A FLAWLESS CALL TO ARMS - APRIL 3 - 3.38PM - 2019
Mary Beard - Sheldonian - Women and Power - 2.15pm
I’m just looking down at my notebook and the words I underlined during Mary Beard’s talk ‘Women and Power: A Manifesto’. They are, in no particular order -
Powerful
Fascinating
Brave
Mischievous
Urgent
Funny
And that I guess sums up perfectly her razor sharp appraisal of the treatment women have been forced to contend with over the course of history. And in this particular case, the sustained injustices seemingly gleefully sanctioned by men and the media when a woman becomes powerful.
Which of course signalled an inevitable analysis of Theresa May’s premiership, Hillary Clinton’s Presidential ambition and... Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership: “If ONLY Yvette Cooper was running the Labour Party”.
As a rallying cry to continue what #metoo started, it was a brilliantly sustained masterclass in using only - and simply - the truth to overturn oppression and violation.
Brilliant.