Archive for September, 2006

This is Not Art

Published by
Anna
at September 28, 2006 in fanfare, media and pop-culture. 2 Comments

I’m going to be on a panel at this years, TINA National Student and Emerging Media Conference in Newcastle this weekend, discussing whether feminist media is still relevant. Details below:

Grrrl Media
Pan Upstairs Front - Friday 1:30pm to 3pm
Is feminist media still relevant? Does it have a place and does it have a future? How is it changing and evolving and how should it change and evolve?

I think I will talk about the importance of the electronic medium in forming virtual communities and the importance of self-publishing and feminist-focussed blogs in communicating ideas, news, dissent etc. I think there’s still a ways to go with that in Australia.

Anyhoo, maybe I’ll see you there ;p

Bits and pieces

Published by
Anna
at September 26, 2006 in things to read. 3 Comments

Safia Amajan, chief of the Woman’s Affairs department in Afghanistan was killed by suspected Taliban gunmen today.

The BBC reports that her requests for secure transport and bodyguards was rejected but The New York Times says she chose to travel in taxis to avoid being conspicuous.

Ms. Amajan preferred to take a taxi or public transport so as not to draw attention to herself, even though her office had cars and drivers, her nephew said. “She wanted to keep a low profile,” he said. “We wanted her to come and live with us in town, but she used to say, ‘If it’s God’s will, they will take me anywhere.’”

Further to my post on skinny models, in August this year a Uruguayan model died of heart failure after her turn on the catwalk during Fashion Week in Montevideo, Uruguay. Her father told police that she had gone several days without eating.

A study has found that women are more likely to orgasm if they are graduates, speak English at home, have a managerial/professional occupation or have sex with other women.

And finally, Mark Latham is a moron:

“Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and tossbags,” Mr Latham writes in A Conga Line of Suckholes, published today.

Mr Latham, who left politics after leading Labour to defeat at the last general elections in 2004, blamed changes in the workplace and family, a rise in left-wing feminism and the prominence of neo-conservatism for creating “a crisis in male identity” and “debilitating” Australia’s language.

Conference of the Imams

Published by
Sarah
at September 24, 2006 in Politics. 1 Comment

Last weekend I attended the first ever conference for Australian Imams organized by the Australian Government in Sydney. Anna has been bugging me to write about my experiences there for a while.

So I thought I should jot some notes on this seminal event, closed as it was to the media (who were shushed away soon after the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb’s speech.)

It touched on all those themes which Australian media has been frothing over in recent times- integration, “Australian values”, muslims, and the role of Imam’s and religious bodies in condoning and condemning extremism.

Continue reading ‘Conference of the Imams’

Mukhtaran’s Blog

Published by
Sarah
at September 24, 2006 in Politics, World and rape. 0 Comments

Pakistani women’s rights activist Mukhtaran Mai has a blog on the BBC. Check it out.

Mukhtaran Mai became a heroine after her dogged pursuit of justice in presenting court testimony after surviving a gang rape ordered by village elders in 2002.

I hope this lets Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf know you can’t swan around talking about “enlightened moderation” and promoting book deals if these problems continue to occur. That the “rape thing” is not just going to float away. The issue needs to be addressed even if it makes you uncomfortable. If shaming the country by airing dirty laundry is what it is going to take than that’s what will happen.

Now that i’ve had a a go at one of the only moderately “not-psycho fundo” leaders of Pakistan i’ll continue my decline by ranting at the “concerned” western audience.

Giving Mukhataran Mai autonomy and a voice is a great step in preventing women like Mukhataran becoming pawns and silent victims in the war of ideologies. It avoids the paternalism that proliferates amongst western critics of Islam and even certain feminists (who when their critiques are used to justify imperialism only succeed in becoming class collarationists.)

The focus should be on change from within, on empowering people to empower themselves…not bombing them to empower them which is… uhh kind of wrong and warped.

Via Feministing

Arranged or Deranged?

Published by
Sarah
at September 20, 2006 in wtf?!. 1 Comment

Thought i’d share this hilarious article on Arranged marriages in the muslim community by Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times.

It describes a “matrimonial function” held by an Islamic organisation aimed at hooking up young muslim singles and prevent the devilish enticements of pre-marital dating and other unmentionables.

Organised by the likes of the “Mothers Against Dating” it is an attempt to maintain traditional values in a Wild world.

One of the mothers Ameena Jandali describes dating “as  traps of the Devil to pull us in and we have no idea we are even going that way”.

I must admit the way these older mothers or “aunts” as we would call them, continue to pursue their dastardly matrimonial plans in a world of Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City has its admirable points. They’re truly unstoppable. 

I for one have always lamented the waste of these female talents expiring in the limited world of this domestic sphere.

How waylaid these nefarious skills were! (the ominous picture in the front of the article of the desi mother leaning in before her hapless son is truly scary.)

If only these skills could be tapped into! The machiavellian machinations and double dealings would not be out of place in politics or the corporate world.

Alas.

Reminds me of an article i wrote a while back which caused a scandal for the subcontinental paper i was working for “Arranged or Deranged?”

You be the judge.

Blogwars and boobs

Published by
Anna
at September 18, 2006 in Politics, blogging and sexism. 5 Comments

The American blogosphere erupted over the weekend into something that has now been dubbed “Boobiegate”.

According to one Ann Althouse, an American legal blogger of dubious recognition, a woman ought not to have boobs when going to meet a former president. Yes, that’s right, leave them at home gals. And a woman sure as hell shouldn’t have boobs if said woman is a feminist, because feminists shouldn’t have boobs or be attractive. That is the domain of conservative women only.

Read on.
Continue reading ‘Blogwars and boobs’

Holy White Australia Policy

Published by
Anna
at September 16, 2006 in Politics and racism. 5 Comments

I really just want to write a string of expletives about this. But I won’t because that would be unprofessional.

IMMIGRANTS will need more than just a reasonable command of English if they want to become Australian citizens - a basic knowledge of cricket may also help.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said yesterday a discussion paper on the new citizenship test, to be released tomorrow with an accompanying advertising campaign, would propose quizzing aspiring citizens’ language skills as well as their grasp of Australia’s history, culture and values.

It seems the PM is not only nostalgic for the white picket fences of his youth but also for the days of the White Australia Policy. How disturbing. And I blame Beazley. Wedge politics indeed.

Ultra-skinny models banned from the catwalk in Madrid

Published by
Anna
at September 15, 2006 in eating disorders and fashion. 9 Comments

Madrid’s regional council has banned models who did not have a healthy BMI, or Body Mass Index from performing at Madrid Fashion Week.

I really hope this heralds a change in the accepted norms within the fasion industry. It’s time they took responsibility for the effect the bombardment of images of thin models and actresses has on young girls. And if they don’t, perhaps regulation is the answer. Just as they regulated tobacco advertising and are now campaigning to regulate junk food advertising due to the obesity “epidemic”, as they’ve taken to calling it.

I think that the epidemic of young women having extremely unhealthy views and practices regarding their bodies has been long overlooked. The problem is, it’s not just in advertising, it’s everywhere. The promotion of starvation is everywhere. It will take a major revolution to tackle that and the actions of the Madrid regional council are a good place to start.

Some models claimed last year that if they put on weight they would ruin their employment opportunities, hopefully it gets to the point where if they lost too much weight it would also threaten those opportunities.

And not only are they intending to ban any model who has a BMI of less than 18 but will also urge unhealthily thin women to seek medical treatment.

Esther Cañadas, Spain’s best-known model, does not qualify under the new rules as she is said to have a BMI of only 14. Almost a third of the women lined up appear to have been barred. The council promised that a nutritional expert would be on hand to check every model taking part in the shows, and that any woman found to have a BMI of below 16 would receive medical treatment.

Vice-president of the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, Jesús del Pozo, said that about 40 per cent of last years models would have been exempt from the event had the rules been in place then.

During Australian fashion week this year, as Salon.com reports, designer Leesa Fogharty went against the grain by using healther looking models to show her swimwear. The event drew criticism and gasps and giggles from the crowd who reportedly seemed repulsed by healthy looking women. And what bodies so offended their sensibilities? See over the fold.

Continue reading ‘Ultra-skinny models banned from the catwalk in Madrid’

It’s hard to believe that this is for real

Published by
Anna
at September 14, 2006 in raunch and wtf?!. 0 Comments

This is a couple of days old but I’ve been a wee bit busy lately.

Victorian Target stores are leading the charge in Australia for the sexualisation of young girls, by selling padded bra and pant sets to children as young as six. This disgusts me in so many ways.

Tiny matching lingerie sets of lacy bras and knickers in many children’s brands including Bratz, Saddle Club and Barbie, have hit the shelves aimed at girls who are barely old enough for school.

The Bratz padded “bralettes” (pictured below) were among 30 different styles in the stores and, I haven’t been to target in a while but I’d say they probably feature in stores throughout Australia.

The Bratz distributor Funtastic had this to say about the underwear:

“The idea of the padding is for girls to be discreet as they develop,” a spokeswoman said.

“It is more about hiding what you have got than showing it off. It is certainly not there to make children look like they have breasts.”

I don’t know exactly what they think a six-year-old has got to be discrete about. And for those who are older- giving young girls the message that they should be ashamed about developing into an adolescent is not a good message to be putting across in any case.

And, I call bullshit.

“It is more about hiding what you have got than showing it off.” The rest of their products are promoting exactly this sexualisation of children.

This range of Bratz Babyz dolls leaves me a bit speechless:

What the hell is that?! I don’t get why anyone thought dressing up children’s toys like prostitutes, especially when said toys are toy babies, was a good idea. I’m seriously baffled. Apparently these baby prostitutes feature “milk bottles hanging off chains strapped to their legs.”

“Childhood experts” have slammed the dolls as verging on child pornography and I can’t say I disagree. Even though, the dolls aren’t real, it exposes children to sexualisation as far as the influences it has on them and how they develop their ideas about who they’re supposed to be, how they’re supposed to act, dress and form their identities.

Afghan women protest reintroduction of vice and virtue police

Published by
Anna
at September 14, 2006 in World and fundamentalism. 0 Comments

Via Reuters AlertNet

Women’s groups in Afghanistan want an urgent meeting with Afghan ministers and MPs to protest against a plan to reintroduce the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice which was first set up by the Taliban.

The Taliban’s brutal ‘vice and virtue police’ enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law and beat women for ‘offences’ such as showing their wrists or ankles, wearing nail varnish or going outside their home without a male relative.

Women were also stopped from attending school, working, or being seen by a male physician, while women doctors and nurses were banned from working.

Men did not escape punishment and were beaten if they trimmed their beards.

A proposal by the Afghan Ministry of Religious Affairs to reinstate the department was considered by the cabinet on July 16 and has now been referred to parliament, which is likely to pass it into law.