By Imogen Lambert-Baker, Freya Barwell, Lowri Simmons, Megan Hall
Featured image: Laura Bates

“I’ve seen policy makers change their positions on issues that they have been really entrenched on because of the power of people’s stories told in their own words,” says feminist activist and Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates, reflecting on the power of personal stories and poetry ahead of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival.

Bates is a leading voice in fighting for women’s equality. After launching her campaign, The Everyday Sexism Project in 2012, she witnessed a wave of female voices sharing their own experiences and echoing her belief that urgent change was needed.

“It actually started after one really terrible week. I was followed home by a man, I was sexually assaulted on a bus, and I had an experience of quite severe street harassment. I sat down and thought if these things hadn’t happened in such a short space of time, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about any one of them. I asked myself: ‘How had I gotten to the point of being so inured to the realities of day-to-day sexism that I almost didn’t even notice?’”

Bates expected 50 or 60 people to contribute to her project, hoping to raise awareness that sexism is an ongoing problem. Instead, she was met with a quarter of a million responses, from women and girls all over the world, eager to share their experiences. This created a space for Bates to make “concrete offline change such as influencing Facebook’s policies around sexual violence and changing the way the British Transport Police responds to sexual offences on the network”. This also led to her writing books to share other women’s experiences, as well as her own.

Bates often uses social media to share information on gender-based violence, but it’s something she describes as a “double-edged sword”. Social media can be used as a tool for feminists to connect with each other, spread powerful messages and to “find inspiration for fighting back”. However, it is also obvious that social media is one of the main contributors to the misogynistic radicalisation occurring in young men. “We need to take action to reduce the negatives, to reduce the abuse, to reduce the harassment,” she says.

“The reality is that social media is, in fact, an incredibly, tightly controlled and curated place. Decisions are made that affect what content can appear and those decisions can be changed. The moderation style, the training that is given to moderators – those are decisions being made by companies. We’re often encouraged to think of it as something that no one has any control over.”

This month, Bates will open Manchester Met’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival alongside Forward-prize winning poet and senior lecturer, Dr Kim Moore. The event is part of a global response to the international campaign hosted by UN Women and will see Bates and Moore discuss everyday sexism and how we can move through a damaged patriarchal society together.

First meeting at an event at Charleston House in May, Bates describes Moore’s work as “beautiful, powerful, and brilliant.” She discusses how feminist protest and poetry work together gracefully as a way of creating change.

Bates has experienced first-hand how sharing stories can help to channel personal experiences into powerful, collective action: “I know from the young women I’ve met at events and readings just how big of an impact it can make simply to see your own story told, to know you’re not alone, to know you shouldn’t be ashamed. To know it wasn’t your fault. It’s very real.”

She adds: “I’ve seen MPs ask to hear the story of a 12-year-old girl who was being sexually harassed and assaulted at school in debates about whether consent should be on the curriculum.”

Bates says there is a “contempt for the arts” in the UK, and often politicians will attack poetry, literature, and other creative forms first when faced with economic hardship. “But it has real benefits for us as individuals and as a society,” she says.

Poetry and writing can be healing for women who face gender violence and sexism, says Bates. “It gives you ownership of a situation in which control was taken away from you. It gives you the opportunity to revisit what happened to you in a way that feels safer and to heal by working through it. It gives you the opportunity to define and reframe the experience that you’ve had in a way that is empowering to you.”

Using poetry to share experiences also benefits the audience, Bates explains. It helps others to find a sense of solidarity and community, and it also helps others to empathise and find a “vivid window into experiences that can help to develop awareness and allyship”.

Allyship is key when fighting sexism. Bates calls for us to “align ourselves with others” to take action: pointing out sexism when we see it, calling out our friends and family when they make sexist comments, and sticking up for the women around us.

Bates understands this can be frightening: “Often the reason we don’t act in a whole range of scenarios is that fear of singling yourself out. What if people laugh at me? What if this negatively impacts my career? What if I lose friends over being seen as the one that’s uptight and making a fuss.” They are genuine fears, especially as women have been socialised not to step out of line or “make a fuss”, but being open and brave can lead to “positive action”.

Bates explains that we can do this in small ways: “I definitely recommend starting local. This could be starting a feminist society, supporting local frontline services, or looking into local campaigns.

“Don’t be afraid to demand change and support because you completely deserve it.”

Join Forward Prize-winning poet Dr Kim Moore and feminist writer and activist Laura Bates for an evening of poetry and engaging discussion on Monday 25th November at 7pm. Book your tickets here.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival runs from 25th November to 10th December, 2024. For more information and tickets, visit mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events.