2009 Cui Xiuwen the REVOLUTION WILL (NOT) BE DEMOCRATISED

A STATEMENT BY J. AAMINAH KHAN HARLOW

I was a child when I learned what feminism was, and it lit a spark in me immediately. The teachers at my all-girls high school were feminists; they instilled in me a passion for the advocacy of women’s rights and a righteous fervour I was sure would last forever. Feminism, they said, was for women like me who wanted to make something of themselves without having to answer to men. Feminism would open doors to higher education, to career opportunities, to more satisfying personal relationships. Feminism would change my life. It was the greatest sales pitch I’d ever heard – and it was almost all entirely false.

* As it happened, the revolution came with caveats.

By the time Michelle Goldberg published her hit piece on well-known black feminist Mikki Kendall, I was an old hand at recognising white feminist doublespeak. Kendall, long an outspoken voice against racism within the feminist movement, was described by Goldberg in terms that made her sound more like an attack-dog than a woman writing about street harassment and the politics of natural hair. The coded terminology was uncomfortably reminiscent of the eugenicist language of white supremacists of days past.

derided and then co-opted by feminists who had columns in publications like The Nation and The New Statesman. Monica Roberts, a black, trans activist and advocate, was a regular target of white feminist bloggers who called her a racist for highlighting issues affecting queer and transgender women of colour. Renee Martin of Womanist Musings was the subject of many an angry LiveJournal post in the late noughts due to her wholesale rejection of mainstream feminism in favour of the black womanism that more adequately addressed her concerns.

These were not coincidences. Feminism, I learned quickly, was only a movement for all women if There was no room for black women, nor other women of colour, nor transgender and queer women. The included by feminism, it seemed, was far smaller than the number of women barred from participating meaningfully in it.

The popularisation of third wave feminism seemed to bring with it a glimmer of hope, but like With every article and think piece portraying women of colour, trans women, sex workers and other women who didn’t tick all the boxes as some unknowable and unsalvageable monolith, I grew more and more despairing. My enthusiasm for feminism, once so fervent, began to peter out. If this movement did not have room for me, I was not going to stay in it.

found it where those feminists had failed to look – in communities of sex workers, black and brown women, transgender women and non-binary people, the disabled, the mentally ill, the poor, the I had found my corner of the revolution.

Of the women I count as friends today, many do not identify as feminists. I do not blame them, for they have found neither community, nor succour, nor common cause in feminism. And yet, I have more in common with them – despite our many differences – than I do with so many other women who claim that term. Cheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” does not resonate with me; Kimberle Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins” does. It is obvious to me now that the movement, such as it is, was not designed for women like me, eking out a life on the margins. This is not my revolution, but that does not mean there is no room for me to fashion my own.

of us. Feminism can and should be about the rights of women of colour, trans and queer women, sex workers, the disabled, the disenfranchised, the forgotten. My feminism is. I reject any feminism that isn’t. The revolution will be democratised.

INCIDENT REPORT

A POEM BY INDIRA ALLEGRA

The pink carbon copy will not show bloodshot boys grinning chainlink fences when they call you dyke

This folded copy does not tell where punches go once they enter the body will not tell if they leave. BODY OF WORK

A POEM BY INDIRA ALLEGRA

I want my winged pads to hang I want to break from form brimming with crimson into endometrial environments alongside Rothko’s measuring the length of my career red to the edges sinking like sable brushes with universal themes into pigments I have created myself from linseed oil and progesterone I want my untitled compositions to be properly lighted I want my proliferation alongside Pollock’s of ovum lavender ejaculations to let the color tell it for ticketed publics to consider to outpace the monumental scale of the generation pure menstrual gesture of Motherwell’s testicular aesthestics I want the verticality while art students marvel of my blood at the abstract on this maxi accomplishment to drip before of my red slit Newman’s carmine stroke for my cotton canvases to be curated with Still’s monochromatic works suggesting the growth of seeds beyond their ochre

I want my monthly improvisations to spread into compositions that stain the boundaries of the frame painting unapologetically expressionist works for museum patrons to wring their diamond knuckles over ON PRIVILEGE

AN ARTICLE BY MICHELLE MANGAL

“Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege. I want to live in a world where all women have access to education, and all women can earn PhD’s, if they so desire. Privilege does not have to be negative, but we have to share our resources and take direction about how to use our privilege in ways that em- power those who lack it.”

Bell Hooks, Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism

Checking your privilege has become somewhat the simplistic analysis that a good job equalled fashionable of late. Increased awareness and focus a big house. As an adult, far from my dream of on intersectionality has led to feminists and being a home owner, I have considered how inter- others to examine how their race, gender, sexuality, generational wealth confers advantages from birth socio-economic background, disability and so on to adulthood. Housing and children’s life chances interact. Supposedly there is no hierarchy of are inextricably linked - having the space to oppression, yet one cannot ignore the fact that study in; living in a clean and safe home and individuals’ experiences vary depending on where area; the resources available in the area you they sit on various spectrums of privilege. This live in such as good schools, medical services, article will explore my growing awareness and and leisure activities; access to cultural capital, experiences of privilege as a working-class woman of colour with the aim of illustrating how one’s how a child succeeds in life. One needs only privilege shifts from one context to another and consider the child growing up in an over-crowded so must be continuously reassessed both struc- turally and personally. in a terraced house in Kensington. The variance in their opportunities, aspirations, ideas of work, jobs and sphere of reference will impact concerned class and took place at university, yet, with hindsight, these experiences began while I was a teenager. I grew up in social housing in but on mental health, feelings of self-worth, Islington, North London. I would regularly babysit for local families who lived in large terraced a structural analysis of our economy. product of intergenerational wealth. To return to my experiences and understanding of privilege, I will describe a realisation I had I enjoyed babysitting in these large houses, recently. I used to long to be from a more authen- so different to my own, and never questioned how tically ‘black area’ such as Hackney or Tottenham. it was that my family lived in a small council I understood, from others’ reactions, that Islington was considered quite well to do, trendy, in such spacious luxury. I knew that the owners and, as a ‘white’ area, respectable. Individuals’ of these houses had professional jobs and made attitudes towards me growing up in this type of environment have been positive and rarely ques- highlighted how challenged, rather than encour- tioned. This gives me a privilege I rarely con- aged, they were in academic circles when they sidered, but which was articulated by my students attempted to have a voice. Furthermore, white, in Hackney taking part in a session on unconscious able bodied and straight students do not have to bias. They pointed out that I may have an advantage in being from a wealthier area because positive their race, sexuality or a disability. Middle- class students are also privileged in that they actions towards me. Furthermore, several bright are not questioned nor do they question themselves and articulate Afro-Caribbean students stated about their right to be at university. There is that they had been considered ‘posh’ for a black an underlying assumption that going to university person, particularly for a young, black person belongs to a certain group and with it comes the from Hackney. The underlying assumption was that well-spoken black teenagers from a deprived London lecturers. The Eurocentric curriculum of many borough are unusual. Such ideas are supported by degree courses is criticised but rarely changed research by French anti-racist organisation SOS and this theme runs right down to earlier schooling Racisme and, more recently, by research by the where, for example, the main example of Afro- European Network Against Racism (ENAR) which Caribbean people in history is the slave trade found that race and address can have an impact and even this is covered in such a way that the on your job prospects. white middle class are portrayed as both the villains and the saviours of the slaves. The rest The location where you grow up interacts with of the curriculum focuses on Europe - the ancient Romans and Greeks or the six wives of Henry the they can afford. My family came to the UK as - immigrants through the Commonwealth and, although to have history written about from your perspec- they were not escaping war or genocide. I recognise tive. that their experiences are not parallel to refugees in the UK who cannot work and are wholly Exposal to more middle-class households at reliant on the state. Activist campaigns on Yarls university, highlighted the huge income gaps Wood detention centre and the vulnerability of between my friends and I and made me internalise the women placed there before deportation or negative feelings about my family and myself. I whilst their cases are being heard have shown me was angry that I was so different from my fellow the differences and privileges experienced by students because of my race and class. As a sociology student I was both oppressed and here, again, privilege is shown to exist on a motivated by statistics on Afro-Caribbean attain- spectrum. go to the best university I could. It has taken At university I was most struck at the privilege years to relax my feelings of frustration towards that my fellow white, middle-class students my economic situation, but I realised that I could exhibited in seminars and bars - the right to not compare myself to my university friends have a voice and the entitlement to be heard. I because the privileges of being white and mid- feel white, middle-class people are likely to assert their right to talk, often at the expense of others, something I have found particularly in some feminist circles. In my article on black abilities. My anger and frustration was rooted women’s experiences of university some women in an awareness of how society viewed me. Furthermore, my belief in meritocracy has been and the privilege of being heard. This insistence tested because life has shown me, and many others on being heard is not a negative if it is used of my generation, that getting a degree will only to give space to marginalised voices and these get you so far in a competitive, capitalist society. voices are listened to. the myth of education as a gateway to a brighter Being aware of these forms of privilege is just future. Yet those with entrenched privileges keep the beginning. I want you to think about how you the gates. can challenge, how privilege manifests itself for both privileged and less privileged individuals My experience of privilege within feminism is both at a personal level and in the public spheres twofold. I started a feminist book club with that you inhabit. To speak out and challenge several friends. The group remains mainly white, privilege, power and authority is to create a new middle class and heteronormative. There is an dialogue and foster change. We need to all awareness of intersectionality and as I inhabit encourage greater awareness and thankfulness that a role where my race and class position is we live in a prosperous country. I may be a work- different to the norm my personal views are given ing-class, black woman but I have had the advantage some import. of being born in a developed country and had free access to education, good medical care and have However, in black feminist circles my ethnicity, always had a roof over my head so I am incredi- skin colour and hair are bound up with very bly privileged. I strive to learn more and to different perceptions of my privilege, centering listen. around the inadequacy of the term ‘person of colour’ in encapsulating the various privileges afforded to those with different skin tones. For example, I have been publicly challenged about my light-skinned privilege due to my mixed Indian and Caribbean heritage (I am often mistakenly to people questioning my right to identify as black. I am uncertain about whether I can participate in the natural hair movement as my hair is long and curly, despite my conscious political decision not to straighten my hair. These experiences have made me question what privileges I have and recognise which of these privileges I can challenge and where I can make a difference - for example by giving a voice to other women. Occasionally I have a feeling of rootlessness within feminist contexts, having too much privilege in one context and not enough in others. For example, I have light-skinned privilege but this not approximate to and does not confer on me all the advantages of white privilege. I see a parallel between my fellow students at university and in mainstream feminism where white and sometimes middle-class feminists insist on having a voice WHAT IS CONCIENTIOUS FEMINISM?

AN EXCERPT BY MINNA SALAMI

In July 1992, an international conference on one, black or white, has the right to insult our wife”. an interdisciplinary and international conference Then suddenly like a rainstorm during a drought, about African women in Africa. a delegate (of African American heritage) spoke up. Why not have a dialogue between the oppressor The conference, which took place in the Eastern and the oppressed, she suggested. Others agreed, town of Nsukka during an unusually dry week in the best approach would be to talk openly about July (precipitation for this month is normally racism. The chair of the local organising high in the region) kicked off jubilantly matching committee, Julie Okpala, shared in a personal the expectations of the excited delegates. resolved by a decision to allow white participants The camaraderie was short lived. On day two to present their papers” while women of African heritage still got an opportunity to explore their the programme convenor, professor of women’s and own realities in a separate space. Peace was African studies, Obioma Nnaemeka, found herself restored and the conference proceeded, if having to respond to the question of whether or carefully. seven hundred participants) should be able to Toxic feminism “present papers on black women’s experiences”. Some delegates felt that white women, guilty of discrimination against black women in their home Online Toxic Wars“, a recent article at The Nation countries, should not be allowed to take part. by Michelle Goldberg. In the piece, Goldberg The sessions should be a safe space for black argues, as the title implies, that online feminism women, they argued. has become so toxic it is hurting the movement. The toxicity is blamed on a form of intersection- Nnaemeka organised an open session to discuss ality that Goldberg calls the “dogma that’s being enforced in online feminist spaces”. While the there was weeping, shouting, yelling. The black article is well-written and resonant in parts (I delegates who had raised the issue threatened also have taken issue with Check Your Privilege that they would not participate if white women type intersectionality before), it is nevertheless did. This in turn led to tension among black an example of hype. And as Public Enemy said, women because it was a group of African-American don’t believe the hype! The politics of feminist and Black-British women who demanded the exclusion solidarity does not hold a black/white binary (as while women from the hosting country vehemently The Nation article disingenuously implies). Yes opposed it. Pushing out visitors of whatever race was contrary to Nigerian, Igbo (to be precise), some feminists on Twitter but if Goldberg had customs, they argued. When the exclusion of a eschewed the stylish trickery to instead look Bulgarian woman married to a Nigerian man was equally into representation and visibility it announced, the Nigerian delegates shouted, “No would have become clear that what often seems to be “online trashing” is in fact an outcry similar to move forward. But it is about moving forward to the one that occurred in Nsukka in 1992. rather than getting stuck. Oppression is not banal and we can not behave in banal ways to end it. So, why do these outcries happen? Conscientious feminism is approaching uncomfortable truths in a complex and careful manner with The simple answer is because the very device the goal of empowering all women to be their full that patriarchy uses to dominate women – namely selves. the dehumanising of them – is too frequently used see this in caricature cakes of African women, Originally published on MsAfropolitan and expanded in for example, or in videos by white artists that use black women as tropes. Women of colour remain hurt by negligence to legacies that continue to affect black populations so widely. This is why the Nation piece is divisive, it is a four page article on a reaction with hardly any reference to the cause. It is not the rage and bitterness of racial exclusion that causes outcries but rather the lack of sympathy and outright ambiv- alence towards it.

perhaps no right or wrong to be found in the controversy. The conference was not for but about African heritage women so the white participants had every right to be there. On the other hand, the systemic exclusion of black women in the west causes deep, legitimate wounds. The ordeal simply demonstrates how important it is to communicate

Conscientious Feminism

And here is where we introduce conscientious feminism! Conscientious feminism is approaching feminism with meticulous care. It is diligently seeking to understand the structures, attitudes and institutions that oppress women and subsequently oppression of women of one’s race, one’s age, one’s tribe, one’s class. But of ALL women.

This is not the same as everyone getting along. God, no. In fact conscientious feminism is not WHITE BLIGHT

AN EXCERPT BY ATHENA FARROKHZAD

My family arrived here in a Marxist tradition

Weighed the pros and cons of the plastic Christmas tree

as if the sounds that came out of her mouth

My mother let bleach run through her syntax

My mother built us a future consisting of quantity of life In the suburban basement she lined up canned goods

In the evenings she searched for recipes and peeled potatoes in the Jansson’s temptation casserole

My mother said: It seems it has never occurred to you that it is from your name civilization descends

Mothers and languages resembles each other in that they incessantly lie about everything

My mother said: All families have their stories but for them to emerge demands someone

There is a muteness that cannot be translated

My grandmother said: Maybe one day

My mother said: Maybe one day on the other side of this unfortunate lie

NO TITLE WILL DO THEM JUSTICE

A POEM BY MICA HIND

“I often wonder, if we shot one “poofter” GBLT, whatevers, whether the next 99 would decide on balance, that they weren't after-all?”

Shot. Shot in the buttocks. Shot by the cops, beaten and stabbed, chucked from a rooftop, mutilated, murdered, shot with a shotgun, shot to death, shot in the face, shot in the head, blunt force trauma, internal injuries, killed by her father. Stabbed in the back a hundred and twenty one times.

Shot once in the back of the head shot twice in the groin and dumped in the street, shot three times in the face shot four times, shot six times at point blank range

Shot ten times.

Brutally beaten about the head and ears, then strangled, stabbed deeply in her chest and breast area between

I see him there with his impassive eyes and his moustache that looks ripped from a cheap disguise, of a kindly old chap, a harmless eccentric in who's lap you would sit, and kindly presented with Wurthers Originals you'd suck up his shit. He'd regale you with tales of “Back in my day...” “When vigorous exercise kept poofters at bay. “Cold showers and lessons in manly endeavour would never result in a 'tranny,' not ever!” And on and on with his mindless blether, till you're hypnotised and, desensitised, you dismiss him (as you oughta) I mean, he's just one, just one more UKIP supporter, right? But...he looks so jolly, with a glint in his eye, and he looks down at you with a wink and a smile, and he says, “I often wonder...”

YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ JUDITH BUTLER TO BE QUEER

A COMMENT BY MADS ANANDA LODAHL

Do you sometimes think you ought to read a book by Judith Butler because you’re queer? But every time you try everything starts spinning and you get so terribly sleepy?

Don’t worry. You are not the only one.

are seen as more important than other professions. - And this is something we should be critical of. timate her importance to the queer movement, but Just like we cannot exclude people of colour, many people think her books are boring or hard women, men, ‘party-gays’, or heterosexuals, we to understand. The good news is you do not have cannot exclude anyone for not being able to read to read them to be queer. academic books. Or for not wanting to. ‘Queer’ does not belong solely to the academics and their complicated theories, the artists and Many ways to learn their in-your-face rhetorics. Queer belongs to There are many ways to get knowledge. You can spend a long time reading Gender Trouble, or you World Order throws its punches. can spend your time reading queer blogs or going to workshops or talking to people. Academia is not for everyone If we reproduce the idea that the only important knowledge is produced in universities and the University and the knowledge produced there only real language to use when talking about are important. Academics have made a career out queer issues is academia, then we are not really of thinking, so they are really good at it, and that progressive. we can learn much about ourselves and each other Let us make space for a more progressive idea from their books and thoughts. But the academic about knowledge, learning and education in which world is also part of a power structure in society. - Not everyone has formal access to a university, and not everyone understands the language spoken songs, stand up comedy, theatre, movies, self-pub- there. lished books, slogans and chants are part of our Not everyone can read an academic text. In knowledge alongside novels, articles and academic fact some people cannot read at all. That does literature. not mean they are stupid, just that they have not acquired the academic language. Butler’s weapons It does not mean either that they do not have valuable and important queer experiences or can be part of a queer community. The Straight World Order. And each warrior must When it is seen as more valuable to be able to read an academic book than to repair an elec- Judith Butler is intelligent, one of her trical installation or write a song, it is because sharpest little knives is her thinking, so she we live in a society in which academic professions chose university, where you get respected if you can write long, complicated texts that make your subject seem important and serious. Part of Butler’s battle was to make people acknowledge that queer theory is something important and serious. Had she written in the language of Queer Nation, she would never have succeeded. But Butler is intelligent, so she writes twisted texts to convince her colleagues that she is writing about something important. Like the Turkish astronomer in The Little Prince who won Western suit. In other words, do not be ashamed if you think her books are boring and hard to read. They are supposed to be. And not everybody is supposed to in!

Room for diversity

In the queer scene we appreciate different genders and sexualities. So let us embrace to tell, explain, and negotiate. We appreciate people who do not prescribe to any certain gender or sexuality at all so maybe we can also appreciate people who are simply confused when it comes to gender. Queer theory found approval in academia thanks to Butler, Halberstam, Haraway, Sedgwick, Foucault, and their hard-to-read books (and their intelligent and original thoughts, of course). They chose language as their weapon. weapon of choice? GREETINGS

A POEM BY WILLIAM LUKAS

Welcome to the United States. Your phone, that has synced your bank account information, - monplace for residents and workers to stop everything that they are doing to watch videos of cute animals and grown men in spandex tackle one another and score what is - dreaming; stopping to engage in active listening with a friend, family member, coworker, or stranger; questioning powers, privileges, inequalities, and histories, etc.) are deemed dangerous and threatening to the State and are punishable by law. While the United States remains the only country in the history of the universe to drop a nuclear bomb and also has the highest incarceration rate in the world, our country offers award-winning wealth inequalities and defunded, broken education systems that we hope you and your family will have hope in. Again, welcome to the United States. Please mind the drones as you pass through your last checkpoint.

A QUEER INTERNATIONAL?

AN ANALYSIS BY JONNY TYNDALL

“One week after Fatah and Hamas announced ‘unity’, three Jewish settlers disappeared. No one claimed responsibility, no one observed any foul play. Yet, the Israeli government announced that they had been kidnapped by Hamas and began an even more severe reign of terror. They have arrested hundreds of people, murdered people, destroyed and invaded homes and universities, and Israeli soldiers have taken over the center of Ramallah.” Israel has “started actively murdering Gaza,” with over 2,000 deaths recorded as of August 18, 2014. “Yet the US media is barely reporting these events nor their impact more communities are signing on to Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. [BDS] Academics, students, churches, Jews, African-Americans, artists and queers are waking up to their responsibilities in larger and larger numbers. But, it’s not making an impact. The future is in the hands of the bystanders. Will we or won’t we allow this grotesque and barbaric injustice to continue?”

These are the words of the novelist, LGBTQ one offers solidarity and practical support to activist and academic, Sarah Schulman, in recent queer and marginalised communities around the conversation with me about her latest work, Israel/ world without falling into the trap of ethnocen- Palestine and the Queer International. This tracks trism and appropriating marginalised voices. her growing awareness of the Palestinian liber- Schulman reveals that the name ‘Queer International’ emerged as a play on ‘Queer Nation’, movement. After rejecting a call to speak at an an offshoot of ACT UP, a campaign group that LGBTQ conference at Tel Aviv University, she made gained traction in the 1990s in its engagment alternative plans, touring various other queer with queer issues away from HIV/Aids. The term events and giving talks in Israel and the West ‘international’, she felt, communicated the Bank. Schulman then organised a tour of America communist idea of national boundaries, which are for a collection of Palestinian queer leaders in rejected in favour of a joint, borderless, common order to bring to light the Palestinian struggle - and to generate solidarity. Through her book ences the Palestinian academic Joseph Massad’s Schulman represents the feelings and desires of term, ‘Gay International’, which refers to Western the queer Palestinians that she meets, giving us human rights groups that impose concepts of homo- a snapshot into the fast-changing world of queer sexuality on Palestinian sex between men. It is Palestinian activism in 2011. Schulman’s ‘Queer International’ as an emerging that brings queer liberation and feminism to the movement with broader politics than just those principles of international autonomy from occu- related to sexuality. This is distinct from the assimilationist and homo-nationalist LGBT movement. ‘Queer International’, like any movement, has its strengths and limitations. This article will this idea of a global bond amongst queers by explore these, asking whether there is a common suggesting that the there are universal traits, bond that unites queers across the world and how such as needing “each other for love and sex” which “creates a kind of interest, a bond of This social activism – embracing both those who attention, and some kind of recognition that in do and do not identify with the LGBTQ-acronym – some cases are transcendent.” This need for love beyond just sexuality rights manages to simul- and sex creates an awareness of, and interest in, taneously project a different world-view from other queer people around the world. Responding that of Massad whilst not being in opposition to to a question at a talk in Tel Aviv about her his arguments. book on familial homophobia, Schulman elaborates Moving towards considering Queer International on this point. She states that ‘there is a from a practical standpoint will unearth the universal reality, which is that in every country and every ethnicity group, the perception of for action on the basis of particular identity. heterosexuals as “neutral, natural, objective and Joshua Gamson, in an article entitled Must Identity value-free, and just the way things are” is a Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma, demon- problem for queers however they are constructed.’ strates how the use of the word ‘queer’ in activism often proves divisive amongst the LGBTQ community, allows for the bond of solidarity necessary for - the existence of the ‘Queer International’. tion, over generational differences, over who is The Queer International can, then, be seen as considered ‘us’ and who gets to decide.’ (390) If an antidote to the problems associated with one agrees with Gamson, that ‘queer’ refers to Massad’s ‘Gay International.’ He argues that the a project of destabilising norms, dismantling “categories of gay and lesbian are not universal identity labels and disrupting dominant discourse, at all,” rather, they derive from a language of is it not then problematic to found and organise groups, given its inherent deconstructive political organisations. This “catch-all” term relates to aspect, with an onus on, and basis of, LGBTQ those organisations whose agendas, according to Massad, are borne from a desire to “protect” LGBTQ people by imposing a Western model of gender and due to being an LGBTQ person not contribute to of Western identity categories of sexuality is project aims to deconstruct? entirely incongruous in the Arab world, and is However, Schulman, with her experience of reminiscent of a colonial desire to regulate organising campaigns and her activism with ACT sexuality. UP, counters this line of questioning with the Indeed, Massad is right to demonstrate how simple response of, “how else would you do it? subjectivities are products of historical, geo- From the point of view of real organising, any graphical, linguistic and socio-political factors. base that people relate to is helpful … My job, Yet this should not detract from the fact that as a person acting to support Palestinians and – as Schulman documents in her book – there are end the Occupation, is to work inside communities certain Palestinians who she has encountered that that I understand and where I have credibility.” have adopted, use and identify with terms such Schulman argues that constituency-based organ- as ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘transgender’, ‘bisexual’ and ising is the most effective way to bring about ‘queer’. There are also groups that do not use any change, whilst concurrently conceding that it is of these terms, such as ‘alQaws for sexual and not perfect. For her, such organisation does not gender diversity in Palestinian society’. They involve putting people into boxes, but rather work with, and not for, the LGBTQ community for observing how people group themselves and polit- a more inclusive and equal society whilst recog- ically mobilising these factions. For those of us nising that there is a huge diversity in Palestinian who believe in a cause and want to incur real sexuality and the way people identify themselves. change, we must then decide where on the line between theory and practice we want our action to have an effect. actions may bring to people. However, theoretical If one takes the decision to help, to stand debates inform activism and activism informs with, or to act for, LGBTQ people in other parts theoretical debate. Issues relating to the queer of the world, whether or not we believe in the concept of the Queer International, how do we do and continue to be, matters of life and death. so without imposing our own value systems or Therefore it is vital to take a stand and to exacerbating existing problems due to an ethno- actively try and shape the world. In order to do centric outlook? Schulman raises the issue of gay this Schulman’s last piece of advice is hugely and queer imperialism a number of times throughout the book and questions whether it means, concrete real actions, not symbolic ones. Apply ‘equating a nation’s “gay friendliness” with its qualities of fairness, self-criticism and open tolerance or level of democracy’ (38–9), the way discussion while interrupting scapegoating of that ‘anti-gay policies by some Muslims are used others at all levels”. are made to change the way that queer groups and campaigns operate in the non-Western world in order to make them more palatable or easier to On this point, Schulman offers many important ideas for practical action. She discusses how Palestinian queer movements have been very rigorous about establishing their own trajectory away from Western agendas, and how they have called for global support for, and solidarity with, their current position under occupation. protest Israeli cruelty, participate in Palestinian solidarity, and to use social media to communicate information about Palestinian suffering and resistance.” The pitfalls of gay imperialism can be avoided, then, by listening and responding to the needs and requests of queer Palestinians. It spokesperson for a cause, often claiming to know what is best for those they appear to represent. Schulman, however, takes a practical approach, demonstrated by helping to open the channels of dialogue between members of the queer Palestinian community and the queer community in the U.S. Using her privileged position to facilitate such discussions serves to raise awareness in the spheres in which she has credibility, rather than speaking for Palestinians themselves. There is often the accusation that theory fails Chi Peng, Consubstantiality-1, 2003, 178 x 120 cm © 2003 Chi Peng. USE YOUR PRIVILEGE

A CONVERSATION BY GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK AND BJØRK GRUE LIDIN

BGL: What do you think of the demand to have a group that is already somewhat con- ‘check your privilege’ currently popular in stituted in their opinions. Like the Tiananmen progressive circles? Square thing – that is the most famous use GCS: I know nothing about the demands so of social media. Social media wasn’t really I will not take a position for or against it. used to change anyone’s mind or to construct I myself think, through my many years of a movement. It was used to strategically hands-on work, that one should use one’s increase the numbers. Social media is a privilege for people who are less privileged, quantitative instrument therefore one has to telling them that one is using one’s privilege know how to use it. and the sooner they get rid of the privileged person the better. This has been my policy BGL: I would like to turn the focus to the – I myself as the privileged person. I’m not name of the publication. The name refers to really interested in checking my own privilege; the atrocities imposed on the female body as I think it is too narcissistic. a consequence of pathology and the power given psychology to dominate the feminine BGL: Many feminist organisations and indi- body - hence the social stigma of being viduals today use social media as a platform ‘hysterical’. I would like to ask you how might for their struggles. Do you regard social contemporary feminists appropriate the media as a platform that should be promoted? meaning of the word ‘hysteria’. And what Are there dangers attached to this huge dangers are attached to this appropriation? platform? GCS: GCS: It is like saying “I am hysterical” and then there are dangers and yes it can be used. It not presuming to take that as a negative depends on what you use it for, whom you want adjective. There is no real danger in it if to address, how located the struggle is. It the other person actually claims it. When is an instrument - it’s not a liberation tool. you claim what is given as a criticism from It is obvious isn’t it? If you use it, it is the other side, then the claim turns it an unseen audience therefore you have to say around and I don’t think there is any par- many more things to modify what you are ticular danger. But on the other hand I do saying and generally speaking that’s not how think that the history of ‘hysteria’ as a struggle is organised. It is as simple as way of listening to save rather than torturing that, I don’t think it is useless, I think the female body is something that one should it should be used carefully like any other pay some attention to. The history of the tool. I mean talking is telecommunication, use of hysteria; how it was found within a it is between you and me - there is a distance phallocentric world to at least attempt to - therefore you have to be careful what you listen to women. You folks are so worried say. Freud and Charcot, used their privilege to groups, which can use social media. If you listen to women rather than only to diagnose. are going to use it, you probably have to This reminds me of people talking about big that the details of psychoanalysis were of view, not realising that there were coming out of those conversations. That got millions of people who would have been harmed lost simply because most people are not like if those watershed male intellectuals had these individuals who tried to do something not been alive. Thus we prove that we are by using their privilege. A doctor has a lot ‘hysterical’ in the sense of the other side of privilege – I’m a doctor’s daughter and a because in order to be able to claim ‘hysteria’ doctor’s sister, I know how this privilege we have to be someone who can say yes to the can be abused and so therefore what I have other side. Otherwise it is a position of learned at this point after many years of weakness, a reactive position. Therefore, I activism - and not for minorities but for my would say what I look at is how hard my brother tried at the beginning of the last century to listen to women rather than just I’m your race-enemy and your class-enemy, I’m to torture them, that’s how ‘hysteria’ was using my privilege, trying to bring about a used. So I look for ways of dealing with it. situation where you don’t need my privilege I belong to a much earlier generation, the to get into general discourse. That’s what I same generation as Juliet Mitchell. And what do. So for me to sit down and think about my privilege, I’ll be dead before long. This Reclaiming Hysteria” is to say that what has came to me I would say around the middle not been looked at carefully is ‘hysteria’ 80’s when I began getting into the second in the male and therefore the question of wave of the world of work. violence has been taken away from ‘hysteria’. Juliet Mitchell’s suggestion how to deg- It is a very solid, careful book and I am with Juliet. I think it is a useful category. all organs of healing, to make it less gender But I think when it fell into the hands of most people – most people are phallocentric would be my own position. – in this particular situation it became “Recourse something that could be easily opposed and I don’t believe there is any danger in taking it on. Frankly, that particular battle belongs efforts of those battling to eliminate it”. to an earlier history of academic feminism. What one does then is celebrate one’s own I remember Lisa Jardine putting up little buttons saying “behave badly” because I had injustice it is, try to listen to the other suggested to some women at Cambridge that side. Both the ones on top like the ones who when they interviewed they should in fact used ‘hysteria’ so many years ago to listen not try to be modest. The battle belongs to to women from a position of privilege nor to that era. I myself at this stage am much more those who really are in a situation of interested, as I said, using my privilege, suffering. Because reporting on suffering using an instrument carefully, looking at these days through social media etc. has details of individual action and so on and become very little else than celebration of therefore I am more interested in the history of ‘hysteria’ as something that would allow without having to go to a journal. And so if women to speak, talking-cure, that’s how one wants to really change the times then Freud pulled it out of Charcot. And in those that may not be the medium. I will choose Principle” what we hear again and again is things are presented in theatres, which can’t be presented at universities. So either one can try to break the university’s usefulness by transforming it, like some people are doing at the top by transforming it only into a corporation – we know how to be against them. But if one transforms it only into a theatre, so that one can do at a university what one quite easily does on the stage, it’s a way of really not using one’s time and the strength of collectivities. The university is something for use, to oppose the university, one takes on the trustees and the economic infrastructure that is destroying national education in Britain. So that is like bringing ‘hysteria’ into the male domain because that applies. I’m just reading a book and he is talking about what colloquially could be called ‘the hysteria of development discourse’. Now in order to really confront it so the university would be somewhat shocked rather than the benevolent old artsy-fartsy men saying “oh nice nice.” that’s a much harder thing. That would be dangerous. Real danger. Not about claiming a name. And that would be blocked, silently and seemingly benevolently. I’m not asking you to do it, but my standards are demanding; those are my standards, real change for unseen collectivities who do not necessarily resemble me.

Thank you to Jason J Campbell for assisting Bjørk Grue Lidin in the preparation of this conversation. THE HYSTERICAL BODY

AN ESSAY BY AGATA CARDOSO

Agata Cardoso, untitled no. 2 (from the series ‘Meat’), 2013, silver gelatine print, 16x20 inches © 2013 Agata Cardoso. What does the hysterical woman tell us through symptoms remained vague for centuries. Charcot, her bodily symptoms, sufferings and conversions? the French neurologist, started his work on protolanguage, communicating messages which in Paris. He took the problem ‘Head on’ and brought hysteria, hitherto marginal into the mainstream. inherited neurological disorder, similar to speaks to and against patriarchy. The famous multiple sclerosis, not madness or malingering.” women hysterics of the 19th century have been After continuous observation of his subjects, throughout its history, hysteria has been con- Charcot concluded that the symptoms of hysteria structed as a “Woman’s disease, a feminine disorder repeated themselves. From this, he asserted that or a disturbance of femininity,” and has been there was a form of the disease called ‘Major - sive actions followed by four major and distinct With the invention of hysteria came an extensive repertoire of symptoms involving the body and including violent and jerky bodily contortions; - third, ‘passionate poses’, in which the subject sitivity, anorexia and bulimia, constipation, performed emotional states such as terror and diarrhoea, excessive urination, urine retention, ecstasy; and fourth, a state of delirium. Soon depressed and heightened moods, insomnia and after Charcot formulated this diagnosis, he attacks of sleep, shortness of breath, muscular included different variations of this ‘archetype’ spasms and fainting, anxiety, irritability, allowing for great difference in symptoms of - ‘sufferers’; which was facilitated- or necessitat- ing or unusual behaviour”. Reportedly, patients ed-by the fact that his diagnoses was based purely on his own observations. Like neurasthenia and posture (christened arc-de-cercle) in which they the nervous breakdown, hysteria was grouped under arched their body backwards until they were the broad psychoanalytical category of neurosis supported only by their head and their heels. The great variation in symptoms suggests a lack of thought hysteria was “Rooted in unconscious concrete knowledge of the ‘problem’- suggesting, turmoil rather than just weak nerves,” and that perhaps, that the problem was imposed over various- the symptoms of hysteria were developed when and far from complimentary-symptoms to create a ‘feminine’ illness. shameful to talk about; were displayed in bodily symptoms.” He called this ‘conversion hysteria.’ ‘Hysteria’ comes from the ancient Greek word for uterus. The philosopher Plato described the Charcot wished to employ the new art of pho- uterus as “an animal”, he said it roamed inside women’s bodies, causing symptoms as it moved. hysteria” and appointed Paul Regnard- another This idea had existed for millennia. An Egyptian French physician-to the task. Employing the camera papyrus dating from about 1900 BC includes recipes lens he set out to portray a staged situation as for medicines to coax a “wandering uterous”. The objective-providing a visual (and novel) docu- Galenic physicians who came after Plato, and who mentation of a sexual and feminine illness, to had gained better knowledge of internal anatomy, be produced in books for other male physicians rejected the idea that the uterus could drift. to see. Regnard’s photographs were suppose to However, medical explanations for hysterical possess a naturalistic appearance, suggesting that the subject was really experiencing the grandiosity and severity of her movements create hysterical symptoms as the image was captured. an extremely powerful dialogue between hysteric Yet, the reality could scarcely be further away. and viewer. She is deviant. Her contorted body Photography before the 1900’s was very time displays her truth, her turmoil and ultimately camera with wet plates; create perfect lighting refuses to give into a role of submissiveness or conditions; and, most importantly, negatives could to conform; acting to shock and provoke. She take up to twenty minutes to expose. Therefore, causes fear and anxiety because the viewer cannot the subjects of these photographs-rather than understand and is therefore powerless; the hys- being in a hysterical condition-were positioned teric’s language forces us to confront our inner and ‘acting out’ different states of hysteria. These recorded pathologies are completely staged she is daring, she is standing her ground, refusing and can almost be seen as ingenuous acts of per- to participate, she will no longer deny her own experiences and makes this known. She is fearless, physical. ‘neurosis’ but provides us with a powerful archetype I believe there is a difference between the of female resistance and resilience. authentic voice of the hysteric, and the representation of hysteria as directed by the male - tion of hysteria is an adopted language used to - but this does not mean that this is an authentic truth. Hysteria in its authentic or ‘real’ form is a ‘language of resistance’ in itself, rather than the hysteria portrayed in Regnard’s photographs. The Hysteric is empowered by a hysterical language of resistance. Her hysterical body, then, represents a language of rebellion, and the A BOP FOR DORA

A POEM BY GEMMA WEEKES

What seems to be the problem? Buries it now, under make-up. How does this make you feel? Sick. Lost. Sometimes I can’t speak, doctor. How’d you get to the station? Going where? Funeral. Window falling away at speed - door blinking out - extinguished - have to go - get out. Whos funeral, Dora?What name then?

Every time you get upset, they strap you to a table.

Mum frantic - saving her treasure. Knick-knacks! Treasure! Nobody died then? Who/why/where/when/what? You don’t know where the station. You don’t know who’s funeral - don’t know - Like a doll, Dora?

Every time you get upset, they strap you to a table.

Try to remember! Childhood went down with a roar - mum abandoned - nothing rescued - Who’s funeral, Dora? Mum burning - endless - screams poked out through blistered smile - she still did the dishes - Try to remember! Take the pen, clock, notepad - smash them - need to get

Every time you get upset, they strap you to a table. BLOOD AND BONE

A POEM BY JESSICA KNIGHT

Run for the hills. The hospital gown do not remember why. was far too big. it left a scar The pre op meds below my belly button. made it hard to keep standing a surprise smile as my mother tied up the back. unseen in the dark by lovers of the future. as I hullucinated. Beautiful golden spiders I do remember crawling on the ceiling. my father carrying me down a bright whute hallway. his free arm They were spinning glorious webs pulled the i.v machine of silver thread. alongside us. seven hours A needle in my tiny arm. ninety nine stitches down my spine. My parents went 13 years old. to a movie. twisted spine. it was a mess what they saw. this mess It sounds arrogant. of mine. arrogant but true. I have more back bone. The doctor said kindly. More back bone “we could make you perfectly straigh, than you. but it would kill you.” They removed a rib and grated bone from my hip. So, they settled on straighter, So if bible stories are true. better than before. a spine so rebellious I have more back bone it tried to out grow me. more back bone than you. ‘ANTAGONIZING’ THE MARRIAGE DEBATE

AN ESSAY BY V. SPIKE PETERSON

The heteropatriarchal premises of marriage are Given the patriarchal/masculinist premises of deeply entrenched, not only in law but also in hearts and minds worldwide. Given these premises, is between ‘women’ and ‘men.’ It is states/nations it is no surprise that feminists and queers have that formalise marriage, historically with the developed the most trenchant critiques of the institution, and it is the points they raise that nuclear families (husband, wife and children) and tend to dominate when the pros and cons of marriage establishing stable socio-economic household are debated. I endorse these critiques but argue units in service to state priorities. Marriage’s that they do not go far enough. The power relations normalisation of masculinist privilege and power of marriage breed not only inequalities of sex/ variously entails less autonomy and/or economic gender and sexuality, but also and, inextricably, independence for women and hence their structural of class, race and national prosperity. Moreover, vulnerability, in particular to male violence the scale and intensity of these inequalities – within the family sphere and male representation and the pain, anger, resentment, despair and of women’s interests elsewhere. While feminist violence they generate – are key to some of the activism and socio-economic changes in recent most urgent problems, arguably crises, of the decades have altered – or provided more alterna- 21st century. Hence, the importance of specifying tives to – the harshest effects of patriarchal how marriage, as a traditional and state-sanc- marriage arrangements, the institution continues tioned institution, produces and/or exacerbates to foster gendered and unequal divisions in these inequalities, and especially those less labour, authority, status and power, which continue - to be legitimated by religious dogma and sustained tution. by state policies regulating marriage, erotic/ sexual practices – especially women’s reproductive I proceed by initially describing how the activities and options – and family/household premises and power relations of marriage shape formations. particular inequalities, and cast here the con- Marriage’s foundational antagonism of gender ‘antagonisms.’1 But to undercut any sense of inde- appears to have the longest history. Yet even pendent or discrete ‘antagonisms’ or stratifying this is deceptive. Marriage in archaic states not dynamics or ‘antagonisms,’ I also identify com- only instituted distinctive male and female ‘iden- - tities’ and corollary subjectivities that privi- ticular inequality is complicated by, and hence leged masculinist principles (of authority, power, always interacting with, other inequalities that inheritance, etc.). It also instituted inequali- are shaped by marriage. The point is to expand ties between ‘respectable’ married or marriage- the marriage debate, to draw attention to its able women and those who were denied that status by virtue of various exclusions (non-virgin, slave, the salience – and complexity! – of intersectional foreigner). Marriage in the modern (European) context inherited the normalisation of a male-fe- homogeneous ‘identity’ categories). male binary and the priority of regulating women’s reproductive activities (again, in service to the state/nation), and effectively prohibited homo- as and support LGBT issues and risk fueling sexual unions. Marriage as a matter of economic ‘anti-gay’ politics if they criticise particular arrangements continues in much of the world, which choices of a community and movement they funda- shapes class inequalities, and even marriage ‘for mentally support. love’ is patterned by economic, ethnic and race Few of us are unaware of, or oblivious to, how the mechanism of intergenerational inheritance Because marriage is not only patriarchal but shapes an individual’s life options, and how explicitly heterosexist, a straight-queer antag- patriarchal principles (of marriage and family onism seems equally obvious, but is also more law) have historically dominated transmission of complicated. Whereas queers have in common their property, and, inextricably, ‘social status.’ What - we often overlook (we are encouraged to do so) tioned marriage, heterosexuals have diverse per- is how effectively these principles reproduce spectives on and experiences of marriage, and economic inequalities over generations and long are not homogeneously in favour of it. The dif- time periods. Inheritance begets continuity of ferences among heterosexuals with respect to age, culture, religion, ethnicity, race, economics antagonisms,’ which present enormous obstacles politics and national location complicate who to improving one’s options (upward mobility is relative, and currently overrated). State policies marriage; and of course not all queers seek it. (regarding age, sex, race, etc.) shape not only who can marry who, but how – through inheritance, An unanticipated antagonism emerges as same-sex taxation, welfare and family law – economic and marriage becomes an option. This development other resources are accumulated and distributed. revives debates about marriage more generally, Only recently, and primarily in rich ‘liberal’ countries, have these traditional rules been activism. One effect is a tension between feminists altered, though hardly eclipsed, by both social (and others) who, for good reasons, are critical movements and economic developments. For the most of marriage as an institution and ambivalent about part and in most of the world, property inher- queer inclusions, and LGBT activists (and others) itance is shaped by (heteropatriarchal) marriage who, for good reasons, advocate same-sex marriage and family arrangements that continue to shape and the rights and recognition it affords. We might characterise this as a feminist-queer antag- resources. Although the role of familial inheritance is often obscured, the ‘class antagonism’ beyond differing with respect to marriage as these inequalities generate is a more familiar desirable and/or as a queer priority, some target of critique, and we are relatively more feminists (and others) criticise the extent to aware of how it is complicated by cross-cutting which (white, middle-class) gay males dominate inequalities of gender, ethnicity, race and geo- the discussion and politics of same-sex marriage, politics as well. in the sense of ignoring feminist critiques and marginalising lesbian perspectives. On this view, Less familiar is how marriage plays a decisive gay marriage does not escape or contest but in role in producing, normalising and perpetuating effect sustains – even adds legitimacy to – mas- racial inequalities. Most obviously, colonising culinist/patriarchal privilege and dominance (while also variously exacerbating racial politics). a European ideal of heterosexual, patriarchal, This also poses an activist dilemma for ‘anti-mar- monogamous, and Christian ‘respectability.’ This riage’ feminists (and others) who identify with/ marriage model was normalised in most Western states/nations and variously encouraged or imposed - in colonies, often explicitly as ‘superior’ to alities, particular racial/national or religious other practices they encountered (e.g., polygamy), identities, and ‘unwanted’ workers. which were then denied legitimacy within their own territories. Anti-miscegenation laws – in - ised and publicised the state’s racial politics while also essentialising racial ‘difference’ and perpetuating race categories through, for example, marriage/family relations and how one acquires in the modern era was a racialised system of a claim to membership in a particular (richer or economic exploitation and psycho-social deval- poorer) state/nation. In other words, just as orisation. Slave marriages were not always rec- inheritance of property reproduces wealth across ognised and ‘illegitimate’ children could not generations and hence class inequalities within inherit. These arrangements established and per- petuate racial wealth differences, while racial wealth differences between states/nations because stereotypes continue to obscure the extent and labour migration (which would ameliorate income cause of these inequalities. Complexities here include tensions between advocates of same-sex and thus exacerbates national inequalities. This marriage and ‘religiously antigay’ ethnic/racial ‘antagonism’ is complicated by the presence of communities; how race issues shape immigration rich elites in all countries; the racialised map priorities; and in the United States, the race of national territories; and who is excluded, as politics of child and family welfare policies and noted above, and who might be included in always - borhoods. seekers, ‘natural’ disaster and war refugees, highly desired workers, and those with appropri- how marriage produces economic inequalities ate ‘business capital.’ between states/nations, which today are more extensive than inequalities within any individ- While marriage is clearly a problematic insti- ual country, and presumably a source of antagonism. tution, what to do about it is far from clear. I Quite simply, since the late nineteenth century, hope, however, that the racial and international richer states have become exponentially richer effects of the institution are clearer, and might and poorer states have generally remained rela- inform the continuing debate. And in the already tively poor. In a striking contrast with earlier time periods, individual income today depends desirable reforms, might we also imagine and vastly more on the average income of the country pursue systemic transformations that serve more people, more equitably? class you are born into. This global situation creates enormous pressure for migration from This short, selective and, admittedly, an poorer to richer countries, and if permitted ting religious issues, disability concerns and re whenever desired, would presumably over time oversimplifying complex processes and group ‘identi shift all incomes toward greater equality. But migration options are severely constrained, as immigration policies are exceedingly selective and have variously excluded those with certain Frances Benjamin Johnson, self-portrait, 1896. THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE

AN OBJECTION BY TARA ELIZABETH COOPER

There is one argument that fends off feminist economic realities. Taking No More Page Three as ‘choice’, I mean the pervasive belief that women to end Page Three, because they see it as a choice in the Western world can make ‘empowered’ and for both the women to model for the newspaper ‘free’ choices within their public and private and the consumer to buy the newspaper. What is lives; thus, proving their shared equality with deeply problematic about this belief is how it men in their society. Many people often use choice removes The Sun fro m a ny id e olo gic a l or p olitic a l as a defence to undermine and ignore feminist framework. It essentially de-politicises its critiques, as well as a pseudo-feminist way to actions and negates its responsibility for how illustrate the leaps and bounds women have come these images are linked to and can cause material in becoming equal with men in society. Although and psychological damage for women, children, and having the freedom to make choices in both one’s men also. On close analysis, one can easily see public and private life seems like an exact mate- rialisation of feminist beliefs, the use of standards of what is deemed attractive and sexy, and legitimise and exploit a pornographic rep- close inspection, the mantra of choice actually resentation of (young) women in Western society. masks social ills and inequalities, and notably, These images of mainly young, white, large- these choices are often deeply related to con- breasted and assumed heterosexual women are sumerist capitalism. informed by, and continue to inform, naturalised, universal standards of beauty, even though in truth what they embody is the aggressive marketing to prove how choice is utilised to mask social of pornographic images, masked as normative. injustices in contemporary (Western) society; Moreover, Page Three advocates how the display however, some particular examples will hopefully of overt, heteronormative female sexuality is meant to be a universally empowering experience around sex work, such as the No More Page Three for women and a cheeky bit of fun, rather than campaign, glamour modelling, stripping, and exploitative practice. The argument of choice in prostitution, often focus on the woman’s choice to work in these industries. Just discussing these simply serves as a scapegoat that refuses to issues with friends and family, the common, crudely recognise these ideological realities. put point is these women have chosen to u nd er t a ke such work, and, therefore, how can one criticise This article has focused on examples from sex their choice to do so? Isn’t freedom the corner- work, but I feel it’s important to emphasise that stone of democracy? However, this argument appears the illusion of choice is not isolated to such to lull many into a false sense of security about industries. Angela McRobbie, in her seminal essay the realities behind these choices. This is not Post-feminism and Popular Culture, argues that to belittle nor patronise women’s decisions to choice now controls even greater aspects of work in these industries, but an attempt to recognise that all choices are shaped by ideo- ‘Girls must have a life-plan. They must become logical frameworks, societal pressures and Kirsten Justesen, Re member / Re play/ Hukommelse - #1, 1991, Two works for plinth, body & TV-set Archival pigment print á 135 x 160 cm. ed 7 © 1991 Kirsten Justesen

Kirsten Justesen, Re member / Re play/ Hukommelse - #2, 1991, Two works for plinth, body & TV-set Archival pigment print á 135 x 160 cm. ed 7 © 1991 Kirsten Justesen lives, from making the right choice in marriage, to taking responsibility for their own working lives […] The individual is compelled to be the kind of subject who can make the right choices. By these means new lines and demarcations are drawn between those subjects who are judged responsive to the regime of personal responsi-

As McRobbie points out, choice deeply informs how society measures women’s success, whether it be by buying a certain product, participating in and image. Looking at popular culture and chick- Bridget Jones’s Diary or Sex and the City, the female protagonist’s dramas are usually due to her poor initial choices, and the narrative is propelled by revealing how she eventually learns to make “good” choices, which leads to her success. However, these “successful” choices, such as Carrie’s choice at the end of Sex and the City to return to New York and her old lover Big, tend to concentrate on women returning to some form of stable domesticity, whether that be returning to the hometown, getting married or being with “the one”, or entering parenthood. Moreover, these texts always match these female protagonists with a certain desirable and attractive lifestyle and image. Therefore, what these choices and freedoms often mask is how these lifestyles, products and images are unattainable except for the privileged few, who embody a universal ideal of how women poor, or a woman of colour). Thus, it is clear to me that the power relations and systemic injustices that choice conveniently allows many dis- senters to ignore must be revealed, and hence, expose the argument of choice for the illusion that it is.

HANGING BY A THREAD

A POEM BY ALICE FRIMAN

Late September, and the earth grows weary. The sky, a dropped ceiling too tired to hold itself up. And each leaf, exhausted from sucking on a body that can no longer give, softens—beyond hunger and all sapped out. It is the time of weaning. Feed yourself or starve. Lily pads curl to begging bowls. Queen Anne’s Lace shrinks to fetal position, tight as bud but black and dry.

How strong the glue to catch and hold. How terrifying the necessity to be let go.

Yesterday I found myself lost in the woods, turned, walked towards, away, who knows. Crows plotted in the high trees. A tangle of barbed wire locked on my ankle, bit down hard. I’d forgotten how in September darkness lowers early, how chill wakes in damp corridors. So I sang my old September song of new school pencils, Poetry 101and Intro to Philosophy, posing what sense does it mean to be lost to one who’s never been found. Three hours later, I found out. Kirsten Justesen Surfacing/ Oven vande #2, 1990, Laks / Kapisilik / Salmon, 95 x 90 cm , Surfacing/Oven vande, A series of 16 C-prints / pigment prints size 1:1 with salmon, turbot, lumpsucker and seal in a edition of 7 © 1990 Kirsten Justesen. FEMINISM APPROPRIATED BY NEO-LIBERAL AGENDAS

A CONVERSATION BY KALPANA WILSON AND BRINDA GANGOPADHYA LUNDMARK

Dr. Kalpana Wilson is a Senior Fellow in Gender Theory, Globalisation and Development at the LSE Gender Institute. Her research focuses on the relationship between neo-lib- eralism, gender and concepts of agency, experiences of women in rural labour movements, and how ‘race’ is inscribed in development. She is a member of the Freedom Without Fear Platform, (www.freedomwithoutfearplatformuk.blogspot.co.uk) and of the South Asia Solidarity Group, www.southasiasolidarity.org.

BGL: Your work focuses a lot on how feminism has been appropriated by neo-liberal agendas and to development – which the World Bank calls in particular how the concept of “women’s agen- ‘Gender Equality as Smart Economics’ - depends on highly gendered ideas that adolescent girls a neoliberal framework of development. Can you and women will inevitably be more altruistic, elaborate more on that? more responsible, more hardworking than men, KW: One of the things I am very interested in without questioning the whole array of ideolog- is the tremendous capacity which neoliberal dis- ical and material structures which tend to compel courses have to incorporate critical ideas, and women to behave in particular ways. And without transform them in the process into something questioning the exploitation involved in an compatible with neoliberal global capitalism. I approach, which assumes that women’s capacity to think this is what has happened with some key - feminist concepts. One of the very important pletely ignores and marginalises women’s collec- ideas coming out from different strands of tive agency in transformative struggles, which feminism has been the importance of recognising are challenging and resisting the ravages of women’s agency. But if we look at the way the neoliberal capitalism. ‘agency’ of women in the global South is increasingly emphasised within development interventions, BGL: You have talked about the narrative change by international NGOs, or institutions like the we are witnessing now – by and large thanks to post-colonial feminists - from portraying “Third the effects of continuing structures of oppression World women” as passive victims, to representing and exploitation, implying that as long as women them as empowered “superwomen”. In the UK Feminista are exercising agency, we do not need to consider Summer School you asked: Is this really feminist? these structures, because women are making choices Can you tell us a bit more about that? –even when in reality these are impossible choices KW: Well of course there are many different – such as choosing survival. And secondly, in strands of feminism, but what I was trying to do these contexts ‘agency’ has come to mean something was make people at the Summer School question some of the representations which they were assumed entrepreneurial potential – their ability encountering which appeared to be ‘positive to ‘succeed’ in the market, within the very images’. The contribution of postcolonial feminists limited parameters which the neoliberal model like Chandra Mohanty, - as well as of Black and allows – we can see this for example in Nike’s Third world feminist activists in movements from ‘Girl Effect’ campaign or in a lot of the publicity the 1970s onwards - in challenging representations of ‘Third World Women’ as a homogenous category Apart from Britain I am most familiar with of passive victims is immeasurable. It is a battle feminist movements in India, where feminists are that is far from over – we only need to look at currently involved in movements against corporates the way women in Afghanistan – or Muslim women grabbing land and using rape and violence against in Britain – are portrayed in dominant discourses women to try and crush resistance in which women to see this. But what has happened is that at have been at the forefront, against the patriar- the same time a new set of images has developed chal fascist Hindu right which currently controls in which women are portrayed as dynamic, contented the national government and is completely productive workers who never get tired – we see committed to neoliberal policies, alongside moral this particularly in the images promoted by Oxfam policing of women and targeting of religious and the other big development NGOs. What is espe- - cially interesting is that these images are very itarisation of Kashmir and the Northeast of India close to many of the images produced in the and the war being waged on women there…. For a colonial period – for example in advertisements more detailed discussion of some of these issues for the tea produced on British owned plantations please see this interview with Indian feminist in India and Sri Lanka which showed women workers. - There is also the same underlying implication domwithoutfearplatformuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/ that all is well within an imperialist global indias-anti-rape-movement-experiences.html). order. And like the representations of ‘Third World women’ as passive victims, these are highly BGL: What is transnational feminist solidarity racialised representations – this is something I for you? look at in more detail in my recent work on ‘Race’, KW: For m e t he st a r ti ng p oi nt for tra nsn ation a l feminist solidarity has to be where you are. It cannot be about offering ‘help’ to people BGL: Can you mention some feminist initiatives or movements that you believe are common ground, identifying overarching structures, resisting neo-liberal agendas? while at the time recognising differences and KW: also acknowledging inequalities of power and and in any case there are so many across the privilege. I think this is something Chandra world in different contexts – right here in Mohanty expressed very well in her 2003 article Britain there are for example the movements ‘Under Western Eyes Revisited – Feminist Solidarity against detention and sexual abuse of refugee through Anticapitalist Struggles’ where she calls women, struggles of women workers against neo- for a ‘race-and-gender-conscious historical mate- liberal casualisation and racism like Justice for rialism’. I am currently involved in the Freedom Cleaners, the resistance to the massive cuts in Without Fear Platform which initially began with resources to combat domestic violence – particu- a number of black and ‘minority ethnic’ women’s larly for women of colour, as well as to the organisations and individuals coming together in - solidarity with the massive anti-rape movement lance which accompanies this, and many other which took place in India last year. We wanted interlinked movements. And feminist perspectives to make the voices of activists directly involved are essential to an understanding of contemporary in the movement heard here, and at the same time imperialism – for example to understanding counter the racist, imperialist discourse which Israel’s war on the Palestinian people, and these pervaded the media coverage of the movement in perspectives are being voiced within anti-impe- Britain – which was basically saying that Indian rialist movements in many different contexts. men or South Asian men were inherently and exceptionally violent – by making the connections with movements against gender violence against here and elsewhere. Since then we have been involved in organising a number of campaigns, protests and public events – most recently we held a public meeting on ‘Women Resisting the Racist ‘Security’ State’. And we have been continuing to think about what transnational feminist solidarity means and trying to build our political practice around that. We would welcome people who are interested in getting involved!

A COMMENTARY ON TOILETS, LABOUR, PERFORMANCE AND CASUAL MISOGYNY BY HAROLD OFFEH

Freshen up, Freshen up. You gotta Freshen up! No soap, no hope No splash, no gash No Armani, no punani You touch it, you wash it No spray, no lay No tissue, no issue No wash, no nosh No gum, no cum No money, no honey No cologne, go home alone No designer, No vagina No money, No honey No CK, No BJ No Paco Rabane, you go home with a man Freshen up for punani, punani, punani Freshen up for punani, punani, punani. We love pussy What is presented above is an edited version of the subcultural phenomena, known as the Freshen Up song. This half rap, half sung refrain can be heard in various public toilets from Manchester to Magaluf. It’s usually sung by African men, working for tips as toilet attendants in pubs, clubs and bars. The song is usually performed to drunken young men in an attempt to garner cash tips. the amused and self-congratulatory punters of the toilet attendants. However, I’m interested in what lies beneath the humour of the song? What happens when the joke is used to mask exploitation and prejudice? I believe the song as a slice of contemporary culture provides an insight into some of complex dynamics of labour, power, race and gender. While the abject location of the toilets provides a seemingly comic backdrop, it also reinforces the hidden baseness of some of the persisting issues of social injustice.

Banal, puerile, vulgar, disgusting, funny, comic or just plain entertaining? The song Freshen Up may embody some, all or none of these. In discussing it, I don’t intend to make any grand or doing is asking questions, informing myself and then sharing my investigations with whoever might be interested.

most private of needs in a social context. Add to this complex mix of service, patronage, labour - rienced it many times as a customer searching for change for tips or avoiding washing my hands to escape a handed paper towel. But I wanted to get sense of what it was like to serve in this space.

I come from a Ghanaian immigrant family who have and still do earn their living from cleaning the halls, corporate meeting rooms and the toilets of many public spaces. But it is the particular situation of the toilet attendant that was unique to this experience. This initial experience really brought home how much power the role has. It is a socially powerful position. Anyone who has ever been caught short, desperate for the WC will know what a vulnerable position it is to be in. This vulnerability on the patron’s part creates a strange interaction with the toilet attendant. In to pay and receive an appropriate service in return. As a consumer, you are clearly aware of making a choice about whether you choose to purchase a service or not. However, with a toilet attendant, that choice is often taken away. As a customer or patron, you are literally confronted with the service provider. And more often than not, it is a service you might not choose to purchase. The customer is then put in a position where they have to confront the economics of this form of labour. toilet attendants’ unwanted labour and ensuing request for a tip can be very problematic and for some, quite disturbing.

These can range from addressing customers with a friendly “hello” to singing the Freshen Up song. Other efforts involve handing all customers paper towels or offering more elaborate services like perfume, gum or lollipops. While this might seem rather benign, each of these actions forces the customer to engage with the attendant. By taking the towel, you are receiving that person’s labour, which forces you to make a decision about whether or not to reward that labour. The power of the attendant can lie in the latent potential of an awkward and embarrassing situation that some customers will want to avoid at all costs. The attendants do understandably take advantage of the awkwardness of the situation. Approaches like the Freshen Up song work because they help negate the uneasiness and can cleverly provide a convivial and friendly welcome.

and other offers by the need to generate an income from a form of labour that can very often operate outside of the employment regulations that include a minimum wage. In reality, many can only make money from tips alone, making the need to service customers more pressing. Many attendants, particularly in bars and nightclubs, can be subject to violence and abuse from costumers – many of whom are annoyed by what they see as an unwanted service. In 2003, tabloid darling Cheryl Cole was convicted of assaulting a toilet attendant Sophie Amogbokpa in Guilford, Surrey. The incident was apparently started by a dispute over an unpaid lollipop. The underlying economic context of the participating in exploitation. However, for the patron in the moment of encounter, the underlying dynamics of exploitation are overlooked due to the awkwardness of the power imbalance.

In collecting the various versions of the Freshen Up song, my initial interest was in these social, cultural and racial dynamics played out in the YouTube versions of the video. What becomes increasingly apparent is the language and the casual appropriation of degrading and misogynistic language put in the service of entertainment and ultimately, money.

So far, so what? Well, that is my point, slight and obvious as it may appear. We’ve come not “so see the young men gather and chant as the toilet attendants exploit that basic premise of a lads night out – namely, to go home with a girl and “Any will do!” So make sure to “spray” in order to get a “lay.” The women are seen as products to be acquired (Sometimes literally) as part of the lad’s night out or Stag do package. The whole endeavor of a lad’s night out becomes another sport and the toilet attendant provides an entertaining interlude. While you might argue there is nothing wrong with young men collectively having a good time and wanting sex, the increasingly commerical- ised culture that feeds that narrative sets up a number of problematic mythologies – in particular, that women exist to service men’s sexual desires. What perhaps is more disturbing is the effect on many young women in terms of their own body image and the ensuing perceptions of themselves. As continued evidence of this culture, I would refer anyone to the UK’s biggest selling daily newspaper,

that is often only paid through money earned from tips alone and doing so through pandering to their customers’ misogynistic dispositions/sense of humour. The songs and banter are entertainment minstrels who were painted with absurd blackface. They are forced by pragmatism to perform a racial stereotype that conforms to racial prejudices. That they choose to do it while reinforcing sexism appears to be collateral damage.

What is further important to acknowledge in this discussion of the toilet attendant is the the mix of public and private. The fundamental function of the space remains the same whether it’s banks of cubicles and/or urinals with wash and dry facilities. But throughout the 20th century, these spaces have become corrupted and subverted. The male toilet in particular is a contentious There is an underlying and unacknowledged sexual charge that is induced by the fear or expectation attendants of yore were there to provide an attentive and quality service. Contemporary toilet attendants – particularly in aspiring nightclubs – are as much there to police these spaces and

A common strategy to deal with this dual role has been the creation of a convivial space. The toilet becomes an extension of the club or bar with music from the club often piped in. The attendant plays host and patrons enter an environment that is shaped and formed. This space negates much of the homoerotic awkwardness by the creation communal hyper heterosexual space. These toilets, many of them evidenced on YouTube clips as the back drop to the Freshen Up song, adhere to the fading humour abounds) and birds (There are various references to sexual prowess and the need to “pull” women).

These toilets become social spaces where friends interact, confer and joke at the cost of civility. Like American fraternity houses, the mix of alcohol and testosterone creates a culture of idiocy that many attendants pander to and exploit as they play jester to drunken fools. The Freshen Up song is a manifestation of this particular environment, one that is fed by the unique circumstances These are just young people having fun wh playful banter and jokes. My objection is not the drunk- enness or male high jinx, although you could make coherent objections to those things. I think this about equality. Race, gender and class inequality are passé and seen as not really affecting the mainstream. Young women hate feminism, black people are visible in the media and sport, and the otherwise known as the feckless and work shy.

There is a reluctance to question and examine the world we live. This is nothing new, but manifes- tations of this are varied and shifting. A closer examination the context of the attendant high- indifference to examine patterns of behaviour according to class, race and gender, and the disturbing, underlying social and economic causes.

The Freshen Up song is a joke. As someone who often employs humour in my work, humour can often be used to negate and belittle a critical awareness and understanding. My very simple point is that casualness creates anti-critical environment, where to question behaviours and their impact on wider cultural spheres becomes a no-no – the suggestion being you can’t take a joke. The real joke is the continuing complacency in the face of ongoing prejudice. YOUR ASS BE SPREAD (AND OTHER FEMINISMS)

A SUBVERSION BY A. JOSEPHINE BUDGE

The squeak of my bicycle pauses,

“S’cuse me, are you mixed race?”

I am not in the mood, and have heard this too often. Something about his loping gait puts my guard up and,

“It’s none of your fucking business.”

A little hostile perhaps, but learned from experience - short and sharp causes the least collateral damage.

“Ah, it’s just you look like you’re mixed-race, you’re so sexy, you got a big ass, yeah, you look like you’re mixed race with your big ass, mmmm, your ass be spreading.

You’re,

Ass.

Be. Spread,

like,”

It tumbles out of him; layer upon layer of antagonising judgment, writing over my body, my bicycle and my ‘big ass’ as though I had spent a lifetime growing them just to be a canvass for his misplaced sexual advances; his encroachments on my personal space, my evening, my ‘spreading ass’. “You’re so sexy.”

He concludes, like there was nothing else to be said and I would be mad not to jump off of my bicycle, tear off my clothes and throw myself at his wide-spreading-feet.

“And you have absolutely no brain. Fuck off.” bulbous ego. masturbated at on the streets and in trains.

And the anti-feminist groups want to tell me that we have achieved equality?

Brussels, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Ukraine, Peru, and even Vatican City.”1 2013. And those were just the ones on twitter. I cycle away. (What else can I do?)

Hardly hearing his curses and abuse, my body is so heavy with disgust, my space, my privacy invaded.

His eyes and his words creeping underneath my dress to paw me all over, leaving could not think of a single thing to say that would get through to him. Nothing that saying was okay.

Being curvaceous - and yes, you guessed it - mixed-race, the demographic to whom I am most attractive may just tend to be black men. Especially older black men. into the skinny, white, blond image of what ‘beauty’ is supposed to be?

glances, attitude and repose that encourage such advances? Am I being ‘snobby’ in my disgust? Is this a class issue, a race issue? Or just a gender issue - because sexism is not a cultural allowance or racially exclusive. Being a black man certainly does not give you some kind of cultural-go-free card to harass women on the street under the guise of ‘being complimentary’ or ‘appreciating what you see’.

“I call her gorgeous and ‘di girl won’t even smile” more than an audible whisper, intentionally heard, quite deliberately projected to incur guilt on the back of my mind. My mind that ignored him, eyes that saw him coming from the bottom of the road and refused to cross the street, or take another way. against the gender-focused persecution of women by men of colour. Our current political language thrives in this environment, pulses with the convictions to persecute some issues whilst never quite approaching others. Leaving the battles of FGM and forced marriage - matters which, according to a neo-colonialist liberal ideology do not concern ‘us’ except within the power balances of ‘saving the uncivilised blacks’ - to

A voice that, just weeks later, would see the equal pay gap widen to a difference of 13%23 less for women in Britain without batting an eye.

idea of physical attractiveness - how I score-up on your personal 1-10 list of what Woman according to you.

Interrogating street harassment by black men, has nothing to do with the ‘white- middle-class feminists’ being racist towards the ‘black feminist group’, it is about standing up and refusing to discriminate - because sexism is not a cultural allowance or racially exclusive. Nor am I saying it is a racially exclusive experience, I have which the police and judicial system simultaneously turns a blind eye - with relation to women’s rights - and persecutes ruthlessly - with relation to gang violence and terrorist suspicion.

In Ghana I am a chocolate and vanilla swirl fantasy, a green card, a hot fuck, and a ‘better-educated-if-more-approachable-white’ all at once.

Here, I do not know. I like to hope that the men who cat-call me on the street are not just buying into a shade-ist sense of elitism, but, it is not all women. It is not a vagina-on-legs-thing.

What do they want of me?

I have no lack of passion to expose the emasculation and general disempowerment of black men in this society that leads to gang culture, unemployment and a criminal record before you are 18,

That leads to a short sharp shock with a machete in your hand and blood all over the pavement. about our lack of equal opportunities in this ‘multicultural utopia’ - London. Ha! Prisons within ghettos, within council estates, within boroughs, within league tables, within London.

But one rung below the disenfranchised Black Brit is usually his Black British girlfriend.

Is he searching to assert his power on a street I thought was mine as much as his, before -

“S’cuse me, are you mixed race?”

- for lack of feeling it anywhere else in society? And am I to break a dysfunctional cycle born of a white exoticism, neo-colonialist power-struggles and a fear of black sexuality, a fatherless generation and a historically racist class system all in a smile, or a phone number? Or even a night?

Is it I who must indulge/allow/patronise?

“Or is it society that needs changing?”

I will not look down upon you - harasser of Old Street Station, I will not give you that satisfaction. I expect you to take responsibility for your words and your actions, if not in spite of being black then because you are so, because I expect you to set an example better than all they tell you that you can be.

As second, third and even fourth generations of multiculturalism, we need to hold a line when it comes to sexism and street harassment, both everyday and otherwise. It is not cultural, it is degrading. It is not religious, it is sexist. And they have. No. Right.

Women of all colours have been bending to accommodate the growing disenfranchisement and disempowerment of men for too long. The seemingly unwanted public masturbation, to cat-calls and staring at us as though we are meat on the market, to rape only fuels the fervour that women are less, women are objects, and we exist to satisfy men. I want to believe that black men can be better, not in the minority, but in the majority, ships came.

“S’cuse me, are you mixed race?” - Minus the swagger and the fuck-blink-eyes.

“Uh, yes, I’m half English, half Ghanaian.”

I felt a bit intimidated to speak my mind and I just thought you looked like a really lovely person.

I’d like to know someone like you.

S’cuse me for being forward but, my names James, what’s yours?”

AN ESSAY BY LINA AHMED ABUSHOUK

One of the primary objectives of women’s eman- Amin, like the British colonial government, viewed cipation in most contexts is the disruption of the veil to be emblematic of the backwardness of the private-public sphere dichotomy. Women seek Egyptian society.3 However, unlike the British, to become participatory members in the public he did not view it to be representative of the sphere, which was generally reserved for men. Of “backwardness of Islam”; rather, Amin regarded it course, the methods women used, and continue to as a cultural, not religious, prescription. use, differed depending on the context within which the emancipatory movement took place. In For Egyptian women, the act of unveiling came the past, the most important gain from women’s to represent a move away from the “backwardness” inclusion was the right to self-determination in the political realm, allowing them to voice their a new class of educated women, capable of entering the workforce. The removal of the veil in Egypt their lives. Women’s participation cannot be equated with the right to vote, though this is a Turkey; instead it represented modernity and crucial and fundamental aspect of women’s eman- advancement. Amin, and his supporters, had cipation. In most scenarios, women had to gain created a social and political climate that access to the public sphere before they could demand and agitate for suffrage. The mere presence safe public sphere through unveiling. I would of vocal and engaged women in this male dominated posit, however, that the creation of a safe public space in Egypt was not solely dependent on the take up their issues. removal of the veil. In fact, a substantial number of women who entered the public sphere, breaking In the Middle East and North Africa, in the the barrier between the private and public, to early twentieth century, men in public, and women pursue education and work remained veiled. Rather, in private, began to make demands for women’s shedding the veil was a way to publicly announce advancement. In 1899, Qasim Amin, an Egyptian and signal a mental and, subsequently, societal jurist and public intellectual, wrote, Tahrir al- shift. In other words, if one regards the veil Mar’a (The Liberation of Women) which came to as an extension of the private into the public, in that, it allows women to move through the other parts of the Middle East.1 Amin’s theoret- public without fully being ‘visible’, then the ical arguments for the advancement of Arab and veil’s removal becomes a means for Egyptian women Muslim women, but particularly Egyptian women, to denounce the last frontier of privacy and drew heavily on European thought, as his gener- demand to be seen and heard. Essentially, the 2 A m i n meaning that Egyptian society associated with made two bold demands that he believed would lead the veil is what in Amin’s eyes necessitated its towards emancipation. First, he called for the removal. By the time Egypt gained its independ- right to education for all women, a suggestion ence in 1923, the national persona of the Egyptian - women became an “image of a woman in a knee ing nationalist elite. Second, he called for the length skirt with high heels and bobbed hair”. unveiling of women, which gained much less support. Alternatively, if one considers the women’s elsewhere for other modes of dress or standards emancipation movement in the Sudan, which took of behavior. The tobe sheltered women’s bodies place much later than Egypt, occurring in the in a way that was beautiful and right.”9 However, mid-20th, then one is presented with a movement many women within Ahmed’s circle of peers, and that did not unveil and perceived unveiling to future feminists, would come to see her version be detrimental to its cause. For a start, the of feminism as puritanical and embedded in a Sudanese version of veiling was not a headscarf. Instead, Sudanese women in the primarily Muslim may be true, it is important that her actions north wore the tobe, a four and a half to seven are understood within their social context. The meter long piece of fabric that is wrapped around decision to insist on the tobe, as the chosen the entire body. The tobe, unlike the veil for attire in which women would enter the public Egyptian women, was not associated with “back- space, was a deliberate one. When she was elected wardness”. On the contrary, both Sudanese women, and the governing colonialists, thought that the chosen to uphold an image of myself as a tradi- tobe was the most appropriate, on a functional tional, respectable, family-oriented woman in my level and in terms of social acceptability, attire private life. This image gained me the credibil- for the hot and dusty climate of the Sudan. ity that allowed me to be radical and outspoken Commenting on the importance, or rather unimpor- in my public life.”10 tance, of attire in relation to women’s emancipation, Ina Beasley, a British colonialist who Ahmed lifted the veil that divided the private worked on women’s education in the Sudan, remarked and public spheres, but chose to maintain that that, “It is very possible that every woman there which physically cloaked her, because she believed [in Egypt] who wears European clothes is by no that veiling made her public visibility culturally means free of harem shackles.”7 Beasley, like permissible and legitimate. The tobe allowed the the Sudanese women’s emancipation campaigners at women of the SWU to adopt and preach progressive the time, viewed the tobe as graceful attire that ideas, like the promotion of women’s education “added much to the charm of slender beauty and and demanding that an end be put to Female Genital 8 Cutting and other “harmful” beauty practices, while still maintaining a sense of social accepta- It is uncontroversial to suggest that one of bility. The conservative social and political the goals of a women’s emancipation movement is context in which they operated meant that a safe to allow women to live with dignity. Therefore, public sphere for women’s inclusion could not if we accept Ina Beasley’s contention that the have been established if women like Ahmed and tobe provided just that, it then becomes easy to understand why Sudanese women saw it as an aid, rather than a hindrance in their struggle for in power, men, take these women and their movement entry into the public sphere. One of the most seriously. Furthermore, in an era of anti-colonial prominent and respected women in the Sudanese struggle, it meant that the cause of women’s emancipation movement, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a emancipation was not seen as a Western import, founding member of the Sudanese Women’s Union but as something indigenous to Sudanese and (SWU), envisioned an indigenous women’s movement. Islamic culture. She believed, “the tools of the women’s movement did not need to be borrowed from other countries The actions of SWU and other Sudanese women or regions, they could readily be found within undoubtedly changed the course of women’s eman- Sudan’s own religious and cultural structures. cipation in Sudan. Women became visible in many Similarly, Sudanese women did not need to look arenas of public life. As time went on and fashions public presence that some of them even began to decrying the sentence, Hussein was acquitted. shed the tobe.11 Sudanese society paid little attention to their new attire, allowing these Was Hussein’s case a victory for women’s rights women to maintain and continue to play their and women’s public safety in the Sudan? Looking roles in public life, because Sudanese society at the history of women’s emancipation and women’s itself was changing. These ongoing social changes safety in the public sphere in the Sudan, it is evident that women were never subjected to such changes taking place. Fortunately, the two coup brutal policing of their bodies and attire. Certainly, women made the choice to dress con- and general political strife taking place between that was a strategic decision in keeping with the down women’s advancement. It was only in the late times. Today, many urban women in the Sudan 1970s, during the dictatorship of General Gaffer continue to wear pants, but they are not tried Nimeiry, that a conservative form of Sharia law12 as Hussein was. There is the potential that they could be, but it is not enough to deter them. of women in the public sphere. Hussein was a journalist who was critical of the In 1991, the Islamist National Congress Party, Penal Code 1991 was, to a certain extent, a tool that came to power in 1989 through another coup of convenience that the regime could use to d’état, employed Sharia law to formulate Article silence her. The message that the government Article greatly limited women’s safety in the public political visibility was no longer something public sphere and reads, “Whoever does in a public that she was allowed to determine on her own place an indecent act or an act contrary to public terms. The public was no longer a sphere that the modern Sudanese woman could safely navigate in public morals or causing an annoyance to public the same manner that Egyptian and Sudanese women had in the past; it belonged to the régime both.”13 This ruling was used in July of 2009 to Based on the narrative of women’s emanci- arrest the now infamous, “Pants Lady”, Lubna pation in Egypt and the Sudan, I do not think it Hussein, and eleven other women for the “crime” would be presumptuous to say that the process of of wearing pants in public. Close examination of emancipation is not linear. Rights won by women the Article’s wording shows that it is not clear in a certain period can easily be overturned in that pants fall under the category of being another - women’s emancipation cannot be separated “obscene” or “contrary to public morals”. from the political context in which it operates. Nevertheless, ten out of the twelve women arrested But what remains most clear, at least to my mind, that day pleaded guilty to the charge and received is that women, no matter where they are, must ten lashes each. Hussein demanded a lawyer and continue to agitate for a safe public sphere, a trial, which she received, but was sentenced because without it, our voices go unheard and to forty lashes. Hoping to bring attention to the our issues remain undiscussed; our methods may case, Hussein exercised her right to a public differ, and necessarily so, but our goal is the audience. She invited local women’s rights organ- same. ibid ibid ibid Of course, it must be understood that even anything, this is indicative of the fact that there THE PERSONAL AS POLITICAL

A POEM BY ALOK VAID-MENON

if the personal is political then is there any part of my body that does not belong to the movement?

can my lung breath for itself or must it also gasp for the revolution? do my feet walk for themselves or are they only preparing for the march? does this brown exist outside of struggle? does this queer matter if it’s no longer transgressive? this gender if it can no longer dissent?

if the personal is political then i wonder if the revolution asked for consent picked up a microphone and pronounced ‘PAIN’ and the papers reported ‘POLITICS’ the next day and i wonder if there are politics without pain these days?

when we must use our tongues as knives and scrape off all of the color, all of the violence and place them in petri dishes for you to consume like soundbytes, like each piece of me is an intersection for your theory, like all we are is a constellation of trauma and quotes and broken

if the personal is political then do i own these samples? do i own the pain? do i own myself? how many tears i make you shed how many paradigms i make you shift if the personal is political then how many hours can i sleep tonight? how many boys should i kiss? how many lies must i tell? until i prove myself activist or rather prove myself boring prove myself happy if the personal is political than can we be happy when our very politics resemble the nightmares we are trying so desperately to wake from? if the personal is political then will you love me when i turn off my phone? will you forgive me if i am late to work? will you respect me if i miss the meeting? will i matter if i am incapable of crying? will i matter if i am incapable of bleeding? do we matter if we are incapable at all?

ANTAGONISM

A CONFESSION BY ELLA JAX

When I was asked to write about antagonism, I 1. Love girls and feel the urge to fuck them. was completely determined to write about Conchita Wurst versus the LGBTQ backlash. After a few failed attempts, I realised that, once again, my lofty ambitions clouded my judgment, and that I is where I have some trouble.) about myself and what antagonism means to me. Even though I might not follow these (completely made-up) rules of lesbianism, it really is how I want to identify. If someone questions my decision many things, but familiar with fancy English to do so based on rule number two, I usually reply words is not one of them. I had to look up ‘antag- with a smashing line like, “I said I was a lesbian. I never said I was a good one”. But the truth is Antagonism (n) that I hate my failings as a lesbian, and I hate 1. an active hostility or opposition, as the “hetero devil” inside my head. Antagonism! See? antagonism between the liberal and the conservative parties. fat-activist part. I am a fat lady, a curvy kitten, Her plan to become an actress met with the and I’ve made it my job to tell everyone how much antagonism of her family. I love my body and how they should love theirs 3. Physiology an opposing action, as by one muscle in relation to another. about this, as well as posted an obscene number of inspiring photos of myself in a bathing suit - tion felt like hitting the jackpot in terms of I do all this and I really do think that I - help in making people feeling better about their giant arses. But the thing is, I do not always This might sound weird (and I assure you it believe it. I know it is not true but I have is) but every part of my identity contradicts always had this strong feeling that I would be easier to love in a skinnier cover for this per- every piece of clothing, no matter how gorgeous, sonality. refuses to match. I see less charming and less heavy friends of This I am very clear about. their beautiful, while I – even with my charisma turned up to the highest level – always seem to There are not many rules when it comes to be cast as the fat sidekick in someone else’s movie. But I do love my soft body – I really do – just as much as I hate it. things. I have constantly contradicting feelings about myself and my identity. I am also funny (probably a consequence of being a fat kid throughout school). I love being Antagonism. I am not sure I have quite got the funny but, really, I would give anything to be academic sense of the word yet, but I have found serious and – dare I say – mysterious. what it means to me and that has got to count for something. I am no academic after all. I am white. And by white, I mean extremely white – I make Snow White look tanned. The darkest I am sure I am not alone in my doubts or in shade I could ever accomplish from tanning is a my contradicting feelings, being my own worst enemy in every way. I am sure we have all felt anyone’s standards. But I also have all the priv- like this about a lot of things at one point or ileges of being white; I never get harassed or another. It feels a lot like the cartoons when discriminated against because of the colour of the main character has an angel and a devil on my skin. For this, of course, I would be completely each shoulder trying to navigate through life. full of shit if I were to say that I am lucky to I guess it is okay as long as we do our best to have been born with very little pigment in a choose the angelic side of our personalities, and world where darker shades in many ways seem to try to be nice to ourselves and the people around determine your worth. us.

I am a feminist. I really believe in feminism, Antagonism is very present not only in the especially the queer, intersectional kind. politics and the world around us, but, ultimately, even in our very bodies and minds. But I guess I have been through a lot of phases as a we would not be very interesting without it, would we? your best argument is about how boys can fuck as many women as they want without the risk of being called “whores”; then, the “old-fashioned, left-wing feminist phase”, where you learn about through several others before becoming the queer, intersectional feminist I am today.

I breathe feminism and I could not stop even if I wanted to. Nevertheless, every time a man (most often, it’s a man) makes fun of the feminist movement, or I get threatened online because of something I have written or someone tells me that I am a feminist because of my ugliness, I want to stop calling myself a feminist right away. Luckily, this only last about three seconds before

This is how I work. I know what is right and what my feelings are about most things, but I am in a constant battle with myself over the silliest Siona Benjamin, Finding Home#61 Sarah and Hagar (Fereshteh), 2004, gouache and gold leaf on wood panel 18” x 24” © 2004 Siona Benjamin SIONA BENJAMIN

AN ART CRITICISM BY MATTHEW BAIGELL

The idea that the history of modern art has followed some kind of evolutionary, mainstream sequence—Impressionism followed by Post- Art, she says, serves that purpose. It is Impressionism, followed by Symbolism, followed her vehicle for viewing the world, as she says, by Fauvism, et cetera—never made much sense to “outside the bubble of one’s own country, religion, me. It imitated a pattern more appropriate to the and race.” Based on her remarkable early schooling study of biological species and, besides, it and adult studies, she hopes that her art will omitted many wonderful artists whose works did to whatever extent possible, make the world a better place in which to live—not a bad idea given the market-driven art world of today. Raised instead of a single central stream and that the in an observant family in a predominantly Hindu different currents do not have to move in the and Muslim country, she was educated in Catholic same “forward” direction to be considered valid and Zoroastrian schools. She also took art classes and interesting. One of these currents involves in Mumbai. After arriving in the United States artists who combine in their works elements of degrees from the University of Illinois (painting) point of view based on varying combinations of and the University of Illinois (theater set design). national, religious, and/or ethnic backgrounds. In the following decade, she began to study the Hebrew Bible as well as Midrash (legends and One such artist is Siona Benjamin who observations based on the Bible).The Hindu goddess, Kali, associated with power, time, and change, as well as event-making women in the Hebrew Bible includes in her work stylistic elements and subject her equally. matter derived from her Jewish and Indian heritages, her strong feminist concerns, and her Her stylistic a ntec e d e nts i nclu d e Persia n, American experiences as an artist and woman of Christian, and Jewish miniatures as well as color. She feels that she will never be able to American Pop Art. As she has said in regard to this unnerving but also seductive because she intentions, “In this trans-cultural America, I will always inhabit that spiritual borderland feel a strong need to make art that will speak that lies somewhere between open, free space and to my audience of our similarities not our dif- - ferences, as I feel I can contribute to a much needed ‘repair’ (tikkun) through my art. I would like my audience to re-evaluate their notions and phrase) in which she has lived, she does not want concepts about identity and race, thus under- to be limited by them. When she says that she standing that such misconceptions could lead to feels she is Indian, American, Jewish, and racism, hate, and war.” In effect, she is a post, post-modern artist, preferring to communicate to acknowledge and to integrate her multiple her feelings and convictions to her audience Siona Benjamin, Finding Home#74 Lilith, 2005, gouache on wood panel, 22” x 28” © 2005 Siona Benjamin rather than engage in irony, dissembling, and the ancient and the modern, forcing a confronta- ambiguous meanings. tion of unresolved issues.” Basically, her position is to seek tolerance in diversity. One very noticeable feature of her work is the blue color she uses. She says that very Acknowledging her status as an outsider, often she looks down at her skin and it feels as she often portrays those biblical women she if it has turned blue. “It tends to do that,” she says, “when I face certain situations, such as wife mentioned only once in the Bible but without are unlike themselves. I have therefore over the years developed these varied blue-skinned char- acters as self-portraits who assume multiple roles created, like him, from dust rather than from and forms, theatrically reenacting many ancient his body and thus his equal. Therefore, she would and contemporary dilemmas. I employ them as social not accept a secondary role. Angering God because and cultural agents in raising provocative issues she called Him by name she was banished from Eden about identity, immigration, and the role of art and became a mother who lost hundreds of her own in this transcultural world.” children and became a menace to other children. She also is supposed to have seduced and killed Beloved single men and was potentially harmful to nursing mothers. allowed Abraham to have a child, Ishmael, with her servant, Hagar, but when Sarah gave birth to feminist and even has a journal named after her. Isaac, she had both Hagar and Ishmael exiled. Benjamin has created a sub-set of works within Benjamin shows the two reunited in an embrace the fereshteh series that honors her. In one despite the relevant passages to the contrary in Fereshteh) the women. Men on the right hold out their hands in friendship but bombs are strapped to their tallit (Jewish prayer shawl), the snake armband chests. The soldiers on the left have lost limbs (Hindu), the hamsa (Moslem), and the bullet sug- and will probably not be able to protect the women. Obviously a comment on the Israeli- war widow, woman soldier, and rape victim, presents included Muslims in India and therefore remembers her as a strong woman facing down her opponents shared similarities rather than unbridgeable and detractors—a survivor and heroine. differences, hopes the two women will be able to The terrorist attack in 2008 on the Chabad bodies and the red drops of blood suggest House in Mumbai, the Jewish educational center otherwise. and synagogue, transformed Siona Benjamin’s art A s she h as sa id a b out t he Fereshteh (angels of media coverage of the event in which six of in Urdu) series now numbering close to seventy the occupants in the House, including the Rabbi individual works, “I explore the women of the and his wife, were killed, she returned to India Bible and bring them forward to combat the wars several times to photograph the faces and record and violence of today in a midrash of intricate the stories of individuals within the Bene Israel paintings. I attempt to create a dialogue between group before it will probably disappear from existence because most of its members have already hope, will come to know more about the Bene Israel immigrated to Israel and the United States. A Jews in a very transnational India.” series of trips into her past as well as confron- tations with present events, Benjamin has both relived aspects of her youth and at the same time encapsulates her attitude whether her art is biblically inspired or responsive to events of wonder,” she has thought, “if they could be the ghost images from my past and childhood. I am a gymnast, based on Persian/Indian miniatures, weaving new and old stories. Are these faces balanced precariously, and Hebrew letters in the from dreams and memories or are they just other borders. Benjamin appears always ready to travel faces from passports, immigration cards or perhaps back and forth in time and is ready to incorpo- from my parents’ photo albums? It is with these rate ancient and modern experiences into her art faces and stories that the rest of the world, I based on her imagination and personal experiences.

A POEM

It is always Quiet in this house.

God stops Speaking to

Women who Become Him.

There Is No Such Thing As Prayer. WHERE MY FEET TAKE ME AND WHERE THE WORLD WANTS ME TO BE

A COMMENT BY TINA MBACHU

frameworks that uphold such behaviours and been ascribed with the least favorable of ad-jec- attitudes. Let me clarify here that I am a nomad by choice. the lack of understanding for those who chose to Travelling to me is not simply a privilege but live a nomadic lifestyle, including myself, but essential to my existence. I travel to work, to also fail to capture the richness that is encap- get away from work and to feel exhilarated all feel of roaming, of constantly discovering the tend to perceive me as a yet-to-be adult, afraid ever-new sensations that exist in this world – to settle in one placeAfter the initial awe of sensations that we otherwise do not give second hearing about the breadth of my traels, the usual thoughts to in our monochromatic lives, especially as women. As a woman, this richness is important don’t you chose to stay in one place?” “Are afraid be-cause we discover alternative ways of being to be an adult?” and so on so forth. Based on than we are otherwise accustomed to. these ques-tions and interactions that would ensue, it became clear to me that beneath the awe lay a sense of pity – pity for me not settling free and open, rolling through time and space, past, present and future. These restless feet of with families and friends. And of course, creating mine never hesitate to cross boundaries and to a family of my own. pack up and leave – to experience something valuable and new. The feeling never hits me until I am at the destination airport as I encounter – after of course having been ripped off by either the taxi or bus driver. Regardless, I am somewhere in tropical places), the lax and corrupt airport new with languages, food, landscape and people administration, the mix of local languages with English – each always enticing to the nomad. In South African house music in the mini vans called some cases, I notice ‘looks’ that are thrown my taxis playing along the road from Johannesburg way by both women and men, and I delightfully to Pretoria, the Arabic songs in the taxi, from imagine their thoughts along the lines of “That the airport in Tunis to a tourist hideout outside little girl – why is she travelling alone?” Of of the city, the heatstroke that greets you at course, some individuals have voiced their insecu-rity of walking along some parts of Oslo dangerous to travel alone”. This is true. The as a black female. I have, at least even for a world is not exactly safe for girls and women. I - have experienced certain disturbing situations scribed to men and women in their home cities. that convinced me so and I ridiculously blamed But as a woman, I feel for a fragment of a second my blatant trust towards others and naivety, rather than look at what is inherently wrong with consequentially evaded the social requirements those individuals and the larger socio-cultural and responsibilities associ-ated with woman-ness. Or so I think. The expectation to lead a linear room to be critical. Consequently, women must be life, constituting school, marriage and starting a family, and preferably in the context of a single geograph-ical space, always follows me as manifest their feminism in real life. With the a woman.. women remain constant across these spaces. While I think I have escaped these social boundaries by travelling, my responsibility to And of course, having to adapt to the life friends, families, and other loved ones always in my new environment means that my interac-tions get trapped in more than social expectations, but remain in constant communication with my friends also cultural and spiritual – two additional and families, keeping them up to date with my forces that restrict my ability to discover and express my true self. In a weird way, while trav- weeks, I become increasingly embedded in my local elling has allowed me ample opportunities to setting, and communication with anyone outside of this envi-ronment becomes very minimal. I do multiple modes for self-repression. not do this on purpose - it simply happens. that although my responsibility to myself is without a doubt that culture is important, but primary – to be free, to avoid spiritual stagna- there are certain elements of it that continuously work at the detriment of women. In many societies, avoid social repetition, the perception of me men are placed at the forefront. They govern cultivated by those I encounter in my travels culture to ensure that all members of society always stems from my commitment to my family and play their part. Mostly, it is societies that have social status (i.e. economically, but also in experienced exploita-tion and socio-economic dep- terms of romantic relationships). There is always rivations, and the consequential relocation of a reference to social expectations, How do I their cultures, which end up with a static concept have time to cook in the evening? Do I have a of culture. The sole aim is to rediscover their boyfriend? No? I should get married soon and re-pressed history and sometimes with the aim settle down! So much travelling is not good for for development. While this is important, the a woman in her mid-twenties! This is when I should temporal and spatial, the past and the be-yond, While I always acknowledge these pieces of past and the present. These two do not always advice as coming from places of love and concern, work well – particularly for women as they now it also dawns on me that I really haven’t escaped prescribed roles, and the now, the modern world, different people, and the same expectations of me as a woman that can be found anywhere else determine their life’s trajectory. Finding the in the world. While the expectations remain the perfect balance of modernity and tradition becomes same, the pressure to follow through with them differ across contexts. For instance, in certain tradi-tional culture, while still being a modern parts of South Africa (the urban areas such as - Johannesburg and Pretoria), I experienced more selves in an antagonistic relationship with men liberty in challenging these societal expectations of the same culture, as they strive to challenge of me, whereas in the countryside, there is little and reshape these relationships and the patriarchal structure within which it is shaped. boy’s advances on her. She had a son and was more It is clear that culture is not static – as interested in someone else. The girl’s neck was such, the past and present cannot co-habit. It gripped and held tightly under the boys’ arms so be-comes imperative then to understand (as across that he continuously rained punches on her head cultures) that within cultures there are differ- and face. Trou-blingly, she kept screaming, “It ences based on gender among other things. These is not by force” as she was continuously being differences must be collectively renegotiated so used as a punching bag. The boy’s friend was idly that the expression of culture is no longer con- standing by, and a small crowd of both youths - and elders was forming. At my attempt to intervene, ciated by all as they work towards the social and I was held back by my host sister. It was dangerous for me to intervene as a girl, and anyways, we didn’t know what their is-sue is so “We shouldn’t recognition that culture only presents a partial interfere”. The crowd shared this sentiment and and not a total sense of identity for the indi- to the girls’ det-riment, she was the boys’ vidual. minutes simply for saying no. No police was called, As a youth visiting rural South Africa, I could and the community did absolutely nothing. It was not evade some of these social and cultural expressions that I temporarily had to embody. continuous “It is not by force” statement, she in no way considered herself his lover. The entire not only appear ungrateful, but your refusal can community, through their silence, par-ticipated also be interpreted as an antagonistic expression in the maintenance of a culture of violence. In towards the beliefs and practices of locals. Any doing so, they are telling girls that you must attempts to express my feminist beliefs when told listen to men and do what they want, regardless not to wear trousers so often, or not to wear of the consequences to you. The situation is more short skirts (meaning knee length) was met with complex of course, but nothing can justify an stubborn instructions by elders on how a decent entire community’s betrayal towards securing girl should behave. One evening, after I grudg- safety for young girls and women. I can only ingly went to church to please my host mother, imagine, and hope that the girl’s parents inter- two elder men with the stench of alcohol all over vened at some point. be careful to walk around like that here, respect This incident reminded me of another – a brief yourself”. Their tone was arrogant and to some fragmented memory. All the memories are shadows, extent threatening. I stood still, and upon lingering in the background, teasing, still not very coherent. The similarity lies in the com- I was wearing a long sleeve dress that went a munity’s silence, the lack of personhood of young little beyond my knees, and a pair of heels. Of girls. course, my host family told me to ignore this, but no matter how I try, this story has remained {She remembers the other cousin – a very distant at the back of my mind. one. One day, he had cornered her in the back of A few days later, on my way to the market, I had her small towel wrapped around her budding breasts. When he touched her, she felt the and boy. It was a frightening scene. The boy, sensation and it teased her. Then her back touched about age sixteen, and the girl the same were the wall with a force that left her breathless, from time past and to the present, she had told the back and she could so very easily tell her and he would be in trouble. Except she really couldn’t tell. Liberty of speech was not to her advantage during her early years. With a heavy push, her back was slammed to the wall.

How she wished to say something. But it would make no difference. As shadows move from the past to present, she remembered: telling would not be to her advantage, you see. She was alone in a sea, with others who had formed cliques, who had allies. She was alone. So she dares not say, for fear, that she will become more alone – the silent glares, hateful glares that she would endure. Years later, her sentiments would be proven accurate.}

Patriarchy does not only mean that men oppress women – it also means women oppress themselves patriarchal values. As a young black nomad, the question will always remain, how do I transgress these challenges – culture and societal values so as not to offend host families? © Hsia-Fei Chang RAISE ME TO BE A LEADER AS WELL, SAYS THE LITTLE GIRL

AN ESSAY BY GODESS BVUKUTWA

From a tender age, girls in many Sub-Saharan them? Evidently, this is not only a Sub-Saharan cultures start their training in how to be a wife African problem; it is a global challenge. A lot and mother. This, of course, starts with the of questions on why there are fewer women in the types of toys that we choose for little children boardrooms and in leadership positions, and why to play with. It is as if there is a constitution there are fewer women drivers and pilots all over that decrees that boys should play with toy guns, the world, can be answered by visiting a toddler’s playroom. Batman and Spiderman, whilst the same law claims that girls should play with dolls, toy houses However, in Sub-Saharan cultures, this is taken with tea sets, little brightly-coloured princess a step further because of a patriarchal culture dresses and the like. The truth is that there is that is still more apparent than that of the no such law that orders people to choose different Global North. Little girls learn even to carry toys for boys and girls. It is just a decision babies on their backs, by having their dolls tied made by patriarchal society that trains girls to their backs, and also pretend to feed the and boys on what they should be like, how they babies. In Zimbabwe, young children play mahumbwe. should behave, and what expectations they should Mahumbwe is loosely translated as playing house, where children pretend to be mothers and fathers. - You never see the little boy, for example, fake ness that society then expects of them as men. Boys will aspire to drive cars and aeroplanes you see the little girl fake driving the car; it from a very young age, as well as saving damsels is always the boy who drives the little wire cars. in distress, just as superheroes are expected to. In addition to this, girls’ and boys’ chores are In the meantime, what is happening to the little girl? She is playing with the pretty doll with mould of a future wife and mother from an early its long hair and colourful dress. Then, years age. However, it should be noted that most of later, we wonder why looks and appearances are the chores that are meant to be for boys and men, more important to females compared to males, and girls and women almost always do too. It is common why girls are judged more on their appearances knowledge that almost all girls in the same rural than on their intellect. Yet, society does this community grow up doing these “boy’s” chores to women as little girls through gender coded regularly; besides their own designated cooking, play toys and repeated emphasis on Barbie and cleaning, washing, and child care which men rarely princess dolls with pretty clothes. And then we do. In fact, it becomes unclear what men’s actual wonder where the notion that girls need saving chores are in Sub Saharan African cultures, comes from? It is always little princesses who because women are also seen doing these chores. get saved from the evil dragon, rather than young Moreover, when girls and boys are older, they men who then become the heroes. Isn’t this what have different curfew times. While it is normal little children’s books having been telling us for girls to be at home before the sun sets, as all these years? That men should feel the need they are expected to do when they are married, to protect and take care of women and that women boys can come in late at night, and they will should feel the need to have men take care of in the olden days, girls used to have deep talks stereotypes within their children…” and receive counsel from their aunts or grand- mothers, but, in these modern days, most families “[t]hey turn into the kids we, by and large, now live far apart, and people no longer live as imagine them to be. Parents don’t usually do this extended families. Thus, girls now rely on consciously, of course. It is the stereotyped kitchen parties which take place prior to their roles hammered into us at an early age, reinforced wedding day. This could be a traditional wedding, by consumerism and toy makers and commercials, or a modern day white wedding. Kitchen parties and our own mothers and fathers. Boys are athletic are there, not only for women to party and shower and competitive, while girls are less so, and the bride with gifts, but primarily to give the more social and emotional. These are stereotypes bride advice and counsel that she will need when we imprint on our children; they are not naturally she enters her marital home. A girl is told the this way.” dos and don’ts of marriage, such as how to take care of her in-laws, how to make her husband In the early days of my career as a women’s happy, and how to behave during sex. Inasmuch rights activist, I was a volunteer facilitator that some of this information is undeniably for Girl Child Empowerment Outreach programs, a helpful for a new bride, it worryingly tells women community-based organisation in rural Zimbabwe. to be submissive, and to do what her husbands We went around primary schools in this area want her to, in order to make him happy. This raising awareness on gender issues and child advice emphasises that the husband is the head abuse issues. We asked primary school girls to of the family, and in order to be the perfect do timelines of their normal day, and then asked wife, you have to be submissive and try to make them to do timelines of their brother’s or male relative’s of the same age with whom they lived personal feelings. All that you were brought up with. What came out was an unsettling revelation hearing is brought back during the kitchen party of the responsibilities that these young girls and re-emphasised. between ten and twelve years had. A lot of these I know some readers would say that these roles and behaviours come naturally to boys and girls, but this is not true. Girls and boys learn these ones before leaving for school; whilst the boys social behaviours. We all learn how to be a ‘boy’ would wake up later and take out the livestock, or how to be a ‘girl’ depending on the expecta- bath with the water the girls had fetched and tions of a particular society. John M. Grohol, heated, and then go to school. After school most girls of this age would have to rush back home as we thought’, makes reference to Lise Eliot’s, evening meal, bathing younger children, and then turn into Troubme gaps- And what we can do about bringing in the livestock for the night; whilst the boys would be playing soccer or some other game outside. At one school we asked boys between the ages of 10 and 12 why they thought their differences that parents believe are innate or timelines were so different from those of the nature-led are not. Motor skills? The same. Ability girls in their class, and one little boy stood to have deep emotional feelings? The same. up and said that this was because girls would Aggressiveness? The same. Why do we observe such get married one day, and would have to do these differences in little boys and girls? Because jobs in their new homes. parents often unconsciously reinforce the gender What this little boy said, though unfortunate, insensitive content, and sometimes this content is not even true about the two genders. In my Master’s thesis on research in gender discrimi- In retrospect, I realised how true this was for nation in the education sector, I found out that me and my sisters. When doing some tasks that women are traditionally supposed to know, if we STEM subjects curriculum developers were mostly were not doing them well enough our mother would men, and this made me question as to whether this say things like, “Hatidi zvekunyadziswa hedu.” By this she meant, “We don’t want you to embarrass are a tiny minority compared to numbers of men. us when you get married”. This is why girls’ This is food for thought. education is not deemed as important as boys, because after all girls will get married and be In conclusion, it is astonishing how much looked after by her husband. This is why only children get to know their socially expected boys are raised to be leaders and achievers, behaviours, attitudes, and roles at a young age. because they will be tomorrow’s household, Even more astonishing is how this education community and national leaders. This is why no affects gender roles and stereotypes and turns matter how much success a woman has in her life, little boys into achievers and future leaders, how much educated she is, her worth is measured whilst girls are turned into future wives and by her marital status. Women who are not married mothers. These behaviours and attitudes are are not respected as much, which has been the learned; so it is overdue for little girls to be plight of many women’s rights activists, because by not being married, they are called bitter explore her superhero nature. Whilst little boys women, who want to make every other woman as need to start combing a Barbie doll’s hair, making bitter and unhappy as they are. tea for it in the teacup set, and exploring his caring and emotional side. After this we should This links to the education system and the review our education system, and see whether it curricula used by most schools in Sub-Saharan is contributing to having more men in boardrooms Africa. As a Grade One or Grade Two pupil, we and in STEM subject industries. But we must used to read books with dialogue, such as “Ona remember, somewhere out there is a little girl Baba. Ona Mai. Ona Baba vanoenda kubasa. Ona Mai crying out to be a superhero and not just be the vanoumba hari”, which translated means, “Look at princess, to be raised as a future leader not Father. Look at Mother. Look at Father going to just as a future mother and wife. work. Look at Mother moulding a claypot.” Of course with a lot of work from women’s rights groups, a lot of this content has become more gender sensitive, but recently I was disappointed to see that one of the Shona books was still being used in primary schools. This book is a 1980s publication and contains a lot of gender JELILI ATIKU

A PERFORMANCE

Oginrinringinrin is a Yoruba word, which literally means deep insight. It is used here to refer to the potentiality of human body as it becomes symbolic contents that will aid the expansion of human awareness on critical issues of human values and security. The performances transform public space as an artistic process for human recourse and inferences. The adopted (/will adopt) the technique of dance, theatric - actions, text, video, installation, photography and mixed media; and more so, as a principle; appropriate(d) Egungun technique.

Jelili Atiku, Ologbere (Oginrinringinrin II), Slussen / Södermalmstorg/Fylkingen Stockholm, Sweden, April 11 2014, during PAL (Performance Art Links) International Festival. Photo by Priya Mistry. © Jelili Atiku.

I HAVEN’T SEEN THE SUN

A POEM BY AYO AYOOLA-AMALE

A small habitat stood on a mountain and my huge legs quietly whispered songs from the unspoken dawn. I lifted my legs and walked on the moon. How old this fresh legs are, running after me. A famished minstrel cries within yet beauty was found in homeless drums.

A hungry castle, coarse-grained as marble and bumpy, Hardened bitter in hunger and thirst on top of the fault that stood. Out came the golden cheeks full of heavy streams gushing down like volcano that woke the hidden depths of pain.

I later learned that i know but did not know. The world just dropped in. I haven’t seen the sun.

So long my eyes turned to deserts, Then i returned home. Would my legs be peering out the window? Nothing new had happened. Legs, 2014 © Daniel Regan. REIMAGINING THE GENDER PARADIGM

A CONVERSATION BY ATO MALINDA AND GABRIELLA BECKHURST

GB: Your previous performance works have dealt AM: I believe that the tacit quality of art with challenging issues such as incest and sexual allows us to express certain subjects that abuse in Games (2013) and the practice of female initially may appear unapproachable. Games was a genital mutilation (FGM) in Prison Sex I (2008). Additionally, Is Free Dumb (2010), which was was called Mourning a Living Man and was about performed outside the Kenya National Archives in my own experience of sexual abuse at the hands Nairobi, addressed freedom and equality of women, - and yet a symptomatic turn of events resulted in mance is a double channeled video, with the an unlawful arrest and a refusal to acknowledge combination of both videos being from the viewpoint the performance as art. What drives you to work of a recollection. The two women represent a same-sex relationship. Their communication is denies your engagement? stated by J.L. Austin in How to Do Things with women in their homes. So I wanted to highlight Words. One woman speaks English, the other French. the quotidian and bring the private into the The woman who speaks in French recites a poem public. In the morning that the performance by Nikki Giovanni called ‘Choices’. The wife is began, I set out in this attire, reading popular the representation of my mother; a bit ethereal and unaware of the incestuous relations in the black wooden cage. I wanted to understand the house; and in the domestic situation, not as reading of traditional and contemporary as a prominent as her ‘husband’. Although this domestic Kenyan woman, and discover why indeed I felt caged. However - yes - the Nairobi police force did not take kindly to this experiment, and I ‘father’ articulates his statements to the ‘wife,’ was imprisoned for eight hours in downtown but they could also be directed to the unseen Nairobi. Of course, this result says a lot about the climate in which I was operating and indeed both mother and daughter and leaves them both. answers the question as to why I was feeling The chopping of the carrots directly represents like a caged woman. Since that performance, the castration, but also represents the castration city council of Nairobi (and the police) has gotten a little more lenient, as is my under- ceases his performance as his daughter’s superego. standing. This video is the representation of dysfunctional There is something very basic and intrinsic domesticity, with miscommunication, incest and/ that leads me to do the performances that I do. or adultery achieved through gender performance. The daughter is represented in the second video feel that my politicised black, female, queer as archival footage of me and my father during body is both protected and respected. I feel the my childhood. This video is a recollection of only way to do this is to be a part of the conversation. video’s dynamics and shows my father’s head mul- tiplied in place of other people’s heads in the GB: You have previously talked about the impor- - tance of performing as an agency that connects sequences of sexual abuse, but also to the performer and audience. A space by which both abuser’s narcissism. enter a dialogue bound by human experience, what I made Prison Sex I, when I was in London in 2008 and working with a London-based NGO called AM: Yes, I feel that all art is bound by its Forward UK. They work primarily on eradicating audience. I always say that once I create a FGM and child marriage. I have worked with them drawing it is no longer my piece of art (even since about 2007, and still work with them. It if I still own it). Once the act of creativity occurs, communication transpires. And one cannot other African women on empowering African women own a conversation. Even if no one sees the work, who are not afforded basic human rights; the a potentiality remains. Of course the connection most important being the right to person. with the audience is more direct with performance. To my recollection, I conceived Is Free Dumb, as a very simple performance. Essentially, all perform in front of complacent audiences. It is I wanted to do was read in the streets of Nairobi! important to me that the audience knows that Of course I set a context for this reading. I they are part of the performance and conduct placed myself in a cage, baring my shoulders themselves in such respect. As with all perfor- with my body wrapped in an East African leso. mance artists, corporeal context is important; This is not uncommon attire for East African race, class, sexuality, geography, etcetera, all important factors. All these social factors do performances that took place within a small not exist without both the mirror stage and the bricolage cubicle were taken from a conversation Other. A congregation of Egos makes the world of life stories with queer Nairobians. It spoke interesting, but also ensures that complacency to the homophobic human rights record of African is relegated. states. Beside the cubicle lay a textual map that described with everyday vernacular how to GB: I am interested in how certain geographies get from my home to spaces each queer person implicate your performances, i.e. how might a delineated as safe space. European audience, such as with the exhibition Games (2013) which took place in Berlin, compare GB: The title, it seems, addresses demand for with other audiences, for example those in a new model, or a future archetype of sexuality. Nairobi? As well as digital audiences, which Could you speak about the implication of gender neutrality in Mshoga Mpya, of positing yourself you further exhibit the works after the perfor- as an androgynous vessel? mance has taken place? AM: The use of the word ‘homosexual’ is a AM:- reference to the biological history of sexuality. Foucault describes the thinking around the homo- live performance in Europe, entitled sexual physiology in the 18th Century in The Incommensurable Identities (2011) was done in History of Sexuality; it was thought homosexuals the cadre of my performance colleague and friend Tracey Rose who has in the past empathetically certain regards. The addition of the word mpya, or new, implied that there was an older case. I wanted to subversively attack the notion prolif- is viewed in a European context. As well as erated by African politicians that homosexuality discussing the performative body, I also wanted is an import from the West. In fact it has always to situate the performance within European per- been on the African continent, and we are the new homosexuals. performances. So what you saw was an African Unfortunately, the androgynous intentions were not played out the way I intended in the per- I wanted to speak about the perceived incommen- forming of Mshoga Mpya, or the New Homosexual. surability of Africa and Europe. Are Europe and The intention was to be representative of as Africa commensurable? I do not know! The issue with performing on the African that a transgender man could just as easily pass continent is as interesting one, but not com- for a gay man. The malleability of gender is a beautiful thing. different ways both audiences prescribe and inscribe their beliefs upon my body. GB: In Butler’s reworking of gender performa- tivity delineated in her 1993 text Bodies That GB: The theme of this year’s Dak’Art was Matter, she cites that gender, in certain ‘Producing the Common’, how did the work you instances, acts as a vehicle for what she calls performed, Mshoga Mpya, or the New Homosexual ‘phantasmatic transformation’; or a promise of engage with this concept? rescue from poverty, abuse, homophobia, and AM: Mshoga Mpya was the result of almost a racist delegitimation. How far would you agree year’s worth of research on queer space in with Butler’s notion of the law as an overarch- Nairobi. It engages with ‘Producing the Common’ ing symbolic threat, that the law “compels the because the very intimate one-on-one shape and direction of sexuality through the installation of fear”? AM: I w ou ld ag re e wit h Butler; t he law, t h rou gh against the gallery. Luckily no one was hurt, the abjection of certain bodies, dictates and no work was damaged. However, I found that sexuality. Uganda is a good example of this. although the media appeared to be on our side, Through the passing of the anti-gay law earlier there was a large element of sensationalism that this year, the Ugandan government is able to not was counterproductive. I understand that jour- only control sexuality, but also the sexual nalists want to get the story out and read by imaginings of its people. I have seen interviews as many people as possible, but exaggerating the with Ugandan people who believe homosexuals circumstances or incidences is not the way to should be killed. Not just imprisoned; they do it. Non-heteronormative sexualities are a believe someone should lose their life for being sensitive topic on the continent, and reporting a homosexual. This leaves little room for dis- extremities will not help those of us who live cussion. This law has validated such thinking here. through viability. In Kenya, acts of sodomy have a fourteen years penalty. About prison, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o says that “prison is the space in which the state performs its power”. The threat of Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at prison under law deters from performing same-sex Austin, and has a Master of Fine Arts from Transart desires and therefore contributes towards the determination of national sexuality. GB: Alongside your practice, which also exhibited at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst comprises installation, drawing and painting, Urbain de Douala in Cameroon and the Karen Blixen you are also a curator. As part of a year-long programme dedicated to personal liberties within Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discur the context of freedom of speech, sexuality and homophobia, as devised by Raw Material Company in Dakar, you co-curated with Koyo Kouoh Precarious Imagining: Visibility Surrounding African Queerness (2014) featuring Zanele Muholi, Andrew Esiebo, Jim Chuchu, Kader Attia, and Amanda Kerdahi M. It was met with local and international publicity, mostly due to its alleged forced closure a couple of weeks after opening. How was the exhibition received in Dakar? AM: In the context of the ‘Biennial Off’ programme, the audience was wonderfully receptive.

GB: the media met with the exhibition’s intended purpose? AM I think the exhibition went very well. Unfortunately, Raw Material Company had to close Image on previous page: Ato it early for safety’s sake. Muslim council men Malinda, Film still, 2013 © accused Raw Material of promoting homosexuality 2013 Ato Malinda AWAITING THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN GODDESS

A PERFORMANCE BY DIMPLE B. SHAH

Talking to the Holy Ganges – The story is not new … I stand on the river bank … in front of the calm - ing the black city and hopeless light ... the bodies getting the heat smelling of death … mourning is everywhere … it is time to mourn for lost souls who were burnt to death, who were dragged, crushed, hit and brutal- ised. They have come long way, like these clay pots dragged along the path in small lanes, streets, roads, cities, and countries. It time to heal our body and mind which is blacked with the pain of lost souls … Holy Ganges will you take … the burden of these lost souls … we need to heal in mass, we need to cover the burnt body, we need to cover our wounds, we need to heal our minds of not one but in mass … heal our minds and hearts blackened by pain, we need the touch of golden Yellow, we need touch of Yellow Root … Are We Still Waiting for the Golden Goddess …? The last performance of KIPAF event was performed by me, in Nimtala Ghats, near where the cremations are done by the riverbank of the Holy Ganges. The performance was about mass healing, where I and my audience (common people) were healed in a ritualistic act of showering Golden turmeric on me, and, in exchange, I distributed turmeric root to heal my audience. Awaiting for the Golden Goddess, which was concerned with and commented on issues of rape and sexual violence, especially the rape case which happened just two weeks before the event in Kolkata. This performance was about the use and throw attitude of people in respect to women. In this performance, the turmeric root stands for fertility, sacredness, and also the healing elements for rape victims. My performance was an attempt to provoke the general public to think about the issue of sexual violence, to make them ask questions regarding this issue, and to be sensitive to this problem; so, hopefully, they do not just think about it, but also act upon it and pledge to create safe cities for women and girls where they can move around safely. The female body needs to be cleansed from the and it needs to be healed. I walked the stage wearing a yellow dress naturally as the mother during coloured by turmeric water to symbolise purity, fertility, and cleansing. the pots are lit as lamps By cleansing and healing to celebrate motherhood my body, I also repre- and the power of women. sented cleansing the mass In my performance, the female population in audience interacts in this India. I walked the stage ritualistic act of healing with an audio speaker con- and cleansing the body by taining the news of rapes applying turmeric paste from all over India and on me, and, thus, partic- crying sounds. The main ipates in a community purpose was to make the effort to think about the audience feel uncomfort- issue of sexual violence able and provoke them to and rape. do something about it. I wanted to make them take the effort to think about, and to act upon, the issues raised. I used a hundred small clay pots that were tied to each other and then dragged through the streets with ropes. In the process, many were broken and crushed. The clay pots were important, because, in everyday life, it is an object used for drinking tea and forms an essential part in representing Kolkata and Bengali culture. Metaphorically, the pots represented the position of women as objects that are care- lessly looked upon without much care in our society, even though they are sensitive, essential and Dimple B Shah, fragile, and need to be Awaiting for the Golden taken care of by us. Goddess, Nimtala Ghat, Traditionally, clay pots Kolkata, 2014, performed at also represent in Indian International Performance culture the womb, espe- Festival. cially in Gujarat and Photo by Augustine Thilak. Kolkata where Goddess © Dimple B Shah. TIPPING POINT

AN ACCOUNT BY BISHA K. ALI

I write this eight days after the inciting incident. I sat at my usual petrol station. I’d just bought a pack of wine gums, and I wanted to put them in my mouth as quickly as possible. In the kiosk the gentleman at the till remarked on my appearance. My driver’s license happened to be on show - he kindly pointed out how pretty I was and asked ‘just how old is this photo?’

I didn’t care — I had wine gums. I get back to my car, glad that this time the other guy had not been at the till — the guy who usually asks me if I’m still unmarried. I wonder if he asks any of the customers with penises the same question.

wine gum or two, put my seatbelt on and continue my quest across London to a gig. A car pulls up beside me, with two young men, who immediately begin leering at me, smiling, waving, staring, shouting out. I can’t make out what they’re hearing — I’m playing Rufus Wainwright too loudly and it’s entertaining watching them mime along. I give them a dis- missive look, that in my head says “fuck off,” but in their heads says “please shout and stare some more.” I turn away, hoping they’ve stopped, suddenly self conscious about my goddamn wine gums. I notice that they continue. And continue. And continue.

Usually, I would drive away, shake my head, be a little mad, feel unsettled, then get on with my day. I’m a woman. I can take it like a woman, damn it. Then I remembered the gig I did last year at a rowdy lesbian club in Soho. Man, it was a good gig. It was one of those lovely moments in performing when the audience is on board with you, they get what you’re about, they understand the core of where your humour is coming from and want to hear more. These are rare. It was awesome. I stuck around until the end of the night, and a gentleman from the audience struck up a conversation. The MC had mentioned that I

“You know, you’re good, but you’re never gonna win.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you’re not conventional enough. Your material, who you are, how you look.”

“OK.”

“I mean, you don’t look bad, you’re just not conventionally attractive. You’re not good I noticed you have a great ass. But that ass won’t win you the competition.” “OK.”

I went to leave. There were a bunch of audience members who had come up and said nice, non-invasive things that didn’t make my skin crawl. Some invited me outside for some smokes, and one asked me, politely, with clarity and restraint, if I found her attractive, and if I would be up for coming back to her place for sex and gear. It’s not really my thing, but the exchange felt non-aggressive, non-predatory, genuine, and one borne of some kind of weird respect. When I turned her down and said she seemed lovely, but I’m not really sexually attracted to women, and also, what is gear; (cocaine, naive young girl at comedy club, cocaine,) she explained what she meant, was kind, thanked me again for the performance, introduced me to her friends, we all chatted, it was lovely.

I went back inside to say good night to the promoters and thank them for having me on. My ass-fan was still there. He came up to say thanks again, good night, and as I turned to leave, grabbed the afore mentioned ass. I was embarrassed and shocked, and left, quickly. human managed to smack that feeling right out of my asshole.

Anyway, that was then, this is now. These boys are still leering at me over a petrol pump. I roll down my window, and in my head I’m still asking myself “Why am I doing this?”

Then I remember that one time a few months ago I was driving back from my other half’s place. I was alone, at midnight, trundling along in my mini in Peckham, my windows down because my air conditioning is a vicious piece of shit. I sat at a red light, jamming to Boston, when a man turns the corner on his bicycle, rides up to my car, grabs the door frame, leans in close and blows a smooch into my face. His lips don’t make contact with my skin, all I got was the caress of his breath. He drove on. I rolled up my windows with desperate fury and made my way home in the cloying heat.

A few weeks later, on the same journey home, this time around one am and nearer to where I live, two men in a car were driving incredibly dangerously. They tailgated me, overtook me and broke hard, forcing me to break and change direction. There was little place else to go. Eventually they forced me into the side of the road, pulled up beside villains and one of them stuck his tongue out in a way that implied they meant more than a quick lesson in quantum physics. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m a great driver, so I pulled out quick and lost them by the time I got to my door.

Those are some of the reasons why I did what I did at the inciting incident. Reader, I said something. With my actual mouth.

pump between us, my foot’s on the accelerator, I am Bonnie, I am Clyde.

“Hey! What do you want?” I asked. “What’s your name sweetheart?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Come on just wanna get to know you.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hey we just wanna make friends.”

“There are a bunch of people here on this forecourt. I’m the only woman, by myself. Why are you doing this?”

I thought, if I force them into introspection, they might change. They might not leer at women by themselves, or in groups, or in general. They might think, ‘hey, that’s another human being, just like me! Man would it suck if two random people came over and kept staring at us, shouting at us, and didn’t stop what they were doing even though we made it clear that their attention was making us uncomfortable.’

Alas, I had not made my point. In a moment of reactionary frustration, I did what I pledged I would never do.

“If I was your mother, and two guys did what you two are doing, what would you think?”

Uh oh. I hit a soft spot. A woman he actually respects and cares about. It’s not his fault, this kid can’t make logical extrapolations!

“Why don’t you just think about how you treat people?”

“Why are you being so rude?”

My brain exploded. For a moment, I was outside of my body, and I was hysterical and I screamed in his face. Not words, a growl of hysteria. They were laughing, but so was I, from outside of my body. There I was, Rufus in the background, screaming noises in frustration. I didn’t realise I was so upset until then. I told my mum about what happened. I said I have to speak up for myself more, when it’s safe, because who else is going to stand up for me? And because I can, when so many people — men and women — suffer similar and much worse, but can’t stand up for themselves. So I have to do it a little bit every time, so that I don’t feel like a piece of shit after these little exchanges.

She disagreed. This made me more mad.

proud of it. I had always wanted a new car. For some stupid reason, it meant something to us. When we were working terrible, soulless jobs, when we were close to the bread-line, - gling on the day we could get a new car.

“The day I bought it, I took you for a drive. It was summer, beautiful sunshine, dry woman with her family pulled up beside us. She looked over at us, spat in our car, shouted “Paki family!” and drove off. I was ashamed. Ashamed of my colour, ashamed of her spit on back, ashamed that I was powerless, ashamed of the car we had dreamed of. I felt her hate inside me and I still feel it now — and that’s my fault. You have to let the hate and cruelty of others go. If you hold onto it, you’ll be telling your daughter these stories when you’re

We argued for a while, back and forth, because I still believe that silence or brushing it off, while it feels like the only option, will hinder and not help. We shouldn’t have to say anything. It sucks that we gotta tell people “Hey man, don’t touch my ass unless I say you can touch my ass,” but if I could go back to that moment, I would ask him why he felt entitled to grab my ass.

the receiving end of. The inciting incident was the tipping point for me — it’s made me understand that if I’m gonna get through life and stuff, I have to speak up for myself. sad,” and it feels good to say “I don’t like when you treat me differently because I don’t have the same genitals as you.” It partly alleviates the crushing smallness that is the result of this behaviour.

I wish my mum could experience speaking up for herself. I wish that years of negativity and an environment that left her voiceless hadn’t stopped her from saying, “Hey, you have “Leave my family alone ya racist asshole.” Get involved in ‘In Others’ Words’ by participating in Lauren’s IOW INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL EXCHANGE! Lauren will be expanding this work by traveling the world and photographing interested participants in exchange for life’s basic necessities such as food, shelter, transporta- Individuals of all ages, genders, identities, backgrounds, and abilities are welcome!

Interested in participating? Email [email protected], subject line: IOW Travel Exchange!

A POEM BY CLARITTA PETERS

You want legs as long as buildings And hips as narrow as dark alley ways.

Three quarters. Like a truck going over a tomato One quarter The amount of blackness that made you palatable for a white boy to date

There are claw marks on my thighs. And spider bites on my legs, The marks of youth, growth and dirt

Shining like Vaseline on clean bodies I didn’t expect to be told by girl next to me That she “didn’t like black girls”.

I know now I was peppered in scars Because, People are often like mosquitoes, They want to bite you, Because you’re juicy

I know now, I don’t suffer the lacks of white or black. I am a whole, Learning to love the fractions of my being

I know now, That basing your worth on the love of others, Who haven’t learned to love themselves, Is just a bad idea.

I know now, That those tiger claw marks, Are the signs of a woman’s body. Stretching into heights I’m yet to reach

I know now That being this me, With moderate breasts, Skin the colour of rust, And hands that show I write my mind, Is a beautiful thing.

I know now, First day at my new school, And my mother, Who held my hand and asked the girl, If she, She already knew the answer to the question.

A DECLARATION BY KATH READ

Every day, when I open my email, there are a plethora of emails detailing how ugly I am. Every any value to me as a person. Now admittedly, mostly day, someone leaves a comment on my blog, or sends women are expected to be beautiful, or at least me an email, or trolls my Tumblr, deeply intent on declaring me the ugliest person they’ve ever or trophies measured by their beauty. I want seen. They equate me to pigs, whales, elephants, more from my life than being aesthetically hippos, manatees and all manner of animals, all pleasing. adorable. important things in my life. It doesn’t diminish Once upon a time, this would have hurt me my intellect, my humour, my compassion, my ded- deeply. I would have been terribly upset, it ication, my enthusiasm, my strength, my ability probably would have made me self harm, or driven to love. These are, for me anyway, the yardsticks me to isolate myself more, or stopped me from which I measure my success as a human being – not dressing the way I love to dress. beauty.

But it hasn’t done that for a long time. Let’s not forget, beauty is entirely subjective Now before you deny my ugliness, which is a anyway. As much as there is a societal beauty lovely thought of you, I want to say, it’s OK. I’m ideal, it’s not the default of what all people not writing this to have people dispute the accusation. You don’t need to tell me I’m not ugly, features beautiful – for every single feature of or even that I’m beautiful, to undo the shitty things that some people say to me. Because other it beautiful – even the very things we ourselves than some irritation at having to deal with continued abuse and harassment, the actual words polar opposites of features beautiful – you can themselves don’t hurt me at all. be attracted to more than one body type, or more than one eye colour, or more than one skin tone, I realised why today when I responded to an and so on. I know I am. Think about the famous email that was actually lovely (not abuse, I don’t people that are seen as beautiful. One movie respond to those) from a woman who had always star or pop singer may be deeply desirable to one felt ugly and she told me about her journey to person, and then completely off putting to the next. Except perhaps for Tom Hiddleston, it seems need to be beautiful, and I realised I don’t have that need myself. Not that I have any problem with other people needing to feel beautiful, but Personally, I’m attracted to people for more it’s just not there for me. than just their physical beauty. A person can be physically stunning, but deeply repulsive to I feel absolutely no obligation to be aesthet- me. I can think of several famous actors who ically pleasing to others. Oh don’t get me wrong, are lauded as being the ‘sexiest men alive’ yet it’s always nice when someone refers to me as they have been violent towards previous partners, or have bigoted political beliefs, or are ignorant. further than external appearance. For example I’m attracted to an infectious laugh, gentle hands, quick wit, deep intellect … I also like crooked teeth, skinny legs, smile wrinkles, hairy bodies, big feet, fat bellies … all things that other people would consider very unattractive. A person doesn’t have to have all of those things for me people and am attracted to them, particularly when accompanied by those non-physical attributes that I like. That said, I don’t expect every person on the planet to meet my aesthetic. I’m not personally offended by encountering someone that I do not - in men in particular - that if a woman fails to be sexually attractive to them, it is a personal insult to them. I’ve heard of this referred to as ‘The Boner Principle’ - any woman who ‘fails’ to inspire an erection in a man loses her right to basic human respect by default. It’s the most unbelievably conceited attitude to think that you are owed attraction by every woman you encounter. I’ve got no intention of buying into that bullshit. My life is worth far more than being a pretty ornament that pleases others. If people think I’m ugly, I offer no apology and feel no I’m not here to decorate the world, I’m here to change it.

AN OPINION BY AMANDA MUREN CEDERSTRAND

Any attempted friendship with a man consists your job to dampen the shocks and neutralise them. of a constant element of humiliation. You must Because you know that these jokes are only jokes always be on edge, at any moment prepared to be as long as you don’t take them for something else. served a – albeit thoughtless, unintentional – You are the guardian of your comradely relation, comment that reminds you of your subordination and that’s strenuous because you can never relax, you must always watch not to send out signals woman’s eternal curse. Because if you didn’t that may be interpreted as sexual. And that can overlook it, if you called attention to his every be pretty much anything. Just being friendly for faux pas, every time he wronged you and violated example. Offering a stick of gum. Asking how he’s your limits, reminded you of, and reinforced, the doing. Listening when he talks. Acting like a disparate situation that you’re in, you wouldn’t normal goddamn fellow human being. You can’t! be able to just “hang out”. If you acted as a man Since, in relation to a man, you can never be a would and demanded that he acknowledged your equality ... But you know that you’re not actually a mutilated, incomplete thing. equal, so you just keep quiet. You keep quiet and swallow your pride and your self-respect, and When non-feminists enter into feminist dis- that’s what’s so horribly humiliating, because cussions, or comment upon them, they usually talk about misandry. Feminists usually retort that like a creature without pride, without self-respect they do not hate men but the concept of mascu- - and you do it to enable the relationship! You linity. That, however, isn´t necessarily true, mutilate yourself so he won’t have to see what either. Actually, yeah, some of us hate men. it is he’s doing to you. And he will look down on you for what he thinks you’re doing to yourself beat, rape, humiliate, ridicule and belittle us. and you will let him. You hide his evil from his Misandry exists as well as misogyny, but is in no way equal to it and does not legitimise the he can keep his. And you know, deep down, no liberal idea that “it takes two to tango”. This matter how much you love and respect him, that is an Israel- Palestine situation. The essential he doesn’t deserve it. difference between these two is that misandry, just like Palestinian hatred for their occupiers, As a female (cis or trans) trying to socialise with a straight male, you’re always sexualised. should, in my opinion, be armed. But that´s another Of course this doesn’t mean that every straight discussion.)”. man wants to sleep with you, but rather because of the heterosexual matrix, there’s always the To be a woman in love with a man is to be so awareness that you, technically speaking, could timelessly helpless; so terribly conscious of the become sexually attracted to each another. And consequently you’re put in a sexualised relation stare at a photo of him, and everything about where you as a woman are always the inferior. To yourself you thought solid and valuable – your him, it’s okay to play with this tension, joke intelligence, your beliefs, your courage – imme- about it, make playful advances. And it’s always diately begins to crumble, leaving you limp, impotent. You stagger at the frustration of your unworthiness. Everything you are, no matter its sum, is never going to amount to as much as him! Which means that he can never desire you as much as you desire him, simply because there isn’t as much to desire. Gender power relations work that and destruction and humour, your cruellest “doom” plans and most brilliant creativity, you´ll never be enough. And as long as we live in this patriarchy, you know that they’ll never let you forget him. You may have him and he may want you or even love you, but it will be with an unclouded, innocent love and the devastating privilege of ignorance. It is you who will be left, alone, with the dirty, dirty knowledge. The constant cruel the trauma of dealing with men. FUMIGATE

A POEM BY JULI WATSON

It’s a man’s world

Black and white

Wives and wenches

Virgins and whores

Women pinned against the walls

Their pained faces

Their painted faces

Empty vessels stripped of truth

We are baubles and harridans

Pushed into backstreets

Filth put out with the rubbish and rats

Throwaway misogyny

Complacent captors

Faceless females

Commodities for cold consummation,

mass consumption

AGATA CARDOSO AMA JOSEPHINE BUDGE BJØRK GRUE LIDIN BRINDA GANGOPADHYA LUNDMARK CARMEN ATIYAH DE BAETS CÆCILIE IBURG PRINTZLAU DEA BUSK LARSEN ELLA ACHOLA GUSTAV HODER HANNA ELIASSON HANS PETER GEISLER JAGO RACKHAM JASMINE COOPER JULIE CECILIE ERIKSEN KATE AUCHTERLONIE KATIE O’REILLY-BOYLES KATRYA BOLGER MATHIAS KLITGÅRD SØRENSEN RASMUS JOHAN NIELSEN SARA BADAWI TARA ELIZABETH COOPER TOVE LYSSARIDES YASMINE AKIM YEWANDE ODUNUBI ZARA SHAKIRA

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