Everyday Sexism Project
The Everyday Sexism Project is a website founded on 16 April 2012 by Laura Bates, a British feminist writer. The aim of the site is to document everyday examples of sexism as reported by contributors around the world. Anyone may submit an entry directly to the site, or by email or tweet. The submissions are collated by a small group of volunteers led by Emer O'Toole, a researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London. By April 2013 the site had collected 25,000 entries from 15 countries.[1]
Bates set up the Everyday Sexism Project after finding it difficult to speak out about sexism: "Again and again, people told me sexism is no longer a problem – that women are equal now, more or less, and if you can’t take a joke or take a compliment, then you need to stop being so 'frigid' and get a sense of humor. Even if I couldn’t solve the problem right away, I was determined that nobody should be able to tell us we couldn’t talk about it anymore."[2]
Bates's work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Guardian and Independent, among others. She is also a contributor to Women Under Siege, a project that examines sexual violence as a weapon of war.[3] She has an MA in English literature from the University of Cambridge.[4]
In January 2014, Everyday Sexism successfully campaigned for the removal of the mobile app Plastic Surgery & Plastic Doctor & Plastic Hospital Office for Barbie Version from the App Store and Google Play, for its promotion of a poor perspective on the concept of body image to those of a young age.[5]
Notes
- ^ Bates, Laura. "The Everyday Sexism Project: a year of shouting back", The Guardian, 16 April 2013.
- ^ Klassen, Anna. "Everyday Sexism Creator Laura Bates on Helping Women Speak Out", The Daily Beast, 9 April 2013.
- ^ "Laura Bates", The Independent, 16 April 2013.
- ^ "Laura Bates", uklinkedin.com.
- ^ "Apple and Google pull plastic surgery apps for children following Twitter backlash". The Independent. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
