identity – Pike & Hurricane

The beauty of who we are

Eman Said Omran — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 10:49:49 +0000

If you have plans for exotic travel, then book a flight to South Asia, Pakistan, in particular. Once you arrive in Pakistan, prepare yourself for an interesting road trip on the famous Karakoram highway, where you will be surrounded by serene nature and breathtaking mountains all the way to the Gilgit Baltistan region. From Gilgit Baltistan, take a shorter ride to Hunza Valley, the land of apricot orchards, peaches, apples, mulberry, walnuts, and grapes. The land of glacial streams and forests of poplar trees. In Hunza Valley you will get to meet the famous Shukrat Bibi, the protector of Hunza cultural heritage and one of the guardians of its identity.

Ms Shukrat Bibi’s shop at Karimabad.
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

Shukrat Bibi is an 86-year-old artisan who uses her needlework to preserve the cultural heritage of Hunza Valley. She owns a small shop in Karimabad, the capital of Hunza Valley. The shop looks like a safe cave made of rocks. At the shopfront, one can see colourful handmade products, decorated with exquisite embroidery hanging on the door. An enchanting sight that lures you into the shop where you will find many more treasures of meticulously handmade beautiful embroidery. Shukrat Bibi uses her magical needle to sew traditional dresses, handbags, colourful caps and festive accessories.

Ms Shukrat Bibi in front of her shop at Karimabad
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

At the entrance of the shop, Shukrat Bibi sits with her needle in hand. Dressed in the traditional Hunza attire and wearing a colourful Hunza cap, she welcomes national and international visitors into her world. She has a warm and friendly demeanor, an air of serenity. Hanging on the wall behind her a newspaper article is displayed about her precious work. She sees the article as a sign of appreciation and acknowledgement that she is keeping her Hunza heritage alive and flourishing (The Express Tribune). Inside the shop, one sees the Presidential Pride of Performance Award, an award granted by the President to recognize people with “notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sports, and nursing”. Shukrat Bibi’s award clearly acknowledges Pakistan’s gratitude for her hard work in “keeping the delicate art of do sutti karhai (embroidery) alive in the region”.

The Presidential Pride of Performance Award, 1992.
Photo credit: Eman Said Omran

At the age of 10, Shukrat Bibi’s mother taught her the art of embroidery. Now, Shukrat Bibi at the age of 86 has passed her skills and talent to hundreds of women in Hunza. The skills which she has passed on to them have contributed to their financial independence and they have become members of her cavalry fighting to preserve Hunza culture. Shukrat Bibi takes great pride in her efforts to keep the culture of handmade embroidery of Hunza alive and hopes that her students will continue this tradition.

Nowadays, the world has become a village. Today, the exotic Hunza Valley is a famous touristic spot not only for Pakistanis but for international travellers alike. Visiting Hunza brings benefits not only for the travellers themselves lucky enough to see it but for the district itself and for Pakistan as a country. However, it is important that the Hunza Valley retains its identity and unique charm in this age of globalization. Hunza Valley is blessed to have inhabitants like Shukrat Bibi and all of her students. A talented group of women who love their culture and identity and are proud to share their timeless history in our modern, globalized world.

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The Power of Memes: More than Jokes

Franziska Fink — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 11:00:57 +0000

No one really can explain how they have developed, and everyone will define them differently. Yet, they have altered our discourse within the digital arena fundamentally, and by that subsequently created a whole new way of how (online) communities are formed: Memes. Images, usually accompanied by a brief and well-pointed text, are basically digital jokes, and the uncontested form of humorous communication across all of our social media platforms.

Memes exist in all imaginable formats, serving all kinds of humor and satire in regard to… well, everything and nothing. Which is what is making this entire online phenomenon so particularly hard to explain, especially to non-digital natives. “What are you laughing at?” is a question commonly asked by parents when their kids are scrolling through the latest memes plastered all over their Instagram feed. But when these poor parents then take a look themselves, instead of a smile, bafflement spreads over their face, followed by the innocent question what those “memes” are and why they seem to be so entertaining?

In this lies the whole essence of how memes function and how they create a novel sense of belonging. Because they often serve a particular form of humor, that itself is intertwined with specific events, groups and topics, they are exclusive in the way that not everyone can relate. Not everyone (not just your mom) gets the joke. But if you do laugh, you automatically belong to a community that shares more or less the same perspective of the world or, at least, has the same humor and interests, as general as those might be.

In contrast to what the general public might think, the concept of a meme was not introduced by a 13-year-old Influencer, but by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Dawkins however did not come up with the online memes as we know and love them today, the word “meme” rather originated with his 1976 publication The Selfish Gene, a book about evolution in which Dawkins uses the term to refer to cultural entities. According to his initial definition, a meme is the cultural analog of a gene: “Like genes, memes spread, and, in their spreading, they take on a life of their own. Genes make up organisms and memes make up cultural agglomerations of organisms.”

Funnily enough, Dawkins’ 45-year-old definition also perfectly describes the memes that are nowadays generated, uploaded and shared millionfold in our social media feeds as well as their way of how they contribute to the forming of our identities.

The ancient Greek saying “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are”, means in 2021 “Show me the Instagram accounts you follow and I will tell you who you are” (obviously, there is a corresponding meme for that!).

This observation has not gone unnoticed in academia either. Elizabeth Cantalamessa, a scholar working on memes at the University of Miami states that “memes work with ideas, including complex socio-political ideas […] They can be a way of orienting oneself in the world.” This also includes any form of political orientation. Cantalamessa mentions in this connection the rise of intersectional and feminist meme communities.

The memes that originate from communities like these differentiate themselves by using them not just for internet humor but to address complicated issues of race, class, gender, and politics. The virtual communities consuming these memes then use them to build a sense of belonging and unity among their members. What is crucial to understand however, is that when members create such content, they not only express group identity and experiences, they are much more “creating a polyvocal discourse in which various ideological standpoints are expressed”, as Ryan Milner, an Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Charleston, writes and by that partake in norm formation which also finds application in our analog world.

This transition of norms from the digital to the real world is captivating because it openly challenges the way norms have been traditionally created and spread. Finnemore and Sikkink, scholarly coryphées in the field of international politics, have long held the most popular explanation of how norms emerge and spread. They describe the “life cycle” of an international norm to have three stages: emergence, cascade and internationalization. Finnemore and Sikkink’s theory implies that a norm usually emerges among dominant norm makers and is then distributed within the system until it reaches a universal acceptance.

Memes however are now democratizing this process, dethroning the dominant norm creators and allowing every ordinary person with a smartphone to participate in the process of norm formation. It does not even require them to play an active role and create memes themselves, it suffices if they share them in their network and help them gain popularity and thus, leverage.

Such new and participatory forms of digital technology have hence facilitated a dramatic shift in minorities’ accessibility to public discourse. They have enabled virtual public spaces to become signiﬁcant sites for collective identity formation, on which especially marginalized groups have found a place to voice their interests and to create narratives that deviate from the dominant hegemonic line (Gal and Kampf).

So, memes are definitely more powerful than the average consumer might think. Regardless of their power, they should not be overthought too much. Sometimes, you just need a good laugh and that is what they are here for as well

Related articles:

Information Overload

Hitting the (Pay)wall

Photo Credits:

By Asterfolio on Unsplash

By Leon on Unsplash

By Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

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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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Fishballs of Fury: Contesting Hong Kong Identity

Louis Louw — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 13:29:13 +0000

It’s Lunar New Year and a cart full of goodies is being pushed through the hustle and bustle of a cramped Hong Kong street. In an instant, a mouth-watering smell rises into the air, drawing in hungry tummies as plates of fishballs exchange hands. A once common sight with as many as 50 000 hawkers and informal vendors plying their trade in the 1970s, Hong Kong now only boasts around 6 000 legally licensed food hawkers to cater to a hungry Hong Kong populace.

This community of itinerant hawkers or food peddlers infamously and affectionately referred to as the jau gwei (lit. running from ghosts) scatter in all directions as warning cries of approaching authorities fill the streets. Without official documentation, many jau gwei operate illegally with small carts which they push towards jostling markets and busy city intersections. Always on the hunt for their next sale, the jau gwei have long been considered a public nuisance by authorities seeking stricter regulations on the informal food market. Hygienic standards, noise pollution, and traffic congestion are some of the common bureaucratic buzzwords sparking controversy, especially as the jau gwei are seen as an authentic expression of working-class Hong Kong identity.

Fishball Riot 2016

Therefore, it is barely a surprise that attempts by city authorities – whether backed by the British Crown or mainland China – to regulate the jau gwei are viewed with distrust. Traditionally, caution rather than coercion has been the path to follow. However, since the early 2010s, authorities have stepped up their efforts at cracking down on the scene. In the politically charged atmosphere of Hong Kong, the fuse burned through once more in 2016, and culminated in the now infamous violent Mong Kok riot between localist groups and police forces. Heavily concerned with and informed by the notion of self-determination, the latter were quick to jump on the bandwagon to defend what they saw as an interference by mainland China to curb local culture.

The Mong Kok riot was striking for two of its features: first, for the use of violence and second, for the well-known plight of the jau gwei prior the violent outbreak. Two questions arise from these features: why were both sides prepared to fall back to the use violence, and why were the jau gwei worth fighting for or against in this particular instance?

The historical background is to be taken into account as a first instance to delimit the efforts of peaceful protest and its role in challenging the legitimization of the state. The path of Hong Kong identity thereafter gained leeway as an inherently political manifestation in challenging the legitimization of the state, and embedded the plight of the jau gwei within the context of this (re)configuration of Hong Kong identity in the greater pursuit of political representation. Importantly, Hong Kong identity in its particular (re)configuration(s) is taken as a naturally given process. The way of talking about this identity however is variable under the process of discourse, e.g. in the contemporary scope of Hong Kong society and its growing polarization and politicization.

Umbrella Movement 2014

One can’t talk about this polarization without reference to the Umbrella Movement in 2014. In a nutshell, the Umbrella Movement sought by means of popular sentiment to protest for more – and especially fairer – representation in the government. The largely peaceful protests aimed at highlighting and proposing betterment to Hong Kong’s skewed political system ultimately fizzled out in disappointment as the Communist Party neither budged nor exhibited a willingness to engage, let alone negotiate, any solutions. Too high were the rulers and tycoon profiteers in their ivory tower to be touched by the people’s demands. Arguably, by sitting out the wave of discontent, the Communist Party showed its disregard for Hong Kong civil society. What was to be done to effect change?

Due to the resulting disappointment and disillusionment within Hong Kong society, new forms of questioning the authority arose and older ones such as localism or nativism once again gained traction. These groups aimed their sights at the “one nation, two systems” policy. The leading line of argumentation being: if there are two nations with two different sets of essentially different people, then this policy doesn’t work. The Mong Kok riot can be seen in this light, however, it doesn’t offer any clues as to why violence was used.

By means of understanding the resurgent electrification of Hong Kong politics, one must necessarily evaluate the role the jau gwei have been assigned to within it. As a group, which has its historical roots in mainland China yet is firmly embedded within contemporary Hong Kong culture as a space of shared memory, the jau gwei offer a unique green screen to project values, which I argue to be generationally all-encompassing.

Contested Identities

This all encompassing identity is notoriously difficult to pin with two generational camps pitted against each, namely the pro-independence youth versus the island’s elderly. Notably, the historical origins of the jau gwei and Hong Kong bureaucracy have both done their part in fostering a close link between the jau gwei and the (imagined) mainland, especially from an elderly perspective. After all, the jau gwei are descendents from impoverished Chinese mainlanders who sought to scrape a life in the former colony – that’s how the informal food market came into being. Generally, the jau gwei represent the opinions of the elderly mainlanders who prefer maintaining the status quo. In their opinion, retaining Hong Kong’s slight concessions in terms of freedom is considered infinitely better than risking it all for an uncertain outcome.

In addition, the jau gwei’s profession is strictly hereditary as stipulated by Hong Kong law and its licensing practices. These were put into place to restrict access to – and naturally ‘eradicate’ – the itinerant market in favour of tax-paying and state-building revenue opportunities. Attempts to squash the market underscores the ironic twist behind the story of the jau gwei: they are rooted in mainland culture but uprooted by its authority at the same. Keeping tabs with the status quo will not end their plight in the long run. Localists helping the jau gwei only fosters a sense of interdependence amongst Hong Kong citizens that prefer – more and more – the tag of an all-encompassing and distinct Hong Kong identity.

Lion Rock Spirit

Lastly, this all-encompassing identity also finds an outlet of expression in the entrepreneuring Lion Rock Spirit, the can-do mentality that drives the common man to fulfil his potential and live a dignified life within China’s special administrative region. Riding their luck and hardship-hardened, the jau gwei make ends meet as small-scale entrepreneurs in the informal food market, thus, ensuring the legacy of the endeared delicacy despite ever-increasing repression by authorities.

In essence, the jau gwei are more than merely merchants. They are the embodiment of a narrative not dissimilar to the American Dream: social mobility through hard-work embedded in liberal entrepreneurism. Hong Kong’s position – and understanding of itself – as an exceptional city carved out on inhospitable rock by exceptional individuals presupposes the city’s entrepreneurial success.

Through this ideal representation of the Lion Rock Spirit, the jau gwei function as a juxtaposition to the ruthless exploitation of unbridled capitalism under pro-Beijing loyalists before, and especially after, a post-Umbrella Movement political landscape. Unlike the property magnates who distribute financial favours amongst themselves to detriment of the general populace, the jau gwei are of the people and authentically cater to the people. A far cry from the plutocratic megalomania exhibited elsewhere.

In the crossfire of ideology

In summary, the itinerant hawkers and informal food peddlers beloved by Hong Kongers have found themselves in the crossfire of an ongoing ideological debate over cultural, and therefore inherently political, identity in relation to the legitimacy of the state. In the times of localist and nativist groups demanding a Hong Kong for Hong Kongers (pardon, Chinese, mind you), the jau gwei have come to symbolize something distinctly and peculiarly “of and only from Hong Kong” within the discourse of the legitimacy of the state. Moreover, guided by the small-scale entrepreneurial drive of the individual, the jau gwei signal a juxtaposition to unbridled state capitalism backed by a local pro-Beijing plutocracy, which distributes wealth and power amongst its members.

The narrative of the jau gwei is grinded out somewhere between the tension resulting from the unfair distribution of wealth, power, and politics. To what extent may individual partake take in the distribution thereof before becoming troublesome to the state? As the Mong Kok incident has shown, tensions are running high. As unclear as the future of Hong Kong may be, I venture to say that this analysis hints at these areas of contention within Hong Kong society for future developments in the ongoing crisis.

Written by Louis Louw

Photo Credits

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Oktoberfest: How a Tradition Conquers the World

Nina Kolarzik — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 19:10:04 +0000

Dirndl, Lederhosen and a glass of beer- everybody knows this major components of the Oktoberfest, a celebration from southern Germany that became known and are imitated all over the world. With the beer, it also carries a certain image of Germany into the world- an example of national stereotypes and identity.

What would you like to drink?

If we get to know a new person, one of the first questions, especially among international students, is where they are from. And whatever country they answer, they are immediately measured by and compared to the image people have of this country. Certain expectations arise about the character, behaviour or preferences of a person, based only on their nationality and the stereotypes.

If you are from Greece you like to drink Ouzo, as a Russian you drink Vodka, as a Japanese Sake and as a German, what else but beer?. Some say, it is “Germany’s greatest cultural export”. And according to google, that is what Germans are known for: being punctual, work efficient and liking beer. Why are we talking about this in connection to foreign affairs? Because stereotypes affect the perception of, and therefore interaction between, individuals and nations in an international community.

Raise the glass – all around the globe

By now, Oktoberfest has become so popular that it is copied all around the world. No matter whether it’s Australia, Hong Kong or Malmö, this tradition was transferred into the calender of beer-lovers around the globe. In some places, it even develops new dynamics and meanings, for example as peaceful coming together between religions in Palestine. But it also transports a certain image of German culture and identity.

The version of Oktoberfest that is copied is the most famous Oktoberfest in Munich. But they exist all over the country, local variations of the traditions, activities, clothes and, of course, the beer that is enjoyed. The Bavarian federal state with its culture of Oktoberfest does, however, represent Germany internationally. The bigger the geographical distance, the more people expect Germans to wear Lederhosen or a Dirndl and to like beer.

One tradition is seen as representative of a whole nation and completely ignores the cultural and individual differences within the country.

Variety exists:- different sorts of beer and identities

From North to South, countries and their populations possess great cultural varieties, including their mentality and traditions, but also (for instance) language, architecture and traditional clothing are different. Who would regard all the Swedes from Malmö to Kiruna as the same? There might also be different ethnic communities within a nation, as the Sorbs in Eastern Germany, which bring yet another colour to the picture of the country. This reminds us of the fact that nations are social and political constructs and include people from different backgrounds, who may not all share the same cultural identity. But with the creation of a nation state a construction of a national identity is created as well.

Also, do not forget the individual level: humans might be, because of their personal story and life, the complete opposite of their national stereotype. It is interesting how often people are disappointed when you tell them that you are German but do not drink beer. In Australia, for instance, I was humorously called a “bad representative of Germany” when I told my colleagues, that I do not like beer. The point is: how can we allow ourselves to judge individuals based on a generalisation?

A grain of truth?

This issue exists not only in Germany, but in all countries. Ask yourself: what do you expect when you meet someone from Sweden? What comes to your mind when someone tells you they are Nigerian? The study of national stereotypes does not research whether those stereotypes are true, but rather how they are visible and what their consequences are.

This is the reason why it is important to talk about it: The worldwide generalisation of a diverse culture to beer is harmless. But in the big picture, stereotypes have the potential to end up as racism. Incidences as the holocaust show us in an ugly way what stereotypes can be misused for. The rhetoric that populist movements use these days to fuel xenophobia, are full of stereotypical prejudices. And although prejudices are not the same as discrimination, they can support them.

If we do not know something, we rely on what is common knowledge which often means stereotypes. Since these generalisations have an origin and often contain some truth, they are entirely wrong. However, we should be open to redeem the picture and replace it with reality. We start to rethink our mental stereotypes when we meet representatives from a country and we measure them, whether they fit into our image or not. And surprisingly (or not): organized Italians, talkative Finns and impolite Japanese exist.

by Nina Kolarzik

Photo Credits

Oktoberfest Festzelt, Derrick Story, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Argentinian Oktoberfest advertisement, Maria Bossa, CC BY-NC 2.0

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