Comments on: Add women and stir!

By: Ged Byrne

Ged Byrne — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:26:16 +0000

There are so many ways of discrimination and none of them were observed except the gender thing! Personally, I didn’t even register that the panel was male, white, disabled, minority, left wing, middle class or anything like that, I only tried to listen to what was being said!

I wonder if this ^ feminist, Ruth Michaelson, considered asking, nay demanding, from her fellow female who was wandering around with a loudly crying baby in her arms, that she take the offending baby out of the auditorium until it was quiet?

I was at the back, as far away from the woman with the baby as was perhaps possible to be and I found it distractingly annoying! It was a media conference for adults and I was hoping to have a room of mature adults and any who may gain from the experience without taking away from others.
Fair play if you can attend such an event with a nursing infant, but surely there are limits? I know a chap who is severely mentally disabled who rocks himself, shrieks and shouts with a VERY loud voice! He’s an adult and, rightly so, had a right to attend the conference too, but I can not for the life of me imagine anyone with half a brain and or any realistic set of decent manners would wish to bring him. He’s not going to gain anything from it and his presence would only annoy others attempting to hear over his din.

Likewise the squawking baby whose adult walking up and down with a smug smile on her face should have perhaps had pointed out to her! It certainly would have made a difference to me…or, are women with babies too sacred to murmur any dissent towards?

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:26:49 +0000

Nice writing… When the event was in the planning stages for some 18months there are few excuses I feel.
Gender wasn’t the only issue I feel;
http://rudy2shoes.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/rebellious-media-conference/

By: Michael Pooler

Michael Pooler — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 06:52:12 +0000

Yes I did think that that opening remark regarding the lack of females on the panel was very tokenistic and embarrassing – possibly saying something more about the gendered nature of even ‘radical’ media. However having organised (much smaller) events myself, I must say that it can be very difficult to get a good gender/ethnicity/age/background balance among speakers. This is not an excuse for not striving to challenge power closer to home. But I feel I should point out that often the majority of people who you invite you speak/run sessions at such events cannot attend, so the best intentions can come to nothing.

For a first bash at running this event I thought that it wasn’t bad. We should agitate for a greater diversity of voices if there is a next time.