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Featured Feminist Creators
At FemLegal, we wish to support feminists in any way we can. Therefore, we've created our 'Real Talk' section for feminist artists, entrepreneurs and writers to publish their work!
If you are interested in having your work featured, please get in contact via our email address: femlegal@outlook.com
If you are interested in having your work featured, please get in contact via our email address: femlegal@outlook.com
INNER WARRIORESSInner Warrioress is a small business focused on enhancing women safety by creating UK legal safety keychains that support women in an emergency. In the last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that 4.9 million women in the UK had been victims of sexual assault in their lives. Therefore, Inner Warrioress aims to change this reality by empowering women to defend themselves in any situation, whether it is commonly walking anywhere at night, taking your morning jog or night walks, working night shifts, or hanging out with friends. Our keychain´s purpose is to make you feel safer by carrying the tools that could rescue you in a calamity.
Interested in purchasing one of these incredibly fashionable safety keychains? Visit the Inner Warrioress website here. 
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THE PAINTROOMThe Paintroom was founded by Jasmine Smith in Coventry, April 2020, prior to her graduating with a First-class BA in Photography. The Paintroom began as a hobby, painting in her spare time, Jasmine re-found her love, passion and enthusiasm for art which she had previously studied up until A-Level. Although the first national lockdown of COVID-19 came with its difficulties, painting allowed Jasmine to stay positive, expanding on her creative abilities, exploring her hobby to a new height. The Paintroom quickly blossomed into her full time job, with her business growing at a rate she could have never previously imagined; "I wanted to start creating art during lockdown as a way to help others who were struggling with self love, acceptance and body positivity." She began painting by drawing from her own experiences of struggling with mental health and self love. Since then, she has helped over 100 women to feel empowered, beautiful and confident in their own skin, helping others to learn that all bodies, shapes sizes are beautiful.
Looking to purchase one of these beautiful and body positive pieces? You can find the_paintroom on instagram here and the Etsy shop here! |
"“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
― Margaret Atwood”
Period Shame.
A piece by Kacy Sutton
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There is a cultural shame attached to periods that women can carry with them from childhood. As a cashier, I often notice women hide period products amongst their other purchases as if it’s too embarrassing for the world to know. It’s a badly kept secret that shouldn’t be one, and is often hidden out of habit from a childhood of hearing that it’s better to be quiet about it and just get on with life. In actuality, it’s something that impacts roughly 23% of our year (roughly based on monthly periods lasting 7 days each). It impacts our lives in so many ways.
Why is it that women are expected to carry on as normal without complaint whilst experiencing this? Painful cramps[1], exhaustion, and changes in mood, to name but a few symptoms, are supposed to be tolerated instead of making a fuss. It’s made important to soldier through it - God forbid someone notice and poke fun at it, using being on your period as an insult. Society has even found code words for it, such as time of the month. Often it is simply brushed over as ‘lady problems’. Coupled with the shame and embarrassment that many women feel, we’d feel weak for admitting that this monthly struggle is indeed a struggle that impacts us physically and emotionally. What’s so confusing is that, instead of any admiration or respect for dealing with our periods whilst getting on with our day, we are belittled and often made to feel humiliated about it. Action Aid UK[2] carried out research that revealed a quarter of UK women have faced period shaming. Always[3], a period product company, has revealed that 2 in 5 young people have been teased because of their period and 85% have tried to hide the fact that they’re on their period to peers. So how can we fix this? Is there any way to flip the narrative in order to change the shame attached to menstruating? Or is this simply a lifelong issue that we just have to tolerate and put up with the shame? The earliest example of period de-stigmatization that I can remember is from 2015 from Rupi Kaur[4], a spoken word poet and author. She posted the following images to Instagram that showed the reality of menstruating. Instagram deleted the post twice, stating it went against community guidelines. This was met with backlash and criticism, most notably from Rupi Kaur herself who had the following to say. I will not apologise for not feeding the ego and pride of [a] misogynist society that will have my body in underwear but not be okay with a small leak”. This was part of the beginning of a long struggle to normalise periods and their reality. Moving to mainstream media, we’ve all seen adverts for period products which often make a point of emphasising how discreet their products are and shielding away from showing any imagery that could be too accurate to real life periods. In 2021, Bodyform[5] did the opposite. In their advert for protection liners, red liquid was used to emulate blood in a demonstration of the product. This was one of the first adverts many had ever seen of showing realistic periods and being unashamed about it. This was a huge step in the right direction - other period product brands would be questioned for why they didn’t do the same and why they shielded away from the reality. This was part of the beginning of a long struggle to normalize periods and their reality. Moving to mainstream media, we’ve all seen adverts for period products which often make a point of emphasising how discreet their products are and shielding away from showing any imagery that could be too accurate to real life periods. |
In 2021, Bodyform[5] did the opposite. In their advert for protection liners, red liquid was used to emulate blood in a demonstration of the product. This was one of the first adverts many had ever seen of showing realistic periods and being unashamed about it. This was a huge step in the right direction - other period product brands would be questioned for why they didn’t do the same and why they shielded away from the reality.
TikTok, an increasingly popular app typically used by a young audience, has its niche corners of period education. This is something that’s hugely important to raise a generation that doesn’t feel the need to hide their period. For example, TikTok creator under the handle of @monicageldart[6] has amassed over 1 million followers with her entertaining POV videos. She has made many videos to teach her audience in an entertaining way about how to deal with having a period. One of her viral videos[7] is based in a school with her as the popular girl, explaining to her peers how to correctly and safely use a tampon partnered with the brand Tampax. Comments are overwhelmingly positive. This doesn’t just help younger girls but older too - there are many comments from adults saying how it has taught them a lot and that they no longer feel worried about using tampons. It is so important that period education is taught. Having this on easily accessible platforms such as TikTok or Instagram is great as they have a huge reach and will help people to understand more about menstruation. Society is definitely heading in the right direction to de-stigmatise periods. There is still plenty of work to do but it’s amazing to see the progress that is being made. Always believes that there are many ways to help break down period stigma.
It may be an ongoing struggle to get rid of the unnecessary stigma surrounding periods but it’s evident that society is improving. If even one young person is positively impacted by period positive media, that’s still a difference and should help to build a generation that no longer feels shame or embarrassment. Bit by bit, there is the chance that more women will be able to purchase period products without hiding them, and that will be a huge societal accomplishment. |
I Try Period Pants for the First Time
A piece by Emma Lynas
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You’re sitting, minding your own business, having a drink, chatting with friends. You laugh, sneeze or maybe do nothing at all, but all of a sudden you feel a seeping down there. You shift uncomfortably in your seat as the wet feeling becomes all you can focus on.
If you’ve ever used a sanitary towel during your period, you will be aware of this feeling. This horrible sensation of sitting in a pool of your own blood. Some pads are better than others but not many will eradicate that feeling for good. I’ve been having periods for over nine years now and have always used sanitary towels (reading about toxic shock syndrome as a young teenager has kept me far away from tampons). They’re not amazing but they’re quick, easy and have never caused me any major issues. Minor issues aplenty, from having the sticky tab rip out a hair, to the wings being completely useless as I wake up to find the pad has shifted fully to one side of my underwear and the uncovered side is now stained with blood. But even after all that, I’ve still stuck by them. Until recently. Over the past few months, I’ve seen adverts for period pants popping up amongst Instagram ads and being recommended by influencers. The concept was still relatively new to me, and I was incredibly sceptical of the idea. How could a pair of pants absorb all of my blood for an entire day without leaking out or feeling as though I was sitting in a red lake? But I was intrigued. Could this be the answer to a significant proportion of my period problems? (Cramps are a whole other issue.) Could this be the perfect combination of comfort and sustainability? And then, the perfect opportunity occurred. I had a work social event coming up where we would be spending the day on a pub crawl and my period was due two days prior. If I wore period pants, I wouldn’t have to remember to bring plenty of spare pads and have to change them multiple times in public toilets. So, I took the plunge and purchased my first pair. I opted for a shorts style with the maxi, 24-hour level of absorbency as I was still apprehensive. These were said to be able to hold the equivalent of 8-10 tampons worth of blood or 50ml. Once they had arrived, I waited in excited anticipation (for the first time ever) for my period to start. The day of our work event arrived, and my period still evaded me. I didn’t want to wear the pants if my period didn’t start and potentially waste them, so I chose to opt for an emergency pad. |
Unfortunately, my period started in the early afternoon, and I ended up spending the day battling cramps whilst everyone else had a few drinks.
So, my highly anticipated first day of wearing period pants occurred while I was working from home. I got dressed and I put them on. They were quite tight fitting but did feel comfy and secure. However, my main thoughts were still worrying about what it would feel like once I began bleeding. Would I feel dirty? Would it feel squelchy? And, of course, the paranoia of leaking was still there. An hour or so passed when I was sat at my desk, and I felt blood starting to trickle out. I wiggled slightly in my seat. I could still feel the blood there, to begin with, but it was a whole lot better than a pad. I no longer felt as though I was sitting in a river. The time came when I needed to go to the toilet. I pulled down the pants with high anticipation, waiting to see how they looked. And they looked the exact same as when I had put them on. The gusset was black but there appeared to be no horrendous blood stains anywhere, no leakage, no calamity. I spent the rest of the day in calm serenity, knowing that I now didn’t have to worry about anything pad or pants related. In that moment, I became a period pants convert. Which is why, I was then shocked and appalled to learn that period pants are still being taxed at 20% - as they are classed as a garment, as opposed to a menstrual product. By taxing consumers, the Government are limiting access to one of the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective options that could save people nearly 50%, or £44.50, over two years if the tax is abolished.1 We’ve had to put up with the ridiculousness of tax on our menstrual products for so long that this continued absurdity almost feels expected at this point. Of course, period pants are being taxed at the same amount as champagne and private jets. This must stop. It is not right that we are still being taxed on products that we need for a bodily function that roughly half of the population experience and have no control over. We need to make it clear that we won’t put up with this bullshit anymore. Sign petitions, tell your friends and family, and use your voice. We deserve to live our best period lives, comfortable and sustainable. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614222 |
How I’m Breaking Up with Fast Fashion…
A piece by Emma Lynas
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I’ve lived my life by the motto ‘there’s no such thing as too many clothes, just not enough wardrobes’. And that’s been working well for me for the last 22 years - until a couple of months ago when one of my drawers became so full, I could only open it a few inches. Was this the point where I thought ‘hmm I bet there’s a load of clothes in there that don’t wear, I should probably get rid of some’? It was not. For weeks I lived with partially opening the drawer, battling with the piles of clothes to get out what I wanted and shoving any clean tops back in there through the small gap, pristinely ironed fabrics be damned.
I knew this was only a short-term solution, that I probably couldn’t keep living like this. But who has the time or effort to sort through the ridiculous amount of clothes they own, organise them into various piles, and then actually see through the act of reorganising them and selling, donating, recycling, etc.? Even though I most definitely did, I told myself I did not. And so, the cycle continued. It continued until I was browsing in Oxfam and spotted a book titled ‘How to Break up with Fast Fashion’ by Laura Bravo. It was reduced down to £3 so I thought I’d get it, why not? Maybe it would finally convince me to do something about the chaos in my drawers that I was calling my clothes. Not to sound overdramatic but it has done more than that. This book has changed my life. While being eye-opening in many ways, it was also unsurprising to hear some of the facts Bravo laid out concerning well-known brands, relating to their practices and ethics. But it was all so important to hear. This book is the perfect blend of key facts to truly drive home the point that our planet needs help, while also providing plenty of tips and tricks to shop more sustainably, ways of getting rid of old clothes that are so much better than the bin, and ideas to revamp your wardrobe and see your clothes in a whole new light. Already, I'm seeing my wardrobe differently, seeing more possibilities and feeling excited to wear pieces that I would normally save for certain occasions, in different ways. |
I went shopping with my friend recently and walking around all the usual high street shops, I didn’t feel the pull, the usual pressure to walk away with a purchase. It was fun to browse still (well, ish. It was a Saturday and everywhere was full of teenagers and kids with their parents doing their shopping before the schools went back. And my idea of fun isn’t being surrounded by a million other people in a stuffy, un-air-conditioned room, battling for the last pink halter neck in my size) and there were things I was tempted by but nowhere near as much as I would’ve been a few weeks back. The whole process ended up feeling more like a chore than a pleasure.
And while walking around, seeing other people’s outfits, usually I’d be thinking ‘I love that, I wonder where they got it from?’, but this time I was thinking ‘what do I already have in my wardrobe that’s similar?’ or ‘how could I alter something or style it to give it the same vibe as their outfit?’ My whole mindset towards fashion and style feels completely changed. Now, I must make a confession. I haven’t gotten around to sorting through my clothes yet. I still wrestle with the pre-mentioned drawer some mornings while others I opt for clothes I know aren’t in there to avoid the issue altogether. But not for much longer. Usually, I would tell myself I need a whole day to tackle something as monumental as sorting through my clothes. But that’s my problem - I always feel as though I have to wait for the perfect time to do something when there is no perfect time. So, I have decided that I’m going to aim to sort through one drawer (or at least one pile in a drawer/one section of my wardrobe) each night after work. That way it doesn’t feel like such a huge task to begin with and the process of uploading items to Depop/getting pieces ready to take to charity/taking things to a recycling centre won’t take as long. The idea of tackling it in small chunks really does make it seem less daunting. I know this process won’t happen overnight but I’m proud of myself for taking the first step in the right direction. As Lauren Bravo says, “We can only do the best we can do. But most of us can probably do better than we are.” Everyone needs to read this book by the way. Now. I cannot recommend it enough. |
Reasons we still need feminism - Boys are still weird.
A piece by Katie Wills
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I open this piece with an apology. I apologise for all the years I have spent being a docile feminist, afraid to talk about feminism in an off-putting way to boys and people who look to the movement of equality as negative. I appreciate I may be undoing my work with this, but oh well.
We still need feminism for many reasons, period poverty etc. But today I will rant about a very simple and frustrating area. Compliments. I have received a range of compliments from boys, but frankly the only respectful ones I’ve received have been from my boyfriend, friends, and family. I have noticed boys have a way of literally walking up to me and smacking me in the face with some form of backwards compliment. You may think, what does this mean? Fortunately, a few recent events come to mind: Example A A few weeks ago, I was out clubbing in Reading. Though it does not matter what I was wearing, I appreciate I was hardly looking interview ready. I was in fun and eye-catching clothing, I get it. However, I was on my own, walking up some steps while texting. A man, aged around 25-30, stood on the step above me only about four inches from my face and just screamed. In my face. I looked up at him, obviously terrified. To which he responded with, ‘Hi, how you doing?’. Are you joking? What kind of introduction was that? Example B Yesterday, on my way to the library at sunset, I stepped out of my house and made it about five strides before walking past a cluster of lads. |
Obviously, as most girls do, I kept my head down hoping they would leave me alone. Alas, one of the boys, on the pavement closest to me, stuck his head out so I was face-to-face with him, again, inches away, and shouted ‘YOU LOOK GOOD’. Thanks? Was that a weird compliment? A back handed compliment? Did I look bad? Did I look that good? Either way – this was strange behaviour.
Now I appreciate these are two extremely odd and isolated incidences, and I am not saying all boys are weird (just a few). However, I am rather tired of this. Unfortunately, like most girls, I’ve been subjected to cat calling from an early age and have grown to ignore it. However, when it gets to the point where these compliments are fired at me so aggressively, I start to get uncomfortable enough to call it out. When I look at this with my Feminist and deep-thinking hat on, I notice that a boy will compliment you in a very different way to how girls do. If I’ve ever been complimented by a girl, it has been in a kind, respectful and socially acceptable way. I’ve noticed boys like to slap you in the face with a compliment. Not even exclusively when speaking to you, but also about you. I remember my younger brother telling me on the first day of joining his school, a random boy three years above him shouted ‘Your sister’s PENG’ at him. Why is it boys only seem to compliment you in a decent human way when they know you and have established respect for you. Why is it that girls seem to naturally understand the mutual respect you, as any human being, are owed? So, at the risk of delving too far into a rabbit hole, I’ll keep it simple - boys are still weird, and we still need Feminism. |
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I am Sick of Feeling Scared
A piece by Emma Lynas I am so sick of feeling scared all the time.
I shouldn’t have to be anxious walking home after 5pm, just because it’s dark. I shouldn’t have to phone my boyfriend when a strange man gets off at the same train station as me. I shouldn’t need to fear male customers (not that they were actually there to make purchases) when I only have female colleagues. Why do I have to suffer near constant fear, with my brain telling me to hold my keys as a weapon, not get into an empty train carriage, not to expose too much skin, to always have my phone ready to call someone for help? Why is this my responsibility? I had a bad day recently. Two instances in one day where I was reminded that, as a woman, I feel a kind of fear of men that wouldn’t be the same if I was a man. The first was at work. I work in a small store, so there is typically only two of us working at a time. On this day it was my manager and I in. Both of us women. It was late afternoon but being November, it was already dark out. The two of us were stood behind the tills when a man arrived and stood in our doorway. He was evidently drunk and began to sing Christmas carols at us. He then moved on to telling us how we could sell our products better, his sentences peppered with swear words. My manager nodded along and gave short, curt replies. |
As the swearing heightened, she told him, ‘That’s enough.’ But he stayed where he was. He repeatedly asked us to meet him out on the moors. Eventually, he realised we were not going to engage with him, and he left, telling us he would be back later. Luckily, we haven’t seen him since.
This incident shook me, as it followed on from another in previous weeks where a man had behaved in a more aggressive nature and my colleague at the time and I, (both in our early twenties) had to shut the shop for fear of him trying to come back. Later in the day I was on a train. A man was sat a couple of seats down, laughing at a Jeffrey Epstein documentary he was watching on his phone and chain-smoking cigarettes. I had no idea what to do. I knew there was no way I was going to go up to him and ask him to stop. So, I sat there, panicked and with my breathing slowly becoming more laboured as my asthmatic body inhaled the smoke. A couple of stops before my own, a woman who worked for the train company boarded and noticed him smoking. She asked him to stop, reminding him that it was illegal, but he refused. She left while he carried on smoking. A couple of minutes later, she returned with a male colleague. He sat and spoke to the man who, after finishing one cigarette, for the first time, did not light another. He claimed he was getting out at the next stop, which also happened to be mine. I felt safer with the presence of man trying to diffuse the situation but further panicked knowing he would be getting off at the same station as me. As soon as I was off the train I called my boyfriend, who was coming to pick me up, and walked as quickly as I could towards the exit. These incidents happening back-to-back left me feeling angry. I hated that I had spent so much of the day in fear. But that is what being a woman is sometimes, feeling terrified that a man is going to do something that you won’t be able to protect yourself from. |
IS ONE YES ENOUGH?
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Consent is something everyone should be taught but that isn’t happening. The sex education lessons I received in secondary school, if you can even call them that, were severely lacking. They amounted to two lessons on periods and the female reproductive system during year eight science. I assume they expected us to figure the rest out for ourselves.
In an article published on the Independent website in 2016 it was found that in the UK, ‘almost three quarters of pupils are not taught about consent and at least 95 per cent are not taught about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender relationships during sex education in school’. [1] I am disappointed but not surprised. Whilst sex education is now compulsory in all schools, the guidelines to this remain vague. In March 2017, the then Education Secretary, Justine Greening, stated that ‘all children from the age of four will be taught about safe and healthy relationships…Children will also be taught, at an appropriate age, about sex.’ [2] But what is classed as the ‘appropriate age’? And what is included in these lessons? Do they encompass consent, the LGBT+ community and contraception? As Lucy Emmerson, Coordinator of SRE resource hub of the Sex Education Forum, put it, ‘Understanding consent, or how HIV is transmitted should not be something that adults discover through experience.’ [3] These terms have been further elaborated, and ‘since September 2020, Relationships Education, Health Education, and Relationships and Sex Education became compulsory in England’, while ‘from September 2021, schools are expected to teach an RSHE curriculum that meets the Department’s statutory guidance.’ [4] In the statutory guidance, it is stated that ‘Key aspects of the law relating to sex which should be taught include the age of consent, what consent is and is not, the definitions and recognition of rape, sexual assault and harassment, and choices permitted by the law around pregnancy.’ [5] These will be taught in secondary schools. So many teenagers, as well as adults, don’t have all the information they should on these matters. It is a relief to know that the government have finally begun to push for the development a comprehensive sex education curriculum, but we still need to ensure that each individual themselves makes the effort to fill any gaps in their knowledge, so that situations like I experienced, and so many others have, don’t continue. *name has been changed. Because he hasn’t given me consent to use it. Sources [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/sex-education-schools-quiz-how-much-do-you-know-uk-unfit-smartphone-generation-a7137281.html [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39116783 [3] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/sex-education-schools-quiz-how-much-do-you-know-uk-unfit-smartphone-generation-a7137281.html [4] https://neu.org.uk/relationships-and-sex-education [5] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1019542/Relationships_Education__Relationships_and_Sex_Education__RSE__and_Health_Education.pdf |
