The Annual WAM conference runs from March 27-29. Its stated goals are as follows: “The goal of WAM! is to bring together everyone who has a stake in achieving gender justice in media, in order to share facts and ideas, develop skills, build collaborations, bridge differences and create action plans. We’re bringing together more than 600 participants to exchange observations, ideas, experiences, opinions, and tools for change—and plan together for action.”
This seems inclusive doesn’t it? What can be more wonderful than women joining together in solidarity to discuss our issues? But just like conferences of the past, WAM suffers from accessibility issues. The on-site registration rate is $195/$75 (students w/valid student ID)/$110 (seniors 65+). This is just the cost of a ticket for entrance and does not include the cost of transportation and food for those coming from out of town.
For hotels the organizers arranged a deal with the Marriott for US $179 per night. They did concede that this price may be unaffordable for some and therefore recommended the “HI-Boston Hostel which offers dorm-style accommodations for as low as $40, including breakfast and WiFi, and is convenient to the subway system which can take you right to the conference”.
When we consider that everyday more people are receiving pink slips, this conference is not affordable. Some women have been able to achieve free entrance by volunteering. but what does this say about equality? Money is more valued than the equal participation of women across class lines. Lest we forget – poor women have always had to serve at the beck and call of women of privilege.
A woman choosing to travel from Australia will spend 2000 thousand dollars in transportation fees alone before attending a single session. Meanwhile, there are many women active in Asian countries trying to improve the lives of women and yet the cost of participating in this conference ensures that much of their voices will not be heard. The same is true for women in Europe and Africa.
If you are a mother as I am, daycare for your children is a priority. Even arranging childcare can be a nightmare for a parent for work, never mind to take a weekend to raise consciousness. Finding extra money to pay for a weekend of daycare can also be an issue. Not every mother can depend on leaving her children with their father, or count on family and friends to pick up the slack.
These sorts of conferences have historically been attended by women of class privilege, who are able to negotiate their personal responsibilities. How many women of class privilege are rushing off to speak about oppression while leaving their children in the care of a woman of colour domestic helper? The irony of this often escapes many feminists; while they rail against the sins of patriarchy how many are complicit in the exploitation of other women? Domestic workers are often poorly paid with no benefits. In the West, they are most often poor women of colour from the so-called third world – labouring to support their children at home.
We live in a digital age and WAM could have taken advantage of this to make this conference more accessible to women across the globe. The State of the Black Union was streamed on the internet and much of this conference could have been delivered this way as well. Putting it on the internet would still mean that only women of a certain class would be able to participate because of the need of a computer and an internet connection, but at least the participation of women who are marginalized by class, experience, inability to travel due to a disability, and/or parental responsibilities would have been able to have access to the conference.
They further could have considered dividing the conference by having a few satellite locations at various places across the US. This would have mean that for women living in the continental US, options would have existed that would have meant a reduction in the amount spent on travel.
A sponsorship program could have been created where women could have donated money to help cut down the cost of others. For example, Octogalore of Astarte’s Circus suggested:
“They should get out of the girl mode (that’s mean) and be creative about it. Maybe set up a matching effort so that women who want to sponsor anonymous others can click a box to send 2 or 3 others to WAM. I’d have done that if there was a way on the website to do it, and I’m sure at least 25 others would too, so there you have 50-75 people going free. By “girl mode” I don’t mean uncreative, but unaggressive about asking for a box.”
When we speak of divisions in feminism, class is an issue that is very seldom discussed; class is the hidden elephant in any room. Class is something that we invariably avoid speaking about, because we live with the social myth that most people are middle class. The reality is that we have a very divided society and this translates into a lack of equal opportunity.
Until the recent slump in the economy, we did not speak openly about those living on the margins and the difficulty of obtaining the necessities of life like food. Even though we are aware that there are more people that are needy than ever due to the recession, unless organizing is aimed specifically at reducing or ending poverty, class rarely gets factored into activism.
When women seek to come together we need to consider if the conditions allow for a multiplicity of voices to be heard. In the end, what happens is that you have women of privilege speaking about the marginalized rather than speaking to them and this only serves to support the hierarchy of bodies that has existed since the beginning of feminism.
i agree full force with this idea. if WOC bloggers decide to start doing fubu-cons i hope that we incorporate a lot of these ideas. to me its not only an issue of class but principles. if we say that we are about creating transnational feminists networks that fully support the strategies and philosophies of all women involved in our movements than we need to do be aggressive about making that happen.
i like the idea of streaming a conference. i also like Octogalore’s idea of having a donation function on the registration page. i would also suggest allowing people to give specifically towards technologies that will make the conference more accessible. beyond streaming, would it also be possible to set up a scenario like the blog radio shows where the sound and possible image is streamed online and participants can ask questions via a chatroom or calling in? that way those couldn’t make it still felt like they had some (there would obviously be limitations on this) ability to have direct input.
or what about affiliate conferences. you have one in the us. part of the con goes to voting on the next location, based on what attendees (or non-attendees who write in votes) anyone who suggest a place should probably have a somewhat stable network of organizers who are already willing to put work into making the next con happen. now these cons might not look like a US con would based on the liberties and limitations of what ever space we wind up in…BUT it would de-center some of the power and responsibility.
great post that has me thinking.
hey renee
great post
we would love to crosspost this at ravens eye
if you would be interested
email us at
ravenseyeblog@gmail.com
thanks
It really surprises me that there hasn’t been more about this associated with WAM. I mean, right now, a group of Fandom-related folks are putting on an auction called Con or Bust that’s part of the funding for a scholarship for women of colour to go to WisCon – the Feminist Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention that’s held every year in May. People have donated memberships and the funding will go to helping people pay for plane tickets, hotel rooms, or any other necessities to get to this Con.
Why isn’t this something that the folks behind WAM and other media conferences not doing? Is it because Fandom has developed a culture around auctions to help support causes? Right now Fandom is doing Sweet Charity, in support of RAINN, for example.
It’s not like Fandom is HAPPY HAPPY FUN SPACE or a Borg Collective or something, and the folks who are behind this are Women of Colour. But there is a lot of support for it across many fandom spaces.
About WAM! accessibility: Organizers say explicitly that nobody is turned away for inability to pay. Attendees can volunteer for 5 hours and have the registration fee waived. Many, many people take advantage of this offer, and indeed, nobody is turned away. It also offers scholarships to those with financial need (this is how I attended my first year).
As well, WAM! makes accessible on their website a ride-share board and inexpensive/coach-surfing options for housing.
They are also putting a great deal of the WAM! content (filmed often by those who volunteered in exchange for conference attendance) on their website via video. They also feature live-bloggers and Twitter content for those who can’t attend to follow the activities.
I’m sure additional ideas to make the conference accessible will be warmly welcomed.
Personally, I am shocked at how many women of color and “allies” attended WAM after last year’s fiasco. But okay, perhaps you somehow missed all the discussion on the WoC blogosphere about this. Or perhaps you wanted to give the organizers the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they took the comments last year to heart and worked their butts off to do better this year. I can accept that standpoint, that some women would think this year should be better because conference organizers appeared to be very receptive to the negative comments they had received, and very invested in taking them into account with future planning.
It is interesting to see that this is not the case. At first, I admit, seeing everyone gushing all excitedly about how they were going annoyed me. Now I know why that was my instinctual reaction. Nothing has changed.
When we talk about class barriers we also have to recognize that this is inter-related to racial & religious barriers. Yes, in this time there are a lot of poor whites who are affected. But women of color are still disproportionately affected.
And anyone who says “but there were scholarships” can stuff it. It isn’t just about coming up with the cost of the conference and lodging and food etc. necessary to actually be there. It is also time off work without pay, paying someone to watch your children, pets and plants while you are gone, and possibly risking losing your job all-together for daring to take the time off (or for your involvements). It is also a matter of priorities. Sure, you can get the scholarship and go… but then you can’t take time off again to go to the AMC or something else that you know you will need the time off for. If you aren’t poor, you will always look to claim that “we are inclusive, we offer scholarships” etc without being able to understand the realities of poverty and that more than just a scholarship is needed. Further, even with scholarships and other funding, there will always be many many more poor women and women of color who are still left out because they cannot all access that funding, or cannot get the transportation there, or cannot take the time away from their families/jobs, or can’t even get online to figure out what’s what to make it there. So you still end up with the same result: privileged (predominantly white) women talking about the rest of us.