Misbehaving: Stories of protest against the Miss World

£15.99

In stock

Sue Finch, Jenny Fortune, Jane Grant, Jo Robinson & Sarah Wilson, Editors

Protests at the Miss World contest in 1970 attracted headlines around the world. This book portrays the new and vibrant women’s liberation movement of the 70s. It tells how women protested inside and outside the Albert Hall, who they were, what took them into the women’s liberation movement, how they organised, why they were protesting and of women’s arrests and trials.

This book has over 80 original photos and illustrations, in b/w and colour Endorsements: it was the first thing that really turned me on to feminism, so moving and exciting, and of course, I never looked back. Lynne Segal

Misbehaving gives us the story of the protesters against Miss World Contest in the words of the rebels themselves. Through the wonderful diversity of their personal and political life stories it does something more. .. it vividly reveals how an extraordinary range of sources contributed to the emergence of a movement for Women’s Liberation. It will cheer you all up. Sheila Rowbotham

The film Misbehaviour, comments on the beauty industry, then and now. Starring Keira Knightley, Misbehaviour was released in the UK earlier this year, and can now be watched on Amazon Prime.

Misbehaving: Stories of protest against the Miss World is available to buy in increments of 1

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The tactics employed at the Miss World protest 1970 and the subsequent trial mirrored the approach used in earlier protests and movements, such as the 1968 action by women in the USA outside the Miss America contest, and in the civil rights movement in the States and in the ‘Deeds not words’ approach of Suffragettes long before that. Direct action as a tactic is having a resurgence in expressions of resistance today – across the world. The 1970 protest stands on the shoulders of the women in the USA who protested outside the Miss America contest in 1968. Our protest against a sexist spectacle in the Albert Hall became an iconic moment of resistance in women’s history that burst into the living rooms of a world-wide TV audience. Many women said they became feminists that night. The history and significance of the protest have received considerable attention over the last 50 years: in Philippa Walker's 2002 documentary Miss World 1970: Feminists and Flour Bombs, Sue MacGregor's 2002 Reunion Programme Miss World 1970, the comedy drama Misbehaviour feature film and Hannah Berryman's documentary Miss World 1970: Beauty Queens and Bedlam, 2020.