Founded by Phoebe Collings-James, Cunt Today is the latest online platform for feminist interaction and debate, gathering information on current news and events alongside original contributor articles.
Twin spoke to the artist about the inspiration behind her site and her views on fourth wave feminism…
What inspired you to launch Cunt Today?
I’ve been using the word cunt since I was at primary school, shouting it at boys, girls and inanimate broken objects. Before I even understood what it meant. It is a powerful word, it is supposedly offensive, especially seductive and very pleasurable to use.
But powerful and offensive is how women’s sexuality and freedom is treated in society on the whole. I feel as though men and women are increasingly aware of how important gender issues are and wanted to set up a forum to share ideas and promote action.
Who got you involved in feminism and what does modern-day feminism mean to you?
My mother, even though she still won’t call herself one. She says she is a humanist, which is interesting when you think of one of the most important phrases of the women’s movement: ‘Womens Rights are Human Rights’. She taught me that I could do, say and be whatever I wanted.
Feminism today is about affirming those things for every girl and woman, through law and society. Feminism means something different to everyone. For me, it’s about equality and empowerment, and not letting gendered ideas of who or what we should be prevail.
It’s about addressing violence against women, supporting new structures of work and child care that deal with the realities of contemporary families. Not the Dickensian ones that David Cameron seems to be enamoured by.
How do you think does your background as an artist feed into the project?
A lot of the projects I have been involved in have been especially arts based, like the East London Fawcett group. They recently did an extensive audit into the ratios of male to female artists represented in galleries, museums, art magazines and auctions. This was a really important survey for me, simply to confirm that I am not totally delusional and that the massive indifference is real.
Creative people have the potential to change the way we live and a lot of their decisions affect our politics — in architecture, fashion and advertising, as well as art. I think it is especially important that they are morally conscious of the decisions they make.
What do you hope for viewers to take away from the site and what can we expect from it in the future?
I want them to speak about what they have read and open up debates. Get people talking and thinking. I wanted the site to be in the style of a blog rather than a magazine because it is supposed to be an open resource, for people to contribute and gather information. It would be great for this to grow and continue into the future.
cunttoday.com
phoebecollingsjames.com
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