Tuesday 1 July 2014

Powerful Women

Link to photoshoot:

One of the images featured in the editorial














This managed to annoy me so much today I thought I’d publish it here so my lovely followers could see. This is an original VICE Colombia editorial which was later on published on VICE Portugal. I find it interesting that both the Colombian and Portuguese versions are entitled “Powerful Women” (“Mulheres De Poder” in Portugal and “Las Capitanas” in Colombia).

The Portuguese version goes a bit further by subtitling it “Against Patriarchy”!!! I questioned VICE Portugal through Facebook about where this shows powerful women and whether this is what they feel powerful women are but no answer.  

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! We are not pieces of meat! Our power is not defined by how we look or how naked we are!!! 

Maybe do an editorial on Hillary Clinton, BeyoncĂ©, Laura Bates??? 

Friday 30 May 2014

#yesallwomen

The most explosive hashtag I've seen so far, the #yesallwomen hashtag propelled millions of women and men to take to twitter and start a dialogue about sexual assault and violence against women. In the wake of several attacks made against women the past month, the most shocking being the shooting in Isla Vista in the US and the killing of a pregnant woman in Pakistan for apostasy. 
The #yesallwomen hashtag was derived from the Isal Vista shooting but it is relevant in any circumstance. The accounts of misogyny and everyday sexism were being tweeted, thousands per minute. It lead to the creation of a few associated hashtags such as #notallmen. 
The #notallmen hashtag was a terrible distraction from the discourse at hands and ended up compromising the entire discourse. Besides this, there were many articles floating around from mostly conservative sources such as The Federalist, full of inaccuracies and misinformation.  

The most common error to be commited, I find, is when people forget to check their own privilege. There are a few things in my life I will never be able to understand because I am a white woman. I can empathize, I can try to understand but I'll never truly feel the discrimination that some people go through their entire lives. 
In any and every case we always need to assume that we do not know of the pain of others, that we can only truly know our own pain. We cannot judge someone else's pain so we cannot judge the violence committed against a group or against a person. 

We can also never forget that discrimination should be looked at keeping in mind the idea of cultural relativity. What happens here, in Europe or in the United States is, in no way, comparable, to the atrocities committed against humanity in countries such as Burnei ( who just passed their anti-gay law), Pakistan, Nigeria etc. 
Secondly, I think the other grave mistake was a mistake that is so common it is starting to be annoying. Feminism is the strive for social, political and economic equality of the sexes. Nothing less, nothing more than this. We do not hate men. Well, some feminists hate men but most of them do not. We are here to strive for equality, to improve each other and ourselves. What good can we do if we are constantly bickering with one another?
      

Sunday 11 May 2014

Misogyny in Hip-Hop

I have officially finished my undergraduate dissertation on the topic of Hip-Hop and Misogyny. 
I will leave you the abstract!

Abstract


This essay intends to explain the causes of misogyny in rap music using the work of several theorists as well as to analyse the current state of misogyny in hip-hop. The analysis had the objective of analysing lyrical content and it was carried out using a sampling of songs from the highest selling hip-hop albums of the decade. The results obtained showed that misogyny in rap has grown since the music industry took gangsta rap from its hood roots and commercialized it. The causes for misogyny in rap music are many and complex but one of the contributing elements is the music industry itself for continuing to support this stereotype. Using the work of theorists such as Michael P. Jeffries, Bell Hooks and Terri Adams, the aim is to argue that rap is not more misogynistic than any other part of American culture and that is in fact only a part of a much larger systemic issue.



If anyone wants to read the full version, let me know and I'll send a PDF.  

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Straight Pride

The struggle for a voice, for a right to speak has always been reserved for minorities. But no longer thanks to Etero Pride Italia. Next month, this organization dedicated to protecting heterosexual male  identity and the resurrection of its female counterpart. This organization is aiming to organize a unique event in Europe: A straight pride march.
The front page of the website reads:
"The birth of Gay Pride made room and time to debate both internal and external institutions. These days, homosexuality is widely and constantly discussed, but the same cannot be said about heterosexuality. Heterosexuality is perceived as something obvious and predictable. This attitude is wrong. Actually, very wrong. […] Heterosexuals, which according to official figures account for 92.5 percent of the global population, are taken for granted by mass-media as well as society's institutions, who seem convinced that heterosexuals have no issues or needs. That is absolutely untrue.”
I'll leave you with an interview with the creator of this "artistic" event.

References:
http://www.vice.com/read/etero-straght-pride-giuliano-visalli-interview