Jenny Willott MP talks about her wedding jewellery as part of Platform 51’s campaign to raise awareness of the widespread use of depressants by women.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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2 Comments
So this campaign wants women to be offered more alternatives to anti-depressants, and it’s choosing to promote this through videos about how clothes can make women feel better? As a woman who has suffered from depression, I find that both patronising and sexist : patronising because it implies that I can’t tell the difference between a bad mood that might be resolved by doing something nice for myself and an illness that requires professional help; sexist because it plays on the stereotype that women are focused on fashion and appearance. I’m disappointed in Jenny Willott for getting sucked into this.
@LizW, I’m a service user of platform 51. One of the things they do is collect research from service users as part of consultations for the government. From some of the research they found some women, but more particularly girls and young women, have depressing thoughts when confronted by images in the media on what the ‘ideal women’ should be. The idea of glad rags is normal people, like Jenny, talk about an item of clothing, or an accessory that makes them feel good about themselves in order to raise awareness that self-esteem can improve your mental attitude. (If you look at other videos on their YouTube account you’ll see that its not only politicians and celebrities, but also women that use the centres involved in this campaign.) They’ve also had other ways on campaigning on this issue; for example, hosting an event at parliament as part of the campaign launch (where I gave a speech on how I coped with depression through their help, after my doctor did nothing) and they’ve had meetings with different MPs including Paul Burstow on this issue. I can also assure you that they’re not sexist as some of their past campaigns have been on women getting jobs that are more commonly aimed at men (plumber etc.) and one of their current pieces of research is on ‘gender specific’ toys. I’m sorry that the campaign appears to be patronising to you, but I hope my comment has helped in some way. If not or if you have any other enquiries then do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] and I’ll gladly discuss them with you. Xx