School students challenge sexism
Eesha, Manchester Socialist Students
A group of Tyneside schoolgirls have made a video titled, ‘The Thin End of the Wedge’, outlining the everyday misogyny they experience. They pull no punches.
Comments were of a violently sexual nature, including a ‘rape list’ a boy had created of girls in his school. These girls are incredibly brave for speaking out.
The girls state: “Men and boys don’t start off as rapists, they start as misogynists who aren’t challenged.” This message is powerful, and I think we can go further.
Today, access to women’s bodies has never been so easy. Grok AI can digitally remove the clothes of women and girls. Teen shows like Euphoria take every opportunity to sexualise its female cast.
It is both unfair and dangerous to allow a misogynistic culture to fester. But it can feel like a losing battle. Socialists say we have a capitalist economy dependent on women’s subjugation.
Women create the next workforce by giving birth to children. We are unduly expected to keep the household running – cooking, cleaning, and caring for children and elders.
Many do this alongside full-time work. Women’s role as wageless, thankless domestic workers is an economic one, as well as a cultural one.
At a recent Manchester Trades Union Council meeting, I saw what socialist solutions to misogyny can look like. Trade unionists discussed classifying workplace sexual harassment as a health and safety risk, treated with the same seriousness and precision as electrical fires, slips, and falls.
This can be part of taking the burden off women to be solely responsible for painstaking cultural change, uniting all workers in struggle.
The Tyneside girls have brought attention to an important issue. Misogyny left unchecked can grow into something even more sinister.
For feminism to have any teeth in this hostile modern climate, we must not separate women’s cultural and economic subjugation. Help us in the call for a socialist alternative to sexism and violence against women and girls.
And join the international youth strike on the 20 November. Together, we can fight for the future we deserve.
