WMGO 101 - part I

The first thing I did for my role was to get elected (in absentia). For those who missed the GM, here's the little speech I put together, which was read out by our vice president for education and welfare, Sidonie (Sid).

Hello all. I’m sorry you can’t hear this in my voice and issuing from my face, but I hope my words will be enough to make plain who I am and what I stand for. 

My name’s Alexandra and I am this year’s Feminism Society Secretary. I would like to be Women’s and Marginalised Gender’s Officer, too, and I’ll explain why I think this is a good idea. 

First, a little bit about me. Outside of activism I am working towards a PhD in Molecular Biology. This means I spend all my weekdays and many evenings on campus and I’m immersed in both student and departmental politics. I also identify as LGBT+. 

I did my BSc at Holloway and I’ve watched the College and the SU progress towards inclusion and equality in many areas. However, there is still a way to go, and if we don’t work for our beliefs, no one will.
My beliefs are as follows:

• I believe we deserve to be treated equally and that for everyone to be equal we need support adapted to our individual needs.

• I believe all oppression is abhorrent and I believe that I must ask for and accept advice regarding fighting oppression I have not experienced, and often even regarding oppression which I have. 

• Most of all, I believe we’re all in this together.

I would like to put on as many events as I can cram into the calendar. I have several ideas, for instance, I would like to raise awareness of emotional abuse. I would like to provide events and safe spaces for those of us who do not identify as male or female. I would like to talk about women in science and the gender pay gap on campus. And I would like to ask you all to share your ideas with me. 

If I am elected, I will strive to make this campus a better place for self-identifying women and other marginalised genders. I will work to include as many people and amplify as many voices as I can. I will remember that I am only human, that you’re only human and that together we’ll mess up -- but together we’ll fix it. 

The second thing I did was to sit down with Sid for about half an hour to ask all the most important questions: What can I do? What must I do? Must I do all I can do? Funnily enough, one of the first things I was told was that I should regularly write a blog. This was on October 30th.

Whoops.

Image: my medium
book of activism

Full of good intentions, I wrote all of this down, into what has now become my little (well, medium) book of activism. It's lined, which I'm ambivalent about, and its pages will occasionally tear themselves out (no doubt channeling some deeper level of my mind of which I am unaware). This was one of my better ideas, because even though it's by no means orderly, all my thoughts are in one place.

I recently adorned it with a "I <3 consent" sticker, both because it's an awesome message and to remind me that I don't always have to say 'Yes' to everything. It has also acquired a post-it from Sid, which was originally attached to the posters for my first two fora (more on that later). 

Image: poster advertising Helen Belcher's
visit from TransMediaWatch

The first event I was involved in as WMGO was originally organised by Victoria, who was kind enough to stay on until its conclusion. She invited Helen Belcher from TransMediaWatch to come and speak to us in November about the portrayal of trans people in the media as well as some current legislative issues. She presented a brilliant talk, which (unsurprisingly) left me with ALL THE FEELS, mainly angry, frustrated, and sad ones. 

Questions from attending students got a good conversation going. A lovely side-effect of the talk was that I met Ginger Drage, NUS Women’s Committee Trans Rep, who offered to share her knowledge and personal experience and has since very kindly made time to come to the first trans and non-binary students' forum. I also had a brief chat with a (non-binary) friend of mine who I hadn't seen for a while. They also offered their help and have since given invaluable feedback and event spent time putting up posters with me. Immediately after the session my work load seemed much for manageable.

I started writing lists of injustices I wanted to fix. As anyone who has thought about injustice and causes they would like to support will know, once you start, you find it incredibly hard to stop. I wrote a to-do list about a page long, sighed, slumped onto the desk, then made some tea and flipped the page over. On the next page, I wrote:

to do: ask people what they need

And so, I will.

Continued in next post.

An introduction, again.

Dear Internet,

My name's Alexandra and I'm this year's wmgo (women's and marginalised gender's officer) at Royal Holloway, University of London (UK).

The position is a new one and I am event newer (shiny, even). I took over this post several weeks ago from Victoria, who unfortunately had to step down for personal reasons, lack of time mainly (this happens a lot at university - it's almost like we're here to get degrees, too). It's not like I've got free time to give away, really - I'm currently doing my PhD and am also on a society committee (FemSoc, natch).

As far as I know, I am free to be as creative as I like with my activities this year. There are some solidly defined responsibilities - my role is one of the four liberation officer roles, which means I am mandated to sit on the executive committee, attend general meetings, and hold fora for my caucus. Other than that, though - woo! Organise all the things!

I'm in the process of putting together a long post on what I've gotten up to so far (which isn't as much as I would like), but in the mean time, I leave you with the logo for the wmg network (wmgn). If you've been one of the three people to read this post, hello! Lovely to meet you.