[zina lf-ro’05] feminism reformulat ca anti-sexism?

Imparteam recent o vana de apa calda cu boifrendul meu discutand despre feminism si toate acele practici de fiecare zi peste care trecem fara sa ne gandim la ele, dar care, cu o lupa feminista, ar scoate in evidenta sexismul inradacinat in fiecare dintre noi. Spre exemplu atunci cand mergand pe strada cu un barbat mi se intampla ca alte cunostinte barbati sa ne salute, sa isi dea mana, sa intre in discutie, lasandu-ma in afara momentului social. Şi nu este atat ramanerea in afara discutiei problema, cat faptul ca acesteia nu ii este acordata nici o atentie, faptul ca acestor doi barbati nici macar nu le trece prin minte ca ar putea fi deranjant modul in care interactioneaza in prezenta si a mea. Sau sexismul din afirmatia ca barbatii sunt misogini, sau insensibili, sau cu totii la fel, [sigh].
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subtle, sister

…”i don’t get a lot of your references, ’cause we don’t have sexism in our country”
…i think this is my most subtle work to date.

versuri
alix olson

[despre slam poetry: “One of the most vital and energetic movements in poetry during the 1990s, slam has revitalized interest in poetry in performance. Poetry began as part of an oral tradition, and movements like the Beats and the poets of Negritude were devoted to the spoken and performed aspects of their poems. This interest was reborn through the rise of poetry slams across America; while many poets in academia found fault with the movement, slam was well received among young poets and poets of diverse backgrounds as a democratizing force. This generation of spoken word poetry is often highly politicized, drawing upon racial, economic, and gender injustices as well as current events for subject manner.”
mai multe: The Academy of American Poets – A Brief Guide to Slam Poetry]

alti “slam poets”: staceyann chin | suheir hammad | saul williams

despre intersectia feminism-critica nationalismului

o foarte buna sinteza a raspunsului la intrebarea de ce nationalismul este un subiect relevant pentru feminism si viceversa (de thinking girl) [en]

… Nationalism is replacing democracy. Nationalism … is a disguised form of racism, and democracy becomes a tool for nationalist racism to flourish through “freedom of speech” that allows freely spoken hatred – this “freedom” is a freedom of the speaker, not a freedom of those spoken about. When nationalism creates images and rhetoric of homogeneity in its population, marginalizing on the basis of race, gender, and sexuality, the freedom of marginalized groups to speak back against hate speech with speech of their own is compromised, because their speech is not as powerful and valuable as that of the dominant group. Hate speech is one-sided; how is that “freedom”? “equality”? Outsiders in a nation cannot use freedom of speech to challenge the inside ofthat nation; their speech is rejected.

Language about nations is largely highly gendered. We talk about the “mother” or “fatherland”, the “mothertongue.” Nationalism is often spoken in terms of family, headed by a masculine figure, and embodied as a woman. The patriarchal family unit is privileged in nationalistic discourses. The feminine is mother, nurturer, caregiver, in this family, and so the nation’s women are mothers of all the children of the nation. This makes women particular targets in ethnic cleansing regimes as warring groups rape and impregnate women, forcing them to literally be the mothers of a new fantasmic nation of their own design. The women themselves get lost in these violent acts; ethnic cleansing/genocidal rape is seen as worse than “regular” rape, partially because the crime has men as the intended victims as well as the raped women: genocidal rape is meant to eliminate a population of people, not just eliminate the woman. And here, of course, “people” includes the most important citizens: male citizens. At the same time that victims of genocidal rape are forced to be mothers to a new nation, they are eliminated as the mothers of the old nation, used to break apart the national family. And this fiction is legitimized along racial lines but it plays out on gender lines, normalizing gender violence by leaving it unnamed. Male-male rape in war is not mentioned because it destabilizes the very idea of gender central to nationalism. And, of course, in all of this ideology about the patriarchal family unit, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans people are completely invisible, because sexuality is invisible…

iubire maximala

ia sa vedem. ma framinta la maxim, oare eu cit de “iubita pot sa fiu”?

Iubim femeile pentru ca au sani rotunzi, cu gurguie care se ridica prin bluza cand le e frig…

ok. pentru cei care nu stiu, insa, majoritatea femeilor nu au sini rotunzi.

…pentru ca au fundul mare si grasut, pentru ca au fete cu trasaturi dulci ca ale copiilor, pentru ca au buze pline, dinti decenti si limbi de care nu ti-e sila.

ca ale copiilor. hmmm…

Pentru ca nu miros a transpiratie sau a tutun prost si nu asuda pe buza superioara.

eu transpir pe buza superioara. cu cit e mai cald, cu atit mai mult. femeile sint oameni. oamenii transpira.

Pentru ca le zambesc tuturor copiilor mici care trec pe langa ele.

eu da, dar de fapt sint o exceptie printre prietenele mele apropiate.

Pentru ca merg pe strada drepte, cu capul sus, cu umerii trasi inapoi si nu raspund privirii tale cand le fixezi ca un maniac.

hm, oare de ce fac asta majoritatea femeilor? probabil pt. ca le place atit de mult cind “le fixezi ca un maniac”. eu personal “raspund” privirilor respective cu o incruntare sau citeva cuvinte ne-maniace dar ne-dulci.

Pentru ca trec cu un curaj neasteptat peste toate servitutile anatomiei lor delicate.

care anatomie delicata? anatomia mea nu e “delicata”. am probleme cu ea, insa ma astept sa am curaj – nu stiu de ce ar mira pe cineva ca am curaj.

Pentru ca in pat sunt indraznete si inventive nu din perversitate, ci ca sa-ti arate ca te iubesc.

da? sigur nu pentru ca vor sa simta placere si satisfactie, ca orice om?

Pentru ca fac toate treburile sacaitoare si marunte din casa fara sa se laude cu asta si fara sa ceara recunostinta.

eu nu fac toate treburile, dar cind fac ceva chiar ma laud si astept recunostinta din partea altora.

Pentru ca nu citesc reviste porno si nu navigheaza pe site-uri porno.

da? chiar?

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call: videos on the theme “gender identity”

call: videos on the theme “gender identity”
final deadline: 1 March 2006

VideoChannel http://videochannel.newmediafest.org is looking for videos on the theme of “gender identity”, to be included in the online collection on
http://videochannel.newmediafest.org, as well as the DVD video collection to be presented on festivals and media exhibitions. Continue reading

CfP: Queer Theory Conference, Warsaw, 29-30.8.2006

Warsaw University
Gender Studies Center and American Studies Center

Seeking Queer Alliances: Resisting Dominant Discourses and Institutions
7th international queer studies conference

29-30.08.2006

As the political climate in many parts of the world turns increasingly conservative, we are asking whether a concept such as global homophobia may be a useful analytical and/or political tool, and—as a correlate question— whether queer concepts travel well across political borders and geo-cultural spaces. Continue reading

porn/ sex work/ sexualitate si feminism – my 2 cents

citeva alte resurse care merita citite, pentru context:

The Vibrator-Light-o’-Truth: Erotica, Porn and Selling a Sex Positive America

Girls gone wild & Babes in BushWorld & Feminism Is a Failure, and Other Myths
Of Woman Porn
Feminist Views of Pornography
Research for sex work

eu cred ca discutia despre porn etc. trebuie pusa in contextul potrivit, care nu e alb-negru. ideea cea mai de baza e ca 1. nu exista nici un punct universal valabil despre sexualitatea umana si despre nivelul de confort sau libertate pe care o are fiecare om in privinta propriei sexualitati, si 2. in acelasi timp sexualitatea personala exista in cadrul conventiilor si regulilor impuse de societate, care este adinc patriarhala, materialista, consumista. e incontestabil ca sex work-ul, ca industrie, tinde sa exploateze. pe de alta parte, ce industrie nu exploateaza cit poate mai tare? de ce e sex work-ul vazut atit de diferit? cum putem deconvolutiona cauze de simptome? si cum putem sa criticam ce trebuie criticat si propune solutii fara a intari astfel stigmatizarea si marginalizarea anumitor alegeri sau feluri de expresie a sexualitatii cuiva?

dilema poate fi privita din 2 perspective. mai intii, putem spune ca daca sexualitatea oamenilor e un lucru in primul rind personal si un prerogativ, atita timp cit este influentata de factori socio-culturali si cit devine la rindul ei parte din acesti factori e si un lucru profund politic. sau, un alt mod de-a pune problema ar fi: ca feminist(a), trebuie desigur sa intelegi si sa combati acele structuri opresive care inseamna exploatare pentru femei (si barbati) dpdv sexual (conventiile in ce priveste comportamentul sexual, traficul de fiinte umane, imaginile pornografice care dezumanizeaza sau obiectifica corpul feminin sau normalizeaza violenta sexuala), dar in acelasi timp trebuie sa vezi ca fiecare are dreptul la propriile idei si valori legate de sex, placere, sexualitate si felul in care acestea sint folosite sau manifestate (de ex. a declara ca sex workerii nu pot fi decit exploatati in ceea ce fac, si daca exista unii care au alte pareri atunci ei nu sint destul de constienti, inseamna a adopta o pozitie autoritar-patriarhala fata de sex workeri) .

mai jos sint 3 citate preferate de-ale mele:

Because of this [“whore”] stigma, which keeps many women from freely exploring, experiencing, and naming their own sexuality lest they be called whore, many critics isolate prostitution from other situations in which women are objectified or their labor exploited, and assume both that any problems associated with prostitution are unique and that the existence of prostitution is the root cause of patriarchal and capitalist objectification, economic exploitation, and violence against all women. From a sex workers’ rights point of view, it is the laws against prostitution and the stigma imposed on sex work that provoke and permit violence against prostitutes, and ensure poor working conditions and the inability of many sex workers to move on to other kinds of work without lying about their experience.” Priscilla Alexander

… Sex has been distorted and vilified. I’m scared of my attraction to body types. If everything desired is objectified then maybe eroticism needs to be redefined. And I refuse to be a ‘man.’” Propagandhi, “Refusing to be a Man”

Anti-porn arguments bore me. Such accounts get in bed with right-wingers, infantilize women, condescend to sex workers, refuse to critically consider porn as a social practice, and prescribe what gets to count as “healthy” sexuality (usually vanilla, reproductive heteronormativity). Yawn. / But sometimes, it’s true, as a critical theorist, pro-sex politics also bore me. They sometimes (not always, sometimes) feel limited, especially when what counts as politics is just about fucking. And because I’m a cranky girl, I worry about the very real potential for flattening all those uneven social relations and their histories into a spread-around lack of mind-blowing sex. (If you doubt, did you read the above?) If we meaningfully consider sex and sexuality –especially in its regulation and criminalization—in a dialectic with ideologies of race, gender, nation, capitalism, and material relations, the rhetorical hard-sell of personalized liberation falls flat. / […]To paraphrase critical theorist Lauren Berlant, the real fear in America is not that we –queers, feminists, and others of our kind – will have sex in our bedrooms, but that we will have politics in public.” Mimi Nguyen, “what kind of monster are you?”