{"id":1018,"date":"2020-02-26T15:04:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:04:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:04:06","slug":"how-to-pull-without-inadvertently-being-a-creep-or-a-sex-offender-a-phd-students-creative-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/2020\/02\/26\/how-to-pull-without-inadvertently-being-a-creep-or-a-sex-offender-a-phd-students-creative-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pull! (Without inadvertently being a creep or a sex offender): A PhD student\u2019s creative guide."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lo0iI2cq8Q4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Amanda McBride is a Sociology PhD student, studying gender and the night time economy. Ruth Lewis interviewed her to find out the back story to her animation about \u2018pulling\u2019  \u2013  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lo0iI2cq8Q4&amp;feature=youtu.be\">How To Pull<\/a>! (without inadvertently being a creep or a sex offender) &#8211;  produced with artist Graeme from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/armsreach.eyeslook\/\">Arms Reach<\/a> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: How did you come to make an animation about sexual\nharassment? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: I won a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk\/about-us\/supporting-students\/scholarships\/cumberland-lodge-scholarships\">Cumberland\nLodge Scholarship<\/a> 2017 and applied for a development grant from them. The\ngrants are to enable PhD students to do researcher development activities that PhD\nstipends don\u2019t cover \u2013 eg podcast training, workshops and other experiences. I\u2019m\nreally interested in visual representations; I love zines and comics and I think\nvery visually \u2013 I use mind-maps all the time. The focus on sexual harassment\ncame about because it\u2019s an aspect of my research that didn\u2019t really make it\ninto the thesis in a major way but it was so persistent in the interviews that\nI didn\u2019t want it to be lost. Graeme is an artist and someone I talk to about\nthis kind of stuff and we decided that would be a good way to spend the money-\ncollaborating with an artist to create an output I couldn\u2019t do otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: Why an animation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: I am ambivalent, confused about current attempts to\nchange behaviours around sexual harassment. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to work. I\u2019m\nnot on the internet \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, Twitter \u2013 at all but I know young\npeople use those things and I really like using clips and videos in my\nteaching. And animation has the possibility of text and image. Communication is\nso visual now. What I\u2019ve learned is that animations are particularly good\nbecause you don\u2019t have to overload people with verbal, textual, wordy info.\nThere are other dimensions to people\u2019s learning. We wanted it to have a light\ntone and people to relate to it in a gentle way. And that could be done with\nvisuals in a way that didn\u2019t undermine the importance of the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: So what was your approach for the animation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: Let\u2019s assume that lads are at least oblivious that\nthey\u2019re sexually harassing. I don\u2019t think most lads who do it are aware \u2013 they just\ngo out and do what everyone else is doing. I just wanted to frame it in that\nway. I was eager no one would feel attacked. So much of the harassment is born\nout of not knowing how to speak to people you fancy. It somehow seems to take\nmore confidence to ask someone if they want a drink than it does to walk past\nthem and grab their arse! So we wanted an informative video, coming from a\ngentle, kind, humorous place about what the girls said they didn\u2019t want. It\u2019s\nbased on interviews with women but we made it relatively gender-neutral. It\u2019s they\u2019re\npulling tips for anyone \u2013 girls who are pulling girls, boys who are pulling\nboys, girls who are pulling boys, boys who are pulling girls. There are a lot\nof stereotypes about non-hetero practices but non-straight people are having\nsome pretty hairy experiences too. On the posters that go with the animation,\nthere\u2019s no reference to gender \u2013 other than that it\u2019s based on interviews with\nwomen in the NE. We wanted to make it as gender-neutral as possible. There are\ngirls who engage in dodgy practices too \u2013 I didn\u2019t want to make it just about\nstraight men, but it\u2019s based on young women\u2019s accounts about their experiences with\nstraight men. Sexual aggression can manifest all over the shop and it\u2019s too\ncomplex a message &#8211; that&nbsp; it\u2019s ultimately\nlinked to heteronormativity \u2013 that\u2019s more than a 2 minute animation can\ncapture! So we thought focusing on three tips would help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: What was the hardest part of the project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: I like being left to my own devices when it comes to\nwork, so this was my first real attempt at working with someone. Collaborating with\nsomeone I knew was on same page obviously helped but opening myself up to\nfeedback isn\u2019t something I do easily; I had to remain open to Graeme\u2019s\nsuggestions, which were always excellent. Graeme initially edited the script\nand ended up contributing a lot to it, including the best jokes. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other really hard thing was expecting someone to work\nfor free. Because the grant was small, Graeme got paid for two days and it took\nhim a month of work. And he gave a third of the money to the guy who did the\nmusic. He did it because he wanted to. It really was a labour of love. So the\nhardest part was the recognition that there is very little money flying around\nfor this kind of stuff and that it\u2019s obviously not something that is valued by\nthose holding the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: Who d\u2019you want to see the animation? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: Young people. I\u2019m aware there is a culture of sharing\nthings you find funny, things that enter into cultural consciousness. Which is\nwhy we wanted to make it light touch \u2013 I think that works. I\u2019m not a\nbehavioural change scientist and not involved in front line activism so I just\nthought \u2018what\u2019s a nice light way for people to engage with this?\u2019 And I wanted\nit to be useful as a resource because institutions are keen to provide direct\nguidance to their students around consent, gender behaviours and that sort of\nthing, so thought it could be resource for educators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: What kind of response have you had, so far?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: People seem to really like \u2013 I\u2019ve had lots of good\nfeedback about it. Another Cumberland Lodge scholar works on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodladinitiative.com\/\">Good Lad Initiative<\/a> and he\u2019s\nshared it through that campaign so it should get a pretty wide, diverse\naudience. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shoutup.org\/\">Shout-up<\/a>, which campaigns to make our pubs, clubs, bars and\nvenues sexual harassment free zones, has also been in touch and it\u2019ll be\nincluded in their training for venue staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Q: What\u2019s next? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A: I want to continue with more outputs for the public and I\u2019m\ncurrently working on a collaboration with Chantal Herbert of <a href=\"https:\/\/sister-shack.com\/\">Sister Shack<\/a> (a feminist organisation that\npromotes and supports women in the creative industries), to make something\naudial, a podcast or radio show. Of course, I\u2019m also prepping for the viva and\nattempting to get some academic articles published!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Amanda submitted her thesis, entitled \u2018High Spirits: young women\u2019s pleasure in the night time economy\u2019 in December 2019 and is now preparing for her viva.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amanda McBride is a Sociology PhD student, studying gender and the night time economy. Ruth Lewis interviewed her to find out the back story to her animation about \u2018pulling\u2019 \u2013 How To Pull! (without inadvertently being a creep or a sex offender) &#8211; produced with artist Graeme from Arms Reach Q: How did you come<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/2020\/02\/26\/how-to-pull-without-inadvertently-being-a-creep-or-a-sex-offender-a-phd-students-creative-guide\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;How to Pull! (Without inadvertently being a creep or a sex offender): A PhD student\u2019s creative guide.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Ih7L-gq","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northumbria.ac.uk\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}