Radical media, politics and culture.

Gender

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"The Post (Liberal) Feminist Condition"

Anonymous Comrade

“They’ll throw the book at you in court. She’s the mother-the female. She’s got the tits. They’ll crush you.” — Sandor Himmelstein in Herzog by Saul Bellow.

The narrative of Bellow’s novel depicts a middle-aged philosophy professor, Moses Herzog, unluckily in love and on the edge descending into mental illness. Two broken marriages and estranged children; he feels the latter estrangement as death. Escaping from the pain into the arms of women he uses for sex, objectified he then begins to despise them. Though he remains conflicted on whether or not to remarry to a new lover, he withdraws yet again on a holiday. Catching a train from New York to the sea side, or rather lakeside, he reminisces upon his married life and the break up with Madeleine.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Coming Up Short:
Young Women & Global Women

New York City, Nov. 5 & 13, 2005

Tickets are almost gone for these two film events so get them while you can!

November 5th 6:30PM

COMING UP SHORT: Young Women
Featuring...

GROWING UP FAST (Joanna Lipper)
This documentary follows a group of teen parents through their last months of high school, as they share their personal stories and discuss the difficult decisions, challenges and responsibilities they face. While highlighting the difficulties of teen pregnancy and parenthood, this film also shows the strength, courage, resilience, spirit and self-awareness of these adolescents, and charts their rise to meet the challenge of
supporting their families while simultaneously working to graduate from high school with the help of tutoring and daycare. Filmmaker will be in attendance.

WHY GET MARRIED? (Anne Stirling)
This documentary is evocative and thought-provoking, taking a look at the institution of marriage, how it differs in Canada and the US, and whether it is our nature to want to be in couples or in marriage. The film evolved from a series of interviews spanning three years and two widely flung and disparate settings. Singles, gays, marrieds, divorced, never-marrieds, wedding planners and marriage experts - no one was safe from the
provocative interrogator determined to find the answers to her questions.

November 13th 6:30PM

COMING UP SHORT: Global Women
Featuring...

WHEN THE STORM CAME (Shilpi Gupta)
When the Storm Came is a short documentary profiling Kunnan Pushpora, a village in Indian-Administered Kashmir. Through evocative interviews, the film reconstructs the night of February 23, 1991, when villagers say they were victims of a mass rape at the hands of Indian security forces. When the Storm Came tells the intimate story of a few of the victims and depicts the impact the rape continues to have on the community over a decade later. The film culminates with a stark reminder of the
universality of rape as a 'weapon' in conflict across the globe,
persisting throughout time.

SADAA E ZAN (Renee Bergan)
Filmed in March 2002, Sadaa E Zan collects the voices of several Afghan women living in Kabul, Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan. In a land where 50% of women are widows and nearly everyone has lost a family member, these brave women of all ages, recount their struggles and victories from living under twenty three years of war. From the Soviet invasion to the Civil War to the extremist Taliban, women were always the first victims. With the Taliban now gone, Afghanistan finally finds itself with the possibility of peace. But will it last? This, they believe, is in the hands of the international community. Finally, these women have a way to voice their concerns.

These film screenings will be held at the Pioneer Theater (155 E. 3rd St at Avenue A). Tickets are $9 and everyone who attends will receive a gift bag full of prizes from our sponsors worth over $50. Space is limited. To buy tickets, go to:
November 5th: http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=38405
November 13th: http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=37528

Annual Review of Critical Psychology 4 - "Feminisms and Activisms"

The fourth issue of Annual Review of Critical Psychology is hot off the print! A dedicated issue, on ‘Feminisms and Activisms’, it fosters a large international collection of articles as well as poetry, art work and interactive media, with contributions spanning the academic / activist divide in different national contexts including Brazil, Italy, South Africa, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Venezuela, Catalunya, Germany and the UK, in multiple, challenging and original ways. The production of the journal as a collaborative project is represented in the diversity of the
editorial team - Barbara Biglia from Catalunya/Italy, Jude Clark from South Africa/UK, Johanna Motzkau from Germany /UK and Alexandra Zavos from Greece/UK – who have collated a wide range of resources to illustrate the many possible yet different discourses and practices available or claimed by and for feminist and critical social mobilizations.

As a taster check the table of contents at the end of this message. So, get a copy (or a few!) and be part of the exciting and cutting edge debates! For individual subscribers it costs only £10 (€15; $18) and includes a free CD rom with art pieces, images of actions, music, and a conceptual multimedia map of activist research projects… And, we will post you the issue for free!

Mr and Mr and Mrs and Mrs

James Davidson, London Review of Books

Reviewing:

The Friend by Alan Bray

Chicago, 380 pp, £28.00


In 1913, Turkish workmen restoring the Mosque of the Arabs in Istanbul uncovered the floor of a Dominican church. Among the gravestones was a particularly striking one in grey-white marble with pink and blue veins. Two helmets with slits for eyes faced each other, like a pair of beaky dolphins about, clangingly, to kiss: ‘Tomb Slab of an English Couple’, the label in Istanbul’s Archaeological Museum says.


The couple were illustrious knights of the royal chamber of Richard II, Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe, ‘the Castor and Pollux of the Lollard movement’, as the medieval historian Bruce McFarlane called them. Neville died just four days after Clanvowe, the inscription records, in October 1391. The Westminster Chronicle fills in the details. Following the death of Clanvowe, ‘for whom his love was no less than for himself’, Neville starved himself to death. Beneath the helmets their shields lean on each other, indicating the position of the bodies beneath. Their coats-of-arms are identical, half-Neville, half-Clanvowe, a blend called ‘impalement’, used to show the arms of a married couple, with Neville’s saltire on the husband’s half, Clanvowe’s bearing on that of the wife. Well, not quite. There are two impaled shields rather than the usual one, indicating a mutual exchange of arms, a double dubbing, so to speak.

Trans Politics, Social Change, and Justice Conference

New York City, May 6th–7th, 2005

Hundreds of activists working for equal rights for transgender people will
gather at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) in New York City from
May 6-7, 2005 for a major national conference, "Trans Politics, Social Change
and Justice."

StephNJ writes
Feminism and gender binaries

Feminists have often been accused of reinforcing gender binaries. When women-exclusive events take place, when an emphasis is placed on women’s issues, or even when the word “woman” is used, people from all over the political spectrum, including some feminists, denounce the event as holding us back by reinforcing the idea that women and men are inherently different. I have heard this argument from feminists a lot lately and find some basic problems with it, so I’d like to address this claim that an event exclusive to women reinforces gender stereotypes and is thus counterproductive.

Robert Augman writes
"Special Event:Women in the Road Blockades and Self-Managed Enterprises:
A Multi-Media Presentation by Graciela Monteagudo on the Economic Crisis and Social Movements in Argentina

In the mid-90’s, when IMF recipes rendered 26% of Argentina’s population unemployed, women were the first to take over the highways bringing international attention to the desperate situation of masses of families without income nor welfare programs to care for their basic needs. It was women too who started the first self-managed enterprises (bakeries, sewing shops, organic gardens) in neighborhoods all over the country where unemployment rose to 80%.

Women in the Road Blockades is a multi-media presentation that frames these women’s lives in a comprehensive socio-historic background of Argentina’s social movements through the use of puppets, songs, video clips and other media.

Thursday, April 21st 2005, 6-8pm
New School University - 55 W 13th Street, Student Activity Space, Room 101

*This is a free event, presented by the Argentina Autonomista Project, and sponsored by the Eugene Lang Student Union.

Robert Augman writes "Special Event:

Women in the Road Blockades and Self-Managed Enterprises:
A Multi-Media Presentation by Graciela Monteagudo on the Economic Crisis and Social Movements in Argentina

In the mid-90’s, when IMF recipes rendered 26% of Argentina’s population unemployed, women were the first to take over the highways bringing international attention to the desperate situation of masses of families without income nor welfare programs to care for their basic needs. It was women too who started the first self-managed enterprises (bakeries, sewing shops, organic gardens) in neighborhoods all over the country where unemployment rose to 80%.

Women in the Road Blockades is a multi-media presentation that frames these women’s lives in a comprehensive socio-historic background of Argentina’s social movements through the use of puppets, songs, video clips and other media.

Thursday, April 21st 2005, 6-8pm
New School University - 55 W 13th Street, Student Activity Space, Room 101

*This is a free event, presented by the Argentina Autonomista Project, and sponsored by the Eugene Lang Student Union."

Altar Magazine writes:

"Coming Up Short" Women's Film Festival
New York City, April 10, 2005

We're almost out of tickets for "Coming Up Short: Films By Women Filmmakers." On April 10th, celebrate Women's History Month at the Pioneer Theater in NYC and walk away with a gift bag full of prizes from our sponsors worth over $50. Films include:

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Breaking the Ice:
Anarchist Men and Sexism in the Movement


Ernesto Aguilar

In Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil
Rights Movement the New Left
Sara Evans writes in painful
detail about the mistreatment of women in political movements. Her
narrative is a sober reminder that sexism within movements has been
going on for years. Today we have many ongoing dialogs about sexism in
the anarchist movement. Most are led by women, and they have created a
space in which to engage constructively. Anarchist men are
unfortunately often silent on the issue of sexism and gender inequity
in our movement. As a male in a visible position, I'm both at fault for
not being more outspoken on it, and for being sexist and wrong on many
occasions. Without honest and self-critical efforts by men, efforts for
change could be for naught, because we are part of the problem. I write
this in hopes that other anarchist males take it upon themselves to act
on sexism and gender inequity and make both priorities.



In the days Evans writes about, many mistakes were made in focusing on
individual lifestyles rather than structural issues. These days, we
make some of the same errors. In my opinion, this discussion is
positioned around three points: 1.) understanding that the debate over
sexism and issues related to female-male relations isn't so much a
debate about actions, but legitimacy; 2.) understanding that all men
are responsible, and that we need to be forthright in admitting our
mistakes as a matter of political, rather than moral/personal,
principle; and 3.) understanding that anarchist women and men must take
an active role in shifting the dispute beyond individual-based
'accountability' and toward a community-based system of restorative
justice.

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