Sarah Ackland
Transformative Spaces for Women: Running in the City
Women’s liberation movements tore through the twentieth century, from Suffragettes to Sisters Uncut and Reclaim the Night the women’s uprising gathered force, women were taking to the streets. Meanwhile others were taking to the streets in an altogether different underground movement, defining the future for women through defiant acts of running, Feminist Running. Borrowing from Lefebvre’s idea that all space is political, women’s bodies are catalysts for the fear of progress. Women were challenging the gender normative positions, actively activating space with their bodies, through running. Women walking, the female flaneur and mothers with prams have been widely discussed, but perhaps the most ‘able’ of female bodies; the runner is yet to be discussed. Can women transform their experience of space through running?
Twitter: @sarah_ackland