Putting barriers back

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

The bit where they say it and the bit where they take it back.

Etcetera Theatre: Women Writers Festival

Wait for it.

OPEN CALL: WOMEN WRITERS FESTIVAL 2026

We’re now programming Women Writers Festival 2026 — a month-long celebration of new writing by women and female-identifying writers, this March 2026 at The Etcetera Theatre, Camden.

Oh. So not a women writers festival then. “Female-identifying” is the opposite of women, so it’s a people writers festival – which is fine, but you shouldn’t call it a women writers festival.

This is about removing barriers and getting bold new work in front of audiences.

Not really. It’s about putting up new barriers to women. You can’t have it both ways. If you let men in you can’t say it’s for women.

Updating to add:

Not a man in the bunch. You’d never know it was for women and men who pretend to be women, would you.

Also notice the bright cheery colorful hijab – as if religious laws that force women to muffle themselves so that men won’t be tempted to rape them were bright and cheery and colorful.

Comments

11 responses to “Putting barriers back”

  1. maddog1129 Avatar
    maddog1129

    And skirts or ethnic dress. Not a jeans-wearing woman among them.

  2. iknklast Avatar
    iknklast

    maddog, didn’t you know? You can tell they are women because they are wearing skirts. Otherwise, how would you know? /s

    That being said, I wouldn’t have minded a burka the other day when we did our grocery shopping in below zero temperatures. I saw a woman in a burka, and for the first time, it looked comfortable, at least for temperature.

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    That too annoyed me – also that annoyed me too. The whole thing is damn annoying!

  4. chigau Avatar
    chigau

    I tried high-heels for a very brief time in my youth (50+ years ago).

    It didn’t work for me.

  5. dnm Avatar
    dnm

    I would be curious to see the brief, or more likely prompt, that led to that poster. It’s not so much women as stereotypes of Asian beauty. And what are the ginko leaves supposed to add to the proceedings?

  6. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    What’s funny is that the angry men in skirts will be even angrier at this pandering attempt, because they’re impossible to please. “‘Female-identified’ you say? How DARE you! We aren’t ‘identified’, WE ARE WOMEN, we have ALWAYS been women, we are the best women of all!” followed by some violent and anatomically unlikely threats.

  7. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Seriously about the stereotypes of Asian beauty. Writers’ festival my ass, it’s a damn beauty pageant.

  8. dnm Avatar
    dnm

    Don’t go to the festival website, OB, or you will be even more irritated. The banner image is of two actual women (or possibly one woman, one girl) – a real photo. However, their heads and faces are hidden by a block of text. Their legs, and skirts, are quite visible. (Luckily, otherwise how would we know they were female?)

  9. Piglet Avatar
    Piglet

    @dnm: it’s so clear that they didn’t hire a designer. “We can do it all ourselves with AI!”

  10. KBPlayer Avatar
    KBPlayer

    @Piglet – that sounds right to me. It’s so cutesy – it looks like they’ll serve cupcakes after the spa treatment.

  11. Holms Avatar
    Holms

    “female-identifying”

    Odd, we were told many times female was a ‘sex word’ and woman was the word that referred to identity – i.e. the thing that one could ‘identify as’ – but we see now that is not enough for the sillies. It’s identity all the way down. The bits on your body are now mere accidents, congenital oddities no more meaningful than a birth mark, to be yeeted off by a smiling surgeon.

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