrity. So, in order to redress the weighting in what
I like to call the Kardashian/Merkel Ratio, (reality TV
star/World Leader) here is a collection of interesting,
talented, intelligent women all of whom I greatly
admire. If you would like to pick a role model, these
people are a good place to start (better, I would
suggest, than the pages of the glossies). All of them
have achieved great things and wouldn’t have put up
with any of this no-knee-nonsense!
Magazines are just one example of the way in which
culture dictates ‘appropriate’ roles for women,
reinforcing and promoting the myths that we first
encounter in the beautiful, but helpless, princesses of
fairytales. If we’re all aiming for an imaginary
archetype, ‘perfection’ in beauty and manner, we’ll
miss a great deal of interesting stuff while we’re
starching our ruffs and liquidising lunch. But if rock
hard abdominal muscles are what you really want, at
least plank with something stimulating (perhaps this
text) secured under your elbows (are we still allowed
to have elbows?) and dilute the images of reality stars
and beauty queens with scientists, political figures,
artists, inventors, revolutionaries and all sorts of
geniuses. I have selected a few wonderful women from
the collection to share with you here. They have all
taught me a great deal. Hopefully they will inspire you
to reach your most brilliant potential in what ever
suits you best. Take your passion and make it happen!
Strong
Fortitude- n. courage in adversity
From fortis ‘strong’
From Hans Christian Anderson to Hollywood, the
ubiquitous ‘Damsel in Distress’ has historically
waited to be rescued by a handsome man with a white
stallion, her glass slipper, and a romantic proposal.
But why simper about submissively, holding on for
someone else to save the day? In the fairytales my
feminist parents read me, empowered princesses
tamed dragons, architectured and built their own
castles and kept track of their own footwear! It would
be fantastic to be fearless, but in reality, there are
always going to be things that we find daunting. In
that situation it is far better to do what needs to be
done your way, than to revert to passive princess
mode!
Dolly Parton said ‘if you want the rainbow, you gotta
put up with the rain.’ When things are going badly, it
is not the end of the world. All things pass, as the
Buddha said. The strength we gain from enduring bad
times is invaluable and as we grow older, we see that
however deep the pain, we can survive it, doing the
best we can in each situation. Sometimes that just
means mustering the strength to get up in the morning
and to keep on going.
Bravery can also mean acting when there’s something
wrong that needs changing or something that needs to
be said. Courage is going beyond what is comfortable;
taking a risk for the greater good and to stand up for
yourself and others. I’m naturally quiet, but I also have
strong opinions. This caused a friend to remark that I
won’t start an argument, but I certainly can finish one!
Speaking up is a skill I had to learn and I still have to
muster a lot of courage to face certain situations. All of
the women in this book have been brave; they have
ignored gendered expectations in order to fulfil their
potential and make meaningful contributions to the
world. The women in this chapter, particularly, have
shown me that women can speak up and that having
opinions and convictions is something to be proud of.
Jayaben Desai (1933-2010)
‘A person like me, I am never scared of
anybody.’
-Jayaben Desai, Workers’ Rights Activist
Imagine life back in the 1970s: flared trousers were
big, hair was bigger and misogyny was as fashionable
as tie dye and lava lamps. In the early 70s only just
over 50% of women worked and they earned an
average of 35% less than a man in the same job.
Industry and politics remained heavily male-
dominated. One brave woman defied that trend to
stand up against injustice. She created the biggest
mobilisation in the history of the UK labour movement
and changed the rights of working women forever.
Jayaben Desai was a wonderful campaigner and
activist who began The Grunwick Strike. This was a
massive turning point in the way British employers
saw immigrant workers and highlighted racism and the
oppression of women.
Jayaben Desai was born in Gujurat in India in 1933.
She moved to Tanzania with her husband in the 1950s
where they formed part of the middle classes.
Everything soon changed; political upheaval caused
the Asian population to be expelled and they were
forced to move to England. Here the social status of
immigrants was poor and they had to take on low-paid
manual work. She initially worked part-time sewing in
a sweatshop whilst she brought up two children.
In 1976, Jayaben was working for the Grunwick
photographic and print processing company where
conditions were appalling. The mostly female staff
were on low wages, forced to do overtime and
constantly threatened with dismissal. The managers
had employed Asian women because they weren’t
union members; they admitted that they thought they
could treat them poorly and pay them lower wages
with no consequences. Jayaben decided that they
weren’t going to take it any more. She said to her
manager, 'What you are running is not a factory, it is a
zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals.
Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips.
Others are lions who can bite your head off. We are
those lions, Mr Manager'. She walked out taking a
hundred workers with her.
On Monday 23rd August 1976 they arrived at the
factory brandishing home-made placards demanding
union representation. Recounting that time, she said, ‘I
suggested forming a union. They asked me, how? I
said I didn’t know either but between us we could all
find out.’ She was never afraid to venture into the
unknown to do what was right. They got in touch with
Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and
Computer Staff who called on the support of a wider
labour movement to call a general strike. In June 1977
a mass picket saw 84 people arrested and made the
news, partly because of large-scale police violence.
She rejected any idea that women should be passive;
she went round to the houses of other women and
explained to their more old-fashioned husbands and
fathers why they needed to let women take part in the
strike. She also inspired hundreds of women to assert
themselves and stand up to authority. The factory
owner bullied and threatened them, making sexist
comments and saying he would ruin their reputations