Meeting 6 - Protest In SL

The topic this week was ‘SL protest: is it effective?’
We first shared experiences we had of being involved in SL protests and what we felt had been achieved.
These experiences ranged from demonstrations over the bombing of Gaza to a protest against a contents thief.
Plot Tracer has written an article for the RL journal Red Pepper which includes details of protests carried out by SLLU and comments on their effectiveness.
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Left-unity-in-Second-Life

Some of the observations and questions :-
:it seems to be important to have a clear objective
:getting attention in RL seems to be a key
: I wonder . . . is it more important to be disruptive?
: or more effective to be imaginative?
:maybe disruptive enough just to get attention but not enough to be considered harassment?
: just the feeling of being able to do something with likeminded people may be enough
:not feeling like a lone voice in the wilderness can help prepare you for further action sometimes too
:a tool to get info out
: also about recruitment

There was a view that the other thing sl can be great for is getting info out to a large blogging community which can then get picked up more widely and that new media gives us lots of opportunities for awareness raising. We discussed the special opportunities offered by sl e.g. being able to create whole ‘theme parks’ or virtual museums
(We were diverted into an interesting discussion about the offer made to the woman who had recently given birth to 8 babies being made an offer to work in the porn industry.
http://www.womanist-musings.com/2009/02/now-porn-comes-calling-for-nadaya.html
Which led to musings about whether women in sl working as ‘escorts’ should form a Union.)
When we discussed the possibility of protesting about the rape sims in SL the whole debate around this issue was aired again. There were genuine differences in views about how effective such a protest would be. There are also differing views about the freedom in sl to enact any sexual fantasy. (See notes of previous meetings for more on this debate)
While not all were keen on the idea of an actual protest at a rape sim there was agreement on the need to air the issue and to try to provide information on the emotional risks involved.
Scylla has done a lot of work and a great job drafting information for female newbies in the form of a Survival Kit. We discussed the best format for presenting this. Everyone is encouraged to add to and comment by going to:-

http://womensresourcehub.wetpaint.com/page/Survival+Kit

Oh and thanks to Ellie we now have a peaceful garden, should we add a hot tub?
We didn’t have time to agree a topic for next week but it is International Women’s Day. Maybe this could be our topic for the meeting on the 8th March at 12 noon SLT.

Meeting 4 - Feminism

No topic was decided upon at previous meeting. A few suggestions were considered and we decided to opt for discussing feminism itself :)

To help start things off we watched the video linked to below, entitled 'What is feminism anyways':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3kk0kRD8C8

We spoke initially about perceptions of feminism and how the word -and it's true meaning - has been appropriated by, for example, right wing groups and is often perceived as a perjorative term.

Everyone in the group then had an opportunity to give insight into their journey/entry into feminism, which included:
discovering a name for something they had always known;
exploring alternatives to what was happening in our own lives;
experiences of inequality and discrimination - often in the workplace;
witnessing what women around us had been through;
dissatisfaction at life and options;
positive family influences;
through educational opportunities;
working in feminist organisations;
anger at injustice

Our words..
"..It was a gradual thing for me. I just realized nothing I was doing was for me and I was unhappy. And just seeing how much every woman I know has been through.."
'..I had to deal with "I can't hire you because you may get married and leave "...'
'..Those kind of things wake you up. I was told that they weren't sure about hiring me, they wanted to know if I had a responsible babysitter..

We spoke for a time about anger and how difficult that can be for women to express and how to try and use it positively. Some of us spoke of our wish not to be angry but to aim to work for consensus and cooperative working.
Some comments from the discussion:
"Anger as a motivator is good. As a modus operandi, it's probably counterproductive"
"i do not think it should be repressed more than anything if it is NOT a temper tantrum but logically and passionately presented"

The positive aspects of feminism in our lives were apparant:
"..powerful feminist role models"
"..I have been a NOW Chapter president for a number of years"
"..Not having to be a doormat.."

Some of us talked about the work we had been involved in as part of the women's movement, in Women's Shelters doing research, organiser for NOW groups, Women's Studies, Rape Crisis Centres.. Others talked of their desire to get more involved in feminist activism.

There was some consideration of how we might use the potential of SL to undertake activism, and utilise the possiblilites allowed by bringing women from all over the world together. It was noted that SL can be used to reinforce positive behaviours and practices, and that there are other social justice groups with whom we can work together. Following on from previous discussions about practical tasks (info kiosks etc) we can do here, we had a group member volunteer to start putting together a vendor with useful information/guides/support etc..

We ended by testing out some anti griefing toys (sending an unfortunate av into the skies!)