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Laura Bates

@laura_bates__

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Feminist activist, Founder of #EverydaySexism
✍️ : [email protected]
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We are poised on the brink of a precipice… new technologies from AI to metaverses to deepfakes and sex robots are impacting or poised to impact every area of our lives, from how we learn and work to how we live and love. Existing forms of discrimination, inequality and harassment are being coded into the very foundations of the future world we will all have little choice about living in.
The time to act is now. We are hurtling towards a supposedly brilliant new future which will actually drag many of us backwards.

I’ve written a book about the potential risks and rewards, and what we need to do NOW to prevent a small group of obscenely rich white men from prioritising their profit over our lives.

The New Age of Sexism will be published in May 2025 and is available to pre-order now - there will be a signed edition available from @waterstones which can be pre-ordered now and you can also pre-order from @bookshop_org_uk to support your local indie bookshop. Pre-orders make such a massive difference to authors so if you think you might like to read it then ordering now will really help boost the book’s visibility and chances of success on publication.

The soppy bit: I’m enormously grateful to my incredible readers and followers and all of you who support me to keep doing this work and trying to create societal and institutional change. Thank you so so much.

Very grateful also to my brilliant publishers @simonschusteruk my amazing agent @abigailbergstrom @bergstrom.studio & editor extraordinaire @assallahtahir

#newbook #bookreveal #bookannouncement #bookstagram #authorsofinstagram #amreading #bookworms #feminism #everydaysexism #metoo #vaw #women #womensrights by @laura_bates__

One woman is murdered by a man in the uk every 3 days. A man accused of rape and abuse by multiple women can whip up support from millions of online fans by spreading conspiracy theories about false allegations. Male journalists can joke on air about how (un)shaggable their female peers are. Thousands of police officers stand accused of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse but even when one deceives a woman into a decades long relationship that results in a child using a false identity the CPS declines to prosecute. Teenage girls learn that the risk of rejecting a boy could be a death sentence. But the ones who dare to talk about sexism are branded man hating feminazis in the classroom. Just 1.4% of rapes reported to the police result in a charge or summons. Videos from men who preach grabbing women by the throat and banging out a machete are pumped out by algorithm until they’ve been viewed 11.6 billion times online, more than the number of people on the planet. Teenage boys attack girls with real life weapons. Mainstream newspapers publish fantasies about parading women naked down the street and pelting them with excrement and smear female politics with accusations of opening their legs in parliament to distract the prime minister. 79% of young people see sexually violent online porn before the age of 18. Research finds 97% of women in the uk have been sexually harassed. A quarter will experience domestic abuse (1.6 million each year). Half a million are sexually assaulted and 85,000 raped each year. But men who kill their wives are eulogised in headlines as tragic and misunderstood. Now tell me this isn’t a public health crisis. This is a form of extremism nobody is talking about. When boys are groomed and radicalised into extremist hate online but we don’t describe it as terrorism. The impact on women’s lives is devastating but we can’t see it as a national emergency because we accept it as normal. We have to join the dots. We have to start talking about this and take action before more women and girls pay for our inaction with their lives. #menwhohatewomen #feminism #vawg #women #russelbrand #andrewtate #laurencefox #incels #misogyny #everydaysexism by @laura_bates__

At this week’s Digital Wellbeing Exchange hosted by @vmo2news and @o2uk I spoke about the importance of recognising the impact of AI and emerging technologies on women and marginalised groups. From deepfake abuse to algorithmic bias, the inherent misogyny in AI companion apps and the ways that tech can shape and reframe social norms, we need to focus on the harms here and now, not just the dystopian theoretical future risks. Alongside brilliant speakers like my friend @seyiakiwowo who has worked tirelessly in this space, we joined attendees from industry, academia, civil society, regulation and government to think about what an ethical, inclusive, intersectional future might look like. Moving away from a personal responsibility narrrative that puts unbearable and unfair pressure on survivors, parents and teachers, and thinking instead about regulation, tech accountability and safety by design. by @laura_bates__

🎊 Feminist Book Post! 🎊

Lots of brilliant feminist books to celebrate and enjoy recently, let me know which ones you’ve read!

- And Then We Screamed by @hollybourneya - an unsettling and powerful new YA novel exploring societal pressure on girls through the lens of a compelling mystery, out now from @usborneya

- 50 Feminism Ideas by @maya_oppenheim - an accessible & illuminating whistle stop tour through women’s rights, health, economics, activism and more, out now from @greenfinch_books

- Pleasure by @emmalouiseboynton - an unflinching memoir and polemic from the founder of @sextalksmedia exploring the impact of beauty myths, societal pressure, AI & more on women’s relationships with sex & pleasure. Out now from @leapbooksuk

- How to Face Big Change and Come Back Stronger by @itsmehelenthorn - an honest and hilarious mix of memoir and how-to-guide, charting Thorn’s own experience of divorce and its aftermath. Out now from @penguinukbooks

#feministbooks #readwomen #bookstagram #bookworm #amreading by @laura_bates__

Laura Bates will be joining the WOW London Day Pass programme on Friday 5 March 💥

Laura will be in conversation with @therealbenhurst exploring misogyny, its impact and how we challenge the cultures that allow it to thrive.

Tickets available now at the link in our bio. by @laura_bates__

The paperback edition of THE NEW AGE OF SEXISM by @laura_bates__ is available now wherever books are sold!

In The New Age of Sexism, acclaimed author and activist Laura Bates exposes how misogyny is being coded into the very fabric of our future. From the biases embedded in artificial intelligence to the alarming rise of sex robots and the toxic dynamics of the metaverse, Bates takes readers on a shocking journey into a world where technology is weaponized against women.

#feminism #feministbooks #nonfictionbooks #feministnonfiction #ai #aibooks #aichatbots #laurabates #menwhohatewomen #thenewageofsexism #sexism #sexismbooks by @laura_bates__

I’m heartbroken today. Gloria was one of the warmest, funniest, kindest, gentlest, smartest, sharpest, wisest and most generous people I have ever known. We first met through the brilliant @womensmediacenter which she co-founded with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan, and I was lucky enough to work with her, interview her and share events with her many times since. She was always incredibly generous and supportive of younger feminists, always insisted that she had more to learn from them than they did from her, revelled in intergenerational community (I just had to wait a few decades for some of my best friends to be born, she would always say) and always had the most brilliant, wise advice. She told me campaigners should always try everything, because you never know what will work, so throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. She gave me encouragement and quotes about my books that lent me the strength to weather the misogynistic backlash and write the next. She was hilariously dismissive of the way some tv shows depicted her life and work (she battled media sexism for a lifetime) but shrugged it off as inconsequential. When an audience member asked us if women are their own worst enemies, she calmly replied “women do not have the power to be their own worst enemies”, a retort l’ve quoted in response to that question ever since. Her work was transformative because she actively listened and cared about every single story that was shared with her. No one voice mattered more than another - we are linked, not ranked, she said. She cared deeply about intersecting injustice and fought to tackle it. She made women and girls feel seen, empowered and less alone. She dedicated her life to dismantling patriarchal abuse and inequality and she did it with an utterly inimitable mixture of humility, humour, wit and empathy. Swipe to see the beautiful and moving dedication from her book My Life on the Road - I hope she knew the huge impact she had. We were so so lucky to have her and I feel so lucky to have known her and to carry so much of her advice and encouragement with me. We will keep throwing everything at the wall Gloria, I promise. @gloriasteinem by @laura_bates__

THE NEW AGE OF SEXISM by NYT bestselling author @laura_bates__ is coming to paperback September 15! Preorder now! 📖

In The New Age of Sexism, acclaimed author and activist Laura Bates exposes how misogyny is being coded into the very fabric of our future. From the biases embedded in artificial intelligence to the alarming rise of sex robots and the toxic dynamics of the metaverse, Bates takes readers on a shocking journey into a world where technology is weaponized against women.

#sexism #AI #meta #feminism #feministreads #feministbooks #technologybooks #laurabates #menwhohatewomen #sexismbooks #AIbooks by @laura_bates__

A teenage boy doesn't have to go looking for extreme misogyny. It takes about 23 minutes to find him.

International Youth Day is about young people's potential. Yet the story we often tell about teenage boys is the opposite: that we've raised a uniquely misogynistic generation. @laura_bates__ says that story is nonsense.

What she describes instead is a system serving this content up through the ordinary mechanics of recommendation: fitness tips, money advice, relationship content, escalating towards the extreme.

If the drivers are structural, designed and monetised and delivered at scale, then the response has to be too. And that responsibility does not, and cannot, sit with teenagers, or even with the parents left to make impossible decisions alone. It sits with the institutions that built the system, and with those set up to regulate them.

Our position is that extreme online misogyny should be treated as a public health risk. Not as a rhetorical gesture, but because it moves the question from punishing individual bad actors to preventing harm at scale, and names who is responsible for doing so. As our co-CEO Sarah Hawkes put it, it would "shift the focus from reaction to prevention".

This is not a day to write off a generation of youth. We're using today to ask what an adequate response to the manosphere, one of the growing crises facing this generation worldwide, looks like, and what it would take to protect young people from its harms.

This clip is from Laura Bates and Raewyn Connell, speaking as part of our inaugural G5050 In Dialogue: Gender Justice in the Age of the Manosphere.

🔗 Read the full conversation via the link in our bio.

#YouthDay #InternationalYouthDay #GenderJustice #Manosphere #OnlineSafety by @laura_bates__

Artificial intelligence has vast potential to improve our lives.

But not if it reinforces gender bias and online abuse ❌

📽️ Watch author @laura_bates__ break down how #AI poses serious threats to women and girls, and why we need to build a safer digital future now.

Were you aware of any of these hidden dangers? Let us know in the comments below 👇

#AIForGood #TechForGood #Equality by @laura_bates__

Photographed @laura_bates__ for @el_pais ❤️ by @laura_bates__

We are excited to welcome acclaimed author and activist Laura Bates for a talk at Exeter Library this July! 💚🎉

Founder of the Everyday Sexism project and author of The New Age of Sexism: How the AI revolution is reinventing misogyny, Laura will be discussing AI, how it is reshaping sexism and what it means for the spread of disinformation.

Book tickets online via the link in bio for The New Age of Sexism: An Evening With Laura Bates at Exeter Library, 2nd July at 7.30 pm. Don’t miss out!

This talk is part of our media literacy partnership with The Guardian Foundation and commissioned by Ofcom.

@laura_bates__ @exeter.library
#TheNewAgeofSexism #ExeterLibrary #MediaLiteracy #LoveLibaries by @laura_bates__