Don’t write suffragettes out of our feminist past
I was surprised to read, in your article about the film Misbehaviour last week, that Britain’s first feminists were led by Sally Alexander, who took the fight for women’s rights all the way to the final of the Miss World competition in 1970.
Britain’s first feminists? What about suffragette Emily Davison, who died after throwing herself under the King’s horse, Anmer, at the Derby in 1913?
The struggle women have faced over centuries to become un-enslaved from men is continuing. Just look at the Women Against State Pension
Inequality group, robbed of their pension by the state which is supposed to protect them.
Nothing has changed since my birth in 1942. Women still struggle to this day. And they will struggle even more in this godforsaken gig-economy world. K. Quinn, Canterbury
Writing about Misbehaviour, Alexandra Shulman said last week that ‘At the time, [Miss World] didn’t seem remotely misogynistic or sexist’. Why the ‘at the time’ caveat? To any reasonable, (Miss) worldly person, it appeared and still appears a harmless celebration of looks and personality. Far from female-hating, it glorified women who willingly entered the contest. #TimesUp for ‘at the time’. F. Harvey, Bristol
I was horrified at being reminded about how Miss World contestants had to turn around so that the watching global audience could inspect their bottoms. I’m so glad we now view women as much more than their physical attributes. However, my worry is that the Instagram generation is turning back the clock. S. Jones, Lanarkshire