By Megan Egan

Introducing Him

Feminism. I have an uneasy relationship with this word. Of course I completely agree with what itstands for, but I find it ludicrous that we even have a word for this, it’s just common sense. Not onlythat, but I feel there are very mixed messages floating around about what it really is.Recently, it seems the commercial world is finally cottoning on to the fact that all genders andraces should be equal, and this has resulted in some bold political statements, as well as somepoorly judged ones (just look at the recent Pepsi Kendall Jenner fail, or Dove’s body lotion ad).We’ve definitely got a long way to go on this matter, but I think it’s almost got to a point recentlywhere companies are making statements about it just because it’s ‘trendy’, which leads to a verywatered down and often confused message.Laura Jordan Baumbach came to SCA last week to talk about Mr President, and mentioned thatoften women are asked to go and present at a talk, but not to show their work, instead, they’reasked to talk about what it’s like being a female in the industry. Can anyone see what’s wrong withthis?I’m sick of high-achieving women being held up on a pedestal as a shining example of “the secondfemale president of XYZ”, or “the first female who”. We should be celebrating the achievements ofwomen, of course, but why do we feel the need to constantly remind everyone that they are in fact,‘female’? There will never be equality of the genders if we constantly differentiate between the two- being female should not even be a factor in judging some one’s success.What would happen if males started introducing themselves in the same way women areintroduced? E.g. “I’m XXX, the 47th MALE D&AD President”. Would people find it strange?This is the drunken conversation I had with Jem and other SCAers last night, could we start amovement where males introduce themselves in this way? So maybe we’ll give it a go. 100 yearson from women winning the vote seems like a good time to start - “Introducing him”, let’s stoppatronising high achieving women and just make them “high achievers”.