These are a few of my favourite things

• Royksopp
• Trentmoller
• Art that turns the body/ anatomy in to something surreal and a bit unfamiliar

On the last point see also:

• The Our Skin pool on Flikr
• The Art of Anatomy pool on Flikr

Deliberately deceptive arguing (also, Mary needs a feminist shoulder to cry on)

So, there's this man in the UK is considering suing Liverpool city council for flying a rainbow flag on International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Apparently what's at issue here is that council mightn't have planning permission (which they would get from themselves) to fly the flag.

I have to admit that when I first saw this story I thought homophobia was the motivating factor here. I sort of assumed that this guy didn't like the idea of the rainbow flag flying above a council building reminding people that compulsory heterosexuality is complete bullshit and damages people in the LGBT community. But after looking into the work Stephen Gash has done with the British Democrats (a charming party who think immigration and "political correctness" pose a threat to English values, whatever the fuck that emans to a former colonial power, but hey) and the Stop the Islamification of Europe group (which speaks for itself) I realised this had less to do with the gehys and more to do with... pretty much everything else that threatens white heterosexual men (poor guys, my heart bleeds).

A quote from the Freedom of Information request this guy submitted to find out whether the flag was raised illegally (I got the following quote from this article, I don't have access to the original request):
"I wish it to be known that I have no problem with flags being flown from public buildings provided the required planning permission has previously been granted and paid for.

"What I do object to is people being harassed for flying national flags perfectly legally from their dwellings or places of work, for which planning permission is not required, and being ordered to take them down."

TRANSLATION:

If you think you can flay your rainbow flag when I can't fly my national flag to signify my English Values (tm) in my country you should think again, because I might just sue you if I can find a technicality to do it on!

Fucking disgusting. I need to take a shower after reading the websites for those two organisations. I heard someone sprouting this crap when I was coming home on the bus one night. Some English guy in his 20s was talking to a group of younger kids from around my area. I missed most of the conversation but caught him concluding that the politicians who allowed immigrants to enter the UK on humanitarian grounds had obviously forgotten "our working class and our employment opportunities". Between that kid's embellished, twisted recounting of history, the newspeak on the websites I deliberately didn't link to and Gash's bizarrely built argument it's obvious that the hatred and racism of fringe groups is preached disguised as reasonable concerns in order to get otherwise indifferent people on board.

And i have no fucking idea how to react to that. Part of me (a rather small part, the philosophy student) wants to attack these arguments premise by premise, exposing how fallacious they are, and how damaging their view of the wold is becasue it normalises and privileges their experience at the expense of other people's. What's your initial reaction to this shit when you're unfortunate enough to happen across it? Do you also get into that mode that automatically analyses the validity and soundness of an argument and then just itches to write an counter-argument and if so do you think it's wasted on these arseholes?

Who knew I was so attached to reason, I always thought the enlightenment was a wild, privileged goose-chase, but that's another post, I still need that shower.

Eurythmics

What does it all mean?

Not sure, but Annie Lennox could probably sing from a phonebook with a synth line in the background and I'd be alright with it.

On feminists pushing their ideas on "everyone"

A lot of the time when I try to engage with people about feminism or share a feminist opinion, I get told that feminists always push our ideas on other people, that we should shut-up and stop trying to force the people around us to do things our way.

Aside from the obvious mistakes of treating feminism as a monolith and having a poorly informed knee-jerk reaction to what they've picked up about feminism the people who have said this to me are clearly buying into attitudes that women who are not submissive, intellectually lightweights are pushy and fail at femininity (and therefore humanity), this is a. But that's not why I'm so ssick of this silencing tactic.

I'm sick of it because feminists/ womanists are not reserving the right to force people to think the way we do when we point out inequalities, we're reserving the right to critique the assumptions about gender and sexuality that underlie societal attitudes, cultural products, institutions and anything else we think might have faulty reasoning. This isn't overreacting, taking things to seriously, or wasting our efforts of trivial matters, it's a critique of an argument. A basic fact of debating.

And if there exists nothing meaningful outside of discourse, if the personal is political, then feminists have the right to critically analyse these assumptions.

Yes it's tiring to hear that something we thought was fine actually isn't. But not becasue the person whose saying it is tiresome to be around or listen to. It's tiring becasue that means there are a lot of people have be hurt and are still being hurt by those assumptions.

For those dedicated to social change, equality and respect it's tiring becasue we recognise the person talking is right, and that there is a lot of work to be done to change things. Actual work, on how we interact with people, not petty manipulation for the sake of seeing others do things our way.

Our Bodies, Our Art: Vanessa Tiegs

In the series Menstrala Vanessa Tiegs uses her menstrual blood to create a visual journal. I love that she collects it and uses it to paint paintings- gorgeous, expressive paintings- rather than hide it away as soon as possible.

Menstruation isn't often celebrated in our culture. A lot of women find it uncomfortable, painful and inconvenient, especially if they have endometriosis or any other number of medical conditions that make it especially difficult and painful, but a lot of that has to do with the revulsion other people feel over this process. Blood is so often associated with death and vaginas... yeah, they're disgusting and easy to shame.

I have to confess that I'm one of those annoying hippy-dippy, goddess worshiping women who really likes menstruation. Like... really likes it. I'm not sure if this is partly thanks to my stubborn inner (ha!) feminist, but honestly I've always sort of liked it, except for the first couple of years during which I either didn't think about it or wrung my hands over how the fuck to deal with it in various situations. There's somethings comforting about it for me... that's not a very good description I know, I've never really thought about why I feel the way I do, maybe I'll have to unpack it in another post. Until then, I'd love to hear your relationship to our favourite communist, Aunt Flow. (Especially if you have awesome period euphemisms).

ETA: I just noticed on a tab right next to this one I have a brilliant post titled Our Bodies, Our Neuroses by Pilgrim Soul at Pursuit of Harpyness. Ummm... thanks for the title inspiration PS! What can I say, the post was just so great I forgot all about the title as I read it!

Musical Mondays: Glass Ceiling

Everybody needs a good tune to get them through their Mondayitis and in recognition of that I'm starting up Musical Modays; feminist music on a Monday... hopefully every Monday, but I'll settle for most of them.

Kick back, grab a cuppa (or whatever you fancy) and think about how awesome it would've been to be front and center at this gig:




Glass Ceiling by Metric

Only know what I'm told, only know what I'm told
Fast asleep daydreaming
Start to push, break your own glass ceiling
Can't count, can't catch the pieces falling

Who let it end up on the ground
How am I gonna know you're letting me down
How did I end up on the ground

Only do what I'm told, only do what I'm told
Last to leave cold calling
You're gonna lose your arms, amputate plasticine
There's no knight in silver armor shining

Who let it end up on the ground
How am I gonna know I'm letting you down
Who let it end up on the ground
How did he end up on the ground
Face down on the ground

Only go where I'm told, only know what I'm told
Inch to inches crowding
We can't leave, it's the last road open
Every speed on our knees is crawling

Ladies Household Toolkit (PINK! PINK! PINK!)

Sorry about the rotten image quality, I took this on my phone and my heart was pounding! I was entirely convinced a sales assistant was going to ask me to leave or confiscate my phone and interrogate me in a back room of Myers (active imagination, I know).

Anyway I saw this product this afternoon while looking at teapots with my mum. It's a normal toolkit in every way except... it's pink... like the berries my lady ancestors picked (according to evolutionary psychologists, the discipline that failed sci-fi writers take up.) And personally I'm chuffed that masculine things like (big, swinging) tools finally come in pink, because now I can pursue the gendered pass-times I enjoy without having to fear that I will be considered less of a woman or somehow deviant, an exception to the universal rule of femininity.

It's just so pleasing to my little lady self that, according to the packaging, I can remain feminine while hanging a plate on the wall of my kitchen (it is Where I Belong, you see.) I can appease the male gaze AND hammer nails, all for the low price of $34.95! SCORE! This is exactly what I had in mind when I first decided to educate people around me about feminism and women's liberation; small concessions to women who want to engage in activities and domains traditionally the exclusive right of men, under the condescending, narrow and paternalistic conditions of PINKNESS and BE A PRINCESSES and CONSUME UR SASSY & SUBVERSIVE FREEDOM GURL!

Ironically I saw the Ladies Toolkit about 4 minutes after mum pointed out something like this:
...an old fashioned laundry wringer that some visual merchandiser though would look good in the towel section. Hint to the toolkits who thought up the 'just-add-pink' Ladies Toolkit; we've been engaged in backbreaking physical labour in the domestic sphere for fucking centuries. In fact our dirt cheap/ unpaid domestic labour has been alternatively exploited and targeted by companies, so please don't be hugely fucking condescending by offering us a little bit of Girl Power (not Woman Power, oh no... dropping the infatalisation concedes a little too much power) in shocking pink. Especially when it's in such a vile consumer context; it was often poor, uneducated women and women of colour who were forced to do this domestic labour and were employed by upper-class women. Honestly I'd be surprised (though tickled pink) if sweat shops weren't involved in the production of the Ladies Toolkit, ensuring that the price of some women's lessened oppression is the continued oppression of other women.

Thanks heaps, capitalism!