Angela Davis on Judith Butler’s refusal to accept Berlin CSD Civil Courage Prize.
Angela Davis was asked by a SUSPECT member to comment on Judith Butler’s refusal to accept the the Civil Courage Prize on the Berlin CSD June 19th 2010.
(Q & A after the screening of „Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary” in Berlin, June 20th 2010. The part of the german translator was not taped, thus the pauses and cuts.)
JUDITH BUTLER TURNS DOWN CIVIL COURAGE AWARD FROM BERLIN PRIDE: “I MUST DISTANCE MYSELF FROM THIS RACIST COMPLICITY”
Press Release by SUSPECT on the events of the 19th June, 2010As Berlin Queer and Trans Activists of Colour and Allies we welcome Judith Butler’s decision to turn down the Zivilcourage Prize awarded by Berlin Pride. We are delighted that a renowned theorist has used her celebrity status to honour queer of colour critiques against racism, war, borders, police violence and apartheid. We especially value her bravery in openly critiquing and scandalising the organisers’ closeness to homonationalist organisations. Her courageous speech is a testimony to her openness for new ideas, and her readiness to engage with our long activist and academic work, which all too often happens under conditions of isolation, precariousness, appropriation and instrumentalisation.
Sadly this is happening once again, for the people of colour organisations who according to Butler should have deserved the award more than her are not mentioned once in the press reports to date. Butler offered the prize to GLADT (www.gladt.de) , LesMigraS (www.lesmigras.de), SUSPECT and ReachOut (www.reachoutberlin.de), yet the one political space mentioned in the reports is the Transgenial Christopher Street Day, a white-dominated alternative Pride event. Instead of racism, the press focuses on a simple critique of commercialisation. This even though Butler herself was quite clear: “I must distance myself from complicity with racism, including anti-Muslim racism.” She notes that not just homosexuals, but also “bi, trans and queer people can be used by those who want to wage war.”
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I just found out about this initiative and wanted to mention them in here for all who are interested.
ArtFem.TV is an online television programming presenting Art and Feminism. The aim of ArtFem.TV is to foster Women in the Arts, their art works and projects, to create an international online television screen for the creativity, images and voices of Women. ArtFem.TV is a non-profit artist run ITV and media art portal about Art and Feminism.
Enjoy!
it’s been some time now, but in january i read a post here that made reference to yet another blog post here…
to be less mysterious, the whole discussion arose when Clay Shirky wrote a rant about women not being self-promoting, arrogant or jerky enough in pretty much those exact words.
this isn’t a new topic for anyone who’s thought about the way they view themselves, about the way children are socialized, etc. nonetheless quite a few interesting more or less formal texts were written as a result of this spark.
even though it’s about half a year late i wanted to offer it up here for discussion purposes because it’s something i’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about as well as discussing with both male and female friends…
to begin again:
initial clay shirky post
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/01/a-rant-about-women/
i first read about it here
http://gabriellacoleman.org/blog/?p=1878
further texts
@salon.com
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/04/26/nice_girls_business
should we encourage self-promotion and lies @plasticbag.org
http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2010/01/should_we_encourage_s/
questioning the merit of meritocracy @geekfeminism.org
http://geekfeminism.org/2009/11/29/questioning-the-merit-of-meritocracy/
a rant about socialization @salon.com
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2010/01/19/shirky_rant
via carmen si h.arta
Grupul h.arta împreună cu Centrul C.A.R.E. şi Centrul pentru Studii Rome vă invită vineri, 4 iunie, orele 16:00, la Colegiul Naţional Bilingv George Coşbuc din Bucureşti (Strada Olari, nr. 29-31, sector 2), să luaţi parte la lansarea publicatiei „Priveşte-mă aşa cum sunt. Cuvinte şi imagini ale femeilor rome”. Lansarea va fi însoţită de o serie de dezbateri organizate şi susţinute de membrii/ele Centrului C.A.R.E.
Aceste evenimente se desfăşoară în cadrul proiectului Priveşte-mă aşa cum sunt. Cuvinte şi imagini ale femeilor rome, proiect care se adresează, în aceeaşi măsură, celor marginalizaţi/ marginalizate, în speranţa că ar putea servi ca un instrument care să provoace o analiză a situaţiei lor în perspectiva unei schimbări, cât şi majoritarilor, ca un instrument care să-i determine să conştientizeze şi să-şi recunoască propria situaţie privilegiată, indiferent că e vorba de privilegiul de a fi „alb”, privilegiul masculin, de clasă socială, etc. Publicaţia Priveşte-mă aşa cum sunt. Cuvinte şi imagini ale femeilor rome este concepută în cadrul proiectului mai sus menţionat şi îşi propune să provoace dezbateri în licee despre rasism, sexism, marginalizare şi strategii de combatere ale acestora.
Proiectul este finanţat de către programul Democracy Small Grants al Ambasadei SUA în România.
Pentru mai multe informaţii privind proiectul şi publicaţia realizată vă invităm să accesaţi blogul www.seemeasiam.wordpress.com,
de unde publicaţia se poate descărca gratuit.
The Bronte sisters come with boomerang book-throwing action!
“I wrote Jane Eyre!” “I wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne wrote Agnes Grey!” GRRR!
“dairy is a feminist issue.” @ vegina
via The Vegan Police
Feminism brought me to a place where I could begin to think about embracing veganism as a necessary part of an ethic of social justice. Feminist ideology, a reading of Carol Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat and visiting a small family dairy allowed me the pull I needed to abandon my “pescatarianism” for veganism. Veganism is an ethic of (non)consumption that most closely reflects my feminist ideology. It is one way in which I can make a simple choice every time I eat that is overtly political in its message. Veganism is a daily practice that reflects an ethic of care and compassion and equality that is often lacking among humans. Veganism has also allowed me the ability to acknowledge that the oppression of non-human animals and women are mutually reinforcing.
I see a lot of my feminist nightmares played out on female-bodied individuals who are exploited by the […] dairy industry …
some excellent and thought-provoking recent pieces via Bitch Magazine blogs:
“Feminist Intersection: On hipsters/hippies and Native culture”
Lately I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with the hipsters and hippies, as well as the hippie/hipster “culture” at large, and have become increasingly annoyed at their depiction/co-option of my ethnicity as a First Nations person. […] I know my parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles have had to deal with this in their time and it’s certainly not a new thing –but it’s 2010 and not only does it still continue strongly to this day – it’s taken some interesting turns down the erasure of true origins road. …
“Adventures in Feministory: Sara Estela Ramírez”
Called the “muse of Texas” in her 1910 obituary, Sara Estela Ramírez was a poet and activist in the politically-charged border town of Laredo, and used her words to inspire workers and women alike.
Born in 1881 in Coahuila, Mexico, she helped raise her younger sister when her mother died early on. They moved to Laredo, Texas in about 1897, where Ramírez began teaching. Although Laredo had always had a mostly Mexican population (seeing that it was part of Mexico a few decades earlier…that’s another story), when the Mexican revolution began in 1910, its population swelled as more Mexicans left the country seeking refuge and work. …
Sex slavery yields around $12 billion a year and harms about 4 million women, girls, and young boys around the world. On April 23, 2010 Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law the state’s undocumented immigration law (aka “breathing while brown”). Psychology professor Kevin MacDonald continues to receive attention for promoting anti-Semitic arguments and remains the darling of white supremacist bigots. Between 2006 and 2008, violence toward queer and transgender people increased 26 percent.
Connecting these global dots is the fact that hate-speech, hate-motivated violence, and gender-based crime can incite widespread fear, frustration, isolation, and anger, even among those who are not directly victimized. …
“Autostraddle Roundtable: Becoming Queer Feminists (Part 1)”
Though it’s officially defined as a belief in gender equality, the word “feminist” seems to mean different things to different people…
Who doesn’t believe in equality? Assh*les, that’s who. But tell that to your brother when he wants you to stop pointing out every misogynistic moment in Two a Half Men, or your Mom when she wonders why you’re so angry or Scott Baio, who thinks feminists are all lesbian shitasses.
Maybe you get judged for being a feminist, maybe you don’t bring it up with your family, or maybe you’re way past that and you’re introducing feminism to your own children. Or maybe you don’t even identify as a feminist at all.
Autostraddle was founded way back in March 2009 in part to push our radical lesbian feminist agenda, obviously.
But for those of us who do, especially those of us also campaigning actively against racism and homophobia in our own lives, we often wonder: What is the purpose of all this shouting and “consciousness-raising”? How do we turn our anger into activism? How do we make it work? …
The Splendid Table Radio: Why are there no famous female chefs?
“Writer Charlotte Druckman talks with Lynne about what she sees as the dearth of great female chefs.” Druckman does a great job here talking about the ways in which female chefs are marginalized/tokenized by the mass media.
“Raising Trouble: Does Pink Really Stink?”
The merchants of pink would have loved School Picture Day at my son’s preschool: hardly any other color was visible on the little girls. Naturally I was thrilled to learn about an organization called Pink Stinks, a UK-based project – founded by twin sisters, both mothers of girls — seeking to challenge “the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls’ lives.” This group has, among other achievements, successfully pressured Sainsbury’s, a major UK clothing retailer, to stop gender stereotyping in its kids clothing sections. Awesome, obviously. I wish there were more groups like this everywhere.
But I’m curious what we should think of the vilification of pink. …
Glamour Magazine, a relatively mainstream women’s publication recently published an article on the experiences of one transgender person… Just Another Girl (Who Used to Be a Boy) http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/2010/04/just-another-girl-who-used-to-be-a-boy. While the article offers a rather positive perspective on the struggles of transgender people, it is nonetheless a step that at least some in the transgender community appreciated, when the level of violence and discrimination against transgender people remains high, and sometimes seems to be increasing.
For something far more lighthearted, an interview with Ellen Page about abortion, roller-derby and many things in between. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/apr/04/ellen-page-interview
rarely does it become apparent that things are more complicated than “naked female body” = sexism, but it should be quite recognizable when you see it [text under “later edit”] just like it is obvious when it’s the common variety of misogynist imagery; it has to do with the way the gaze is engaged, with context and attitude and agency and message and history:
So I finally got around to seeing the much-discussed music video for Erykah Badu’s single “Window Seat,” from her new album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), which came out yesterday. In it, she is featured walking around a Dallas street, stripping before a gaggle of pedestrians before being shot. The video concludes with the word “GROUPTHINK” oozing in blue letters from her head and a spoken outro. I’ve since seen it several times and can now trail behind the tweets. If you haven’t seen it already, you can check it out here.
First off, I’ll come out and say that I like this music video. I’ve liked the song since I heard Badu perform it with longtime collaborators The Roots on Jimmy Fallon a few weeks back. I’m also really glad people are talking about it. As a long-time fan of her work, it’s about time people acknowledge that she has consistently been at the center of some of the most interesting, challenging, and readable music videos since the start of her career. “Honey” (which she co-directed) is my favorite video of the past few years — it’s overtly political, visually compelling, dense with references, takes a revisionist’s attitude toward music history, and is funny as hell. But she’s had me as a supporter since the first time I saw “On & On” back in 1997.
It’s a little disheartening that people are only now starting to talk about one of her music videos, as I think some of why Badu has been overlooked has to do with our culture’s racialized conceptions of how female musicians are supposed to comport themselves as video subjects across musical genres. White ladies like Björk or Madonna can “elevate” the medium to ”art,” but black women — usually packaged as R&B, hip hop, or pop stars — need to be commercially viable. If they’re down with glamour, spectacle, and easy objectification, so much the better.
Badu’s never played that game, and has perhaps been under the radar as a result. …
from “My thoughts on Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat”” @ Feminist Music Geek
(read the whole thing)
also read: “Freeing the Black Woman’s Body” @ The Root
and “Erykah Badu ‘Window Seat’: What Do Nude Bodies Mean?” @ Womanist Musings