Women's Views on News |
| Looking at feminists getting older Posted: 19 Dec 2013 05:35 AM PST
Birbeck College held a public seminar on 16 December, to think about ageing. Called 'Temporal Vertigo: The Paradoxes of Ageing’, the idea was for discussions aimed at confronting our fears and prejudices around old age, as well as to pnder about the paradoxes of memory, forms of resistance, and the desires and unexpected delights that accompany the inevitable heartbreak and losses of any long life. The speakers were lawyer Helena Kennedy (chair); Mandy Merck, Royal Holloway's Professor of Media Arts; Professor Laura Mulvey from Birbecks department of film and media studies; art historian, activist and independent scholar Simon Watney, Daniel Monk, Matt Cook, Stephen Frosh, Avery Gordon and Lynne Segal. The discussion was followed by a film screening of 'Strangers in Good Company', made in Canada in 1990 and directed by Cynthia Scott. It tells the story of 7 elderly women and one 27 year-old who become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives – mostly actually ad-lib and reflecting on their own lives. This event was to coincide with the publication of Lynne Segal's new book 'Out of Time: The Pleasures and the Perils of Ageing'. Since the second wave of the women's movement began in the late 1960s and 1970s, feminists have re-examined the myths and stereotypes, the stigmas and truisms of every phase of the life cycle. Yet little has been said or done for older generations of women. In 'Out of Time: the Pleasures and the Perils of Ageing', feminist activist, writer and scholar Lynne Segal mixes memoir, literature and polemic to examine the assumptions and taboos that constrain us as we age. It is a profound and sympathetic investigation of ageing, in life and literature. Segal examines her life and surveys the work and lives of other writers and artists to explore the pleasures and perils of growing old, mixing memoir, literature and polemic to examine the inevitable consequences of staying alive. Who is that stranger who stares back from the mirror? What happens to ambition and sexuality? As millions of baby boomers approach their sixth or seventh decade, these questions are becoming increasingly urgent. Must the old always be in conflict with the young? How can we deal with the inevitability of loss and find victory in survival? ‘Out of Time’ is an urgent and necessary corrective to the assumptions and taboos that constrain the lives of the aged. In her exuberant 2007 memoir, 'Making Trouble: Life and Politics', Segal described the many radical causes she has been involved in, starting with a group called the Sydney Push in her native Australia. She goes on to give an amused, affectionate portrait of the socialist-feminist politics of the 1970s, charting the ideological schisms, the politics of penetration and the complex sexual arrangements. In 'Out of Time' Segal looks at feminists in their advancing years, as Joan Bakewell, reviewing the book, wrote in the Independent recently: she singles them out for particular attention and she is well qualified to do so. After arriving from Australia in 1970 Segal was drawn to the communal life of radical women. She went on the first International Women's Day in March 1971 and remained political active in the cause. She has contributed importantly to the literature of gender studies – ‘Is the Future Female?’ and ‘Why Feminism? Gender, Psychology, Politics’ are among her works. If you have vested your ideas in the pursuit of a specific world view and lived your life accordingly, then how you address old age will be coloured by that perspective. Segal, Bakewell concludes, has chronicled how that feels.  |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2013 01:09 AM PST
by Adele M. Stan, RH Reality Check's senior Washington correspondent. If the world needed any further evidence of the public-relations prowess of Pope Francis, it was granted by Time magazine on Wednesday [11 December], with a fawning profile and bestowal of its Person of the Year Award on the current occupant of the throne of St. Peter. Explaining the rationale for the magazine's choice of Francis, writer Howard Chua-Eoan, narrating a video produced by the magazine, says, "The fact that he's given so many people so much hope and inspiration in the last nine months—it's only been nine months—no one else has done that this year." Yet it is that very hope that fills me with despair, for it is hope destined to be dashed. Based on nothing much—just appealing optics and some pretty words—the hope offered by Francis is mere cover for an institution that models, in the guise of holiness, the very sort of patriarchal rule over half the world's population that facilitates violence against women, as well as their impoverishment and oppression. It is a model the pope has stated he has no intention of changing. While Evangelii Gaudium, the papal manifesto released last month by the Vatican, excited progressives with its critique of capitalism and condemnation of trickle-down economic theories, the document, known as an "apostolic exhortation," flatly stated that allowing women to enter the priesthood "is not a topic open to discussion." He also affirmed, in that document, the church's strict prohibition on abortion under any circumstances, and tacitly endorsed church teaching on the sinfulness of sex between two men or two women. Chua-Eoan, who co-authored with Elizabeth Dias Time's profile of Pope Francis, admits as much in the video. "Everyone's saying he's going to allow divorced Catholics to have Communion, he's going to open the church to gay people, he's going to be much more open about abortion, but he actually never said any of that," Chua-Eoan says in the video. "He was just being more open so that these people are willing to come back to the church, without having to deal with the actual rules." What got people so filled with the notion that the pope represented the kind of change they could believe in was a masterful bit of public relations executed via an interview, published in English in the Jesuit magazine 'America', that he gave to Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of 'La Civiltà Cattolica'. In his discussion with Spadaro, the pope said it was not for him to judge gay people, and he urged compassion for women who have had abortions or gotten divorced. In all of his utterances since winning the papal throne, Francis has urged a change in tone, style, and rhetoric—away from condemnation of those who have sinned, and a more full-throated proclamation of the church's longstanding "preferential option for the poor." I do not mean to suggest that the pope is insincere in his concern for the poor; I have little doubt that he is earnest in his desire to see the church better, and more loudly, defend them. For all I know, it may have been the pope's exhortation that permitted Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the very Catholic House Budget Chairman, to momentarily turn his back on his Ayn Randian, Koch-backed sponsors to hammer out a budget agreement that will save Head Start. If so, that's a good thing. It is important, nonetheless, to note that this emphasis also serves another of the church's needs: the remaking of its image at a time when it is losing members in the more developed nations, and competing for souls with Islam and Protestant Christian sects in the developing world. This loss and competition is taking place against a backdrop of scandal—multiple scandals, really, that include, but are not limited to, the massive sexual abuse of children by priests long covered up by church leaders, and the pit of corruption that is the Vatican Bank. (The pope does seem to be taking serious steps to clean up the latter.) And so we see a great public relations campaign to highlight the pope's "humility"—his refusal to live in the opulent papal apartments, his photo ops with the poor and infirm, his washing of the feet of convicts, and even a story leaked by one of his underlings asserting that the pope secretly slips out of the Vatican at night to minister to homeless people. Members of the media are beside themselves, as are many progressives—particularly progressive men—who gush that a new day has dawned in the church. Raise the subject of the pope's affirmation of the church's exclusion of women from any form of meaningful leadership, or of the cruelty of the church's opposition to any form of reproductive freedom—doctrine that often finds its way into the laws of nations—and you're all but told to shut up and wait. In their Time profile, Chua-Eoan and Dias write: ‘Francis is aware of the liberal clamor in the affluent West for the ordination of women. He also recognizes that Catholic doctrine, as it is currently formulated, cannot be made to justify women as priests’. When I was a child, Catholic doctrine, as it was then formulated, could not be made to justify eating a hamburger on Friday without penalty, should one die without confessing that mortal sin, of eternal damnation. And guess what? They managed to change that. (I can't remember what then happened to the souls of those burning in Hell for having had a slice of pepperoni on a Friday.) Next year, an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, called by the pope, will convene in Rome. If Pope Francis has any intention of rendering Catholic doctrine on church leadership into a morally acceptable form—one that affirms the equality of all people in the eyes of God—it will come to light then. But I wouldn't count on it. Time magazine, in the title of its Person of the Year profile of Pope Francis, dubbed him "the people's pope." If by "people," you don't mean women, I guess that could work. A version of this article appeared in Reality Check on 11 December. Follow Adele M. Stan on twitter: @addiestan  |
| Posted: 18 Dec 2013 06:22 AM PST
A survey by campaign group Let Toys Be Toys shows ’girls’ and ’boys’ signs are falling out of favour in toy stores. Throughout November Let Toys Be Toys supporters across the UK and Ireland carried out a survey designed to gauge the impact of the toys and gender campaign. According to the survey the proportion of shops using ’girls’ and ’boys’ signs has reduced by 60 per cent compared with last Christmas when the campaign began, dropping from half of all shops a year ago to just a fifth today. Hobbycraft topped the list of stores marketing toys without relying on gender stereotypes and was named the ’best of the high street’ by the campaign, with second and third place going to Toymaster and Fenwick. Fenwick, Debenhams and TK Maxx were named as the most improved stores, all having recently decided to stop using girls and boys signs. Kerry Brennan, one of the Let Toys Be Toys campaign founders, said, ”While there's still a long way to go to address sexism in the toy industry, the changes in major retail chains like Debenhams are just brilliant to see. They’ve replaced pink and blue ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ signs with new colourful signs that say ‘Vehicles’, ‘Superheroes’, ‘Soft Toys’, and ‘TV Characters’, among others. Everything is much easier to find and children are no longer being sent the message that science and adventure are only for boys, crafts and nurturing play only for girls. “Through the grass roots efforts of a small group of dedicated volunteers, the support of over ten thousand parents and educators, and the willingness of many retailers to listen to the concerns of their customers, a year after the campaign began we can clearly see the difference that consumer voices are making on this issue.” The worst shop in the survey was Morrisons; in general supermarkets were shown to favour stereotyping the most, while independent toy stores were the least likely to use gender stereotypes. Of the fourteen major retailers contacted by the Let Toys Be Toys campaign in 2013 and asked to remove ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ signage from shop floors or own-brand toy packaging, seven have already done so (Hobbycraft, Boots, TK Maxx, The Entertainer, Debenhams, Fenwick, Next) and five are in the process of doing so (Toys R Us, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons). The survey results are not all good news for the campaign however. Just over 70 per cent of stores still used some kind of gender cues, with 40 per cent of stores using gender to sell the majority of their toys. "We still have a way to go,” said Rebecca Brueton, Let Toys Be Toys campaigner. “We made getting rid of the signs our priority this year and the survey shows it's working. “Even so, you can still find plenty of shops promoting outdated and limiting ideas, giving children the message that science is only for boys and creativity for girls for example. “This is the twenty-first century. We wouldn't accept such outdated thinking for adults. Why do we tolerate it for our children?" The full Let Toys Be Toys Survey Report and Review of 2013 is available here. To sign the petition asking retailers in the UK and Ireland to remove gender labels and organise toys by genre not gender, click here.  |
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