Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

The war on Women of Colour

Posted: 02 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT

naomi poemFrom Left at the Lights.

The white supremacist’s war on Women of Colour. (Trigger warning)

I was thinking about writing this piece a week or so ago but was struggling to think of an introduction, there were many issues I felt I had to raise but couldn't decide which would go first. You may have read ‘It’s not about me‘ where I purged the horror of the injustice currently sweeping Britain, it was a response to all those critics who twist the points activists are trying to make into the delusional ramblings of a narcissist. Well, I think I made that point. It's not about me; it is about all of us. If it happens to a random person on the street, it could happen to you. Unfortunately, it very recently happened to me too.

After a safe night with close friends, my best friend and I boarded a bus home. We were among the first to get on so we took the two seats closest to the front on the top deck. Usually, a male ally of ours escorts us home from wherever we are, at great cost to him. He lives about the furthest you can get from where we're based. So on this occasion, we reassured him we'd be fine. Engrossed in conversation I felt safe with my female friend. I have a will to love and protect her and she has shown me the same.

The bus slowly filled as the clubs closed their doors. Behind us, a young male started sniggering and leaned towards us to mumble something illegible. Initially we just stared at him, trying to process what was happening. When he wouldn't give up, I asked him to stop because he was interrupting an important conversation with my friend. This male was beige. Y'know, coloured. His right hand man was white. The two of them continued to goad us, with what I can't even remember, because of what happened next. Scared and angry I raised my voice and announced these men were harassing us. The bus jeered. They told us to shut up and stop making a scene. Now raging on adrenalin, I told the man if he didn't back off, I would have to smash him. Suddenly I was faced with a bus full of people who thought we were wrong. Shaking, my friend and I turned to sit but the boys would not let it drop. Spurred on by the reaction, they continued to swear at us. It was like a bad nightmare. How could this be real? And then the white man called me a paki.

I stopped for a second. Time slowed down. I looked at my bare legs, my uncovered hair and my then my friend's face. (He didn't, did he? Yeah, yeah he did. But what are you gonna do about it Sam?) I was thinking. Then I bellowed what he said to the rest of the bus. A crowd of white faces cheered, some white people looked awkward and the black man I picked out rolled his eyes in disbelief but then looked down at the floor. The white male lunged at my white friend and she pushed him back. Both of them were on their feet about to attack us.

Seating on the seats adjacent to us were a young male and female. They were strangers but had been making gender appropriate chit chat. The male suddenly shot up and told us we should leave the bus. I responded not a fucking chance in hell and the boys would have to leave. We compromised when the strange couple swapped seats with us. The young woman, outwardly appearing white middle class attempted to sympathise "Well, I'm Jewish so I know how it feels" but she was one of the ones laughing when it was all kicking off. She overheard me talking to my friend about the unacceptable thing that had just happened and defended herself by saying it was nervous laughter. Dunno about you but I have never laughed when ANYONE has been racially abused. Could she have white privilege?

I'm not going to report this to Tell Mama UK. Y'see I'm not Muslim. I'm just brown. I wonder how many other non-Muslim people have had to endure an attack like that. I've received the odd tweet and word about friends and friends of friends having to defend themselves but how many other PoC are facing this kind of persecution? How many do not report? How many suffer in silence? I have respect for the organisation for making some of us aware of what is happening but I probably can't turn the other cheek, ever. I am hoping that standing up to these pricks will make them think twice about harassing another woman ever again. A man 'splained to me once how we were making it worse for ourselves by fighting back. No. If we don't, we maintain the status quo. Granted, some people find it more difficult than others and there are reasons why some people can't but I for one will shout and scream when my personal space is invaded. My body and time is mine. Random strange men do not have an automatic right to me.

What is it about men that allows them to behave towards women of colour in this way? My friend was also abused, no doubt, but she acknowledged the additional traumatic stress of racism. The two pronged attack that WoC contend with on a daily basis. They hurt us because we are women but also because we are not white. They see us as being relatively vulnerable compared to white women. They see us as easy pickings.

When the fascists attacked the pregnant Muslim woman in Paris, she appealed to them for the sake of her unborn child. They responded by kicking her repeatedly in the stomach. How could the foetus survive? I wonder if there is a huge Catholic campaign against fascists kicking unborn babies out of Muslim bellies. If there is, I'll be happy to hear it exists. Preserve those lives that are wanted.

However, it is worrying that the pregnant woman in Paris has become the focus of all the media regarding attacks on Muslims. Google 'Muslim woman attacked‘ and every story is about the forced miscarriage. Google ‘Muslim attacked‘ and bar one or two incidents, the focus is still on the same story. When our sister in India lost her life to a brutal gang rape, the media reported very little on other rapes and most people believed it was India's problem. Rapists did not stop raping, the media stopped reporting. It sensationalised a single case. That is what is happening now; Muslims and other non-whites like me are being attacked but as long as the problem lies with one pregnant woman in France, we can ignore it. Except how many people know she wasn't the only Muslim woman to have suffered in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil? I wonder what happened to the other three.

What about the 212 victims in the UK? We know some of them were mosques but I'd be interested to see the male/female ratio. There have been seventeen incidents of assault including 11 cases where racists attempted to remove Islamic clothing. I wonder if they are all women too.

This assault on women of colour, this war they have constructed, it is iniquitous. People in power, stop expecting those oppressed to find better ways of defending themselves and banish those who seek to oppress them.

Or else admit you "literally couldn't give a shit about it".

Left at the Lights can be found here.

Review: A History of Women’s Cricket

Posted: 02 Jul 2013 04:00 AM PDT

history of women's cricket, book review, duncanIsabelle Duncan’s new history of women’s cricket charts the game’s progress over the last 300 years.

Cricket is a game of statistics, but not everyone has a mind for data.

My own love of both men’s and women’s cricket is deep and unending (and well-documented on this site), but I cannot retain a stat for the life of me.

So when a first casual flick-through of Isabelle Duncan’s new history of women’s cricket revealed stat after stat, average after average, my heart sank.

However, on a deeper reading the data fit in beautifully with a greater description of the action on the field and the story behind the scenes.

Duncan's entertaining new book charts the rise of women's cricket from its inception to the game we know today.

Cricket has inspired some of the greatest sports writing ever committed to paper. Unfortunately, very little of this has been devoted to the women's game, and in her preface Duncan says she would like her book to help fill the "yawning gap in cricket literature."

This she does with consummate ease. The book does not, perhaps, reach the lyrical heights of a Cardus or Selvey, but it is a creditable attempt to shoehorn three centuries of achievement into just under 300 pages.

Duncan begins with the “Maids v Marrieds” matches of the eighteenth century, when single women took on their married counterparts, frequently in front of large crowds.

Women taking part in any sport at this time were usually viewed as curiosities, but at least they were allowed to compete.

By the time we reach the nineteenth century, attitudes had clearly changed. I challenge you to read the chapter on the Victorian era without raising your hackles.

Excerpts from an 1881 Birmingham Daily Mail article are typical of the time: “Cricket is essentially a masculine game. It can never be played properly in petticoats… let our women remain women instead of entering their insane physical rivalry with men."

"Girls of the future will be horny-handed, wide-shouldered, deep-voiced… and with biceps like a blacksmith's."

However, as Duncan describes, the Victorian era was also a time of great progress for women’s cricket, if only for the upper classes.

Duncan then goes on to outline each cricket-playing nation's history in relation to the women's game.

There are lengthy analyses of women's cricket in Australia, India, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, USA, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Some more surprising cricket-playing nations are also profiled, including Canada, France, Italy and Rwanda.

The long chapter devoted to the series and competitions in which England have participated both home and abroad is exhaustive and interesting, although occasionally Duncan strays into whimsy. In describing cricket in the sixties, for example, she peppers the text with as many Rolling Stones songs as possible.

Duncan insists that she is no "bra-burning, man-hating, equality-at-any-price virago", but there is no getting away from the fact that women's sport is a feminist and political issue.

In the excellent chapter, "MCC Bowl a Maiden Over", Duncan gives an eye-witness account of the trials and tribulations faced by women in their fight to gain entry to the Pavilion and Long Room at Lord's by becoming members of the MCC. Some of the shocking misogyny really made me gasp.

From a cricket-lover's point of view, I gained a lot from this book. I learned a great deal about the origins of the game for women and the personalities of both sexes involved in cricket’s promotion.

I cheered on the struggle of those determined to play, raising the money themselves to be able to tour, making the decision to put cricket at the centre of their lives. I was also pleasantly surprised at the number of male professionals over the years who have been vociferous advocates of women's cricket.

The book makes the reader realise how far women's cricket has come and this is incredibly heartening. I may lament the lack of of test cricket more recently in the women's game, but we do have a lot for which to be thankful.

Most cricket-playing countries are now taking their women's game seriously. There are more initiatives, more coaches and more teams than ever before. The profile of women's cricket in the media is on the rise, as is the popularity and availability of the game in schools.

If you are already a cricket fan this book will give you a warm glow. If you are yet to be convinced, I would urge you to give it a go. It may just change your view.

Duncan is donating 50 per cent of the royalties from “Skirting the Boundary” to the Chance to Shine charity, which aims to bring cricket to girls and boys in state schools.

The book is published by The Robson Press and is currently available in hardback.

Where are the women at music festivals?

Posted: 02 Jul 2013 01:09 AM PDT

music festivals, absence of womenUK music festivals are little more than a "sausage fest", says writer and guitarist Anya Pearson.

While it may be a rare occurrence for the sun to shine on revellers during the Glastonbury festival, the sun shone down on the Pyramid stage last weekend but sadly there was no exception to prevalence of male acts performing there.

Writing in the Guardian last week, Pearson claimed that "acts with women in are woefully underrepresented" and she went on to illustrate her point by editing the advertising posters for Glastonbury, Bestival, and Reading and Leeds festivals, removing all acts that do not contain at least one female band member.

The results, she describes, "are as striking as they are shocking: blank spaces flood what would otherwise be a crowded list of artists."

Perhaps surprisingly, Pearson's article revealed that Glastonbury is actually leading the way among the UK's most popular festivals, booking markedly more acts that contain women than some of their biggest rivals.

But don't get too excited.

On the Glastonbury poster for this year, only about a third (34 per cent) of all acts contained women – nothing less than a meagre attempt at equal representation – but this figure dwarfs the 21 per cent that will appear at Bestival and the downright disgraceful 17 per cent of acts that feature women at the Reading and Leeds festivals this year.

But even these figures belie the depth of the problem, because when you scrutinise the number of women appearing on the main stages at these festivals it reveals even greater inequality.

With the Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys, and Mumford Sons headlining Glastonbury this year, it was business as usual with the same old absence of female artists and the same old (men's) faces looking back at festivalgoers.

Over fifty men appeared on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage over the three days.

There were only eight women, the majority of whom were relegated to the quieter mid-afternoon slots.

But at Reading and Leeds the picture is far worse.

Over a hundred men will entertain festivalgoers from the Main Stage, including the all-male headliners Green Day, Eminem and Biffy Clyro.

How many women will you see there?

Five!

So is this unequal representation simply a direct consequence of the disparity within a music industry which is itself dominated by male acts?

This is certainly a very real possibility, but with Emeli Sande's ‘Our Version of Events’ 2013's top selling album so far, and Rihanna, Britney Spears, and Taylor Swift featuring in the five biggest selling singles of the year so far, we cannot doubt women's commerciality.

But while festivals like Bestival and Reading and Leeds – Glastonbury, of course, last year famously featured Beyonce on its Pyramid Stage – may reject the inclusion of mainstream pop acts like those named above, we need only consult music magazines like The Girls Are… to find that women are similarly present and popular in other genres too.

It seems to me that it is up to festival organisers to do a little more research to find female acts so that they can secure better (any?) gender representation on their stages; the success of Yoko Ono's Meltdown, which headlined Siouxsie, Patti Smith, and Peaches, is a testament to how it can be achieved.

Photographed as part of UK Feminista's Who Needs Feminism photos, one Glastonbury attendee wrote: "I need feminism because we need equal representation in all areas of society."

In the immortal words of Lena Horne, "Ain't it the truth"!