Transcript of brilliant speech
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/men-know-what-a-woman-is-in-holbeck
Fantastic speech. So many great lines.
"our sex is what makes us a class, Our sex which makes us uniquely vulnerable to male violence. Our sex which means we bear the entire burden of reproductive labour. The structural oppression which women face as a class is because of their sex. And that is why all women need legal recourse to separate and sex-segregated spaces."
"If you cannot define women, then you cannot defend them."
"You cannot identify into an oppressed class because you cannot identify out of an oppressed class. And women are uniquely oppressed across the planet: reproductive health and autonomy, Female Genital Mutilation, violence, rape, child marriage, no right to vote, death in childbirth, post-natal illness, denied access to education, lower wages, chemical contraception, sex trafficking, surrogacy, pornography, prostitution and objectification."
Can totally relate to the bit about being bombarded with billboards, videos, magazines to tell me my body is wrong in order to persuade me to buy something to fix it. The women's fashion and beauty industry makes billions out of this and the environmentally unfriendly "junk" marketed to women suggesting their lives would be oh so rosy and perfect if only they used this product or service to hide or "fix" their outward appearance (even if it's often hidden under clothing) is nearly always so much more expensive than the equivalent male product...if there is an equivalent male product. Slight tangent but many young women have said this was the reason they rejected the minimal, tight, sexy fashion trends and felt more empowered by covering up as a kind of FU to the intrusiveness of other people's judgements, which objectify and sexualise their bodies, and the cultural manipulation by certain parts of the fashion industry - the Grammy award-winning, American, teenage, singer-songwriter, Billie Eilish, has sparked a new trend for oversized clothing for teen girls. Though I appreciate that many other women say they feel more empowered by wearing less clothes.