feminism – Pike & Hurricane

International Women’s Day 2021 & Sweden’s “Shadow Pandemic” – Amnesty International Malmö Student Group

Elena Wasserzier and Maike Hansen — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 09:44:26 +0000

“The virus we don’t talk about – Sweden’s Shadow Pandemic”

Throughout the last fourteen months you have heard about, read, and seen news and content addressing the global Covid-19 pandemic. In reference to March 2021, the month of celebrating Women’s history and International Women’s Day – we will take the opportunity to talk about another public health issue that deserves our attention.

According to the United Nations, we have witnessed a sharp increase of violence against women and girls on a global scale, since the pandemic has started. Due to drastic lockdown measures and restrictions, people were forced to stay at home, some locked in with violent abusers and unable to access support structures. Levels of domestic violence have a tendency to spike when households experience pressure related to insecurities in financial, security and health domains in addition to living conditions that do not allow for enough personal space. This pandemic, currently taking place behind closed doors, was termed ‘shadow pandemic’ by the UN in 2020.

Although most Covid-19 measures were voluntary in Sweden, the pandemic has left its mark. The Google Mobility report shows that people increasingly stayed at and worked from home, while visiting recreational areas less. The unemployment rate also augmented significantly.

So how has the shadow pandemic manifested itself in Sweden? To get more information about this we have talked to Karin Sandell, the head of information at the National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women (NCK). NCK is a government-commissioned research institution in charge of Kvinnofridslinjen, the Swedish national helpline for women affected by physical, psychological, and sexual violence.

The NCK was able to give us an overview of their recent monitoring and observations in regard to the shadow pandemic in Sweden. Surprisingly, the national helpline did not experience a significant increase of calls since March 2020: “We were prepared that the calls could rise, because of an increase of violence, but we were also prepared that the number of calls might go down because it is more difficult to call when you are at home with a [violent] man. So we were prepared that it could go both ways – and it did neither. It stayed the same throughout the year.” While some women shelters experienced an increase other shelters did not, leading to the concern that women might be prohibited from seeking support in the shelters. However, no supporting data is available yet.

Although there is no concrete evidence at this point that violence against women has elevated, NCK assumes that there is in fact an increase: “We do not have the facts and figures to say exactly how it has affected the women. But what we know from the calls is that there is a big need for help.” NCK is currently waiting for accurate statistics from the criminal statistics bureau. What the statistics will not show however, are the dark figures: “most women do not seek help, they do not tell anyone. They don’t go to the police and they don’t call Kvinnofridslinjen or any other helpline either, so it is so difficult to know for sure how it has been.”

Due to isolation, many women are likely inhibited to reach out, when living at home with a violent partner. NCK assumes that more women will call the helpline to seek support once the pandemic has passed, as similar tendencies were monitored after regular holidays: “Many women wait until the isolation is over. For example, we see after holidays; after Christmas, after Easter breaks, we often have more calls. Because often you can stand it for some time but then when you are back at work and everyday life it is easier to seek help again. So that is what we expect – when life goes back to more normal, we expect to see a rise in the need for help, that more women will seek help.“

Sandell further emphasized that violence against women is an urgent issue in Sweden, with or without the pandemic. Sweden is notoriously perceived and advertised as a role model of gender equality globally, but much work remains to be done. According to Sweden’s public health agency, almost every second woman (42 percent) in Sweden has experienced sexual harassment and more than every third woman (39 percent) has been subjected to sexual assault. In both cases/in the later case, LGBTQ+ persons tend to be more victimized than the general population.

“We have seen a change in attitude, especially since 2017, and the #Metoo movement was very important in Sweden, to open eyes that even though we have achieved a lot of gender equality, we still have a big problem with the violence that is widespread. It has changed the attitude, it is much more common now, and I think that is an important reason why we have more calls to Kvinnofridslinjen “ says Sandell.

NCK has witnessed a steady increase in calls since 2017, reaching a total of 46,000 calls in 2020. Although the awareness within the population is growing, the Council of Europe formulated a report in 2019, sharply criticising aspects of Sweden’s work against gender-based and domestic violence. These include the “insufficient resources for the investigation and prosecution of such crimes”, as well as the circumstance that “particularly women from national minorities, such as Sami and Roma, migrant women, and women with disabilities face difficulties in finding support and protection from such violence”.

Especially in a county like Sweden, regarded as a paragon of gender equality, it is important to remember that the reality of gender inequality affects, harms, and kills millions of women and gender minorities around the world on a daily basis. We need to pay attention to the manifestations of inequality that are still taking place – by treating every crisis with the required urgency- and strengthen the protection of women’s and LGBTQ+ persons’ rights.

So what can be done in order to help women in violent relationships and to offer support? In that regard, Sandell had several things to say. She urged that it is important to break and avoid isolation by keeping close contact with friends and colleagues. Moreover, to always ask questions about violence in healthcare and social services. But not only in the worksphere, also within friendships, questions about violence should not be stigmatized but rather be posed to remove shame around the topic.

Sandell mentioned that NCK´s webcourse developed with the National Board of Health, has received an enhancement in the last year and many more professionals (e.g. police) were engaging in the content and the education. The media has also played a huge role in spreading awareness about the shadow pandemic in news and magazines. Sandell encourages individuals to educate themselves and spread the knowledge: “Knowledge is the key to battle violence”.

In case you, a friend, colleague, relative, or acquaintance are experiencing violence at home, please call Kvinnofridslinjen, the national helpline of NCK and talk to someone: 020-50 50 50 (only available in Sweden, (however, the language of conduct can be English as well) free of charge and available 24h per day)

Related articles:

White feminists: the dark side of Western feminism

Women’s march: feminism from below smashing the patriarchy

The Swedish COVID-19 pandemic strategy or: The Comeback of the “Ättestupa”

Picture credits:

From the 2021 International Women’s Day march in Melbourne. Matt Hrkac from Geelong Melbourne, Australia (CC BY 2.0)

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International Women’s Day 2020: Malmö

Merle Emrich — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:56:57 +0000

Ta Natten Tillbaka

[7 March 2020] Protest against violence against women and/or trans people.

Women’s March

[8 March 2020]

by Merle Emrich

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Transgender women are women

Aimée Niau Lacordaire — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:15:04 +0000

Small dictionary
A transgender person “adopts the appearance and lifestyle of a gender different from that of their birth. Whether born male or female, the transgender person changes or even rejects their biological sexual identity.” Cis-gender, is a type of gender identity where the felt gender of a person corresponds to his biological sex, assigned at birth.

Transgender women in history
You perhaps know Marsha P. Johnson. She was a black, transgender woman activist in New York City during the 1960-90’s and is the emblematic figure of the LGBTQ+ movement in NYC, she participated in the “Stonewall riot”, which was a series of spontaneous and violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place on the night of June 28, 1969. These riots are represented as the symbolic moment marking the real emergence of LGBT activism in the United States and around the world, taking place in a very homophobic context. After this a legal battle to obtain the right to demonstrate took place, as a consequence of that the first demonstration of a few hundred gays and lesbians takes place, and the pride march was born.

Today’s reality

Today, the rights and the distinction that a transgender woman, notably, is a woman, are being called into question. In fact, in France, even if Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist French icone said “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”, this fact is questioned by several “feminist figures”, who consider themselves as feminist but transphobic, nommed TERF:“trans-exclusionnary radical feminist”.

Recently, collage groups against femicides have been created on the initiative of Marguerite Stern, former Femen activist (feminist movement created in 2008 in Ukraine). Marguerite Stern, expressed herself in a thread on twitter, on her opinion that collages should not include messages including trans women, because for her, they are not real women, and do not face the same sexism as cis-women. Several feminist personalities such as Christine Delphy, a French sociologist and a feminist activist, joined her, signing a transphobic stand. Other famous “feminists” in all the world have the same stance as Germaine Greer a writer, journalist, art historian, Australian academic and known to be a major figure in a current of feminism known as the second feminist wave.

In the thread of Marguerite Stern we can read sentences like: “No, I am not a “vulva person”, I am a woman. I was born a woman, and even before I was born, in my mother’s womb, I suffered discrimination because of this. I have suffered things that a man who would like to become a woman can never apprehend.” Or “I am in favor of deconstructing gender stereotypes, and I consider that transactivism only reinforces them. I observe that men who want to be women, suddenly start to wear make-up, wear dresses and heels. And I consider it an insult to women to consider that it is the tools invented by patriarchy that make us women. We are women because we have vulva. It is a biological fact.” Up to saying: “I interpret this as a new male attempt to prevent women from expressing themselves.“

Why they are wrong

At first, we are not born as a woman but we become one, by building with oppression, and gender stereotypes imposed by society. Imagine being born in a society without what it would really be “to be a woman“? So, to reference Sartre we are not essentially a woman, so a trans woman is a woman. Trans women are also more discriminated than cis women. They suffer daily stigma, sexism, transphobia, sexualization, exposed to physical or sexual assault, domestic violence, rape, unequal opportunities on the job market, to the health system… and many other forms of discrimination due to sexism and transphobia. So how is it possible to speak of less discrimination? In addition, transgender people have never been the starting point for gender stereotypes. Cis women themselves convey these stereotypes, and people don’t blame them to shave, to wear heels, to make up…

@Aggresively_trans, the pseudonyme of Lexie a French transgender woman on instagram, return to this controversy by explaining that, “gender codes are sometimes not a choice but a need for visual inclusiveness, so yes it is partly to join stereotypes but that cruelty to refuse to a person what is necessary for him when himself is estimated to have the right to perpetrate the same stereotypes just because we are cisgender“. Society and the system have interwoven these stereotypes and it is against them that we must fight.

The feminist should not include only white heterosexual cis women, but be inclusive for all women, whether Black, Asian, veiled, disabled, bi, lesbian, intersex, trans, fat, slim, sex worker… we are fighting for the same thing: equal rights and the death of patriarchy!

To end this article, I would like to say that I wrote this article as a white, cis, privileged woman, but as an ally in the fight for recognition and right of LGBTQ + people.

by Aimée Niau Lacordaire

Photo Credits

Marsha P. Johnson, Steven Oldak, CC BY 2.0

“Trans Women are Real Women”, Alec Perkins, CC BY 2.0

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Women’s march: feminism from below smashing the patriarchy

Silas de Saram — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:09:55 +0000

On March 8 (International Women’s Day), I had the pleasure to attend the women’s march in Malmö, which was organized and attended by multiple feminist and leftist organizations. Especially prevalent were the groups ‘Feminism Underifrån’, a feminist group from Malmö, ‘Activista Feminista’, a Malmö based anticapitalist collective fighting for Women’s rights and LGBTQ+ emancipation, and ‘Mangla’, a group fighting for women’s rights and trans rights in Sweden.

The demonstration began at Möllevängstorget, where speeches by various organizations, as well as by the swedish Left Party (Vänsterpartiet), who’s protest occurred earlier on the same day. One speaker stressed the importance of fighting fatphobia as a part of the fight against sexism and racism. Another speech was held on the topic of LGBTQ+ rights in Poland under the Polish far-right administration. The third speech was held on the topic of Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous region in northeastern Syria.

After the speeches, the procession began moving through the streets of Malmö’s Möllevången and Rådmansvången.

Especially visible was the banner of ‘Revolutionär Kommunistisk Ungdom’ (RUK), the youth wing of the Swedish Communist Party (Kommunistiska Partiet), a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party.

Multiple anarchist groups were in attendance, such as Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC), Syndikalistiska Ungdomsförbundet (SUF) and Red and Black Collective.

Many different feminist issues were represented at the Women’s March. One specific issue that was represented is the horrible abuse of women in Mexico, and the staggering numbers of femicide in the country.

Overall there appeared to be a large anticapitalist presence, this women’s march was attended by a more revolutionary audience than the protest of the Left Party, earlier on the same day.

by Silas de Saram

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Gendered power relations: the toll of austerity

Merle Emrich — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 19:24:00 +0000

Angela Merkel is not only one of Germany’s longest serving chancellors – next to Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl – but also the country’s first female chancellor and arguably the world’s most powerful woman. And yet, one could say that she is far from being a symbol of female empowerment. Rather than challenging patriarchal structures, she fits into them while power positions and influence remain difficult if not impossible to reach for most other women, and the austerity policies continued or introduced by Merkel’s government are, to a great extent, placed on the shoulders of women, thus counteracting progress in the field of gender equality.

European austerity

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) warned in a 2012 report that European austerity policies are an infringement on women’s rights and gender equality since they lead to a perpetuation of existing and a creation of new inequalities . In 2017, the then shadow equalities minister Sarah Champion (Labour) presented number showing that, since 2010, 86% of the burden of austerity policies had been placed on women’s shoulders. And while Theresa May claimed the Conservative party to be a stronger advocate for gender equality having produced the country’s only two female prime ministers, Mary-Ann Stephenson (co-director of the Women’s Budget Group) pointed out: “The chancellor’s [Philip Hammond] decision to continue with the decisions of his predecessor to cut social security for these low income families, at the same time as cutting taxes, is effectively a transfer from the purses of poorer women into the wallets of richer men.”

In Germany, austerity measures that prevailed in Europe after the 2008 financial crisis had already been implemented as of 2002. The neo-liberal reforms of the Agenda 2010, introduced by the Social Democrat/ Green party government preceding Merkel’s successive Christian Democrat-led governments that continued these austerity policies, increased the German economy’s resilience and competitiveness allowing Germany to recover quickly from the 2008 crisis. Yet, Oxfam highlights that at this policy approach shifted “the balance of power between capital and labour considerably in favour of capital.” It is a shift that comes at a high social cost, particularly for women and especially for those belonging to minority or marginalised groups.

Economy and human rights

Be it employment, the care and health system or general women’s rights, women are particularly affected by austerity measures. Not only are men’s jobs usually prioritised over women’s employment, but cuts in public sector job lead to women being more affected than men as women constituted by far more than half of public sector employees. Women are thus increasingly pushed into precarious employment situations with very low wages and little or no social security or protection of workers’ rights.

At the same time, women are forced to fill the gaps created by the state in the care and health system by cuts to public spending. As state funded care work decreases, especially in an aging society, care is reprivatized, and traditional gender roles are reinforced. Once occupied with unpaid care work, these women have less time for paid employment, free time activities and political engagement. On top, women’s voices are further marginalised by destroying gender equality institutions in stride with austerity measures that pose a struggle to organisations ranging from advocacy groups to service providers such as organisations supporting survivors of violence.

Yet, while austerity policies are a stumbling block in the way of the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality, as well as creating general economic imbalances within the Eurozone, among others the German government under Merkel’s lead holds on to their aim of a balanced budget. The social consequences of this goal will continue to be a burden that is dumped on women, especially single mothers, young women, women with disabilities, older women, migrant and refugee women, LGBTQI+ women, women belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, women in rural areas and those who live in poverty or extreme poverty.

“Discriminatory economic policies cannot be justified on the basis of the need to achieve macro-economic target and without regard to the human rights of women and gender equality”, Juan Pablo Boholavsky, and independent expert on foreign debt and human rights, argued in a report to the UN General Assembly. In a 2018 report, the OHCHR recommends a series of measures to improve gender equality. Among others the report called on governments to recognise unpaid care and domestic work as valuable work, invest in public services such as care services to redistribute care and domestic work “not just from women to men but from individuals to families to state-funded provisions”, and to strengthen women’s working rights and social security through targeted policies.

To be continued…

While the number of female leaders is growing, austerity policies – particularly when implemented by one of these female leaders such as German chancellor Merkel – highlight feminist, journalist and author Susan Faludi’s statement: “You can’t change the world for women by simply inserting female faces at the top of an unchanged system of social and economic power.” This is not to say, that no progress is being made – in Germany where reforms were undertaken introducing i.e. paid parental leave for fathers as well as mothers, or elsewhere. However, the gender pay gap, female under-representation in positions in politics as well as in business and austerity policies standing in the way of gender equality continue to be a considerable social issue.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Hands Fingers, Karl-Heinz Gutmann

Austerity isn’t working, wandererwandering, CC BY 2.0

Stew and Sympathy, Neil Moralee, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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The single rebellion and its happy lonely riders

Kristina Bartl — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 19:11:33 +0000

Way too often being single is seen as an unintentional stop on the way to a next relationship that will lead to a fulfilled life with a long-term partner. It seems to be easily forgotten that being single can also be your chosen final destination. It almost confuses people, when someone tells them that they are not dating with the main purpose of finding a partner. And this reaction is not surprising, when there are studies out there that display an image of sad and lonely millennials. Some even claim that our lack of (or too little) income and too much stress at Uni or work are the reasons for the high number of singles in our generation. The same factors are also used to explain why we choose renting a place over buying it. If I didn’t know better I’d almost believe that we are a generation of broke and highly depressed loners with commitment issues. Anyhow, there are other studies and articles that paint a picture of self-empowered individuals. Tinder published a survey that showed that 72 percent of the 1000 participants made an active choice to remain single. A generation of young people that don’t need a traditional relationship to feel fulfilled. Is it just a coincidence that the most educated generation is also the one that says farewell to traditional life-goals?

About relationships and happiness

The celebration of singledom has become an empowering movement over the last years. If we take a closer look, we will see that the main voices behind it have some things in common: They are all twenty-somethings, single (or in non-traditional partnerships) and identify as female. Before you pity any of them or even call them bitter single ladies, you should know that unmarried women without kids are the happiest group of people. Ironically men are healthier, when they are in a stable relationship. Taken this terribly outdated binary-based gender approach aside, it seems as if being in a heterosexual relationship is a rather unhealthy decision for women.

This does not mean that everyone should be hating on the male gaze or relationships in general, neither does it mean that the unhealthy aspects of relationships are related to the genitals one is born with. It is more a problem of social constructs and, as a consequence of that, also of toxic masculinity. From an early stage on almost everyone is conditioned to fulfill certain roles. Women are supposed to suppress themselves and their needs. Men on the other side are conditioned into being strong, whilst also being taught to deny their emotional side. Both can be really unhealthy in the long run, but especially men and the role they are taught to fulfill can become highly toxic for their partners and their relationships. It can lead to an inability to communicate feelings and emotions or non-appreciation of partners and their actions. A consequence of that could be ending up in an unequal relationship, were one party nurtures the other one, without getting anything in return. And now it makes sense that women become miserable in relationships with men, when society, radically spoken, is teaching the male part of the world population that they are superior over everyone without a penis. But those beliefs and habits can be unlearned and therefore, the genitals one is born with shouldn’t be used as an excuse for being a bad partner.

Become a lonely rider

For a long time being single, especially if you were a woman, has been seen as an equivalent to being a failure. Not that long ago, it was even more “tragic” to be a pregnant single woman. In Ireland some unmarried and pregnant women were even brought to so-called Houses of Shame. Which were a dangerous and harmful environment for both, the babies and their mothers. To full extent it became clear, when investigations earlier this year showed that over 800 children died in Irish mother and baby homes from 1925 to 1961. As you can see shaming women for embracing life in all its aspects, regardless of their relationship status, has a long history and could even lead to ending up in life-threatening circumstances. Even though, those official organizations, which were established for the purpose to punish women for not fitting into the rules of society, are less common in most parts of the world nowadays, some women still think that it is safer for them to stay in relationships that make them unhappy, instead of breaking them up. But, as mentioned above, young people are more and more likely to see that being single offers you more than an unhealthy partnership could. I know that I am diving into a sensitive topic here, so please note that I am not talking about severe physical or emotional abuse. I am talking about about staying with someone, who does not fulfill you, makes you unhappy or is taking advantage of you.

The question that comes up now is, why do some people still stick with their partner even though there is no rational reason for it? Well, it is not always that simple and sometimes people need to be nudged into making themselves less miserable. Artist and writer Florence Given empowers people worldwide to dump their spouse. About one year ago she broke up with her boyfriend and since then she did not only motivate other people to end their unhealthy relationships, but also spread a positive message regarding singledom. Her work inspires people to see dating more as something fun and exciting, rather than an instrument to find a new relationship. Her journey showed that letting go of the need to find someone else will eventually lead you to become closer to yourself.

Reclaiming our sexual power

Another woman I admire from afar is Ruby Stevenson. The non-monogamous bisexual sex educator is spreading her sex positive vibe and body positivity. Both topics have to be mentioned when we are talking about single life. Not being in a relationship does not mean that someone can’t or shouldn’t have sex, even though, women are being called out for satisfying their sexual needs by themselves or with sexual partner(s) and embracing their body, regardless if it fits society’s beauty standards. Stevenson takes it one step further, as she explains in an Instagram post about one of her public talks: “Being a slut is an attitude, and transcends the number of people you’ve slept with or what your sexual preferences are; it’s about embracing your sexuality with confidence.”

So please - in case you ever recognize that someone is being slut-shamed or you are experiencing it yourself, keep in mind, that being a “slut” is nothing to be ashamed of. Reclaiming words that are used to shame certain groups of people is a powerful move. Not only words that have an openly negative association, such as bitch or slut, should be reclaimed. Also the relationship status “single” itself should no longer stand for being depressed and lonely, because it can be the exact opposite!

Wrap it up

So basically, as soon as you realize that being single has nothing to do with being miserable, you will see that there is nothing to be afraid of and you will learn to embrace the independence that comes along with it. If you are in a happy and equal relationship, that’s great! But you’re not weird for not wanting a relationship and guess what? You don’t need one! You want to see that movie and finally have dinner at this new restaurant? Take a friend out on a fun night or just go by yourself. You prefer casual hook-ups over relationships? Just make sure to get yourself tested for STDs from time to time, have safe sex and you’re good to go. Do whatever you want to do, as long as you’re happy with it. What I’m trying to say is, and I can not stress this enough, don’t let anyone ever tell you again that you need a relationship for anything.

by Kristina Bartl

Photo Credits

Blowin' in the wind, Rajarshi Mitra, CC BY 2.0

Rotten Banana, Christoph Schütz

Banana Skin, Photorama

Juicy Peach, Daria Głodowska

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The Polanski affair: Should we differentiate the artist from his work?

Aimée Niau Lacordaire — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:16:25 +0000

A big debate is back in France raising the question: “should we separate the man from the artist?”. In fact, Roman Polanski, the famous director, is accused of multiple rapes of minors. On 8 November 2019, the photographer Valentine Monnier accused Polanski to have raped and beaten her in 1975 which he disputes. However, she is the fifth woman to officially declare having been raped by the director since the Samantha Geimer case in 1977. To the case of this 13-year-old girl who Polanski allegedly drugged and raped during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine were added the more recent accusations of three actresses in the end of 2017.

The accusation of Valentine Monnier appeared only a few days before the release of the new movie of Polanski, aptly named “J’accuse”. So the question arises, can we go see this artistic work of an alleged rapist, repeat offender?

While Roman Polanski has been exclude by the Academy of Oscars in the United States, the French cinema community is regularly suspected of protecting. In fact, he was convicted by the American courts in a case of sexual abuse of a minor in 1977. Roman Polanski is considered by Interpol as a fugitive: following his conviction, after having served his first sentence in the United States, he fled the country before being sentenced again in the same case.

This is why some feminists have decided to boycott his movie, and some have mobilized to block the access to the film’s preview at the “Champollion” cinema in Paris. Polanski is protected by the state because he appears as a man of power and a great artist which is not acceptable. The boycott of his film is then the only weapon that the population has to campaign against this injustice and show their dissatisfaction with the French justice.

This problem has already arisen in France with Louis-Ferdinand Céline, notably known for his work “Journey to the end of the night”. But this famous writer was a racist and wrote antisemitic works.

The problem is quite recent because indeed before, it was a taboo and was considered as normal. So those artists, that we know to have done some criminal activity can no longer be tried and can no longer defend themselves in face of these accusations, recalling the presumption of innocence which says that “everyone charged with a penal offense is presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.“

Understanding is not forgiving

If Polanski is a rapist, I think that as with every criminal, we need to interest ourselves for his history for a better understanding, but to understand is not to forgive.

Polanski was born in Paris in 1933, to a Jewish Polish father and a Russian mother. He lived in France for three years, but his family left for Poland after the German invasion of Poland. There, he was forced to live in the Warsaw ghetto where he escaped deportation but his parents and sister did not. His mother died in Auschwitz. He was interested in cinema since his childhood, he notably made one of his greatest successes with “The Pianist” which is adapted from the homonymous autobiographical novel by Władysław Szpilman in which he tells how he survived in the Warsaw ghetto, then after its liquidation, until the insurrection of the Polish resistance, and the Soviet invasion. His childhood story therefore strongly inspired Polanski to make this film.

In 1969, Sharon Tate, the wife of Roman Polanski, was assassinated by repeated stabbing in their house in Los Angeles while she was pregnant. The murder was organized by Charles Manson and perpetrated by his “family”, the name of the sect that the serial killer had founded.

So if we judge the artist in relation to his work it is important to look at and judge it in relation to his childhood and the traumatic elements that he himself suffered. Several artists have been accused of mistreatment like Chris Brown or paedophilia like Michael Jackson … You are free to boycott their works or not according to your convictions.

by Aimée Niau Lacordaire

Photo credits

Devant l’affiche de “J’accuse” (Polanski), Jeanne Menjoulet, CC BY 2.0

missing bricks, Warsaw ghetto wall, Nina Childish, CC BY-ND 2.0

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“Féminicides”: the new French word to talk about the murder of women in France.

Aimée Niau Lacordaire — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:43:05 +0000

They were called Audrey, Chafia, Johanna, Monique, Mauricette. What do all these women have in common? They, and 116 others, were stabbed, burnt, strangled, slaughtered, beaten to death… by their spouse, husband or ex in the year 2019 in France.

The number of femicides in France since the beginning of the year 2019, is 121 as of 16/10/19, but the number grows every week. They were 121 in 2018, which means that we have exceeded the number of femicides compared to the previous year: evidence of a significant systemic problem.

A femicide is: “The murder of a woman or a young girl, because she is a woman.” It is, however, not recognized in the French penal code. In France, the expression officially entered the vocabulary of law and the humanities in 2014, but not in the penal code. According to lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, in the podcast “Pas son genre” on the radio France inter, the integration of “féminicide” in the penal code has lawyers divided. Indeed, for the murder of a woman and a man cannot be distinguished by name in the same way as the murder of a person according to their ethnicity.

There are several types of femicides but we will focus on the “intimate” femicide, committed by the victim’s current or former spouse. According to a study cited by the World Health Organization, more than 35% of women killed worldwide are killed by their partners, compared to only 5% of murders involving men.

WHY? Systemic violence, a patriarchal and sexist society!

A lot of association like Osons le féminisme ! speak about “systemic violence” (character of what is related to a system), and want “féminicide” to be recognized as a “societal fact” when many murders of women are still referred to as “crimes of passion” and relegated to the category of miscellaneous facts.

Systemic violence comes from a sexist and a patriarchal society. In our society women have “always” been considered inferior to men. Gender stereotypes reinforce the appearance of the weak, sweet, gentle woman and the strong men, manly, who think they are justified in abusing their spouse. In 1975, the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) released a video of men’s speeches about the violence they inflict on their spouses. We can hear sentences like: “If I want to hit my wife, I’m sure she will make love better” or, “There are women who like it, I don’t know, out of habit, maybe.” Even if it would be forbidden to have such public discourse, this reality is not so far from view of the number of femicides.

In many cases of femicide, there is domestic violence in the home. The patriarchal violence of judicial and police institutions ignore and diminish situations of violence reducing them to simple “marital disputes” whose violence is normalized. A lot of victims had told the police about the violence they were suffering, and now they are dead.

France is not the only country with a lot of femicide. 43600, this is the number of women and girls killed in 2012 worldwide. Countries such as Romania, Ireland, Finland, Germany and Mexico have the same systemic violence. For several months, thousands of Mexicans have been protesting, on social networks and in the streets, against the authority’s inaction in cases of femicide and sexual violence.

In Spain, since 2003, “machismo violence” has been erected as a great national cause. Faced with the resurgence of this violence in Spain, the socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wanted to strike hard, and put in place measures that today passed in the world. It’s novel in Europe, Spain have put in place a victim support offices, legal and psychological assistance and legal proceedings. Moreover, the government has unlocked an XXL budget to end femicides. The results are that in 2018, 47 women died at the hands of their spouse, compared to 71 in 2003.

So why does the French government not do the same?

Action in France and repression by the government!

Some actions by collectives, such as Noustoutes (“allofus”), Féminicide par son compagnon ou ex (“femicides by our spouse or ex”), or the Femen have been set up.

Féminicide par son compagnon ou ex use a Facebook page to register all the victims of the femicides in France. Noustoutes organized marches, demonstrations, to support, to inform, about the violence and the crimes that undergoes to the women. But nothing has changed in view of the number of femicides that are growing day by day.

A new form of protest has been put in place. Since August, feminist activists have posted them in the streets of Paris. They put up messages such as, “She leaves him, he kills her“, “More listened dead than alive“, or in commemoration of the victims: “Georgette was strangled by her husband the 21.03.19 “ as in the photo below. This movement has now settled in many cities of France.

“Georgette was strangled by her husband the 21.03.19”

Célia Maurincomme, feminist activist, who participates in the collage of signs in Lyon, said, “By putting up this sign against femicide, we want to inform people about those murders. And we expect a mobilization of citizens to put pressure on the French state! All this is illegal, we can be taken into custody for putting up posters.“

Many feminist activists have complained about police repression of collages or tags. As said by Célia Maurincomme, police can put you in jail if you put up collages or spray tags on walls about femicides. “One activist put up a sign that said ‘117 femicides, Macron reaction!’ outside of her window because Macron was coming to Lyon. Two armed policemen came to her house and confiscated the sign.” “Some girls were arrested by the police when they put up signs, the police humiliated them, and took their names, addresses, etc.” said C. Maurincomme.

A crackdown is put in place by the government, to punish women who are fighting against their own potential murder. “We’re being killed and you’re talking about tags on walls” said a feminist activist in Mexico.

Saturday 5 October 2019, hundred Femen, demonstrate at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. With their skin and hair grayed with clay, wearing messages written on their torso like “I didn’t want to die“, to denounce feminicide and to claim that the government needs “a stronger mobilization.”

Each had a black stele-shaped sign, with the names of women killed by their spouse or ex since the beginning of 2019. They wanted, with this strong act, to call out the “power in place‘,’ explained one of them in a statement. “We recall that most of these women, before being murdered, had been victims of domestic violence and had alerted civil society, police, justice, threats to them.”

by Aimée Niau Lacordaire

Photo credits

0001 by Alvaro Tapia CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Paris 2019, Ithmus, CC BY 2.0

The post “Féminicides”: the new French word to talk about the murder of women in France. appeared first on Pike & Hurricane.

Language Revolution: Controversies of Gender-Sensitivity in the German Language

EditorChief — Sat, 18 May 2019 10:21:30 +0000

Different people live in different realities. We all make diverse experiences, and we value and feel about them in unique ways. Therefore, it is not surprising that we do not all use the same language, and that we do not all use language in the same way. This phenomenon becomes evident in Germany’s ongoing debate on gender-sensitive language, with many young feminists using it as a lever to change the way we perceive and design gender relations in society. Their activism is, however, strongly opposed by linguists, writers; many of who are women and outraged about the unnatural, ineffective and, allegedly, unnecessary nature of the language revolution.

Germany’s Language Revolution

To date, the German language offers a variety of expressions specifically describing a group of students of mixed gender: ‘Studierende’, ‘Student*innen’, ‘Student_innen’, ‘StudentInnen’, ‘Studenten/innen’, or even ‘Studentinnen und Studenten’. These terms have been introduced as more gender-sensitive alternatives to the masculine generic ‘Student’. The demonstrated logic applies to all designations that describe groups consisting of men, women and non-binary people. Especially the ‘gendering’ of job titles has gained increased acceptance and application in the 21st century.

Earlier this year, the German city of Hanover formally introduced the implementation of gender-neutral language in all official communication, including emails, letters, press statements, and brochures. The case of Hanover, and other cities that followed, sparked great controversy between proponents and opponents of expressing gender justice within language.

On the one hand, there are those people whose assertive usage of gender-neutral language in daily conversations is a proof of a deeply gender-sensitive way of thinking and perceiving the world. On the other hand, there are people who argue that making language more gender-just is an unnatural process, the “rape of the German language”, and that formalising gender-sensitive language is ineffective in combating inequality. The controversy has built up to a point where pragmatic arguments have been replaced by emotionally laden judgements from both sides, as is evident in frequently occurring debates on social media.

Controversies: How natural and how effective is gender-sensitive language?

Looking more closely at the criticisms expressed against gender-sensitive language, it is mostly the ‘making’ that is denounced by conservative linguists as “politically motivated adulterations of the German language”. They assert that language is the result of natural mutations, while gender-neutral language represents an unnatural intervention that endangers the whole grammatical system. However, how natural is language at all? It is clearly a product of human interaction, a means of communication, something that evolves with developments in society. As much as we are determined by the rules we give ourselves, we are the ones determining those rules. Our revolution creates the evolution of our language.

Perhaps, the critique of unnaturalness is much rather a cry to protect their comfort zone, and their perceived security. Of course, this security is limited to those who benefit from patriarchal structures, and who therefore see a language revolution as unnecessary. It would endanger the secured position they have in the structure, which creates discomfort in them. Besides those who directly benefit in a patriarchal society, there is a large group of people who simply conform to the dominant paradigm because protesting is exhausting and it cannot promise a more secure and fair structure as an outcome.

Once we have gotten used to gender inequality in all areas of our social life, then we are also used to a language that reproduces inequality. Maybe the generic masculine isn’t that much of a problem after all? On social media, there are many feminine voices asserting that they do not care what they are being called, as long as they know that they are meant to be addressed and included. They do not believe that language shapes our perception, therefore, it does not matter how we term things and people. One famous argument is that since Angela Merkel could make it despite her job title being announced as ‘Kanzler’, not ‘Kanzlerin’, our language does not cause any problems of inequality.

How does language shape our perception of reality?

Language is a huge part of human life. We use it to communicate all kinds of messages about the world around us, and we make sense of this reality through language. Of course, as argued by many opponents of gender-sensitive language, a word in isolation does not carry meaning and cannot make a change. However, considered in a certain context, words obtain meaning, as they are spoken by one person to another person through language in order to send a certain message. Therefore, the way in which we use the language matters in that it changes our mindset through a certain meaning we create out of it. The newly developing mindset will make us perceive a new kind of reality with new opportunities and limitations.

If my reality is that ‘Krankenschwestern’ and ‘Putzfrauen’ (literally: ‘Sick peoples’ sisters’ and ‘Cleaning women’, translated as nurses and cleaners) are supposed to be women as they are specifically addressed in the job title, I will be more likely to identify with these professions. And if I, as a young woman, am verbally encouraged to consider a career as a ‘Bundeskanzler*in’ (chancellor) or ‘Geschäftsführer*in’ (manager), this opportunity will sound a lot more realistic to me. Instead of being determined by the limitations of my language, I get to make a choice between cleaning and making politics.

The question remains: If we can use language positively by directly encouraging young females that they are considered in and cared about by society, and that they clearly have a space in various male-dominated spaces, why would we refuse to do so?

How can we move forward towards a more gender-just society?

We all have our opinions on questions of gender justice, which is hardly surprising, as our experiences and social realities are unique. All in all, it cannot be predicted that a change in language will generate more just structures, because we cannot fully grasp the causal relations between language and social change. This leads us to the debate on what has to change first – our language, or our social structure? At this point, we are facing a typical chicken-and-egg-problem. And we are stuck, because all of our attention and efforts to make positive change towards a more gender-just society are absorbed by this one fundamental debate.

The way to go might be simpler than we expect. Basically, we need to decide how much energy we put into discussing and disagreeing on the ‘how’ of achieving gender justice, and how much energy we can use to make positive change. Surely, we should not completely skip debating, because it can be fruitful and help us understand our pluralist society. But once the conversation thwarts and paralyses us, it is time to move on. What is in our might to create positive change? What kind of reality do we live in? Are women and LGBTQ+ people represented in the language that constitutes our reality? If they aren’t, the most fundamental step will be making them visible by verbally highlighting and celebrating their spaces and achievements in our society.

The spark of a revolution lies in the dissatisfaction and disagreement on some perceived social injustice of a group of people. Once these negative emotions and attitudes can be translated in a positive manner, as in a certain systematic change that is aspired, the revolution evolves. This is because ideas are powerful, and once a change can be imagined, we already live, to an extent, in a changed reality. We are starting to perceive situations differently as we direct our attention to certain variables and reflect critically upon them, and so our reality is different from the one we used to live in before. As it relates to language, it evolves as we adjust it to our reality, knowingly or unknowingly. That means, if our mindset is revolutionist as it perceives structural inequality, we will naturally make efforts to generate more equality through the way we express ourselves in language.

by Ellen Wagner

Photo Credits

Politics 11, Erik, CC BY-SA 2.0

Speech Balloon, Marc Walthieu, CC BY-NC 2.0

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The Undiscovered Female Orgasm

Ana Carvalho — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:46:21 +0000

The title of this article suggests three things: 1. a secret will be revealed to the readers, 2. these article will involve women, 3. some may shy away, others may roll their eyes. But, in any case, we are going to talk about sex. I would like to begin by saying that I am by no means a feminist, nevertheless, for the purpose of writing this article I will use gender lenses and capture an issue that is seldom talked about: the female pleasure.

While 90% of the men said they always orgasm during heterosexual intercourse, 70% of the women said they did not orgasm during heterosexual intercourse. However, scans of the brain during sex show that both man and women have a similar sensory experience of orgasm, are able to perform it at the relative same speed and share the same response when masturbating. So, why do views on gender sexuality differ so much and why does it seem so hard for women to orgasm? And how does the female orgasm differ from the male orgasm?

Science behind orgasm

According to Medical daily, there are four types of nerves connected to the orgasm. The hypogastric nerve sends a signal from the uterus and cervix of women, and the prostate of men to the brain. The pelvic nerves transmit signals from the vagina and cervix. From the rectum for both sexes, the pudendal nerve transmits signals from the clitoris in women and from the scrotum and penis in men. Finally, the vagus nerve transmits the signal from the cervix, uterus, and vagina in women. The point that I’m trying to make here is that there should plenty to choose from when looking for stimulation!

The first stage during this stimulation is called excitement. For women this is characterized by an increase on the blood flow to the genitals, including the erection of the clitoris and the lubrication of the vagina. Produced by the Bartholin glands, located on either side of the vaginal opening. The second stage, plateau, the clitoris becomes hypersensitive and retracts under the clitoral hood. The heartbeat and breathing increase and pleasure signals are sent to the brain, releasing dopamine, producing a similar effect that heroin. During the orgasm the lateral orbitofrontal cortex shuts off, part responsible for feelings of fear and anxiety. John Bancroft, researcher at the Kinse y Institute, described orgasm as the “combination of waves of a very pleasurable sensation and mounting of tensions, culminating in a fantastic sensation and release of tension.” Finally, in the last stage, resolution, the hormone oxytocin which is responsible for feelings of bonding and sleepiness is released. Most men usually are not able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm for more than a couple of minutes, while women can experience multiple orgasms. Wouldn’t this mean that women would have more chances at having orgasms?

Issues in society

Studies refer the problem to a more general and social sphere issue. The way society constructs the idea of female and male sexuality in countries where conservative or fundamentalist values are adopted, the connection between sexuality and state matters are usually more clear. For instance, rituals such as female genital mutilation are still observed in some cultures, and a whole article could be written about what changed in India from embracing sexuality and the kama sutra, to the mystification of “women’s first sexual experience”, and sex in general. This led to the objectification of women, high rates of human trafficking and STDs. This mystification of women’s pleasure is still predominant- even in the west.

In episode three, of Vagina dispatches, Mona and Mae, journalist and film-maker of The Guardian, discuss the female orgasm. One of the most striking observations was when they compared a woman that orgasmed for the first time at 28 to a man in the same situation. For the man, something must be seriously wrong and a hundred studies would have been written about this bizarre case. Nevertheless, for the woman, it would have been unsurprising that even though she was sexually active for a long time, she might not have had an orgasm.

Passive sexual actors

Regarding male pleasure, journalist Shannon Bledsoe pointed out: “As a society, we accept this premise fairly easily when it comes to men and they learn it at a young age. (…) There are endless nicknames for male anatomy and jokes about masturbation; and TV shows, movies, advertisements and porn all cater to their fantasies. “ She goes on talking about women: “Women, on the other hand, appear mostly as the object in these fantasies rather than as subjects.” The fact is that words like man and pleasure are acceptable and sustained in our society but when we put together women and pleasure, we assume that a third party (usually male) is necessarily there. Studies find that women want to “ (…) experience orgasm in this way for the sake of their male partner.” By this I don’t mean to say that orgasm should be the ultimate goal, either for men or women, during intercourse when there is obviously more to it in the underlings of a relationship. The issue that I am presenting here is that women, themselves, prioritize their partner’s pleasure and seem to forget about their own.

Interviews to a group study by Salisbury and Fisher, also showed that women believe it to be man’s responsibility to physically stimulate the female orgasm while woman’s responsibility is to remain in the proper mindset. This would not only bring all the responsibility to the male partner but also make women passive characters in their own sexual lives. Jackson and Scott also remarked that: “male orgasm is… seen as “natural” and inevitable… that of women requires work and, in keeping with the idea of female sexual passivity and male sexual expertise, women’s bodies need to be worked on by the male virtuoso in order to produce orgasm.” This expertise is then translated from “the bed” to society affirming men as the only actor with the necessary skills to govern prosperous society. This in turn generates a male-centric community reproduced from generation to generation.

How to bring down the patriarchy?

In that case, how can women become a more active actor in their sexual lives and, in consequence, in their society? Salisbury and Fisher’s studies highlight three solutions:

Manual clitoral stimulation: Contrary to what women believe, men find manual clitoral stimulation quite encouraging (regardless of who it is performed by).
Communication with the partner: Men have also indicated that communication about lack of female orgasm to be very important. Findings show that the female orgasm is as important for men as their own orgasm and that men are willing to communicate about what arouses their female partners and happy to indulge them.
Women need to focus on their pleasure: The view that a partner has to be a skillful lover in order for the orgasm to occur has negative effects on their self-esteem. With that in mind, women fake orgasms because they are too worried about their partner’s ego. Instead they should focus their attention in the sexual moment and erotic aspects of it, producing fewer cognitive distractions and increasing the likelihood of orgasm.

Who would have thought that the solution for patriarchy would be in loving, knowing and respecting our bodies and on dis-mystifying female sexuality?

by Ana Carvalho

Photo Credits

2 Boticelli, Birth of Venus, Steel Wool, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

illustration by Lucy Han ( in TeenVogue)

artist Stephanie Sarley (taken from Huffpost)

Adam and Eve, by Tamara de Lempicka, 1932, Petit Palais Geneva, Switzerland (from JuaanCaarlos slideshare)

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