I had no idea it was going to get this bad…I was probably being naive. But it did get bad. It is a horrible example of plagiarism and the privileging of certain voices over others. I’m personally upset because I’ve lost one of my favorite blogs (especially while I was distracted and neglecting the blogging world). But much bigger than that, bigger than my own needs, are the broader implications. If you have not been keeping up, you can read here La Chola’s/WOC/brownfemipower’s final blog post. Others here and here and here discuss the background of the controversy. It is difficult for me to read BFP’s denouncement of feminism, but I’m not super surprised. Certain voices are privileged and the feminist scholarly and blogging world is not immune to this problem. Sadly, this has ended with BFP’s removal of her blog. I’ve looked up to her year’s of work and writing regarding women of color issues and I was especially fond (obviously) of her postings on Oaxaca during the uprising. I thank her for her support and work—I hope she’ll come back to us soon.
Archive for the 'Gender' Category
Any vegan restaurant makes my stomach happy….but a vegan strip club?? I support the idea of any facility serving vegan food and this idea may open up the world of vegan-ness to new people, but the following news story puts my vegan-self against my feminist-self. The reporter’s enjoyment of the story on Casa Diablo is over the top. Additionally, I am critical of the cliche camera-through-the-legs shot and filming the female dancers from below or aimed at their backs, even while the women are being interviewed. One of the dancers is vegetarian, but the reporter dismisses her words and only gives serious time to the owner who says ridiculous and sexist quotes such as “The only meat we have is up on the stage” and “We put the meat on the pole not on your plate.”
The video is from KPTV in Portland.
Un Poquito de Tanto Verdad by Corrugated Films is now available for purchase. I just ordered my copy of Jill Friedberg’s new film, but I already viewed it in Oaxaca. It focuses on APPO’s use of alternative media, from COMO’s take-over of state television and radio stations to the use of their own radio stations. It is an interesting portrayal, albeit an obviously positive portrayal of this complicated movement. I recommend it for anyone who would like to learn more about APPO or the role of media in social movements. I also believe it would be an asset in any social movement classroom. I am especially intrigued by the role of women in the movement who have great insight into their own role and power in making change. I’ve met many of the people in the film and I am happy to see their voices made public in this format. My only suggestion is not to use any one film, including this one, as your only source for knowledge about APPO.
I love Belle’s latest blog entry:
Here are a couple of images of body parts: one with a certain context, one without:
The first is the cover of Feministing blogger Jessica Valenti’s new book.
The second is a picture of Keira Knightley’s collarbone.
Yes, these images are related, and not just because they’re both cross-sections of slender female bodies.
I am more troubled by the first image because it is more than visual: it is expressive. It is an image in the service of textual speech, and it is a confusing message. But before I get into that, I’ll offer you some other people’s thoughts on this cover.
From Blackademic:
im sorry. this is wack. for a number of reasons. why not just call it a young WHITE womans guide to WHITE feminism? why the WHITE NAKED torso of a woman? of course, i wouldn’t have prefered a black body, or any other woman of color either. my question is though, why the naked body of a woman at all? is it to sell more books? there are a number of other ways to visually depict an image of “feminism” - i am not sure why a naked body, reminiscent of the glossy images of tabloid trash had to be the way to go.
why does feminism have to be so overtly sexualized? (even the title is called “Full Frontal” - wow) is it because THE PATRIARCHY, which weyou are all so trying to defeat, really, has a stake in what books are being published on feminism? you know it’s true.
as feminists, we you guys are always up in arms about how women’s bodies are portrayed, and to go and reproduce those same images is ridiculous. is this what feminism is these days? is that what white feminism is these days?
From the Feminist Review by Ama Lee:
If you’re truly looking to find out why feminism matters, you’d be better served to flip to the booklist in the back of Full Frontal Feminism and read some of the titles listed there - including Colonize This!, Listen Up: Voices from the Next Generation, To Be Real, and The Fire This Time - because cool packaging is really great, but if there’s nothing of substance inside then what you are selling is just the packagings.
And what does the floating collarbone have to do with this? Well, read this article by the NY Times:
As the rest of women’s bodies recede in spring fashions, the clavicles, or collarbones, and the upper chest between them, is rising to prominence. Toned shoppers who want to show off their self-discipline in the face of dessert are choosing dresses with a low, but not plunging neckline, a look that is transforming the area above the breasts into an unlikely new subject for women to obsess over.
Some people think of it as an erogenous zone; others think it is noteworthy only as a barometer of whether a woman is at a healthy weight or has become too skinny.
This region has been emphasized by the skinny celebrity acolytes of the stylist Rachel Zoe, including Nicole Richie and Keira Knightley. Their ubiquitous deep V-neck tops show off sometimes skeletal frames, and other actresses have taken their cue and sized down as well, to the point that the Internet teems with fashion and celebrity bloggers and message board posters carping about protruding A-list clavicles.
Why the new emphasis on a body part most women — and more men — have paid little attention to in the past? Credit a swing of the fashion pendulum, and a malaise over “Girls Gone Wild” style.
Showing off your clavicle is “the opposite of showing your thong,” said Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.
Courtney E. Martin, the author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body” (Free Press, 2007), said that many of the girls and women she interviewed for her book “talked about how far their collarbone stuck out” with pride, as an indicator of their skinniness.
Ms. Martin contends that a generation of young women raised after Title IX and the women’s movement pursue slender figures with the same rigor as they pursue admission to an Ivy League university.
No, these two images aren’t linked by the game of Six Degrees of Ann Althouse, although Althouse did blog about the both the clavicle article and Jessica Valenti’s breasts (starting a small blog war of sorts).
Rather, it’s the not-so-novel idea that women’s bodies will be continued to be divided and dissected into parcels for commodification and sexualization, and this is done by women themselves. And it is supposed to be feminist or a repudiation of the fetishization of the overtly sexual body parts! Oh wait, but dysmorphia is the replacement for feminism in the wake of Title IX! Now that we have rights, we can start dieting again!
This ridiculousness not at all a new idea to those familiar with feminist theory. But it’s strange to admit that it continually surprises me year after no-more-eating-disorder-year, how many different parts of the body I am invited to self-fetishize, and who is doing the inviting. And I’m kind of sick of this.
read more of Belle’s blog…
The Supreme Court has done it; they have set women back 35 years and placed our lives in danger. By upholding the ban on so-called “partial birth” abortions, women’s lives are in danger because they may not be able to seek abortion if their life depends upon it, and their doctors face criminal charges if s/he tries to save her life. This is the extreme scenario, but it is reality and it will happen…it could even happen to me or someone I know. This scares me. It scares me that this law could mean the chipping away at other laws that protect a women’s right to choose.
At the same time, Bush claims to be the bearer of human rights in other countries, including Iraq, as we devastate their country. Sunsara Taylor explains the big picture,
In the post-Sadam central power vacuum, Sharia law is flourishing, forcing women under the hijab, fostering “honor killings” and filling the morgues with growing numbers of women’s bodies bearing signs of rape, sexual mutilation and torture. A dark curtain is being curtain being pulled over the schools that once served girls and dreams of equality are being snuffed out.
Here at home, George Bush’s claim to support the liberation of women is more shameless hypocrisy. Speaking sanctimoniously about the “value” of fetal tissue, Bush has overseen the most aggressive and cruel assault on women’s fundamental rights and the fostering of an openly patriarchal culture.
Because of this, I am told by friends to rally around the Democratic presidential campaign in hope that they will set things straight. But how can I believe this when they fail to stop funding the war in Iraq? Are we even outraged at what is happening? I was honestly surprised to hear about the Supreme Court’s decision on the news, considering the devotion of air time given to the massacre at Virginia Tech. If I criticize the time spent on this story am I heartless? Why can’t I inquire into the latest news in Iraq (where they just experienced the worst bombing since the war began—200 dead)? Why do I have to search through cnn.com to find articles on Iraq and the abortion decision?
I honestly did not know about the problems transsexual and transgender people face with name changes in Mexico…
I suggest this very interesting and well researched blog at The Mex Files:
Wow, any time I tag an article “travestis”, I get hits from … Brazil, Peru, Egypt – everywhere really. I don’t know why Mexican trannies are so popular around the world, but Mexican trannies apparently even outclass the Thais when it comes to the best of the best.
A name change would seem to be a small thing, but not in Mexico, where whatever name you’re born with is your name for life. Consider the saga of Senadora Yeidckol Polevnsky (the PRD used to call Carlos Salinas “the unmentionable”.. the PRI refers to her as “the unpronouncable”), who was nearly disqualified as a candidate when she ran for Governor of the State of Mexico on the PRD ticket, because of a name change. Power, politics, child-abuse all factored in something very rare .. a court recognizing a name change.
The background was sordid. The candidate and businesswoman had been continually raped as a child, and gave birth hershelf to two children. Worse the abuser was a family member, and the family was already covering up a second scandal. The future Yeidckol’s mother was the illegitimate daughter of Maximiliano Avilla Camacho (bagman and sleazy brother of the WWII era president, Manuel Avilla Camacho). Political considerations and protecting the family name, as much as protecting the daughter all played a part. The idea was simple… buy a birth certificate from somene who would keep their mouth shut. Unfortunately, there was no one with a name like Lopez or Garcia available, but there was a Polish immigrant whose daughter’s birth had been registered, shortly before the baby died. Citlali Ibáñez Camacho beame Yeidckol Malka Polevnsky Gurwitz.
When this came out during the gubenatorial campaign, the PRI (and PAN) made a stink about it… they couldn’t just stick to raising questions about her honesty (”how can a candidate who doesn’t know her own name… blah, blah, blah”), but went in for overkill and tried to have her disqualified. So, the thing ended up in court, and in this rare instance (after all, she was a minor at the time and couldn’t be held culpable for any criminal acts involved in the name change) the improbable Polish name was her “new” and legal name, and had been since she was in her early teens.
As Yeidckol Polevensky, she had become a chemical engineer, opened a successful plastics factory and become a “self-made millionaire”. Having been head of the National Chamber of Commerce, she wasn’t an obvious choice, but she was an excellent one, for the Socialist PRD candidate for state governor. She wasn’t expected to win, but the scandal gained her some backers she hadn’t counted on — single mothers, abused women and… transexuals.
This reinforces my belief that a critical analysis of this situation requires an investigation of how it has affected the daily lives of different Oaxaquenos. Some people have been brought into this struggle because they feel they have no choice and that this is the time to fight for liberation. While others have not joined the struggle, or have dropped out, for reasons that are vital to the maintenance of their own daily lives. Neither can be dismissed as unimportant. The lives of these students have been affected by the presence of the PFP at their front door. Why some students join the movement to remove the PFP and others blame the APPO, is a question that requires further examination.
This is an amazing yet unsurprising event. The assault happened in daylight, at three in the afternoon on Nov. 16. The Zócalo is a huge quad area surrounded by stores, banks, and restaurants. Thousands of people are around at any given time. I have passed through these checkpoints nearly everyday since the PFP began allowing pedestrians to enter. Occasionally, I see an officer search a person’s backpack. Mine has never been searched; I am certain this is because I am white. I tend to avoid the Zócalo at night; actually, I avoid most things at night. But this happened during the day, near a crowd of people, and in front of the Federal Police that were supposedly sent here to restore order and peace.
The woman is scared to come forward and file a criminal report because she fears for her life and the safety of her family. She does not have faith in the penal system and those that are paid to protect her have now violated her.
I could speak about the rape culture and machismo that exists in Mexico (and everywhere else), but I think this specific example brings to light a different issue in Oaxaca. The culture of fear and the struggle for power has made some into warriors and others into victims. Whether you support the APPO or not, the Oaxacan government is not in complete control here, and where they do have control, it is abusive and corrupt.
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