YOUR FREE COPY the ESSENTIAL GUIDE to LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT in ICELAND ABSOLUTION ENVIRONMENT FOOD HISTORY MUSIC Forgiveness Inc
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Issue 02 × 2014 February 7 - March 13 YOUR FREE COPY THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND ABSOLUTION ENVIRONMENT FOOD HISTORY MUSIC Forgiveness Inc. Did The NYT get Ram's eyes, ears, The Nazis thought Sónar so good sells forgiveness! Iceland all wrong? penis, testicles… Icelanders were lame The Calm Warrior Gunnar gives his foes the full Nelson Complete Lots of Download the FREE Grapevine Appy Hour app! Reykjavík Listings cool events Every happy hour in town in your pocket. + Available on the App store and on Android Market. The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 2 — 2014 2 Editorial | Anna Andersen RE: GRAPEVINE'S GHASTLY GENDER GAP Anna’s Super Long 37th Editorial illustration that might, or might not be a man Furthermore, after discussing the issue with dress this in 2014. Although our editorial team was with mustache). Two covers prominently fea- others involved, I became convinced that our cov- and is well staffed by females and I’m certain that ture women. One issue has one of each gen- ers couldn’t be deconstructed this way: that is, they the articles you’ve been reading have been by and der and two issues feature a bunch of people; are mostly not about featuring a man or a woman. about at least as many women as men, if not more, 15 men and 8 women.” Of the 18 issues published last year, only four were I’m also sure we can do better. The writer continues: “Now I ask, dear profiles of the people on the cover. Three men and Now, turn to page 16 to read this issue’s fea- Grapevine, do you feel that men achieve more one woman: Hafþór Björnsson (Issue 08), Emilíana ture interview with a human who inconveniently for important things than women and rather de- Torrini (Issue 13), Ragnar Axelsson (Issue 14) and the purposes of my editorial this issue happens to serve the front page? Or is it a subconscious Björgvin Halldórsson (Issue 18). The others fell into be called Gunnar Nelson. He’s great though, and societal thing? You might find my obsession place because we decided to feature something the story of how he rose to MMA fame out of a with counting people a bit extreme. You might rather than somebody, such as Eurovision (Issue country where it is illegal to compete in sports like feel that the gender of the main subject on the 5). professional boxing, is an interesting one. Finally, cover is coincidental and it's only important That said, the letter brings up an important if anybody wants to write us a letter about this or A few days after our last issue came out, we re- that it appeals to the reader and encourages matter. For the last five years, Iceland has been anything else, remember: [email protected]. ceived a letter about something that I had been people to pick up the paper. I think, that until sitting pretty at the top of the World Economic Fo- feeling rather uncomfortable about for some time we live in a world, closer to perfection than rum’s Global Gender Gap Report, boasting world now. I knew it was coming. After printing an ar- this one in regard to gender gaps and equal- records like the first democratically elected female TRACK OF THE ISSUE ticle featuring last year’s covers, with all 18 of them ity, we have to fight and be annoying and head of state and the first openly lesbian head of displayed neatly on a single page, somebody was count faces and push quotas. If not, women government. Yet, culling from stories that Grape- bound to pick up on it and send us a letter. It was will continue to grow up with the notion that vine reported on last year, you’ll see that it’s far just a matter of time: men deserve the front page more. That men from perfect over here. “Dear Grapevine, I'd like to initiate this let- deserve higher salaries, better positions and The fact is, when it comes to full-time state and ter by giving you a compliment. Your maga- more attention…” municipal jobs, females average 27% lower salaries zine is my favorite one in Reykjavík; it's weird So somebody picked up on it, the fact that than their male counterparts. In other governmen- that a local appreciates an English speaking men overwhelmingly dominated the Reykjavík tal blunders, the Parliamentary Assembly of the tourist magazine most of all the newspapers Grapevine’s covers in 2013. Although we had good Council of Europe had to suspend Iceland's voting and magazines in Iceland but you still always reason for featuring all of them (and you can read rights because our all-male delegation couldn’t fig- manage to have me counting down to the next those reasons on page 6 of last issue), I’m certain ure out how to meet the mandate for gender equal- issue. Each publishing Friday I sit down with a we would have also had good reason for featur- ity by including a single female. In the private sec- cup of carefully brewed coffee and bury my ing a greater number of amazing women. For some tor, females made up only 23.1% of company board Tilbury: “Hollow” nose into the only radically environmentalist, reason though, it didn’t pan out that way. members, as of December. In the film industry, fe- Download NOW at www.grapevine.is hippy, culture-appreciating voice in Reykja- The truth is that I have been aware of this for males have directed only 17 of the 133 feature films vík,” the letter writer began nicely, before deliver- some time now and meant to draw attention to it made in Iceland at last year’s count, and a record Few songs capture the chill of an early winter ing her blow. six or seven issues ago, when we featured Emilíana low number of females, 16 compared to 43 males, morning in Reykjavík and at the same time make “However, I was greatly saddened when Torrini. If you don’t count the New Year’s issue, were nominated for an Edda Academy Award at for a good soundtrack to your dreary walk to I saw a compilation of your covers in the is- which featured a stand-in model for a woman who last year’s ceremony. Even in female-dominated work, a quality that "Hollow" really hits on the sues of 2013. I have the (sometimes annoy- went missing and whose name we never knew, fields, such as teaching and nursing, males still head. The mellow ground-up feeling built by the ing) habit of counting genders in magazines, Emilíana was the first female to grace a cover last hold the leadership positions. bass riff on this song from Tilbury’s new album photos, front pages of web sites and so on. year and we were thirteen issues deep at that Dear letter writer, I’d like to thank you for bring- ‘Northern Comfort’ isn't too rough on your grog- After taking a very swift look at your covers it point. However, I didn’t end up drawing attention ing this up. It’s important to point out gender in- gy head, yet the vibrant synth and lively drums was evident that there was a clear gender gap to this back then, at least in this space, because equality, as it’s a problem that’s not likely to go still get you pumped up to take on whatever the in the people you chose to front your paper, a I didn’t want to risk trivializing her appearance on away if we don’t do anything about it. Although I’m rest of your day has to throw at you. Download paper that sits face up in every café around our cover by making our decision seem to be more not convinced that gender quotas should be ap- this free track to get a taste for ‘Northern Com- town. Out of 18 issues, 10 feature a man as about meeting gender quotas than about celebrat- plied to everything from committees to faces on fort,’ which gets a glowing review on page 39. the main subject (11 if you count Siggi Odd's ing her art. magazine covers, I pledge to do what I can to ad- Contributing Writers Photographers: Founders: Alex Baumhardt Nanna Dís / www.nannadis.com Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson, Árni Árnason Alísa Kalyanova / www. alisakalyanova.com Hörður Kristbjörnsson, Kári Tulinius Jón Trausti Sigurðarson, Davíð Roach Sales Director: Oddur Óskar Kjartansson, Óli Dóri Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / [email protected] Valur Gunnarsson Björn Teitsson Helgi Þór Harðarson / [email protected] Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík John Rogers The Reykjavík Grapevine is published 18 times a year by Fröken ltd. www.grapevine.is Simon Cherit Distribution manager: Monthly from November through April, and fortnightly from May [email protected] Sindri Eldon [email protected] til October. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole Published by Fröken ehf. Bob Cluness or in part without the written permission of the publishers. The www.froken.is Óskar Bragi Stefánsson Proofreader: Reykjavík Grapevine is distributed around Reykjavík, Akureyri, Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association Helgi Hrafn Guðmundsson Jim Rice Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður, Borgarnes, Keflavík, Ísafjörður and at key www.saf.is Anna Millward locations along road #1, and all major tourist attractions and tourist Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies. Listings: information centres in the country. Journalist [email protected] You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored (no articles Editor In Chief: Larissa Kyzer / [email protected] in the Reykjavík Grapevine are pay-for articles.