OBJECT activists joined women and men from Mind the Gap: London Student Feminists, the London Femnist Network and Anti Porn London last Monday to protest outside the final of Miss England. We had placards, songs, chants and speeches (including one from OBJECT) all calling for an end to the objectification of women through beauty pageants which dehumanise women by treating us like commodities and not real people. There was a clear message that it was not the contestants themselves that we were criticising but the institution of pageants which pit women against one another and promote the idea that it is acceptable to view and treat women as a sum of body parts. As Elly James from Mind the Gap:London Student Feminists said, 'objectification is objectification no matter what the women look like' and at OBJECT we object to objectification in all its forms.  

 

It was really good to see so many people join up the dots bewteen objectification, sex discrimination and violence against women. The tide is turning and by the month there are more and more activists on board who are sick and tired of women being objectified and treated like pieces of meat and who will not stop until there is an end to the objectification of women and until women are treated as people, not sex objects. 

 

Thank you everyone who was involved in organising the protest and who helped make our voices heard.

As one of the chants went - 'This is what empowerment looks like!'