Women's Views on News |
- Marking a grim milestone: Gaza Unsilenced
- Petition the government: help Yazidi women
- Gamer conduct online may explain sexism
- Why are we still celebrating the art of Eric Gill?
- Exhibition: Barbara Hepworth at Tate Britain
| Marking a grim milestone: Gaza Unsilenced Posted: 29 Jul 2015 08:30 AM PDT
Mark the first anniversary of the Israeli assault on Gaza – known for its horrific actions and numbers – over 2,250 killed, most civilians and perhaps a third of them children, thousands of families displaced, an infrastructure decimated – and mark how little accountability has come of it. The grim milestone has been marked with Block the Factory campaigns and protests shutting down UK-based Israeli arms factories, with calls to stop arming Israel and establish a two-way arms embargo, with painful recognition of the enduring trauma suffered by too many children, with an in-depth retrospective by Ha’aretz, and with considerable commentary, and considerable silence. And also with the launch of Gaza Unsilenced, an anthology of Gazan voices, photos, writing and art seeking to tell “the story of what happens when, despite an ability to do so, powerful nations choose to remain silent.” In its powerful introduction, its editors – Gazans who were living abroad during the assault – explore the baffling discourse in mainstream media that Gazan residents who had already endured years of siege, blockade and brutal “put-them-on-a-diet” rhetoric by Israeli leaders, were “by some perverse and morally vacuous logic…’to blame’ for their suffering.” They are also careful not to portray Gazans as simply “passive victims to be pitied, starving, impoverished, silenced into submission,” nor to see their task as advocating the mere rebuilding of “the laboratory, the holding pen, the ghetto” without dismantling the power structures behind it. For during and after Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, voices within and outside Gaza bore powerful witness to the Israeli attacks – and to the effects of the crushing siege that has continued to strangle Gaza's people long afterwards. The co-editors, Laila El-Haddad and Refaat Alareer, are distinguished Palestinian writers and analysts. In Gaza Unsilenced they present reflections, analysis, and images – their own, and those of many other contributors – that record the pain and resilience of Gaza's Palestinians and the solidarity they have received from Palestinians and others around the world. Among the contributors are Shahd Abusalama, Sarah Algherbawi and Sarah Ali, Ramzi Baroud, Diana Buttu, Lina H. Al-Sharif, Zeina Azzam, Hana Baalousha, Esther Rappaport and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha. Laila El-Haddad is also the author of Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between – and co-author of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, which was named Arab Cuisine Book of the Year 2012 by Gourmand magazine. El-Haddad was born in Kuwait and raised mainly in Saudi Arabia, where her parents worked; but the whole family summered each year in her parents’ hometown, Gaza City. She received her BA from Duke University, her MPP from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and from 2003-2007, she was the Gaza stringer for the Al Jazeera English website, a regular contributor to the BBC and the Guardian online, and a radio correspondent for Pacifica's Free Speech Radio News. While in Gaza, she co-directed two documentaries, one of which was the award-winning film Tunnel Trade. A running theme in El-Haddad’s writing is the personalisation of the situation of Gazans and other Palestinians. “This story is not simply the story of a 51-day attack (or) of an Orwellian world where war is peace and victims are villains… “Gaza is the example of what happens when we fail to hold our leaders accountable… “And if we aren’t moved to act in solidarity, or at the very least speak out, then we have lost everything.”  |
| Petition the government: help Yazidi women Posted: 29 Jul 2015 07:55 AM PDT
The plight of the thousands of Yazidi women, teenagers and girls kidnapped by ISIS and forced into sexual slavery is heartbreaking and sickening, yet the UK government has not committed to make any concrete effort to help rescue these people. Former Foreign Secretary William Hague may have enjoyed hobnobbing with Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie, at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict 2014, held in London, but apart from basking in the glow of Hollywood celebrity he has since achieved little. Referred to scathingly as Hague's 'Rape Summit’ the event has been described by some as 'a costly failure', given that incidences of rape and sexual violence actually increasing in many areas, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. His goal of reducing sexual violence against women in some of the world’s war zones may well take time, as his supporters insist, but there is something that could be done now. Enter student Rozin Khalil Hanjool, a 17 year-old Yazidi who lives in Coventry. She has launched a petition on Change.org to urge the UK government to honour its promise to help protect women in Syria and Iraq, and to help rescue the thousands of Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS. At the time of writing, the petition has already over 100,000 signatures. In her petition, she writes: "More than 3,000 Yazidi women and girls have been kidnapped by ISIS in Northern Iraq. They have been raped and tortured by their captors. Last week three girls, who managed to escape, visited London and told their stories. "Now that we have heard the stories of what is happening to these girls, we must help them. There is a lot that the UK Government can do, that’s why I have started this petition. "When I hear what has happened to these girls I cry. It is my worst nightmare. I know girls as young as 12 have been taken. If I was there now I would be so so scared. "Many girls have managed to escape but they are scattered in refugee camps and getting little help. They are scared and traumatised, some are pregnant. They need medical help, psychological support and rehabilitation. "Last year Angelina Jolie came to London and the UK Government held a Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Government promised to “provide greater support and protection to survivors of sexual violence, including children”. "We must ask the UK government to keep their promise." Hopefully Hajool's petition will gather enough support to prompt the government to commit to their promise to help tackle sexual violence in conflict. It doesn't necessarily take a multi-million start-studded bash to raise awareness and get the job done. Just do it. Click here to sign the petition.  |
| Gamer conduct online may explain sexism Posted: 29 Jul 2015 02:42 AM PDT
Gamer's online behaviour can identify some of the factors that trigger online sexist trolling, according to recent research from the University of New South Wales in Australia. In a nutshell, evolutionary biology theory hinges on the existence of hierarchical structures, and according to this study when women enter and disrupt these structures – in a gaming context in this instance – the low-achieving males tend to get angry and lash out at the women. Interestingly, the low-achieving males are seemingly deferential towards the high-achieving males at the top of the pecking order. And the high-achieving males are ‘totally cool’ with the female players, presumably because they are either too skilled to be phased by their presence or they view them as potential mates. Or both. The study, ‘Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behaviour’, was conducted by Michael M. Kasumovic and Jeffrey H. Kuznekoff and was published in the PLOS ONE journal. And it shines a light on male online hostility towards women, which is so depressingly prolific. They write: "Low-status males that have the most to lose due to a hierarchical reconfiguration are responding to the threat female competitors pose. "High-status males with the least to fear were more positive, suggesting they were switching to a supportive, and potentially, mate attraction role." Kasumovic went into more detail in an interview for Wired, and said that: "Think about STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] fields, for example, or construction, or medical professions. Wherever there's going to be a male bias sex ratio, there'll probably be this strong hierarchy and a very aggressive way for men to ensure their status above women." You don't have to look too far to see examples of this behaviour. Just look at the recent furore at Reddit HQ, where interim CEO Ellen Pao was forced to resign after what was arguably "one of the largest trolling attacks in history". To cut a long and convoluted story short, Pao was spearheading an anti-harassment scheme on Reddit, and had shut down some of the nastier sections of the site that were encouraging harassment, including revenge porn, racist and fat shaming groups. This irked some 200,000-plus users who then signed a petition to get rid of Pao, under the pretext that she was 'incompetent' and had sacked a well-loved Reddit employee, Victoria Taylor, who ran the wildly popular Ask Me Anything section. Actually, Pao wasn't responsible for Taylor's sacking, but why let that fact get in the way of a good bout of woman-bashing? Pao has been replaced by the new CEO of Reddit, Steve Huffman, but not before being subjected to a 'sickening' tidal wave of racist and sexist abuse, including rape and death threats. Sam Biddle wrote in Gawker: “[…] this is Reddit. To the site's super-dedicated core, an overwhelmingly male group of very vocal power-users whose understanding of progressive politics is limited to the idea that their pirated ecchi torrents have just as much a right to bandwidth as Netflix, few things are more offensive than being told what to do by a woman.” Again, this is something that is depressingly familiar online. And it is not just online. As Holly Brockwell, editor-in-chief of women’s tech website Gadgette wrote recently in the Guardian, "When I went to a tech trade show this year, I saw half-dressed booth babes used as decoration. At the next one, a huge global firm asked me to flash my breasts to try their new smartwatch, followed by skipping me repeatedly in the queue in favour of men." And she added: "If you're thinking "not this again", you're not alone. "Even those of us who are fiercely pro-equality have felt fatigue towards the topic lately, with endless words analysing the issue from every angle. "But societal changes take a serious amount of time to propagate and we seem to be expecting a quick fix." But to come back to Kasumovic and Kuznekoff's study; perhaps there is a way forward. By recognising the role social hierarchies played in determining online behaviour, then minimising those social structures we could in turn reduce sexism. And if this translated into real-life situations, such as male-dominated professions, then we could eventually see more gender equality in the workplace and on the internet. Here’s hoping…  |
| Why are we still celebrating the art of Eric Gill? Posted: 29 Jul 2015 02:29 AM PDT
I watched the BBC programme ‘How to be Bohemian’ recently and discovered for the first time the story of Eric Gill, ‘one of the most respected British sculptors of the 20th century’. As well as being described as ‘bohemian’ he was also described as a sexual deviant; he said in his own diaries he had had sex with his teenage daughters, as well as his sister and even his own dog. Eric Gill (1882 – 1940) was an English sculptor, typeface designer and printmaker. During his lifetime his work was much celebrated. With many sexual undertones his work also focused on the religious. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 31. Gill's perversions were brought to life in 1989 in a biography by Fiona MacCarthy who had been given access to his private diaries. A biography that was described in a New York Times review as "a very odd book. One doesn’t quite know whether to admire ”Eric Gill: A Lover’s Quest for Art and God” for its generosity and broadmindedness or to inveigh against it for its moral blindness." Moral blindness is the key phrase here, because it seems vast quantities of it surround Gill's work to this day. Eric Gill's statue of Prospero and Ariel currently adorns the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London. His Creation of Adam is in the Palais des Nations, the headquarters of the United Nations in Europe. The Tate Britain currently showcases his sculpture Ecstasy. And four years ago a special exhibition of his work was displayed at the British Museum. If you want, to you can even buy some of his handiwork. In 1998 Margaret Kennedy, who campaigns for Ministers and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors (MACSAS), called for his sculpture Stations of the Cross to be removed from Westminster Cathedral, but was not successful. A BBC news magazine article published in 2007 quoted Bishop George Stack, a former administrator of Westminster Cathedral, as saying “There was no consideration given to taking these down. A work of art stands in its own right. Once it has been created it takes on a life of its own.” But does it? Should that really be the case? Is it possible to still value highly the work of an artist whose private life you find abhorrent? One question I had when reading about Gill was what had become of his daughters. An obituary of Petra Tegetmeier, his middle daughter, which I found in the Independent, describes a woman who had led a happy and fulfilled life. It also says; "When Fiona MacCarthy’s biography Eric Gill (1989) revealed, from the evidence of Gill’s diaries, his sexual relations with his two eldest daughters Petra remained unflappable in the face of media furore. She made it clear that her own attitude to sex had not been harmed. The sisters had never been made to feel shame." An obituary in the Guardian went even further; "A remarkable aspect of those liaisons with Petra is that she seems not only to have been undamaged by the experience, but to have become the most calm, reflective and straightforward wife and mother. When I asked her about it shortly before her 90th birthday, she assured me that she was not at all embarrassed – ‘We just took it for granted’." Shame is an interesting concept. Does the lack of shame suffered by a child who has been sexually abused by their father in any way assuage his actions? Because Tegetmeier said she was ultimately okay, does that somehow lessen Gill's wrongdoing? The simple answer, certainly here in 2015, should be no. I enjoy art and understand its importance in our lives, but I find it hard to countenance the idea that a piece of art is worth more in significance than the actions of the man who created it. The news that past calls for Gill's work to be removed from places such as Westminster Cathedral and the BBC fell on deaf ears does not surprise me, but I wonder if the same thing would happen now? In days gone by a man behaving like Eric Gill was allowed to live his life unchecked. Sadly, this has been the case even more recently, with men such as Jimmy Savile getting away with abusing children for decades, protected for reasons no one understands. But now, in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, should the BBC really have the work of an abusive man adorning one of its buildings? Artwork produced by Rolf Harris, who was sentenced for indecent acts against children in 2014, has been removed from countless places. In an interview in The Telegraph one owner of one of his paintings explained what he planned to do with a painting by Harris, "I'm planning a bonfire.. my preparedness to have Rolf Harris's daubs on my wall is affected by my views of the man." And perhaps that sums it up perfectly. Knowing what I now know about Eric Gill I do not want to see any artwork his hands produced, and I cannot help but wonder if thousands of people would feel the same if they knew what he had done? Ultimately, there are enough excellent artists out there whose work could replace Gill's. Certainly on places as prominent as the BBC's Broadcasting House, Westminster Cathedral and the European headquarters of the United Nations.  |
| Exhibition: Barbara Hepworth at Tate Britain Posted: 29 Jul 2015 02:10 AM PDT
Tate Britain is currently holding the first major London retrospective for almost half a century of the work of Barbara Hepworth. One of Britain's greatest artists, Barbara Hepworth (1903-75) was a leading figure of the international modern art movement in the 1930s, and one of the most successful sculptors in the world during the 1950s and 1960s. This major retrospective emphasises Hepworth's often overlooked prominence in the international art world. Several key moments reflect the internationalism of her career. She showed in New York at the Durlacher Galleries as early as 1949, and in 1950 represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 1955 an exhibition of her work organised by the influential Martha Jackson Gallery – a New York dealer representing the abstract expressionists among others – opened at the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, and then toured to diverse public institutions in the United States and Canada, including Nebraska, San Francisco, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal and Baltimore. Four years later she won the Grand Priz for sculpture at the São Paulo Biennial, after which her works toured several Latin American countries, including Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. It is significant that her work found an audience in Latin America – a recognition, perhaps, of the beauty and perfection of its forms that spoke to a particular, abstract idea of modernism. It also highlights the different contexts and spaces in which Hepworth developed and presented her work, from the studio to the landscape. The exhibition features over 100 works, from Hepworth's major carvings and bronzes to her less-familiar works. It opens with Hepworth's earliest surviving carvings from the 1920s, such as Doves 1927, alongside works by predecessors and peers from Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore to lesser known contemporaries. Comparisons with works such as Figure of a Woman 1929–30 reveal how Hepworth related to a wider culture of wood and stone carving between the wars. Living together in Hampstead, London, Hepworth and her second husband Ben Nicholson made works in dialogue, and here major carvings including Kneeling Figure 1932 and Large and Small Form 1934 are shown with paintings, prints and drawings by Nicholson and rarely seen textiles, drawings, collages and photograms by Hepworth. Photo albums compiled by Hepworth and Nicholson show the two artists with their works, demonstrating a shared idea of life integrated with art. In the later 1930s, as part of an international avant-garde brought together through exhibitions and magazines, Hepworth made more purely abstract work. A display of the majority of Hepworth's surviving carvings of this period includes Discs in Echelon 1935 and Single Form 1937-8 alongside the journals in which they featured among artists such as Alberto Giacometti and Piet Mondrian. In the mid-1940s in St Ives, Cornwall, Hepworth began making sculptures in wood, for example Pelagos 1946, which expressed her response to her new surroundings. These are set alongside her two-dimensional work: the abstract works on paper of the early 1940s and her figurative 'hospital drawings' of 1947-8, both expressing in different ways utopian ideals. A selection of photographs and film reveals the different ways in which Hepworth presented or imagined her sculpture – in architecture, in landscape, in a gallery, in the garden and on stage – and the impact such varied stagings have on the work's interpretation. Four large carvings in the sumptuous African hardwood guarea (1954-5), arguably the highpoint of Hepworth's carving career, are reunited for this exhibition. In the post-war period, Hepworth's sculpture became a prominent feature on the international art scene. The exhibition also displays bronzes from her 1965 retrospective at the Kröller-Müller Museum, staged within a partial reconstruction of the pavilion originally designed by Gerrit Rietveld. 'Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World' runs until 25 October 2015 at the Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries, and open daily from 10.00-18.00.  |
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