August was all about the Visibility Challenge here at the School of Visibility. We had such a blast talking to you about the three key areas we cover in the Challenge – the good girl, money, and public life – and how each is impacting on your capacity to speak up and be seen and heard in the world.

We’ll be hosting other Challenges in 2020 so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that but for now, here’s all the goodness from August!

FROM THE BLOG

Disrespecting Women’s Voices

[Topics: visibility blocks | women speaking up]

‘The dehumanisation of woman, the diminishment of our capacity and our wisdom, is one of the oldest tricks in the patriarchal handbook.’

Read the rest here.

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Talent and Visibility Are Not Synonymous

[Topics: art | visibility]

‘Feeling worried that your art isn’t good enough? That it might not be sufficiently worthy to be deemed art?

There’s a reason for this and it has nothing to do with your talent.

In 2010 the National Gallery in London held 2,300 works in its collection. Of the roughly 750 artists represented, 10 were women.’

Read the rest here.

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You Will Be Called Upon

[Topics: life purpose | women speaking up | the environment]

‘When you sit deeply in your purpose and are comfortable being visible for it, the universe will find all sorts of ways to work with you.’

Read the rest here.

WHAT WE SAW

This one’s a doozy

I could have drafted this as a poster outlining the various faces of the patriarchal archetype of the good girl.

These men saved me the trouble.

A few things to note;

• The panel – all men – speaking about a woman’s role in the church.
• The images of the women. Nipped at the waste, one wearing an apron, all attractive and demure.
• The acceptable manifestations of the good girl; ‘the faithful wife’, ‘loving mother’, ‘bible class teacher’.
• ‘Her response’ to the feminist movement – as conveyed by a man. So presumably not her response but the response she’s expected to adopt.
• ‘Her role’ in the church – as conveyed by a man. So presumably not her idea of what her role in the church might be but a teaching about what role she’s expected to play.

There’s no two ways around this. This is patriarchal propaganda.

This is why women’s voices matter. Because there are plenty of men in the world who are all too willing to step forward and tell women what they should think, how they should behave, and what their role is in society.

This is why speaking up changes the world.

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And finally, this…

After the above post, I was so happy to come across this online.

Here’s a short quote from the video;

‘Visibility saves lives. Visibility saved my life… Let’s continue the fight until everyone is visible.’