Bird's Eye View

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, a new book by Natasha Walter

Natasha Walter is a friend and valued supporter of Birds Eye View. She was on our jury with Miranda Sawyer and Bonnie Greer in 2006, and came along to co-present Birds Eye Review which closed the festival in debate that year. We also had the pleasure of her company in 2007 at the Women’s Arts International Festival (sadly only a once-off due to funding cuts) in Kendal, Cumbria as she joined us for a panel discussion and we spent the weekend watching great gigs and walking in the hills.

It was there, in Kendal, that Natasha told us (us being some of BEV’s team, plus the other panellists: Penny Nagle from Shooting People, filmmaker Billie Eltringham, producer Polly Leys, and my now-husband up for the jolly) that she was writing a new book. Her last - The New Feminism in 1998 was a call to focus on the political rather than the personal. At the time Natasha had hoped that the need for feminism would have faded away by now. But it was clear as we chatted on those lovely Lakeland hills that disquiet over the situation had, on the contrary, deepened, and that it was actually around issues of the personal - oversexualisation and the “gender apartheid” of young

Natasha Walter

children - that things seemed most extreme. We all had stories to tell - in particular about the growing divide between boys and girls and the commercial exploitation of this divide to the detriment of girls’ self understanding and perceptions of choice. And while some of us threw around ideas about making a documentary which hasn’t yet happened, Natasha squirreled away and there we are, she’s done it - a new book: Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism. She tells me she actually wrote key chapters whilst in Kendal. That must have been while we were taking night caps in the bar…

So, thank you, Natasha, for persevering in thought and practice and challenging our culture head-on just where it must be challenged. I’ve not yet got my mits on a copy, but it’s essential maternity leave reading for me (though I confess I’m slightly nervous about facing it all as I give birth to a baby girl - what will her future hold? How will we tackle the cultural challenges ahead?). Thank you even more to Natasha for mentioning Birds Eye View as a ‘reason to be cheerful’ in the book. It’s encouragement like that which reminds us again of the importance of our work in creating this space for a different kind of feminine expression… and makes us even more determined to continue.

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism is on sale in the Guardian bookshop.