Heidi, 21 from Cambridge, thinks… well actually, quite a lot. She thinks about Britain having the lowest rape conviction rate in Europe. She thinks about the 19.7% of MPs, who are female, representing half the population. She thinks about the FTSE 100’s highest-paid female director taking home a tenth what is earned by the highest-paid man. And given that she has a triple first in the bag, some of this thinking might even be intellectually informed.
Going against the grain, I’d like to see myself as someone with brainpower and boobs, a pairing which I feel Cambridge culture strives to deny. In the bubble, where academic achievement is a strong measure of self-worth, a woman’s capital lies in her stack of library books, rather than her cup-size. Or so we would like to believe. In my opinion, the suggestion that intelligence puts us above casual sexism is highly disingenuous. Just as the university’s women are clever, so too are they subject to the same social pressures and attitudes that exist in the ‘real world’. Pretending otherwise constitutes a large-scale cover-up operation, whereby gender issues in the university go unnoticed.
In recent debates within the university, the impression generated by the CUSU Women’s Council and others is that prior to a few girls getting their kit off, the university was a sexism-free zone. Whilst totally misleading, this nonetheless demonstrates precisely a pernicious concealment of sexist attitudes that are in evidence throughout the university. There is a 21% wage inequality between male and female academics; the first female head porter was appointed in the institution’s 800th year; women’s boxing and rugby do not earn the same full blue status granted to their male counterparts.
There is a culture of sexism in Cambridge that needs addressing. That it took photos of girls in underwear to make people think so is bizarre; that the photos have become a sole target for all that is degrading and objectifying to the university’s women is just ridiculous. CUSU’s recent focus is totally misdirected, and fails to deal with far more worrying, entrenched gender problems. To equate ‘smashing sexism’ merely with stigmatizing nudity completely skews any argument about latent gender inequality in Cambridge, once more reinforcing the idea that since there are boobs on a page there couldn’t possibly be any kind of calculated provocative intent behind it. Because that, surely, is the point: this is provocative – it has got people thinking and will continue to do so – but since I actually have some opinions on the F word, it is also self-aware.
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Maybe Heidi should cover up and then we’d take her comments more seriously.
T. Winchester, you’ve just proven Heidi’s point.
The problem we seem to be having with the serious issues being put across here, like us having the lowest rape conviction rate, like the wage gap between male and female academics, is the conception of the very people shouting out the message. The gender equality campaign has been blurred by it’s own delivery and by the other controversial campaigns running along side it. Whether the spokesmen and women are hemp wearing hippies or fit, scantily clad Cambridge graduates, no-one is hearing what is actually being said.
Cambridge has some serious issues that demand urgent attention. And yet we are still bickering about whether Cambridge students (clever, independently minded, young people) should have to look at other Cambridge students (who have CHOSEN to represent themselves in such a way) with their kit off.
My concern with the CUSU Women’s campaign is that by focusing on the issue of objectification, it’s actually alienating a large part of their support group – the women who don’t feel objectified and who think there are more mainstream issues we could be looking at.
That is not to say I think that CUSU Women aren’t focusing on these important issues. I know they do fantastic work with all their other campaigns, for example the launch of a campaign focusing on sexism in Cambridge sport (that Heidi highlighted) and the action packed, ‘Stop Violence Against Women’ week in Week 8. I just worry that by looking at issues like objectification, one that not everyone is behind, we’re blurring the messages that I regard as more important.
Well said Heidi.
i was expecting boobs.
BRILLIANT!
“Maybe Heidi should get naked and then we’d take her comments more seriously.”
FYP
Very good, and very true.
PS: Women should be allowed to wear what they like, without some men insisting that their own, sexual reactions make that appearance one of objectification.
The men do all the objectifying.
But unless a woman wears the most boring, modest clothes – she is blamed for it.
I think (some) men should stop being so self-centered, and realize that what a woman wears is not always with him in mind.
“women’s boxing and rugby do not earn the same full blue status granted to their male counterparts.”
Men’s Lightweight Rowing does not earn the same full blue status granted to their heavyweight counterparts. (Women’s rowing is a full blue).
Weightism much?
Dan,
We were asked to take the images down after the Guardian contacted Becky and frightened her into asking for their removal.
Frankly, we wish we still had the pictures up on the website, but we respected Becky’s wishes.
Just further to that last message:
Dan, your comment seems to have been lost – please write it again.
Dan’s basic point was that just as the media guardian wrote a piece about us we chose to replace a revealing Tab Totty with a new feminist, power-kicking woman
It unfair on men to assume that rape convictions should be higher. Having the lowest rape convictions may just mean we have the most reasonable and sensible judges, a long with the least rapists.
To Louise,
Your point, although sensible in regards to individuality in general life, becomes irrelevant and slightly ridiculous when the said woman is not only wearing very little but (and here’s the nub of the matter) also publicising this fact in a magazine.
Secondly, don’t tell me that when you get dressed you aren’t thinking about looking good for other people. Unless you live your life in front of a mirror your clothes are a method of presenting yourself to others; if you choose to wear a pair of knickers and a bra you’re doing it to show off certain assets.
Also, the whole issue about objectifying being the sole preserve of men is also blatantly unfair. Open an issue of Cosmo and your faced with topless semi naked men, open an issue of any teen magazine and you’ve got the likes of Zac Efron being objectified. On a different angle women objectify themselves in magazines such as hello and heat etc. were female celebrities and treated terribly, subjected to the form of criticism that should morally only really be shown to a non-sentient object.
Max
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/27/cambridge-the-tab-students-tabloid
All publicity is good publicity, right?
… Right?
[...] is a shame that girls have to get their kit off to generate feminist debate. As Heidi argued in her comment piece, there are much more pressing issues that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, Rowenna Davis did [...]
Thats good , we wish we still had the pictures up on the website, but we respected Becky's wishes
http://www.superperolas.com
Its not about guys between girls. Its about the aprropriateness of these photos in a university context. The focus is on education, degree, career. If a guy has posed in his underwear it would be objectionable in the same way as this girl is doing. The word "boobs" in a Cambridge University website is offensive and demerits the works of professors, scholars and students alike.
"Just as the university’s women are clever"
Y'all need to lose this obsession with this thing called "cleverness", as if it's an end in itself. As if. All this talk of clever makes you sound stupid. Welcome to Clevertown, where people are clever. Onoy stupid people live in Clevertown, did no one ever teach you?
"Just as the university's women are subject to a social pressure to regard themselves as, above all, clever" would have been cleverer.
Interesting. I read a little bit of yellow journalism about the Cambridge Tab on the Daily Heil, and came here expecting to see a lot of nonsense being spouted by yon blue eyed girl (principally, some scarily stupid view about the price of kebabs wherever). In short, I expected a student-y mishmash of the Sun, the Daily Heil, and the Sexpress.
But instead, I found Cambridge Tab, and Heidi (who, irrespective of her very blue eyed beauty, does raise some very valid points), both very interesting indeed. Kudos to you lot; you go to show that simplifying the language used – and prettifying the newspaper – don't necessarily make it intellectually worthless.
P.S.: I still think The Student (Ed) is better.
hahah definatly agree with ken heidi should be naked , id take her more serious
Hi , great site good to see some one haveing ago from Australia
Women should be able to wear whatever the hell they want and still get paid the same as males in the same position. I don't understand why having breasts means your wage is lower.
Society-fail.
When i read that this website was down due to 'massive demand' I thought i better check it out. Good work Heidi….For some reason i felt compelled to read your article.
I take what she writes about seriously because she is enrolled at Cambridge.
I doubt she wears this sporty outfit all the time.
I had better check out the other girls to see what they have to say. =)
Sorry I lost concentration. Can you start again please Heidi ?
"[Heidi] thinks about Britain having the lowest rape conviction rate in Europe."
Wrong: Of rape cases that *actually go to trial*, our conviction rate is very respectable, and comparable to that for many other crimes:
http://straightstatistics.org/article/how-panic-o...
maximus otter
Hi,
I was directed to this website but Telegraph’s main page and honestly speaking, I think you students need to stop moaning and wake up to real life. In the grand scheme of things, no-one really cares how much women/men earn in the real world. As long as you’re happy then the money shouldnt be an issue…
"I don't understand why having breasts means your wage is lower"
Katie Price anyone?
The desire for sex informs everyone of us at some basic level – however much we deny it. We're all here at Cambridge hoping our studies will result in high profile careers and money that will make us much more attractive human beings – or are we all forgetting the reasons we locked ourselves away from all humanity to swot and pass our exams?
Heidi looks fit
20% of MPs representing 50% of the population?
It seems at times feminism is associated with all things having to be equal.
Those 20% of MPs hopefully represent 100% of their own constituents, just as the 80% of male MPs do. They do not represent 50% of the population in a parliamentary democracy! In fact young people, lesbians, people with broken ankles are not afforded a statistically equivalent representation in parliament – not everything is closet discrimination.
With regard to the gender pay gap – perhaps such statistics, if they are to be meaningful, should also include some of the other statistical differences between genders. They might find these better explanation of the "gender" pay gap. After all, where a hard-working, career-minded woman is more highly paid than her male counterparts, no-one would consider insisting her pay be lowered into line with the statistical average.
Let's bump
i dont think she should cover up, shes a work of art ! its all fun, get off your high horses will u.
Love your work Heidi! Don't worry about what the 'haters' are hollering – keep doing your own thing.
Get Neked Soon.
women should be allowed to wear whatever they want, so should men. what would people think if a guy came out trying to say something semi-intellegent in the not-so-cool boxing outfit? i think your outfit is completely inappropriate for the purpose of your article. wear whatever you may but if you want people to take you more seriousluy, learn to dress appropriately first.
Men desire fertile, non-pregnant and faithful women. Women have a limited period of fertility, so men are attracted to youth, slenderness, beauty and chastity. Heidi is competing with other women on that basis, by displaying her youth and beauty, and even displaying her non-pregnant midriff.
In contrast, men are assessed according to their status, so in order to attract a high value mate, men must compete with other men for status. They do so by contesting each other for positions within places of work, and as a result they rise to positions of seniority. There is no parallel for women.
Incidentally, it has been estimated that over 50% of rape allegations are false.
[...] ragazza della settimana della foto sopra si chiama Heidi e parla dell'atteggiamento sessista che ancora circola [...]
"I think (some) men should stop being so self-centered, and realize that what a woman wears is not always with him in mind."
Tell you what Louise, you try and stop yourself from telling men how to be men, and I'll try (but not very hard) to stop gorping at intelligent birds and Great Tits (Parus major, is the latin name I believe).
We're ALL not that much different from the way we were several tens of thousands of years ago, and it ain't gunna change in a hurry regardless of how many female chauvinists attempt to inflict their vision of utopia on the rest of us.
…all this political correctness cult is about is fear, denial, and self-loathing: women like being looked at; men like looking at them – we are not the same, and thank Crick for that!
I think this is has been a very effective marketing campaign, that's succeeded in getting free attention for "The Tab", and tricked people in to reading about something that they would normally yawn past rapidly, it's only dopey cluckers who miss the point and come on here to interbitch about schmitt that don't matter.
Very nice site!
i sure feel bad not studying at cambrige university….
I think that if women get paid for showing off their torso, men deserve equal pay
I hear you Heidi. Good sense tells me that the likelihood of you being entirely correct in this day and age is very high.
You and others like you are in receipt of what are arguably the best educational opportunities in the country. In business, in science, in religion, in society, what we need to hear from our brightest minds are solutions. Workable ideas, steps forward to progressively eradicate inequality. To my mind, you are confirming the presence of an existing disease (for which you should be thanked! x) rather than proposing how to make changes to our society which would inexorably starve sexism of the oxygen it needs to survive. Identify the oxygen and you identify a potential method of suffocation. I wasn't bright enough to get into Oxford or Cambridge, nor was I switched on enough in my late teens to make the right decisions with regard to what I did next. Experience in the following decades, however, tells me that people such as yourself need to find solutions, and we as a general populous need to take heed and help implement changes, or the sexism of which you speak in such a charged manner is going to persist into the 22nd Century. I believe most people would rather see sexism die like the dinosaur it always was.
Supported
That's talent not wage! lol
What an utterly ridiculous article.
You should all grow up, the lot of you. How absurd to say that having boobs and intelligence somehow goes against the grain. Do you think you are the only woman in the history of time who had a brain? Or the only attractive one with a brain? Please!
As for the implication that "Tab Totty" is stirring up a progressive debate, I've never come across such a load of more obviously self-congratulatory rubbish.
I visited this article after reading the Guardian critique; this kind of codswallop shows you all up to be nothing more than a gaggle of vacuous idiots.
This is chauvinism masquerading as 'intelligent comment', except it's done in a painfully cringeworthy manner.
Further, what a terrible quality photograph. Awful lighting. Total amateur job. Goes well with the article.
I being a man feel it is a shame that some men think that it is their right to decide the dress code of women. Come on, ladies! dress according to your tastes and preferences – according to your comfort and pleasure.
Jit
I think I have a problem with the notion that 'women (or anyone) should be able to wear what they want wothout seeing any difference in the reactionof others, on the grounds that what is said is more important than the appearance of who says it'.
What you wear is another way of speaking. While we can't make other people feel/ think things (they have to do that themselves), it seems we can aim at getting a certain kind of reaction, and what we wear is very much much a part of that. We can't force people into reacting a certain way but we can do things which we would hope might get a certain reaction. It is and must be that way. Otherwise, where is there room for self-expression?
No, I don't think we should be able to wear what we like and expect to be dealt with the same whether we're wearing a suit or a mankini. I think that's an unrealisic expectation. Make your choices and handle the consequences.
(re Louise.. "PS: Women should be allowed to wear what they like, without some men insisting that their own, sexual reactions make that appearance one of objectification. )
personally i only take women seriously when they are wearing as little as possible after all we all isn't that what cambridge is about eh! T. wincheter if you think differently you must be a fag with a vibrating egg up your ass old bean
[...] a 21-year-old student who posed for a Tab Totty shoot after the furore hit global headlines, justified the endeavour saying: “I’d like to see myself [...]
Oh, cos a woman can only make intelligent points when clothed from head to toe in victorian style garb perhaps? You might want to read the article again, you clearly spent more time oggling than getting the point.