Ladyfest

Celebrating women in the arts, culture, and society, Edinburgh’s first ever Ladyfest takes place throughout May. Highlights include Get Racy!!, an event on race, culture and subcultures; a workshop on faith and feminism; a wide range of film screenings and plenty of gigs; food, comedy, reading groups, dialogues and workshops covering topics from human trafficking to breastfeeding. Check out www.ladyfestedinburgh.com for a full, up-to-date programme.

And yet, while it’s exciting to see young feminists organising in Edinburgh, it seems to represent only a specific strand of feminism, rather than multiple feminisms. Compare and contrast: the first ever Ladyfest, held in Olympia in 2000, featured a sex work panel and a discussion on ‘orgy-nizing’. Ladyfest Los Angeles, 2002, included the travelling Sex Workers Art Show, as well as an event titled Gynomite: Feminist Erotica, and a screening of feminist pornography. In Edinburgh, though, there’ll merely be an anti-pornography seminar, its very title implying no debate.

And, due to Ladyfest’s proceeds going to Zero Tolerance, the planned dialogue on sex work – intended for feminists with different points of view to have a respectful discussion about this contentious issue without ripping each other’s throats out – will now take place independently of the festival. Though Zero Tolerance’s campaign against violence against women is largely inspiring and commendable, their perspective on prostitution denies sex workers’ autonomy, and they resist proposals to make sex work safer, on the grounds that this would normalise it. Given that we could probably all agree that mainstream porn is pretty shit and that violence against sex workers is unacceptable, it’s disappointing that we won’t have the space to discuss the more complex, grey areas of sexuality – let alone recognise that some of us make informed decisions to create porn, consume porn, and have sex for money. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not proposing that everyone should instead feel comfortable watching Bend Over Boyfriend, just that we have a bit more diversity.

I really, really want to be 100% supportive of Ladyfest, but the lack of an open dialogue on these issues doesn’t quite offer a radical alternative to an increasingly puritanical climate. Maybe next time?