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Categories: Woman of the week
Friday, 27 January 2012
Woman of the week - Anna Van Heeswijk

Campaigning for a fairer press

Anna Van Heeswijk, member of organisation Object - Women not sex objects, is our woman of the week. She has played a prominent part in the news this week following her involvement in the Leveson Inquiry, where she argued that the media was largely responsible for on-going negative attitudes of women in society today.

Anna joined Object in 2008, with the aim of overcoming sexism by combatting a general view of women - a domineering view that women have little to offer other than their looks. Anna tackles this idea in other ways: she regularly rallies outside strip clubs, often attracts media attention through persistent protesting and her lobbying of the government. All this proves she is dedicated to changing negative societal views of women

If this were not enough proof that she is dedicated to changing negative societal views of women, this week she called upon the Leveson Inquiry to ban sexualised images of women in pre-watershed media and in newspapers, to which anyone of all ages could easily have access. Anna drew attention to the difference in men and womens' representation in tabloids such as The Sun and the Daily Mail: she argued women posing naked contrasted to men shown in suits suggests men are the only active and productive members of society whilst all women are good for is the shape of their bodies.

This determination that Anna Van Heeswijk demonstrates offers a possibility of a freer press in the near future - a press that provides objective facts rather than insinuations that often lead to women being put down.

Photo courtesy of Observer Magazine