Kat Banyard
{{Short description|British author and activist (born 1982)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kat Banyard
| image = Kat_Banyard_profile.jpg
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| caption = Kat Banyard in 2010
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1982}}
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| other_names =
| occupation = Writer
| known_for = Feminism
}}
Kat Banyard (born 1982){{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NmEiAQAAMAAJ |title= The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Women and Men Today (About the author section) |date= 2010 |isbn= 9780571246267 |access-date= 11 October 2019 |quote= Banyard was born in 1982 and is the founder of FEM Conferences, an acclaimed series of national feminist conferences.|last1= Banyard |first1= Kat |publisher= Faber & Faber }} is a British author and activist against sexual inequality.{{Cite news|last=Cochrane|first=Kira|title=Why Kat Banyard is the UK's most influential young feminist|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/10/kat-banyard-influential-young-feminist|work=The Guardian|access-date=28 May 2013|location=London|date=10 September 2010}} She is the co-founder and director of UK Feminista,{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=http://ukfeminista.org.uk/about/|publisher=UK Feminista|access-date=28 May 2013}} a feminist pressure group whose campaigns have included Lose the Lads Mags,{{Cite web|author=((Personnel from several firms of solicitors and barristers' chambers))|date=2013-05-26|title=Lose the lads' mags or risk legal action (open letter)|url=http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/27/lose-lads-mags-risk-legal-action|newspaper=The Guardian}} and the author of two books on feminist topics. She has also made appearances on UK television channels discussing feminist topics.{{Cite web|date=2017-11-06|title=Sexual harassment debate: 'It's offensive to women that have been raped to discuss knee touching'|url=https://www.channel4.com/news/sexual-harassment-debate-its-offensive-to-women-that-have-been-raped-to-discuss-knee-touching|access-date=2021-11-22|website=Channel 4 News|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|last=Cormack|first=Morgan|date=2021-11-10|title=Why Panorama: Online Pimps Exposed is dividing viewers|url=https://www.stylist.co.uk/entertainment/tv/bbc-panorama-online-pimps-exposed/585992|access-date=2021-11-22|website=Stylist|language=en}} Banyard's work is critical of choice feminism, the beauty industry{{Cite web|date=2012-10-14|title=Kat Banyard: 'We were sold a lie on an almighty scale, that equality had been won, the battle was over'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/14/kat-banyard-feminist-pornography-equality|access-date=2021-11-08|website=The Guardian|language=en}} and the sex industry, which she describes as "commercial sexual exploitation". In 2010, Kira Cochrane, writing for The Guardian, called Banyard "the UK's most influential young feminist".
Career
While at university in Sheffield, in 2004 Banyard set up FEM Conferences, a conference designed to bring together a range of campaign groups and activists working on gender equality to build communications, as well as educate people about gender discrimination.{{cite web |title=About |url=http://femconferences.org.uk/about.html |website=FEM Conferences |access-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325234807/http://femconferences.org.uk/about.html |archive-date=25 March 2016}} In a profile with The Observer, Banyard said she set up the conference because she "wanted to be able to go somewhere to be inspired and there wasn't anything like it".{{cite web |last1=France |first1=Louise |last2=Wiseman |first2=Eva |title=The new feminists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/sep/09/women |website=The Guardian |date=9 September 2007}}
Banyard worked at the Fawcett Society until 2010 as Campaigns Officer.{{cite web |title=The Trouble with Feminism |url=https://archive.ica.art/whats-on/trouble-feminism |website=ICA |date=20 May 2010}} In 2010 Banyard founded UK Feminista.{{Cite journal|last1=Charles|first1=Nickie|last2=Wadia|first2=Khursheed|date=2017-08-23|title=New British feminisms, UK Feminista and young women's activism|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1464700117723592|journal=Feminist Theory|volume=19|issue=2|pages=165–181|doi=10.1177/1464700117723592|issn=1464-7001}}
Banyard's first book,The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Women and Men Today was published in 2010. Observer published a critical review, arguing that while its subject matter is important, the book is poorly written and infantilises women.{{Cite web|date=2010-02-21|title=The Equality Illusion by Kat Banyard {{!}} Book review|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/21/the-equality-illusion-kat-banyard|access-date=2021-11-09|website=The Guardian|language=en}}
Her second book, Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality, was published in 2016. Pimp State posits that prostitution is at risk of becoming normalised, and critiques the idea that sexual equality and the sex industry can coexist. The book was reviewed positively by Helen Lewis in New Statesman and Sarah Ditum in Guardian.{{Cite web|date=2016-06-04|title=Pimp State makes it clear our laws on prostitution are not working – so how should we change them?|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/06/pimp-state-makes-it-clear-our-laws-prostitution-are-not-working-so-how|access-date=2021-11-10|website=New Statesman|language=en-US}} Financial Times described the book as "punchy and breezily written".{{Cite news|last=Jacobs|first=Emma|date=2016-06-09|title='Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality', by Kat Banyard|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/115864f0-2cc3-11e6-bf8d-26294ad519fc|url-access=subscription}} Charlotte Shane wrote a critical review in The Spectator, claiming the book misrepresents the views of those who support decriminalisation of the sex industry and excludes the perspectives of women who sell sex.{{Cite web|last=Shane|first=Charlotte|title=Love for sale|work=The Spectator|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/love-for-sale|date=11 June 2016}}
Bibliography
- The Equality Illusion: The Truth about Women and Men Today. London: Faber and Faber, 2010. {{ISBN|0571246273}}.
- Pimp State: Sex, Money and the Future of Equality. London: Faber and Faber, 2016. {{ISBN|0571278221}}.
References
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Category:British feminist writers
Category:British human rights activists