Kate Chisholm

Umbrellas for peace

issue 15 October 2005

Stiletto heels, a baby’s dummy, Spice Girls ephemera and glittering embroidery — the predictable paraphernalia of womanhood is all on show in What Women Want. But the latest exhibition at the enterprising Women’s Library in the East End of London is underpinned by some surprising revelations. So we have a 1972 edition of Spare Rib magazine (which I had thought always prided itself on being a feminist alternative to Good House-keeping) advertising an article by ‘Georgie Best’ on sex.

Another case of books, diaries and postcards contains Married Love by Marie Stopes, opened at the title page to reveal that it was first published in 1918 and that it was subtitled ‘A New Contribution to the Solution of Sex Difficulties’. It’s somehow rather satisfying to realise that sex talk was not created in the 1960s despite what the Pill generation like to think.

The exhibition is intended not just to showcase women’s aspirations but also to create a debate about what women want now in the 21st century.

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