#CreatingWomensSpaces... making spaces for the conversations women want to have!

14:00-16:30 I Free Creche I Women-only I Brighton & Hove

New Year, New You..?...

Survived the gendered labour of Christmas? Ready for the gendered labour of the new year? Join our informal conversations & meet women from across our city.

New years resolutions, diets & wellness. Time to get thin, or time to get real?

Naomi Wolf wrote her 1991 classic, The Beauty Myth that “a cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

How are women targeted by the diet and wellness industry? Can a culture of endless "self-improvement" and "self-help" really improve the lives of women? When does self-help become self-blame? When does self care become yet more labour?  And does internal reflection move the focus from the real cause of, (or remedy to) women's problems?

Self-care or radical self-care?

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare".  Audre Lorde A Burst Of Light.

Beyond simply rejecting traditional resolutions, many feminist writers and advocates frame the act of prioritizing one's own well-being as a crucial, even revolutionary, step. But does this radical-self care align with the marketing man's vision? Can he really sell us wellness, when social class, racism, financial inequality and sexism are the main causes of the health-gap?

Resolutions of revolutions?

"To have none. Not to be tied. To be free & kindly with myself, not goading it to parties: to sit rather privately reading in the studio... To stop irritation... Sometimes to read, sometimes not to read. To go out yes—but stay at home in spite of being asked. As for clothes, to buy good ones". Virginia Woolf on New Years Resolutions 1931

Have you made resolutions that build in radical self care as a year round project rather than just for New Year? How hard is it for women to make changes in their lives when so often our needs are at the bottom of a laundry pile? How can we support each other to make these changes and create our own priorities? 

Extreme wellness and the Far-right

"To critically engage with modern yoga, then, requires more than recovering its Indian roots; it demands tracing the entire palimpsest of influences, especially the distorted and troubling ones. It involves understanding how fascist, occult, and racial ideologies became embedded in yoga’s Western image not only through bad actors but through structural tendencies." S Home, Fascist Yoga.

In recent years surprising links between extreme wellness communities and the far-right are being explored. Is it possible that ideas of self-improvement, body perfection and body purity are intersecting with racism and eugenicist theories of Nationalism?

Listen, speak and share in our new format

This month we will be trying a new format. As our Salons have become more popular, facilitating an increasingly large circle discussion has become more challenging. Speaking can be daunting and each woman has less time to speak if she wishes. This month the Salon will have a range of smaller circles looking at different aspects of New Year, New You?. You will be free to move between the circles and we hope have more opportunity to speak and listen in this new format.

Come along and share your perspectives, hear the perspectives of others and join our growing community.

About us...

On the THIRD SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH we invite women* to join us in our woman-only space to share their experiences and insights. We sit in a circle, as each woman is equal. Every woman is welcome to speak and listen. Yes, we have cake.

Sisters Salon is run and organised by Brighton Women's Liberation Collective. We are a feminist collective that seek to create women-centred spaces and run campaigns to improve the lives of women and girls in our city. Salon's are spaces for women to discuss their experiences and perspectives as well as discuss feminist ideas around them. You do not have to self describe as a feminist to come, and diversity of thought is encouraged. At our Salons we aim to build relationships, communities, understanding of our lives and steps we can take to improve them. Everyone is welcome.

Tickets are free, but please donate to help us cover the costs of the venue, the cost of the crèche & teas & coffees. Only donate if you can comfortably afford to do so. There is a card reader at the meeting too.

Our crèche is FREE! Please book by midnight on 14th January so we can plan the play space. Do let us know of any additional needs they have. If a crèche environment is not appropriate for your child, we will happily pay their regular care worker to have them for the duration to enable you to join us.

If you need help with travel costs please get in touch.

*We have a single-sex policy. Strictly only- women registered female at birth. Women registered female at birth who express a trans or non-binary identity are welcome and attend. If you were registered male at birth we are happy to signpost you to a variety of similar groups (scroll down)

**This means that sometimes women (registered female at birth) attend who present as male. We recognise that this can be unexpected! We would like to reassure you that our spaces are strictly male-free and women-only. 

To learn more about our group and our campaigns visit our website and follow us on social media. Please read our policies and mythbusters. If you want to create spaces for women please download our activist pack that tells you everything you need to know.

Our rules...

Many of our topics can trigger disclosures of sexual & domestic abuse. Women often talk about difficult and personal issues. We hold this space to enable women to do this. Many have no other space in their lives dedicated to reflection in this way. To enable women to feel safe, centred and empowered to do this, all attendees enter into our community pledge; confidentiality, self-organisation, trust, respect and sisterhood.

Signposting...

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