Women's Views on News |
- Rapid response: news and design
- Britain First begins training for violent encounters
- BT ads: no women please
| Rapid response: news and design Posted: 11 Jul 2014 06:58 AM PDT Rapid Response Collecting is a new strand to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collecting activity. Objects are collected in response to major moments in history that touch the world of design and manufacturing. The display, which will constantly change, will show how design reflects and defines how we live together today. Currently ranging from Christian Louboutin shoes in five shades of ‘nude’ to a cuddly toy wolf used as an object of political dissent; from the world’s first 3D-printed gun to a pair of Primark jeans or a piece of lift cable, each new acquisition raises a different question about globalisation, popular culture, political and social change, demographics, technology, regulation or the law. Displays complement the museum's permanent collections. There are many temporary displays around the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A), and they range in size from a single case to a room. The objects, however, have only recently been acquired and are part of the museum's new approach to collecting contemporary design and architecture, a new strategy that aims to help the the V&A engage with important events that shape, or are shaped by design, architecture and technology. The long-term result will be a permanent legacy of objects in the collection; future visitors and researchers will have access to material culture in the 21st century. Kieran Long, Senior Curator of Contemporary Architecture, Design and Digital at the museum, said: "The V&A has always strived to understand social history through objects of design, art and architecture, and with this new strategy we are bringing that social commitment to bear on the contemporary world." Objects in the opening display will include a sample of KONE UltraRope, a new lightweight lift cable. A new material which will enable lifts to travel 1000 metres in a single run, potentially transforming city skylines as buildings get slimmer and higher. The world's first 3D printed gun, 'the Liberator', designed by Texan Law student Cody Wilson, has up-ended discussions about the benefits of new manufacturing technologies and the unregulated sharing of designs online, and continues to make the news. A pair of jeans from Primark, acquired soon after the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1129 workers, will also be displayed. The factory made clothes for a number of major western brands including Primark, and the jeans are an example of the fast fashion that characterises the Bangladeshi textiles industry, but they are also material evidence of the Rana Plaza disaster. Corinna Gardner, the V&A’s Curator of Contemporary Product Design at the V&A and Curator of Rapid Response Collecting, said: "Much of the commentary in the media around the Rana Plaza disaster was about international labour laws, building control in Bangladesh and the responsibilities of global corporations and of consumers. "But at its heart was a material thing: a pair of jeans that you can buy on any British high street. "By bringing these designed objects into the museum we can explore contemporary issues and events that can seem remote or abstract." Then there's Eylure’s Katy Perry approved ‘Cool Kitty' false lashes. They may be available in your local chemist for less than £5, but these false eyelashes, endorsed by the American pop star Katy Perry, are works of extraordinary craftsmanship. They are made from real hair, knotted by hand on to the pieces of string which form the basis of the eyelashes. The V&A's pair are gift from Gethin Chamberlain, an investigative journalist who has written about the women who make the eyelashes in Indonesia. "It's a product that connects a very low-income woman working in pretty poor conditions to one of the most famous women in the world," Gardner said. This collecting strategy was shown for the first time through an exhibition at the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Long and Gardner invited Shenzhen citizens to choose an everyday object that could tell a visitor something important about present-day Shenzhen. “These objects together tell a story about that city in this moment and offer a broader, more wide-ranging portrait of one of the most interesting, fast-changing cities in the world today,” Gardner said. One of the objects on show was a bra without underwire. “Shenzhen is the electronic manufacturing hub of the world and many of the factory workers are female,” Gardner said. And she explained that security checks on the way in and out of the factory usually involve a metal detector, so workers choose to wear non-underwired bras in order to avoid beeping on the way through and having to undergo a physical search, where there is a high rate of abuse. “For me, the idea that a non-underwired bra is a valued currency in Shenzhen is a design narrative that tells you about the sexual politics of manufacturing in that city,” Gardner said. One of the benefits of this new approach is that the museum preserves objects that have little value in themselves and would therefore otherwise disappear. “Sometimes it can be these very banal objects that can go away and are impossible to retrieve, because lots of valuable things are kept by people,” said Long. “The kinds of things that Corinna [Gardner] was collecting in Shenzhen, if you tried to do that in two years' time, you wouldn’t find those things. They would have gone because the city changes so fast.”  |
| Britain First begins training for violent encounters Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:49 AM PDT
A recently-established anti-Islam group is said to be organising training in various fighting methods. The group, Britain First, unironically calling themselves “the voice of the Silent Majority“, so far appears to be another version of the English Defene League, the EDL. So another group for people with negative attitudes and prejudices towards Muslims to confirm each others’ biases, who embrace their hatred and encourage fear of Muslims in others. Until now the hate espoused by their members has been, although vitriolic, largely only verbal. That they are now arranging what have been dubbed “fight clubs” suggests that members of Britain First might be about to take things up a gear. You only need to take a look at the comments on their posts to see examples of Islamophobia and hate; comments on this recent post demanding a burqa ban include: “BAN IT – we don’t want it in England! Even shop assistants are wearing them in Boots, Fenwicks & M & S – I refuse to be served by anyone wearing one” “Don’t ban the burka ban the people who were [sic] them ok” “It feels like something evil is looking at me every time I come across some-one wearing a burka, do away with it, it is offensive to normal people.” The burqa is perhaps the most visible sign of Islam in the West, and is largely perceived as misogynist and restrictive. Conveniently, the voices of the women actually wearing them, who often protest that they do actually choose to do so, often go unheard. And one result of the high visibility of veil wearing is that it is Muslim women who have suffered the most abuse – verbal and physical – recently. Reports have consistently shown that Muslim women face more abuse than Muslim men, and includes people grabbing at their veils as well as shouting abuse and threats in the street. A police spokeswoman in Leicester, for example, told the Leicester Mercury there had been 11 instances of religiously-based abuse aimed at women in the past year. There had also been one incident of a man removing a woman's veil. The perception of Muslim women as simultaneously oppressed and in need of saving but being a threat to “British” life is both strange and dangerous. It seems that in the minds of Islamophobes, there is no such thing as a British Muslim. In the first case, veil-wearing can be used as an excuse to deride and abuse Islam and those who practice it; and in the second, it is pointed to as a visible example of ‘their’ perceived lack of integration with “ordinary” British life. But with so much hostility facing British Muslims since the tragic events of 9/11, it is no wonder they may choose to keep to themselves. Let us hope that, as with the EDL, Britain First eventually sputters to a halt and fades away. The alternative is much more alarming. And as Asma told Channel 4, “We’re fed up of everyone in the media going on and on about Muslims. Surely as a country, we’ve got much bigger problems to worry about?”  |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2014 01:09 AM PDT
I confess that I hate BT (British Telecom) as an organisation after its broadband 'customer service department' reduced me to tears over a broadband speed failure about 4 years ago. I ended my contract with the company and will never go back. So now that is out of the way, let's look at the latest ad from BT (see below). Every time I see it I still cannot identify any womenthat are actually deciding on choosing BT’s latest fibre optic internet service. Every conversation in this ad is had by men – a major Bechdel Test failure. There is one woman who talks about her friend who can ‘shop online’ and 'stream cheese' at the same time. At least I think that is what she says – please correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like her part in the ad was so unimportant, that no effort was made to ensure what she says is easily understood. And so, men talk about buffering and speeds and The Token Woman talks about online shopping. The other women in the ad are indulgently smiling at their men. My question is – am I the only woman who has researched, bought, left and negotiated with internet providers, and is on top of my speed? (I change my wi-fi channel to increase speed when needed and I am currently putting up with Sky – if the service grinds to a halt on one more Sunday, then I Will Not Be Happy). I think not. The women of my acquaintance regularly make decisions about internet speeds and quality – because we are writers/researchers/bloggers/working from home/just interested. And we need good quality internet connections. Something that BT seems to have completely missed. I am so glad not to be with BT any more. See the ad here. If you can bear it. To complain, click here.  |
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