Miss World protesters come to Chiswick In Film festival

Image above: Phyllis Logan. Sarah Wilson, Bridget Osborne, Jo Robinson, Sue Finch and Rebecca Frayn; photograph Roger Green

Back to the Seventies

Sarah Wilson brought her football rattle. Fortunately not on this occasion the signal for the audience to start throwing things, she brought it to demonstrate how the group of Women’s Liberation protesters coordinated their action inside the Albert Hall when they set out to disrupt the 1970 Miss World contest.

Flour bombs, leaflets and rotten vegetables rained down and for several minutes the contest, being broadcast live to millions of viewers worldwide, was brought to a halt as comedian Bob Hope scuttled offstage to avoid being covered in flour.

More than 50 years on what have women achieved? What part did their protest play in changing the conversation about the objectivation of women?

It seems hard to credit now that the entrants were measured, their bust, waist and hip measurements read out as they turned to show off their figures in evening wear and then in swimsuits while a panel of mainly men judged them and the show was broadcast as family entertainment.

Image above: Misbehaviour; Pathé films

Changing the discourse on the objectification of women

I was 11 when they made their protest, growing up thinking it perfectly normal that men got to make decisions while women were judged by how they looked. This was an era when a woman in Britain could not open a bank account without her husband’s permission and many women were forced to leave work when they got married.

The first thing I wanted to do when three of those women from the 1970 Miss World protest, Sarah Wilson, Jo Robinson and Sue Finch, came to the Chiswick In Film festival for a screening of Misbehaviour (2020) a film about the protest, was to thank them.

Due to their action and that of other women at the time the landscape in the 1970s changed. By the time we were teenagers me and my friends considered ourselves feminists and knew we had to stick up for ourselves.

Image above: Misbehaviour panel on stage at Chiswick In Film festival, L to R Bridget Osborne, Jo Robinson, Sue Finch, Sarah Wilson, Phyllis Logan, Suzanne Mackie and Rebecca Frayn; photograph Roger Green

The satisfaction of squirting blue ink on a bouncer’s white suit

Several women in the audience spoke up to say the same, realising how easy it is to take for granted the benefits of equality laws, the opportunity to go to university and the trailblazing of women who have gone into professional jobs before them.

Sarah, Jo and Sue told the audience they loved the film Misbehaviour and appreciated the effort the film makers had put in to make it. Jo Robinson was played in the film by Jessie Buckley and yes she said, the impetuous, headstrong character she played represented her accurately.

It was Sarah who realised they would need a signal to start the protest. They found out fairly late on that the first part of the show would not be shown live, so they had to be careful to get their timing right so their efforts would not be wasted by being edited out. In the film it is the Keira Knightley character Sally Alexander who wields the football rattle to signal the start of the protest, but in reality it was Sarah.

Image above: Misbehaviour panel on stage at Chiswick In Film festival, L to R Bridget Osborne, Jo Robinson, Sue Finch, Sarah Wilson, Phyllis Logan, Suzanne Mackie and Rebecca Frayn; photograph Roger Green

A night in Holloway

Sue had been 21 and eight months pregnant at the time of the protest. She had a small but important role in the film, coming up with the slogan:

“We are not beautiful, we are not ugly, we are angry.”

I put it to her that it was quite gutsy to go into a situation like that so heavily pregnant. It worked in her favour she said, because when the bouncers handed her over to the police they took one look at her and told her to go home.

Jo was not so fortunate. She had a night in Holloway prison because the magistrate considered her to be disrespectful. She told the audience when it all kicked off and the women tried to make their escape afterwards, she found she got left behind. This bit isn’t in the film but as a bouncer came bearing down on her she drew her water pistol and took great delight in squirting his white tuxedo with blue ink.

Image above: Jessie Buckley as Jo Robinson and Keira Knightley as Sally Alexander, at the Albert Hall waiting for the right moment; Pathé films

Making sure women’s contribution to history is seen

Rebecca Frayn, creator of the film and lead script writer, told the audience she had heard about their protest on BBC Radio 4’s programme The Reunion, which brought several of the protesters together.

The starting point for the protest had been an Oxford University conference at which academic Sheila Rowbottom had spoken, saying women were largely hidden in history but there were many revolutions which had in fact been started by women. Rebecca wanted to shed light on an incident which had been largely forgotten but which made a big difference to the discourse of the time.

Suzanne Mackie, the producer, said it was the rise of the Me Too movement which enabled the film to find backing. It had taken ten years trying to persuade someone to invest in it, but Pathé films (who also made Pride and Made in Dagenham) picked it up when the Zeitgeist was right.

Phyllis Logan plays Sally Alexander’s mother and there is a poignant moment which struck a chord with me where Sally criticises her mother for not doing anything with her life. Her mother is clearly hurt and it occurs to Sally, perhaps for the first time, that maybe her mother had not had the opportunity to do anything more interesting than bring up her and her sister and if she had not, maybe Sally would not have been in a position to go to university and access a more interesting life.

Image above: Phyllis Logan as protester Sally Alexander’s mother, with Sally’s daughter; Pathé films

First Black Miss World

Phyllis said she remembered seeing the protest live on television, though it was taken off air pretty quickly and covered with advertising.

The production was an all-woman affair, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe (Call the Midwife, The Other Boleyn Girl). It cleverly counterpoints the two groups of women – the protesters and the contestants. The viewer gets to know Miss Grenada, who wins, the first black woman to win the title, and Miss Africa South, who is representing black South Africans for the first time alongside Miss South Africa, the white contestant.

How did they feel about wrecking their life chances and those of women like them who might have come after by putting an end to the contest? Suzanne Mackie said they had struggled with the race issue and had opted to show it in all its complexity. They wanted viewers to identify with both groups.

Image above: Keira Knightley as Sally Alexander and Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw as Miss Grenada sharing a moment; Pathé films

A work in progress

There is a chance meeting in the toilets between Sally Alexander and Jennifer Hosten, Miss Grenada, which did not happen in real life, where they share their feelings.

As the questions from the audience got harder to answer – how far really had we got in those 50 years? There have been three female prime ministers and yet rape is as high as ever but reported less – we wrapped up.

A discussion to be continued.

The proesters have written a book about the 1970 protest against the Miss World contest, called Misbehaving, which is available to buy online:

Misbehaving / Amazon

Image above: Misbehaviour panel on stage at Chiswick In Film festival, L to R Bridget Osborne, Jo Robinson, Sue Finch, Sarah Wilson, Phyllis Logan, Suzanne Mackie and Rebecca Frayn; photograph Roger Green

Read more on The Chiswick Calendar

See also: Chiswick In Film – Misbehaviour

See also: Film star Sarah Miles makes surprise guest appearance at Chiswick In Film festival

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