Last Tuesday March 10, in the LEC senior common room, the Social Work Society, the Trent Feminist Society, and Lady Eaton College organized an event featuring outstanding performances.
The event was called “Five Feminist Minutes” and was organized in light of Social Work Week and International Women’s Day with the objective of promoting equality and justice.
The coffee house style event featured a series of performances about issues related to feminism and its fight for justice. Each performer had a five-minute slot. There were a diverse number of acts such as spoken word, poems, and songs.
The dimly lit room provided a cozy and relaxed environment that welcomed all. The passion with which the performers delivered their message was powerful and the audience was extremely engaged.
One of the performers presented a song about how a woman is not just a pretty face. It was a well-delivered song that had a lasting impact in the audience’s mind. The guitar was smooth and served as a good accompaniment to her amusing voice.
There were other acts such as a spoken word piece about the power words have to hurt, which was also perfectly delivered and extremely well received. The speaker explained how words have the power to hurt as much as physical violence.
Another spoken word act numbered the infinite reasons why the performer was a feminist, which made a plethora of different points defending the fight for justice that feminism is pursuing. It was a very compelling act, which enabled the audience to identify with the fight.
There were light refreshments, which allowed the audience to feel at home and allowed them to better connect to the performers. After the performances were finished, people stayed to mingle and share their opinions.
The event also encouraged people to bring a small monetary donation, a canned good, or some item for the local women’s shelter.
These types of events are much needed in a time when the fight for equality and social justice is gathering momentum. There are many structural and overt ways in which society characterizes and classifies different people into boxes. These need to be challenged, and feminism provides tools to do it.
Even though there are different types of feminism, they all share a common fundamental belief in the need to challenge those structural forces that marginalize and stigmatize members of our society.
These types of events are necessary to help vanish the misleading existing stereotypes about feminism itself. The performers did a great job of showcasing the nuances that feminism offers in analyzing gender inequalities and injustices.
The organizers did a magnificent job in putting together the performances and it is without any doubt that more events of this nature should take place at Trent.